"THE BOTTLE OF WHISKY."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 80, 13 July 1910, Page 7

"THE BOTTLE OF WHISKY."

To the Editor. Sir, —I do not propose to put forward my opinion against "Observer's" letter on "The Bottle of Whisky," hut to cull a few statements from a work that was quoted in our Supreme Court a few months ago as an unquestionable author-, ity and accepted as such by Bench and Bar. I refer to Horsley and Stage's work on "Alcohol and the Human Body.'' At page 13 we read: ''Without doubt it is scientifically correct to speak of alcohol as poison." Again at page 1!) we read: "One conclusion emerges from the recent investigation of the whole alcohol question, namely, that it is quite possible to state that, any given nominal amount of the drug is harmless to our tissues." The late Sir Andrew Clark declared that "alcohol is a is strychnine, so is arsenic, so is opium. It ranks with these agents. Health is always in some way or other injured bv it." Sir James Barr, M.D., savs: 'Alcohol is not a stimulant, is not a food in the proper acceptation of the word: it is a sedative." At page 230 of Horsley and Sturge we read: "The truth is that the physiological effects of real foodstuffs on the one hand, and alcohol on the other, are totally different." Pago 231: "It is unscientific to describe as a 'food' anv drug like alcohol, which so entirely fails to fulfil the functions of a foodstuffs." Finally: "A falsehood which dies harl >s the idea that stimulants or whatever kind actually give strength and are necessary for the maintenance of health and vi.«ror. Such is not the (. ase " —<si r Wm. Brondbent. M.D. 1 submit that the above are higher and better known authorities than either of those quoted bv "Observer."—l am, etc., N.T.M.