The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-04-09
ALCOHOL A DOUBTFULFOO AND
AN AGENT ENORMOUSLY
,..~, ABUSED AS A MEDICINE.
[From the New York " orld, April i.

LII al luLeItlCW Will DI. M01coLtA
Clymer, the conversation ON the medical
view Of The temperance question was
opened by question as to the generally
received opinion of the medical faculty
on the free use of alcoholic liquors in one
form and another. In reply the Doctor
said
"Well, can't really tell. The old
Latin proverb applies pretty we'll to the
subject Tot homsnes tot sentensi@ tot
maedsci tot opaniones. I can give you my
individual opinion. I was one of the
first, thirty-fv years ago, to introduce
alcohol. after It's partial exclusion as a
therapeutic agent, so no one can attribute
my remarks to prejudice, and am conf
dent that there is no1other remedial agent
which has been more abused. During the
war there was more harm than good
done by the iIdiscrlminate use of alcohol
in the treatment of fevers. ! have no
doubt that better results would have been
reached by the exclusion Of alcohol. In
these fevers-low fevers of typhoid
type--there is very rapid disorganiza.
ton of tissues the use of alcohol ar
rests this; enables the system to tide over
the attack till food can be used, but it is
valuable as q stlmulant Only. l look
upon its value as food as very doubtful
AS stimulent the danger OF its abuse is
very great. In the period l have men
toned, during the war, the abuse was
extensive, and the consequences, may
say from wide experience, were disas-
trous. There is another way in which
great BARN has been wrought by the
practice OF the day, which has made the
general use of alcohol-and by alcohol I
mean brandy, whisky, and wines-fash-
ionable. I refer to neuralgia disorders.
l will tell you how this evil ls brought
about. A woman is troubled with ueural-
gic pains-sharp, sudden paroxysms of
terrible violence. The effects of alcohol
as diffusive stimu)ant gives relief, and
she turns to the brandy bottle, or hot
toddy, or so on till an inveterate habit
of TOPPING is formed. I have known many
cases of female dramdrinking of this
kind-some among families of the great
est responsibility. and productive of great
domestic misery-all traceable to some
description of neuralgia difficulties.
tell you that it IS very dangerous work
to prescribe such an agent"
"Does your experience lead you to
credit the alarming paragraphs some
times seen of the prevalence of female
drinking? Esa4s
III have no douct that there are great
many women, high and low, who drink a
great deal more than is good for them. I
should dislike, however, to express any
opinion on the subject without any stat
istics to guide me. There are persons
weso collect such facts, but have never
paid any attention to the subject, and I
do not think any one ia justified in ex
pressing an opinion on matter affecting
the morality of community without
defiHate statistics to guide the assertions
he makes. Now, in this matter of the
use of alcohol as therapeutic agent, the
opinions of physicians has passed from
one extreme to another. The pendulum
has swung in the last twenty or twenty
five years toward the general use of alco-
hol. 1t has been prescribed for almost
everything. Now il is the fashionable
remedy. And that is very dangerous
condition of affairs dangerous physic~
ally and dangerous morally. The react
ion was begun by Or. Todd, OF Lond on.
He used alcohol very freely. but from
what sew of his practice when I was
in London some years ago I feel sure
that he did not go to anything like the
lengths Of his followers. He was a man
who made enthusiastic statements, how
ever, and school grew up called the
|stimulant school, which rather went
ahead of its founder. Some of its mem
bers give alcohol for pretty much every
thing. One of them, Anslie, of London,
has written book calculated to do a
great deal of harm, and which. am con
vinced, has done irreparable harm.
look upon the use of alcohol in phthisis
.I.~A II