The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-07-02
CANTON. STARK COUNTY, OHIO, THURSDAY, JULY 1874
Alcohol no Food, bat a POisoa,

III. WllldIu Eafkert HresloenB OF the
New York State Inebriate Asylum at
Binghamton, found no evidence to estab-
lish that alcohol has place among foods
In recent conversation upon its uses he
said, in substance:
"The question temperance people seem
TO be asking is . What does alcohol make
a man do ~ Well, it makes one man beat
his wife, another quarrel with his neigh
Dor, another klll his children. I don't
say this isn't a proper inquiry, but the
physicians question is: What does alco-
hol do to the individual system? Can q
man use it in the first place as a food ?'
To that l cay, No. Food is that which.
repairs some waste Of the system. Tore
place the brick, mortar, iron and glass of
q building you can use only brick, mortar,
iron and glass. You can repair only what
exists, and like with like. There is no
alcohol III the system as there are starch,
fat, sugar, water, iron, sulphur, &c. alco-
hol, therefore, can repair no waste and re-
place no loss, and is no food. Whatever
alcohol is, it is certain that men are bret
by it into condition where they have
not will power left TO stop its use, while
it is, nevertheless, killing them Scien-
tiic investigation proves that this appe-
tite is the result of diseased organism
A man goes into a certain district and is
poisoned by malaria, and the influence of
the malaria on the system is organic dis
ease of the liver, spleen, and other organs.
The infected air Is the poison. the fever
the disease. So a man drinks alcoholic
beverages, and his stomach and liver and
kidneys and brain become diseased. Pol
son or not, there is a true disease, which
can be cured by taking the patient aWav
from the caRses-oHt of the poison Won
would say in a case of fever. Keen LIQUOR
flom the man and the system will gradu-
ally work off the disease, and with his
restoration to health the patient loses his
appetite and craving for alcohol, and a
glass of spirits has no more attraction for
him than for a newborn child. What is
the agent that has produced such a dis
ease? Is 1t a poison2 Undoubtedly yes.
1t possesses an inherent deleterious prop
erty which, when Introduce into the sys-
ten, destroys life, and has its place with
arsenic, opium, belladonna, and the like
Alcohol has lis use, TO be sure. For a
well man any IS too much. Like all other
peisons alcohol Is valuable as q medicine
and it has use as 4 condlment. In small
| quantities, taken with the food, it stiuu.
| lates. The feeble OF the aged rightly use
i II III lueA5 PAA pOSCa dAO NuSu SO used
| there is a result from the food unattaiua-
bic without it. But it needs very little
for this result For an old man a glass of
port, at dinner, perhaps, is enough. But
when more than IS needed is taken, and a
well man needs none, then alcohol is an
irritant and begins to produce disease.
whose evidence Is seen in quickened pulse.
flushed face, and trembling limbs. It has
no place whatever as a beverage and
| should never be taken On an empty stom-
ach. You ask whether If man is tired
physically or mentally, he is sick enough
to use alcohol as a medicine 1t is hard
to make q general answer But if l had
driven my horse till he was tired ! should
be 10th TO whip him, and one canEOt be
too sure when he drinks alcoholic LIQUORS
to restore his spirits or his strength thai
he is not whipping a tired horse l have
one word 10 say IN regard TO the argu.
ment that alcohol prevents the waste o
the tissues This waste of the tissues il
an oxldation,a "a burning up, in othsr word!
q part of the vital process. Il is a sirni-
lar oxidation that takes place in the fur
naoe of locomotive. The coal wastes q
1t burns. Send a stream of carbonic aciC
upon it and prevent this waste, you di
minish the oxidation, the evolution o
coloric, the production of steam, and thI
speed of the locomotive. Continue ia,
process and the locomotiVe stops. So di
minish the waste, the oxidation in the hu
man machIne-it is an attack upon life
Stop the oxIdation-the man dies It i
hardly thing to be said in praise Of al
cohOl then that it retsrds the waste OF tn
tissues. Strike man with lightning
scare him terribly, give HIM a dose Q
, arsenic, or knock him on the head, anS
you prevent waste" But to have th
balance of repair and waste even, not +
have waste prevented, is the condition o
health. As for dram-drinking, nobod,
defends that, Nothing, not even water
shonld enter the stomach of health,
man between breakfast and dinner. On
of the worst forms of dram-drinking j
practlced by good temperance people, VIII
: 'bitters' nnder some long name as q medi
cine, and the use of these "bitters, "Rhic
you see filling the shelves Of the dru
stores is a great curse of our present soci
|, ETY.. l have lately heard of two clergy
men in the same village who were recent
ly compelled to give up their charge
: having become moor drunken fellows b
: no other means. AS for the conparatly
: longevity of drinkers and non-drinker
! the English life insurance actuaries, ,Whol
i business it was not TO be mistaken IN
: calculation, having found that anon
1000 drinkers and 900 non-drinker
taken at random at tWenty years of ag
the drinkers lived upon an average thirt,
: five years and six months and The mol
drinkers sixty -four years and two month
;, The Horld, Nsw York.
The above, though an excellent articl
a. - l..
i call non seQliitiw. 1t may Re in this.
n it often happens, the result Of early ed
cation. Poison is a general term given
= articles positively harmful to the hum
e organization; aud how their use, und
t any circumstances, can be beneficial a
e miis surely of great doubt. Can We
= evil that good may Gomez viii not t
n evil consequences outweigh the imagin
in GOOD