The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-01-30
TIE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE.

Alcohol as a Observation-Disclosures It
Has Any Value in Disease Seri-
ously Questioned by Medical
Men-It Is Purely a Poison.
It is not more than a generation
ago that man took his daily allow
ance of brandy or whisky, not for
the pleasure in the beverage alone,
but for the welfare of his inner man.
Every enterprising employer dis
pensed a modicum of grog to his men,
not for their health, but to increase
their efficiency. But to-day a man
who desires a highball would hardly
have the temerity to test any ones
credulity by offering as an excuse
that he INDUCED for his health or to
promote his efficiency. Certain not
able literary productions have been
created under the stimulating iniu-.
ence Of John Barleycorn, but these
were the works Of genius, which
must be left out Of general consid-
Grafton. For the enforcement of the
idea that alcoholic beverages do not
promote health, but rather tend to
injure it, we are to some extent in
debted to temperance societies, but
not so much to them as to life insur-
ance companies, which place a none
tary premium on abstinence, and Sec
ond, the teaching Of medical men and
psychologists.
But while there is no longer any
question that alcohol Is purely a
poison when used as a beverage by
healthy persons, many physicians
considered it a drug of wide useful
ness in disease until a decade ago.
Perhaps no statement OF facts could
be more forceful in showing the
change in medical opinion than a
comparison of the sums Of money ex-
pended by the London Hospital for
alcohol and milk. Forty years ago,
according to Sir Victor Horsley, MD,
the expenditure for alcohol in that
hospital was about $4,000 a year,
and the expenditure for milk in the
same period was about $4,000. At
the present time the annual eXpendi-
ture for alcohol is $4,000, and the
milk account exceeds $4,000. These
figures represent very nearly the
change in medical opinion regarding
the relative value Of milk and alco-
hol. 1t was only a few years ago that
physicians advised moderate quanti-
ties of whisky for those suffering
from tuberculosis, but more careful
study has produced a change of sem
timent that was voiced by n Of the
speakers of the american Interna-
tional Congress on tuberculosis,
whose latest session was held in this
city during the current week, when
he said he considered alcohol, a poi
son particularly virulent to sufferers
from this disease.
Psychologists are finding by numer-
Gus experiments that while alcohol
has a certain food value, this is more
than counterbalanced by its effect as
a poison. The researches on this sub
iect 20 more and more to show that
there Is not an organ in the human
body that escapes this subtle poison,
MOI a function that Is not impaired
by it's use. The octogenarian who
boasts that he has had his daily toddy
has reached his fulness Of days, not
because Of his habits, but in spite
of them.
Whether alcohol as e drug has any
value in disease Is seriously ques-
toned by many competent medical
men. Its increasing use in HOSPITALS
and as a drug in the hands OF physi-
clans generally will doubrless nave a
certain influence on the n1n6s OF peo-
pie and upon their habits.-A. B. c.,
in the New York Tribune.