ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 209, 13 December 1910, Page 3

ALCOHOLOGY.

ALCOHOL VERSUS TEA. (Published by Arrangement). When the defender or advocate of alcoholic drink has an argument with the temperance reformer he generally finds it necessary to shift his ground often, and he .generally, in the course of his 1 changes, says that tea does as much harm as alcohol, or, let us say, whisky; sometimes an extra bold orator on the liquor side says that tea does more harm ■than alcoholic drinks. Of course very few believe that statement, and it is doubtful if the man who makes it really believes it, yet it is perhaps worth while to reply ,to it. Anyone who looks around can reply to it quite easily; for who ever saw anyone intoxicated by teadrinking, or by tea-drinking rendered incapable of walking the streets, or behaving as a rational man ought to behave; or what judge or gaoler or lunacy officer ever said that tea caused crime or produced lunacy?

TEA DOES NOT PRODUCE CRIME!

Tea does not steal away the brains as does strong drink. That everyone knows, yet we might enquire what scientific research has to say about it. There are two directions in which alcohol is especially injurious: in its effects on the brain and mental processes; and also in its effects on digestion and on metabolism —the chemical changes that are always taking place in the human body. To take the latter under consideration first, we find that defective digestion and metabolism is the cause of many diseases. There are in the first place many diseases ■caused by alcoholics alone: Alcoholic neuritis, paralysis and epilepsy, as well as delirium tremens and. .mania-a-potu. Then a whole list of diseases, of all the organs of the body, are induced and aggravated by alcohol, such as gout, erysipelas, cirrhosis of the liver, and others too numerous to mention here. On the other hand, no particular disease is attributed to tea alone, and, though the excessive use of strong tea may be injurious, the finger of science does not point out a whole list of tea-caused diseases as it does of the drink-caused diseases above mentioned, and many others. It may be interesting to notice here that the users of alcoholic and tobacco are the drinkers • of strong tea, and among teetotallers there are a great many who do not drink tea, and many more who use it very little. As a matter of fact, alcohol and strong tea go together; and teetotaiism and all wholesome drinks and habits. Looking now at the other direction in which alcoholic is injurious—in its effects on the brain and mental proT cesses—w« have much more to say

IN FAVOR OF TEA.

Here the most accurate of recent enquiries have been made by Professor McDougal, and published in the British Journal of Psychology. He was giving his attention to the effect of alcohol anil drugs on mental fatigue, and used a most carefully arranged series of tests. He wanted to find out under l what conditions mental processes—brain work—would be done with the least error; first' in the normal state, without any stimulant, alcohol or tea; then with a small allowance of alcohol; and lastly with one or two cups of tea. The results he gives as under: In the first series of tests he found that while in the normal condition—that is, without anything—there were 370 errors; ■ with the use of a small dose of whisky, 3oz. or loz., according to the experiment, there were 583 errors; with the much-abused tea, one or two cups, there were only 273 errors. In the second series of tests the" figures were: Normal, 208 errors; with alcohol, 351' errors; with tea, 291 errors. This is plain to every reader. Three ounces of whisky caused 53 per cent, more errors than when the brain was under normal conditions. Two cups of tea reduced the errors to 28 per cent, less than normal. That is

A PLAIN VERDICT FOR, TEA. A benefit by using tea: a damage by using alcohol. There is a general misconception in regard to "stimulant." Thus tea, coffee, wine, beer and spirits are all sometimes called stimulants. This is a confusion of thought and of terms as well as facts, for these things do not act in the same way. Alcohol has a well-known depressing after-effect. After a "good night" the drinker has a very sore head. Not so the tea-drinker. Tea and coffee have no depressant aftereffects. Their exhilarating influence has no reaction stage to follow, neither do they cause degeneration of the tissues of the body; hence they are entitled to be called "stimulants." Dr, Clouston, in his book on "Hygiene of Mind," says: "So far as scientific experiment goes, tea, is proved not to weaken but rather to stimulate the mental power of the brain cortex . Its use in moderate quantity is not followed by any injurious reaction, and is not prejudicial to any of the functions of the body."