ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 391, 17 May 1910, Page 3

ALCOHOLOGY.

WHAT IS MODERATION? (Published by Arrangement). The moderate man is always boasting of his moderation, yet when carefully questioned he very often is found to go fair beyond scientific moderation (if such can be found). The question of moderation involves two separate enquiries: the drinker, and then the quantity lie mny take to keep within limits of safety. Without being too minute as to who, all are agreed that children should not take alcohol because their immature .brains cannot bear it; and ■are there not adults who are so constituted that tihey dare not take alcoholic drinks but who do not iirnl it out until they are in the nie-bes of the veil habit. For children 110 doubt it is very bad, but Dr. G. Bunge, Professor of Chemistry at Basle, says: "1 have never yet heard of any valid reason for the opinion that alcohol iis less injurious to adults than to children. . . . It. for example, a

child weighing 20 kilogrammes received a quarter of a liter of wine daily, and a man weighing 80 kilogrammes receives one liter, I do not know whether the man would bear the wine any better than tile child or not." No one knows his weakness under alcohol until he has tried, and then it is often too late, or at least very difficult, to give it up. Dr. Sam. Johnson's reason for abstinence wa.s supremely wise, even from so strong minded a man as lie was: that lie did not know ttoiit he might not in the end become a drunkard if he continued to take wine. Then there is the question:

WHAT IS A SAFE QI'AXTITY? There have betui various standards sot 'up as to the quantity that can be taken with impunity. What was known as Anstie's law allowed one and a-half ounces of achohol, equal to anout half a gill of spirits, or three or four glasses of beer; this not at once sitting, lmt spread over the day. Then Professor Abel brought out his law which only allowed about half of this, and still less for women. Professor- uaitenen, of Stockholm, in his experiments only used •alcohol on his subjects equivalent to about a quarter of an, ounce of alcohol to a ten-stone man —just about a sixth of what Anstie allowed, and yet was not prepared to say there were 110 evil effects. How small the quantity that can be taken without injury has not yet been settle 1 .: there is, however, one

vafe line of'art,ui:u-!!': one is told ''Take a drink; it can't do you any liann." The safe reply, and the enquiry the writ&r always makes, is, ''Will it "do me any igood?" if not, then one's internal organism—stomach, brain, etc.—js too sacred a iplace to put that about whic-ih we have no reasonable assurance that it will do good. No one can tell how long ho may be able to resist the power of afcohol to get the mastery over him. it La folly to try and teach self-control a the us>e of that which is by nature a destroyer of self-control. As one has' wisely_ said /'Whoever begins the moderate iivse lessens his ctonces of securing that portion of the world which belongs to. those who can best control themselves." Then the point often discussed by moderates is WHEN TO DRIXK.

iSome say at meals; others say, not with .food; others, again, in the evening, when the day's work is done or as "a night-oap. Each of these nas its own advocates, though the evening drinker very often feels the need of a pick-me-up in the morning. Hence, for the person wiho is unwilling to surrender any portion of ihis intellectual ability to thisubstance, or to run tile risk of becoming its slave, abstinence is the only safety, whether under twenty-one or over, whether alcohol he taken with ineate or without. Dr. Jvoppe is rio-ht: "The abuse begins with the use."