TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20582, 4 December 1928, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

"Alcohol impairs digestion; in thousands of people it, keeps up a continual state of indigestion, and the indigestion itself is a temptation to them'lo take alcohol to fatal excess."—Dr Richardson. SMALL DOSES OE ALCOHOL. THE INFLUENCE UPON SPEED. _ Dr Herbert Herxheimer published some time ago in the Munchener Medizinisher Wochenschriit a very interesting account of the. practical experiments n© .made as to the influence of alcohol upon the working capacity Of sportsmen, more especially its influence upon speed. Dr Hsrzheimer gives first a very interesting review oi all the external and internal factors which may modify the working powers of sportsmen*—wind, time of day, temperature, as external factors; work done before the experiments, variation in the bodily forces, familiarity with some form of sport, as internal factors. Dr Herxheimer tried, as far as-possible, to eliminate the action of these factors, causing the same members of sporting groups to run, at the same time of day, on the same track and in otherwise similar conditions, but , with or without alcohol. i

What Dr Herxheimer chiefly wanted to ascertain was if really the period of excitation to greater energy which is generally considered to intervene immediately after one has taken alcohol was under all conditions existent.,'He therefore made his men run four to six minutes after they bad taken a very small dose of alcohol—viz., 7grs alcohol of 98deg diluted with aromatised water. The men who took no alcohol received another beverage from which.they had been instructed to expect the same action as from alcohol—that is, a stimulating effect. - Thus the auto-suggestion which was likely to play a part among the men who received alcohol was present also among those who took none. The distance to run was very short, 100 metres (about 110 yards), thus allowing the runners to 1 make a great effort without sparing their strength. Dp Herzheimer made a further experiment with swimmers. His men had to swim 100 metres, which corresponds as "regards the time and effort of running to a distance of 400 metres.

Analysing the results of the expai-i----rients. Dr Herxheimer says that the difference between the experiments with or without alcohol is very sensible for such a short time, the difference amounts to about two metres. For him it is evident that such small doses of alcohol ,as were given exercised an unfavourable influence on the speed of the runners a 4 well as on that of the swimmers." These results do not agree with the experiments with the \ ergograph, which indicated a short period during which the activity of the muscles was greater. The reason of the difference is very likely that the ergograph works only with a single muscle, and the runners have to bring into play a great many muscles. That is. they have to co-ordinate the activity ofdifferent groups of muscles, a much more intricate work. Already Durig had observed similar results with his experiments regarding mountain climbing. The conclusion of _Dr ‘ Herxheimer is that it is quite a mistake to take small doses of alcohol before a sporting event.

THE ROYAL NAVAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

The R.N.T.S. is under the direct patronage of the Lords Commisisoners of the Admiralty .and the Air Ministry, and it is satisfactory to know that a goodly number of the latter service are members. Aj correspondent wrote: " Whilst visiting a naval establishment recently I came to a room where I found men on the alert, not asleep, though they had had their dinner, all bright and in conversation. I was surprised not to sec or even smell any rum about, so I inquired: ‘No rum in this mess?’ and the reply was: 'We have ' unanimously agreed to stop our rum, and we are allowed extra meat, because we are training for Olympia.’ The same week I visited a Royal Air Force base, and on inquiring from one of the men if there were any teetotalers in his room he was pleased to reply. ‘We are all on that tack; we are training for Olympia,’ ”