TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 10

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council-

ALCOHOL AND THE BRAIN.

It was Dr Richardson who discovered that alcohol really changes the nature of the brain. He experimented on the brain of a dead animal, and said he “ tried bydistillation to get back again the alcohol with which the brain had been soaked, but such was the tenacity of this organ tor the spirit that he never succeeded in getting it all back. This led him to the conclusion that alcohol became part of the brain structure, and so far changed it that the victim, in fact, got a different brain. The more the effects of alcohol upon the human system are considered the more we discover the injurious effects, it produces. Every child trained to habits, of total abstinence will help to produce a more powerful and deeper-thinking race than the present.” SCIENTIFIC TESTIMONY. The action of alcohol on the brain is to paralyse.”—Dr J. Taylor Fox. M.D., M.R.C.S. Alcohol even in so-called moderate doses does harm.”—Dr E. Vipont Brown. ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE. At this time of year the sun is low on the horizon or disappears for days altogether, the life-giving ultra-violet rays no longer* stimulate and invigorate; fog and damp prevail, and the vitality of the body, even in the strongest, is at a low ebb- It is now that the voice of the drink-: seller is heard in the land; we read specious advertisements regarding the alleged efficacy of rum as a prophylactic against colds and influenza, and the rnedii cated wine purveyors (for they also, though disguised, are among the drinksellers), expend large sums in extolling fi e,r wares in the press with the hope that the unwary and the ignorant may be entrapped. The question of alcohol as a medicine perplexes many people, though it is iq reality quite a simple one. At such gatherings, for example, as the young speakers school, the question as to the use of alcohol as a drug is a common one. .heedless to say, the pro-liquor advocates do their best to confuse the issue, and with their usual lack of logic (not to mention principle) bring forward the claims of alcohol as a drug as a pretext tor its use as a beverage and its open sale in public houses and other resorts of its votaries, It.is essentially a case for clear thinking, which is the last thing the liquor party desire.

The key to the problem lies in an elementary knowledge of science. Alcohol is a narcotic; that is a drug which benumbs, stupifies, and paralyses. It is the same class of drugs as chloroform, opium, morphia, etc. All these are valuable drugs, constantly in use in hospitals, and in the private practice of phj-sicians, but in inexperienced hands they are all extremely dangerous, and their sale to irresponsible persons is made practically impossible by law. Alcohol, on the other hand, though a drug of this class, is freely obtainable anywhere, by anybody and in any quantity. Its use in medical, practice hjis steadily diminished during the last 50 years; formerly an almost universal panacea, ;it is now used rarely, and hospital figures all over the United Kingdom and in other countries go to prove the great diminution that has taken place. Temperance reformers do not deny that it may have a certain value as a drug in certain circumstances; on the contrary, they insist that it is essentially a drug, and should be placed under the same restrictions as other dangerous drugs with regard to sale and use. Once this is conceded the whole case for the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages falls to the ground. It is obvious that no person in ordinary health requires a drug daily or several times a day. Alcohol as a narcotic drug in disease, when the body machine is out of gear and in an abnormal condition, is another question, and one for the medical practitioner in whoee bands, in the majority of eases, it may be safely left. There are, of course, ignoramuses in the medical profession, as in other professions, men of whom Sir William Osler said that “ the great river of progress has passed them by and left them high and dry on its banks, but they do not know it.” Those who defend the general use of alcohol on the ground of its limited .medicinal value are for the most part insincere and dishonest. There is the individual, for instance, a not uncommon type, who asserts loudly that total abstinence is folly, for alcohol saved his life when he had influenza, etc. Inquiry generally reveals the fact that it may be three or four years since his illness, and if he is asked if he still continues, the other, medicines prescribed at the time, and if not, why not, why he should continue the alcohol he generally looks rather foolish. The truth is that every liquor shop in the country might be closed to-morrow so far as its medicinal use is concerned. The whole drink trade might be eliminated yet the supply of alcohol for legitimate scientific and industrial proposes need not be interfered with in the slightest degree. 1 BEER NONSENSE. Eugene Lyman Fisk, medical director of the Life Extension Service, a concern set up by the great life insurance compnies of America to promote longevity, declares that it is “ nonsense to claim that beer is a hygienic drink.” In a statement recently issued, he saye:—

Alcohol is alcohol, either in whisky or

beer. It is nonsense to claim that beer is a hygienic drink. It is drunk chiefly for its alcoholic effect, and if tho effect is produced, the danger of alcoholism exists. Anyone who doubts that beer can produce a certain form of intoxication need only to visit the saloon and watch the beer drinker in various stages of befuddlement or excitement. If beer does not intoxicate or produce any alcoholic effect, what becomes of the “ racial craving for stimulants ” which it is said to satisfy? Furthermore, heavy beer drinking, ae in the case of brewery employees, adds the danger of excessive fluid intake, entirely apart from alcohol. The heavy mortality of brewery employees is sufficient evidence that beer, so far as its effect on masses of men is concerned, ie not a hygienic drink.