The Ocala evening star., 1911-03-01
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT
ALCOHOL AND ITS EVILS
As Viewed from q Scientific Standpoint
By DIR. r. o. Taylor of Boston

DR.. E. O. Taylor Of Boston. director
of the Scientific Temperance Fedora
tion, writes interestingly on the evils
of alcohol from the scientific stand
point He declares the basic principle
Of temperance reform - involved in
the nature Of alcohol. which is not
food but poison, and that among
scientific people its classification
among the poisons is we'll understood
Men drink liquors for the sake of the
one poison in them. which is alcohol.
while all rules Of hygiene require that
poisons be eliminated from foods as
far as possible.
DR.. Taylor asserts that scientists
consider alcohol narcotic and place
il in the same list as cocaine. morphine
and opium. Alcohol should be treated
socially and legislatively the same as
we treat the drug narcotics with which
it is classed. This being true, DR..
Taylor declares the following positions
are impregnable:
l. There l. no reason in modern
science for the beverage use Of alco-
hOlic liquor than there is for the same
use Of opium, morphine or cocaine.
,. The appetite for liquor is an alb
normal one scientifically. and as mex
cusable as is the appetite of the NOR
phine fiend.
,. There j. no more reason in mod
ern science for the legaIization of the
sale of liquor for beverage purposes
than for the Iegalization for the same
purpose Of morphine or cocaine.
+. The saloon, therefore, is as much
out of place in modern civilization as
would be an opium joint and cocaine
den.
). Alcohol being a narcotic-irritant
becomes doubly effective. While CO.
caine, being exclusively a narcotic. will
lower the mental, moral and physical
tone of its user he seldom becomes
criminal beyond minor misdemeanors.
whereas alcohol, combining in itself
both narcotic and an irritant quality.
is apt to make its user vicious.
Continuing his argument. DR.. Taylor
points out that every poison has an
affinity for some part of the body above
all others. Alcohol likes the brain the
best. This makes it the most serious
poison of all because the brain is the
most vital and sensitive part of the
human body and is the home of the
mind Brain cells cannot be impaired
continually without seriously impair
ing the mental faculties.
Scientists well know that alcohol
taken continually in small doses dead
ems first of all the higher faculties, af-
terward letting loose the lower or an
imal impulses. The nature of alcohol
accounts for the fact that there are
more moderate drunkards in the penal
institutions of this country who have
committed crime under the impulse of
liquor than there are habitual drunk
ards who have committed offenses
while drunk.
The opposing forces insist that mod
crate drinking is all right and that
only the excess is wrong. Thousands
Of good men are being caught in this
trap and unless otherwise enlightened
will be deceived in voting for license
as opposed TO prohibition. The root of
the evil does not lie exclusively in con-
nection with the saloon, but primarily
in the nature of alcohol sold over the
counter.
DR.. Taylor insists there is nothing
whatever in the old argument of per-
SOnal liberty which is being continual
ly advanced by the liquor interests. He
declares that the demonstrated facts
of science relegate moderate drinking g
customs and demand the suppression
of the saloon. The personal liberty
argument is quickly and finally dis
posed of in the light of the classifica-
tion of alcohol among the narcotics.
No sensible man complains of the pro-
hibitiOn of cocaine or morphine as an
invasion of personal rights, for no such
rights are involved in the use of a
drug, and alcohol is in the same clas-
SificatiOn