The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-02-21
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ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE.
II Is No Longer Held in High Regard
by Physicians.

1t is not more than a generation ago
that man took his daily allowance OF
brandy or whisky, not for the pleasure
OF the beverage alone, but for the well
fare of his inner man. Every enter
prising employer dispensed a modi-
cum of grog to his men, not for their
health, but to increase their efficiency.
But to-day a man who desires a high
ball would hardly have the temerity
to test anyone's creduIity by Offering
as an excuse that he Indulged for his
health or to promote his efficiency.
Certain notable literary productions
have been created under the stimulat-
ing influence of John Barleycorn, but
these were the works of genius, which
must be left out of general consider
alton. For the enforcement of the
idea that alcoholic beverages do not
promote health, but tend to injure it,
we are 20 some extent indebted to tenn
perance societies, but not so much to
them as we are to life insurance COM
panies, which place a monetary pre-
mum on abstinence, and second, the
teaching of medical men and physio-
logists, says the New York Tribune.
But while there is no longer any
question that alcohol is purely poi
son when used as beverage by
healthy persons, many physicians con-
sidered it a drug of wide usefulness
in disease until decade ago. Per-
haps no statement of facts could be-
more forceful in showing the change
in medical opinion than a comparison
of the sums of money expended by the
London hospital for alcohol and milk.
Forty years ago, according to Sir Vic
tor Horsley, NJ. d., the expenditure for
alcohol in that hospital was about
$4,000 year, and the expedlture for
milk in the same period was about
$4,000. At the present time the an-
nual expenditure for alcohol is $4,000,
and the milk account exceeds $4,000.
These figures represent nearly the
change in medical opinion regarding
the relative value of milk and alcohol.
1t was only few years ago that physi-
clans advised moderate quantities of
whisky for those suffering from tuber-
culosis, but more careful study has
produced change of sentiment that
was voiced by one of the speakers at
the American International Congress
on tuberculosis, whose latest session
was held in this city recently, when he
said he considered alcohol a poison
particularly virulent to sufferers from
this disease.
Psychologists are finding by nu-
merous experiments that, while alco-
hol has a certain food value, this is
more than COunterbalanced by it's eff
feet as a poison. The researches ON
this subject go more and more to
show that there is not an organ in the
human body that escapes this subtle
poison, nor a function that is not i'm
paired by it's use. The octogenarian
who boasts that he has haG his daily
toddy has reached his ful1ness of days
not because of his habits, but in spite
of them.
Whether alcohol as drug has any
value in disease is seriously ques-
toned by many competent medical
men. Its decreasing use in hospitals
and as drug in the hands of physi-
clans generally will doubtless have a
certain influence on the minds of peo.
pie and upon their habits.