DANGERS OF THE ALCOHOL HABIT.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43072, 23 March 1907, Page 1

DANGERS OF THE ALCOHOL HABIT.

■ ■■ y • ■ '■’ .’••'• •'■' V’ ' . ;'j POISON IN FOOD. ] By Y. H. Rutherford, M.A. } - M M. 8., M.P., 1 Physiologically alcohol has \ been found out.,. Up_fo fifty I years ago empiricism stamped it I as a food and stimulant. Since 1 then science has been quietly at J work stripping off these, labels . I and putting on correct" con- " "i ceptions—namely, Poison and I Narcotic. Before 'chloroform. I was discovered the medical pro- 1 fession availed itself of the I deadening influence of alcohol j

by using it m surgical opera' tions. The difference, therefore J between our knowledge now and yi then is reduced to one of degree. .jji In large doses alcohol has always ; v-l been recognised as a . narcotic poison like chloroform, ether, I morphia, etc., while, in small ' I doses, it was imagined to be food I and stimulant. Definitions nre "/rM disagreeable and often difficult, j But under the ordinary accept- I ion of the word alcohol cannot I be classed as : * \ yl FOOD, I - ■ That is to say, it makes neither J beef, bgne, nor brain in.. the I human anatomy! ~ What : little ' J food there is in beer, wine and ,1 spirits, is not due to alcohol, but | to the small amount of malt, /• I sugar, etc., and the large ainount '|l of water present. To be prac- I tical, we occasionally hear.of, an : invalid living a week on cham- I pagne. To be accurate, the I patient lived on the sugar and i water in the champagne, and not .1 on the alcohol it l contained., J Men of Aquarium notoriety || have been known to live water for thirty or forty days. J Under ordinary circumstances however, to talk of intoxicating ; J beverages as food is sheer non-, .1 §ens§, I .. V-. 'JifiM STIMULANT OR DEPRESSANT. !1 If- by stimulation ismeant j addition or renewal of ; strength, 1 then careful and accurate obser- I vation and experiment declares j alcohol does not 'deserve the title*: j but if, on the'other hand, : stimu.- J lation is equivalent to excitement.. J —disturbance of equilibrium-i with irregular action —then no I 1 agent in its first stage merits tha I title better. ... - '4*

The stages of alcoholism are~| excitement, or stimulation, | which lasts for a few mi frillies (hen depression, paralysis un consciousness, and death. v , To gauge the depth of th s truth it is necessary- to that the preliminary'-stage of.-il excitement is prcduecdTfy fniTial paralysis of the nerve The heart jumps away because# the regulator nerve is and in consequence its energy M exhausted instead of To give brandy to a tired hear?, v; to a heart hattjlmg against disease, like pneumonia, fevers, i etc., is to bring it nearer, .bauk-f ruptcy and death.. The wlkhoattitude of the medical profession| towards the alcoholic treat of disease has undergone a #

REM ARKA BLE RE V GLUTTON. of late, as seen by the droping the hospital drink bills.. . - TJg| day cannot be far distant \\ h iff doctors will look upon.drugging their -patients with hranuy:f‘||§ unscientific and dangerous up bleeding. I say nothing of flag moral responsibility incurred .ip prescribing alcoholic especially in loug drawuy|ig diseases in chronic cases- wTii|l risk of the morphia habit alarms; every medical man, who rarolyg . gives opium or morphia to ]ii& : patients; and yet. the alcohqf ; habit is the colossal curse of 3 ! Western civilisation. I (To be continued.) |j V ■ - ’%l|