TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3993, 23 September 1930, Page 65

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.

"ALCOHOL AN EVIL GENIUS.” "A. drunken man is like a drowned man; a fool and a madman; one draught makes him a fool, the second mads him, and a third drowns him.” —Shakespeare. ‘ Prevention of intemoerance is not only better than cure; but prevention is a duty, and cure is a lame halting attempt to undo an evil which we have wilfully permitted.”—Cardinal Manning. . ‘ Total abstinence is an absolute necesr sity to everyone if they would achieve the best in their lives —the best of enjoyment, and of mental and muscular efficiency.” Alcohol in the smallest quantities always deteriorates: it is a drug. “Alcohol is the one evil genius whether in wine, beer, or whisky, and is killing the race of men. Stay the ravages of this one poison—alcohol, king of poisons: the mightiest weapon of the devil, and the millenium will be brought appreciably nearer.”—Dr Willard Parker.

MILK .AND BEER. One pint of milk contains 14 times a? much heat-giving food, 20 times as much body-buiding food, and seven times as much mineral food as beer. Compare them this way:— 1. One pint of milk contains a lot of fat (in the cream) and sugar, good heat-giving foods; but to get the same amount m beer, a person would have to drink 14 pints of beer with at least 14 ounces of the poison alcohol. Cost: Milk 3d, beer 7s. 2. One pint of milk contains a lot of building and strengthening food for the muscles, brain, and nerves. To get the same amount in beer a person would have to drink 20 pints of beer, with at least 20 ounces of the poison alcohol. Cost of milk 3d, beer 10s. 3. One pint of milk contains mineral matter for the bones. To get this in beer a person would have to drink seven pints. 4. Milk contains no poison. Beer contains a powerful poison, alcohol. “ There is just about as much nourishment in a pint of ale or stout as there is in a pill.”—The Referee.

“EIGHTY-TWO AND GOING STRONG.” Mr Charles Francis, a member of the Otago Early Settlers’ Association, and an old resident of Dunedin now living in New York, United States, writing to a friend in Dunedin in July last, gives this line testimony to total abstinence.

“ As for myself I am remarkably strong for a man of 82 and one-third years. . . . I am doing 9 holes of golf every morning during our summer. ... Of course, the oldest of us are not long for this world, but my doctor, who is 56 years, says that he hopes to be here when I reach the 10'J mark. . . . “ I have tried not to over-eat, and have been a total abstainer all my life from alcoholic drink. I indulge in activities, and up to two years ago played tennis. ... I expect to have a dance this evening. “ Wishing you much j'oy and happiness and a long and healthful life, yours sincerely. for “ Auld Lang Syne,”—Charles Francis.

LIQUOR ADVERTISEMENTS CUT OUT. We are also pleased to record that according to the chairman of the Victorian Railway Commissioners, all liquor advertisements in railway and on bridges, hoardings, and other railway property in Victoria is to be abolished. We have also to record that the MacDonald Government has resolved to discontinue all advertising of liquor in post offices and post office publications. This “cutting out” of liquor advertisements is in line with all progressive thought and with the advancing sentiment against alcoholic beverages. —Common Sense. — ALCOHOL LOWERS THE MIND. Dr Henry Smith Williams well sums up the barm done by alcohol in his statement: “I am bound to believe, on the evidence, that if you take alcohol habitually in any quantity whatever it is to some extent a menace to you. I am bound to believe, in the light of what science has revealed: — “ 1. That you are threatening the physical structure of your stomach, your liver, kidneys, heart, nerves, and brain; (2) that you are unquestionably lessening your power to work in any field, be it physical, intellectual, or artistic; (3) that you are, in some measure, lowering the grade of your mind, dulling your higher sense, and taking the edge off your morals; (4) that you are distinctly lessening your chances of maintaining your health, and of living to old age.” STATE EDUCATIONAL CHART. A bulletin of the Department of Health of New York city says: “ The discontinuance of the use of alcohol will mark a greater advance in public health protection than anything since the application of our knowledge of the bacterial origin of disease.” The New York State Department has, on one of its educational charts, the sentence. “ Alcohol causes more misery, sickness, inefficiency, and death than any

other single cause.” A strong statement, but one that we must heed when it comes from an official and scientific body, whose sole interest is the preservation of public health. . Who will make it easier for his neighbour to be at his best? He who, becausehe loves his neighbour, will do all in his power to abolish the present body, mind, and soul-destroying drinking customs. ALCOHOL AS A POISON. The action of alcohol on the human body is that, of a depressant, habit-form-ing drug, which, in its narcotic effects, resembles closely ether ' and chloroform. It is also a protoplasmic poison, for, when it is brought into contact with the living cell, the protoplasm or substance of>the cell is damaged and shows a definite but variable injury and depreciation of its function, according to the animal, or organ or tisues tested, and the ■strength in which the alcohol is applied.