Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-08-30
One Mans Drink Another's Poison.

Omaha, Aug. 27.-To the Editor OF
The Bee: The nutrition laboratory
of the Carnegie institute has come to
the conclusion that past research
work of scientific nature concerning
alcohol is faulty and had better be
done all over again. 1t declares there
exists much speculation and theory
and minimum of verified facts, and
that "ninety-nine words out Of every
100 written have been inspired by
| prejudice on one side or the other,
rather than the plain, unparnished
truth" The proofs of analogy and
empiricism are not enough for science
nowadays, and it demands identifica-
ton by controls, etc. When Brown
ing affirmed God Is in heaven, alIs
well with the world" as a PROPOSE
ton in deductive, speculative logic,
inasmuch as the major premise is
founded on a universal or self-evident
truth, people say it must be so, al
though to the finite mind there is no
positive evidence or as we say scien-
tiflc evidence. That kind of old for
NAL logic led to many a religious war.
So, too, thus to make statements
about alcohol in priori fashion, like
above, or by analogy or empirically,
does not satisfy this generation. One
might declare constipation to- be the
cause Of more of mans ills than all
other causes combined and he would
not be far from the fact But to
make propositions stick it will take
more than that kind of logic to prove
So with alcohol: 1t is said to be the
cause Of rheumatism, govt, arterio-
sclerosis. Bright's disease, headaches
and a hundred other things. But by
that kind of logic constipation can be
shown to do the same and with even
better proof. Some people do not
drink milk, for it binds" the bow
els; some no coffee. for it makes
them nervous and sleepfess. No one
ever accused alcohol in moderation of
doing any of the three. Indeed. many
use wine and beer to guard them
against such infirmities. ,"
1t would be hard to say which is
worse, the chronic drunkard by al
cohol or drunk" by the poisons of
ones own secretions; to be unhappy
and melancholy, sallow, aenemic,
grabbed and for all ENVY. hatred,
malice and all uncharitableness."
What the institute is going over are
the experiments of Atwater, showing
alcohol to be a food in the sense
somewhat like sugar and water. 1t
produces heat and energy. but cannot |
like the protein of meat, eggs milk, |
etc. The experiments of Chittenden |
and Reid, declaring 1t interfered with |
the function Of the liver, by lessening
its power to destroy poisons; its ac- |
ton on digestion and whether 1t re- |
tards appetite. The experiments of !
Kraepelin on muscular work with and |
without The lifting of weights by |
the italian Mosso, especially by the |
index finger. Those of Metchnikoff, |
as tending to lessen the power of the |
leucocytes to ward off disease. Those ,
OF Hodge on kittens and dogs and "
those Of Lauder Brunton. Then ;
whether 1t helps ,orretards brain work |
and also the statistics of Gautier, |
showing that several million people |
receive In their daily diet more en- |
ergy in the form Of alcohol than as
protein, and many others,
Like too much heat, II seems all to
be question Of the amount and kind
ingested. A man will hurt himself
IL he repeats his Christmas dinner
too often, whether the pudding has
wine In II or not, II Is stated that /
the institute will be some ten or twen-
ty years at work at this difficult SUBJ
jcct GEORGE p. WILKINSON.