The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-10
The CRUSADE AGAINST DRINK
PROGRESS MADE BY CHAMPIONS
FIGHTING THE RUM DEMON.
Is Alcohol a Food or Poison?-Small
Quantities Are Injurious and Its
Use Increases Liability to Dis
ease-It Also Shortans Life.

Quantities Are Injurious and Its
Use Increases Liability to Dis
ease-It Also Shortens Life.
For many weeks the London
Lancet has opened it's columns to a
heated discussion of the old question
whether the consumption of alcohol
in small quantities 10 deleterious or
beneficial. The discussion began
with the publication in its issue Of
March 80 of a manifesto signed by
sixteen eminent physicians to the
effect that alcohol is not only indis-
pensable as a medicine, but is also
a useful article OF. diet, and may be
habitually taken by some people in
small quantities with advantage.
Upon the British Medical Temper
ance Association this averment had
the effect of a red flag upon a bull
and caused it to lose no time in put
ting forth a vehement contradiction.
That alcohol Is sometimes valuable
as q medicine is not, indeed, denied
by the association, but it is main
tanned that other. drugs which have
not the drawbacks Of alcohol may
be even more effectuai. The fact is
pointed out that in large British hos
pitfalls: the amount Of alcohol used has
been diminished by from twenty to
seventy per cent. during the last
twenty or thirty years, and that this
diminution has been accompanied by
a decreased death rate. Cited as con-
elusive is the experience Of the Lon
don Temperance Hospital, in which
alcohol has only been given seventy
five times in thirty-three, years, and
Utmost of those cases without saving
lives, while on the other hand the
death rate has been lower than at
most other hospitals. AS for the as
sertion that the moderate use of alco-
hol by adults is beneficial, the tenn
perance doctors insist that the ex-
p%erience of several life assurance So
cieties and friendly societies has
proved that abstainers live longer
on the average and have less sick
ness and quicker recovery than
non-abstainers.
Those who would have, the ques-
ton settled by the weight Of medical
authority are reminded that In 1889
Mr.. julius Jeffreys, himself a physi-
clan, obtained the signatures of sew
e~nty-eight distinguished members Of
the medical profession to a declara-
ton that there vas no foundation
for the current belief that the ha-
bitual consumption Of alcohol in
small quantities is beneficial to
health. In 1847 a declaration that
the most perfect health is compatible
with total abstinence from intoxicat-
ing beverages was drawn up by three
eminent medical men and subscribed
by nearly 1000 practitioners in the
United Kingdom and British India.
Moreover, as lately as 1903 no fewer
than 634 doctors, including some Of
the most respected in Europe and
the United States, signed a manifesto
wherein it vas averred that expert
ments had proved that even small
quantities Of alcohol are injurious,
and that it is in no a food; that
1t increases liability to disease and
shortens life; that abstainers do more
work than moderate drinkers; that
all the animal functions are. best per-
formed without alcohol, and lastly
that alcohol Injuries offspring and
leads to the deterioration Of the hu-
mar race, especially when it is taken
by mothers.-New York Sun.