"INEBRIATE HOMES."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:9
SIR,—Surely your criticism on Mrs. Temple's "inebriate home" is a little hasty. Granted there is a kind of verbal metathesis in the description, is it not in strictest accordance with a use than which none can be more common or more unchallenged ? Do we not talk and hear and read every day of "lunatic asylums," "sick rooms," "convalescent homes," "juvenile reformatories," and even "consumptive hospitals"? And where is the difference between these forms of speech and that with which you have taken exception in Mrs. Temple's
[No doubt these absurdly displaced adjectives are used; but why should the use of them be needlessly multiplied ? As for "consumptive hospitals," we never came across the expression, and hope we never may. A consumption hospital is another thing.—En. Spectator.]
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