The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-08-16
HEALTH, CONSCIENCE AND THE
DRINK EVIL

HEAL 7 n, CONSCIENCE AND X
DRINK EVIL
The following excerpts from a pa
per read hy Dr.. Charles B. Johnson
! OF Champaign, IL, at meeting Of the
Illinois State Medical Society ana
published in the Illinois Issue, show
the relation between the drink evil
and the disease in such . convincing
manner that a perusal OF them can
not fall to stimulate ana develop the
health conscience OF the reading pub
| lie
We have in this country a serious
disease. concerning which there is ur-
gent need that the public health con
science should be aroused That dis
ease is alcoholism. Does someone ex-
press surprise at this allegation? If
so, | will say that when one contem-
plates the great amount of sickness,
the perverted nature, disordered men
tally, pitiful poverty. horrid crimi-
nality and appalling aggregate of hui
man suffering, all chargeable to alcO-
holism, that disease assumes an even
greater aspect than that other terri
bic malady, tuberculosis. Indeed, Of
tuberculosis, alcoholism is a fruitful
cause.
Tuberculosis
In his article in the Twentieth Cen
fury Practice, Dr. Adolphus KnopfI
says: That alcoholism is one of the
greatest direct and indirect causes
that prepare the field for tubercle ba-
cilli is now generally conceded, not
only by all physicians and sanitari-
ans, but by al sOciologists who have
studied the subject 1t is not only al
phthisiogenetic disease in life, but &C
cording to statistics carefully kept in
European hospitals for children, in
more than so per cent. of cases either;
father or mother or both were alcohol.
les
Said the eminent late DR.. Brouar-
del of France: Alcohol is in effect
one of the most powerful factors jn
the production of tuberculosis.
Insanity
Insanity is another terrible disease
that in no small number of cases
finds it etiology in alcoholism. And
one of the worlds leading alienists,
Professor Won Kraeplin, says that one
third of all the insane cases i'll Mu-
Mich are the result of drink
But the truth is, a drunk man is
really insane. Said Dr. Alexander OF
Philadelphia: mo one who drinks to
excess should be considered sane and
responsible. Intoxication literally is
insanity and possibility, and will
be so considered in the future
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is another disease that
finds in drink most important fac
tor in its etiology Conservative es-
| Inmates refer every fifth case of cpl
lepsy to alcoholism, either in the vic
tim or in his ancestry. There are
said 10 be in the United States no
less than $4,000 sufferers from this
disease and on the basis above given
we get $4,000 epileptics who owe their
condition to drink
Those who have made a study Of
the subject believe that fully one
half the syphlitics infections in this
enlightened land Of ours is due to in
toXicants. And how many prostitutes
owe their unfortunate condition 20
drink the world will never know, as 3
Slass Of wine and a heartless compan-
ion have, without question, been the
ruin Of thousands OF innocent girls
who ever after led lives of shame.
Let Us Be Consistent
We prize ourselves on being mem
bers of a profession whose chief pur-
pose is the relief Of suffering and the
cure OF and prevention of disease.
And in these latter days We are all in
d sense sanitarians, and as such are
prone TO push the good work of dis
ease prevention. But in this mos.
commenda6le effort, are we at all
times and in all things consistent? II
so. why do We quarantine scarlet fe-
yer and seek to check the spread OF
typhoid fever that claim their victims
in this country only in thousands,
while alcoholism that meantime Stays
its hundreds Of thousands. is lett
comparatively free and untrammellea
to work its ruin and havoc.
Why do We make unceasing war on