ALCOHOL AS A FOOD

Hokitika Guardian, 28 June 1928, Page 4

ALCOHOL AS A FOOD

GENIUS FOSTERED BY' WINE.

(London “Daily Mail.”)

Jn his second article of alcohol as a food, Sir WiilianP Arbuthnot Lane emphasises the fact that most of tho world’s great men have come from lands favoured by .tlie sun and where their genius was also foster-

ed by the use of tlie wine of the

country. By Sir W. Arßutlinot Lane, Bart. To argue that because alcohol is bad in excess it must necessarily be harmful in small quantities, and that it is bad for man because the experimentalist cannot show that it forms a useful food for small animals, seems to mo to be hopelessly illogical and futile.

Nothing is good ill moderation that iv not deleterious in excess.

Let us take the source of all energy, the sun, which is the greatest food and source of energy we possess. The absence of sun experienced in the northern climates tends to make people dull, unimaginative, inartistic, and lacking a- capacity to generalise, concentrating largely instead on detail. OAIJETY AND INITIATIVE. A moderate amount of sun is most beneficial and makes for gaiety, initiative art, and good health and the cjoie (lc vivre.” ’1 lie majority of the great geniuses of the world come from those countries favoured by the sun.

They produce men like Christopher Columbus, Napoleon, Mussolini, 1 - Lessops, tho painters and sculptors o; Italy and Rome, and a host ol other men whoso genius was fostered moderate exposure to- sun and by th use of the wine of the country, ta ’ we balance such a list in more ton - pera'le climates? Do Doiqilc realise what a large i- - - - the rays of the sun played in tin' make-up of these remarkable people? Let us, on the other hand, expos.' the body to an excess of sun and we get inflammatory changes, not only cr the surface ~of the body but of fli’ tissues beneath the skin, and particularly of organs like tlie brain. IS IT WORTH WHILE?

31: i s quite true that man can live without alcohol just as he can without sun! But is tho game worth the candle ?

That section of the public wliicn endeavours to mould its conduct and habits on the teachings of Christ and His Disciples must bo deeply impressed and influenced by the admonition given by St. Raul to bifriend Timothy: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine infirmities.” While desiring to associate myself with St. Paul as an anti-prohibition-ist, L would respectfully differ from him in that I consider that water, and plenty of it, is a necessary article of diet in the present condition of civilisation.