The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-09

which daily traverse immense country, every
steamship that ploughs the ocean, not one but whose
passengers are freighted with alcoholic stlmuants
prescrlDed by Their physicians as important pre-
Ventives OF, and remedies, for disease.
II, then, this picture be true, and not one can
gainsay 1t, that in every house in the land, on
board every railroad car, and on every ship that
sails or steams the ocean, this agent Is used by
ddCtce Of the profession, as preventive ana curer
OF disc ase should it astonsh those who know the
cravings OF appetite and the force OF habit,
that this terrible practice in the language OF the re-
solution, sends thousands daly prematufely TO the
grave, and fills the land with drunkenness and
crime? Look into almost any OF the approved
works on the Practice Of Medicine and you will
find that alcoholic drinks are named as one OF the
causes Of almost every disease, and yet in thcrecent
works these same deletcriOus agents are lauded as
remedies above all others. Some recommend them
only IN convaescencc: others in exhausted condl-
tons before conyaesCenCe has begun, ana yet others
them they treat the cold stage, the hot stage the
stage Of excitement the period of depression,
condition that may arise. Now, they are
given to arouse the energies, then TO allay ex-
there as food for the nerves. one day to build
up the system by pro2otng neryc-force the next to
pull it down by increasing the waste OF tissues or,
IN fashionable language destructive metamOrphosis.
with their worshippcrs they fuln every indication,
tney comDat every symptom, ana, though they fail
TO conquer they are still on hand TO be in at the
death. Among all our acquaintance we know of no
physician who does not prescribe and recommend
can remember it, when they were recommended by
teachers in medicine only in weak states of the
body, and TO be used with extreme caution; now,
when the brain is ovcrpOwered by sunstroke when
the man falls PROSTATE with apopeXy, i'm the first
as in the last days OF illness in spotted, typhus
typhoid, or ycowfever in every variety of diarrhPa
and dysentery, in rheumatism in pleursy, in
Violence, in mania-a-potu and deliri1m tre-
mems, in the sleeplcssness brought on by the use
OF alcohol IN the nervous diseases OF females during
CESSATION and after delivery and daily during the
nursing period, wine or brandy, gin or whisky, or
malt liquors, or one or more OF the various tnctures
or bitters, strong with alcohol, is prescribed and
urged with an eamestness which testihes to the
faith reposed in them by the physician, and which
oil In nf tha faFC flp pf
an agent which they had seen filing the land with
drunkenness and crime. Does a child suffer from
Group, or scarlet fever or dphtheria the buldingup
process must not be neglected-disregard the in
nammation, keep up the strength. II Is blood
poison, says authority and while you send
the odides, the brOmilcs or cllOrides through
the body to wrestle with the poison, give
brandy -t0ddy, whisky-punch, wine and beef-tea TO
keep up the strength, and Gs the poor child with
plug IN its wndpipe which prevents access of air to
the lungs struggles Ir @ 3rsaTa; pour 6 DOWN tae
comes not, Tor reason and experience have none to
tleman Of Philadelphia told us tlat son OF his Of
ten years ofage, attended by two OF the first physi-
clans Of that enlightened CITY, IN case OF dptheria,
had SO much brandy urged upon MN, when the
membrane had invaded the wlndpipe, that during
the last few hours OF his life as he lay on his bed he
would throw up his arms and cry, rather hold me,
| am swimming, will fall out Of bed He was
drunk from brandy. when all that he needed was the
removal Of the plug from his Windppe. Should any
doubt this statement, we refer them TO case pub
lished in the american JOUrHdt oJtc Medical Sciences
at page q Of the number for January, 1869, by
a ply sican Of hOnored name. himself the
author of treatise on the Diseases of Chill
dTen.' The patient, child OF ten years, was
wei TIL the evening of the 9th Of April.
Next morning complained OF sore throat
and loss OF appetite. In the afternoon the doctor
him with symptoms Of scarlet fever or dipheria, as
yet so lily defined as to leave doubt And now less
than twenty-iour hours from health and when a
febIlc condition was just beginning to manifest
itself, comes the physician with salts in one hand
and brandy in the other-ten grains of sulphe of
magncsia and mllk-punch every two hours. Next
morning all the symptoms were aggravated-the in
fammation Of throat aud skin intense; but still the
lr-l1l Nh M hn of tna
wneglassul OF each of the latter alternately every
two hours, in the other. And so on, day after
NIT drop of those lifepreservers TO pass But no.
thing daunted the bcef-tea brandy, and sulphte of
magnesia are forced up the rectum thank Heaven
for the doctors change OF bases the ice which sur
rounds the throat now that the fiery liquid is kept
the throat again becomes the channel to the sto-
~ For eleven days this terrible treatment went
insen IN nrrrc or brandy ana beef.tea every two
Soors- and then TestjCd IN '" from which
the little sufferer barely escaped with lifc,
j mention this case as the type OF the present
popular stimulant treatment and because the
publication of it will cause similar treatment
to be applied to thousands of little sufferers. The
case win be read at home and abroad, and the
name Of the eminent physician and author VIII
be a sufficient guarantee TO those who
are convinced by high authorities OF the correctness
OF practiCe) that brandy was useful in this case;
and, as consequence every child that falls in their
way sick with scarlet fever Or dipthera must be
dused with brandy. Allow us to stats another case,
to show how this indiscriminate use and recon-
mendaton OF alcohol is propagated and leads to
results deporaOle tlat Professor GROSS was COM
PEELED to cry aloud in denunciatiOn of it,
At page $40 OF the October number OF the Medical
and Surgical Reporter for 1885, Doctor Dale, of Centre
county, reports one case OF vomiting during preg-
nancy in which, after trying few OF the usual
remedies, he resorted to good rye whisky one tea
spoonful with three drops tincture of aconite three
times daily, and says, s'IG acted like charm, the
whisky being the first thing to give tone to the
weeks, but there is not word of praise for the
aConite The woman and her friends and the medi-
cal profession, as far as the communication can
agent. We have no hesitancy in saying That thou
sands Of pregnant women will be induced and urged
by the publication of this single to try alcoholic
drinks for the relief of affection which has rarely
resisted mild and harmless remedies in the hands Of
experienced physicians. This glowing report, too,
is based on single case and in which the relief
might properly have been attributed to the effect of
the acOnite ON the nerves OF the stomach.
One more case. Two weeks since a gentleman
gave rs the following histoTy:-Last December his
daughter, OF about tWenty-one years, was taken
with pain in the side, and as he had lost three daugh
ters within few years Of consumption he, after the
second days illness, left his h0me eight miles from
Philadelphia, and moved TO the City and placed her
under the care Of physician of some
cminence lie diagnosed pneumonia, and
at once put her on the use of beer,
ale, and whisky. She died in the early part of May,
after great suffering and in despite OF twenty-four
quarts Of the best old rye whisky and an abundance
! Of beer and ale. As the sister who died one year
before only took ten gallons of wine during her ill
| ness, it was hoped that heavier stimulation by
stronger liquor might prove more successful hence
the substitution OF whisky. We mention these cases
because they show the present terrible practice OF
! stimulation and not TO throw d5crediJ on those who
| cOnscientiOusly treated them.
This disposition in physicians to prescribe alcoholic
| stimulants in every variety OF disease received
a lecture to his large class of students de-
| ivcrCd in London hospital two years since.
we regret that we can present only
that the doctor DOn0cr5 the public taste since he