TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 21810, 28 August 1934, Page 12

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

(Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.) Alcohol poisons the vital cells of the body; acts directly upon the nervous system and the brain, mipairing one’s higher faculties, judgment, conception, and control long before the least sypmtoms of drunkenness appear.—Sir William Wilcox (noted British toxicologist) . ALCOHOL AND HEALTH. ' [By H. G. Hawkins, M.D., Acklress before the Triennial Convention of Africa.] Let us now give serious consideration to the question of the use of alcohol in the restoration to health where health has been lost. There is no question that in the centuries of the past alcohol has been thoroughly tride out in every branch of medicine. And those medicines that are of proven value in any line of disease are in no danger of being discarded. Alcohol used to be the sheet anchor in the treatment of most fevers. It was used largely in pneumonia, enteric fever, diphtheria, all acute infections, diabetes, heart disease, tuberculosis, inoperable cancer, and senility. Now note what the Medical Annual ’ for 1931 says:— —Alcohol in Therapeutics.—

“ A remarkable decline has taken place within the last thirty years in the use of alcohol for therapeutic purposes . . . the low esteem in which alcohol is held as a therapeutic agent in the United States is shown by the face that only a mniority of practitioners apply for a license in those Statse in which the right to prescribe alcohol is granted. . . . The expert-

ence of the Western Hospital has shown that in the annual population of over 5,000 patients the consumption of alcohol can be practically reduced to nil without any injurious effects. The factors chiefly rseponsible for the undeserved esteem which alcohol still enjoys as a therapeutic agent are tradition rather than scientific evidnece, extramedical influence, and personal consideration.”

The giving of any drug without proper control is often a grave disappointment to the medical attendant. As, for instance, the patient who was given a little whisky with each dose of his medicine. When the doctors asked his wife if the patient was faithful in taking his medicine, she replied: “He’s not quite up to date with the mixture, doctor, but he’s about three weeks ahead on the whisky,” As a convivial experience there are those who might consider that “ Nae sa bad.” But as a therapeutic measure it has its drawbacks ! There is another phase of this alcohol question that is often a grave problem to the conscientious practitioner. The question of certification regarding drunkenness. When is a man drunk? Even if he is drunk, how is one going to best serve the interests of the man who has come to you for help and at the same time be honest with the employer—or the wife? I heard recently of a doctor , who solved _ the problem in a very ingenious fashion. Husband came home triumphantly with a certificate from his doctor. “ There you are, dear,” he said, “you see I am really ill.” His wife read the, certificate carefully. “ This is to certify that Mr Jones is suffering, from syncopation.’ When her husband had gone to work she found herself wondering what syncopation was. She had never heard of it as a disease. So she consulted the dictionary. It read; “Syncopationirregular movements from bar to bar, Wheeler, in his handbook of medicine published in 1924, says: “ The great 'diminution' in the use of alcohol in disease, which has characterised recent practice in every country, has been attended by a diminution in mortality. And the old routine administration of alcohol in fevers cannot be too strongly condemned.”

DECLINING USE IN HOSPITALS. Private practice may give us general conceptions regarding a given condition. But it is to the hospitals that one must turn for facts and figures regarding the trend of modern therapeutics. Here are some figures from London. Dr Chalmers Watson says: “ There is a steady fall in the amount of alcohol used in seven of the Hospitals in the past forty years.” You will quite understand that this is similarly true of the others, but facta could be obtained for these that he -mentions. “In 1862 the cost of alcohol for the seven mam London Hospitals was a little under £B,OOO. In 1902 many more patients were treated, but the cost was under £3,000. In 1894 the cost of stimulants in all the hospitals under the Metropolitan Asylums Board, London, was Is 4d per head. In 1904 it was 4d. . Scotland is the traditional home of whisky. In 1890 the annual cost of alcohol per ocupied bed in the Edinburgh, Royal Infirmary was 12s 10)d. In 1908 it was Is. Alcohol has had a thorough trial. For centuries it was used in all manner of cases. Modern medicine, with its scientific methods of testing therapeutics, has found it wanting. It professed to do all kinds of wonderful things for the sick man. But again it has been proven a liar. In 1917 the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association, under the chairmanship of Dr Chas. Mayo, passed the following resolution:—“Whereas wo believe that the use of alcohol is detrimental to the human economy, and whereas its use in therapeutics as a tonic or stimulant or for food has no scientific value; therefore, be it resolved, _ that the American Medical Association is opposed to the use of alcohol as a beverage; and be it further resolved, that the use of alcohol as a _ therapeutic agent should be further discouraged.”

DIMINISHES LONGEVITY. Health is definitely associated with longevity. And this subject cannot be left without a brief consideration of that phase of the question. Much could be said. But a few figures will speak more eloquently. A certain group of life insurance companies gave careful study to their experiences from 1884 to 1916. They found that moderate drinkers had a mortality of 18 per cent, greater than abstainers. Of those where there had been past excesses the mortality was increased by 50 per cent. Of steady drinkers who were accepted as standard risks, 86 per cent. In view of all these facts and figures, it seems unreasonable to expect good health, recovery from disease, and long life in normal terms if alcohol has any part in the daily programme.