MEDICAL EVIDENCE ON THE USE OF ALCOHOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5364, 25 January 1879, Page 6

MEDICAL EVIDENCE ON THE USE OF ALCOHOL.

Sir William Gcll, M.D., F.R.S., F.C.P., aud Cousuliiug Phr3iciinto Guy's Hospital, gave the following evidence before the Stlect Committee of the House of Lords on Intemperance, July, IS77:— Loid H at tismere. —With regard to leaving off driukiug j'ou think that you would stop the supply of alcohol at ouce without injury. I tbiuk so a-* a rule. 1 have aeeu a case in which a man left off drink suddenly, ami he bore the abstinence for a year, but was then obliged to go back again. X should say that he felt a de3he to go back to it again. j | Could not you do that by degress ? Ido not see auy good in degreeg. If you ! are taking poison into the blood I do not see the advautage of diminishing the degrees of it from d.«y to day. That point has been j frequently put to me by medical men ; but my reply has been, If your patient were poisoned by arseuic, would you still go on puttiog in the arsenic ? Karl of Kimberley.—ln the question which was asked you, it was assumed that a person who carries a great deal of drink, and does not get druLk, was aa much damaged as a man who d >ts get drunk ; can that be said to be the case ? He may be even more damaged, because he may be able to carry hia system of daily drinking for a long time, whereas the other man, who was incapable of drinking bo much, would be obliged to discontinue the practice.