The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-03-14
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
LAYING THE ALCOHOLIC DEMON

The scientific and practical treatise,
entitled The Cure of Alcoholism" by
Austin O'Malley, Phi. D., LII. D., has
today worldwide application.
Books have been written on the sub
ject in the thousands, and advertise
ments of absolute cures in the hun
dreds of thousands; and our legisla-
lures have been filling their records
with speeches and their codes with
prohibitory enactments on this very
disturbing politico-social theme-with
the result that the sale of alcoholic
liquors has doubled in a decade Most
of the books were written by zealots
without scientific knowledge or bal
anced Judgment; the patent cure-all
but added new diseases or intensified
the malady; and the prohibition laws,
resting on merely legal and not a
moral basis, and often on party mo-
tive that continued to provoke partisan
opposition, have lamentably failed to
prohibit. DR.. O'Malley has as intense
dislike of alcoholism, and as little
appreciation of the value of alcoholic
beverages in any form, as the most
rabid prohibitionist; but he has made
a scientific study of the pathology, his
tory and statistics of the subject, its
causes, consequences, varieties, de-
grees and environments, and as an
especially experienced physician and
,Well-informed Catholic, he knows the
that are efficient, and in how far they
are applicable. His statements and
differences are, therefore, neither far
fetched nor one-sided, and as he COW
ers as much of the entire ground as
the lay reader can travel with a med
ical expert, he has produced the most
thorough and satisfying review of al
coholism in all its phases that has
been given to the general public 1t
has the additional advantage of
directness and pithiness of style and
wealth of illustrative information that
make the reading easy and inviting.
The first part, dealing with the med
ical aspect of the disease, explains the
nature of alcohol, it's proportions in
liquors and patent medicines and it's
physical and mental effects; it's rela-
ton to infectious diseases, insanity,
imbecility, crime, pauperism, occupa-
ton and climate; the transmission of
alcoholic tendencies through heredity;
the history and ineficacy of restrictive
legislation; the treatment of alcohol
ism in English and American institu-
lions, and finally the most approved
physical prescriptions for it's cure in
the various stages and degrees Of
the prescriptions efficacy we do not
presume to judge, except in so far as
they are the result of the wide ex-
perience of keen and conscientious,
physician; but not a few of his con-
illusions on non-medical matters may
be questioned. His theory that the
white, brown, yellow and black races
flourish and multiply only within
zones marked by definite degrees Of
latitude or isothermal lines, would
make most Americans, except the
tropical or near-tropical negro, incap-
able of development. He instances as
proof that Northern Europeans decay
in hot climate, that the Gothic,
Lombard and Morse conquerors Of
Spain, Italy, Sicily, ultimately disap-
peared. But the same is true of the
Franks and Burgundians, the Nor
mans in England and Ireland, of all
the dynasties of the period, and of all
conquerorS who were not numerous,
enough to absorb or exterminate the
native peoples. Their disappearance,
as an entity, was due not to climate,
but to gradual absorption into the
larger numbers of the general popula-
ton. Another instance is the dying
out of Norwegian colony in Texas. A
single instance is not convincing.
French families have died out in
France, and have fiourished in Canada,
far north of the isothermal zone our.
author would assign them; and we.
happen to know several Norwegian
families in southernmost Texas city
that have multiplied healthily to three
generations. The progenitor in one of
them had recently a golden jubilee
that was attended by seventy-two.
vigorous descendants. The fact that
they were all Catholics might have
been the factor differentiating them
from their decadent compatriots.
The natural man can acquire the
normal virtues and be cured, but he
has not half the chance of the patient
who has recourse to the supernatural;
hence, with the foods of supernatural
grace at his gates, the modern pagan
who chooses to remain merely natural
man is so in the sense in which an
idiot was wont to be called q 1nat,1ra1 ,,