TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 21662, 6 March 1934, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

(Published by arrangement ..with th* United Temperance- Reform Council.) “ MINE’S A MILK! ” Such is tlie heading of a ‘ Sunday Dispatch ’ article announcing that milk is becoming a popular’ drmk : among South Yorkshire miners. WHAT THEY SAY. The prescribing of alcohol in beverages and medicines is dying out. In thirty-six years’ medical practice 1 have only once prescribed alcohol, and 1 do not think any of my patients have been a bit the worse for not having it.—Dr J, E. Harburn. /.TOTAL ABSTINENCE. “ We used to think that moderate drinking—temperance, as the wets call it—did no harm. Now we know that it is responsible 'for an enormous loss of life through automobile accidents on our streets. One cocktail is enough To impair the dexterity and quickness of hand and foot, to spoil the man’s judgment about speeds and distances, on which safe driving depends. Most of the drunken drivers arrested every week on our streets are not drunk in the ordinary sense. They are temperate drinkers; but they are the most dangerous of all drjnkers in this lastmoving age. The man who is really drunk—the excessive drinker—rarely tries to drive a motor car. It is the mederate drinkers who do most harm. They killed in 1931 more people in the United States than typhoid fever, 'diphtheria, and influenza put together. “ The effects of alcohol in killing people when much of it is taken within a. snort time are usually laid to ‘ had liquor.’ This is very rarely proved. Almost all deaths from drinking are due to too much ‘ good liquor.’ Dr Richard Cabot. “ The simple idea that a man with a clear brain is a better employee than one with a muddled brain, is carrying this question forward to success; the sooner men learn that in order to secure employment at all they must approach their service with minds unclouded, the better for humanity. Economic consideration now allies itself with religion, and insists that the welfare of the community demands that the temple of God shall remain undefiled.”—Carroll D. Wright. “ Beer is now put forward as a noufattening food. But eight ounces ,of 4 per cent, beer contain two teaspoonfuls of the active poison—alcohol, a narcotic, habit-forming drug. Food furnishes first, • building material; second, fuel for warmth and work; -and third, it may be stored against future needs. Alcohol cannot be used for the building purposes or warmth and all the while it is in the body it is exercising its characteristic poisonous effect.” —W.C.T.U. BEER ANt) BOAT RACING.

Dr R. Cove Smith, of England, has, according to a cable in .‘The Advertiser,’ given it as his opinion that Cambridge’s long run of boat nice successes was duo ’ to the fact that it gained greater energv.from brown sugar than from beer We are by.no means surprised at the great athlete’s opinion, as we have more than once read the advice he has given to all athletes to have nothing to do with alcohol in any shape or form. The cable, however, re-

calls the fact that two or three years ;igo, on the eve*of the boat race, the local liquor journal featured the paragraphs; “The Oxford boat race crew Is now in strict training, and their bqer ration is fixed at If pints a day, which experience shows is indispensable to keep the men fit.” The beer allowance seems to have had quite the opposite effect intended, as the crew was not only badly beaten in the race, but was so exhausted at the finish that not a man could lift his head, while their opponents wore as fresh as paint. It is somewhat surprising that Professor Simpson, of the Adelaide University, whose opinion was sought by ‘ The Advertiser,’ could not conceive why rowers should prefer brown, sugar to beer, particularly when he gave a lull and sufficient reason for the preference, when he proceeded to say that “ sugar was rapidly absorbed into the body, its energy was stored and was readily available for use.” The professor must also know that while sugar is a source of energy beer rapidly dissipates it. As for nourishment, who does not know to-day that a pint' of milk contains more flesh-forming, bone-forming, and heat-giving material than a dozen pints of beer. If our local rowers are wise, they will listen to the counsel of an authority like Dr Cove Smith.— ‘ Clarion Call.’ THE WISDOM OF EGYPT.

When Francis G. Benedict with his co-workers at the Carnegie Institution of Washington demonstrated that alcohol, .even in moderate beverage doses, is a narcotic drug, contributing nothing to organic efficiency and impairing the protective function of the reflexes of the body, he merely gave exact scientific expression to what appears to have been a well-known fact twenty-six hundred years before Christ. A PHARAOH WHO KNEW. About that .period there flourished in Egypt a Pharaoh, Dedkere Isesi. Egypt had then reached an advanced cultural state, and, in fact, excited the wonder and admit ation of all surrounding countries. This particular Pharaoh was a discerning man. He has left wise sayings that are evidently treasured as are the precepts of Solomon and Confucius. Among these sayings is the followingDo nor go into a beertavern-, for unpleasant are the words reported at second-hand as having come from your mouth, when yon do not know that they have been said by you. And if you fall down you will break your bones, and nobody will give you a hand. Even your companions in drink will stand up and say; ‘Away with the drunkard!’ ” Could there be a better popidar expression than this as to the narcotic effect of alcohol in destroying inhibitions, both mental and physical, and releasing uncontrolled activities? Evidently alcohol was a problem in those days as it is now. But is was not then the only human problem any more than it is now, the only human problem awaiting settlement.

GERMAN TEMPERANCE MOVE MENT.

Tbe revolution of March, 19-33, has had important consequences for the German temperance movement, reconstituted upon a new basis and under the direction of a chief appointed by the Minister of the Interior. At the same time the German Good Templars detached themselves from the International Order; but wo have every ground for hope that they will again unite with their comrades of other countries. The German temperance workers expect the new Government to take energetic measures against alcoholism. Since it attaches capital importance to the preservation of the purity and vigour of the race it ought to attack a debilitating disease like alcoholism.