WHAT SHALL WE DRINK?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue IX, 1 September 1894, Page 198

WHAT SHALL WE DRINK?

PHYSICIANS’ REPLY TO TUB QUESTION WHICH ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE IS LEAST HARMFUL In answer to the question, ‘Which of all the alcoholic beverages is the least injurious for man to drink?’ recently propounded to several physicians, the following letters have been received. Few physicians are more widely known than Dr. S. Weir Mitchel), his contributions to general literature being as numerous as his writings on medical subjects. He is well qualified to speak on the topic in question, being a specialist in nervous diseases, a large number of which are the direct result of excessive indulgence in alcoholic stimulants. As will be seen from his appended letter he favours whisky:— DR. S. WEIR MITCHELL SAYS WHISKY. * The question, “ Which one of the alcoholic liqnors is the least injurious and the safest and best for man to drink ?’ is a difficult one to answer. There are so many different constitutions and temperaments which are affected in so many different ways. For instance, I know a man who thinks that whisky poisons him, yet can take champagne with impunity, while there are others to whom champagne is poison who can drink whisky ad libitum without feeling themselves any the worse for it. It is the old story of that famous couple, Mr and Mrs Jack Spratt, who, though one could eat no fat and the other no lean, nevertheless contrived to clean the dish between them. Then again there are as many personal idiosyncracies in the use of alcoholic liquors as in the use of medicines. Though opium puts most people to sleep, yet occasionally we find a patient who is made obstinately wakeful by it, and upon whom, instead of its usual pleasant, soothing effect, it produces excitement and distress. We meet with as strange anomalies as this in the use of alcoholic liquors. But setting aside considerations of peculiarities of personal temperament and individual idiosyncrasies, and attempting to lay down a rule for the government of the majority of cases, 1 would say that, in a vague, general way, I adhere to the old traditional belief that whisky is, after all, the least injurious and the safest and best of all the alcoholic liqnors for a man to drink. Still I cannot forget the reply made to me some years ago by the late J udge G , when I observed to him that the large number of old Western lawyers who abided by Monongahela rye seemed to prove its w bolesomeness, “ Ah !” he answered grimly, “ you forget that you see only the survivors.” ’ DR. FLINT THINKS ALL SHOULD BE LET ALONE. Dr. Austin Flint, of New York, is a high authority on

the subject, having filled the chair of Professor of Physiology in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, and having been associated with bis distinguished father in the preparation of several editions of the latter’s well known work, ‘Flint’s Practice of Medicine.' He writes as follows :—

* I believe all alcoholic liquors and beverages of any and every kind containing alcohol to be inevitably injurious to all persons who are in perfect health and well nourished. The evil effects produced upon the liver, stomach, and kidneys by habitual use of alcoholic beverages are too well known to the medical pathologist to render it necessary to dwell upon them. Alcohol is a good servant in the hands of an intelligent physician, but a bad master for the foolish man who uses it as a beverage. It follows, therefore, as a natural and logical sequence, that alcoholic liquor of any kind, description, or character whatsoever should never be used except when prescribed by an able and conscientious physician in cases where sickness makes it absolutely necessary that it should be given as a medicine.’

DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THINKS FAVOURABLY OF RUM.

It is not a matter of surprise that such an old time New Englander as that well-known writer of prose and verse, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, should think favourably of New England rum. This beverage, as some readers in less eastern latitudes may not know, is distilled from molasses, and was the ‘ fire water ’ of which early aborigines were so fond. Dr. Holmes writes :—

* Dr. Smith, an English authority, whose Christian name is Edward—if 1 remember correctly - and who was prominent some twenty or thirty years ago, has presented some favourable testimony with regard to rum as possessing marked advantage over most other kindsof alcoholic drinks. He recommended that it be taken with milk. I have also received a favourable impression with regard to rum. Dr. Smith, whom I have quoted, must not be confounded with Dr. Smythe, a New York clergyman, who strongly recommended gin and milk about the same time.

