He had cirrhosis of the liver from years of alcohol abuse.
Depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies have all been linked to alcohol abuse in youth, though the actual correlation is unclear.
It all sounds very quaint to us now, yet alcohol abuse kills far more people in the UK today than illegal drugs.
The message concerning the undesirability of excessive drinking is punctuated regularly with mainstream news articles on the national epidemic of alcohol abuse.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that youth who are dependent on alcohol show differences in brain activity than normal teenagers.