DR. ANDREW CLARK ON ALCOHOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6213, 15 October 1881, Page 7

DR. ANDREW CLARK ON ALCOHOL.

Dk. Avdkkw Clark lately delivered an evening address on alcohol, in the Great Portland-street .School-rooms, London, to a crowded and deeply interested audience. He said he purposed offering a few informal remarks upon the influence of alcoholic drinks upon health, upon work, upon disease, and upon the succeeding generation. This question of alcohol was of the first importance to us as a nation and as individuals, and hence a great responsibility rested upon those who professed to speak upon it with authority. He ventured to say that he knew something about this question. For twenty-five years ho had been physician to one of the largest hospitals in this country (the London Hospital), and there, as elsewhere, it had been part of his business in life to ascertain the influence which alcoholic drinks exercised upon health, and he had with deep interest and attention striven to get at the truth of tho matter. In tho first place let him distinctly say that alcohol was a poison, as were also strychnine, arsenic, and opiuir. ; but in certain small doses strychnine, arsenic, and opium were useful in special circumstances, and in very minute doses alcohol could be used without any obvious prejudical effect upon health. He was not going to discuss what these minute doses were, save to say that they were very minute. A perfect state of health (and it was rarely to be found) could not be benefited by alcohol in any degree, and in nine times out of ten it was injured by it. He said this not as a total abstainer, though he earnestly hoped that all the rising generation would be. Instead of the ideal state of health which might be enjoyed save for the nature of our surroundings, the sins of our parents, and our own sins, there was a sort of secondary health possessed by most of us, and what did alcohol do for this ? He had two answers to give—that this sort of health bore apparently wish alcohol better than the other, and sometimes seemed as if benefited by it; and this was exactly the sort of health that formed the g 'eat debating ground of different people with respect to the use of alcohol. Secondly, there were some nervous people always ailing, yet never ill, for whom he had a profound sympathy, who seemed to derive great comfort from alcohol, and to these he had sometimes said, "Take a little beer or wine, but take great care never to go beyond the minute dose." He did not defend this, but simply stated it to show what he thought. As to the influence of alcohol upon work, Dr. Clark went on to encourage his hearers to try the experiment of total abstinence, and observe the result in regard to work. Let them, however, try it fairly, and not allow themselves to be deterred from it by the evil prognostications of friends. He was certain that if this experiment were tried each individual present would come to the conclusion that alcohol was not a helper of work, but, on tho contrary, a hinderer. Now, as to the effect of alcohol upon disease. He went through the wards of hia hospital to-day and asked himself how many cases there were due to natural and unavoidable causes and how many to drink, and he came, after careful thought, to the conclusion that seven out of ton owed their ill-health to alcohol. Ho did not say that these were exceesive drinkers or drunkards—in fact, it was not the drunkards who suffered most from alcohol, but the moderate drinkers who exceeded the physiological quantity. The drunkard very often was an abstainer for months together after a period of intemperance, but the moderate drinker went steadily to work undermining his constitution, and preparing himself for premature decay and death. He had no means of finding out how many victims alcohol claimed each year, but certainly more than threefourths of the disorders of fashionable life arose from the drug of which he was speaking, Finally, Dr. Clark dwelt upon the heredity of the alcoholic taint, and closed by saying that sometimes when he thought of all this conglomeration of evils he was disposed to rush to the opposite extreme—to give up hia profession, to give up everything, and to enter upon a holy crusade, preaching to all men everywhere to beware of this enemy of the race.