THE EVILS OF DRINK.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16699, 6 December 1919, Page 7

THE EVILS OF DRINK.

ADDRESS BY DR. A. B. O'BRIEN*. TO YOUNG "WOMEN'S EFFICIENCY LEAGUE.

Tho second public mooting of tho Young Women s Efficiency league was held in the King's Theatre last evening. Miss Freda Cunnington presiding, anil over 700 people, mostly young women, wero present. An address on _f tie Results of Drink as Seen bv a Medical Man" was given by Dr. A. B. 0 Bnea, Christchurch. Dr. O'Brien said: In presenting myself in tho causo ci total abstinence, 1 need mnlio no apology for appearing boforo you as a medial man. Tho health of tho" community is entrusted to j doctors, whoso opinion must bojtaKen in all matiors relating to it. In the last Prohibition enmpaign a good deal of feeling was aroused between tho 'wet and tho "dry" camps, but tho question I has become much more to-day than a more pnrtv crv. At a largo meeting or Christeh' h doctors, hold during that campaign, c voto was taken, first, as to whether alcohol was necessary as a bovorago; and. second, whether its use was neccssary in combating disease. On tho first question there wero 20 who voted "No,'' leaving only ono voto for tho necessity of alcohol a-s a beverage; on tho second question 19 votes were registered in the negative, and oniy two in tho affirmative. . The results were published at tho timo in tho local nowspanors. I contend that it is of far mere value to you to pay attention to wiiat your doctors tell yoti, than to listen to people from other places, for tho doctors live amoncst you and know your conditions. Only ono doctor in 21 thought it neccssary as a beverage, and only two in 21 thought it was useful in diseaso. ALCOHOL IS A POISON. In the earlv davs of tho Prohibition crusade in the United Kingdom and Amefica, the tcmperanco crusaders teit that thpy wero asking peoplo to make a sacrifice —-to givo up somctiiing that xvas good for them and which they enjoyed— for tho benefit of their weaker brothers. But now tho fonvard march ot science has prored that alcohol is not good tor us at all. Alcohol is a v,*asto product formed when tho lrttlo germ or fungus of tho yeast grows in sugar. The excretion from tho yenst is alcohol, which is a poison. Alcohol lias been from time immemorial rnado from grape juice, but it (tin bo made from a variety or other things, including barley, nnd even wood-shavings. Brandy nnd whisky aro, routrhly speaking, 50 per cent, alcohol and oO per cent, water, and when you dilute that again you get alcohol at xne proportion of ono in four. Taken into tho stomach, this produces a. feeling or •warmth nnd well-boing. It causes a greater flow of blood and digestive fiastric juices in tho Btomach, which aid digestion, nnd this distracts attention from its harm fulness by a fictitious air of doing good. Good reasoning people havo. like St. Paul, "taken a little wine for their stomach's sake." But that is whero tho deceptive quality of alcohol comes in. Tho first effect of dilatation nnd extra secretion of gastric juices is lost when alcohol is habitunllv taken into tho fystem: tho stomach becomes red and engorged with blood, and catarrh of tlto stomach ensues. 1 stomach hocomes full of mucus catarrh, tho glands do not secrete, nnd dyspepsia sets in. Now, tako tho liver, which we may call the factory or warehouse oF tho body. The liver takes up excess nutriment and packs it away, letting it back again into the blood stream as required. It must talco up tho alcohol in the system in the same way, and the itlcohol doeo to it what it does to the stomach. The organ becomes enlarged, nnd increases in weight from about 311b fnornwl sir.e) to eight or ns high as 10!b. The fibrous tissue of tho supporting structure becomes enlarged and congested, nnd then shrinks down to abou> iJlb in weight. Becoming covered with hard little lumps, like tho nails in h man's boots, nnd is then known as a "hob-nailed liver." It is not ablo to do ita work properly, dropsy and jaunsupervene, and once this stapo is reachcd, death happens in from Three months to two years. Through alcohol, tho 'Kidneys (icx>me fibrous nnd shrink, lending to high blood pressure, which, in turn, leads to paralysis of tho brain, and death.

ITS EFFECT ON THE BRAIN. Tho skin, the lung 6, every part of the system is affected bv alcohol, but most of nil tho brain becomes affected. Tho chief thing about tho brain is that it gives its reason, judgment, memory—the things wo associate with the soul. Alcohol has tho peculiarity, in common with many other narcotics, of poisoning, first of all tho hSgher faculties. First it stimulates and then it depresses. Thomas a Kempis, in his "Imitation of Christ," says: "A merry evening makes a sad morning." \Vhilt> a man's judgment is depressed, tho lower centres of lias being are stimulated, and a respectable citizen, tho father of a family, enn bo noted under tho jnOuenco of alcohol doing all sorts of silly and ill-advised actions. Later on tho emotions become depressed, and, ultimately, the power of walking leaves him. Finally, wo have him left with only heart and breathing going. If ho takes sufficient alcohol, eventually they stop. The only thing that often saves a man with n stomach full of alcohol is that ho becomes sick, gets rid of a lot of it, and is soon better. Otherwiso he gets to_a hospital and tho doctors liavo to put in a stomach pump to relievo him of some of tho alcohol.

