ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 51, 22 August 1911, Page 2

ALCOHOLOGY.

DR. CHAPPLE, M.P. j (Published by Arrangement). This gentleman is a New Zealander, who after a successful career in this country has gained a place in the House of Commons, and hence is well worth hearing. He has written an article on "Total Abstinence" in the National Temperance Quarterly, which is 'both a scientific statement and a forcible appeal. He showed the evil effects of alcohol on the body, which he compares to an army—"an army of tissue cells." He then savs: "Life is healthy (as we call it) and normal, that is efficient and happy in proportion as the cells are successful in conflict. . . . But alcohol is the enemy of these cells. It weakens their functions; it paralyses their action. It therefore lessens efficiency in the conflict with the invasions of disease. But it lessens also the force of every effort that expends itself in physical, mental or moral activity, for such activity depends on wholesome, unimpaired cell function. If this is true, WHY DO NOT PEOPLE BELIEVE IT? For two reasns: Because alcohol mocks those who take it, and enriches Mtosa who make it. Wine is a mocker. Wine is made plca.sa.nt to the sight, to tlrs taste, to the smell, and to the sensation. It is given the three first-named properties by an art that wants to make a profit in its use. The last-named property is its own. It gives a sensation of warmth, not because it increases the body heat (it actually diminishes it),, but because it paralyses the cells, eontrolling the tone of the Wood vcissh, and thus engorges them with the warm blood, which, in radiating heat from the surface, gives the sensation of warmth. It therefore mocks this sensation. Because of this diminished blood pressure and consequent increase in the heart's aotion, the larger blood supply to all the organs gives a feeling of bodily wellbeing. But the heart rapidly tires of its quickened action, and the blood vessels remain dilated and engorged. There is a stasie in the blood current, and the waste products of tissue metabolism accumulate. while the blood cells and other tissue cells languish under the direct paralytic action of the poison. The headache and malaise in th'e morning are the untidy' blood vessels in the brain and the organs. The debris, the cigar butts and ashes; the. corks and bottles; the stale odor and the broken glass. WINE IS A MOCKER. It promises what it does not give. Tt gives one and takes ten. But this is its primary deception. Its secondary deception is (he crave for more than it ultimately engenders. Like morphia, it creates a craving for itself. I need not dwell on this. It ib partly due, to habit, but chiefly to the degeneration that it induces in the inhibiting controlling cells of the brain. People do not believe the truth about alcohol, then, because they are deceived by its immediate action and impelled by its remote action. The latter often make the discovery when it is too late. But there is another reason why the truth is suppressed. Many people make a profit in the use of it. The man wiio becomes rich in its manufacture or sale has not much to say against it as a rule. This is a vested interest in the traffic. Those who profit from its consumption by others seize every statement in its favor and advertise it accordingly. I need not labor this, point. It has a. wonderful influence in protecting its use from the bright glare of the searchlight of truth." The above is not the statement of a mere teetotal fanatic, but of a medical man of large experience, and of a public man who may be called on to substantiate his statements. This declaration is worth considering.