The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-03
-----------=-=- FOR MODERATE DRINKERS.

A Doctors Lifelong Study or Alco- holic Effects Upon His Patients and the People About Him.
 I have read with much interest Pro- lessor Atwaters report of the experi-
 ments which he has conducted at Mid- dletowr, Conn, under the auspices or the committee of fifty for the investiga- tion of the drink problem It has long
 been well known that the hydro-car-. bons, the oils fats, saccharine sub stances, starch and alcohol are heat producing, and sources of energy i'll
 the human body. The recent experi- ments by Professor Atwater simply de-
 monstrate that the human body can OK | idize--use as fuel, creating energy two and one-half ounces of alcohol in day. It Is urged that the alcohol can
 be more rapidly converted into energy
 than the hydrocarbons mentioned, or dinarily used as food, and may sub serve purpose in an emergency where rapid evolution of force is imperative.
 Unlike any other hydro-carbon used as food or as a beverage, alcohol has
 peculiarly subtle effect upon the ner-
 vous system, forming habit which be- comes maniacal and uncomfortable in character before the habtue is at all aware of 1t. ] am assured from obser-
 vation extending through fifty years Of professional life, that two and one-half ounces of alcohol of the equivalent in | the finest brandies, whiskes, wines or ales used daily for a period of time at all extended, will not fail to make an alcohol habltue of the most finely en- dowed man or woman in the world The nervous system surely registers the abnormal impression. no matter how carefully the two and ore-half ounces of alcohol may be taken Once an habitue and under the control of the alcohol mania, the strongest man or woman becomes impotent to escape from the tyranny of it's power
 In a neighboring town, three years ago, fifteen patients were reported cured of the alcohol habit by the Kee- ley method of treatment; only two of these patients are sane to-day. Thir- ty-six years ago two of the noblest phy-
 slcians, men of fine native and physi cal powers, commenced the use of two
 tablespoonfuls of the purest whiekey, to induce sleep when overworked. They
 were younger than myself. One grad ually lost his standing and practice and died four years ago, filling drunk ards grave; the other possessing great native hardness of constitution fingers yet, hopeless and helpless alcohol habitue, whom neither the Keeley cure, the entire medical pharmacopoeit nor the strongest moral aid has avalled to save. It Is far more difficult to treat traumatic injuries, levers, influenza, pneumonia and prevailing epidemic diseases when the patient is very moderate thinker. than to cure total abstainer of equal vitality. I have been able to relieve permanently a number of persons, some of whom were women, who In the earlier stages of moderate drinking were struggling against the alcohol habit, unwlttingy formed, and there Is no work I regard with greater satisfaction.
 I have always felt it imperative to enjoin upon these patients the necessity of total abstinence for life, as their only security, except In the direst medical extremity. Persons with a refined, sen- sitive or diseased brain using habitually even the smallest amount of alcohol are III great udllSeI. | ile lllUSt dctiNt anu susceptible qualities of mental activity readily take on an unnatural excita- ton.
 Two and one-half ounces of alcohol should never be used by any individual daily, except as very temporary ne- cessary expedent in an emergency or serious illness. It should then be con- spcuousy withdrawn by the attending physician at the earliest moment when the necessity for it's use has passed. Facts everywhere demonstrate that un- told mischief results from the daily use of what is usually regarded as small | amount of the purest alcoholic liquors | l find many persons using no more and | even less than two and one-half ounces | of alcohol per day, or it's equivalent, | who are linconsciously habitues The | eyes and the skin of the cheeks, nose, | ears and neck show heightened coloring. | This is far from being an indication of | health. The use of an ordinary hand | lens reveals n decided enlargement of | the capillaries in these localities. If | this vascular distention has taken | place In the denser and less important | structure of the skin, why must it not |
  gree in the far more numerous and | more delicate capillaries of the cere- bral tissues. The permanently hight- ened color indicates an advanced stage of the alcohol disease The deceived | victims, however. regard themselves as very temperate users of alcoholic stimulants, and no amount of argu- ment can convince them that they are in any danger of becoming habitues. Tn such cases the observant practition- CT cannot fail to discern evidences of | serious organic changes in the cere- bral, hepatic and other tissues. The exhaustion that follows the burning out of the active fire kindled with a small amount of alcoholic stimulant is evidently in excess of the stimulation of the energies, as the nervous system after little time imperatively requires increased stimulation.
 Two and one-half ounces of absolute alcohol are equal in volume to five ta- blespoonfuls This amount of alcohol is found in ten tablespoonfuls of the purest whiskey or brandy. l have re- gently secured the services of two em- inent chemists who have analysed six varieties of the finest wines, native and imported. 1 give the result of these analyses by volume in common meas