The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-04-13
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANcE. =

The Alcohol Which . Moderate Drinket
Imbihes is Slowly But Surely Under
mining His Constitution-Strong Liq-
uor Aggravates All Acute Diseases.
4 very common thing it is to meet man
who reasons like this:
II am not habitual, but moderate
| drinker. No one ever saw me drunk, and
yet / drink every day" And he says:
What harm of it? Car" you see anything
| the matter with me?'
He would seem to have the advantage OF
| you. You cannot see anything wrong with
him. AS the outward appearances 60 the
case is against you. The man appears to be
all right. But wait.
In the man who comes out into the
street after protracted debauch the ef.
fects Of the whisky he has been pouring
down his throat are SO visible that even
the little children notice them.
He may not be drunk 1t may have
been hours since he touched a drop, but
any one can see that his physical system
had received a severe shock and ls in
very dilapidated condition.
In the moderate drinker these signs ara
! not visible, but the alcohol which he daily
| imbibes is doing its work, and slowly but
surely his constitution is being undermined.
Now and then we run across some old
man who is hale and hearty, notwithstand-
ing the fact that he has been moderate
drinker all his life.
But no one will think of denying the fact
that this old man is an exception-a very
rare exception.
Many old men who. notwithstanding the
fact that they are old, should be hale and
hearty, are suffering from the ailments
born OF the drink habit to which, in their
earlier days. they were enslaved.
In the "rheum, the dry serpigo and the
gout" which rack their frames, make their
bones ache and render miserable and
thankless the evening days which should
be so full of peace and beauty, they are
reaping the fruits of their Harmless" mod
crate drinking.
Some few months ago we made reference
to the report by NJ. Mesureur, Director OF
the Department of Charities, Paris, upon
the results of alcoholism in France.
than the French liquor dealers were up in
arms against it, Indignation meetings
were held. The mails were flooded with
all sorts of protests against the truth Of
Mesureur's claim that alcoholism was
lowly but surely destroying the French
people.
The discussion at last became so heated
that the Government took it upon itself to
subject the offensive report to careful
scrutiny, with the result that it was cons
frmed in every particular. 4,
We quote from a poster, issued by the
Investigation Council for Promoting the
Public Welfare" and now displayed an
over France:
alcoholism is the chronic poisoning re-
sulting from the constant use of alcohol,
even if this does not produce drunkenness.
1T is an error to say that alcoholl Is q
necessity to the man who has to do hard
work or that it restores strength.
"The artificial stimulation which it pro-
duces soon gives way to exhaustion and
nervous depression. Alcohol is good for
nobody, but works harm to everybody.
Alcoholism produces the most varied
and fatal diseases of the stomach and hvers
paralysis, dropsy and madness. It is enc
of the most frequent causes Of tubercuios1s;
Lastly, it aggravates and enhances all
acute diseases, typhus, pneumonia, erysipe-
| las. These diseases only attack sober
man in a mild degree while they quickly
do away with the man who drinks alcohol.
"The sins of the parents against the
| laws of health visit their offspring. ID
the children survive the first months OF
their lives they are threatened with imbe-
cility or epilepsy, or death carries them
away little later by such diseases as men.
ingitis or consumption. -
"Alcoholism is one of the most terrible
plaques to the individual health, the exist
ence of the home and the prosperity of the
nation"
The document from which. the above quo.
tations are taken is signed by the President
of the Medical Faculty of Paris, by the
Chairman of the Institute of France and
by the Medical Director Of the Hospital
rHotel Dieu, Paris-men who know per-
fectly well what they are about when they
declare themselves upon the subject OF al
coholism and its effects.
They speak unequivocally, and their
stops this side of actual drunkenness, is g
mortal foe to the physical health and
eoundness.-The National Advocate. /