The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-02-09

tuiiS NeafS NShNNAiiAii. ei4C use VI aiSC-
holic beverages. The Doctors word:
are valuable as coming from a non par
tisan standpoint, and embodying the
latest results of scientific investiga
ton into the effect of intoxicating
liquors.
''Are you a tetotaller, Doctor p
asked the reporter.
II am and always have been 9
temperance man." the Doctor repli
ed, but belong to no Temperance
society," have great respect for the
tetotallers. Some men are so con-
stituted that they must be total alb
stainers.-There are four classes =
The first are tetotallers, among whom
are persons who must drink immod-
erately if they drink at all. These
inherit from their ancestors some
where in the past taste for alcohol.
ic liquors. Depend upon it, some
one of their ancestors was an inn
moderate drinker. Such unfortun
ate subjects Of hereditary taint must
mind you, sir, | say must-ab-
stain absolutely.-Secondly there
is class of temperate users who
take glass of wine or so at dinner
and who, as rule, limit their bev-
erages, as the Business Mems Mod
Grafton Society limit theirs.-These
persons are temperate. The third
class is made up largely of young
men of good purpose and social
feelings, who are aiming high and
who drink unguardedly and fire.
quently until they create an appe-
tite. They too often fall into the
fourth class-namely, the drunk
ards, and if they do not stop in
time they inevitably become drunk
ards. 1t is a question of time only,
and from the time of their fall to
confirmed drunkenness down to the
Potters field is a rapid and fearful
descent.
"A limited quantity of spirits at
the principal meal, especially for
persons advanced in life of weak di-
gestion, may aid in the combustion
of the food Spirits aid digestion
in feeble aged persons, but only
the feeble or the aged require such
a stimulous. The young and vigor-
Gus do not need it, and are better off
without it. Middle aged persons
may, perhaps, drink a little spirits
with their meals without <danger !;
but they cannot safely make it a
beverage. In small quantities al
coholic drinks stimulate, and if not
enough is taken to coagulate the
pepsin and albumen in the food they
promote digestion in proper cases,
and thus help to repair tie system.
But whenever more alcoholic liquor
is taken into the stomach with the
food than Is demanded it passes in
to the circulation, disturbs the ac-
ton of the heart. fushes the face
and confuses the brain.-When so
much fermented or distilled spirits
is taken into the system that the
functions Of the organism are dis
turbed positive harm is. done-the
system has been so far poisoned. An
irritation has been set up instead of
the desired healthful stimulation of
the stomach"
Have any practitioners regarded
alcohol as a kind of food ?r the re-
porter asked.
Their opinions" DR.. Parker re-
piled, ''have been theoretical and, it
seems to me, not borne out by facts.
They have viewed alcohol as a kind
of respiratory food, whose use is to
develop more animal heat and thus
eliminate more carbonic acid. This
conclusion is not sustained by obser-
vation and experiment. Food is
that which repairs some waste in
the system. We can repair that on
ly which exists. The human sys-
tenn contains water, fat, starch and
sugar, nitrogenous substances, iron,
sulphur, phosphorus, animal qui-
nine, sodium, potassium and chic
rine but 70 alcohol is found. 1t
has no like in the system hence
there is nothing that it can repair,
and it cannot, therefore, be ranked
as food of any kind. 1t possesses
an inherent deleterious property,
which, when introduced into the
system, is capable of destroying the
life, and it has its place with arsen-
lc, belladonna, prussic acid and OPT
um. Like these it is to be employ
ed as a medicine, and has its true
position in works on materia med
lea. 1t is both a poison and med |
icine.
II has been settled by science that |
alcohol, which passes into the blood |
when more is taken than can be en-
ployed as condiment or tonic, un-
dergoes no change in the blood, but
exists there as foreign substance,
creating irritation and the excite
ment involved in the effort to throw
off the irritating substance wastes
the energy and life of the system
After alcohol has produced diseases
Of the stomach it never expends its
force upon the neighboring organs,
inducing disease of the liver and
1ropsy or Bright's disease, both of
which are fatal to health if not to
Iife."
"But assume, Doctor, that the spir-
is man drinks is pure ?"
II answer that alcohol, however
pure, is in itself a poison, and that
t impairs the whole living organism
md cuts life shortcuts life short,
'ir. The life insurance companies
it. Their figures show
hat while temperate young man
It twenty may reasonably look for
ward to forty-four years and two
months of life, the young man of
he same age who poisons his sys-
EN- with drink can expect no more
han fifteen years and six months.
lie who uses alcohol becomes an
,asy prey of epidemics /; his system
'annot resist the poison of diphthe-
la, cholera and fevers."
''You classify the immoderate use
# alcohol amoug the crimes against
he State ?"
"Yes the disease of the parent