TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4354, 25 February 1893, Page 2

TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

Alcohol in Surgeiy,

The Journal of Inebriety invites attention to the "Manual of Operative Surgery," by the well-known surgeon of the London Hospital, Dr Frederick Treves, in the which, referring to the risks attending operations ou tbe 'bodies of drunkards, he Bays:—"A scarcely worse subject for an operation can be found than is provided by the habitual drunkard. The condition contra-indicates any but the most necessary and urgent procedures, such as amputation for severe crush, herniotomy, and the like. The mortality of these operations among alcoholics is, it is needless to say, enormous. Many individuals who stato that they 'do-not drink.'and who, although perhaps never drunk, are yet always taking a little stimulant in tbe form of 'nips' and an 'occasional glass,' are often as bad subjects for surgical treatment as are the acknowledged drunkards." " Of the secret drinkers," continues Dr Treves, "the surgeon has to bo indeed aware, Iu bis aocount of' Calamities of Surgery,' Sir James Paget mentions the case of a person who was a drunkard on the sly, and yet not so much on the sly but that it was well kuown to his more intimate friends. His habits were not asked after, and one of his fingers was removed because joint disease had spoiled it, He died in a week or ten days with spreading cellular inflammation, such as was far from unlikely to occur in an habitual drunkard. Even abstinence irom alcohol for a week or two before an operation does not seem to modify the result," Dwelling on the immense importance to an operator of cultivating "a surgical hand," the same writer points out that "a shaky hand" maybe developed by irregular modes of b'ving, by tbo moderate use of aloohol, and by smoking,

In High License Boston, recently, according to Tk Traveller of that city, a pitiful sight was witnessed by the passer* by on Guild Eow, at the cornet of Dudley Street, at about eleven o'olock at night. A man and woman, evidently husband and wife, both under the influence of intoxicants, were staggering on their way towards home in the neighbourhood of Egleston Square, leading between them, or j rather being led by their little daughter, a tot of four or five years. The i parents were so paralyzed that they [scarcely knew which way to turn, and the little one, between her sobs, did her best to guide them. A good Samaritan, one of the officials of the : city, who saw them, came to tho rescue, hired a cab, placed tho three within it, and ordered the driver to take them homo. Intoxicants will intoxicate under a high-license as well as a low-license fee, and will just as certainly demoralize and degrade those who indulge in them.

In Daneville, Va., a tragedy 1 recently occurred in which the Eov, J. E, Mofl'att, a leading Prohibitionist, was shot in the abdomen by a local liquor politician whom he had criticised, and his life has been sacrificed, It is but one of several kindred murderous assaults on prohibitionists by liquor men during the last few months, Theso tragedies aro a natural outcome of the lawless crimebreeding liquor business. It is a business which it is tho proper function of the State to suppress, but never to licenso or legalize and protect. " '

■ It is announced that recently at thi f Bay State Distillers, in East Cam. bridge, Mass,, a night distiller, namec I John Maboney, fell into an emptj | rum-vat and was instantly suffocated ; by the deadly gasses. The tank was 1 uncovered but surrounded by molasses , casks, and it is thought that he slipped , and slid into the tank, which is surili into the flooring, The MassaohuseoU rum distilleries, which generate these deadly gasses, are responsible also foi many deaths among the natives oi Africa, who drink the alcoholic poison contained in the destructive rum which is sent to them in largo quantities from the Old Bay State, All these rum-vats and distilleries ought to bo summarily suppressed as dangerous to all concerned, either im making the rum, or in drinking it in far-off Africa. y A SADJICHT A Drink Victim, [By Telegraph.—Our Correspondent.] Wellington, Friday. A very deplorable sight was witnessed in Wellington this afternoon about three o'clock, when a tall and rather fine-looking woman, well-dres-sed in black silk, wandered • down Lambton Quay in a state of maudlin intoxication. There was a drizzling rain at the time, and the spectaole was pitiful and inexpressibly shocking, as the woman-with her hat in her hand; her dress in unseuiningly disorder, and her petticoats torn aod ! bedraggled with mud-made hor way along the Quay in tipsy unconcern, Relief from this scandalous exhibition of tbe possibilities of the liquor traffic was afforded by the arrival oi a oab and some policemen, and the miserable creature \m taken away.