The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-10-17
MEDICAL OPINIONS,
Tho DeleteriOus Effects of Alcohol Upon
the Human Body

inc DeleteriOus Effects of Alcohol Upon
the Human Body.
Or. Grosvenor, in the Buffalo Medi-
cal journal, sums up his views respect
ing the medicinal use of alcohol as fol-
lows:
Il. Grave responsibility rests upon
the medical profession in the use of
alcohol as medicine, on account of its
deleterious influence upon the system
and the liability of the patient to con-
tract the habit of using it as beverage
y. Alcohol being an acrid narcotic
poison the bottle containing it should
be labeled Poison as a reminder of
this characteristic, and a warning to
handle it with care.
%. Alcohol, containing none of the
compounds which enter into the con-
struction of the tissues, can not prop
erly be termed tissue-forming food.
"a. The evidence in favor of the ex-
lstence OF heat-generating quality in
alcohol, is not sufficient to warrant the
belief that it is a heat-producing food.
SO. AS narcotic and anesthetic, al
cohol has a limited sphere of adapta-
ton, and is much less valuable than sew
eral other narcotics and anesthetics.
70. The stimulating effect of alcohol
may be best secured by small doses fire.
quently repeated.
~. From the fact that its stimulating
LfSsest results from its paralytic action,
alcohol is more properly called de-
pressant than stimulant
SO. As an antispasmodic and an
tiseptic, it may be superseded by other
remedies, without detriment to the pa
tent.
80. Although alcohol is a positive
antipyretic, and therefore useful in the
| reduction of bodily temperature, it is
neither SO prompt nor so effective as
several other antipyretics.
80. In cases requiring remedy
which will rapidly evaporate, alcohol is
useful as an external application.
"11. So easy is the requirement of the
| alcoholic habit, and so ruinous its con.
| sequences to body, mind and spirit that
extreme caution should be exercised in
its use in all cases, and it's administra.
ton stopped as soon as the desired eff
| feet has been reached.
''12. Alcohol, as medicine, should
be reserved for emergencies, unusual
conditions and circumstances in which
a more reliable and less injurious rem
edy can not be obtained.
'13. Authorizations of alcoholics are
so extensive and so pernicious, and
their different preparations SO variable
in the amount Of alcohol they contain,
that it is best to demand pure alcohol
of definite strength in medical pre-
scriptions.
GA In the prescription of alcohol,
the same care as to exactness of dosage
and times OF administration should be
exercised, as it is used in prescribing
any other powerful medicine.
"15. When intended to act therapeu-
tically, alcoholics should not be pre-
scribed as beverage and taken ad
H5ituns
''16. The fact that methyl alcohol
passes very rapidly into and out of the
system, is an argument in favor of its
more general use for internal admins
tration.
''17. So deleterious are the effects OF
alcohol upon the human body, that it is
eminently proper to inquire whether its
harmfulness does nos overbalance its
helpfulness, and whether it could not be
dropped from our list of therapeutic
agents without any serious injury to
our M tiantcv