RACIAL DEGENERATION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1240, 23 September 1911, Page 6

RACIAL DEGENERATION.

DR. POCKLEY ON ALCOHOL.' In his presidential address Dr.' Pockley, president of the Medical Congress, now sitting in Sydney, said "alcohol was moro astringent than tuberculosis, but was susceptible of being weeded out. The propagation of the race was left in a large measure to thoso an whom the craving for alcohol had no hold. Thus alcohol was NOT a cause of racial degeneration. All evidenco showed the opposite. Nature eliminated drunkenness." This was tho cable message to the morning papers of this Dominion on Wednesday last (September 20), and this announcement, coming as it does from so high an authority as the president of the Medical Congress, carrying with it practically tho whole faculty, must be reassuring to those who had bo mi inclined to the opinion so freely, yet so erroneously circulated,' that indulgence in alcoholic beverages is not only detrimental to the individual, but •through him a destroyer, a degeaerator of the race. Alcohol has its place in tho economy of nature, and put to its proper use, and not abused, is rathei an aid to nature than a-destroyer of it. In moderation it is a stiipulant: in excess it is an intoxicant. Men and women in these days of stress and strain requite at times a stimulant, and they frequently find that by properly using alcoholic beverages both in a medicinal and in a social way, they are greatly benefited in health and happiness. If, however, tho prohibitionist is going to bo allowed to havo his way at the polls in November next, the right to procure, that which, is no,t a raco degenerator, but an aid to health and comfort, when properly used, like any other commodity in moderation, will bo entirely taken away. Surely, moderate men and women, sane in tho uso of all things, gifted with a sound sense as to what is gcod for them, will.not allow tho rabid prohibitionist to deprivo them of tho right to buy a glass of beer, or wine, or whisky whon wanted. Moderate mon and women must now.be quick to see tie fallaciousness of the statements of prohibitionists as to alcohol and-race degeneracy. for tho wholo of the evidence, says Dr. Pockley, is opposed to the notion that alcohol is the cause of raco degenertion. "And Nature," ho concludes, "eliminates drunkenness." *