ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 302, 16 May 1911, Page 3

ALCOHOLOGY.

(Published by arrangement.) I DR. W. A. CHAPPLE, M.P. , New Zealund is proud of New Zealand- ■ ers who win distinction in any honorable field of action, and notably so if those who proceed from our Parliament to a place in the Mother of Parliaments at Westminster. This is what Dr. Chappie has done But he has done more; ho has ranged himself on the side of progress and moral reform, and thus takes a place on the temperance platform. The sixty-sixth anniversary of the Scottish Temperance League was celebrated in (ilasgnw in a series of meetings, in which D;\ Chappie took part, and out of a lecture he gave, and which one paper described as "seeming simplicity which is tfie lAst product of a complete mastery of his subject, he enabled every intelligent hearer to understand that strong drink is only evil, and that continually," a few extracts are given below. MUSCULAR ACTIVITIES. "All their muscular activities, all their thoughts, all their feelings, all their sensations were presided over by the brain, or the nervous system . If he closed his right fist he did so in obedience to a message from a centre in his brain. If he reflected, he was exercising certain cells or centres in his brain which occupy the bony skull consisting of myriads of microscopic cells. A group of cells was called a brain centre, and it had a special function to perform. Now these centres were said to have a certain order of development. They developed from infancy to maturity in regular order." In describing this order Dr. Chappie showed how it proceeded by illustrations on the black-board. It was, he said, the will centre, the moral centre, which presided over all other centres, the power to say "No." The order of development was from the lower to the higher centres of brain action; and the order of degeneration was the reverse of that—from the higher to the lower. Hence degeneration, however brought on, flr«t affected the higher powers of man—Hie power to say "no" in time of temptation. HOW DRUGS ACT. Alcohol, among other drugs, had this poisoning effect on the brain. Let us contemplate what he (the speaker) thought was one of the most pathetic sights in human experience—the pro-) gressive intoxication of a young man. 1 "Let the young man take a glass of' whisky, and though .he might be normally shy and reserved,' they would find that he began to babble —losing his shyness and his self-control immediately he began to talk. He talked more than they wished." From this on the doctor described how the drinker gradually lost even the lower powers of control, and from free silly talk he got to be unable to pronounce correctly the words he had learned as a'child; then he lost.the walking power he had also learned in infancy. The proof was complete that alcohol paralysed the brain j in the reverse ordor of development. ' "Now, if that was true, was it any use for anyone to tell them that alcohol was a food V HOW DRUNKARDS ARE MADE. "They had heard of men who had lived to the age of three score and 'ten with a reputation for drunkenness. Such men were said to have got drunk once a week. Hut they did not suffer so much as the man who could not sleep without his "night-cap." He saturated his brain with alcohol, and called that sleep. They of the temperance party call it by another name —they say the man was drunk. That man was sapping.! with alcohol those cells which distinguish him from the "brutes. They could now see how drunkards are made. They were degenerates, for n,confirmed drunkard is a degenerate. He was unable to say "No" in the' presence 01 temptation. They had men who were not drunkards or intemperiite jnen, but they were drinkers, losing those fine qualities of mind and conscience which had made them successful. It was the drinker and not the drunkard who suffered. i BUT WHY DTD DRINK EXTST?

. It existed because of the profit of its sale and use. Except for that they would sweep it into the sea, for alcohol had never cured a disease or saved a life. If they got a young man early enough, and impressed upon him the real vital principles about this groat question, he was fairly safe. Ho had never said it was a sin or a crime to drink, but he did say it was a crime to tempt others to drink for the_.sakc. of profit. They ought to have the power to stop any man from tempting other people's sons to their degradation for the sake of profit to himself.