The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1890-09-25
ANTiSEPTlC ALCOHOL.
A Remedy That 10 Infinitely Yutv- .x!lnl
e the Evil.


the Evil.
The following item has boc, going
the rounds of tho papers:
MIR. Thomas nelsop, Of Birming-
ham, Eng, possesses such kcenness Of
| vision that he is called tho living
microscope He will not drink water
because he can see the animal life in
It, but drinks whisky, etc"
Probably it he keeps on drinking
plenty of whisky and no water he
will be able to see ..animal life,'
such as snakes, on dry ground. But
substantially the same claim is made in
seemingly scientific announcements of
various malt WHISTLES" and other intox-
icants People are urged to put little
in every cup of water they drink, and to
use it even for their little children, to
destroy the animal life" or the dis
ease germs" We could give numerous
instances of this, were it not for help.
ing the liquors with free advertising.
The question, especially as entering
the home and the nursery. seemed to us
so important that we submitted it to
that accomplished scientist, DR.. Felix
|
following reply:
| /. Will an admixture of alcoholic
liquors destroy infusorial life as found
in impure water land, for that, in any
water exposed to a moderately warm
atmosphere for couple of hours)?
| 1t will. To deny it would be deny
ing the fact that alcohol is poison.
Any strong poison can be used as dis
intectant and antiseptic for the destruc-
ton of organic life-germs or the pre-
vention of their development Arsenic
is thus used by taxidermists, alcohol by
collectors Of geological curiosities A
toad picked in brandy can be preserved
for years: maggots and microbes that
would otherwise promptly inaugurate a
process of putrefaction know better tn an
to touch viands served in a sauce of vir-
ulent narcotics.
2. But, can articles of food and drink
be improved by such admixtures? lis
it not right, even a duty" to use lit
tie antiseptic alcohol, not only for our
selves, but for our wives and children?
| We might as we'll undertake to keep
of gnats by drenching our night-shirts
with vitriol. We might as we'll recon-
mend plan of expurgating flies by fill
ing our parlors with clouds of arsenic
fumes. The vender of alcoholic disin-
fectants proposes to obviate possible,
and mostly trifling trouble, by inviting
us to run serious and almost inevita-
BILE risk. lie recommends a remedy in
tlnltely worse than the evil. The organ.
ism OF normal human being will pro-
tect itself against an intinitude of
microscopic disease-germs; our lungs,
our digestive organs, eliminate myriads
ot-almost omnipresent-m microbes in
the course of summer day. Nature
has provided abundant safeguards
against natural perils. Alcohol, on the
other hand, even in small doses, infiicts
a positive and unavoidable injury, and,
moreover, the alcohol habit, like every
poison-vice, is progress're; a few drops,
administered once week for medic
inal purposes" will soon beget crav-
ing for daily drams-with beneficial re-
suits limited to the pocket of the nos
trum vender.
In other words, the advertisers OF
malt whiskies," ''bitters," ETC., pro.
pose to exercise comparatively harm.
less microscopic imps with the aid of a
Beelzebub almost sure to summon seven
times seven able-bodied accom- plices.
There is a better way of dealing with
infusorial microbes.
The question as to the prophylactic
value of alcoholic febrifuges rs Bit
tors etc., etc. turns upon an exactly
! ana1Op,us dilemma Tho cura is uorcn
than the evil, and (since alcohol, In the
long run, tends to weaken the disease
resisting power of the system, and can
not be mixed with all articles of food
and drink nor with the atmospheric air)
is, after all, apt to prove no ore at all
Dram-drinkers succumb to numberiess
disorders that spare total abstainers.-
| Hetter Dav