THE TRUTH ABOUT ALCOHOL.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 17774, 10 October 1927, Page 10

THE TRUTH ABOUT ALCOHOL.

1 “HOW ALCOHOL IS MADE.” 1 i There are many brands of alcoholic beverages and many different methods of making them, but tho alcohol in them is made in one way only—name- i ly, by the breaking down of the food : value of certain invisible or- ( ganisyis by fermentation. Tho ( by-products of this action are carbonic acid gas, and a thin, colour- • less, stinging, combustible fluid, alcohol. j On the outside of all fruit such as , grapes, apples, plums, etc., are nuir,berless invisible organisms called ferments. If these can find an entrance ’ into the fruit juices they devour the ’ sugar, using up its energy for their ' own growth, just as wo, after digesting ' our rood and using it for the repairing 1 and energising of the body, have to expel from tho body the poisonous byproducts, so these organisms discard two poisonous materials. The human body has four methods of 1 performing this necessary function. Tho ferments, however, are very simple in their structure, and their excretions are a gas (carbonic acid gas) and a fluid (alcohol). MOTHER’S PRESERVES GO BAD. In the fall our mothers preserve various kinds of fruits. The first process is that of boiling them, not for the , purpose of cooking them, but of dcatroying, by intense heat, the ferments ; or highway robbers, that lurk on tho ! outside of the fruit. Then by sealing ! the fruit up in airtight containers any further invasion of theso robbers from the air is prevented. But supposing that for lack of boiling enough or because the container is not airtight some of these ferments manage to get in. When the container is opened, bubbles are seen on the top of. the fruit. This is the carbonic acid gas refefred to above. Mother says: “This fruit has gone bad.” If we tasto it we find it no longer sweet because the sugar has been destroyed and in its place a disagreeable-tasting fluid called alcohol has been formed. As far as science knows, no ethyl al- I cohol. (the kind that is found in liquors) has ever been formed in any other way than by the process which is called by such names as “spoiling, rotting, putrefying, etc.,” as exemplified in the decay of fruits. Whenever one sees an apple going Lad, they can scientifically say, “That is a cider mill.” When they see rotten i grapes they can say, “That is a wine : factory/’ and when they see malted ; barley allowed to rot, they can say, “That is a brewery.” i A short time ago a press despatch j

recorded that a. herd of cows had got drunk. Investigations showed that they had been feeding on partly-de-cayed apples found under the trees in an orchard. They got their alcohol in tho rotten fruit. Anyone familiar with bees knows that they sometimes get intoxicated. They get their alcohol from honey that has gone bad. ALCOHOL ALWAYS A PRODUCT OF DECAY. Now it does not /natter how nicely liquor may bo flavoured or coloured nor how pretty the bottle and its label, or how.pleasant the surroundings under which it is served, whenever a person takes into his body any alcohol he is taking somethiug that has been made in a process which we call decay, lor alcohol is really the fluid excreta from the bodies of tho little ferments. It is a well-known fact that tho excreta from animals such as barnyard manure, are a food for wheat and other members of tho vegetable kingdom. But there is no foundation for supposing that the poisonous discards from a low form of life can be beneficially used by a higher form of life. Much less can it bo expected that a fluid discharge from the very simply organised ferments can bo of value to the roost highly organised life—namely, the human body. ALCOHOL MURDERS ITS PARENTS To clinch the argument let it he known that alcohol poisons the very ferments themselves. That is why, by tho process of fermentation, ciders, wines, and beer never become more than from 15 to 20 per cent, alcohol. The reason is that when this point is reached, the ferments themselves die. Stronger liquors can on’v be secured hv a process of boiling theso fermented beverages. By distilling or condensing the steam, wine becomes brandy, cub”' becomes gin, and beer becomes whisky. ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE.. SOME DOCTORS’ OPINIONS. “Whisky is entirely unnecessary in the treatment of pneumonia except in the case of those who have been daily 1 chronic users of alcoholics of some sort.. .1 do not- try to reform these men during a serious pneumonia, but. apart from this, in a practice of over 30 years in Denver, I have not made use of alcoholics of any sort in pneumonia, he- • cause I have not felt that 1 was increasing my patient’s chances of recovery by tlieir use.”—-Dr. Clinton G-Hic-kev, Denver, Colorado. “Whisky has no rightful place in the treatment of disease.” —Dr. Oscar Dowling, Shreveport La., secretary State Board of Health. “It is many years since I prescribed a dose of alcohol in any form. There is no condition, in my opinion, in which its use is a benefit.” —Dr. W. F. Milrv. Omaha, Nebraska. “I have not for many years used any alcohol in the treatment of disease, as

in my opinion, its alleged therapeutic effects can be accomplished very much better by other means.” —Dr. Thomas M’Clcvo, Oakland, California. “One fights shy of having to operate upon patients who are alcoholic, because of the degeneration of tlieir tis- I sues —they do not heal well in spite of the ascepticism of the present day.” —W. M’Ariam Eccles, M.S. “A falsehood which dies hard is the idea that stimulants of whatever kind actually give strength and are necessary for the maintenance of health and vigour. Such is not the case.”—The , late Sir W. Broadbent, M.D. MOTOR DRIVING AND DRINK. “The Times,” London, in a leading article on January 15, 1926, said: “As things stand at present there would appear to bo no absolute safeguard lor the motor driver but total abstinance.” ALCOHOLISM AND ACCIDENTS. Mr T. Voionmaa, attached to the International Labour Office at Geneva, published in the “International Labour Review,” of February, 1925, an interesting study upon alcoholism and , industrial accidents. After having studied, in a very critical manner, the facts and the methods by which they have been established, he concludes thus:---(11 Chronic alcoholism, which can be diagnosed with a high degree of certainty, appears to bo a very potent cause of industrial accidents. Persons medically certified as excessive drinkers have been found to be about three times more liable to accidents, and to injure themselves much more seriously than other persons, including ordinary drinkers. (2) Acute alcoholism or drunkenness docs not at present appear to bo an important direct cause of industrial accidents, owing to the reduction in industrial drinking. The effect of drunkenness can be determined only in respect of accidents outside of working hours, and in this respect it has been found that drunkenness is directly and solely responsible for a number of particularly severe accidents, <uul possibly i ontributes iudirectlv to about onefourth of tho accidents to workers in tlieir spare time. (31 Industrial drinking has been found to increase the accident risk; by merely controping the sale of liquor ! in the factory or by stopping the supply of free beer, accidents rates have been decreased by 30 to 70 per cent. Managements and official inspectors have thus been increasingly led to forbid workers to enter the factory when intoxicated, and to prohibit drinking during working hours