New-York tribune., 1920-01-28
Whisky Not Helpful ?
Medical Testimony Cited Against lis
Use in Disease

10 the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: statement appeared within d
lew days that arrangements were being
made with the Liggett drug stores to
carry whisky in stock for "the relief Of
influenza sufferers" 1t does not seem
credible that many physicians Of a
city like New York can really believe
that whisky or any other alcoholic
liquor is of service in the treatment of
an infectious disease unless it NAV be
in quoting the restlessness Of the pa-
tent. 1t would be Objectionable to
use alcohol for this purpose if it were
not that alcohol weakcns the heart
hinders the white blood cells in their
work of destroying the disease germs.
hlnders the production Of antibodice and
lnterferes with the cleansing of the
blood by its effect upon respiration The
fact is, as told US by men Of the highest
standing in the medical profession, q
sick person has double fight when al
cohol is given, fight against the dis
ease and a fight against the effects of
the liquor in weakening his resistance
Thus more deaths occur when alcohol is
given.
The American Medical Association al
its annual meeting held in New York
in 1917 declared that the use of alco-
hol in therapeutics "as tonic, or a
stlmulant, or as a food has no scientific
basis, and the use Of alcohol as a thera-
peutic agent should be discouraged" At
the same meeting the council on health
and public instruction Of the American
Medical Association declared "acohol
has no drug value either as stimulant
as tome, or as therapeutic agent
and has no food value, and its use as q
beverage or as therapeutic agent is
detrimental rather than beneficial to
the individual The president Of the
American Medical Association that year
said in his annual address: "Medicine
has reached period when alcohol is
rarely employed as a drug, being dis
placed by better remedies"
DR.. Oliver T. Osborne, professor OF
therapeutics at Yale Medical School
says: "Alcohol is not heart stimu-
liant. 1t has no tonic action Alcohol
causes a patient to feel better onlv by
its strong narcotic effect, and this feel
ing Of betterment is followed By the de-
preston OF ali vital activities
there is mental wearlness, circulatory
weakness, loss Of appetite and impaired
function of all internal sccretinl
glands
Professor Frank s. Meara, of Cornell
Medical College, New York, says: al
cohol has been much used in pneumonia
I believe without justification l believe
that 1t IS never true stimulant, but &
dcpressant. believe there arc
few cases in which the patient woulC
not be better off without than with al
cohol.'
Experiments have been made in Belle
vue Hospital by Dr. Alexander Lamber
and by DR.. Henry Koplik on the treat
ment of pneumonia patients with anC
without alcoholic liquor, with the resul
that the use Of alcohol was abandoned
because more deaths resulted when i
was given.
These testimonies against liquor as
remedy in such diseases as influenza ane
pneumonia might be multiplied indeh
nitely were there space. Then why
should the Health Commissioner Of New
York City be making arrangements
with liggett's, which does not sci
whisky, to carry it now "for the relic
of influenza sufferers"?
Or. Copeland does not himself bcliev,
In whisky as medicine. Several year.
ago he wrote to the one sending thi:
letter to you. and said: The homeo
pathic school has always been against
the use Of alcohol for medicinal pur
poses.' Then why does he think it nee
cssary to arrange to have whisky giver
now in the dangerous epidemic upor
our city,
MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN,
Superintendent of the Department Of
Medical Temperance for tho
Worlds and National w. c. T. L.
Forest Hills, l.. L. Jan. %, 1920.