News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-09-11
ALCOHOL DISCUSSED.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATloN-
AL TEMPERANCE CONGRESS-.

Scientific Authorities In Session mt
Vienna Decide That Alcohol Can
Be Dispensed with Both For Medi-
cine and In Private Life.
Two features distinguish the proceed
ings of the eighth international temper
ance congress which this year met in
Vienna. The first was the predomi-
nance of technical and expert informa-
ton and opinions placed at the service
of the congress, and the second was
the general agreement that the use of
alcohol could be dispensed with both in
medicine and in ordinary life.
The congress is by far the most i'm
portant International antialcoholc con-
vention held in the eastern hemisphere.
1t is composed of representatives of all
the leading countries of Europe, includ-
ing this year some high government of
speakers were university professors of
medicine and law, doctors (more espe-
cially those connected with insane asy-
lums) and directors of homes for inebri-
ateS.
Various great medical authorities one
after another gave the results of their
experiments and experience, declaring
that alcohol was neither food nor a
source of strength nor even the best of
stimulants from a medical standpoint.
A distinguished Vienna professor,
Herr Gruber, told of some highly in
teresting experiments which went to
show that alcohol, far from diminish
ing the dangers from infectious dis
eases, rather reduced considerably the
power of resistance to them. In no
case did its use exercise a beneficial
influence or help to mitigate the severi-
ty of the disease. Herr Gruber main
tanned, however, that experiments with
animals showed that alcohol was an
excellent means for preventing col
lapse after an operation, but a German
delegate intervening insisted that such
experiments were not conclusive evil
dence as regards human beings, and he
contended that lemon juice was a far
better preventive than alcohol.
Another distinguished Vienna doctor,
Professor Max Kassowitz, who is re-
garded as the leading authority on chill
dren's diseases, warned parents against
the extremely injurious effects Of even
the smallest quantity of alcohol upon
children, leading frequently to the Sc
verest functional arrangements and
sowing the seeds of epilepsy, liver af-
fections and dropsy. He also stated
that experiments with students at the
University of Heidelberg proved that
the smallest quantities of alcohol, even
less than a half pint of beer, affected
the mental capacity in certain simple
and measurable operations, such as
adding figures, committing numbers to
memory, recalling simple associations
and noting impressions upon the
senses. If the quantity of beer was in
creased to three or four pints, the
mental capacity was greatly affected,
the injurious effects continuing for
"a hours or more. One of the strangest
results obtained from these expert
ments was that the persons subjected
to the tests had no consciousness of
their reduced capacity, but on the con-
trary felt that they were working east
ly and well. The speaker thought that
this was one of the most fatal cOnse-
quences Of drink, inasmuch as it con-
stituted a hindrance to intellectual de-
velopment and profundity of culture,
even in cases where there would be
no thought Of excess.
The question of the effect of alcohol
in promoting general paralysis brought
out a very interesting discussion be-
| tween the medical experts. The gen.
eral impression left was that certain
diseases which are usually regarded
as cause of that terrible atfiiction are
not always responsible for its worst
ravages, which are more frequently
due to a combination of the two evils.