The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-06-30
TAPROOT OF INTEMPERANCE.
latiOn Do Not Seem TO Les
sen the EVIL.

Notwithstanding the earnest effor,
which have been made by temperance
organizations of all sorts within the
last quarter of century, and especially
by that grandest of all reformatory or
CARNATIONS, the Woman's Christian
Temperance union, statistics show that
there is no very perceptible diminution
in the prevalence of intemperance. With
the exception OF states in which pro.
hibitory laws are in force, there has,
in fact, been an increase in the num-
Der of arrests for drunkenness and for
other crimes dependent upon intemper-
ance. The use of alcoholic drinks, a,
well as the use of tobacco, has per-
ceptibly increased within the last quar-.
ter of a century. The amount of alec,
holic liquor of various sorts used per
capita is greater at the present time
than at any previous time in the history
of the country.
The significance of these facts is not
that the Woman's Christian Temper
ance union and other similar organiza-
tons are not doing splendid work in be-
half of temperance. The efforts which
have been made and which are being
made are we'll directed, and will ac-
complish much to stay the march of
this terrible Juggernaut which for so
many centuries has been grinding be-
meath its slowly moving wheels multi
tudes of victims who have discovered
their danger too late to escape, and
who, covered with shame, have gone
down by hundreds of thousands into
untimely graves. We have no criticism
whatever to offer upon the efforts which
have been made thus far by associations
of men or women who are engaged in
contending against this prodigious evil,
but it occurs to US that there is 4
deeply-rooted cause of intemperance
which has heretofore received compar-
atively little attention. We refer to
the use of alcohol as a medicine. The
majority of physicians believe alcohol
to be good stimulant, and hence recon-
mend it in nearly all cases in which it
is supposed that the patient needs an
increase of strength or vigor, better ap.
petite, better digestion, an increase OF
practice, the majority of intelligent
physicians discover that the increase OF
strength which follows the use of alco.
hol and other stimulants is only appar-
cnt in character, and that the use OF
these drugs inevitably gives rise in
the end to weakening of the very
functions it is supposed to rebuild.
Alcohol, although called stimulant
from time almost immemorial, is in
no sense a stimulant. 1t is a narcotic.
hence should not be used where an in
crease of energy is required; if used at
all, the indication would be in cases re-
quiriDg diminution rather than an
increase of energy. Alcohol lessons the
vigor of the heart, and hence must be
discarded in syncope, fainting, collapse,
shock and other cases supposed to re-
quire a stimulant. Alcohol is, in fact,
one of the very worst drugs that can
be employed in such cases, as it has a
narcotic effect upon the body. This
fact is far less generally known than
it ought to be. Physicians are
using alcohol as a stimulant in
cases where its influence as a mar
cotic is capable of doing the great
est possible harm. These facts
ought to be brought before the public,
and emphasized in such a way that men
and women everywhere may be put
upon their guard in relation to the use
of alcohol as medicine.-GoodH Health.