The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-03-08
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
ALCOHOL IN THE BODY.
"A Rsison from Which Springs Much Phys
ical Ailment.

No one would drink beer, or wine, or
whisky, if all the alcohol were re-
moved. It is to the alcohol that the
exhilarating and Intoxicating proper
ties are entirely due, and were it re-
moved, the beer or ale would be Bit
ter slop, and whisky and wine nothing
but dirty water, which no one would
think of drinking.
Not only is there no nutriment in al
cohol, and only an infinitesimal part in
the remainder of any kind of liquor,
but it is harmful to the body instead
of healthful. Sir William Gull, in
report on the alcoholic liquor traffic
made to a select committee OF the
British house of lords, in 1877,
says that all alcohol, and all things
OF an alcoholic nature, injure the nerve
tissues pro tempore, if not altogether,
and are certainly deleterious to the
health. | think there is a great deal of
injury being done by the use of alco-
hol in what is supposed by the con-
sumer to be most moderate quantity,
to people who are not in the least in
temperate, to people supposed to be
fairly well. 1t leads to degeneration
of tissues, it spoils the health, and it
spoils the intellect Short of drunken
ness Chat is, in those effects of it
which stop short of drunkenness), l
should say, from my experience, that
alcohol is the most destructive agent
we are aware of in this country"
Sir Henry Thompson declares: 81
have no hesitation in attributing
very large proportion of some of the
most painful and dangerous maladies
which come under my notice, to the
ordinary and daily use of fermented
drinks, taken in quantity which is con-
occasionally deemed moderate. "
DR.. E. A. Parkes, of London, says:
S'1n most persons, alcohol acts at once
as an anaesthetic and lessons also the
rapidity of impressions, the power of
thought, and the perfection of the
senses. In other cases it seems to
cause increased rapidity of thought,
and excites imagination, but even here
the power of control over a train of
thought is lesSened. In no case does
1t seem to increase accuracy of sight:
nor is there any good evidence that it
quicllens hearing, taste, smell, or
touch; indeed, Edward Smiths expert
mentS show that it dimishes all the
senses"
DIR. HOWE states that it has been
proved eXperimentally that a message
from the brain to the hand, which or
diharilY took 0. 1904 of a second for its
transmission, required 0.2970 of a sec
ond, after the subject had taken two
glasses of hook
DIR. j. j. Ridge, too, has published
most elaborate tables, showing that
even small doses of alcohol averaging
one tablespoonful of spirits, not quite
half a wineglassful of port or sherry, a
wineglaSsful of claret or champagne.
and not quite quarter of pint of ale)
impaired vision, feeling and sensibility
to weight, without the subjects being
conscious of any alteration. Dr. Soon
gal of New York, repeated and con-
frmed these experiments, and also
demonstrated that hearing was SINH
larly effected.
Doctors Nicol and Mossop, of Edin-
burgh, conducted series of expert
ments on each other, examining the
eye by means of the ophthalmoscope,
while the system was under the int1u-
ence of various drugs. They found
that the nerves controlling the delicate
blood-vessels of the retina were para
lyzed by a dose of about Il tablespoon
full of brandy.
Here we have the testimony of the
highest medical and scientific authori-
ties of the present day, all going to
show that alcohol deranges and in
jures the nervous system and the deli
cate organs of the body. Besides the
effects quoted above, every well-in-
formed person knows that steady
drinking produces an incura BILE disease
-cirrhosis of the liver, otherwise
know mas ''hobnail liver" from the
appearance of that organ), "whisky
liver" or gin liver" And there is
abundant testimony to show that it
produces severe arrangement of the
kidneys, which often results in incur
able disease of those important organs
In brief, alcohol is a poison in the
body, and its harmful effects are in di-
rect ratio to the amount taken, and
the frequency with which it is intro
duced into the system. These facts
should be taught to every man, wom-
an and child in the country, until they
are accepted as undisputed and undis-
putable facts. When this lesson is
well learned, there will be no difficulty
whatever in obtaining an overwheln-
ing public sentiment in favor of the eff
fort to pulverize the rum power-To-
ledo Blade.