The Red Cloud chief., 1884-02-08
THE SUPPOSED UTILITY OF ALCO.
HOL.

There has been a great advance in
public sentiment in regard to the sup
posed utility of alcohol.
Sixty years ago the use of alcoholic
liquors was supposed to be a necessity.
in order to health. One of the first
questions raised. when the reform be-
gan, was whether it would be possible
for men to maintain good health if they
desisted from their use entirely. 1t was
supposed to be necessary often to re-
sort to them. They held complete sway
in all fields of labor. and no man wa
supposed to be of much value in the
field or shop. as a labOrer. without
them: and it was held to be impossible
to withstand severe heat or cold with
out their aid. They filled a large place
in materia medica, and were freely re-
sorted to for every kind of illness, as q
sovereign remedy.
Sixty to eighty years ago public senti-
ment had advanced a little. and but
little, beyond these superstitions of the
olden times, in regard to the virtues of
alcohol. Thirty years ago an old man
approaching his ninetieth birthday
said: "a kind Providence and good
New England rum have spared my life
so long" ''Black strap" made of rum
and mOlasses, or a rum sweat were in
dispensable remedies for acold. Rum,
seasoned with cherries, protected
against cold" Rum, made nutritious
with milk. prepared for the maternal
office; and under the Greek name of
Paregoric rum. doubly poisoned with
opium. quoted the infants cries"
Females, or valetudinarians. courted
an appetite with medicated rum. dis
guised under the chaste name of Hex
hams Tincture' or 'Stoughton's
Elixir" In some sections of the coun-
try it was customary to take whisky
favored with mint soon after waking in
the morning: and so essential was it re-
garded to health hat scarcely any
person of any age or sex was exempt
from it.
Can alcoholic drinks be safely dis
pensed with was a question seriously
and conscientiously pondered when this
reform was in its incipieht stages.
Even DIR. Benjamin Rush was some
time in settling this point; others were
longer still in reaching . conclusion.
To dispense with them altogether, it
was felt, would make men weak and
puny. the sure victims of exhaustion
and disease. These ideas were current.
These mischievOus decisions, relics of
darker ages, have now been dispelled
from multitudes of intelligent minds.
How great the change! How seldom we
meet such notions now. only among
backward-loOking people, who are I'M
~pardonably lettering behind the march
Of mind, held back by the subtle delu-
sion Of appetite.
As early as 1850 the use of alcoholic
beverages had been condemned by the
best medical authorities in Great Brit
ain and the United States, as not only
needless. but positively injurious. Pri-
or to that time alcohol had been dem
onstrated to be q poison in q healthy
body. Two thousand of the best med
ical and surgical gentlemen in Great
Britain declared. over their signatures,
that 1.-THE most perfect health is COM
patible with total abstinence from all
intoxicating beverages" and that ''to-
tai and universal abstinence from such
beverages would greatly contribute to
Cn0 ucoieh, fOSPciity ouu haPPiuucsS
Of the human race" One hundred
and twenty-five of the first physi-
| clans in New York City united in de-
claring that "alcohol should be classed
with other powerful drugs, and when
prescribed incidentally, It should be
with conscientious caution and a grave
sense of responsibility" Soon after
the publication of these views an article
appeared in the Westminster ReUiew ad-
~vocating alcohol as food. Some French
investigators, however, of a high rank,
quickly exploded this pernicious theory,
and the Westminster ReUiew magnani-
mously ~retracted it. Ex-Governor An
drew. before a Legislative Committee
of Massachusetts, with a great array of
learning, reasserted the theory that
alcohol is food. or leasatt an assimilator