Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-01

and hospital. and is an honorary member of the
Royal Medico- Chirurgical society OF Edin-
burgh, and also of the British medical associ-
tion: His views upon the subject under cOnsid-
Grafton will be found below:
FOURTEENTH STREET AND SHERIDAN AVENUE, !
WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. ~, 1890.
The use of any form of alcoholic liquor is liable
to create q desire for larger quantities, and liq
uor drinking is one of those things of which it
may only too often be truly said that ''incre ase
of appetite grows by what it feeds on May it
not be extremely probable, then, that the
greater the percentage of alcohol contained in
any particular kind of liquor. the more rap
idly will a morbid appetite for alcoholic stimu-
lation be cultivated? In my opinion, therefore.
that alcoholic liquor is the least injurious, and
hence the best for men to drink which possesses
the smallest proportion of alcohol, and it is for
this reason that should advise beer or some of
our light native wines in preference to any and
all other alcoholic beverages. Yours sincerely,
VIM. A. HAMMOND.
DE-. N. S. DAVIS CONDEMNS ALL.
Professor N. S. Davis, NJ. D., LID, OF Chi
cage, H., is an eminent authority upon the eff
fects of alcoholic liquors, as he has been engaged
for many years past in special studies and expe-
riments to accurately determine them, and has
written unanimously on the Influence of Al
cohol on the Human System He sends the
following epistle:
SIS RANDOLPH STREET,
CHICAGO, ILL.,. Jan. %. 1850. !
You ask. ''What alcoholic liquor do you con-
slider the least injurious and therefore the best
beverage q who must drink. who
thinks he must?'' First, answer that there is
no such man or person as one who must
drink alcoholic drinks. 1 mnst deny the ne
drinks of any kind If you ask
what kind of alcoholic liquor Is the least in
furious for man or person who will persist in
drinking, answer, that kind which has the
smallest per cent. of alcohol in il. Yours truly,
n. S. DAVIS.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.
The late Dr. Samuel W. Gross of Philadelphia
was second in reputation and honors only to his
distinguished father, the late DR.. Samuel D.
Gross, whose observations are printed above,
and who has again been mentioned in this
article. DR.. Gross, the younger, was ais 20
member of the faculty of Jefferson medical col
lege, and filed the position of lecturer on
He outlived his father but comparatively short
period. When the question-now so familiar to
the reader-concerning alcoholic liquors was
propounded to him he wrote in reply as follows:
''If man must drink he cannot do better
than to stick to good whisky. am aware that
many people, including very high medical
authorities, of the opinion that beer
and wines, because they contain a smaller
percentage of alcohol. are less injurious than
the stronger distilled liquors. That may possibly
be true per Sc, but beer and wine drinkers daily
imbibe their favorite tipples much more largely
than the drinkers OF spirits, thus taking more
alcohol into their stomach. and therefore having
larger quantities of it constantly in their blood
and tissues than the man who cheers or even
inebriates himself with good old rye or bourbon.
The more constant the presence of alcohol in the
system the more rapidly and certainly does 1t
produce its i'll effects upon the heart, blood
vessels, stomach, liver, kidneys and nervous
system. The man who goes on spree and
is drunk for day on two, and then abstains
from drinking for two or three months, is not
nearly so apt TO experience the evil influences Of
alcohol upon his physique as is the man who
drinks two three quarts Of beer wine
daily but is never really intoxicated in
his whole life. Constant indulgence, though
comparatively moderate, is worse than oc
casionaI excuses. Then. again, from the fact
that the imbiber of wine or beer drinks much
larger quantities OF his tipple than does the
spirit drinker of his, the former, BY the excess
sive quantity. imposes much severer tasz upon
his liver. kidneys and bladder than does the lat
ter. We constantly hear the cry, st is not the
temperate use but the abuse of alcoholic liquors
that is injurious" There can be no more mis-
chievous error than this. The worst forms Of
organic disease are produced in scores of thou 1
sands of people in the United states annually by
the very moderate but habitual use of the mild
est forms of alcoholic drink, and that in people
who have never been 'sunder the influence of
liquor in all their lives For all these reasons
and many others which have not the time TO
enumerate, the man who must drink or viii
drink had better stick TO good whisky.
SAMUEL, W. Gross