The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-03-20 00:00:00

earrtsponucnct.

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DOCTORS AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
To Me Editor.

Dear Sir, —A doctor who abstains is happily not by
any means such a car,. atria as the black and white
blackbird shot in my gardeo, now that many of the
lea log men in the medical prot-ssion not only know ,
but publish ahrool the prop srties of alc .hol. Temper.
Imo, woke,' in general must be delighted to me how
many newspapers are now &deo° Ante their canes, and
those in ilk Otig•I•80.0004.1 owe their gratitude to
you for the leader in your paper, the Dared oouuly
Naves., vablished yesterday, on the great public)
gatoering convened (and addressed solely by members
of our profersioo, under the chairmanship of the well-
known London physician, Dr. Norman Kerr," to
denounce "alcohol " at all Ulnae and in all Owe.,
excepting when • Imioirtere I to petients—even this
exception not being allowed by some of the speakers.
Being an absentee, sod not having yet been able to
rea I the discoorses in detail, I surmise that alcohol
in it. pure state alone was c rodemned, the numberless
adulterations being left for the time in the background.
The important questioa then arises naturally—" What
ars the real properties of alcohol ? ' Drs. Bathurst
Woodman and C. Mernott Tidy tell us on page 498
of their new publication, "Forensic Medicine sad
Toxicology," that "Alcohol mote as • true poison
whether the vapour be respired or the liquid be
swallowed, or injected into the cavity of the chest, or
Into the cellular tisane" (the skin), and on the next
pegs—" The frequent repetition of small quantities of
alcohol, accumulating, as it undoubtedly does, in the
liver and in tits nerve (motes., notwithstanding its
elimination by excretory organs, such as the
lungs and kidneys, present. me with • class
of chronic poisoning with which, unfortunately, we
are now-a-days too familiar." rho chief authority on
" Poisons," Dr. A. Swayne Taylor, F.R.8., thus
corroborates. page 632 :—" Alcohol may act as •
poison by ita vapour." On fietarday last a Bill wee
loud (cc said the Daily News of the 12th) to the
effect that if anything were used in beer, ha, other
than malt and hops, • conspicuous placard must be
placed in the shop where th I liquor la offered for sae,
staUog the fact—the penalty for noncompliance to be
fixed at £2O. Believing that some of the following
extracts are unknown to many in the trade itself, 1
gladly submit them cow t their notice, that they
may eiss what has been written of them by those
in the same tea le •• themselves, and thns have
the opportunity of answering :—" There 040 be no
doubt that for one victim to its intoximting qualities
two might be reckooed who have 'come to their death
bed' through the various dimity poisons it is the
publicsa's custom to mix with his diluted liquors to
rave them • fictitious strength and fire," vide "Seven
Curses of London," by the Amateur Casual" (Mr.
James Greenwood) ; a more interesting work I've not
real for a long time. Now an extract or two from the
'New Mixing B ok," published for the trade. Page 25:
" Whatever care may be tak n,• part of the sulphate of
Iced, which i. formed by the union of those substances,
will remain suspended in the gio. and produce poison-
ous effects on the consumers." (I ought to say here
that this ha m sit ins duble salt, and, consequently, not
so likely to g-t absorbed a. other ingredienta) Page
26 : " 13u: 1-uthing can justify the employment of
even small quantities of so fearful • poison as sager
of lead." Pare 29: " N.B.—No publican should allow
himself to remain unprovided with a small Wedgwood
were pestle and mortar, such as apothec.ries use.
A chemist's alessuring.glaas, which may be ha 1 for
eighteenpenoe, will also be found of great service.
The quantities of ingredients prescribed in • receipt
can then be accurately measured out instead of being
guessed at, as is too carom oily the case." Now let me
say that I have studiously avoided exaggeration—of
which many temporaries people are accused—and still
mean to do a ; doubtless the numberless oases of
adulteration of "alcoholic drink." occur amongst the
" Blacklegs " IQ the trade, and these I must leave my
readers to detrot, for surely it is not my place to
endeavour to poiot them out here. Du any in the
trade glee way to hyperb dical expressions: if not,
what is the meaning of this on page 62 of "The Wine
Gold," : " Beware of wine advertised at 84. per
gall m. I lately went through the martyrd In of
drinking • glee. of 'sherry ' at the ab ,ve price here
In London. . . . . Such trash would poison •
horse." Now, wine at thia price i 4 daily offered for
sale everywhere—even in quirt old Dorchester. Many
lids of co-operative associations are emit broadout over
England ; the last one I reoeived was in January, and
Included, mice dia, good wood sherry at 5.. 6d ,
gona port at 6.. per gallon. It is only right to
adl that them are headed—" Special prices to the
tra le in quantities of not lees than two gallons," and
as'estatel to be of go di standard quality. "Can it
be that wines are sold at • profit sufficient to toyer
losses made in the other department.' (of miscellaneous
co-operative stores)? "S .me credit should attach to
Messrs. and their analyst for elucidating what
before was a mystery, v*.z., how there is produced
that remarkable beverage known a. publicterame
sherry "—p.p. 11 and 79, "Book about Sherry."
Recently I wrote to ask at what price Mr. will
sell the wine, a bottle of which he states in his
advertisement is gratuitously presented to every
cue omer who subscribes 10.. to his next Christmas
Club (when esch will receive full value in groceries or
the like) ; but there's not yet been time for a reply.'
II eying clearly shown above th •.1 " alcohol" is •
poisoo, and that this particular poison is accumulative,
' It behoves me to place ale hol unmarked before the
general public, •• • gusrdian of the public health
should. [for " drink " anomaly kills, directly and
Indirectly, 120,900 people (Dr. N mann Kerls esti-
mate), which ere for more deaths than are recorded by
the Hostetter General, es due to all the wen chief
zymotio diseases, via., small pox, measles, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, (even (typhoid
and typhus), diarrhea' \ (and dysentery)), assuring those
engaged in the trade that it is eepedally for their
health, and the health of their children, that these
foots ars sent you, so that they may know in what
they are really dealing. Do they think their money is
etill very safely invested after reading that in a
recent issue of the London Gaulle the number of
bankruptcies amongst the various alcohol dealees wee
the largest of ell the trades? The clerical profeedes
having brought well before their parishioners the Ohl
of drunkenness, and the medical profession theenes-
strated beyond a doubt the properties of steam), we
are only waiting for the remaining profewdon—the
legal—to do its part to get the Legislature to peen
the oecemery liquor laws.
The speeches being delivered at the moment of
writing this (Wednesday) evening, by 10 out of Use
27 meyors iii England and Wales, who are total
sibetainer•—under the chairmanshiflof the Right Hon.
the Lord Mayer—at the London uildhall, must do
an immense amount of god., for when it becomes the
fashion Not to tout everybody and everything, we
Asti see people (especially Use poor) the happier, the
wealthier, and the healthier.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
E. J. Dar, P. 0.8.
Medical Officer of Health said Public Analyst.

Dorchester.
P.B.—lt la only fair to stet, that Mr. J. C. Bell,
F.C.S., public aqalyst for the borough of Salford (the
population of which is more than 176.000). has jail
Informed us, through the medium of • Journal received
since I wrote the above letter, that "It appears from
the above tabular statement (of &Delve' of beers from
beerhoum end brewers in Salfr that beer la
generally sold by the dealers in nearly the same state
as they receive it from the brewers."— Anal est, March,
1.843.