LIQUOR AND HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 58, 6 September 1945, Page 9

LIQUOR AND HEALTH

AUTHORITATIVE OPINIONS

"I doubt whether any medical practitioner would deny that for every person who has suffered from a complaint directly or indirectly attributable to the excessive consumption of alcoholic liquor, many more have suffered from complaints directly attributable to the excessive or improper consumption of food. Indeed, it would not surprise me to find that many medical practitioners have never treated a complaint directly attributable to excessive alcoholic drinking," said Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in evidence to the Royal Commission on Licensing this week. Mr. Luxford said he had discussed j the matter with a well-known and! leading pathologist; also with an eminent American psychiatrist. The American psychiatrist collaborated with the authors of what was probably the latest and one of the most authoritative text books on this subject, entitled "Alcohol, the Servant of Man." A study of this book he respectfully recommended to the membe.rs of the Commission. The authors claimed to base their conclusions on the observations taken at over 5000 autopsies on chronic alcoholics. "It would of course be idle to deny that the continued excessive consumption of alcoholic liquor, like the continued excessive consumption of any other potable or edible commodity, is harmful," he said. "It would seem, however, according to the authors of 'Alcohol, the Servant of Man,' that' the chance of permanent physical, harm resulting to the individual is, much less in the case of alcoholic , liquor than most other things. This j is a subject on which I am not qualified to speak. I would suggest that the British Medical Association be asked to set up a committee to make a detailed report to the Commission on the subject."