ALCOHOL AND SAFETY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18182, 19 September 1924, Page 11

ALCOHOL AND SAFETY.

TO TEX rDITOX 07 ''THE PEISS." Sir,—Mr Saxby's note in this morning's issue prompts m? to add a few ■words to raino, which you. were kind enough to print yesterday. Starting "with the assumption - that intoxication begins with the first glass, we are not concerned with how much the motordriver can ''hold,'' but bow far the amount he has taken has affected his capacity to drive safely, and to act quickly in any of the sudden emergencies which constantly arise. How are we to gauge how-much alcohol'any particular driver can "carry" with'safety himself and .his neighbour? . The faith accepted by the medico of the 'seventies, that alcohol was a stimulant was accepted by the general public, and alcohol gradually .became a panacea for every ailment. It is now more than forty years ago that I stood on a public I platform in a small'town' in Berkshire, the occasion being the formation of a local branch of the.-Church of England Temperance Society. As a non-abstain-iiig member I entered a. solemn protest against the. layman dosing himself, his children, and his friends, in sickness, with port "wine, brandy, etc. As an ,undergraduate- I had made the enlightening discovery that my brain would etand a lot mor.o alcohol than my stomach; so that after I had consumed my quantum I was able to observe its effects on my neighbour?. 3ly-chief friend always wfint to sleep after one glass of port; others waxed- quarrelsome or noisy, while one man devoted his energies to "talking politics. I recognise now that I was one. of a fortunate minority. The rest could "hold" more than I could; but their brain controls were much sooner put out of action. I Would your correspondent'a.r,gud that j it- was only the last glass that puts the driver over the border line of safety?'as "the last stjaw that broke the'camel's back"! ; — Yours. MEDICUS. . • September 18th.. 'ro THE 3SDITOS Of ' THC TRESS. ' Sir,—What a pity so much good ink is .wasted oyer this a.lcohol problem, when for the last 50 years the chemist and the scientist have been most carefully and accurately measuring the effects of alcohol on cell and organ In a court of law the unluekv- milkman charged with a shortage of butter-fat, or the criminal charged with a felonious use of poison, has each to stand or fall on the verdict of th.o'analyst,. .Judge and .jury alike, and that mightier judge, public opinion, all lean on the evidence of the expert chemist. Let us then get the advice'of the great, men who know. Sir Victor Horsley, for one, or Edison, or Kutherford. To. those of your .many readers .who believe there is finality in this liquor problem, the writings of the Ecv. Williams'aro in eomplqte accord with the facts of science. In : my young days the parsons wero Mbehind .the times," fearful lest some discovery in geology or biology, should undermine a pet, dogma; but to-day in/matters of social science, parson and scientist walk hand in halnd, while ' clever editors almoSt make us believe that black is white—Yours, etc., F. J.'ALLEY.