PURE ALCOHOL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 574, 31 July 1909, Page 10

PURE ALCOHOL.

~ Sir, —In support of my advocacy for, the. above, allow mo to placo tho following facU before your -readers. . ... y. ---- - ; ' Milnor: i'othergill lays down "Alcohol being at once.a stimulant.and a.food uaturally takes'/its'position on its merits as the' agent required; par 'exceljehco . for the • treatmont of acute disease in its later stages, and also for the inauguration of-'convalescence. It can bo combined with readily 'assimilable forms of- food; milk-; or farinaceous preparations, and; - given : with- infusions ;or extracts of'meat, is a uiost 'excellent agent; it increases the action of the heart and tho vascularity/of the- stomach,'giving greater power, to assimilate food,": ■ ■ '"Thirty years ago a great-'French, scientist urged that' alcoholic excesses were' one .of the principal causea of tuberculosis.' In. ;1890 this clinician .publicly rotrncted in tlio face of the lesson taught'by the failure of the wino industry!'.- through phylloxera attacking tho grapo , vines,. Lagneiiu exposed tho : remarkable ' fait 1 that /. consumption - only, - became prdvalent after tlio- supply of wino was curtailed., Vf "■ '•••' - . '•■;' ; z l "'-.,

. Burnov YcS writes: "The uso and need 01 alcohol;cliiref in different individuals; and wo . shalF encounte-r very '■ fow" cases of phthisis (consumption) ■ -which; aro'; not benefited iit somo period of their course by tlio .di&crcct administration 'of ' stimulants. ' -'.Physicians like,- Jobersdoijp' and... Dotweiler, . lv-ho;'-havo. ekceptioiial experience of ;the daily' needs- of phthisical ipatients, use alcphoj ■•' largely*; ■ it is oxcoedingly necessary;; however, .that [tho beverage,- whether .wine, beer,- : or . spirit, should- bo; of the best '-: 0 ■ . Ringor adds: "Tho - "kind of' - alcoholic stiriiulant' ; ;usotl is' notof/, great ■ imjMi'tance, provided that it bo : good;" 'Liebig; also, testifies to alcohol ;as a valuable food. ■

V quoted somq: of ' our greatest authorities, I will add a short Statement from personal experionco/V;ln ! the ■■ 'fifties, when the' east iond 'of. London 'was scourged by .-smallpox v and Asiaticchblcra, 1 : nodicalstudents/of'-■ the London'' -Hospital : ; (myself being. tine);.were employed- in;-visiting tho slums, and deaths .wereoccurring •in thousands'; 1 :i1 'will not / dwells on'- ; tho,:awful. scones.larid. ; smells:' we encountered, :.as/s at that time ,fire" arid, chloride of - lime jvere the only.•■recogniscdi'-tl-isinfcctants, j,.but-. willumpntion that/Wo were, protected from the first through a": rrcant vaccination, - and from, tho second through 'our hahit-niiftpr ;comjng,yirat from a foul alley. ,of;,drinking:'off a',.-pewter of "half arid'half" (ale arid porter). I am further convinced of it through no cases of Asiatic. cholera occurring, amongst -tho large staff employed at' Truem'an' aM Banbury's browery cstablishntent 'iii' Brick Lane. SpifcaK fields,' which was . in/tho centre of diseased slums. As I was living with tho, firm of medical / riien '..who"attended''their'.' 'club,: 1 should have khown if-it' had lieeri otherwise; -I i-havo,recently;-been informed'that':in some of rthe southern No j License" tho liquor-.-'obtainable is of tho -most abominable oharacter'. ,'.Now,under a .syst-em of .-licenses, tli© Government if it- chooses; can; exercise a wise supervision over-tho-.'quality-of--what is i vopdod;-but l .OTine cancelall..the licences,'find the /supply will. -degenerate;.' into' an illicit trado over which there, can bo •no efficient check.".' To .any extremist <',who, .tries'-to' life .ivolve. me in (in- interminable argument- 6n-.so large a.subject,. I have only;oiio answerln medio tutissijius ibis.",: So far/I : have, given you plain unvarnished, ptntqments, and ; .must leavoyyou 1 and. ynur yre'adp.rs to make your own ostimato-, of . their vvalue. i TVith thanlrs for-tbu space, I .remain..FA MONCKTON ■■/July 27. ■ ■' •:■■ -JV

Sir,—ln your issue of-Saturday, Dr.. F., A. •Mouckton, of, FeiMing, promises.- to; furnish, your readers with" sj'Qiiio 1 inforiliation" on the never-ending liquor' question. If" the rest - of your patrons feel as keenly as I do about the doctor's promise, I can well imagine with/what haste they will, be rushing for their morning"'paper,' and how eagerly they, will scan its pages in quest of the doctor's promised phenomenal revelations .to a benighted; world, But,', seriously,.. sir,: does- it not savour, of arroganeft. on. the part of tho doctor ~to describe the ' many speeches delivered throughout tho country 1 on • tho temperance 'question as "the sensational declamations' of persons who not qualified to speak 011 the sabjeot. .; .Surely, one does hot. need to know the technical 'difference between cohol and amylio alcohol, mentioned.by; Dr. Monckton,.. before he can claim to be in a position to unsparingly condemn the average liquor bar,' with its attendant evils, or to demand, in the name of humanity, ;its utter extinction... The liquor.bar; has been on'its trial in New Zealand f, for over, sixty ycSrs, and is to-day as grtat'p, scqurgo as it .was in. tho Old Land. Therefore it. should go. Then, sir, are the temperance speakers the ignorant folk alleged'by the doctor? .1 much doubt it. In my time I have heard not a few of these speakers; and the opinion.l formed after hearing, addresses from 'Such men as the Rev. L. M. Isitt, .and Mr, T. E. Taylor, ivlien speaking solely on. the effect of alcohol on,'the human .body,; was. that the/speeches TTero quite, up-to-date, and replote with tho best-information culled from the/works: of the foremost doctors and scientists, : who have made a special study, of this phase of the question. Strange as it may' seem' to: sopie, I venture the statement that either, of tho above-named gentlemen could enlighten many of tho members of .the medical, profession'as to the extreme folly of readily admitting alcohol (C 2H6 0, please doctor) into the sick .chamber—a practice that proves professional quackery is not by any means dead in our midst. "Awaiting tho doctor's striking information.—X am,- etc. 1 , - - V . ... : . H2 0.