SCIENCE AND ALCOHOL.

North Otago Times, 27 October 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND ALCOHOL.

CONCLUSIVE RESULTS-OF MODERN RTSSKARCH.

(By 0. W.Sileely, M.D., F.B.S. Win,)

TlifllSKktMotal doctor who raised his voice Some sixty ywira ago was looked upon aa a faddist of an exceptionally silly k'ind. If there was .any, ■ doctrine which the modicinp of to; / days did not question, it was the doctrines of the value of alcohol, alike, in health and in disease. Like other good filings, it was, of combo, capable of abuse—jurtt as tho sun, the source of all life, may cautb sunstroke. But. to I bo at onoo a doctor and a teetotaler i was to bo a lunatic to fcoot. j Those w'ero early days, however; the t science of pharmacology, wlrcli studies the actions of drugs upon tho healthy body, was unknown, nor bad bacteriology conie into existence. In course of j timo it happened that ethyl alcohol, i liko any other tHibstanco of sufficient interest, was halod before the bar of, scienoq. It claimed to be a food, to, be a stimulant, to keep out the cold, to protoob against infection, to aid the digestion, to bd at once a necessity in | nealtli aJid a- panacea in diseaw—to all ] •of which claims a critical and wld-j •jloodcd science replied, ''Wc .shall eec.'', A TMAL-BY SCIENTISTS. liie trial has bosn conducted not. by teetotaler, tut by all manner of nicn. It lias been conducted by a whole best of diverse methods, varying from the method of tlio chemist, who studied the poaiibilities cf oxidatiou and thus the food value of alcohol within the body, to the actuary, whceo business it ww to ascertain suolr facts as would make j for the profitable conducting of insurance companies; and the uniform rcfiult of all these diverse inquiries ia to establish tho revolutionary conclusion tliat to be on the. side, of alcohol today is to proclaim oneself ignorant, or worse. . My special concern here is to call attention to tho reocn.t completion of the scientific case against alcohol. > It hao been shown, and is now accepted by all oompotent persons, that alcohol is not- a necafcary article of food, that it.? influence is wholly injurious when the diet is otherwise more than | adequate (as it .is in the case of nearly | all prosperous poople in the country),) and that its utility as a food must be; limited at least to tiree cases in whioh, i for eome reason or other, an adequacy! of normal food cannot be taken. It is fainiliar to all doctors, again, that the drug which is 6upposed to keep out tbe cold lias a constant, marked, and doubly-effected action in the reduction.of the temperature of the body. It uoth increases the loss of heat from tho surface of the body and interferes with the reduct'on of .heat in its interior. It has therefore been widely used of recent yoai*s with a definitely febrifuge intent. '■ SEDATIVE OR .STIMULANT.

Yet, again, 110 critical pharmacologist i can now be found to regard alcohol j aa a stimulant, auy move, than lie) regards opium as a stimulant. In] berth of these eases, as in-many others, j a drug Which is essentially a sedative | or depressant exercises a .preliminary I stimulation. To fix upon this stimulation, however, as the essential character of the drug, is! to stultify your terminology; since .you are then loft with one and the B.une termto apply to a true stimulant such as caffeineior oolfee, on,the one hand, and a pseudo-stimulant, or .depressant with preliminary stimulation, such-as alcohol or opium. Here, again, etientific physicians are changing their practice in I accordance with advaucing knowledge, and when they administer alcohol at all do So with the sedative rather j than with th / 1 stimulant intent, j Needless to r~ I am not-referring j to cases of fail.. »g and-the like—in j which the first stimulant action of aloohol id so advantageous as to.outweigh | the subsequent depression. It would be as foolish to withhold .alcohol from a fainting person ;as it would be to give alcohol as a stimulant in-cases of heartdisease.-,- . - ; " _ But though the various Sciences, including the experimental Psychology, whose condemnation of alcohol in relation to intellectual processes is most noteworthy, have sent, to the rightabout almost all the* common .delusions whioh the medical profession shared rtixty yeara ago, there still did appear to remain at least one extremely common and important morbid state in which tlie value of alcohol remained unchallonged. This morbid state is •fever. In tho desire to seem impartial and to avoid the appearance of the evil of bias, I have until lately insisted upon the great valuo of alcohol in fever. The available evidence seemed to be entirely in its favour. Physicians, generally, ]: knew, used whipky-or brandy in the treatment of such a diseaso •as pneumonia, and there seemed to bo' no, adequate reason why I should hesitate 1 to acoept the opinion of-practical men, even though it seemed to be.almost inoompatiblo with tho rest of one's belief about alcohol. Here and there, however, practical men began to raise

,a doubt. They showed rooords of [pneumonia treated-without- a drop of alcohol, and t-hctfe records oompared ,mc6t favourably with those of the common practice. And lastly, tho new .science of bacteriology has entered into tho field and struck at alcohol which is i beyond •doubt a final blow. The illustrious Russian r scientist, Professor Metchni-: koff, of the Paeteur Institute, of ParisHe who first discovered, some twenty yeare ago, the power of tho white cells of tho fclood to enclose, kill, digest-, and utterly destroy the microbes to which ninety-nino hundredths of all diseasM are due-has induced various workerd to make-a critical study of the influence of alcohol upon the white cells and ; their- microbe-destroying-func-tion. A' SWEEPING VERDICT. Dr Mefcohnikoff lately lectured in London. A considerable part . i-r his firet lecture, delivered before a large medical-audience of very great distinction, was devoted to a discussion of tho influence of . alcohol upon, immunity from, and .susceptibility to, disease—these being ultimately dependant upon the behaviour of;our white cells. One wished tha/tlthe abpeed and- flouted medical pioneers, long dead,could have ;been predent.at' that locture, and could hare h«ird'the-enthusiastic and spontaneous applause with whioh that audience greeted Professor MetohnikofPa successive sentences.

The Professor showed that alooliol, even in tiny do&s, paralyses the white cells of the blood. In the.'presence of deleterious' microbes which they would 'otherwise promptly and successfully attack and kill, the white cells remain passive and,motionless. It is an easy matter to protect rabbits against the disease known as anthrax, but the methods which are ordinarily so efficient aro found to fail completely if tie a-abbita meanwhile have teen dosed.with alooliol. Then, when the white cells are examined .under the . microscope, they are found to be paralysed. A host of other microbes bfslide that which causes anthrax are found to be .similarly advantaged'by the paralysis• which aioohol induces in the defending army of the body. Lastly, there is .the, extremely striking fact that, in, almost tfrery case, the- failures to check the development of hydrophobia in persons dent to the Pasteur Institute: were found to-occur in. .alcoholic patients. The of .Metchjijkoff, loudly applauded, by a l.wgc audience My representative, of thp leadens-of; scien-! .tifio medecinain thia country, .was tliis: "Beside® its deleterious influence'on the nervous vscysteiii and other., important

parte of our body, nlcohol, therefore, lias a harmful action on the white blood cells, the agents of natural defence against infective microbes."