The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-01-16
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE.

MeulCal ITacElce--tt Merely FURNISHES |
the Sensibility of the Nervous System
and Brain-An Able Address by Miss
willard Before tie Students of NIedi-
cal College.
The ladies Of the South Side (Chi- |
cago) w. c. I. U. recently gave re-
ception to the three hundred students |
of the Hahnemann Medical College.
Miss Eranees. z. Willard, President of |
the N. W. G. t. o., delivered an adj
dress pertinent to the occasion, full of
good points and convincing arguments.
A portion of her remarks are given be-
low:
Some illustrations from personal observa-
ton may help to make more clear the reason
why the w. {. T. Z, is intent upon securing
all possible help from the medical profession,
and why, in fourteen States it has already
successfully lAbOred to provide for scientific
instrucSiOn i'll the common schools relative
to the evil effects OF alcoholic beverages
one stormy afternoon in lSN went with
Mrs i, Il Curse. President of Chicago Central
W. G. y. u, to the HARRISON Street Police Sta
ton. As is generally known, this soc city has
now police matron at every station in the
city, whose duty it is to look after the women
brought there Tor violations OF law, ana to
m.nistcrwitn SstCrly kindness to their needs
both ply steal and spiritual. We found that
matron directed our attention especially TO
the most distant cell where woman lay
curlcd up on bench, with an old shawl over
her head She had been brought in drunk
some hours before. AS we stood there think
ing her to be asleep and amenting, in whis-
percd tones, her sad condition, the woman
arose, came toward us, grasping with a small
white hand the bars OF the cell, and spoke TO
rs IN sweet voice, saying: DO YOU ladies'
really care for one so hOpclpSs?" We assured
her of our sympathy, and in q talk that fol-
lowed learned that she born n LANDING
southern city, had graduated from Il first.
class normal college, and been for years a
teacher one spring, about four years pre-
Nlous TO our meeting worn out with her
duties, she Went to the family physician, who
prescribed an alcoholic beverage asa tonic.
From that day she had gone on. little bv liltlc
until now she WIS u confirmed inebriate
often reforming, out us often falling into SIN.
subsequent lnVestlgNt ON proved that she was
related TO Il refined and wealthy family in
Chicago. They and we have done all in our
power for her She has been ut the Martha
Washington Home and for months has kept
| her pledge, only to fail away from it at last
have mentioned this one case out of ten
thousand that come to the knowledge of
| practical Temperance workers, because Il
single Illustration is often retained in memory
when generalization may be forgotten. aud
because this one is a type of fully onehalf
the cases of 'nebriets among women and per-
haps one-third in men, viz 1t began by an
alcoholic prescription. 1t is quite probable
that the physician whose ignorant prescrip-
tlon was pure and cultured womanS first
siSp lOhUiu CllU never knew the TACT, and
would be unsneskably sstounded. rot 20 saw
afiiicted, If it were brought to his attention /
SAD the prescription was an ignorant one
ana am prepared to prove it on the highest
medical authority.
Sir Henry Thompson, of London, than
whom the world s metropolis has not physi-
can more distinguished, makes the following
declaration: alcoholic drinks are perfecfIV
useless for any of the condit ons of life 70 |
which men are subjected save under the most
exceptional conditions, which none but skilled
observers can declare
DR.. Andrew Clark, of London, physician to |
the Queen and 20 Gladstone, says :s"Alcohol is |
not only not helper of work but q certain |
and every man who comes To thp |
front OF profession in London is marked by |
this one characteristic that the more busy he |
gets the less in shape of alcohol he takes, and |
take it and do my work."
DR.. william B. Carpenter. one of the great !
est names IN medicine, says ut is the duty |
OF the medical practitioner to discourage as |
nuch as possible the h0btual use of alcohol |
&c liquors in however moderate n quantity
by all persons in ordinary health and to |
seek to remedy those slight departures from |
health which result from the wear and tear
of active life by the means which shall most |
directly remove or antagOnize their causes.
fects."
DR.. James r., Nichols, editor of the Boston
journal or ChemiSt1V, says emphatcaly that
the Punishment of alcohol would not de.
prive us of Il single one of the Indispensable
agents which modern civilization demands
Neither would chemical science be retarded
oy It's loss In no instances of dis
ease n any form is it Il medicine which
might not be dispensed with and other agents
substituted"
DR. James Edmunds, founder of the London
temperance Hospital, states that the mortali-
ty there is -four and one half per cent lower
than in any other hospital taking the same
run of cases " Alcohol is almost never used
N the hospital; is not employed in making
rinctures, solution of one part glycerine to
two of water, being substituted at a cost one
NTH less than that of alcohol unctures, is now
used in amputations or typhoid fever aud
WIN results that demonstrate the superiority
Of this method.
In the Manchester Royal Infrmary, En-
gland the medicidal use of alcohol has fallen
)h in eight recent years eighty-seven per
cent, and the death rate from about eleven
70 seven per cent.
Felix L. Oswald. one CT the most learned
WRITER'S living, whose articles in the
Popular Science Monthly have attained Ma
iona! u celebrity, says in that magazine
the middle OF the twentieth century the
internal use of drugs will be discarded by all
intelligent physicians. Medical science is one
thing and medical dogma is quite another.
As DIR. Edmunds wisely says: Forty years
ago the fathers of the very men who now pre-
scribe brandy, wine and ale for almost all dis
eases, prescribed caomel bleeding and starry
ing instead. They did this conscieDtiously,
too, no doubt, but then, as now. the tendency
of their medicines was 10 kill rather than
cure"
Far be it from me, a non.expert in medicine,
to attempt anything more than to cite the
opinions of leaders in the noble profession to
which you aspire, that tie reasons, based on
expert testimony why the w. G. T. u. OPP
poses the use of alcoholics in medicine may
be clearly understood.
We use in our teaching of the young Dr.
Sewells plates, made by that distinguished
physician after he had studied with DR. Beau
mont the stomach of Alexis St. Martin, and
had during period of forty years dissected
three hundred drunkards, some of whom had
been distinguished stHtutesmen in their day.
The awful object lesson presented in these
plates should be carefully considered by ev-
cry medical student in the land.
The cumulative testimony of the best scien-
lists explodes the medical dogmas that alco
Dol Is either food or producer of heat or
That it increases the efficiency OF the hearts
action.
In his admirable lecture. already quoted
Dr. Davis gives u resume of the expert
ments which have revealed these wonder
ful truths, which have in them the force of
dynamite in exploding the old theories Lead
ing scientists in France, Germany England
and America, though working separately, have
reached substantially the same conclusions.
why the truth has been evolved so slowly is
rendered apparent in this statement OF DIR.
N. S. Davis, former President of the American
Medical Association, Il physician and scientist
OF Gfty years experience, as he states in the
preface to his recent standard work on 1.-THE
Principles and Practice of Medicine. He
says: "Hnving thus determined, experiment.
ally. that alcohol is neither food nor gener-
ator VI force In the living body, the question