The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1884-05-02
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT.,
EDITED BY THE
Women's Christian Temperance Union
NEW AsD wmsLEsomE DocTaIxE.

| Not newer however than the ole
saying Of ga old poet who 10 ridicul.
OF many prescriptions Of physic, ,ssks
"And what al last shall gain by theseY
Only costlisr disease.
That which makes us have no need
OF physic, that's pbysic indeed -
Alcohol and It's compound will not
fall under this elass of physic, and Il is
pleasant thing TO note that The Boston
Journal Of Chepsistry and Popular
Science Eeacs in its April Issue comes
out editorially in the statement that
sPirituous liquors are not needed in
medicine or the arts. Not that alcohol
may not be sometimes convenient, or
oven useful, but is not indispensable or
necesaary in the two great departments
when IL has hitherto bsensregarded as
the one accessible vehicle for the pro.
cesses Of chemistry or the solution Of
drugs. The article in question also
decides that no necessity Of household
or domestic applications Of alcohol ex-
ists that tho alcoholic solutions Of
camphor, peppermint, paregoric and the
tinctures once found on tho top pantry
shelf or in the family medicine chest,
are remedial agents OF very doubtful
efficacy; that camphor as a drug is net
nesjed in any household savs a. an
insectitude that hot or cald water
serve the purpose Of an embrocation
far better than alcohol-that even the
bay rum Of the toilet table Is a useless
sPPsndage.
As TO the need Of alcohol 10 the drug
store, this high authority maintains
that il is no longer needed to hold the
active principles of opium, Peruvian
bark or other drugs and vegetable pro-
ducts ; the most effective Of these, like
quassiS, gentian, SIENNA, rhabarb, etc +,
yielding their bene6cience to water as
easily ~ to alcohol. ADd aimee the
active alkaloidal and resinoidal princi-
Piles Of roots, bArks, aud gums have
been isolated, and put Ia better and
more convenisnt forms, there is no
longer need Of alcoholic tinctures and
elixirs.
Ia the laboratory, the question "How
70 dispense with alcohol" may be not
50 easily disposed Of, yet even here,
says the writer in the Popular ScieHce
Eescs, If the article we're baaished en-
tirely, such exile would not deprive us
Of single one OF the indispensable
agents which modern civilization de-
mands neither would chemical science
DO retarded by its loss.
Modern science has given US glJcer-
Inc, naptha and sulphate OF carbon
carbolic acid and 4 hundred othel
agents which can take the place o.
alcohol in very large number of appli
anees and processes. In the manufac
ture of ether and chloroform wher,
alcohol is most indispensable, il may b
produced simultaneously with thes'
agents.
For the naturalist, cheaper and equal
| ly good material FOR preserving hi
specimens have come into use.
Neither city nor household depen'
longer on alcohol for purposes Of ilIum
iuation. The petroleum well and th
coal bed have driven it from the mark
ct.
The dictum of medical Science is fas
being pronounced against the wines al
liquors of commerce as medicine
agents, and in all cases of disease whe
an alcoholic stiRulant would seem Der
, efcial, other agents are now offered
) the practitioner which serve an equal
useful purpose, and have none Of Il
evils of the alcohol train. The result
of scientific researches are on eur sid
{ The experiment of medical praetic
. entirely without alcohol has been su
: cesssully carried on in the London ter
r perance hospital for seven years, and
9 now no longer experiment bat scienti
Q theory. OF the need of such an ms
: tuition in our o~a country aud its in
@ mediate inception we shall have me
to say next week.