TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 20612, 11 October 1930, Page 6

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

(Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.) About four-fifths of all the, alcohol consumed in Britain is taken in beer. Alcohol is a narcotic and cell poison. Tho total consumption of alcohol-(in-Great Britain) iii 1929 was approximately 50,500,000 gallons, , as compared with 'about 84,500,000 " in ' 1913-—a decline of about 40 per cept. Of the quantity consumed about' 78 per cent, was taken in beeiv„"l3J per cent, in spirits, 43'per cent, in ,wine, and 34 per cent;, in cider, British wines, etc. STILL A LIVING FROM BEER. The ‘ Manchester .Guardian ’ on April 15, 1930, gives the following figures of brewers’ profits:— 1924-25 ... ... ..,£25.500,000 • 1925-26 - 20,500,000 1926- 24.500,000 1927- ... ... 24,000,000. 1923-29 24,500,000.: LIGHT WINES AND BLEU. They told' me beer Is.-.not a- bad drink: the people .ought -to have it. Read what eminent German authorities say about’beer,. _ ' At the recent meeting of the Antialcohol Congress in Berlin, it- was stated by Dr Delbruck, of Bremen, the president of the congress, that beer drinking as a means of combating alcoholism has been clearly shown to be a failure. It leads often to the use of distilled liquors, but in itself.it produces, all the evils of whisky. “Of 149 patients who were treated in a North German private asylum for drunkards, forty-one had been alcoholised,” said Dr Delbruck. “ by drinking spirits, thirty by wine drinking, and seventy-eight—or more than half—by the excessive con-' sumption of beer,” The belief that delirium tremens was unknown among beer; drinkers was a mistake. It was impossible to convey by statistics' the extent of misery-, caused by what ho described as “ beer alcoholism.” Professor Cramer, of Gottingen, held that the alcohol habit is curable if taken in time, and treated at a suitable drunkards’ asylum. alcohol the live danger! To say that this man drinks ale,, that man wine,'that man spirits, is merely to say that -they all drink the same danger—alcohol. “It is. certain that for .every man in whom excessive drinkiifg causes absolute insanity, there are : twenty in whom it injures the brain, blunts the moral sense, and lessens the capacity for work in lesser degrees.”—Dr Clouston. - . A QUESTION FOR BEER DRINKERS; The best British beer or ale contains the following:—Ninety per cent.- water, 0 per cent, alcohol (a poisonous drug). 4 per cent, nutritive properties, as follows:—Alubumin 0.3, sugar 1.2, mincralo .3, extractive 2.2. What is there in that concoction that can possibly bo of any practical use to the brain, or to the flesh and muscle renewing properties of the body, more especially as the, small amount of nutritive is offset with the 6 per cent, of alcohol, a drug which is always injurious to every living cell it touches? Honestly, is* the flavour of hops or the deadening ‘‘kick ” of the alcohol worth sixpence a pint to your wellbeing? Beer costs about sevenpenco a gallon to manufacture. CHILDREN. Perhaps the most tragic of, all the tragic aspects of- the drink evil is,, the suffering and social injustice inflicted on helpless children. Apart from inferor physical powers due to alcoholic taint m the parents, the innocent child is dwarfed, stunted,, and made miserable by neglect and abuse in the cinnkriclden home. The general agent of the - Bostbn Provident Association states that out of 1.400 families dealt with by the association, 3,925 children were shown to be under conditions of neglect and abuse because of liquor. PLEASURE. “Wowser/’ “Mugwump,’' “Kill Joy,” are favourite verbal brickbats, thrown by drinkers at non-drinkers. Apart from the fact that there is no more certain, deadly, or selfish spoilsport under the sun than intoxicating drink, it is not true that its absence takes all the pleasure and pep " out of life. Listen to this from a sport editorial in the 'Herald Examiner’; “ Never before in the history of any country has there been such widespread''interest in sport as in America at the present, time. .'. .; The reason? Close students of the situation have reached the conclusion that it is, : lessened drinking, or rather the abolition of the open saloon. Figures do not lie, and figures show that sport ought to bo mighty thankful to present conditions.” It may bo remarked that tho cditorial from which tho above is quoted referred to baseball, boxing, tennis, billiards, and professional sport generally.

