The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1913-01-17
DECREASE IN ALCOHOLIC USE
Sir Victor Horsley Says Impossible
to State Any Given Minimum
Amount of Drug Harmless.


The decision OF all medical experts
at home or abroad, meaning thereby
such as have especially made a study
of the effects of alcohol on the human
body in health or disease, is that al
cohol is a poison in any form, in any
quantity. at any time, under any con-
dition, in health or disease, either as
a beverage or as a medicine. This
view practically eliminates alcohol in
any relation to the human economy
writes l.. d. Mason, NJ. D., in the
Temperance. Sir Victor Horsley, F.
R. c. S., the celebrated neurologist
and surgeon Of London, England, sums
up the whole situation in a few words;
Zone conclusion energies from the re-
cent investigation of the whole alcohol
question, namely that it is quite i'm
possible to state that any given mini
mum amount of the drug is harmless
to our tissues" and we may add, this
statement holds good either in health
or disease.
Alcohol is a protoplasmic poison.
1.-THE organism is not an individual
but social mechanism, always bring
ing US at lastvto cells. "-Virchow
The most remarkable evidence Of
the increasing disuse of alcohol in dis
ease is found in the records of sup
plies" in the London Metropolitan
Hospitals. In the comparative con-
sumption Of spirits, wines and malt
liquors In a period of fifty years the
liquor bill is three times less and the
milk bill three times more. There
has been a steady decrease and in
crease in these particulars and it is
more marked every year along the
lines of economy and medical prac-
tice. In Europe and this country
there are special hospitals known as
Temperance hospitals" in which alco-
hol is not used at all. In the London
County Asylum the comparative con-
sumption and decrease in the use Of
spirits, wine and beer is remarkable
in period dating from 1880 to 1905
and 1906. In 1889 the amount of spir-
its and wine consumed was 1902 gal
Ions; in 1905 and 1906, POS gallons.
Beer consumed in 1899, 255 1857 gal
Ions; in 1905 and 1906, 1,2811s gal
Ions. From these facts there can be
no doubt as universal, worldwide
fact that the hospitals of the world
(for the fact applies in a measure to
all civilized countries) are eliminating
alcohol as a remedy in medical prac-
tice; and hospital practice regulates
as a rule, and determines general med
ical practice.
The effects of alcohol on the intel
lectual faculties and higher brain are
best shown in the words of DR.. Cious-
ton, the celebrated neurologist and
mental specialist of London, England:
From the medical and scientific point
of view we have this great physiolog-
iCal fact before us-that the first thing
that alcohol does in SO cases out OF
100 is to effect the mental working OF
the. brain of the man who imbibes."
The lunacy statistics of England
and Wales as shown in the sixty-third
report of the commissioners contains
among other interesting and import
ant facts the following statement:
Taking survey of the last fifty
years it is seen that lunacy has in
creased from 36.762 cases in 1859 to
12S,7S7 cases on January /, 1909, an in.
crease of 92,025. This is not merely
an actual increase keeping pace with
the increase of population. 1t is a
vast proportionate increase, for whilst
population has increased by S15 per
cent, lunacy has increased 250 per
cent" DR.. Clouston In the report OF
Asylum as early as 1903
says: Alcoholic insanity steadily
goes up and now it has doubled" All
neurologists in this country and in
Europe agree that all nervous dis.
eases and insanity are at the present
time largely on the increase and the
use of alcohol is a prominent basic
factor in this increase, to say nothing
Of other forms of disease not specific |
ally affecting the nervous system.
Whether We consider alcohol as a
lrug to be used in medicine or as a
beverage in daily life, We can only say
If it after consideration of the high.
EST scientific and medical expert tasti.
nony in all centers of civilization.
hat it has no place in the human
economy as drug or beverage in
disease or health; that its action is
vii and only evil and that continu
lily" One has only to read the pro.
eedings Of the American Society for
he Study of Alcohol and Other Mar
otics, the American Journal of In.
briefly and the numerous articles in
he American medical press as we'll
S the papers read in the various medi.
al societies and the active interest
AIKEN by many prominent American
ractitioners, to know the attitude OF
ledicine in America towards alcohol
drug. The same holds true OF
pecial journalism in Great Britain
nd on the Continent, as represented
the British Journal of Inebriety and
lie large influential society of medical
len 1t represents, and the general at.
tude of the influential medical pub.
to the cause, and practice of medi.
II or scientific temperance, so-calIed
nd growing conservatism in the
Sc of alcohol in disease, and its grad.
al elimination from medical prac.
ce.
liounre NoK Mall