Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-20
WORSE THAN WHITE PLAGUE
ALCOHOL SET DOWN AS MANS
! GREATEST ENEMY.
Cost to America Alone $4,000, OOO,-
600 a Year, Declares DR..
Webster of Chicago.

After three-day discussion of the evils
Of alcohol the Society for the Study of
Alcohol and Drug Narcotics adjourned
last night after having brought forth an
immense array of facts against the use of
spirits in any form.
DR.. G.. Q. Webster of Chicago, president
of the Illinois state board of health, de-
clared that the alcohol problem was more
important to the country than the tuber-
culpsis problem in that 1t cost the coun-
try more money. The direct money loss
to the country through alcohol. he de-
clared, was 5000. 100000 a year Said
he:
ut causes, directly or indirectly, at
least 10 per cent of all the deaths in the
country; it predisposes to infectious dis
eases; lowers vitality. and increases NOR
tally in all surgical operations. The
power of individuals to resist heat and
cold is lowered by 1t. 1t causes deteriora-
ton of mental work. Mans power to
Withstand fatigue Is greatly lessened by
its use. 1t should always be classified as
a poison. and never food. 1t is a
public health and sanitary question. and
should be treated the same as smallpox.
The problem is a medical one and should
be studied scientifically
Dr. Spratling OF Johns Hopkins delivered
very interesting address on alcohol and
epilepsy. He said that alcohol was the
cause of from % to % per cent of the
cases of epilepsy and that among alco-
holics from 10 to so per cent had epileptic
symptoms.
Breaks Down Tissues.
Laboratory researches on the effect of
alcohol on cells and tissues were discussed
by ". 8. Hall of the Chicago Northwest
ern University. He said that alcohol broke
down the tissues and made the body much
more liable to the invasion of disease.
DR.. c. II. Hughes of St. Louis spoke on
homeopathic ailments following the use of
alcohol He said that the effects of al
Individual who used 1t. but that Its eff
fects were shown through heredity. and
that 1t SCARED the race as effectually as
tuberculosis.
Washington Sanatorium. was the princi-
pal speaker at the closing session. His
paper was entitled Dyspepsia and Its
Relations to 1nebriety.''
DIR. Kress declared that the functional
and organic disturbances of the stomach
are both a cause and effect of using al
cohol.
All Forms Bad for Stomach.
"All forms OF alcohol are dangerous
remedies for stomach troubles" he said.
while quieting the pain and discomfort
for the time. 1t creates new sources of
arrangement and exhaustion. All forms
of spirits at meals are injurious. and
this is a physiological fact above all the
cries. Spirit remedies for stomach dis
eases are contradicted by scientific re-
search and shown to be most dangerous.
In the discussion that followed DR..
Kress' address 1t was developed that i'm
proper food often causes men to drink.
and thus led to inebriety.
The society will meet here again in No
venrber. While all the papers presented
showed plainly the evil effects of alcohol
in all departments OF medicine, there was
a general tone Of optimism over the prog
ress that has been made in calling the
attention of the world to the subject. and
predictions were freely made that the
campaign of education would have a
beneficial effect in producing more strin-
gent laws governing the traffic in drink.