The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-03-21
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE or lNTEMPERANcE.

Most Injurious of Alcoholic Drinks
Because No Other 10 So Seductive-A
Breeder OF billiards and Detectives.
A food is any substance whose ma
ture it is to nourish the body, and
repair it's waste, or furnish it heat and
energy without injuring it. Hence,
according to this standard definition,
If beer contains anything that Injuries
the body, it can not be a food. :
81. w. Wiley, Chief of Division OF
Chemistry, United States Department
Of Agriculture, after examining, sam.
pies Of what are termed the best beers,
the chief varieties Of which are lager
beer, ale, porter, and stout, reports
them as containing from four to six
per cent. of ethyl alcohol.
: The reply to the question at the
head of this article will be found in
the answer of modern science to the
question, is it the nature Of alcohol to
injure the body?,
Sir Frederick Treves, Bart, LID,
surgeon to King Edward of England,
says.
1T (alcohoD is ar insidious poison in
that it produces effects which seem to
have only one antidote-alcohol again."
AS a poison is any substance whose
nature it is when absorbed into the
blood to injure health or destroy life,
a beverage which, like beer, contains
alcohol, can not be a food in any hon.
est use of that word. but on the con-.
trary is a poisonous liquor.
If, as some of the brewers are now
claiming, their beer contains only three
per cent. Of alcohol, we need to re.
member that the character Of a sub.
stance does not change with its guam.
tity. The most disastrous quality OF
alcohol, it's power in small quantities
to create the uncomfortable appetite
for more, exists in any liquor con.
tanning three per cent. Of alcohol. Thus
beer is a poisonous, drunkard-making
drink. Professor Gruber, Of Munich,
says: "No one can foretell whether or
not he is susceptible to alcohol. he
finds out only by playing a game of
chance with his own life which is a
dangerous experiment."
Professor August Forel, the great
Swiss scientist, says: "The roxic agent;
the murderer of soul and body, is and
remains the ethyl alcohol itself, pure
or adulterated, fine or coarse, concen.
trated as in distilled liquors, or rela.
lively diluted as in wine, beer and
cider" .....
Professor G. Won Bunge, professor of
physiological chemistry, Basic, Switz.
erland, says: Beer is the most in
furious Of alcoholic drinks, because no
other is SO seductive. One can &C
custom himself more rapidly to the
drinking of beer than of any other in
toxicant, and no other so readily de-
stroys the appetite for normal food and
nourishment."
To this testimony Of science as to
the injury alcohol does to the body
which might be multiplied Indefinitely,
should be added its hereditary effects.
DR.. T. A. MacNicholl. New York
City, in a report of IN examination of
the cause of mental deficiency in
school children, undertaken in 1901,
for the New York Academy Of Medi-
cine, said: I'm prosecuting this work,
/ was forcibly impressed by the con.
spicuous position occupied by alcohol
as q cause of mental deficiency of chill.
dren." He says: "Alcohol by destroy.
ing the integrity Of the nerve struc-
ture, lowering the standing of organic
relations, launches hereditary in.
fuences which by continuous trans
mission gain momentum and leave
their impact upon gland and nerve un-
til mental faculties are demoralized,
physical energies hopelessly impaired,
and the moral nature becomes degen-
crate and dies"
DR.. MacNicholl found that Of chill.
dren of drinking parents but abstain
ing grandparents, se~venty-fVe per
cent. were billiards; of the children Of
abstaiping parents and drinking grand
parents, seventy-eight per cent. were
billiards; of the children of %abstaining
parents and grandparents, only four
per cent. were billiards. Here is proof
that the modern saloon with its beer
and other alcoholic drinks, is q breed
G. Of detectives.
Is beer a food? Modern science says
emphatically, No, it is a poison. It
Injuries the body and the mind of the
drinker and Of his descendants to the
second and third generations.-Mary
H.. Hunt, Director Bureau Scientific
Temperance Investigation of the Ma
tional Woman's Christian Temper
ance Union.