LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3135, 13 July 1917, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

AN ENEMY SUBJECT

Sir,—Tho ovil effects of alcohol on the human body aro so well known that it is surprising that a medical man can be toimd to advocate its use. "Fair Play," no doubt, means well, but lie doesn't know that tiie sense of heat which is experienced alter taking alcohol is not heat at all; it is due to the efforts of the system lo expel the poison from the body, the temperature afterwards falling below what it was previously to the talcing of alcohol. It is positively liiu-m----lul to anyone called upon to endure fatigue, cold, and exposure. This is h> obvious, and.so easily demonstrated that it should not—in this twentieth centurv -bo necessary to point out that instead ot rum beiilg tho soldier's friond, it is his enemy. Tho statement that the sugar m rum is nutritions is ridiculous. A man would need to get dead-drunk in order to obtain a spoonful of sugar. J Ins argument is just about as sensible as the one that thero is nourishment in beer. Trjie, there is nourishment in beer; but to obtain as much nourishment ns there is in a one-pound loaf ono would need to drink about a hogshead of it, and surely that would be a labour of love. I think that this Hml of argument is what ' they call "kid stakes, food for c'Mldren. Hum only puts Dutch courage" into men, n<akmg them feel as though they could fight a railway train; Iμt they 'always come off second best when thev try their ~«"™B tn >' and generally end up with L.U., as every man in camp knows.— I am, etc., • • JOHN PLOWMAN.