The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1915-07-29
WHISKEY AND MEDICINE.

The use of whisky and brandy in medicine has been dealt some
thing of a knockout blow in the last revision of the United States
list of preparations for medicine. The Pharmacopeia is the &C.
copied standard in this country in the preparation of medicines,
and is used both by doctors and druggists. tits revised every few
years in order that it may always be standard and include the
latest results in medical research. The revision is made by a COM
nrttee that represents the doctors, druggists and medical colleges
OF the country, and these revlsers work in connection with the
United States government. The authority of the work either in
the kind Of medicine or the size of the dose, we believe is never
questioned by the healing profession.
Heretofore the Pharmacopela has recognized both whiskey and
brandy as medicines and they have been prescribed for certain
things in the practice of medicine. The latest edition eliminates
them from the list of medicines and drugs and so places the stamp
of scientific disapproval upon them.
So far as the direct effects of the use of these ingredients in
medicine in the past is concerned, the damage done has not been
in proportion to the criticism. There have been cases in which
the use of whiskey has served a valuable purpose in the treatment
of human ills. The physicians have not been reckless agents in
the development of the whiskey habit. But despite their best in
tentlons, some harm has come from the use of alcohol in these
forms. Some individuals could be treated with whiskey for
months and not have any taste created for the stuff as an intox-
ieant. Others cannot have a weeks treatment of the same kind
without having an appetite for it that leads invariably to the bar
Pharmacopeia has revised the use of whisky and brandy out of it's
edition. Medical research has been able to find in the last few
years other medical clements which serve the purposes that have
been in the past served by the use of alcohol in the forms indf-
Gated. There is in consequence no lessoning of the curative pow
es at the command of the medical profession. 1t ha ssimply
found substitutes that get the same results without any of the re-
stltant' evils. ------
:" There is another form of alcohol that is more dangerous to the
public, though not 50 in this state, than either whiskey or brandy
as these have been prescribed in the past. This is the patent
medcines-bitters,t they are generally called. These are sold to
if not all the ills of life. They are in most instances nothing but a
few bitter herbs which have some medicinal qualities, mixed with
a low gradeacoaol. The infnitesima1y small amount of medical
effects Of the herbs in their bulky form is entirely overShadoWed
by the evil effects of the alcohol in which they are emusled. But
tire user of these bitters gets the immediate stimulus of the alco-
hol and takes it for the effect of the medicine and buys more of the
dope, only in the end to find that he has been taking a low grade
alcohol and that a taste for this intoXicant has developed what is
worse than that which is created at the bar.-Minot Optic.