“A Good Advertisement for Teetotalers”: Polar Explorers and Debates over the Health Effects of Alcohol, 1875–1904

This article examines discussions about drink and temperance on British polar expeditions around the turn of the twentieth century. In doing so, I highlight how expeditionary debates about drinking reflected broader shifts in social and medical attitudes toward alcohol. These changes meant that by the latter part of the nineteenth century, practices of expeditionary drinking could make or break the reputation of a polar explorer, particularly on an expedition that experienced an outbreak of scurvy. At the same time, I demonstrate the importance of travel and exploration in changing medical understandings of alcohol. I examine these issues through an analysis of two expeditions organized along naval lines—the British Arctic Expedition (1875–76) and the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–4)—and, in doing so, demonstrate that studying exploration can offer new insights into changing attitudes toward drink and temperance in the nineteenth century.