Intoxicating Liquors in Hospitals

Grey River Argus, Volume LVII, Issue 10312, 20 June 1899, Page 4

Intoxicating Liquors in Hospitals

. •> [To the Editor.] ; ! Sir,— lj am one of the "some" that Mr Malcolm alludes to in hid letter to you of the 17 inst that consider he has a good deal of cheek in. calling your readers attention to the question of the use of intoxicating liquor in the Greymouth hospital as we shall see later on. I understand Mr Malcolm is a prohibitionist and of course a total obsfcainei- f<oni the use of those liquors, and that his wish is, that all should be, but he will allow a certain portion of it to patients in hospitals. He. says the quantity should bo considerably diminished, this is not in accordance with his principles, at the same bime he advocates total abstinence should. I c maintained in hospitals. A Dr Mource testifies in treating patients

causes him to Jose 25 per cent, of those j who have had alcohol administered to j them, while those who had not, he merely lost 5 per cent. We do not know anything about this doctor or where he is to be found. Whether he is an eminent medical practitioner or merely a charlatan, we cannot say, bub this wo can say, there , are four expemncedjdoctors in this j town who unanimously agree that in j certain cures they administer alcohol in the shape of .wines, beer, or spirits ,; with the best results. One of the gentleman states that inhw experience : he found that more deaths occurred through intemperate eating than in- . terperate drinking. ; I have had access to the opinions of . the most eminent physicians in Eng- \ land. They tell us that alcohol is one of th<3 restoratives they use for there- j covery of patients in cases where it is ' proper to administer it, from childhood ; to old age, also with the best resulls. j We have this testimony against ' the one quoted by Mr Malcolm who '; says " unless the account given of Dr ' Mource's experence is a 4ie or a mis- J take," it must be. | The charge that Mr Malcolm brings against our doctors and the doctors of England amounts to murder or man- j slaughter as they persist in treating patients with alcohol and thereby ac- : cording to that gentleman cause the death of 25 persons/While if they j abstained from administering alcohol j they would only lose 5. I asked one j cf our doctors why he did not refute Mr Malcolm's statement when hw practice was assailed. His answer was "I take no notice of faddists or people who write to the daily press on subjects thoy know nothing about. Prohibition is one of the hobbies that arise from time to time, and there are always a number of persona who ride their hobby to death, expiring, a3 j ifc will do; as all others have ; done ; previously. We may mention a few of them that flourished for a-time and died out, the believers in them imagining that; if others joined the craze the greatest benefit would arise to society. The extermination of. witches was considered by a number of persons to be the only thing necessary to make a new and prosperous world. It is related that the late John Wesley, held the belief of the existence of wifcJicrafb and to doubt it he said was to doubt the truths of the Bible, that hobby has died out. In the year 1719 1720 a number of persons went mad over the Mississippi scheme which was to make the Nation. of France prosperous and happy the reverse, however, was the case, that craze died out. The South Sea Bubble a repetition of the Mississippi scheme in France was enacted in London with the same result, that craze died out. The cumber of persons who were victimised by the pretended art of transmitting the baser metals into gold were numerous, that craze has died out, excepting that a few months ago anvAnierican doctor pretended to do so, but like the former method his discovery has shared the same fate. The adventists who assembled in 1736 and entreated all they met to accompany them to the &■ Ids adj >inirig London to witness the destruction of that c : ty which was to be the beginning of the end of the world, that craze died out. Then we had the railway mania in" 1847, 1848 numerous persons invested their all in this scheme (and pitied those who abstained) with the usual result, losing all. We have had various phases of Socialism propounded, the schemes that have been tried have all turned out failures altho there are still some who imagine if the craze was established the greatest good for society would be accomplished. The antiTaccination craze, the vegetarian hobby have had their adherents all of them quits sure that if vaccination and the consumption of animal food were abolished the people would indeed be. j happy. Then we have the" christadelphiars quite a numerous body, who j show from many passages of the Bible , that Christendom from the Eoman i Catholic section to the half dozen that j meet on. Sundays in a private homß for , prayer are all astray. I have mentioned a few of many hobbies that have arisen from time to time. "Is prohibition not one of them?" We have heard a great deal lately about the Rev Mr Sheldon's book "In", his steps, or what would Jesus do V In the snbject under discussion, he ' would make a quantity of wine as he , did before. — Yours etc., Temperance.