ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 168, 25 October 1910, Page 7

ALCOHOLOGY.

SUBSTITUTES. (Published by Arrangement). There is still a lingering superstition in many minds that alcoholic liquor is, so necessarv in an emergency as a remedy for anything. If we take a medical work of modern date, say a dictionary of medicine, and look up alcohol we shall find it described as a poison—with certain indications of its mode of action. Therefore we might very fairly say that, instead of being' a remedy for everything, that it is poison for anything. But hitherto people have turned to the spirit flask as a handy remedy (they call it) for colic, cholera, co.lcls, or collapse. or any other ailment; and that being so it is useful to have some knowledge of what to do better. John Wishart, M.D., Ch.B., B.Se., of Dudley Colliery, Northumberland, has issued a handy booklet giving advice what to do. He calls it' "Total Abstainers' First Aid/" Now, like a true doctor, he «ays, "Always semT'for a doctor in serious, obstinate or prolonged cases." ■ That is certainly good advice, and where in many cases the friends of the sufferer, or the bystanders, recommend spirits, the doctor of the present day would use something safer and more effective. Tn his little book. Dr. Wishart gives a number of simple things which can safely be used in sudden attacks of illness without using tliat risky and aften injurious drug —alcohol. He. of course, orders water in many cases, hot water generally, and often with some flavoring to suit the taste of the patient. How strange that so nia-nv people shun water —tlie safest, the cheapest, the iriost healthful drink, and, to th° unvitiated taste, the pleasantest as well as the most natural for anyone past babyhood. To dip into this little book, let us turn to the various common troubles when alcohol is so often used:— Fainting.—Lay the faint on a couch or the floor with the head a little lower than the rest of the body. Loosen the clothing. Hold smelling salts or burnt feathers at the no<triK Apply cold water to the face and chest. While recovering give a glass of water for the patient to sip.

'Colic—Applv hot turpentine cloths or mustard poultices. ' Drink a cupful of clove-cinnamon tea: or take two (Irons of eucalyptus oil on a lump of suaar. Chill.—Place feet and legs in hot water —take a cupful of cinnamon tea. a basinful of gruel and keep warm in bed. Collapse from Weeding.—P.laee the patient between warm blankets with the head low, apply hot-water bottles, give hike-warm milk to drink if he can swallow. and if not use smelling salts. The book deals with more than 50 ailments which may on emergency need home treatment ; and there is an appendix giving a number of useful substitutes for alcohol, such as cayenne tea, cinna-mon-clove tea. ego- drink, various teas and fruit drinks, all of which are simple easily made and inexpensive, and for which the ingredients would be found in ' most houses or at least might be kept just as the handy wliiskv bottle is now kept by some people. After all, the crv, "What shall we do if prohibition is carried?—We must have spirits in case of sickness is nearly all cant, but perhaps sometimes timidity combined with a lack of knowledge. If it were a prohibition country a doctor would know what sort of handy emergency remedv to advise his patients to keep on hand; and then at the worst there are always plenty of cure-alls advertised and can be used by thos° who have confidence in them. One thing is clear to all who take the trouble to read up on this subject that alcohol is very seldom a remedy, never a safe remedy to be used by any but a doctor, and admittedly is liable to abuse.