Nebraska advertiser., 1881-03-17
Gout and Beer.

are synonymous terms" make no scru-
pie of habitually drinking beer and pOr-
ter freely. And yet the alcohol in the
strongest spirituOus drinks is practically
the same alcohol as that which is met
with in malt liquors
In plain words, all Intoxicating liquors
are, as their name implies, poisonous to
both body and brain. Ale, beer, porter
and stout are no exception to this rule.
The average amount of the poison
alcohOl-in pint Of each of this class
of Intoxicating liquors is, according to
the government analysis of liquors, at
Bethnal Green Museum, as follows: In
London porter, iOz; in mild ale, 1foz,;
in London stout, 13oz.; in strong ale.
2oz.; and in pale ale, 23Oz.
As, according to the same Unimpeach-
able authority, one pint of brandy con-
tains 104oz. of alcohol, it is apparent
that half 3 pint of pale ale is as strong
in spirit, and, therefore. as intoxicating
as one glass of brandy.
1t is desirable that this fact should
never be forgotten, for we constantly
/ see delicate women drinking, at lunch
and dinner every day, nearly as much
alcohol, in the shape of pint of pale
ale at each Of these meals, as is contain
ed in half-a-pint of brandy.
Few persons realize the tremendous
amount of Over-work imposed upon the
heart by what would generally be re-
| garded a moderate allowance of
beer. The quantity of alcohol in one
| pint of pale ale has been found, by care
| ful experiment, to cause the heart to
| beat at the rate of 10, 600 additional pull
satiOns in the "a hours. This important
vital organ would, therefore, have
| thrown upon it one-tenth more work
than it ought to have.
The lowest estimate of the daily work
of the heart being equal to 122 tons
lifted one-foOt, if we drink one pint of
/ pale ale, we swallow as much alcohol as
| is sufficient to Over-taSk the heart with
added labor equivalent to lifting ten
/ tons one foot.
Alcohol Vitiates the blood, besides i'm
pairing its building-up properties, by
shortening the life of the red glObuIes
| By virtue of the alcohol beers and stOuts
contain, these liquors sap the founda-
ton of national VigOr, and induce an
unhealthy diseased condition of the
blood, and through the blood, of various
internal organs and regions of the body.
| GOut and rheumatism are thus preva-
lent amongst us. The combination of
| the saccharine and other trivial ingre-
| dients Of malt liquors with the alcohol
| in all such drinks is the main factor in
stamping on Englishmen the wide
spread and distressing rheumatic and
| gouty taint.
There is form of rheumatism which
may well be called alcoholic. 1t is CON-
| mon in brewers draymen and in per-
sons of both sexes, in all ranks of life,
who regularly drink what is convention
ally looked upon as a very moderate
allowance. have repeatedly been en-
abled to effect complete cure ofrheum-
atism by insisting on the immediate and
5Otal discOntinuance of the daily three
half glasses of the temperate beer drink
er. In all eases of rheumatism, from
whatever cause, total abstinence is, in
my opinion, the most important element
in the curative process.
GOut.-Of all the physical ills which
alcohol has inflicted on humanity, there
is none which more openly bears the
mark of its parentage than gout. / had
occasion to testify in the Lancet some
time ago, that in l $40 cases of gOut
that had come under my care only one
was in the person of life abstainer,
who had inherited the disease, along
with the rest Of the family property,
from long line of port wine and beer
loving ancestors.
Intoxicating malt drinks are, I'M
dOubtedly. the fertile parents of this
most painful and harrassing ailment. I
know of no disease which is more easily
prevented, and which could be more eff
fectually eradicate1 than gout.
l have found total abstinence COM
pletely cures large number of very
bad cases; and, even to those sufferers
who, from inherited taint, could never
hope by any degree of abStemiOusness to
be entirely freed from their ancestral
burden, the unconditional disuse Off
tOxicants has shorn their ''thOrn in the
flesh of half its terrors, and greatly nit
igated their tOrtures.
1t is a significant fact. noted bv Dr.
Farr, the eminent statiSiician, in his an
nual letter to the registrar general, in
1877, that gOut was then twice as fatal
as it had been fifteen years before.
Malt liquors are also one of the main
sOusces of the Indigestion so common in
our midst. The continued irritation Of
the delicate lining membrane Of the
by the alcohol in even the mild
est beers, persisted in for heightened
period, is exh hemely apt to give rise to a
train of dyspeptic symptoms, which
tends to make many an otherwise hap
py life miserable. A lifetime Of total
abstinence would, I am persuaded, have
~arded off twO-thirds of the dyspepsia I
have been called upon to confront.
The liver suffers severely in many
cases in which beer has never been taken
10 anything like what is cOnventionally
called excess. / have frequently OBJ
served considerable enlargement of the
liver n persons noted for their very
mod ate but constant drinking, who
seemed the picture of health while alive,
DUt whose sudden and unexpected death
a post D1OrteDl enquiry.
In nursing, stouts and beers are
'pecially perniciOus. Their use has
wrought untold mischief to many moth
rs, and undermined the tender con
of vast multitude of helpless
md innocent infants
There is little to be said in favor Of
malt liquors in any circum-
tances. The only benefit derived from
heir employment incidentally is from
he diastase they contain, and this dias-
ase can be procured at much less cost,
md in a more useful and concentrated
Orm, in maltine and malt extracts.
L have safH tzybafar-ar- of ha
Iamage resulting from beer drinking to
xcess, or of the appalling mental and
moral evil inseparable from the general
Ocial use of beer. Ny warnings are
n purely scientific and dietetic grounds.
.ainst steady, limited indulgence in
uch liquors as weakening to the sys-