TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1909, Page 12

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[The matter lor this column is sup« plied by a representative of the local temperance bodies, who alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in it.J . PHYSIOLOGY OF~~ALCOHOL.— VI. Addressing those who affirm a willingness to pay the price of indulgence in alcohol tor the sake of the pleasurable emotions and passions sometimes permitted to hold sway in the absence of those higher faculties of reason which alcohol tends to banish, Dr. Williams, in M'Clure's Magazine, suggests that there is another aspect of the question to note. He sajss :—: — "We have seen that alcohol may be a potent disturber of the functions of digestion, of muscular activity, and of mental energising. But we have spoken all along of function and not of structure. We have not even raised a question as to what might be the tangible effects of this disturber of functions u P° n the physical organism through which these functions are manifested. We must complete our enquiry by asking whether alcohol, in disturbing digestion, may not loave its mark upon the digestive apparatus ; whether in disturbing the mind ifc may not leave some incic hble record on the tissues of the brain "Slated otherwise, the question is tins : Is alcohol a poison to the animal organism ? A poison being, in the ordinary sense of the word, an agent that n.ay injuriously affect the tissues of the body and tend to shorten life. . "Students of pathology answer this question with no uncertain voice. The matter is presented in a nutshell by the Professor of Pathology at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. William H. Welch, vhen he says: 'Alcohol in sufficient quantities is a poison to all living organisms, both animal and vegetable.' To that unequivocal pronouncement there is, I believe, no dissenting voice, except that a word-quibble was at one time raised over the claim that alcohol in exceedingly small, doses might be harmless. The obvious answer is, that the same thing is true of any and every poison whatever. Arsenic and strychnine, in appropriate doses, are recognised by all physicians as admirable tonics; but no one argues in consequence that they are not virulent poisons. "Open any work on the practice of medicine quite at random, and whether you chance to read of diseased stomach or heac^ or blood-vessels or liver, or kidneys, or muscles or connective tissues of nerves, or brain — it is all one : in any case you will learn that alcohol may be an active factor in the causation and a retarding factor in the cure of some, at least, oi the important diseases of the s organ or set of organs about which you are reading. You will rise with a conviction that alcohol is not merely a poison, but the most subtle, the most far-reaching, and, judged by its effects, incomparably the most virulent of all poisons." Chronic inflammation of the stomach and bowels, pathologists agree, is almost exclusively of alcoholic origin, to say nothing of fatty degeneration of all kinds. Again, when a man in the prime of life dies of certain chronic kidney affections, we may safely infer that he has been a lover of beer and other alcoholic drinks. . Indulgence in alcohol increases greatly thetiability to acute infections of all kinds, including cholera,. erysipelas, and tuberculosis. This assertion has been disputed, but the mass of carefully collected evidence is overwhelming, and to the impartial mind conclusive. Alcohol, in fact, promotes tuberculosis. And, in conclusion, this is the summing up of Dr. Henry Smith Williams, one of the greatest and most experienced of contemporary experts :—: — " So, I am bound to believe, on the evidence, that if you take alcohol habitually, in any. quantity whatever, it is to some extent a menace to you. lam bound to believe, in the light of what science has revealed :' " (1) That you are tangibly threatening the physical structures of your stomach, your liver, your kidneys, your heart, your bloodvessels, your nerves, your brain ; " (2) That you are unequivocally decreasing your capacity for work in any field; be it physical, intellectual, or ar-tif-tic; " (3 That you are in some measure lowering the grade of your mind, dulling your higher esthetic sense, and taking the finer edge off your morals ; " (4) That you are distinctly lessening your chances of maintaining health and attaining longevity ; and " (5) That you may be entailing upon your descendants yet unborn a bond of incalculable misery. ' ' The report of the Irish Association for the Prevention of Intemperance lias been issued, giving an interesting account -of temperance work in Ireland during 1908. It gives clear expositions of the Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Act, 1908, and the Children's Act, and expresses much disappointment at the failure of the Government's attempt at reform of the licensing system, [t has decided to spend £100 in printing and displaying posters setting forth facts and figures showing the bearings of the drink problem. It records with regret that, notwithstanding all efforts to mitigate the evil, the Irish Drink Bill for 1907 was higher than that of the previous year. The Vanguard expresses no opinion in the half-holiday question, Saturday, or Wednesday. But it says :— "There is one phase of the question it is our duty to speak upon. It is a monstrous in]ustice that the liquor bars are not to be affected by the decision. Every one knows that, whatever are tho rights and wrongs of the question, if Saturday is decided upon, it must mean increased revenue to the liquor-bars. The Satur-day-night visit to town has become an institution to New Zealand, and the habit will not be easily broken. With the shops shut, the only places- left to patronise are the liquor-bars; and Bung will grow fatter and fatter at the expense of his neighbours. In the name of everything common-sense, clean, and honest, why should, the one worst trade of the land be allowed to remain open wlulo every other trade is stopped ?" Mr. Stoad, whose moral and religious ideas have noticeably deteriorated since he took Spook Julia for his guide, has just discovered that "the one and only way" to solve the drink problem is to nationalise the traffic. He is a little late in the day with the proposal, which has been discussed for years past from every point of view, not only on theoretical grounds, but in the light of disastrous experiments in that direction. Teetotalers, ho says, are enthusiastically in favour of the idea, but are against municipalisation, which "seems a curious distinction." Curious indeed, but it is, Mr. Stead' who makes it, not temperance folkj who, are not so illogical. It would cost only five hundred millions. The State could afford, he says, not only to ■be just but generous to 'the Trade, beceuse of the vast annual profits, estimated by Mr. Ritzema, a pamphleteer, at twenty millions a year. Mr. Stead thinks this estimate sanguine ; but, he says, "if the Government merely covered its expenses, the moral and social advantages accruing from the operation would justify such a venture. Temperance people believe that the "moral and social advantages" would be nil, and that nobody would benefit but the "trade" by the "generous" proposal. It would make reform practically impossible. If old-age pensions were drawn from this fund, as Mr. Stead suggests, what a large interested vote would al;«yays be behind tho. State drink traffic !