ALCOHOL IN RELATION TO LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 11 July 1910, Page 3

ALCOHOL IN RELATION TO LIFE

(I,V Professor W. E. Dixon, Lecturer on Pharmacology, Cambridge). On page 519 Professor Dixon states:— ■'The most completed and by. far the most reliable experiments dealing with r :'ol .to" »« which were conducted by Di». A. water and Benedict in America from t committoe chosen for the purpose of stud> • H-i,o role of drinks containing alcohol Thev experimented on healthy men S£lM=?:#s ESiiiKSh:

'an equivalent quantify ' of . st f rch ' or fat, or carbohydrife m tke anaß °i economy. In this respm. T 5 , 01 "!? 5 , alcohol is roughly equiva'fifc quarters of an ounce of fast, or 0116 three-quarter ounces of statfttfli 01 SUgar "' From these facts most of our' uews . o ' l ' the use of alcohol have chat:gi?i \ the last 25 years. The important v ' IUOS ! tion to which all this leads is how 4K " S ,j later day facts should cause us to JSgvux. j the position of alcohol as a beverage itfK , the broader sense. Though alcohol nuvyl be a necessary constituent of the nMmal.i body, this fact alone aflords no evidenc-ov that its artificial consumption is desir-i .able. The question as to what consti-| tutes moderation becomes a matter of importance. The opinion of Dr. Anstie I which is to-day used by many of the largest insurance companies in America, would be most generally accepted. Anstie puts moderation at one and a-haJf ounces of absolute alcohol; this would' represent about four ounces of whisky, | two to three wine glasses of sherry or I port, a pint bottle of claret or cham-| ipagne, or four to six tumblerg of light; ale or beer." Page 523: "Alcohol is> j I not a necessity for a healthy man. It; j lis a luxury and an expensive way of, 1 •taking food.. On the other hand, when' 3 taken in strict moderation injurious ef-S fects have yet to be discovered. The; 1 ; use of alcohol in sickness is quite another 4 matter. In it we have a type of food j 'Substance which is very rapidly absorb- 3 led into the circulation, which require# J !no preliminary digestion, but is easily 1 3 j oxidised in the tissues, thus affording a j valuable source of energy. Whilst, then.i j on the one hand these experiments af-j ] ford no evidence that alcohol is a desir-, j able substance for the average man, or 1 the other hand they do not support tht j •oft reiterated statement that it is poi-, j son." <!