THE VERDICT OF EXPERTS.

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 290, 18 August 1919, Page 5

THE VERDICT OF EXPERTS.

TESTIMONY OF FIFE ASSI K A.NCK. Many years ago good life assurance societies "ere rather doutfbul of in.uiii)K abstainers; now, lecognising 11« t.-, they take them gladly, and some .it a to per rent, reduced premium. One* well-known soe iet\ has alreacK j»iven discounts amounting to ,£ijs,uoo. These are haul business facts, which no amount ot argument can g.'in say. IKS TI.MONY Ol IMIYSA lANS. Sn Andrew Clark, President <-i tT* Ko>n 1 College of Physicians, said: "1 tell >ou that going the rounds of iii> hospital wards to-tla\ seven out of even ten there* owed theii ill health t • alcohol. 1 do not know that one ot them was what you call a drunkard." Sir flenrx Thompson, the eminent London surgeon, wrote: “I have n*' hesitation in attributing a \ery laige proportion ot some of the most painful and dangeious maladies wliit 11 come under my notice to the ordinal\ and daily use of fermented diink, taken in the qumtiti which is c on vest tionally deemed moderate." It has been known to medical men that drunkards wen* much more liable than sober people to In* attacked b\ infectious diseases. Hut speaking of the influence of moderate doses of alcohol, Dr. Buchner, Professor ot Medicine in Munich I niveisity, said: ‘‘Alcohol kills the latgest numbei of vat ins by ambush, as it were, in that it undermines the powers of resistance to si< kness, so that the apparently quite temperate drinker succumbs to a lung inflammation or an infectious disease which tTie sound, normal l>od\ ca il\ overcomes. ’’ Metrhnikoff, of the Pasteui Institu to *n in Paris, where they make antidote eiums for hydrophobia diphtheiia, ml certain other diseases, his been .d)le to prove that alcohol prevents the native action of these serums. \t the time of the great cholera epi lemic, in IN4O, in (Glasgow, I)i. Adam-., Professor of Medicine* in An di ison’s College, in his leport said: “I have found the use of alcoholic dunks to lx* .1 great predisposing <auso of malignant cholera. So strong is my opinion on this point, that were I one of the authorities and had the power, I would placard even -'pitit shop in town with those words, f holcra s“ld here.’ ’’ In this con

nett ion it may be added that the late Dr. John Burns, of Bridgeton, told the present writer that in that epidemic he treated 37 1 cases ot cholera, rallied m.my of them to the hospital on his hack, was much out of lied at night, and greatly fatigued, yet never tasted alcohol, and was not a day laid aside from duty, and did n<»t take the disease. Sit Fred. Treves, in l»»s “S\ stem ot Surgeiy," when discussing the high mortal it \ of operations on legulai users of alcohol, says: “M.my indi victuals who state that they do not drink, and who, although pnhap> never drunk, air yet always taking a little stimulant in the form of ‘nips’ an I an ‘occ asional glass, ate* ohm as I) *d subjects for surgical treatment a> ate* the* acknowledged drunkards.’’ I)r. Norman Kerr, Chairman of the Legislation Committer ol the* Bi itisli Medical Association, said: “I have no hesitation in making the 'iterate statement that none pei - have theii lives cut short prcmatuicl> In latent chronic* alcoholic poisoning prodioed by regular alcohol taking in so called ‘moderation,’ long persisted in, than bv unmistakable* drunken ness.

MODERATE DKIXKINti. The truth as to the connection lxtween alcohol and disease is this, in the ea-e of a hcaltln person in gornl surroundings, an occasional fit of diunkcnness, with complete abstinence* between times, seems to do little* harm, unless the individual suffers accidental injury while intoxicated. The natural defensive powers of the body have had time to throw off the evil effec ts. If an individual aiso in good circumstances, takes in any shape a small qutntity daily, and restricts himself to this, it may lx* many years before the ill-effects are obvious to himself or his friends, but bis health and mental activity are surely, if slowly, becoming impaired and his life shortened. In the* case of a person infirm in health and in circumstances of strain, the evil results are aecelerat c*d. In a few individuals great re sistive power is shown, and they live* to old age before the symptoms of chronic alcoholic poisoning become* manifest. But much more frequently th»* moderate dose is augmented, and •lie decline in health and usefulness soon becomes evident, and is rapid in proportion to the* amount of alcohol consumed. This is not the place* in

which to describe the pathological c hanges induced : suffice it to s. t \ the \ arc chiefly due* to degeneration of nerve* cells and of the connective tissues of the body, leading to suc h disease's as neuritis and cirrhosis of the liver. -Dr. \\. l\ Reid (Lond). From ‘(irit.”