ALCOHOL IN MODERATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1073, 23 November 1911, Page 4

ALCOHOL IN MODERATION.

(Abridged from Home Journal.)

1 had a conversation the other day with an old friend of mine, who delivered himself ol his views some-what-as follows If 1 were convinced that alcohol is in itself a bad thing I would vote for Prohibition, for I quite recognise the fact that reform would be on the whole an excellent thing for the Dominion : but, believing, as I do, that alcohol is good in moderation, I cannot vote to deprive thousands of my fellow citizens of the use of a beverage which does them no harm.” This, the*, is The Crux

of the whole position—the question whether alcohol is good in moderation. The man who takes his glass say r s it is. He has no other guide than his own feelings, for he cannot claim to have given the matter a scientific investigation, yet he has no hesitation in allowing his feelings to dictate his policy. On the other hand, physicians and scientists, who have made the question of alcohol their careful study, and whose opinions are entitled to our respect, say that alcohol is not good even in so-called moderation. To support this statement, I give below some extracts from the writings or published speeches of some very eminent medical men. If any elector, who hesitates to vote Prohibition because of a belief that alcohol is good as a beverage, is not convinced by such testimony, it is probably because, for reasons of his own, he does not want to be convinced. Take first the condemnation of alcohol by

Sir Frederick Treves, one of the greatest of English surgeons, and physician to the late King Edward. Me said, in an address given in London, that alcohol was distinctly a poison. T had certain uses, like other poisons, but the limitations of its use should be as strict as those on arsenic, opium, and strychnine. It was a curiously insidious poison, producing effects which seemed to be only relieved by taking more of, it—a remark which applied to another insidious poison, morphia or opium. Finally, he would say that the great and laudable ambition of all, and especially of young men, to be ‘‘ fit,” could not possibly be achieved if they took alcohol.

Sir Victor Horsley: “ The only proper use of alcohol to an ordinary healthy person is its disuse.” "Alcohol is an irritant poison like opium and strychnine, but it lacks their compensating qualities.” Dr. Drysdalc, Senior Physician of the Metropolitan Hospital, London, says: “ These statistics are a death blow, not only to excessive drinking, but also to the moderate use of alcohol. Mankind, if wise, will give it up.” Professor James Miller, F.R.S.E., F.R.CS.E, Surgeon in Ordinary to Queen Victoria for Scotland, and Professor of Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, says : " Alcohol is a poison. In chemistry and physiology this is its proper place. The results of alcoholic stimulus is untoward in two ways—corporally, exhausting; intellectually and morally, deteriorating.” Dr. Norman Kerr: “ Alcohol is the pathological fraud of frauds.” These are only a few of a great mass of medical testimony against alcohol as a beverage, and all the columns of the O.M.P. could easily be filled twice over with such extracts. If the reader desires fuller information, let him buy " Alcohol and the Human Body by Horsley and Sturge, price 1/3. He will come to the conclusion that the only sane way to deal with alcohol is toVOTE IT OUT.