Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1904-01-14

Cold Comfort TO Moderate Drinkers.
DR.. Edward c. Spitzka, of New
York, is a recognized authority on
nervous diseases. On Dec. 20,
through the New York Herald, be
uttered a note of warning to men
who believe that alcoholic stimulants
taken in moderation are practically
harmless and necessity OF modern
life.
mo drop of alcohol ever did any
good" he said, except in cases of
emergency and disease, and then
oulv temporarily. The statements
TO the contrary are absurd and mis-
leading, and are responsible, | be-
lieve, for much of the drinking done.
A man is absolutely deluding him
self who believes that be needs
stimulant of this nature and that
the craving for it is call Of nature,
and consequently that, nature being
faIlible, his system must need the
stimulana.
THE reverse is true. The fact is
that steady drinking is much more
injurious to the brain worker than
to the man who depends upon his
muscles for his living. The brain
workers nerves have already been
poisoned by the poison OF WEAKNESS
and the alcohol stimulant then has
more injurious effect than in the
case of a man who is merely phys
ically tired
1T is the result OF my experience
that steady drinking, too, is far
more injurious to most constitutions
than occasional excessive drinking,
separated by periods of abstinence
or moderation Another sure thing
is that the steady drinker, who opens
his day with cocktail, who drinks
on an empty stomach, is at a great
disadvan tage in the race OF life with
the man Of reasonable habits. The
change in the liver and kidneys, so
pften fatal, and of the brain mem
Dranes, are rather found in the case
# the steady drinkers than among
those who occasionally indulge 10 eX
cesses. In fact, these changes rar, :
ly occur in the latter case.
lone of the particularly disas-
trous features of steady drinking
t, excess, of course is that the
man addicted to it becomes in time
unable TO take the same amount of
alcohol into his system without suf-
fering from delrum after having a
few drinks, but the delirum is not
due to the amount of liquor he has
taken, but, in fact, is because of the
brain changes which have already
occurred in consequence OF his pre-
vious drinking. From the time that
the brain becomes thus affected,
he consequence Of even moderate
drinking are comparable to an ava
lanche which gains in power for
harm as it rushes onward"
DR.. Clouston, of Edinburg Asy-
! IN, Scotland, writes: II am safe
IN saying that no man INDUCES for
ten years continuously, even though
he was never drunk in all that time,
withou being physiologlcally
changed for the worse. And if the
habit goes on after forty years, Il e
change is apt to be faster and more
decided. We see it in our friends,
aud we know what the end will be,
but we cannot lay hold Of anything
in particular. Their fortunes and
works suffer, and yet we dare not
say they are drunkards, for they are
not. 1t all depends on the original
Inherent strength of the brain how
long the downward course takes.
Casually some in,ercurrent disease
or tissue degeneration cuts off The
man before he has a chance OF get
ung old. | have seen such a man
simply pass into senile dementia,
before he was an old man, fr, IN
mid, respectable alcoholic excess,
without any alcoholism or prelimi-
nary outburst at all. Aud am
sure / have seen strong brains in
our profession, at the bar, and in
business break down from chronic
alcoholic excess, without their own
ers even having been once drunk. F"
Health Monthly.
Good Advice to Parents.
II you have "a son who has entered
upon wild life, do not expect 10