Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1881-09-09
ALCOHOLIC MEDICATION.

That the medical fraternity are the great
est stumbling block in the way of temper
ance reform, have no more doubt than |
have that whisky will intoxicatc or opium
stupify. And yet, while ii is painfully ev.
ident that lnrge majority of the doctors
are theoretically aud practically OH the
wrong side of the temperance question
whether they will acknowledge 1t or noD,
it is gratifying to know that there is here
and there medical gentleman who has
the ability and disposition to treat the mat
ter in common.sense way, and place al
cohol in the category of things to be per-
petually kept out OF the human system.
True, many OF those who discard alcohol
administer ether poisons equally as bad.
| am speaking now of the relations of the
medical fraternity to the temperance ques-
tion. | have not one word to say in defense
of druggery of any kind. The whole drug
system ia an unmitigated curse TO society,
and the wonder is that any sensible, rea-
soning being can believe in ii. But il is
Alcoholic Medication which am now dis
cussing, and, for tho present, sllnll leave
general drug medication to be ventilated
by others who are better qualified for the
task. The number of physicians who have
banished alcohol from their practice is not
so large as we could wish, bmt il is stead
lily increasing, and, better still, the people
are beginning to investigate the question
for themselves, and to do more of their
own thinking with reference TO the laws
governing their physical being. here.
with present few facts tending to show
how widely the leaven of truth has perme-
ated the medical fraternity, so far as this
subject is conccrned:
DR.. Andrew Comb, Sir John Clark, and
two thousand other English physicians,
publicly renounced Alcoholic Medication.
Dr. Edward johnson, of England, says
l assert that spirits are in every instance,
as articles of diet, perncious, and, rs med
icines, wholly unnecessary"
DIR. Morgan, President of the Bath Eng
land) Medical and Surgical Association,
says: am utterly ignorant OF any dis
ease, acute or chronic, that cannot be
cured (?) without intoxicating drinks"
DIR. Higginbothan,, in paper read be.
fore the British Medicn! Society, says
During my long practice, l have never
known disease cured by alcohol. On the
contrary, it is the most terrible producer
Of diseases, and may be considered the
bane OF medicine and the seed OF disease"
DIR. John Fathergill, OF Darlington, Eng
land, says: "The total Gejection of ardent
spirits as medicine would prevent the ruin
Of many constitutions. and the loss of in
Vulnerable lives which are now sacrificed
to their use."
Prof. Miller, of Edinburg, Scotland, says
"Alcohol cures nothing; it covers up Z
great deal"
DR.. Guthrie, of the same city, says: 81
you want to keep n dead man put hin
in whisky; If You want to kill living
man, put the whisky into him"
Prof. Won Molschott declared that I" AL
cohol does not effect any direct restitution
nor deserve the name of an alimentarN
principle"
Dr. Edward Smith, F. R. s., says: "Al
cohol is not true food, as it neither warm
nor austains the body by the elements o
which it is composed"
Dr.Markham, of the British Medical Jot,
nal, says "None of it (alcohol), so ia
as we know, is nssimilated or serves for tn
purposes of nutrition. 1t ia therefore no
food in the eve OF science"
DR.. Vierordt, in his Physiology O
Respiration," maintains that: "The expi
ration of carbonic acid, after the use o
fermented liquors, is considerably dimin
ished, and does not return To its norma
quantity for the spnce of two hours"
DIR. Beaumont, OF Bradford, England
said, in lS45: III. indeed, the effect Of al
cohol is to carbonize the blood-and G
this there can be no reasona BILE doubt-lhe
its influence must he analogous TO fever il
self"
Prof. Lehman says: 1--WE should forbi
the lire OF spiriluous drinks"
Dr. Beanmon, in his work on digestion
states that: "The whole class of alcohol
) liquors, whether fermented or distille,
!; may be considered ms narcotics"
Dir. e. Smith, in the British Medical JOu
nal, -nid, in 1861: ~ venture to asset
+, that alcohol has no power TO increase ner,
GUS iorce, but that on the contrary, its d
rect action il TO lesson nervous force, an
!, thai, in fact, it Is n poison OF the neryot
centers."
: But to come nearer home, the Lutte Dr.1
T. Trail, of New York, one OF the able
u and most profound medical pliilosophe
! of this or amy other country, and a lealt
= reformer OF whom the world might we
e and labor in the investigation of this gu
,, ject ihan any other man living. He treu
y /, ed patients alphabetically, believe, dnrir
8 the first ten years oil his practice, and 7
y nolinced the fallacy forever: and for MAJ
u years he bravely bnttled against the mo
u s,er evil. In 1862, he attended the Worlo
u Temperance Convention in London, al
u delivered before that body, an addre
- wherein he discussed the question OF Ale
W lolic Medication in masterly mann,
~ and showed up the fallacies and evils
T. the system 10 plninly that no candid min
&c OF average Intelligence, could fail 10 E
" them. DIR. Trail declared TINT no substa
tial progress could ever he made in I
le Temperance reform while alcohol was
ol generally used H a medicine.
le DIR. Gilman, of New Hampshire, pu
oi lished an article in the Boston Medicnl a
~ Surgical journal, in which he assumed a
w proved that alcohol in no way support
.e vitality; that its apparent "support "
v, nothing more nor less than fever prodnc
~ by the poison, which, instead Of snstaini
VI the patient, only prostrated him the NOR
u DIR. Muzzy, of Boston, in prize essi
Nv declared that the sick room was the !
X resort OF the demon, intemperance
~ ~; also said: at is the duty OF medical m
's ~ to Danish alcohol entirely from their pr
nc tice."
ne DR.. Thomas Sewall, Professor OF Ana
my and Physiology in Columbia Collie
Washington, says: $50 long as men
permitted to use alcohol as medicine,
long we shall have invnlids and drunha
% among us. Only let our profession taxi
ds decided stand upon this point, and inte
NO perance will soon vanish from our land