The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-30
DOCTORS DISAGREE.

DOCTORS DISAGREE.
| We never know how little we know
| until learned men get to talking about
| it. There is scarcely a postulate OF
modern science or a direction for the
practical conduct of life that will not
| appearance of success even by men
| whose opinion carries weight. There is
! hardly a position so well fortified that
1t is not attacked by those having au-
| thority.
The British Medical association has
| become involved in a discussion be-
| tween those who hold alcohol the arch
| enemy and those who assert it to be
the friend and helper of the human
race. The form taken by the latter
| thesis is. perhaps, new. 1t is held that
| the physical organism is strengthened
| by resistance to disease, and that the
race, after successive generations of
successful battling with physical ills,
| gradually becomes immune Which Is
| a beautiful theory, but does not seem
to be borne out in general by the ply
steal conditions of savage races There
it has field for free play but few such
tribes are found in high state of
physical development when they first
come in contact with civilization. That
produces, after time, temperate peo-
pies, is a doctrine so fantastic that it
would appear to have been urged for
the purpose of discussion rather than
as contribution to our knowledge.
The position that alcohol in moder-
ate quantities, is a food instead of a
poison, is not new, and is defended
with vfgor by very respectable author
ity in this country. The researches and
experiments of Prof. Atwater have
tended to that conclusion, though 1t is
strenuously disputed on the opposite
side. So, too, there are those who con-
tend that the physical effect of alcohol
in stimulating the brain and nervous
system, continued through long ages
has been an important factor in differ
entiating man from the brute and in
creasing mental power.
These may be very interesting spec
ulations, but the conduct of the race is
not and will not be guided by them to
any considerable extent. We should
still Wrestle with the problem Of slim
ulants as a practical one and not as
something to be governed by theory,
even If the theorists agreed. The fates
of nations and of individuals are de-
termined in fields of wider scope than
the scientist is able to reach with his
knowledge, when he gets it, or the In
structor with his practical conclusion.
The papers have been full, recently,
for instance, of the discussion of race
suicide" because it is novel topic,
furnished during a dull season by
person all of whose words are subject
to scrutiny whether they deserve the at
tention they receive or not. But no.
body is so foolish as to imagine that all
this talk will have the slightest effect
upon the lives of the people or the fell
cundity of the race.
So, too, in the matter of stimulants.
The universally of the practice Of
using stimulants and narcotics, in all
parts of the world and under all hui
man conditions, is marked fact.
Whether 1t answers to a physical and
mental need or is wholly a perverted
taste is open to debate. But the fact is
not, and with that the world has to
deal. About it, at least, we know hap
PLY enough for every purpose. We
know that, pending any final agree
ment or any change of custom, moder-
alton and temperance are the virtues
within which alone safety resides, and
excess means bondage and eventual
destruction. All true reform is gov
erned by this simple fact of experience;
and it is by such facts, rather than by
theories or discussions, however elab-
crate or abstruse that human custom is
nodded and direction given to the
ceaseless stream of human develop
ment