ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 233, 7 February 1911, Page 6

ALCOHOLOGY.

AS A MEANS OF ENJOYMENT. (Published by Arrangement). The use of alcohol is a question of enjoyment rather than of nourishment. Men drink when it is too hot, to get cool; when it is too cold, to get warm. They drink to excite themselves, and then to calm their excited nerves; they drink to arouse themselves when sleepy, and then to induce sleep they take a "night-cap"; they drink to allay the fooling of hunger, a.iul then to help (as they say) to digest a full meal; they drink everywhere and at all times, winning or losing, happy or sorrowful, in honor of a friend or to the confusion of an adversary. An excuse can always ha found. No food .subject has such magical powers to serve diametrically opposite purposes; that power belongs'only to a pleasure substance whose special*action is to deaden foeling.s. This is accomplished by many substances and undoubtedly and chiefly by 'alcohol. All living tkings seek after pleasure, but Xature meets that desire in a way'that is in no case injurious; it remains for man to control instinct and to seek to satisfy a legitimate desire in an injurious fashion, fie strives after pleasure without regard to the usefulness or the harmfulness of the means by which it is obtained. The danger lies'in the fact that-al-cohol satisfies the craving for pleasure only when it exerts a manifest poisonous action; and in the further fact that its use awakens a need for a still o-reater use of it. From the biological "standpoint it is not immoderate rise alone that is condemned. As there is a wide range between disease and health, wherein the man of lowered resistance is more liable to contract disease, so also, in relation to the use of alcohol, the cause of the lowered power of resistance lies in the moderate use. Habitual moderate use. even" in adults, is not biologically justifiable. While a healthy man may recover with a single large potation, if enough time is allowed, vet he does not have that .sufficient time if he takes a regular, though moderate, drink. What the harmless daily quantity is no one can say; we notice, however, that it is getting smaller with each attempt to define it. Dr. Baer, a well-known German authority, says that it is not proved that one litre of beer, containing 35 to 40 grams of alcohol (or putting it into our measurements and quantities, one pint of beer of six per cent, alcoholic strength) daily is a harmless allowance. We must regard it as a definite fact of experience that the regular, habitual use of even small amounts renders not onlv growin* organism, but that of mature vears, less resistant; that is, it increases the liability to disease, particularly infectious diseases, lengthens their duration, and gives an unfavorable outlook for health. i IT IS A SOCIAL QIXSTIOX, and as such we have to deal with it. Nothing is less favorable to the progress of society, as a whole, than striving after pleasures that are injurious; we should strive after higher pleasures. Anything that promotes pleasures of a higher order helps to bring about the unity we al desire among the diverse social classes All these boisterous, animal pleasures—of which drinking is the great promoter —tend to keep up social distinctions, because they tend to lower the standard ot those who indulge in them. The socalled '"poor man's glass." which in truth hinds poverty to the poor man, robs him of the time and means which he mMit more profitably employ, and holds him Hack trom rising m social position. The warning is:

BEWARE OF FALSE PBIENDS who would retard your progress bv ministering to your lower pleasures." For those who have attained or are in possession of higher personal culture, or means, and desire still better things there are plenty of things to take the place of nlcoliol as a source of pleasure They need not submit to anv feeling 0 f dullness or seek to escape them in the intoxicating cup. Professors Lichen and W™»™ »? h «y «>i«l in regard to Ink: Jf the habit of drinking alcoholic liquors freely Pvcr y day rules th( , , ife it leads inevitably to superficiality, to an fiisy-gomg manner of living, which relies upon material property and is identical with impoverishment and uealh in the inner life."