The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-07-17
EXPERIENCE AND SCIENCE.
They Both Teach That Alcohol Is Not a
Generator, But Is an Exhauster of
Physical Force.

They Both Teach That Alcohol Is Not a |
Generator, But Is an Exhauster of
Physical Force.
The advocates of the use of alcoholic |
beverages claim that alcohol is a force
generator in the human system; that it
adds something to physical power; that
the laborer can work longer and harder
when under a moderate influence of an |
alcoholic drink than when under the |
influence of any other beverage; that
alcohol confers an immense power to
undergo physical hardship of every
description; that to the soldier, sailor,
the traveller, the daily worker in mines,
in shops, on the farm, to the athlete,
the mountain climber, the common
laborer in any department of life--al-
cohol taken in moderate quantities is
indispensable for the best, the severest
and the most enduring work.
Many Of the advocates of the alco-
holic regime are doubtless honest in
their convictions and believe that their
ideas are founded on the teachings of
science; others are controlled in their
belief by sclfishneSs; others still, | fear,
entertain their belief as mere preten-
sion, their environment being stronger
than their honesty of purpose.
The scientific investigations of the
past few years have been rapidly I'M
dermining the alcoholic ideas of former
times. The collated facts of history
have also been confirming the results
of science.
The more thoroughly the chemist
studies the nature of alcohol, and the
more carefully the Psychologist looks
into the utilities of the human system
the stronger will be the general belief
in the usclessness of alcohol as a gen
orator of force.
Physical endurance depends upon
the strength of the various tissues.
Whatever will contribute to the
growth and development of the diff
ferent parts of the system will give
force and endurance to the system as a
whole. If alcohol contains the ingre-
dients of muscular tissues. and these
| ingredients can be converted into mus
Gle by chemical action in the body, then
alcohol will be useful in adding physi-
cal force to human beings, and man
will bless himself by using it as his GUS
tomary beverage.
The same statement may be truth
fully made in reference to the nervous
| tissue, the, osseous tissue as any other
tissue. The chemist and Psychologist
have shown that alcohol contains no
| ingredients that are assimilated to the
bodily tissues, and hence we are forced
| to the conclusion that it can add moth
ing to the physical force of man. The
| belief that alcohol has the utility of
food is rapidly passing away under
the clear light of scientific investiga-
| ton.
/ The doctrine has been stoutly held
and broadly promulgated that if alco-
hol can not add force to the system as
food it can do SO by its power as
stimulant.
1t is granted that for a brief period
alcohol in very moderate quantities
may call out latent forces and enable
a man for the moment to put forth I'M
usual strength. Force can thus be
called out and made available for one
grand cXertion. But calling out force
which already exists is not the same
thing as giving neaC force. 1t is the
office of stimulant not to produce
power but to call it into use. Alcohol
as q stimulant is not a remover of
force but an eXhauster of force. In this
way it does not strengthen but weak
ems AS the spur acts upon the horse
in forcing him to expend strength
already acquired, so acts alcohol on the
human being when used in small guam
titles.
This is the declaration of science in
relation TO the supposed force-propagat-
ing quality OF alcohol. 1t is declara-
ton so sound and so profound that no
sophistry of alcoholic advocates can
render it void.
1t is not pretended that there are no
difficulties in this subject, but it is thor
oughly believed on good scientific au-
thority that the advocates mentioned
have woefully failed to prove the doc
trines they have maintained, and that
the best of the argument is on the side
of those who believe that alcohol as a
force-generator has no utility IN the hui
man system.
Let us now turn to experience and
observe the recital of history upon the
relation of alcohol to physical endur-
ance.
Benjamin Franklin, when a printer
in England. drank only water, and
worked harder and carried heavier
loads than his beer-drinking comrades.
His testimony is: They wondered
that the water American, as they
called me, was stronger than them
selves who drank beer"
The Western Temperance Herald, an
English Journal, relates that at one
|, time the Great Western Railroad Com
pany of England, laid two hundred
and thirty miles of track with two
thousand workmcn without a single
accident, not single drop of alco-
holic liquors being used, and the work
day being from four o'clock in the
morning till eight o'clock at night for
four weeks.
/ The athlete, whether in rowing or
racing or wrestling, or any other form
of athletic exercise, has learned that
the surest path to success is in totally