But tho point is this—alcohol destroys tho balnnco and tho judgment, ftnd, if taken for years, causes a hardening of tho brain, nnd mental decay sets in. NOT A FOOD. Alcohol is not a food, but, in a small sense, is capable of being used as one. We can assimilato of alcohol in twenty-four hours. Taken regularly in small doso6, it spares your foodstuffs, and, instead of tho fats in your bodies being burnt up, tho lody burns up tho alcohol, and thus beer and stout drinkers tend to become corpulent. This is ono way in which alcohol pots a "good name" —poople pay it was good for putting on flej-h. Doctors onco used to rccommend alcohol in maternity cases, and, after a baby was born, a woman had to drink stout, whether she liked it or not —and many of them detcstod it. On the other hand, I have known women to go on taking siout for twenty or thirty years after tho baby was born! There aro some good points about alcohol, but it should ba in a dispensary inst-oad of in .1 public-house. If Prohibition is carried —as I sincerely hops it will be —I understand that it will still be obtainable as medicine. Alcohol does very little good iu comparison with tho harm, and there aro far better things than it- in the pharmacopoeia. The body, In its _blind, instinctive way, recognises th.it it is a tK)ison. and tries to get rid of it as rapidly as possible—if you come near enough to a man who has taken alcohol you will note that his brertth is heavy with it: tho lungs showing that thev aro doing their best to get rid of it. If ii" were an excess of food, the liver would store ii up: being an excess of poison, tho body tries to ox pel it.

.\0 HEATLXG PROPERTIES. Now, if alcohol is not nccossary in disease, how less neevssary is it in health. Alcohol has be<?n proved to ho no good at nil fcr anything that rc.-jujros sustained etf'ort. At Oxford, men who aie training for their big boat races, cut alcohol out absolutely, so do footballers, bakers while they are training, and all others who want to make n sustained offcrt. V.'hin Sir E'.w>t Shackleion wt>nt to the Antarctic h«? refused to allow a, .'>" ?T'i r ' ts be taken on heard his ship. " He knew that nothing make.3 a man m cold as alcohol. It is a very iomii.on thing to give people "who arc : i'M .and wet :i cl.iss cl'-onol to vrr.rr". v-.viu no. This, _ by ir.r-rcasing tnc ••i::::.ith <~r the surfacos. draws the lica: .uv;:y tiom the vital organs, where

Natv.ro l.ad concentrated it (leaving the surfaces and extremities, which do not matter so much, to bccomo cold), ami converts tho bedy into a radiator. Th«> I heat of tiio body is rapidiy tlircwn oS. nnd th<r lowest temperatures recorded are those of alcoholic patients picked up Ipn;; in the grass, on a river bank, or in some such plaro. To give alcoho» to anyone, and send liim out in the cold is tho very worst thing you eonld do. Which of you would trust yourself to go up in an airship iviili a man who had had two or three gla.-5-.'s of liquor? No ono would trust a. taxi-driver who had been drinking—no one would trust, a surgeon to perform an operation if he was known to have been drinking. There is only one argument for alcohol —tV.at the peopie who take it like it.. It is icokerl upon r.s a marl; of sharno for anyone to t morphia, and yet. a man is regarded as a pood fellow who drinks whisky. Now jtr.d t.hcn a Clrnaninn is brought before tho Court and punished for onimn-sny*kintt. It is only j our hvoocritica 1 morality Trlr.ch makes ik think that it- t.-nrttilly degrading | tcr a Chinaman to take opium or mori phia, and to let the white man take lus | dope j;i>r a« lie likes. Supnrso ! y some act -»>"• strike consumption out «'f ! our land —what would wo think of I Covernincnt which retV.sc.l to do the thins that v.Tiild strike it out if it were I possible' lint we can strike out something that does ten times the harm of consumption, for alcohol is the father ci all direases. It -aggravates them all. TIIE INFLUENZA BOGEY.

