BEER

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23804, 25 November 1942, Page 4

BEER

Sir,—Your correspondent “Cheesemonger” asks why I do not extend to tea and coffee my opposition to alcohol. It is because these things are not in the same pharmacological category. Alcohol is scientifically classified as a narcotic poison in the same range as chloroform and ether. It is a depressant and not a stimulant, and its use, even in small quantities, adversely affects the human body and brain. "Cheesemonger” has probably heard of someone who, after emptying a liquor bottle, has used it to crack his wife's skull.' Has he ever heard of similar action after emptying a teapot because of the chemical nature of its contents? On sound scientific grounds I condemned the placing of alcoholic liquor in territorial camps where it is a temptation to boys, and at any attempt to violate the Proclamation made and gazetted in 1885, that if the King Country were opened and the railway introduced no liquor would ever be sold in that area.—Yours, etc., M. A. RUGBY PRATT. November 24, 1942. Sir,—We congratulate you upon your article on "beer," and can endorse " e major portion of your contention, especially that advocating the “wider publication of authoritative facts” regarding the effects of alcohol. Certainly include temperance teaching in regard to over-eating, abuse of tea, coffee, and milk, but clearly differentiate between the “effects” of alcohol as contrasted with these. Alcohol is not a food, but a poison, with an affinity for water. It absorbs the moisture from food and tissues and produces, by its very nature, a craving for more! We are quite aware of the presence of poisons in tea and coffee, injurious if over indulged, but they never so demoralise as to cause a man to smash up his home, beat his wife and children, render him a danger as a motor driver, and finally land him in gaol! Let us teach not only “facts” but all the “facts."—Yours, etc., LINWOOD BRANCH. W.C.T.U. November 24, 1942.