The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-02-12
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANcE.

Six Powerful Indictments Against the Use
of Beer by soldiers-It Impsirs His
Mental and Physical strength-Predis-
poses to Disease.
Our first indictment against beer is that
it lowers the soldiers moral nature and
thus weakens his efficiency to meet the de.
mands of his high calling.
Modern warfare demands intelligent
alertness, GOODNESS, self-restraint, strength
and precision of muscle and protracted en-
durance in action. Among the experiments
performed in Professor kraepelin's labor
atory was one which shows how alcohol
affects that precision of muscle which is
an essential requisite in the man behind
the guns. The subject held down, with
finger of each hand, two Morse keys, one
of which he was to release on given sig
nal, the right hand upon one signal, the
left upon another. After taking alcohol
the subject would often release the keys a
little sooner than he would in his normal
state, but he released oftener the wrong
key. Muscular movement was precipi-
tated without proper control. The cool
head and steady eye and nerve necessary
to the unerring marksman are sacrificed
by the use of alcohol.
Our second indictment against beer for
his physical strength. For modern mill.
tary authority to ignore this testimony of
science that alcohol weakens physical
strength is utter folly.
A famous military authority said: "The
army moves upon its stomach" That
being true, it is very important to learn
how the alcohol in beer will affect the pro-
cess of digestion and its organs. In the
very elaborate experiments on the effect
of alcohol and digestion reported by Chit
tenden and Mendel, in the American Jour-
nal of Physiology, they found that the di-
gestive process took from one-half to three
quarters of an hour longer when alcohol
was gwen with meals than it did when it
was not.
Recent experiments made by G. Rosen-
field. of Germany, to ascertain the effect
of alcohol on the liver, showed that aleo-
bol caused an accumulation of fat in the
liver which may appear as fatty degenera-
tion or fatty infltration and that it also
diminished the amount of giycogen in the
liver. Since glycogen is the substance
which is burned or oxidized in the mus
cles to afford muscular energy it is easy
to see why alcohol weakens the muscles.
Third indictment-Beer will hinder the
soldiers digestion of his hardtack.
Other vital organs affected by the strain
of military life are the heart, kidneys,
lungs, etc.
Fourth indictment against beer in the
canteen-Science and experience show that
the soldiers body to do its best work has
the power to injure any one of them, al
though not necessarily every organ at the
same lime.
Military statistics show that the proper
ton of men killed or fatally wounded in
battle during the war is only small frac-
tion of the large number of soldiers who
die of diseases, largely epidemic diseases.
Experimenters have found that alcohol
greatly increases susceptibility to disease
and diminishes the ability to resist dis.
ease germs. This is true not only of large
amounts of alcohol. but of what is called
its moderate use. The most recent expert
menter on this point, Laitinen, says:
"Alcohol. under all circumstances, in.
creases the susceptibility of the animal
body for infection, whether it be given be-
fore or after the incubation and whether
in few large doses or in numerous small
ones extending over long time"
Fifth indictment against beer for the
soldier-Alcohol predisposes to the dis
eases that are more to be dreaded by the
soldier than bullets or bayonets.
All this, perhaps you say, may be true OF
taking too much, but the limited amount
of beer the soldier is allowed to drink in
a post exchange or canteen ought not to be
forbidden him because some one else has
drunk too much.
Under the most careful regulations there
is no guarantee that the men who patron
ize the canteen will confne themselves to
small amounts, and even if they should
scientific research today shows small
amounts to be harmful.
Sixth indictment-The little alcohol in
beer has the power to create an uncontrol.
able and destructive appetite for more
New York Voice