The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1901-01-26
DAILY GR0G FOR OUR TROOPS

The tremendous consumption OF alconol
in our Civil war, and the huge crop of
drunken veterans, many of whom subse-
quently. recovered under home feeding,
We're directly traceable to the exhaustion
Of overwork and starvation. Every civil
lied nation in the world except ourselves
conbats 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, whic.: has
been of such inestimable benefit in check
ing that frightful drinking habit of the
last century, has been so strong in Amer"
lea as to swing the pendulum Of public
opinion oo~faEGsIn. aabolishing the. VERSE
than useless daily grog, it has also de-
prived the soldier of much-needeu SUD-
port in the. field. There can be no cues
ton that whisky should be restored to
the cor1rnissary stores for use in ccndi-
tons of exhaustion. The surgeon is the
only man in the army who can give gov
eminent liquor to exhausted men, and
there is 10 reason for changing this GUS
tom; but I do think it very illogical to
tell the surgeon, You may stimulate
men in hospital exhausted by the typhoid
bacillus, but you must not stimulate those
out of hospital exhausted by fatigue and
starvation"
The last abnormal condition affecting
the sGlaier is the heat of the tropics, 1t
causes increased tissue change in the
same manner as the hot baths of Arkan-
sss, ts which We send cases whose body
chemistry is too sluggish and needs slim
ulatloh The first effect of the tropics
then is increased mental activity and feel
ing or Well-betng, so that newcomers
are generally delighted with the climate
write home enthusiastic letters, and even
cable that the climate is perfect In ac-
coroance with law. this excessive actty-
ltE results In exhaustion, which shows
Itself IN every conceivable way-muscl1-
lar, nervous and mental exhaustion. Low
ering OF all vital processes, rapid aging
or men past their prime, feeble resistance
TO disease and slow recoveries, The ONLY
logical conclusion is to treat such cases
exactly as we do at home Once upon a
time doctors starved their exhausted pa-
tents: but they KILLED SO many that a
great genius who started the reform was
so proud of his discovery that he asked
that these words be engraved on his
tomb: He fed fevers. :" NOWADAYS we
resort to the same treatment for eyerv
exhaustion, no matter where we find If
In the hospital, asylum, sanitariurn or in
the tropics-feeding.
But food is not enough We must at;no-
ulate them or the nourishnent is too
much for the feeble digestion; and the
alcohol supplies energy just when it is
needed. Hence whisky ration it an
essential for troops in the tropics, and
though L would not issue it indiscrim-
:fnately;2yet it should always be on hand
with the bacon and ha-d-tack, ready for
use ON the recommendation of the reei
mental surgeon. AS a rule the maxi
mum amount Should not exceed four
ounces day, and some men will need
much less and some will not need anv.
4 naval surgeon has recently advo-
Gated a ration Of whisky for men after
they have had exhausting work in the
hot hre-rooms Of warships. His recon-
mendation is considered safe for it Gre
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 un-
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
On such warped minds. Regiment after
regiment arrived at the place with the
men so emaciated and enfeebled by the
army ration in Santiago that they could
not walk 100 yards without a halt for a
rest. Is there a 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
coholtsm 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, bracing 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 go 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 modera tely.
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 fittest the subtropicai
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
exhauststons. These views, which I
formulated over a year ago, after a most
unwilling acceptance of the facts, see
no reason for changing. AS long as we
have to keep men in the tropics we might
as well face the facts at once
The nervous system of children IL UNI
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
chimes 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 immuIli-
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. 1t Is prob-
able that for. normal men under normal
outdoor conditions north. of Mason and
! ixon's line, teas and coffee had better
be withheld until nervous maturity
twenty-five years of age, and alcohol
until after full mental maturity
wears of In s,nifes OF fl1nso ti,nnratine1