The Portland daily press., 1866-05-12
Epidemics and spir1tuous Liquors.

To the Editor Of the Press:
Several timely articles have of late appeared
in your columns in relation to the preventive
measures which should be adopted in view of
the threatened approach of the cholera. The
topics suggested and the views expressed
therein are entitled to careful consideration
l. is to be regretted that some of these writers
have not gone further and given us the weight
of their testimony In relation to class of
places score of times more detrimental to
the public health than any which has been
mentioned. Especially was it to be expected
that your medical correspondents would have
given the evil referred to share of their at
tention. The opening of the city sewers into
our streets is an undoubted nuisance and
should be forthwith abated. The exhalations
thrown off by them are certainly miasmatic
and unhealthy, and would aid in introducing
and retaining this disease in our midst. There
are, however, scattered all though the city
by scores and hundreds, breathing holes of a
more poisonous miasma than that of the
street sewers-openings into even fouler dens
than these. The rum shops of the city and
drinking usages of our people constitute the
evil to which allusion is made The effects of
alcoholic spirit in producing and propagating
disease of all kinds are well understood by all
medical men, and the following facts, drawn
from high official authority are commended to
the thoughtful attention of all, more especial
ly the health officers and physicians of our
city. es5 s
1t is said by Lippich that "an common dis
orders become aggravated by drink, by ten
denotes to nervous or putrid type with rapid
sinking of the strength" The records of hos
pitfalls evidence the truth of his statement
From June 1908 to December 1909 the distill-
i-g of whisky from corn, wheat and rye was
prohibited i'll Ireland, and of course the con-
sumption greatly decreased. As conse-
quence the fever hospital in Dublin admitted
1,051 patients in 1909, but in 1910 when the
prohibition ceased the patients increased to
Liza. At the "Sick Poor Institution" in the
same city, in 1900 the patients numbered
5000, but in 1910 the admissions rose to 9O75.
In the great fever which ragged in London, in
1739-the era of the "gin MANIA" DIR. Short
observes "the like was the fate of all tipplers,
dram drinkers and punch merchants-scarcely
any other died of this severe fever" DIR. Cart
wright of New Orleans says in 1858, "The
yellow fever came down like storm upon
this devoted city, with 1,127 dram shops in one
of the four parts into which it is divided
About Jire thousand OF the supporters of these
haunts of Intemperance died before the cpl
demic touched a single sober man."
If there be one disease, for which, more
than any other, the use of ardent spirits pre-
pares the system and renders certain "a fatal
issue, that disease is Asiatic cholera. Witness
the following official facts: In the year 1858
cut of nine hundred persons who died of chol-
era only THREE were abstainers! In New
castle, England, during the same year this dis
ease struck down one drinker in ffty-sir, and
only ONE in SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY
FIVE of the teetotalersl In Albany, N. T.,
during the same year, this pestilence swept
off one in sirty of the entire population, while
only ONE IN TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED
of the strictly temperate were seizedl
| Statistics ola character similar to the above
are at hand to any extent desired. Sufficient
have however been given to place the point
at issue beyond question. The drinking
habits ofour people are among the most pow
erful agencies conducting to the advent of the
cholera the present season. The numerous
places where alcoholic drinks are sold are
among the most active of all instrumental
ties for securing its fatal spread among our
citizens. So well was this fact understood
that the health officers OF Philadelphia, dur
ing the visitation of this scourge in 1885,, GIGS
ed the grog shops of that city ss nuisance 10
the public health We have, by a recent care
full count, nearly 400 places ofthis description
in Portland, and in view of the facts herein
cited. it may be asked whether there rests up
on the health authorities OF this city any more
imnerative duty than that of the immediate
and unconditional suppression of these lazar-
houses of disease And what better service
can our physicians render in averting the ad-
vent of the 'scourge Of the East" than, by ev-
cry influence ofadvice and example, discourag'
ing the use OF spirituous liquors in every form
and under all circumstances. LUTHER.