MEDICAL. The mouldy and moss-grown superstitions about the medicinal benefits of alcohol are year by year giving way before the repeated and persistent attacks of leading scientists and medical ipon. And our own New Zealand Government is instructing tho children in tho true knowledge—pointing out that alcohol is not a f00d.,, is not a stimulant, but a narcotic, and that its administration, even in minute medicinal doses, is a matter for the trained physician, because the risk of injurious results offsets in most cases anticipated benefits. Undoubtedly the advice oi scientists and doctors, in regard to alcohol as a beverage is almost unanimously—“ Leave it alone.” Tho limits of this ‘ Encyclopaedia ’ are too narrow to contain a really adequate synopsis of the overwhelming verdict pronounced by science against alcohol. But tho following indicate sufficiently, „ that modern medical and scientific opinion is unflinchingly opposed to alcohol: The U.S. naval authorities have struck whisky out of the list of medicinal stores, stating; ‘ No further purchase will be made, and whisky . will be stricken from tho supply table of the medical department of the navy.” The Marino Hospital controlled by the U.S. Treasury refused a gift of whisky, stating “ No whisky is. used in the hospital in tho treatment of patients.” G ■ . . Tho Chicago Health Commissioner, during the “ flu ” epidemic, said i “ I want to tell the people of Chicago that whisky is not a euro for the ‘ flu,’ nor a help. .. . T will go even further, and say that the greatly reduced death rate wo have had during this epidemic may.be attributed in a groat part to the absence of alcoholic conditions m the patients,” Dr Harvey W. Wiley, president of the U.S.A. Bhannocopeiiil Convention, said, on January 30, 1520: "In only

one instance would J. use whisky, for an influenza case, and that would bo whore I wished to hasten the departure to heaven, of tho patient.” He further stated- that in tho next issue of the ‘ American Pharmacopeia ’ (tho guide book for doctors arid chemists throughout the U.S.A.), no mention, of alcoholic liquors as medicines will be made. Tho ’ Medical Journal of Australia,’ dated July 10, 1920. recorded that the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association passed a resolution approving Prohibition almost unanimously, there being only one dissentient. - • ' The medical men of Victoria expressed their opinion as follows:—For Prohibition, 203- Continuance, 44. Discussing ‘The Liquor Traffic and Public Health,’ tho ‘Lancet’ of July 12, 1919, quoted figures to show that reduced strength of liquor and drinking hours under war-time regulations had reduced deaths from alcohol 84 per cent., cases of delirium trerneus in Poor Law infirniaries 95 per Cent., and death from cirrhosis of the liver- 60 per cent., adding: “Alcohol is, of course, a much bigger factor in the causation of disease and mortality than ean be shown in official statistics.” The ‘ Lancet ’ is a British medical journal of acknowledged standing tho world over.

Sir Thomas Barlow, K.C.V.0., M.D., says that among the results of alcoholism, “one of the most striking, one of tho most insidious, and therefore frequently not recognised for a long time, is alcoholic neuritis,” duo to “ ulcholic poisoning-of the sheaths of tho nerves and of portions of the muscles served by them.” _ The patient is nervy, has night pains in the limbs, the heart is affected, and eventually real heart failure supervenes. And nil this hapcpns to drinkers who “ may never become intoxicated.” Professor Dr P. Ainaldl, director of the hospital for insane, Florence, Italy, says: ‘ The action of wine on tlio human organism is on tho whole just as harmful as spirits.” Dr A. Ilolitscher, Germany: “Beer, being an alcoholic liquor, is responsible for a greater part of the alcoholismfrom- winch tho European nations are suffering.” Dr August Ley, professor of psychiatry, Brussels University, Belgium: “ Alcohol is an important cause of criminality and delinquency.” Dr Paul Maurice Uegrain, Paris, France: “ Acute drunkenness la a temporary insanity, from which one can well conclude thdt alcohol is truly a direct cause of, insanity.” PITTSBURGH JUDGE AND BEER. Judge J. W. F. White, sitting in the criminal court, entertains a very poor opinion of beer, and takes-every opportunity ho sees of‘expressing it. Re<ceqtlv he said that beer bought in this country makes brutes of men. who,drink it. That is due, tho aged jurist said, to the. drugs Jn the boor. judge, White concluded by assorting that more crime results from beer drinking than .the drinking of other liquors. , ■ HUMOROUS, From the “Situations Wanted” columns of tho ‘ Morning Advertiser,’ January 2, 1929:—“As barman, good, reliable all-round man, able to take charge, or would assist generally, abstainer, used to all classes of trade; distance no object.”