‘ Yet, in attempting to answer your query, I must state frankly that I have had entirely too little personal experience with alcoholic liquors to be an authority on the subject. I have not been engaged in the practice of medicine for years, and with the exception of a very occasional glass of champagne I have scarcely made any use whatever of alcoholic fluids in any form. Therefore I cannot claim to have any positive evidence of the superiority of rum to gin, whisky, brandy, wine, etc.’ BEER FOR DR. HAMMOND. From his appended letter it will be seen that he favours beer : —

‘ The great curse of alcoholic liquors is that their use creates a morbid appetite -a constantly increasing desire for more —in many cases. Many men who begin to use alcoholic liquors in great moderation find themselves gradually craving larger and larger quantities. Liquor drinking is one of those things of which it may truly be said that, “Increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on.” Since this is unquestionably the case, may it not be exceedingly probable that the greater percentage of alcohol contained in any particular kind of liquor, the more rapidiy will a morbid appetite for alcoholic stimulation be cultivated ’ I must, therefore, give it as myopinion that the least injurious of all alcoholic liquors, and therefore the one

that is the safest and the beet for men to drink, is the one which contains the smallest percentage of alcohol, and it is for these reasons that I should recommend beer or some of our light native wines in preference to any and all other alcoholic beverages.’ Dr. Frank H. Wade, of Pittsburg, Pa., is ONE OF THE EMINENT SPECIALISTS IN DIPSOMANIA and all that pertains to the drink habit. He agrees with Dr. 8. Weir Mitchell in thinking whisky the least injurious, as will be seen from his appended communication : — * After many years’ careful study of the subject in all its bearings, I am firmly convinced that, for reasons which I shall give, whisky is the least injurious and therefore the safest and beet ot all the alcoholic liquors for men to use. I am perfectly well aware that many high medical authorities are of the opinion that drinks containing the smallest percentage of alcohol, such as beer and wine, are, for tnat reason, the least injurious. Doubtless this would be true of an equal quantity of those mild fluids as compared with an equal quantity ot distilled liquors, but a man who drinks beer will take a great number ot glasses of it in the course of a day—in some instances as many as twenty-five or thirty, or even more. THE WHISKY DRINKER on the contrary, will not take more than three or four of his favourite tipple in a day. As a consequence the beer drinker takes a great deal more alcohol into his stomach and has much larger quantities of it constantly in his blood and tissues than the whisky drinker. The more constantly alcohol is present in the system the more quickly does it ruin the nervous system, the liver, kidneys, bladder, blood vessels and heart. The man who drinks two or three quarts of beer or wine a day, but is never “ under the influence of liquor ” in his whole life, is much more certain to feel the evil influence of alcohol upon his system than he who does not touch liquor for two or three months, and then gets upon “ a whisky drunk” which lasts for several days or a week. Occasional excess in anything injurious is not so detrimental as constant indulgence. * Then, again, by the excessive quantity of fluid which tbe heavy beer or wine drinker takes he imposes a much severer task upon his kidneys and bladder than does the drinker of distilled liquors. It is a statement frequently made that it is not tbe moderate use of alcohol which does harm, but the abuse of it. This is as foolish an error as it is an unfortunate one. 'Thousands of people are annually made victims of the very woist forms of organic disease simply by the moderate but habitual use of alcoholic drinks, such as beer and light wines, containing only a very small percentage of alcohol, and they are people who have never known the slightest sensation of drunkenness in their whole life and never will.

* At the present time the evils inseparable from any form of alcoholic stimulation aie greatly aggravated by tbe impossibility of obtaining any form of alcoholic drink which is not adulterated with the most poisonous and deleterious drugs. * Alcoholic liquor of any kind, even at its best and purest, cannot fail to be injurious to anyone in health. It destroys the brightest intellect—it degrades the purest woman, it corrupts the judicial ermine, it undermines the very foundations of government. It is the devil’s best friend and instrument/