MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12272, 16 May 1903, Page 6 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

ALCOHOLISM.

I Alcoholic drinks, no doubt, give a sense of comfort and well-being to most people, bub these pleasures are terribly apt to lead to chronic disease of the internal organs. The common error is to think that if one avoids getting drunk one is safe from evil results. There is no more common or mischievous idea, for an occasional drinking bout which leads to a headache and to sickness from an alcoholic excess does very much less harm to the constitution than the regular drinking of such a quantity as can easily be taken without intoxication, if it exceed, for a fullgrown man, an ounce and a-half of alcohol per day. This would be represented by a total daily consumption of six tablespoonfuls of spirits, or three glasses of port or sherry, or by a pint and a-half of good ale ; so that no one is acting wisely who, for his or her pleasure, drinks more than these quantities. It is of no use to say that many persons can and do drink more, because there may be persons of exceptional constitution who do not seem to us to suffer from it for some time. The subsequent history of these free drinkers proves our contention, for after a time they fall victims' To many diseases, among which we may notice chronic gastritis, shown by painful digestion, and irritable stomach, shown by nausea and sickness ; chronic liver and kidney disease, and a curious state of nervous weakness and irritability. To these may be added chronic rheumatism and gout. There is also great reason for believing that phthisis, which is consumption of the lungs, when it begins in middle age, is also caused by the habit of drinking to excess. No doubt consumption i 3 very often due to heredity, but when it is so it shows itself in young persons, before drinking habits occur, or even in childhood, in which cases it generally affects the brain and net the lungs. All the many forms of insanity, especially those which lead to suicide, are more commonly caused by drink than by any other cause. There is no doubt that every form of work in this world can be very well carried on by persons who drink no alcohol, and can restrain themselves to water, aerated waters, tea, coffee, and chocolate. We do not for a moment deny that alcoholic drinks give a sense of pleasure, but that pleasure is dearly bought at a certain risk to health and sanity, and those who refrain from them are blessed by a sense of good health and freedom from minor ailments which no drinker ever knows.

POOD VALUES: WHAT IS NUTRITIOUS AND DIGESTIBLE. Some cherished beliefs about various kinds of food were vigorously attacked by Professor MacFayden the other day in a concluding lecture at the Royal Institution on " Digestion." He began by contending that the food values of beef-tea and of oysters had been greatly over-rated. As regards fish - he said there was a popular belief that this form of food contained a great deal of phosphorous, and was consequently good for brain workers. There was no foundation whatever for this belief, and no experimental evidence to show that fish contained more phosphorous than any other form of animal food. By way of compensation for this disappointment fish was to be regarded as a good form of animal food, easily digested and assimilated because of its short, muscular fibres.. Fish and lean beef were about equally digestible. Lean beef, in its turn, was more equally digested than fatty mutton. The, cold fat of mutton was especially inimical to quick digestion. Cod and whiting, which were lean fish, were more digestible than salmon, mackerel, and eel, which were fatty; and, while the whiting was the most digestible of fishes, and almost of all animal food, the herring occupied, perhaps, the first place for nutriment and digestibility combined. Among vegetable foods the pea, bean, and the lentil ranked first. The lentil was one of the most ancient forms of food, and the red Egyptian lentil probably was the constituent of Esau's mess of red pottage.