“It is well-known that in the colliery districts an explosion of fire-damp frequently takes place, when many lives are lost, and the men who escape are often so wounded as to render amputation of a leg or arm the only probable means of saving them from the grave.
— from London Labour and the London Poor (Vol. 1 of 4) by Henry Mayhew

In a speech delivered at Leeds, November 16, 1911, the new parliamentary leader of the party, Mr. Bonar Law, [235] enumerated as the immediate Unionist purposes (1) to oppose the Government's Welsh Disestablishment scheme, (2) to resist Home Rule, (3) to labor for tariff reform as the only practicable means of solving the problem of unemployment, and (4) to defend at all costs the unity of the Empire.
— from The Governments of Europe by Frederic Austin Ogg

Not only, too, was the seat of war 5,000 miles away, and not only was a single-track ill-equipped line of railway the only practicable means of sending troops and war material there by land, but an exceptionally great obstacle to traffic had to be met owing to the interruption of rail communication by Lake Baikal.
— from The Rise of Rail-Power in War and Conquest, 1833-1914 by Edwin A. Pratt

It was ordained at Higham Ferrers that when an almsman died, his goods were taken into the storehouse, and either dealt out to the other poor men, or sold to a new inmate for the benefit of the rest.
— from The Mediæval Hospitals of England by Rotha Mary Clay

There were two other possible means of settling the question: the father had the right to kill her, and the owner of the slave might give him his freedom.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

The surgeon of the English factory, with all the alacrity to ad [166] minister relief to suffering humanity, which characterizes the profession in Britain, directed them to be carried to the factory, and was preparing to perform amputation, as the only possible means of saving their lives, when one of the Hong merchants having heard what was going on ran with great haste to the place, and entreated the surgeon by no means to think of performing any operation upon them, but rather to suffer them to be taken away from the factory as speedily as possible; adding that, however good his intentions might be, if any one of the patients should die under his hands, he would inevitably be tried for murder, and the most mitigated punishment would be that of banishment for life into the wilds of Tartary.
— from Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, Made and Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a Subsequent Journey through the Country from Pekin to Canton by Barrow, John, Sir

As little do we doubt that such a revolution, violent as it would doubtless be, would be desirable, if it were the only possible means of subverting the present system.
— from Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays; Vol. 6 With a Memoir and Index by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

And is not calm, rational Christian discussion the only proper method of securing this end?
— from An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism With reference to the duty of American females by Catharine Esther Beecher

Yet the latent qualities and instincts seek to assert their own peculiar methods of seeking the foundation of things, of distinguishing between what is commonly called wrong, true or false.
— from Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 2, April 1906 Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature by Various