TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 6

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

(Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance 'Reform Council.) Alcoholic liquor is a drag cm the chariot wheel, keeping the poor in poverty, maintaining festering social conditions, producing orrae, disease, degeneracy, and death. In the long run total abstinence is bound to become tile dictum of the nations—will become the standard attitude towards alcohol through.the.channels of Health, hygience and human efficiency. Every mail knows and every woman knows that they are better off without drink. “ I think increased temperance over the land is responsible for a good share of the enormously increased efficiency in production, which is shown by statistics gathered by the Department of Commerce.” —President Hoover. Dr J. R. Nichols, editor of the ‘ Journal of Chemistry,’ writes The banishment of alcohol would not deprive us of a single one of the indispensable agents which modern civilisation demands. Neither would chemical science he retarded by its loss. In no instance in any form is it a medicine which might not he dispensed with and other agents substituted.” . HEREDITY. [By John R kip, 8.A., M.D., D.P.H.j It is sometimes asked; “As inebriety hereditary?” To this I answer: “ Yes, and in a double sense.” _ Certainly a fiery temper or a sullen disposition may be inherited, and if a mother when bearing her child is an excessive drinker there is a danger for the child. Alcoholism is not a disease in itself, but is the cause of many diseases, and »s by excessive drinking a woman injures the organs of her body, so she may give like injuries to her child. Cun inebriety be cured? I think one can safely say “ Yes.”_ and this is by the power of the will, in the same 'manner as a fiery temper or a sullen disposition may be cured. Because a womiui has inherited the alcoholic taint it docs not mean that alcoholic preparations are to bo indulged in. By selfcontrol inebriety can not only be held in check, but entirely eradicated. Many persons, by their will power, can euro their temper and transform their character and correct their psychological defects. The taint can often be detected in a child. ■ I know ono little girl who spent all her pennies on ale instead of sweets. Another crept into the dining room after her elders had dined and drained the wine from every glass. Self-control taught in other matters will enable a child to use it later on when required, and so the taint may die a natural death for want of nourishment. When the taint is inherited in tho body of a baby, it the brain is, not injured and the organs of the body can be rendered sound, the child ceases to inherit alcoholic tendencies. Many poor children begin life with a legacy they carry to their graves. Do medicines provide a cure inebriety? I think we must say “No, but they are most helpful when ecesaive drinking has caused iriorbid conditions, and if taken before tho vital or-

gans are ruined luay assist in restoring tho patient to a normal condition of bodily health, and with strength to withstand the alcoholic habit. THE EXCESSIVE DRINKERS ARE ALSO EXCESSIVE EATERS. Tho mortality returns of the Regis-trar-General are showing this. It has been a cheap gibe amongst all classes of drinkers, and the drink traffickers that abstainers made up for their abstinence from alcohol by over-eating, and that more people died from excessive eating than from excessive drinking. The over-eating gibe had never any foundation iu fact; it was but the sneer of ignorance, seeking an excuse for indulgence. Now comes official evidence that gluttony amongst drinkers is so marked that it hastens death and makes its mark on the certificate of death. We read of inn and hotelkeepers and publicans : “ The mortality rates are consistently high after twenty-five (years of age) but chiefly at thirty-five to fifty-nve, when excess over average mortality approaches 100 per cent. The comparative mortality figure is 1,585 (compared with 1,000 for man generally). Excess is recorded for almost every cause (of death), the ratios for five causes being over 22,000—diabetes, 2,852; digestive diseases, 3,452; chronic nephritis (kidney disease), 2,264; suicide, 2,609; and cirrhosis of the liver, 11,552. This list indicates very clearly that the publican yields to the temptation towards over-eating and drinking entailed by his business. The cirrhosis (chronic liver disease) ratio is indeed, almost fantastically high. Other noteworthy figures are those for phthisis (consumption of lungs), 1,344; respiratory disease, 1,348; pneumonia. 1,611; cerebral haemorrhage (burst blood vessel in Brain), 1,768; and diseases of the circulation, 1,529.” — Registrar-General’s Decennial Supplement, England and Wales, part i!.. Occupational Mortality, 3927. ALCOHOL AND CANCER. - There is much in the volume showing alcoholic causation and predisposition. On page 25, wo rend that the influence of alcohol as a cause of cancer in the alimentary tract (digestive tract after the stomach) was found after extensive investigation: “ There is a'definite tendency for the mortality from cancer of the tongue and cancer of the oesophagus (the gullet) to be directly associated with the incidence of chronic alcoholism'.”—‘Temperance Advocate.’ DISTILLERY FOR SILK MAKING. DERRY PROJECT UNDER WAY. COMMERCE 'MINISTER S SUPPORT. it was reported at a meeting of the Council of Londonderry Chamber of Commerce that the negotiations for the utilisation of Watt’s Distillery for the manufacture of artificial silk was progressing satisfactorily. Mr John M'Veigh, a member of the special committee dealing with the matter, said two large trust houses and the Northern Ministry of Commerce had made inquiries regarding the matter and had been supplied with full details. The Ulster Minister of Commerce had shown that ho was not only willing but very anxious to do all he could to foster the manufacture of artificial silk or any other industry for which the premises were suitable. THE NATION’S MOST PRECIOUS ASSET. The League’s concern was especially keen that tho country should get, at this crisis, the very best from those upon whom their main hopes rested. Premising that Providence had so ordered it that, in protracted warfare, the victors suffered only something Jess than the vanquished, Mr Neild read extracts from a recent address at Karlsruhe to German students by Professor Gaupp, professor of psychiatry at Tubingen. Dr Gaupp reminded his hearers that they met at a grave moment, when, in spite of great economic distress, the foe alcohol, whom they thought they had beaten during the war, had-afresh to be encountered. He pointed out that what educated people did to-day the masses would do to-mor-row, and he called upon his hearers to set “the brightest example” in their power. What was wanted was “ a clear head, a firm will, and a steady hand,” and these “ sprang from health and youth, and not from drugs.” They must all lay aside habits, however endeared by old tradition, if those habits did not square with the spirit of the new age. That was Gaupp’s message to Germany’s “most precious asset.” Ifc was the message of the League also that day to England’s most precious asset. He had chosen Gaupp because he was specially qualified to speak on the alcohol question. A mind doctor of high repute himself, he had been a colleague of the renowned brain pathologist, Nisch, and a research student under, and later a_ colleague of. Ivraepelin, whose classification of mental diseases was held in great respect throughout the world. Theodore Neild, M.A., at “Adolescent Appeal” Conference, Gloucester.