The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-07-22

most careful study 1 am convinced
that there exists no scientifically safe
fact which demonstrates evil effects
of temperate use Of alcohol by nor
NAL adult men. Every claim on the
one side has been disproved by just
as important experiments on the 9th.
Ier side. Even on physiological
ground, everything is uncertain. Dr.
Williams, of New York, tells us that
alcohol is never food, and DR..
Dana, of New York, the president OF
the New York Academy of Medicine.
tells us that alcohol is always food.
DR.. Williams writes that alcohol al
ways lessons the power for work
and DR.. Dana writes that, as proved
by recent experiments, alcohol has
no effect, one way or the other, on
fcapacity of work if given in moder-
ate daily doses. DR.. Williams writes
that alcohol is the greatest evil OF
society; and DR.. Dana writes that the
immediate removal of alcohol from
social life would lead to social and
racial decadence.
But I, a psychologist, am natural
ly more interested in the mental side.
DR.. Williams and so many others
dogmatically assure US, for instance.
that alcohol cuts off the power OF
mental production. But is really a
psychological labratory necessary to
demonstrate the hollowness of such
general statements? I know scores
of men who never produce better
than after moderate use of alcohol,
and it is well known that this is true
in exceptional cases even where i'm
moderate use is INDUCED in. I had
to hypnotic only recently well
known New York author whose Sc
cret trouble is that he has never writ
ten a page of his brilliant books but
after intemperate use Of whiskey. DR..
Williams assures us that every mod
crate use of wine and beer reduces
the powers of intellectual activity
and again the psychological expert
ment is said to have proved that I
must think there instinctively OF
the man who has given to
the world the methods of psy-
Geological experiment, professor
Wundt, of Leipzin, the greatest liv-
ing psychologist. He is seventy-siz
years old to-day; has written about
forty, volumes, which are acknowl-
edged the world over as the
deepest contributions to psyhcologi-
cal thought; has written this year an
epoch making book; and yet has
taken for sixty years twice day,
beer and wine with every meal. I at
tended last summer number of in
1 forn fiopa1 conorooeoc opd cow fhorc
at many banquets the leaders of
thought of all nations. watched
the situation carefully, but did not
discover any abstainers among the
sharp and great thinkers of any ma
! ton.
Total Abstainers Not Clearer Think.
erS.
! To demonstrate that the abstain
ers enjoy clearer methods of think
ing than such drinking scholars
would be indeed an interesting expe-
riment, but from the prohibitionist
| literature, I cannot gain the impress
sion that clearness of thinking is
their particular strength. Typical OF
their unclearness is the way in
which they draw arbitrary conse-
quences from the real experiments.
It is, for instance, quite right to
claim that alcohol makes our mental
associations slower, but they inter.
pret it as if that means destructive
Gripping of our mental life. They dc
not even ask themselves whether OF
not this retardation of association OF
ideas may not perhaps be most
helpful and useful relaxation of Ger
tain brain centres. With the same
logic they might demonstrate to us
that sleep is most runious inven'
ton of nature, as it paralyses oul
brain centres still more; and they
have not the slightest understanding
for the fundamental fact that such
an inhibition in certain parts Of the
brain belongs to every single act Of
attention. They do not take tht
trouble to ask whether or not oul
associations are also changed
through the digestion of a dry meal
With such careless misinterpreta
tions of isolated experiments, coult
demonstrate to you most easily tha
every hour of physical exercise il
ruinous for the higher mental life
or that the fatigue from the hearing
of one hours lecture makes menta
cripples out of all of us. The feal
|of those who want to cut off a bottle
of light beer with the evening mea
from the home table of a hardwork
ing laborer on account of the psy
Geological experiments is comparable
only with the fear of those who wisl
that every man might live isolated il
the middle of the ocean because il
every other place the laboratory cal
demonstrate numberless microbe
and bacteria.
A Temperance Campaign Approved
The only reasonable argumen
against moderate drinking Of norma
adults is fear that they ma,
transcend the wise limits. Yes