The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-04-10
Is Llgc0aOJ q Poison 4?

The agitation Of the liquor question
is not to be confined to the praying
bands of Ohio or elsewhere Discus
sion has taken a wider range and
science has been invoked to settle one
of the most important points at Issue.
Archbishop Purcell having made the
simple declaration that glass or two
OF beer would restore the wasted en-
ergies Of a holman without endanger-
ing his salvation, the advocates Of
total abstinence have loudly insisted
in reply that alcCEol, no matter in
what combination, was in all cases in
furious to the physical as well rs the
moral being This brought up for
science the question whether alcohol
is poison which ruins the cOnstItu-
ton. or q wholesome gift of nature
which in moderate use serves for its
/ invigoration and support. In the an
swer to this was involved the further
question whether total abstenance,
maintained by prohibitory liquor and
/ local option laws, or by moral suasion,
shall be the absolute rule on the one
hand or model ate use, or enjo yment,
/ the rule on the other.
In following up this question the
/ World publishes interviews with a
number of eminent physicians whose
answers must be confessed to be as
contradictory as the replies Of the
. nelphic Oracle while of little value as
answers to the scientific inquiry
( But a writer in the Tribune having
asserted that las soon rs man in his
";r,!oranuc drinks beer, wine or any
kind OF liquor containing the poison
alcohol. it is elected just as it went
I into the system, without change"
is answered in that newspaper by DR..
Edward Curtis, one the most distin-
guished medical authorities in the
/ country DR. Curtis explains that
with alcoholic liquors, as with other
I enioyments, alldepen Is on the amount.
/ He asserts that within certain limits
alcohol is transformed like ordinary
/ food in the system without producing
/ any injurious effects, and yielding
useful force for the purposes Of the
economy must be considered food in
any philosophical sense of the word.
( This food-action," he declares, lis
''attended with no exciting or intoXi-
/ eating influence, but the whole ef-
feet, like that of ordinary food is
seen in the maintenance or restora-
"tiOn, according 10 circumstances, Of
! that balance OF funtiOn called health" "
. From this long and inte esting paper
we make the following extracts:
Alcohol has thus two-fold action
First it is capable in proper dose, Of being
consumed and utilized as force producer;
( in which case there is no visible disturb
ance of normal function. Such action
, cannot be distinguished either by the
drinker or the physiOloGist from that Of Il
! quickly digeStible fluid food, and Is no
. more an excitement" or "depression,'
/ than is the action of 4 bowl Of hot soup OF
:. glass of milk. The second action IS the
DO sonous influence of an excess of alcohol
Circulating in the blood, which makes it
self sensible to the drinker 10y peculiar SEN
satioua and disturbances, and is not only
followed by ''drpresSlOn,' but IS itself q
form Of Gepressiou-that Is, a disturbance
Of balance an unnatural perturbation of
the normal working of the functions.
Every reader Of these lines will at once
ask, what then is the limit as TO quantity
within which alcohol eXerts only a food ac-
tiOu, and beyond which it begins to poison
by its excess? This question cannot be
answered categorically, for it SO happens
that the poison line rs it has been aptly
called, Is a shifting one. Even in health
it varies according to age, sex, individual
popularity and habit, and even IN the same
person according 10 his physical condition
for the time being. When fatIgucd by
bodily or mental work, when suffering =
from emotional agitation, rs anxiety or
fear when worn by loss of sleep, Of blood,
or by pain. amounts of alcohol which c."
dinariIy would flush the face and some
..
the same persons without producing the
slightest symptom of intoNication the
whole effect of the drink being expended
in relieving the pre-eXisting malaiSe, and
restoring the system to its normal COndi-
ton. Aud in more formal morbid states.
/ as in many diseases, the poison line often
shifts TO an astonishing degree. SO that
what would in health produce even dan
GeruuS drunkenness viii Oe borne without
causing the least intoxcatiOn the whole
of the alcohol being apparently utilized
by the system for obtaining the life saving
energy which this fluid, from its swift ab-
sorptiOn and ready chemical change III the
blood, can so quickly yield.
The simple meaning Of all which is
that alcohol in moderate endowment
invigOrates and refreshes the system,
as an easily digested food, and that in
its immoderaCe use it operates as a
poison. 1t hardly needed the deduc-
tions Of science to prove that the Rev
DR. Purcell's glass or two Of beer
would refresh the energies of the tired
worlingman. When taken in immoi-
crate quantities the evil is produced,
and universal experience has taught
that ever since wine was pressed from
the grapes, without the aid Of chemis-
try. But it is highly important that
the scientific IS we'll as the moral and
social phases Of this question should
be settled and understood.-Ha Harris
, blt7g Patriot