Subscribers may be interested in two articles I encountered recently on different, but possibly related, topics. Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, "Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition," AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW 81 (1991): 242-47 is a report of an econometric study attempting to estimate per capita alcohol consumption during U.S. National Prohibition using a different version of the estimating technique first employed by Clark Warburton, THE ECONOMIC RESULTS OF PROHIBITION (1932). The technique is to estimate consumption from series measuring the death rate from cirrhosis of the liver, the death rate from alcoholism, the number of patients per capita admitted to hospitals for the first time with alcoholic psychosis, and the rate of drunkenness arrests. Most series are for the period 1900-1950, and are strongly correlated with standard estimates of per capita alcohol consumption for the non-Prohibition years. Miron and Zwiebel's estimates essentially confirm Warburton's estimates showing consumption falling sharply during the first years of Prohibition to about 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level, then rising during the late 1920s to about 60-70 percent of the pre-Prohibition level. Warren S. Walker, "Lost Liquor Lore: The Blue Flame of Intemperance," JOURNAL OF POPULAR CULTURE 16 (Fall 1982): 17-25 is a survey of ideas and images of spontaneous combustion of heavy drinkers in British and American literature. Something to keep in mind as the holidays approach . . . . ******************************************* Jack Blocker History, Huron College, University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6G 1H3 Canada (519) 438-7224, ext. 249 /Fax (519) 438-3938