The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-10-11
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ALCOHOL AS A POISON.
What Scientific Men by Experiment
Have Demonstrated and Have
Not Demonstrates.

called demonstrators in physics and
chemistry who are taking up the ar
gument in their favor A series of eS-
periments has been tried oy Drs Chit
tenden and Mendel, of Yale university,
70 decide ii : effect of alcohol on that
part of digestion which takes place in
the stomach. Eighty experiments
were made with sherry taken with
food When the amount of sherry was
but one per cent. of the food, the di-
gestion of the latter was retarded four
per cent. With claret, when three per
cent. was used equal to three-tenths
of one per cent. of alcohoI there was
marked diminution of activity in ev-
cry case. Yet these are the wines
most frequently prescribed to aid di-
gestion.
DR.. Charles f. Pellew. a demon
strator of physics and chemistry in
Columbia university, has given several
popular lectures in the Museum of Ma
tional History in New York on this
SUBJECT, and, as he thinks, has
brought the whole argument to a TO-
Gus by saying that temperance is not
total abstinence, and that many of the
things taught the children in the pub
lie schools are "absurdities and intem-
perance of the worst sort" Let us
look at some of his absurdities.
Stretching these very experiments of
the Yale professor which he quotes. he
says that in proportions of from two
to ten per cent. (of the entire guam
tity in the stOmach) it is an aid to
digestion, apparently because it did
not entirely stop it, as in the case of
larger proportions. The well-proved
fact that alcohol in every case pre-
cipitates the pepsin in the gastric
juice he did not refer to. Apparently
he was trying to reduce the proper
ton until the true physiological eff
feet could not be perceived.
DR.. A. MonaeLesser, OF the Red
Cross hospital said in reply to that:
''No, a drop of alcohol is not a poi
son, but it is a drop of poison" Is
it not rather an absurdity for a man
of science to be making careful eX-
periments to find out how much of
a deadly poison can be taken without
feeling the immediate effects of it?
DR.. Pellew says emphatically that
alcohol should always be taken with
food No doubt it hurts the stomach
less, because the presence of food
shields the tender tissues of that or
gan from the direct influences of the
alcohol. He says drinking without
food ic n nf itit lTa do
doubt it, but what a queerly bene-
fcent thing it must be that cannot
be taken on an empty stomach! We
had an idea that the blandest and
most helpful foods were intended to
be taken on an empty stomach, and
that this organ in healthy action
would eagerly grasp and quickly dis
pose of them if not interfered with.
DR.. hansen says: sit must be a
sound principle that at all times one
should live in as natural and simple
way as possible" and that does not
mean prodding the stomach with a
violent poison like alcohol He finds
no use for it, and says so.
DR.. Pellew acknowledges that alco-
hol is poison, but he tries to make
out that in small doses it does not act
like one. If grain of strychnine is
as truly poison as an ounce, why is
il not equally true of alcohol? and
do not people as readily believe it?
The fact is many do believe it, and
they have become total abstainers.
We have millions of these in the land
to-day. The dramsellers know it and
are afraid. They see the bicyclers and
the railroad men giving up their
drains, and they are alarmed for the
consequences, and so they are telling
all sorts of curious lies about the real
effects of alcohol. And do they get
many people to believe them?
Probably.
How do they manage? Cannot peo-
pie see and know for themselves?
Not so well about alcohol as they
can about some other poisons. Let us
tell you why. 1t is great secret,
but you may tell it as often as you
like, and you will get some to be-
lieve you. People try to judge of the
effects of alcohol as they do of every
thing else, by their feelings Most
intelligent people know that they feel
with their nerves, but they do not
stop to consider that alcohol is
nerve poison, and that after they have
poisoned the nerves they feel with,
they cannot judge correctly of the
reports brought by these poisoned
nerves. That is the reason why all
narcotic poisons get so powerful a
control over those members of the
human family that come under their
influence. That is the reason why the
dealers indulge in such desperate lies
to get people to take a little-so as
to give the poison a chance to lie to
their nerves and make them believe
that it does them goou, no matter
what it does to other people. DR.. Pei
lew admits the underlying truth of
that when he says it develops "a true
nervous disease"
Oh, dear friends, we are right when
we try to keep this lying poison from
the children of the public schools and
from all other children. The best
work we can do is to teach the chill
dren these scientific truths. 49, Julian
Coleman, in National Advocate.