The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-03-13
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
PHYSICIANS AND TEMPERANCE.
Influence of the Medical Profession In
Temperance Reform.

Temperance Reform.
Upon no one does responsibility for
the continuance of the widely prevalent,
injurious social drinking usages rest
more heavily than upon the members of
the medical profession. Medicine, in
the true sense, is preventive as well as
remedial. Among the agencies pro-
ductive of disease, physical and moral,
Intoxicating liquors are pre-eminent.
The attitude which physicians as class
assume toward the use of Intoxicating
beverages, personally and professional
ly, therefore involves very largely, for
good or i'll, the interests of the temper
ance reform.
There have been from the beginning,
since the time of DIR. Benjamin Rush,
and are now, few eminent American
physicians who have done much to en-
courage, by both example and precept,
the cause of temperance. But they
have been and continue to be a small
minority of the profession as whole.
A very large majority of physicians up
on social and festive occasions, at their
banquets, etc, do not hesitate to pro-
vide freely and to partake of intoXi-
cants. The international medical con-
gress, held last year in Berlin, appears
to have been striking and most I'M
seemly object-lesson of this kind. A
Berlin correspondent of the Philadel-
phia Medical and Surgical Reporter
writes: THE disgraceful scenes at the
banquet given by the city of Berlin to
the medical congress We're recently the
topic of discussion in council. A coun-
Gilman called it the medical scheutzen-
fest and emphasized the waste of
money. He was not altogether wrong.
The money spent by the city for the
Rathhaus banquet was really enormous,
and the result was the total intoxica-
ton of most of the shining lights of the
profession"
This correspondent, whom we assume
to be n physician, and from the high
professional standing of the journal in
which the letter is published, also to
be trustworthy, gives additional details
of the great medical drinking-bout in
the German capital as follows: 81 re-
gret to say that the bigger the man
the more he was incbriated. On pro-
fessor whose name is u household word
respiration was practiced for almost
an hour, and another professor who has
revolutionized one of the most impor-
tant of medical branches had n bad cut
in his head, the result of a fall. A
French physician who has made his
name renowned by fighting intenper-
ance through exposure of the injury
inflicted upon the organism by alcohol,
was unable to spell his own name. By
q Il queer coincidence also saw two men
hugging each other who are known as
Irreconcilable antagonists in science,
one a leader of German bacteriolo-
gists, and the other wcll-known Paris
professor who does not believe in ba-
rilli"
Such disgraceful alcoholic excuses
on the part of eminent medical men, if
not thus well-attested, would seem
well-nigh incredible. We may hope
that they would not, at least, in gross
ness and want of common decency, be
equaled at any kindred gathering in
this country. Yet we remember that
The liquor supply for the late Interna-
tional medical congress, held in Wash
iDgton, as reported in the journals, was
very large.
Great Britain leads the world at the
present time in intelligent, organized
medical temperance propagandism.
The British medical temperance asso-
citation, with DR.. Benjamin Ward Rich
ardson, of London, as its distinguished
president, and upwards of five hundred
abstaining physicians in different parts
of the united kingdom as members
fills very large place of usefulness
Its organ, the Medical Temperance
journal, published quarterly, is most
valuable periodical, which physicians
everywhere might read to great ad
vantage The need in this country Of
the counterpart among American ply
sicians of the British medical temper
ance association is most urgent.
The education which medical stu
dents receive in our colleges, either
concerning the nse of alcohol as cura
tive agent in the treatment of disease
or with reference to its beverage use II
the sphere of preventive medicine, Il
very incomplete and superficial. There
ought to be some provision for the sup
VI VI jump E'J
sicians especially in this direction. Tit
London temperance hospital is demon
strating conclusively the practicabilit1
of the successful non-alcoholic treat
mcrt of all the diseases common t.
general hospital practice. But few
physicians on this side of the Atlanti
know, however, of its important an
eminently successful mission. Will
physicians continue indiscriminate ant
needless alcoholic prescriptions TO
their patients, and themselves indulg
moderately or immoderately in the us
of alcoholic beverages, their intluenc
must needs be greatly harmful amon'
the masses by whom they are looked t.
as teachers and guides, especially il
matters involving physical health
There is moral side to the physician
profession, which, with many OF 1t
members, needs greatly to be cultivate
and emphasized, and especially as re
lated TO the popular beverage use OF in
ADMINISTRATIONS Temperance Ao
vocate.