Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-14
Finest cutlery at A. stert's gun store
SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE.
The Habitual Use of Alcohol Even in Moderate
Degree is Injurious

The Habitual Use of Alcohol Even in Moderate
Degree is Injurious.
DR.. William Pepper in the Chautauquan for De-
cember.
The effects of the alcohol habit vary
| enormously with the amount consumed
and with the form in which it is taken
! but they are always bad. Alcohol should
not be regarded either as poison or a
food. It is strictly drug. It belongs to
| that class of substances which, like
opium, Indian hemp and tobacco, pro-
| duce effects which habit renders agreea-
BILE, but which are followed by constant
increase IN the craving for larger doses
of the drug. This increasing dependence
upon alcohol is one of the worst effects of
its habitual use, and with most persons it
is inseparable from its use even in small
amounts 1t is true that nearlyall candigest
without apparent damage a small guam
tity OF alcohol, in sufficiently dilute form,
if taken only occasionally.
1t is certain that the highest possible
health may be enjoyed without the use of
alcohol. This being so, its use, even oc-
casionally and under the restrictions
above stated, is attended with risk both
physical and moral. But when alcohol
is taken in large amounts, or in stronger
forms, or is used habituallY even in mod
Grafton, it does positive harm; and this
harm increases rapidly as the habit
strengthens. In its lightest degree there
is some irritation of the stomach and i'm
pairment of digestion, with slight disor-
der of circulation and secretion and in
tellectiOn. Often enough these cause a
false feeling of weakness which leads to
larger excess and of course to great harm.
Perfect health can scarcely ever be en-
jOyed continuously by one who uses
alcohol, even in strict moderation, I
make an exception in favor of some
elderly persons with slow and feeble
digestions and with weak circulation for
in them small quantities of dilute alcohol
taken daily with their principal meal i'm
prove their health. When once we pass
the lesser degrees of the use of alcohol.
the effects of its habitUal employment are
striking and disastrous. The mucous
membrane of the stomach becomes the
seat of chronic catarrh. The function of
the liver is disordered and the most i'm
portaut process of nutrition are dis
turbed. The nervous system suffers, and
mind and character alike deteriorate. It
is not only the injury which comes direct
ly from alcohol, which we note in such
cases; there are associated with it neglect
of proper diet ana of proper hours of rest,
and avoidance of exposure, which con-
tribute to the sum of damage wrought
upon the system.
The alcohol habit if at all excessive
causes organic disease directly and ruins
body and mind. It's habituaI use, even
iii very moderate amounts, renders
health unstable and increases the liabil-
ity to disease when it occurs. The true
use OF alcohol is in the treatment of
disease. There, when prescribed judic-
iously, if does great good and is at times
indispensable. But even there it should
never be prescribed unnecessarily, nor
without a clear recognition of the fact
that the tendency to the alcohol habit is
great and that this habit when formed
is destructive