Evening star., 1926-12-02
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL J.. COLLINS.

up in the American Medical Assocta-
ton, and was referred to the Council
OF Scientific Assembly again in 1922
and 1923. but the council refused to
recommend n reversal of the 1917
resolution. In 1924. however, at the
ST. Louis meeting. the House OF Dele
gates recommended that they 'en-
deavor to have the Commissioner OF
Internal Revenue and the prohibition
commissioner issue revised instruction
on the use and prescribing OF alco-
holic liquors for medicinal purposes by
physicians" The Supreme Court
now rules that Congress, and not sub
ordinate executives. decides that
whole question.
This last resolution fails to reopen
the original dictum that the use In
therapeutics, as a tonic or a. stlmulant
or az food, has no scientific basis"
but the resolution was merely a. Res-
ture to the effect that the doctors
wanted the privilege of so prescribing
anyhow. Don't they prescribe bread
pills. when so Indicated? That 10
what Dr. Lambert undertook to gain
through his injunction effort--over-
ruled by the Supreme Court.
DIR. Charles Mayo, the most famous
surgeon in America, said in his in
augural address before the American
Medical Association. in 1917, when he
was elected president:
Medicine has reached period
when alcohol is rarely employed as a
drug. being displaced by better
remedies. Alcohol's only place now
is in the arts and sciences"
United States Senator Royal s.
Copeland. NJ. D., dean OF the New
York Homeopathic Medical College
and Flower Hospital. says, The atti-
tude of the homeopathic school has
always been against the use OF alcohol
for medical purposes"
DIR. Howard A. Kelly OF Johns Hop
kins Medical School, addressing 500
medical students in Philadelphia. ad-
vised them never to prescribe alcohol,
despite the advice OF older physicians,
who. he declared. prescribe liquor
from force OF habit"
1t takes a progressive to keep UP
with the advance of medicine. and
hind the procession, How long ago
was it when Bishop Berkely introduc-
ed tar.water as panacea for all
ailments? According to the Reference
Handbook of the Medical Sciences.
volume VI. The fifth London
Pharmacopoeia 1146). while it pro-
fessed to condemn the old astrological
and folk remedies. and while II drops
human fat, spider webs. moss from
human skulls. unicOrns' horn. bone
from the stag's head. and the like,
still retained mithridate. theriac.
crabs eyes. wood lice. pearls. bezoars,
lie. In InhA
had shown that "the actual formula
for theriac was 20 leaves Of rue,
l grain Of salt. 2 nuts and 2 dried
figs-a decent compound. instead Of
the hodge podge OF 200 or more in
gradients which later pharmacists
had compounded IL Of
The same Reference Ha ndbook fur
ther adds:
"Broussais like other system
makers. claimed that nature had M
healing power. and that disease must
he abated by active measures. So he
deprived the patient OF all food and
leeched him from head TO foot. So
taking was this new system that. in
1888, ~. 500. 900 leeches We're imported
into France and only 5000. 900 or
10 900 900 were exported"
There are men still living-not too
old-who remember when leeches
were used. and the lancet was also. in
bleeding patients.
! Medical history indicates that
medicine has not vet crystalliZed into
an exact science" and ceased TO de-
velop. 1t has progressed through dis
| tinct stages-from vipers and spider
webs to leeches-from leeches to
"snake-bite" panaceas-from whisky
| to auto-Ruggestion. Practitioners. like
! the skull Of the Neanderthal man. are
| distinguished by their stratification.
In the last one or two decades
medicine has made revolutionary ad
! varfcNs and since this In Govern
ment of ma jorities. Congress and the
| Supreme Court base their laws upon
| the consensus Of the majority of
| those best qualified. as represented by
I the American Medical Association and
all the prominent medical colleges,
and relegate medicinal alcohol with
spider web, moss On human skulls.
+, vipers and leeches.
| When the VoIstead law and the
| WillisCampbell law regulating pre-
scriptions were enacted in 1921.
IL States already had forbidden the
prescribing of liquor Of any kind for
medical purposes: 3 States permitted
such prescriptions only when the
liquor was first made unft for
beverage: Is States permitted only
pure alcohol for medicine-not whisky
nor brandy nor wine; States re-
| stricted the amount prescrihsd. New
| Hampshire was the only State with
out restrictions as ~ medical use,
other than the Federal law.
lcopyrixhs Aeze. sv Pau v. celhss)