TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 21720, 15 May 1934, Page 19

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

(Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.) The Royal Commission on Licensing (England and Wales), 1931, states: “ The evidence which we have received has left upon us the definite impression that a substantial reduction in the present expenditure on intoxicants by all classes is strongly desired.” BLOOD TEST FOR DRINKING DRIVERS. The metropolitan police department of Washington, D.C., has already made -plans for dealing with the expected increase of drunken driving following the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The Washington ‘ Evening Star ’ states that Traffic Director William A. Van Duzer and a group of prominent authorities on psychology have for some time been working on a plan for meeting the various problems that may arise in traffic cases after legal liquor returns, and have about decided that a blood test will offer the best solution. The details are still to be worked out, says Mr Van Duzer, as quoted by the Press, and the department will probably have to employ both a chemist and a laboratory assistant to aid in the work. In general, the idea, is that after the arrest of a driver suspected of being intoxicated, he shall be driven to a police station for the taking of a blood sample which would be analysed by the chemist and a report made before the formal charge would_ be preferred. This blood test, the police chief believes, will show exactly the degree of intoxication with scientific accuracy, thus furnishing invaluable assistance to those in charge of traffic. Something of this sort is required in the dominion lot.of “hard swearing.” ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND TEA. The following figures show the curious changes that have occurred in the national habits during the past century:— Consumption per head (TJ.K.) per annum. 1830. 1875. 1900. 1930. Tobacco (lb) ... 0.7 1.3 1.8 3.3 Tea (lb) 1.2 4.5 6.0 9.9 Alcohol (gallons of proof spirit) —Average Consumption.— Deducting children, it was calculated, that the average adult takes_ daily_ an ounce of pure alcohol (which is equivalent to about one pint of beer), and about two-thirds of an ounce of tea, while he.or she smokes about 2oz of tobacco a week. ' In view of the reduced consumptionof alcohol, it is stated that its effects on the population ' need not be discussed. As regards tobacco, it had been found that the average consumption in cases of tobacco amblyopia (dimness of vision) was only 3oz a week, which was not so very much greater than the average national consumption. In the case of tea the usual calculation was that a pound of tea provided 200 cups, and hence the daily consumption of two-thirds of an ounce was equal to about eight cups of' tea, and this quantity contains about six grains of caffein, which represents a full pharmacopoeia! dose. —Civilised Restraint.— When tea and coffee were first introduced, they were received with _ a storm of abuse, and were said to inflict every imaginable evil on the human body and soul. “ There is no doubt,” it is added, “ that the immoderate use of tea or tobacco can produce a wide variety of injurious effects on the body, but the more interesting and important fact is that the great majority of civilised people take these drugs regularly throughout their adult life, without becoming immoderate addicts and without suffering any demonstrable injury.” PASTEUR’S OLDEST DISCIPLE PROTESTS. The following is supplemental to ‘ The Truth About Pasteur ’ in the April 1 number of the 1 Union Signal.’ It is data secured by Dr R. Her.cod, director of the International Bureau Against Alcoholism, relating to Pasteur’s supposed dictum that wine is the most wholesome and hygienic of beverages. These details will be valuable in connection with the movement for the return of the legal sale of wine. The French National Wine Committee made quiet scandalous misuse of Pasteur’s name, printing on the socalled “ bons points ” (leaflets awarded to good pupils in the French schools) the above statement attributed to him, and adding thereto some rerilarks on the food Value of wine, making it out to be higher than that of milk and other forms of nourishment. The matter was discussed at the Academy of Medicine in Paris, and Dr Wetzel, a physician of Alsace, was authorised to read a protest against the use of Pasteur's name as an advocate of wine drinking. There was a discussion, in which several _ members of the academy took part, in particular the oldest disciple of Pasteur, Dr Roux, who has succeeded him as director of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Dr Roux expressed his indignation in the following words:— “ As the oldest of Pasteur’s collaborators I protest against the abuse of a phrase occurring in one of Pasteur’s works, separated from its context in order to establish nutritive equivalences of an absurd nature. It is a scandalous proceeding to place alongside the portrait of the greatest of hygienists affirmations of such a harmful character as those printed pn the backs of the leaflets distributed in the schools following the ' issuing' of a ministerial circular. Such- a use may justly be called trifling with tho truth.” Dr Roux alludes here to the circular letter sent by a former minister of public instruction, M. Roustan, to all school teachers in France recommending theni to intensify their propaganda in favour of wine in the schools. “ WHO IS HE THAT CONDEMNETH?” “ Let every man study his own ease. Wo are working for health, happiness, and efficiency. “ Does strong drink add to your wellbeing? If not, is it not better to omit it? “ And this certainly a largo number of intelligent people arc doing.”