The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-11-04
The CRUSADE AGAINST DRINK
PROGRESS MADE BY CHAMPIONS
FIGHTING THE RUM DEMON.
Alcohol as a Medicine, by Mrs. Mar.
tina M. Allen, Superintendent OF
the Department of Medical TEN.
For the w. G.. T. U.

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In the middle of the nineteenth
century the whisky bottle and the
brandy bottle were the mainstay OF
the average physician in his combat
with disease. To-day alcohol is a
discredited drug; it's stimulating and
tonic qualities are doubted or denied,
Its strengthening powers are known
to be a delusion resulting from its
nerve d%eadening action, and the
claims made for it as a food are
shown by good authority to be no
stronger than might be made fer
morphine and various other drugs
which undergo the change in the
body called oxidation.
The influences which have been
Instrumental in the ~dethroning of al
cohol as the great paneca have been
various. The most important has
been the spirit of scientific research
Of the past twenty to thirty years
aided by the invention of instruments
of precision by which the effects OF
drugs upon animal life can be much
more definitely ascertained than
formerly. In the great laboratories
connected with some of the leading
medical schools of the world, scien-
lists have been studying carefully the
effects of alcohol upon the various
organs of the body, and although
they differ in their conclusions on
some points, they all agree that for
mel opinions Of the usefulness OF
alcoholic liquors must be greatly
modified, If not entirely changed. 1t
is certainly a fact that the physicians
who have familiarized themselves
most thoroughly with these investi-
cations are now making comparative
ly little use of alcohol as a remedy
II they use it at all.
Alcoholic liquors were at one time
considered Of great benefit in disor-
ders of the stomach. Different in
vestigators have been experimenting
upon dogs and other animals, and
with foods in test tubes, to deter
mine, if possible, the action Of alco-
hol upon digestion. Radzikowski, a
famous Russian scientist, found that
although alcohol causes an increased
flow of gastric juice, the gastric juice
thus produced is worthless as a d.
gestive agent because 1t contains no
pepsin. Professor ~Chittenden, OF
Yale, observed that an equal guam
tity of simple water causes as great
a flow of gastric juice as does alco-
hol, and that the gastric juice pro-
duced by the drinking of water is
possessed of much more powerful
digestive properties than the gastric
Juice produced by the drinking OF
alcohol.
Sir William Roberts, n Of Eng.
lands eminent physicians, found in
his experiments with alcohol and
food in test tubes that the liquor
never fastened the digestive process,
but that when it was present in the
proportion of ten per cent. or more
it caused delay. Food mixed with
sherry wine required three times as
long to digest as the normal. Malt
liquors were also shown to rethrd
digestion,
Physicians acquainted with these
and other similar experiments have
naturally ceased to recommend alco.
holic liquors as aids to digestion.
Alcohol for years was considered
a valuable heart stimulant. But the
keen eye of science has discovered
error in that opinion also. Instru.
ments have been invented which
show that the bounding pulse follow.
ing a dose of brandy is not the re.
suit of added force, or vigor, but the
result of paralysis of the peripheral
vessels. Tests with the isolated but
surviving hearts of a dog and of a
rabbit have shown conclusively that
alcohol reduces the amount of work
done by the heart, and causes irreg-
ularity of plusation. .
At a meeting in Atlantic City last
year during the sessions Of the Amer
lean Medical Association, DR.. Frank
Billings, Of Chicago, said that the
belief in alcohol as a stimulant Is
rapidly passing away.
English physicians have been
much more outspoken against alco'
hol as a medicine than American
physicians. During the past three
years Sir Frederick Treves, King Ed
wards surgeon; Sir Victor Horsley,
Sir James Barr, Professor Sims
Woodhead and other leading English
medical men have spoken out so
strongly against the old views Of the
utility of alcohol that the London
Times has felt called upon to say:
According to recent developments
of scientific opinion it is not impos-
sible that a belief in the strength
ening and supporting qualities Of al
cohol will eventually become as OBJ
solete as a belief in witchcraft."