Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-05-03
Outside Point of View

We are told in the Hartford Courant
that after d com progressive investiga-
ton OF the problem and observation of
the effects of dealcOholized liquors up
on low forms of animal life. DR.. David
ID. Whitney of Wesleyans biologi cal
department has reached two rather
startling CONCLUSIONS
The harmfulness of intoxicants is
not removed with the removal of al
cohol from their composition
With their alcoholic contents reduc-
ed to the same percentage, ordinary
hard cider and claret are the most
poisonous bevera ges and brandy, gin
and whisky are the least poisonous"
DR.. Whitney's work in the Wes-
leyan laboratories has been to investi
gate the report of a committee or fifty
experts made some time ago on the
liquor problem. The committee stated
that alcohol is the only poisonous in
gredient Of liquors and stated that If
all liquors We're reduced to the same
percentage of alcohol. their injurious
effects would be equal A method of
Standardization has been discovered in
England by which il is possible to re-
move all the alcohol from the beer and
stil leave it practically the same in
This new kind of beer is said to be
harmless and at the same time as sat
isfying as the regular kind.
Accepting these statements at face
value is a blow at the theory OF the
use of wine and malt liquors as baver-
ages only harmful according to the per-
centage OF alcohol they contain The
hard cider drunlsard of New England a
very common specimen fifty years ago,
certainly was conspicuous for a pecul
lar mental condition not noticeable in
others under the influence Of other in
toxicating liquors. The writer can not
speak SO positively of the immoderate
use of claret and sherry. but has had
abundant chance to watch and notice
the pecrliarities of the hard cider
drunkard. and all OF it would go TO
verify this laboratory result
Dr. Whitney has been experimenting
TO find out whether there are other
injurious ponents than alcohol in
ordinary liquors. or whether liquors
containing the same amount of alcohol
are equally injurious, and finally to de-
termine whether dealcOhclized liquors
are entirely harmless. He used some
small water-living animals called roti-
IeTS III MS experiments. I1c pldCSN
VARYING amounts Of the different
liquors into the water In which these
animals lived and noted in what per
centage Of alcohol they could live thirty
minutes and also in what percentage
Of alcohol they could live two or three
days and produce young. Tests were
made with wines such as claret, cider
and sherry; with malt liquors. such as
beers and ales: with distilled liquors.
such as whisky, brandy and gin. and
with pure alcohol.
The results Of these experiments
proved when the alcoholic contents OF
all liquors were reducted to the same
percentage, that ordinary hard cider
and claret are the most poisonous bev-
erag es and that brandy, gin and wsihky
are the least poisonous In other ex-
periments. in which sherry and claret
were evaporated and their residue put
into water it was found that these two
dealcoholiZed beverages were even
more poisonous than the same percent
age Of pure alcohol.
In summary Of his report. DR. Whit
ney says: st Is readily seen that the
wines are the most toxic. the malt
liquors stand second in point Of toxicity
and lastly the distilled liquors are the
least toxic Of all the beverages. The
value Of these experiments is to show
that in the three main kinds Of alco-
holic bevera ges there are other import
ant toxic ingredients than ethyl alcohol
and also to demonstrate that the var
ious alcoholic liquors, when reduced to
the same percentage Of alcohol, differ
widely in their point OF toxicity.
1.-The results perhaps explain why
different alcoholic beverages have such