The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-08-20
DIR. ANDREW CLARK ON ALCOHOL

DR.. Andrew Clark lately delivered an
evening address on alcohol, in the Great
Pc. tland Street School-rooms, London,
to crowded and deeply interested audi
ence. lie said he purposed offering a
few informal remarks upon the influence
of alcoholic drinks upon health, upon
work. upon disease. and upon the sue
ceeding generation. This question Of
alcohol was of the first Importance to us
as nation and as individuals, and hence
Il great responsibility rested upon those
who professed to speak upon it with au-
thority. He ventured to say that he knew
something about this question. For
twenty-five years he had been physician
to one of the largest hospitals in this
country (the London llospitaD. and there
as elsewhere. it had been part of his
business in life to ascertain the influence
which alcoholic drinks exercised upon
health, and he had with deep interest
and attention striven to get at the truth
Of the matter. In the first place let him
distinctly say that alcohol was poison,
as were also strychnine. arsenic, and
opium; but in certain small doses strych-
nine, arsenic, and opium were useful i'll
special circumstances, and in very minute
doses alcohol could also be used without
any obvious preiudicia effect upon health.
lie was not going to discuss what these
were very minute. A perfect state of
health (and it was rarely to be found)
could not be benefited by alcohol in any
degree. and in nine times out of ten it
was injured by it. He said this not as a
total abstainer. though he earnestly
hoped that all the rising generation wonld
he. Instead of the ideal state OF health
wllirh mi ,ht be enib,cd save for the ma
tuIe of our surroundings. the sins Ut our
parents, and our own SINS. there was a
sort of secondary health possessed by
most of us. and what did alcohol do for
thi~a
Tie had two t;IswcIS IT, i've that this
>nlt 1T h;dttt, bore apparently with alcr
hot better than the other. and sometimes
seemed as if benefited br it: aud this was
t.Nnc1l& IT,. sort of health that formed
the treat ,teJating ,round OF different
people with respect to the use of alcohol.
Secondly. there were some nervous pco-
Pile always ailing, yet never i'll, for whom
he had profound sympathy, who seemed
t. derive great comfort from alcohol and
to these he had sometimes said. Take
Il little beer or wine. but take great care
never t" e" beyond the minute dose"
He did not defend this, but simply stated
it to show what he thought. AS to the
influence of alcohol upon work, DR..
Clark went on to encourage his hearers
to try the experiment or total abstinence
and observe the result in regard to work.
Let them, however, try it fairly, and not
allow themselves to be deferred from it
by the evil representations of friends.
He was certain that if this experiment
were tried each individual present would
come to the conclusion that alcohol was
not helper of work. but, on the contra
ry, a hinderer.
Now as to the effect of alcohol upon
disease. He went through the wards of
his hospital to-day and asked himself
how many cases there were due to natur-
al and unavoidable causes and how many
to drink, and he came, after careful
thought. to the conclusion that seven out
of ten owed their ill-health to alcohol.
He did not say that these were excessive
drinkers or drunk ards-in fact. it was not
the drunkards who suffered most from
alcohol. but the moderate drinkers who
exceeded the physiological quantity. The
lrunkard very often was an abstainer for
months together after period of intem
perance, but the moderate drinker went
steadily to work undermining his consti-
tuition, and preparing himself for perma-
tnre decay and death. He had no means
of finding out how many victims alcohol
claimed each year, but certainly more
than three-fourths of the disorders of
fashionable life arose from the drug of
which he was speaking. Finally, DR..
Clark dwelt upon the heredity of the al
cnholic faint. and closed by saying that
sometimes when he thought of all this
conmlumeration of evils he was disposed
to rush to the opposite extreme-to give
up his profession. to give up everything,
and to enter upon a holy crusade, preach
ing to all men everywhere to beware IF
This enemy of the race.