LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 59, 4 December 1918, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

DOCTORSJND ALCOHOL Sir,—"Moderate" raises Ihe question of alcohol from a medical standpoint nnd tries to make ouv. a cuse for liquor by I noting one doctor and one ■β-cntence iiom a manifesto of the Royal College of Physicians. This latter ■ simply amounts to this that a user of alcohol need not think that on tho outbreak of an epidemic he can change his habits, immediately and thus remedy the damnge that years of drinking has done to his system. The opinion nf the doctor is probably a case of a busy physician, who has not kepi alirenst of the time on this particular topic. B.ul specialists who have scientifically investigated alcohol state that there' is no doubt, that alcohol is not a stimulant but a narcotic. That it has any food value is Bi statement now relegated to the intellectual scrap-henp. The celebrated medical authority Dr. Johnstone of Edinburgh has stated:—

"This so-called stimulating effect of alcohol is presumed because of the quickened action of the heart and increased rapidity of the circulation, as shown by the. flushing of the face, the quickened activity of the brain and the loossnins of tlie tongue. But these results are not duo to an increased supply of force or energy to the body, but simply to the liberation of its existing supply, from paralysis of the nerve which keeps it in check, like lifting the "governor" of the engine which" controls the supply of steam to the cylinder, or removing the brake so that the engine runs away. Thus the increased activity of the alcoholised individual is due not to stimulation of the energiwr of the , heart, but to the paralysis of its regulator. Hence alcohol must be regarded not as a stimulant, but as a sedative, n paralyser, a, narcotic, and.in truth this is its action from first to last."

A multitude of first-rate authorities can be quoted to support the above, but the surest indication of the change in medical opinion is the rapidly-declining use of alcohol in the large hospitals. For instance, the v figur2S for seven large hospitals in England show that while in li-62 they spent three times as much on alcohol as they did on milk, in lfll)2 the exact reverse vbs the case. Milk is superseding liquor. The Cook County Hospital, the great hospital in Chicago, in 1897, with nearly 20,000 patients, spent only .IS for alcohol. The Cincinatti Hospital in wards E, F, and Q need in 1895 5T5 pints of beer, 595 of whisky, 7 ot; brandy.' 48 of port wine, and a of sherry, "in 1914 whisky was tlie only alcoholic used, and instead-of the 595 pints as in 1835 only 7 pints were used. The United States Pharmacepoeia is ft standard authority upon drugs. It haa heen recently revised by ' the Rational Pharmacopoeia Committee, composed of 51 of the leading physicians-.of the nation. After careful consideration, these well-informed scientists have decided tli.it in view of all that hns'been proved concerning their nature and effects, whisky and brandy must be eliminated from the list of useful medical preparations which is the standard of the profusion.

Tlie following resolution indicates the opinion of Canadian doctors as to Prohibition. "In the opinion of the Manitoba Medicnl Association at its anuu.il meeting, held in Winnipeg on June 21, 1018. Prohibition has resulted in the, physical, moral, and economic betterment of the people of tho province."

In conclusion, permit me to'sav. that the terrible toll of death from influenza, demands searching inquiry into housing conditions and other matters affecting public health. And certainly liquor must • come up for examination before tho tribunal of public opinion. Anyone who, owing to personal tastes or financial interests,i endeavours , to deceive the citizens by misrepresenting scientific and medical opinion on alcohol, is not acting patriotically nor helping in the great task of reconstruction' now upon us. It is quite true that individual medical men can be found who still arc under, the delusion that alcohol has vnedicnl value, but in the ranks of scientists there is 'now practical unanimity that liquor is a foe of health. And the present ppideniic has given many proofs of this. One prominent physician of "Wellington said to a pneumonia, patient that he (the doctor) has ceased taking any liquor as soon as the. strain of the epidemic had come, and he fell: better for it, being able 'to tend to. some seventy pneumonic patients. He-further assured the patient who is now .completely recovered that if he (the patient) had been a drinking man, he would not have pulled through.—l am, etc., TEMPERATE.