PROHIBITION- FALLACIES

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11929, 28 June 1899, Page 3

PROHIBITION- FALLACIES

-> (Published by arrangement.) PROHIBITION IN CANADA. ‘‘Professor Blackie, - of Edinburgh,” says Dr Gredwin Smith, “has been cited as speaking of the general elevation of moral tone in Toronto, and attributing it largely to the control of the liquor traffic/’ 'this is remarkable, as Toronto did not adopt the Scott Act. It is true, as the writer, after many years’ residence in Toronto, gladly bears witness, that drunkenness is seldom seen in her streets, in her places of amusement, in her excursion boats or trains, while such intemperance as there is prevails chiefly among recent immigrants. But the credit is due to spontaneous self-control, or to the uninforced influence of social opinion, religion, and medical authority. An attempt was made to quicken improvement by withdrawing at once the licenses of eighty places vvhea;e liquor was .sold— ....The- result was unfavourable. ‘Saloon-keepers'’ who lost their licenses took to contraband sale, there in the houses which: ‘r’emained, a spirit of defiance, perhaps, was aroused by restraint, and an unusually intemperate Christmas ensued.

ARE ALCOHOLIC DRINKS POISONS? Medical men may contend that poisons, mineral or vegetable, are alien to the human body, and should be used, even when diluted, only in cases of illness, and that pure alcohol, being a poison, must come under this rule. But this contention dees not hold. water. Tea leaves and coffee beans contain caffeine, a vegetable poison of the first order, a poison which in its concentrated form has a more pernicious effect on the stomach than alcohol. And yet it is the active principle of the brew called tea and coffee, and it is consumed in enormous quantities. The alkaloids contained in tea and coffee are indeed ingredients which constitute the value of these articles of consumption as a .stimulant. Strong tea and coffee are as injurious to health as alcohol, a fact which can be proved by examining the millions of cases of chronic dyspepsia .whichr prevail...amopgst , r tea .and,;',' coffee drinkers'. The actipn-of caffeine is less acute but m°te lasting and more'dangerous to the general health in the end. Teetotallers and faddists of all sorts only .obscure the subject and make a practical solution of a difficult situation impossible. •

DR GARDENER ON DRUG STORES, OR RUM SHOPS. In Kansas, the State of Governor St John, the chosen chief of the prohibitionists, where the most stringent prohibition had been enacted, the result, according to Dr Gardener, was that the drug, stores were little more than rum shops, and that their number was astonishing. In one town of C; 000 people fifteen of them were counted on the main .street.:. Leavenworth,:-with;,a population of 23*000,. has a hundred and seventy-five places where liquor- is sold. 94