The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-08-22
SHOULD A NATION BE ALLOWED
TO DESTROY ITSELF

lie WUIlu. IL gave DHlA " ZO1OdolCi,
who gave to it its religion, which has
since been more or less incorporated
into many other religions. Artaxerx-
es, Xerxes and Cyrus the Great, are
among it's redoubtable soldiers whose
fame has reached down to our times.
1t was feared at one time that XerXes
and Cyrus would become conquerers
of the earth, but a recent writer in
one of the magazines SAYS that the
Persians are now a most effeminate
and degenerate people and he attrib-
utes this degeneracy to the excessive
and increasing use of opium,
It's use has almost become univer-
sal, and the condition of the Persian
people is fast becoming more and
more pitiable.
This being true, the question arts
es, ought not that nation and other ma
lions interfere and lay an embargo
on the importation, cultivation. manu-
facture and sale of opium?
Should a nation be allowed to de-
stroy itself? That's the question, es-
pecially when in its decline, degener-
acy and death, it becomes menace
to other nations.
Since measures have been taken to
limit and prohibit the cultivation of
the poppy plant in China and the man
ufacture of opium from it, see what
a boon it has been to the Chinese
people.
While the use of opium is creating
such an injury and causing such de-
generacy among the Orientals, we
ourselves are face to face with a
problem in this country equally as
portentious and menacing, and which
threatens, if not eradicated, to pro-
duce the same results.
The most telling and convincing ar
gument on the subject that has come
under our observation is contained in
an address delivered only a little
more than a month ago at the thirty
fourth commencement of the College
Of Physicians and Surgeons at Bos-
ton, Mass, by DR.. l.. Mervin Maus,
colonel of the medical corps of the
United States army, and chief sur
geon of the eastern department with
headquarters at Governors Island.
This address was delivered to med
ical and surgical students for the pur-
pose of arresting their most thought .
full attention, and was entirely sepa-
rate and apart and without reference
to any political agitation on the SUBJ
ject of prohibition.
1t is a most telling. story and de-
serves to be read without bias or pre-
judice by all persons who wish well
of the republic and of their fellows,
regardless of the opinions they have
formed on the liquor question.
This eminent army officer says:
"Alcohol should be regarded as the
most dangerous narcotic the world
has ever known, and its addicts de-
generate, just the same as those VINO
use morphine, cocaine or other dan
gerous narcotic drugs. Research, ex-
periments, the epileptics and feeble
minded institutions, insane asylums,
prisons and the post-mortem table
constantly teach us what alcohol IS
doing for the human race. There re-
mains no longer any doubt OF the spe-
cial and general results of the geratI
.'racial poison" on child, man, race or
community. Few people understand
the far-reaching effects of alcohol on
the family, and the race at large. 1t
is an intricate and difficult problem to
approach on account of it's social con-
nection with many of the most proml-
nent and influential men and women
of the country, who still hold very
liberal views concerning its use. The
effects of alcohol on the intellectual
and mental faculties generally have
been made the subject of most ex-
haustive study, and we find all OF
them lowered, even through its mod
crate use. This is the unanimous YER
dict of Kraepelin, Furer, Hodge, Croth-
ers, Fisher and other great authori-
ties on the subject. From a careful
study of vital statistics it has also
~
been proven. that alcohol even in mod
crate quantities shortens life, while
total ABSTINENCE increases it. Besides
its mental effects it is largely re-
sponsible for the diseases of physical
degeneracy which are located in the
brain, nervous system, heart, arteries,
] liver kidneys and digestive system.
From the tables prepared on heredity
it has been noted that the children of
drinking parents frequently suffer
from forms of nervousness and errat-
icism, besides the more serious dis
eases and conditions of degeneracy.
ssThn DISTINGUISHED dean of your