The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-01-21
A POISONOUS DRUG.
The Town Liquor Agency in the
Light of Newly Acquired Medical
Knowledge.

servations respecting the nature, eff
feet, use and abuse of alcohol, in ac-
cord with teachings current in re.
cent medical literature, may interest
the readers of the Journal.
Nearly twenty-four centuries have
elapsed since the great physician,
Hippocrates, ordered wine for his pa.
tients, and from that time down to
the present day alcoholic beverages
have been employed by physicians of
all creeds and systems of medicine in
their efforts to combat disease. A
strong empirical conviction has existed
in the minds of practitioners of medi-
cine that some dose of alcohol "does
the patient good," and this conviction
is largely due to erroneous theories
held for thousands of years respecting
it's action in health and disease. The
laity have considered it panacea for
innumerable physical ills. In the
eighteenth century the theory was adj
vanced in England that life is kept up
by stimuli and Won Jaksch says that
in Germany, where this theory was
received with enthusiasm, that alco-
hol, believed to be stimulant, was
administered to such an extent as to
kill hundreds of patients. We again
find in Germany, in the eighties and
nineties of the last century, enthusi-
asm for It's use and this enthusiasm
extended in great measure to other
countries, including America. Most
of the diseases for which it was then
SO highly priced and prescribed are
now known as infectious diseases; and
the recently acquired knowledge has
brought out new factor in the dis
cussion of the therapeutic value of
alcohol This factor is its influence
upon infection, and of late series of
experiments have been carefully made
to determi re this influence, with the
result that alcoh olication before in
| lection increases the susceptibility,
that after infection it decreases greatly
the resistance or the animal, and that
| it also destroys natural immunity.
Experimental evidence has been cor
4 roborated by clinical observations.
In the treatment of these diseases al
cohol is being displaced by serum
therapy, and its use as a therapeutic
agent is yearly being more restricted
as indications become better known.
The spirited attacks on its use as a
medicine made by some of the ablest
medical men of Europe and America
are based ON scientific grounds. "The
use OF alcohol in medicine is now on
the defensive" says one writer who
undertakes it's defense by observations
from bedside experience, at the same
time mentioning eminent scientific
authorities as claiming that There is
no earthly reason for it's use in dis
ease. =" Differences of opinion still
exist chiefly as between the labora-
tory Investigator and the practitioner.
However it may be stated that the
general concensus of medical opinion
is that its use is mostly curse in
health, but of some value in disease,
though not necessary as a IL dicine
inasmuch as other remedies could be
substituted that would be equally
potent for the treatment Of disease.
Surely it is not a necessity in health.
In the least excess it does harm, and
one whose will power is not sufficient
| to controI bic opnat;ta cbould NOT ta ta
an alcoholic beverage. The young
should let it alone, and experience
has demonstrated that those engaged
in hard labor or exposed to extremes
of climate are better without it.
Alcohol is directly toxic. One to
two pints of whiskey drank at one
time have repeatedly resulted in death
in short time, while much smaller
quantities have proved fatal to child
rem. 1t is known that a complex series
of disturbances results from prolonged
tipping, that functional and structur-
al abnormalities are produced which
increases the susceptibility to various
pathological processes.
Parenchymatous and fatty degenera-
tions in the viscera take place from
over-indulgence in malt liquors, while
intestinal disorders, sclerosis of
the liver and kidneys, affections of the
central nervous system, neuritis,
palsies. obscure neuroses, mania and
dementia are caused by distilled
liquors. 1t is observed that "a marked
relationship exists between the Incl
dence of alcoholism, the psychoses,
insanity, venery and crime
Alcohol is one of the most potent
poisons for the nervous system, pro-
ducing changes in the nerve tissues
said to resemble those seen in old age.
1t is ranked next to heredity as an in.
dependent cause of insanity, and pro
duces psychic degeneration character
lied by the gradual impairment of
memory and will, sluggishness of pre-
ception and of judgment, loss of the