The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-07-27
A DANGEROUS ERROR.
The Mistake Made by Doctors Regarding
Alcohol In Stimulants.

The Mistake Made by Doctors Regarding
Alcohol in Stimulants.
The taking of alcohol into the human
system in any form-whether in the
guise of brandy, whisky. wine, ale or
beer, is followed by greater or less
degree of exhilaration, due to the
amount of alcohol contained in the
liquor and the amount of the latter
that is imbibed. When this amount is
excessive, intoxication is the result.
When it is small, there is apparent
only degree of stimulation. 1t is one
Of the ideas prevalent among the peo-
pie that alcoholic drinks are of value in
a medicinal way, on account of the
stimulating effect they have upon the
system. Because they make an i'll per-
son feel better for the time being, it is
assumed that they are beneficial.
This is bit of faulty reasoning. The
exhilaration produced by alcohol is but
q base counterfeit of a more healthful
condition of the system. The patient
''feels better'-not because he is really
any better, but simply because it is a
property of this accursed liquid, when
taken in small amounts, to produce this
effect There are many other sub
stances that produce an exhilarating
effect when taken into the system.
Opium is one of these; Indian hemp and
the cocoa leaf have the same property.
But they all, alcohol included, are pois-
ons- The stimulation is unnatural, and
in every case it is followed by a reac-
tion-and this reaction is depression
of the vital powers just as far below
the normal line as the excitement pro-
duced by the alcoholic or other poison
which produced it carried the system
above that normal.
The action of alcohol upon the hui
man system follows exactly the same
law as the action of the wind upon the
surface of the sea. The trough behind
the wave in a storm is just as far below
the level of the water, were it calm, as
the crest of that wave is above the
level The depression of the bodily
powers following the drunken fit is ex-
actly as great as was the excitement of
the drunkenness. Any first-class ply
stefan knows this; yet there are thou
sands of doctors who prescribe alco-
holic stimulants, especially when their
skill is at fault, or when little dieting
on the part of the patient would be the
real remedy to use Especially do they
resort to whisky and brandy and wine,
in cases of slow, wasting and incurable
diseases. The patient feels better for
the time being, and though he may feel
Ill h. & ~. IL
hol have left his brain, the doctors
know that in his ignorance the patient
will attribute this wretchedness to the
disease and not to the medicine, and
also that he will ascribe the fictitious
strength he feels while under it's sway
to the doctors skill.
There are few medicines which pro-
duce stimulation which is not followed
by period of wretchedness and de-
preston such as alcohol surely
brings, and the attention of some of
the best minds in the medical profes-
sion has been turned to the discovery
of others. 1t has been lately an
nounced, on eminent authority, that
nitro-glycerine has been found to
act perfectly in this regard. 1t is a
true stimulant, not a poisonous one; it
acts as promptly as does alcohol, and
has none of its baleful after-effects.
We may soon hope, then, that no ply
stefan will have any excuse to prescribe
alcohol to his patients.
A physician who prescrites alcohol,
in any form, in any quantity, even the
smallest, commits a crime against hui
mainly. 1t is not medicine, and has
no regeneratlve power. 1t is a stimu-
liant, but only because it is poison. Its
effect is deceptive and evanescent, and
is followed by a corresponding depres-
sion of the vital powers. 1t is not a
tonic, because there is nothing in it
that is food. 1t builds up neither mus
Gle nor tissue, nor brain, nor nerve. 1t
is poison, pure and simple. AS soon
as it is taken into the body, it goes at
once into the circulation-into the
blood Every organ of the body is set
to work by outraged nature to expel
tht vile stuff. The lungs eXhale it, and
every breath is tainted with it's noxious
odor The liver, the kidneys, the skin,
all are taxed to rid the system of alco-
hol Every one who works as hard as
possible to throw it off in the shortest
time, and what wonder the system is
exhausted when that work is done, and
that depression weighs upon mind
and body?
The stupid and hurtful belief among
the masses that rum is a medicine
should be combatted by every con-
scientious physician. Many a man
now sleeps in drunkard's grave who
first awakened the rum devil in his
vitals by taking liquor as a medicine
Many woman has lost all, and has be-
come a degraded, besotted victim to
run through taking it as a tonic.
Teach the people to know it as the
poison it really is. 1t is as dangerous
to handle as to fondle n serpent
Every physician in the land should
abandon the practice of prescribing or
recommending any form of rum as q
medicine for any bodily ailment. No
permanent good can possibly come from
it's use and harnS is absolutely certain.
1t can not benefit and it will surely in,
iure. Let the doctors of our land do
their duty 70 the people who commit
the welfare Of the body into their
hands, and by preccpt and example aid