What Is A "Meths Drinker" on 'Call the Midwife'? What You Need to Know

During Season Eleven of 'Call the Midwife,' the midwives encounter "meths drinkers." Who are they, and why are they known as that? Here's what we know.

Although the PBS duration drama Call the Midwife is not shy about depicting the truths of lifestyles in the late Fifties and Sixties, fresh events throughout Season Eleven of the display left viewers unsettled. During Season 11, Episode 3, Nurse Nancy is touring via the streets of Poplar when she encounters Bernard, a meths drinker.

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What is a meths drinker? And what came about to Bernard as a result of his habit? Here's the scoop on this antique term.

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What is a meths drinker? It's now not what you suppose.

Although the word "meths" in many of us's minds robotically conjures the phrase "methamphetamine," the phrase "meths drinker" as used on Call the Midwife is in reality very other. One Reddit user helpfully explains the origins of the word, clarifying that "meths drinker" is quick for "methylated spirits," which used to be used for cleansing products or paint thinner.

Methylated spirits are intentionally made to taste dangerous to dissuade people from ingesting them because they also comprise a particularly high quantity of alcohol. In trendy times, methanol is utilized in merchandise equivalent to gas, insecticides, or solvents. Per the Methanol Institute, it is extremely unsafe to drink methanol, and zero.7-3.0 oz of the substance are sufficient to be fatal.

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Some of the negative effects of methanol poisoning come with dizziness, blurred imaginative and prescient, seizures, vomiting, belly ache, and more. In Call the Midwife, the area round the TB hospital is experiencing an inflow of unhoused people who find themselves additionally meths drinkers. Dr. Turner even notes that meths drinkers are known by their odor, which is in reality the methanol rotting their flesh within out.

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Due to a multitude of condemned constructions in the house, an increasing number of unhoused meths drinkers are loitering on stoops used by the health center due to a loss of available dwelling area. Nurse Nancy befriends one unhoused person, Bernard, noticing he is been having trouble getting round. She brings him meals and a walking stick and even provides to get dressed his wound, even supposing Bernard declines in the beginning. Later, he displays up at the surgical procedure looking for Nancy, but when she's no longer to be had, he leaves.

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Thankfully, Nancy, Dr. Turner, and Fred Buckle cross looking for Bernard, who they uncover has been suffering from gangrene as a results of drinking methanol. In a twist that disgusted many fanatics, Bernard's foot got here off in Nancy's hand, even though he says he couldn't really feel a factor. Sadly, Bernard's amputation leads to catching pneumonia, of which he in the end dies. However, the episode sparks a very powerful conversation about group care and dependancy.

New episodes of Call the Midwife air in the U.S. on Sundays at Eight p.m. ET on PBS.

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