The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1910-09-22
DOCTORS ALTER THEIR VIEWS
Few Years Ago Total Abstinence
Now Recommended.

NOW
The bishop of Durham said recently
in public sermon:
We find now the constant and
agreement of doctors on the subject
of alcohol to vast degree going in
direction opposite to that which they
took in 1859. Then their opinion might
| be summed up thus:
a little wine or beer or a very
moderate amount of spirits is good for
most people, but there are some who
can do without it, and some who would
| be much better without it.
Their opinion summed up now
would be something like this:
For the vast majority of the hui
man race nothing of the kind is the
best rule; there are few exceptions
| for whom it is either good or gives
! no HARM"
1t has been many years since those
| who spoke of the dangers lurking in
the use of alcohol were scoffed at asa
ignorant and prejudiced and they
! were told: Hear what the doctors
soy III ldEOT vi dlCClOl as UOlu lOOu
| and medicine"
Some of the doctors took 1t upon
themselves to cover with abuse all
those who favored abstinence, espe.
cially among their own number. Some
regarded physician as being un.
scientific if he did not order it. Some
of us laymen remember we'll how heat.
| ,,1
their condemnation of the fanatics"
as they stigmatized those who urged
abstinence.
Now great change has come and
| it is indicated in such statements as
the following:
Or. Howard A. Kelley, of Johns Hop
kins hospital, Baltimore at the Wash.
ington meeting of the American So
ciety for the Study of Alcohol and
Other Drug Habits, speaking, "as
physician with 80 years experience"
said:
Il began my practise in private life
by prescribing alcohol in its various
forms as an easily diffusible stimulant
in cases of periodic weakness, in low
feYers, and exhaustion, in accordance
with the common custom of a genera.
ton ago. My experience has
told me that the effect is temporary,
evanescent; that the drug (for such
| 1t is) does no real good, and that
dangerous habit is thus easily endan-
dered which may be most difficult to
! eradicate, a habit that may utterly
ruin the patients body, soul, and
spirit"
| DR.. w. II. Waugh, editor of Clinical
Medicine, Chicago, said in a paper
read at the same meeting: Person.
ally J stand ready to use alcohol any
time when | believe it to be to the
best interests Of my patients. but | do
not know a solitary use or solitary
case occurring in the widest range OF
medicine practise in which alcohol is
the best remedy that can be applied"
Concerning the use Of alcohol in
pneumonia, DR.. A. A. Hill says: Il
rely on digitalis, strychnlne, careful
feeding, and absolute rest, but always
refuse at the critical period when the
overburdened and dilated right heart
/
| to help my patient over the precipice
by prescribing the so-called stimulant
that must often by its paraly2ing ef'
! feet on the cardiac nerves take away
/ his last chance of recovery. 'Lobar
pneumonia cardiac failure-so runs
the usual certificate, and the cause of
! the cardiac failure in 50 cases out of
| l00 is alcohol
DR.. Stille, a German health officer,
replied recently to brother practi-
toner who had said that an abstaining
physician has no right TO impose his
views upon his patient and deny him
alcoholic drinks, when he needs them
70 relieve depression. DR.. Stille said
that only very small part OF the al.
| cohol consumed can be said to afford
| pleasure in any true sense, and that
/ is so infnitesimal compared with the
misery it causes that he should con-
slider himself ineXcusable If he did not
do all in his power to combat alcohol.
He thinks that il any one is not con.
! vinced OF the general injuriouness of
alcohol It can only be because he has
not made sufficient study of the sub
! ject.
A book on Vital Economy; or How
to Conserve Your Strength" by John
II. Clark, NJ. d., just published in
London (1909), contains this state.
ment:
The doctor is certainly responsible
for a large share of the drinking Gus.
toms Of the present day. He gives
indiscriminate or indefinite advice to
take little whisky with lunch and
dinner or burgundy, or claret or port.
az the case may be. and the patient
is pretty certain to carry out the pre-
scription-in all probability to the end
OF his days"
Drunkenness and Divorce.
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