The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-13 00:00:00

WHO SHALL DECIDE WHEN DOCTORS

DISAGREE?

Mr. C. R. Eree, M.D., Senior Physician to the
Essex and Colchester Hospital, has sent the following
letter to The Times for publication
do not think it possible to over-estimate the injury
which will he done by the indiscreet publication of the
declaration against alcohol, signed by 250 medical men, aunt
inserted in your columns and those of Other journals.
As this statement may scent startling, I will give you my
reason for making it. I MSY premise that I believe a great
majority of incurable diseases, a large proportion of the
crime of the country, most of its poverty, and a fair pro-
portion of its sin and immorality and wretchedness, are
due to the abuse of intoxicating liquors. Further, I will
go with Mr. Skey and say that the use of alcohol in perfect
health is unnecessary and very often injurious. But, Sir, 40
years practice of my profession has confirmed one great
practical truth in my mind. It has convinced me of the in-
estimable value of alcohol in the treatment of disease whys
judiciously used.
The great mischief which will he caused by the 250 men
who have been entrapped by a teetotal r 1.488 de yuerre will
be to shake the confidence of weak-minded invalids in the
use of the remedy liken advised by their confidential
medical attendant. The present crusade against alcohol in
disease ingot up and supported by the same weak-minded
people who pretend to argue against the Contagious Diseases
Act and denotume the blessings of vaccination. It is a phase
In the morbid sensationalime which will mark the history of
the 19th century.

Many years ago a strong disciple of teetotalism in Ipswich
opened his pipes of wine into the gutters of the street, and
when tout that be night have sent it to the hospital he
answered, •. No : Father Mathew has stated that wine was
injurious in the Famine Fever in Ireland." I wrote to
Father Mathew, and his stroll', denial of the above state-
ment I have preserved in a character site letter from that
gentleman, which Is at your service should you like to
publish if.
I repeat. Sir, that in disease the use of alcohol is of the
greatest possible advantage, milt Ire mentiv, more so than
any drug In the Pharmacopeia. lam ready to argue this
point in any of the medical journals with any of the dZA who
signed the remarkable and ill-judged declaration.
I could till a page of your journal with eases showing
the inestimable collie of alcohol in the treatment of dis-
eases. I shall, perhaps, be doing as much good by intreating
your readers to be guided in such matters by their confiden-
tial medical advisers.

I must say one word, however, upon the manner in which
the unfortunate declaration was got up. Being a provineial
hospital physician, I %Tote to Dr. Burrows and asked him
to explain how the signatures to the declaration had
been obtained, as I for one had never been askel. With
his well-known courtesy, the President of the Royal
College of Physicians wrote to me that he did not
know what steps had been taken to obtain signatures,
but that he himself had been asked to sign it, and that he had
crossed out some very strong expressions. It is quite clear,
then, that this protest or declaration of faith has been got
up by one of the agitating bodies in favour of total
abstinence, and that It did not issue from Dr. Burrows, or
even from the unlucky 250, as the world has been led to
suppose. With the name of Dr. Burrows, and one or two
others attached, the profession at least know full well bow
easily the rest would be obtained.