The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-01-20
TEMPERANCE
ALCOHOL AND
PATENT MEDICINE
DEPARTMENT.

Judging by its name, our pot Wine
G mes from Oporto, Portugal B 1t Mr..
Cyrus Redding once made a report on
the subject to a committee appointed
by the House of Commons, England.
He said that every year Oporto ex-
ports 10000 pipes Zone pipe is equal
to 126 gallons) of wine, but that Eng
land alone uses 10000 pipes of this
same wine each year Where, then,
does the vast quantity Of port wine
come ON that is used in the rest of
Europe and in America?
Mr. Redding shows that this is the
manufactured result Of what has pass
ed from hand to hand through the
wholesale and the retail dealers. Wa
ter, poisons, coloring matter; more
water, more poison, more color-mark
the steps Of its progress until the com
bination of water and chemicals is fl
nally sold as fine port wine imported
from Portugal.
From first to last the work of con
cealment is so well done that even
an expert cannot tell by taste, smell
or color that it is a dangerous com
pound Of chemicals. A chemist, how
ever, with his apparatus can always
| find the pOisOns.
/ These facts, which no one thinks of
denying, do not mean that those who
use alcohol are in danger of being
killed suddenly by it. We ourselves
know that this is not true Multi
tudes Of people drink more or less fire.
quently throughout their lives, and al
most never does even newspaper re
porter hear of a man who has dropped
| dead because he drank.
No, the newspaper reporter is not
the one to go to when we wish to
know about the life-an-death results of
drinking. To get such facts we study
the statistical tables of life insurance
societies. There we find that he who
iuses alcohol reduces his chance for
life by weakening the power of his
body to resist disease microbes.
Aside from alcoholic drinks, how
ever, chemists find that many patent
medicines also contain opium, cocaine,
alcohol and other strong poisons. And
just because these poisons are so
powerful, the innocent victim may find
comfort for a season. His nerves may
be quieted. his pain relieved. But la
ter comes the curse. That which
seemed so helpful often ends by has
tening the progress of the disease it
was supposed to cure This is espe-
cially true Of consumption. Or, in
stead the drug habit may be formed
through medicine, and man may dis
cover too late that he is doomed
Chemists testify that most medi-
cines which go by the name of ton
les" "bitters," and believers of pain
of different kinds contain large per
cent of alcohol. Often as much as
one-quarter of the entire liquid in the
bottle is alcohol
In view of their disclosures these
men and others have insisted that in
nocent people should pot be cheated
into the use Of any poison through ig-
norance of what they are buying.
| These scientists have indeed been so
much in earnest and so active in their
agitation of the subject that at last
the United States government has
passed a law which helps the case
greatly. 1t demands that the names
of every poison in bottle of patent
medicine shall be printed plainly on
label and pasted on the bottle. The
amount of alcohol must also be stated
on the same label.
If a bottle of patent medicine bears
no such label, it is evident that its
contents hide neither alcohol nor poi
son: it has no confession to make. If
there is a label, remember that, as a
rule, each name on it stands for poi
son.
He who is unwise enough to buy
patent medicine should balance his
mistake by being wise enough to
study the label before he uses the con
oe +I.o hOf+1o