What an advertisement alcohol got j over the infftienza epidemic! But I tnav tell you tha: many people got through tho influenza quite successfully without alcohol. As a general rule it is good to uso in pneumcnia, but it is most good to those whose systems havo got accustomed to it; it was the men who were -to alcohol who had to be primed with it at tho tinio of the epidemic. However, in case of another epidemic or anything similar, it will, as then, be available, fo the bogey of "whatever should we do in case another epidemic came, and there was no alcohol," need not bo entertained. If you present milk or sugar to a crowing clnld, it accepts it with avidity, but it yon odor it alcohol, it refuses it. showing that the ono is natural to it nnd the other unnatural. Yet, I know of children taught to drink from babyhood—in London, particularly, when I have seen_ a mother givo a baby of seven or eight months the dregs of her beer glass. But children do not naturally like tho taste of alcohol, and do not tako it willingly. Boys aro persuaded to "come and have a glass and bo a man," and tho tasto is fostered until it bccomes a craving. How many girls are foolish enough to "ho a sport," nnd kill their judgment with alcohol. Tiio tasto onco acquired, you never 'Itnow when it is comg fl c t ?" ou * For a whilo you can let it alone, but tho timo comes when you can't. Many of you girls will marry, and, perhaps* you aro moro attracted by tho "good fellow" and "good sport," the man who takes his glass, than by tho "wowser." Tho man who. takes a drink whilo you aro engaged is bound to do ifc when you aro married, and all tho time ho drinks ho will Ik> becoming moro and more a boast, his selfishness nnd his brutality always on tho increase. Thcro is no man so selfish as a drunkard.

DANGER OF THE "OCCASIONAL."

Tho case of tho occasional drinker is tho one wo have most trouble over. If nil peoplo wore drunkards, people;would riso and sweep tho traffic from the land, but it is tho occasional drinker, tho modorato man, who complicates tho situation. Ho only has a drink now nnd again, but likes to have it when ho wonts it—likes to know it is there. Ask that man or \yoman to make the sacriGco for tho sako of those who cannot control themselves—for tho benefit of weaker peoplo. Besides, even tho modorato drinker never knows tho moment when what ho has regarded as a pleasant relaxation may turn into a habit that binds him with unbreakable chains. Thcro is also tho danger of example to others—men observe tho ways of the modernto drinker nnd seek to follow him, but though ho may bo strong enough to drink when ho wishes, and leave it alone when ho wishes, the man whom ho has influenced may uot be.

Tho speaker hero told a story of a patient who came to him about a year before tho signing of tho Armistico, and who was suffering from something in tho naturo of a nervous breakdown, owing to worry over her seven sons, all of whom wero on activo service. Just lately ho saw her again, aAd said to her, "Well, I daresay you feci much be.tter now, having 30ur boys home again." She bogan to cry, and, fearing that he had touched on a sorrow nil too usual in war-time, lie added, "Why do you ery? Wero any of them killed?" "Yes," she said, "one of them was killed; hut I'm not crying abouthim. Tho other six nro home, and since they've been at tho war they've nil taken to drink." They had seen a Frenchman drinking, probably a very light wine which he further diluted with water, until the alcohol in it was of a very small ouantity indeed—and they had probably seen their officers having an occasional glass—nnd, so far as they could seo, it did them no harm. Now they were all home, six men. between 20 nnd 30 years of ago, all drinking; and their mother was glad because at least ono could never live to he a drunkard—the one that was dead.

"You," went on tho speaker, ''yon are the mothers, of the future rage. It is incumbent An you to train your children to nvoid alcohol, nnd. instead of letting them think it is manly to drink, mako them seo that it is much more manly to refuse."

.WRAPPED UP Willi DISEASE. Alcohol is inherently wrapped up with venereal disease. I am not going to talk to j'ou about this subject with the gloves on. . Venereal disease is becoming marc and more prevalent—in England about one in three persons suffers from it. We a.re not <piiio so bad as that in New Zealand, but unless we mako fi light wo will be in time. Alcohol and syphilis go hand in hand— alcohol and all venereal diseases. A man or woman who is drunk doesn't know what is happening, and they break tho laws of God and mnn because they dnn't know what they lire doing. Our homes and refuges .infilled with women who have fallen— our orphanages with children abanhoned by their mothers. In 99 cases out of 100j drink was responsible. Not because a woman ]ikcd it, hut because some worthless fellow had forced it onher. Tho man who wants you to drinkis looking for your downfall. All too common is the practice inr.nv men have of inducing foolish girls to take alcohol, nnd the girl often as a result finds herself landed, if not with syphilis. ;;f least with the loss of her virtue. All down tho ages men have had the upper hand; a man ran rise and the world accepts him. but a woman can't.

OF NO USE OR NECESSITY. "You can help this great caufe b;. keeping yourselves unsullied. You can help by educating people. My business to-night is to try and educate you. Alcohol is a deceiver. The only question wo arc asked to deride is, whether wo shall use it as a beverage, and we have proved it. under that head, to lie unnecessary nnd harmful. Do your best to spread the truth that alcohol is not of any use or necessity. You have this big issue in your hands. I hope on polling day you will rise to the occasion, and if ih»* vote does not go in our favour this time, go on working, until people do not need to be cudgelled to go to the poll, but will go in a bodj joyfully, to wipe out this dreadful curse.

(PtTBUSUED BY Anr-ANCZITENT.)