TEMPERANCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42747, 13 July 1905, Page 1

TEMPERANCE.

By Reformer.) IS ALCOHOL A MEDICINE. We believe that it has been clearly shown that alcohol is not a food, in any sense. We now. come to that o ther important quession: Is it a medicine ? With our presen t. views,lif we were to answer by a /simple negative or affirm ati ve, we, should most emphatically answer, Ho For we are very much inclined to say, with that brave, noble, conscientious gentlemen, Dr. J, Higginsbottom , of Nottingham, England., “It is neither food nor physic.” In the opinion of many practitioners, the use use of alcohol as a medicine, is an open question while many have the opinion that it is indispensable as a medi- - cal agent. Yet, it is gratifying to know that the most learned of the profession, in all countries, are beginning to look upon < its use as medicine with distrust; while many discard it ? altogether. The signs are hope- f ful when Drs. begin to. doubt and pause to investigate the : nature and the real action of a remedy on the human body* • Hot having space or time to discuss the nature and pathology of disease, we shill take it for granted, that when a man is i sick, that something >is wrong, and needs to be made right. A sick man generally calls in the aid of a Dr, whom he sup- * poses to be well versed in the 1 Medical science. Science knows nothing of authorities, and as Medical Science, it is said, takes nothing for- granted that cannot be demonstrated, we will present a few facts, and the testimonies of physicians of learning and great experience. , ' .

MEDICAL SCIENCE -:.** V' what it is f

Science, from the • Latin Scion tin, from • Scip, ' to\ knowyf. ' ‘ji m""ps Ikm-alir; ,a Systematic -pe«ies of kiibvyledge.;' ...Medical means to health veure: Then by the Science, we undei^tand % to#Mean literally J (to the knowledge of Healing. , Fi|st, the ' nature rand^;;}; %: philosophy of the medical demands that the doctor . discover in what the-:disease .wrong state consists ; and ' £ secondly, what cause gave rise % to it. These discoveries made, it naturally follows that "the \ physicim should pursue one or all of the courses open to him, viz.—the curative, preventive, and palliative. It is the physi-. cian’s duty to cure, by any and all the means in his power, aiid : ’’t. 4 as soon as possible. But how is this to he done ? r Some one has said: that the ' whole secret of . | medicine was to know what to. ? use, how to use it, and when. In answer, we would say: First, by removing the cause, that being found ; Second, by the use of and the application of such remedies as will cure the wrong state of the, ] ,§ system. Third,| by avoiding what originally produced the 'v| wrong condition* The first may be done by strengthening vital forces, by supplying the natural elements of the body, ;; associated with the associated •; with the conditions necessary fcr• the proper assimilation of those elements, and to excite norms! action by administering sub stances having specific power .to suppress injurious, or promote remedial process s. Will, /- r . | cui, alcohol fulfil any of ,th< # uxi&tims- of In irafoml in gjfe e ” V. r • .. I* ■.■ .* V fli ! i ..