TRUE TEMPERANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 274, 12 November 1908, Page 4

TRUE TEMPERANCE.

DR. lIATHERLY'S MEETING. Amongst (he questions naked Dr. Ilatlierly at his meeting in the TheuWe Royal on Tuesday night was one by Miss E. Maunder, superintendent of tile Women's Christian Temperance Union (llawcra), asking if Dr. lfatherly remembered being asked a series of .printed questions by the W.C.T.U., and whether lie had any objection to having his answers published.

Or. Ilatlierly replied that he had some recollection of having received a circular asking him to reply to certain questions. He believed he 'bad replied, but was not quite certain. In any case, the questioner was at perfect liberty to publish his replies to the questions at any time. (Applause.) The circular in question has been handed to lis for publication, showing the question asked and Dr. Hatherly's replies, as follows:

I. Does any benefit to development, to health, or to physical or mental endurance attach, in your opinion, to the use of alcohol in any form by a normally healthy person either during childhood or maturity ?—No.

2. If used at all as a beverage, when, how, and in what quantities should it be used in order to avoid all ill effects? —I have no objection to its use as a beverage if taken with meals and in moderate quantities. 3. Is the use of alcohol to be recommended or avoided as a remedy in first aid (before the doctor arrives) in cases of accident, fainting, etc.?—lt is not advisable to give stimulants before a doctor arrives, except in a very few instances which are set forth ia ambulance lectures.

4. Do you find it beneficial in, your practice to prescribe alcohol for its own sake, apart from its presence in standard medicinal preparations? —I very rarely prescribe it, and then only in regulated doses in the same way as if it was a medicine. 5. Is there any danger to be guarded against lest a .patient should acquire the appetite for alcohol after its ipro-" fessional prescription has ceased?— Yes. That is why I seldom prescribe it if I can possibly avoid doing so. 0. Does your (professional experience enable you to say what proportion of sickness, crime, or poverty in your district is due to alcohol?—I consider that a considerable proportion of sickness, crime, and poverty is due to the abuse of alcohol. (Signed) HENRY R. HATHERLY, M.8.C.5., Eng., L.R.C.P., Eng.