The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1874-04-02
Correspondence OF the News.
Alcohol Unnecessary as Med.
ieine-Pledge the Physieisns.

| Correspondence Of the News.
Alcohol Unnecessary as Med.
teine-Pledge the Physfcians.
The friends of Temperance, and
its enemies too, are watching with
intense interest the sLadies' Crusade"
on the liquor saloons in Ohio and
elsewhere. The former are saying,
@God bless these noble Christian
women" the latterare quailing before
their irresistible heroism and power.
In the report of their doiEgs, 1
observe at two points, Washington
and Ripley, (theremay be others) they
are pledging the Physicians to pre-
scribe no alcoholic stimulants for the
sick. That is right; for we mako
thousands Of drunkards annually
through the mistaken theory that
alcoholic stimulants are medical
agents Behind the medical profess
sion, the demon of intoxicants has
intrenehed himself defantly; but he
must be routed from this stronghold.
We want now to reach the intelh-
gent public with the fact, that in no
case is alcohol necessary. We want
the public to know that we have
high authority for taking the posi-
ton, no alcohol for the sick. L. R.
Leas, NJ. D., the great Temperance
reformer of England, than whom no
man living has devoted more intense
study to the effect of alcohol on the
living organism, both in health and
disease, boldly takes the ground, that
In no case are alcoholic stimulants
required; but he goes further and as
serts, that they are positively isvtt-
rioass IN disease as in health. DR.. Leas
says:
"Some years ago, when it was the
custom to attempt curing deliritns
trenaens by giving brandy, one out of
every four died at Edinburg Hospit-
al. Since then the professor of the
Medical Department has treated thres
hundred cases of deIiriuna sren1ens
without alcohol, without losing a
single easel
professor Gardner, of Glasgow
University, gave hundred men thir-
ty ounces of alcohol; seventeen died.
"Another hundred were allowed
three ounces only, and eleven died
out of the hundred. OF two hun
dred and nine cases of young persons
who were not allowed either rum or
whisky, not one died. In teetotal
hospital at Leeds, of three hundred
patients who took not a drop, all
recovered. Let facts decide
Halls Journal of Health.
This is what we-need facts In the
case. The treatment without alco-
hol is being tested still more fully in
large hospital near Montreal, Cana
da.
We venture the assertion that
there are many of our noble profess
sion scattered throughout the land,
ready to place themselves upon the
platform, "No alcohol for the sick
But we may expect opposition, stern
and conscientious, from our profess
sional brothers and the people. But
truth viii triumph.
Not many years since the medical
profession deemed fresh air and cold
water injurious to patient burn
ing up with fever. Now, we throw
open the doors, give cold water freely
and apply ice.
In the National Temperance Ad7o-
cate, (the best Temperance paper
published) of Aug. 1878, we have a
declaration respecting the use of al
cohol, signed by one hundred and
twenty-six of the most eminent mem
bers of the medical faculty in and
around New York City. In that
declaration they say: "When pre-
scribed incidentally, it tshould be with
conscientious caution and sense of
grave responsibility" This, with
other statements in that declaration,
is step in advance move in the
right direction. So we have, In the
March number of the same paper,
a similar declaration, signed by six
ty-ome of the faculty in Montreal,
and these are but the re-echoes of q
note of warning given by the most
eminent English physicians to the
people of Great Britain.
>. We are working up in some meas
ure to q sense of the grave response
bility resting upon us, and to the
fact that our profession is making
drunkards by thousands annually.
] We say, then, to these noble Chris
tan women, pledge your physicians
as you 90! You will doubtless find
good, conscientious men among US,
not yet ready to take such advanced
ground; but don't be discouraged
You are in the right and victory is
certain. We shall look with interest
for reports from physicians thus
pledged-how they succeed-whether
they can save their patients without
dosing them with alcohol
]. G. JUNKINS, NJ. D.
Wvsndot, o.