The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1901-01-26

Of overWork and starvation. Every civil
lied nation in the world except ourselves
combats this field exhaustion by issuing
spirits at the proper times. They prevent
drunkenness. but we prefer % reform
the drunkards after the damage is done.
Tho temperance agitation, which: has
been of such inestirnable benefit in check
ing that frightful drinking hab bit of the
last century, has been so strong in Amer"
lea as to swing the pendulum of public
opinion too far--saIns abolishing the worse4
than useless daily grog, it has also de-
prived the soldier of much-needed sup
port in the field There can be no Dues
ton that whisky should be restored to
the con1rnissary stores for use in ccndi-
tons Of exhaustion. The surgeon is the
only man in the army who can give gov
ernmeHt liquor to exhausted men, and
there is 10 reason for changing this GUS
tom; but l do think it very illogical to
tell the surgeon, "You may stimulate
men III hospital exhausted by the typhoid
bacillus, but YOU must not stimulate those
out OF hospital exhausted by fatigue and
starvation"
Inc asst abnormal condition affecting
the sGllier is the heat of the tropics. 1t
same manner as the hot baths of Arlsan-
sas, t. which we send cases whose body
chemistry is too sluggish and needs slim
ulat1oh The first effect of the tropics
then is increased mental activity and feel
ing OF well-being, so that newcomers
are generally delighted with the climate,
write home enthusiastic letters, and even
cable that the climate is perfect. In ac-
Ia
1tE results In exhaustion. which shows
Itself IN every conceivable way-nausc,,-
lar, nervous and mental exhaustion. low
ering Of all vital processes. randi AGING
of men past their prime, feeble resistance
to disease and slow recoyeries. The ONLY
logical conclusion is to treat such cases
exactly as we do at home. Once unon a
time doctors starved their exhausted pa
tients: but they KILLED SO many that =
great genius who started the reform was
so proud of his discovery that he asked
mat these words be engraved on his
tomb: He fed fevers" NOWADAYS we
resort to the same treatment for svery
exhaustion. no matter where we find if
In the hospital asylum, sanitarium or in
the tropics-feeding
But 1000 IS not enough. We must stim-
ulate them or the nourishment is too
much for the feeble digestion; and the
alcohcl supplies energy just when it is
needed. Hence whisky ration il an
essential FOR troops in the tropics, and
though I would not issue it indiscrim-
,inately,9yet it should always be on hand
with the bacon and hard-tack, ready for
use on the recommendation of the regi-
mental surgeon. AS a rule the maxi
MI nm n11r1t/ oh
ounces day, and some men will need
much less and some will not need any.
4 naval surgeon has recently advo-
Gated ration of whisky for men after
they have had exhausting work in tho
not hre-rooms of warships. His recon-
mendation is considered safe for it cre-
ates no comment, but this same recon-
mendation as to soldiers exhausted by
the constant and therefore more terrible
heat of the tropics, has created very I'M
reasonable opposition. Is the exhausted
soldier less worthy of being saved from
Illness than the sailor? Let the mothers
answer the fanatics who would prefer the
soldier to come home starved into living
skeletons by our ration in the tropics
rather than help them with alcohol The
horrors Of Montauk make no impressions
regiment arrived at the place with the
men emaciated and enfeebled by the
army ration in Santiago that they could
not walk 100 yards without a halt for
rest. Is there sensible man on earth
who would dare to refuse stimularts to
such enfeeble6 men?
Alcohol in larger amounts than we
have mentioned is a poison except when
given lie special cases of disease. Its
deleterious effects are so we'll known that
1t IS useless to discuss then here. We
need only mention that one of these ef-
fects IS more exhaustion-and this is the
cause of death in many cases of acute al
coho}ism. Hence there is no reason to
doubt that in the tropics this double ex-
haustion makes excessive drinking more
deadly than at home-an apparent con-
tradiction of the statistics which show
that the deaths from alcoholism increase
as We go north, though the per capita
consumption of alcohol is less. In the
cool. bra cling North few people feel the
need of alcohol, and only those who are
weak from congenital defect or other
cause have great desire; and these are
the very ones most prone to excess. AS
we so south more of the normal people
feel the need of stimulation to counteract
the effects of, the heat. until we reach
lands where every one drinks moderately.
This has been going on many ages and
some writer's believe that the weaklings
have been killed off long ago and through
the survival of the fttest the subtropica1
civilized races are immune to alcoholism.
Whether this is true or not, We must
accept the facts that in hot countries all
civilized people drink alcohol, though far
less of them die than in the cooelr re-
gions. ; Moderate drinking is not only less:
deadly in the tropics than we were once
taught, but is necessary to combat the
eXhaustitons These views, which I
formulated over: a year ago, after most
unwilling acceptance of the facts, I see
no reason for changing. AS long as we
have to keep men in the tropics we might
as we'll face the facts at once. Sd
The nervous system of children IL I'M
stable and easily poisoned, so that slim
ulants are always harmful, but at what
age their use can be safely begun depends
upon the race and climate. In southern
climes they feed alcohol to children at
an age fatal to those Of the North and
in the tropics tea and coffee can be used
before It, is safe for US. Racial immu1li-
ties may even reverse rules, for the
opium habit SO fatal to the nervous sys-
tenn of whites is beneficial to that Of the
peoples of Southeastern Asia. It Is prob
able that for. normal men under normal
outdoor conditions north. of Mason and
Dixonss line, teas and coffee had better
be withheld until nervous maturity
twenty-five years Of age, and alcohol
until after full mental ma turftu-fortx,
years of age In spite Of these theoretical
rules, there are no data from which we
can prove that the moderate use Of coffee
as early as fifteen, or of alcohol at