Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-11-10
THE SALOON AS A DISEASE
BREEDER.


Entirely apart from the alcohol
question, regarding which there may
be difference of opinion, there is no
doubt that a saloon may MANAGE the
health of community simply from its
lack of sanitary precautions. This is
brought out clearly by a writer in
The Medical Record New York, Octo-
Der g.. Taking up first the question
of injury wrought by the saloon as a
distributor of alcoholic drinks, he
notes that while drinking to excess is
undoubtedly injurious, physically and
mentally, yet it has not as yet been
absolutely proved that alcoholic bev-
erages, taken with discretion and at
the proper time, do harm. He goes
on:
"On the alcohol question the opin-
ions of medical and scientific men are
strangely divergent Some. leaders of
the medical world, as Sir Victor Hors-
ley and Prof. Sims Woodhead in Eng
land, hold alcohol in adherence and
state that as a drug it is useless and
as a beverage it is pernicious. Other
equally distinguished leaders of
science, as Professor Atwater, Profes-
sor Chittenden, and most of the Ger
legations into the matter state that
alcohol has it's uses and forbear to
stigmatize it as utterly destructive to
body and mind. A large proportion of
English-speaking medical men reserve
their decision on the subject until
more has been determined concerning
the action of alcohol than is at pres
ent known. This, in the face of the
results of numerous experiments
which have taken place during the
past few years, is probably the wistest
course to pursue. At the same time
it is satisfactory to note that drink
ing of alcoholic stimulants has never
been so prevalent here as in Europe,
and that the people of America on
the whole are a temperate race"
Apart from all this, however, the
saloon is in many instances the means
of originating and disseminating dis
ease, especially when not kept in a
sanitary condition. Two special arti-
cles dealing with this matter in Great
Britain, which appeared in The Ian.
Get a number of months ago, contain
the results of a very careful investi
cation of the subject. Says the writer
already quoted:
OF course, 1t is not easy to com
pare the publc-houseg of London ant
the saloon of New York, viewed from
hygienic standpoint. Many, if moi
most, of the London establishments
in the poorer quarters of that city car
not by the widest stretch of The mag
nation be termed sanitary. In fact
as the writer in The Lancet states
The question of sanitation is almos
wholly disregarded in the management
of public-houses.' The so-called PR
vate bars of the British public-hous
are unknown in this country. Thes
bars are merely narrow boarded com
partments opening onto common
counter and are presumably provides
for the convenience of women or
those who do not wish to drink in
public-house in the full sight OF thel
fellow men. Such compartments ar
naturally often overcrowded, and on
who uses them is compelled to ru
shoulders with all sorts and condition
of men, regardless of their sanitar
state.
1T has been proved more or les
conclusively that pulmonary tuDercl
losis is spread by the agency OF pul
Iic-houses in Great Britain, and this
probably also the case to lesser e.
font In rapard RI saloons in Americ;