NERVE-KUIN IN THE TEAPOT.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 343, 14 August 1907, Page 3

NERVE-KUIN IN THE TEAPOT.

GOOD BEER AND WINES THE IDEAL DRINKS. Tea, "the cup that cheers but not inebriates," will have to be described as "the cup that does no good but only irritates." if the report of the commission appointed by the Hospital holds good. For six months the commission has been investigating the chemical composition and dietetic effects of light wines, and its report will appear in this week's issue of the Hospital. As was forecasted, the report advocates the use of light French wines, which it insists are temperance beverages, and strongly discounts the value of tea. A leading medical authority on digestion, who is consulting physician to one of the London hospitals, gave a qualified support to the commission's report. "Most medical men frequently recommend a little wine, and I believe it is often beneficial if it is light and is taken in moderation/ he told an Express representative. "Many temperance people will not admit this, and that is their mistake," he said. "There can be no doubt that wine is a good thing for some people at times. In my own case, I find that if I drink a glass of rwine while living in town it makes me ill for a week, but when I am in the country I take a little wine and it does me good." An emphatic opinion against the drinking of tea, and in favour of the use of the juice of the grape and malted liquor, was given by Dr. Josiah Oldfield, who regards the teadrinking habit as almost a national menace. "I have for a long time held the opinion that the juice of grapes is one of the most valuable foods of the human body — and under the head of foods one includes drinks," Dr. Oldfield said. "It is only by an accident that alcohol comes into fruit juice, as a method of preserving it, and when by any process the amount of alcohol is very small, as it is in some forms oi light, pure grape juice wine, I consider that the value of the grape juice is far greater than the injury of the small quantity of alcohol. t "I would, however, draw attention to the latest scientific methods of preserving fruit juice, by a process akin to Pasteurisation, which gives the whole nutritive value of the grape juice — that is, especially its salinee — without the injurious effect of the alcohol. We übo in the Lady Margaret Fruitarian Hospital, at Bromley, large quantities of the best Bordeaux wine made on this process, without alcohol. "As for tea, I agree with the commission. I look on the greater want of nerve control of the feminine sea as largely a result of their greater use of tea. Of all people, women ought not to drink tea, because it iB a nerve excitant, instead of a nerve food, and yet women are the sex that indulge most largely in this deleterious bever age. "I also believe in the value of lighi beer, or malt tea, as I call it, of t kind which gives the full value o: -beer without the alcohol. "I would far and away prefer t< see that drunk for breakfast insteat of tea, although I do not regard i as the best breakfast drink. "The early morning cup of tea i one of the causes of ill-temper a1 breakfast— starting the day, whei people need nerve rest and nerv< food, with a nerve stimulant am nerve irritant. That is what tea is "I wish, to protect myself agains 1 advocating alcohol. Ido not advo cate it. What I advocate is scienti fically-made beer and wines, for '. think both are to be produced witl a minimum of alcohol, and thereb] you get the great benefits which ac crue to the English race from beer and eliminate the evils which attacl to strongly alcoholic beer. "I look on beer and wine as drink of the future, both made seientifical ly, with a minimum of alcohol and i maximum of grain and fruit salines.' Dr. Oldfield added that he though the old English habit of drinking sac] at breakfast was preferable to th< modern habit of drinking tea.