IN PRAISE OF STOUT.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 977, 26 November 1908, Page 22

IN PRAISE OF STOUT.

We are indebted to Meux’s Brewery Co., Horse Shoe' Brewerq, Tottenham Court Road, London, W., for the following article in praise of stout, written by a celebrated Har- . ley-street physician, and a man who is a specialist on all matetrs relating to diet and digestion: — “You ought to press upon the general public the superlative advantages of drinking stout. “There has lately taken place in the medical and lay Press a very heated controvrsy concerning the merits and demerits of alcohol. Many eminent medical authorities have ranged themselves boldly on the side favourable to the moderate and controlled consumption of alcohol; a certain number —but fewer —against alcohol in any form. The reason for these two diametrically opposed and contradictory opinions regarding the use and abuse of alcohol is due to the fact that the contestants fail to recognise and discriminate between the different alcoholic beverages, and their several actions on the substance of the internal organs, such as the stomach, liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, and brain. A very simple experiment will illustrate my point: Take and add together four or five ordinary ‘whiskies and water’ or ‘brandies and water’ (mixed, of ordinary strength), and put therein a small piece of fresh beefsteak. Take now an equal quantity of ; beer or stout, and in that place also a piece of fresh beefsteak of the same size. Examine the beefsteak in the spirit and water and in the stout respectively, in about four hours. The Steak- in the spirit and water will be found toughened and like leather, whereas that in the stout will be soft, pliable, and hardly, if at all, changed in condition. “This illustrates the harmful action of nearly all kinds of spirit on the internal organs over that of stout or porter. “Why is this? “Spirit, which is partaken of in various increasing percentages, mixed with water, hardens and coagulates the protoplasm of the texture of the internal organs, especially the stomach, liver, and kidneys. “Malt liquors, on the other hand, only contain just sufficient alcohol adequate for the purpose for which alcoholic beverages ought only to be taken to procure mild stimulation. “The percentage of alcohol in malt liquors averages from 6 per cent., to 8 per cent. The percentage of spirit in the average whisky and water, or brandy and water, is more often than not 25 per cent, spirit. “The human system has been com-

up, and benefit from two ounces of alcohol per diem only. “This at once shows that far more malt liquor can, with safety and benefit, be consumed than spirit and water before the salutary limits are passed and the undesirable surplus is reached. z “Taking the above figures as approximately correct, a healthy adult could, during the course of a day, consume, with benefit and safety, fully six pints of stout, whereas he will have overstepped seriously the margin of safety, and derived little or no benefit comparatively from the consumption of one-and-a-half pints of 25 per cent, spirit and water. “Why is the word ‘comparatively’ used? “Because malt liquor contains a good deal of matter which ■- is t food (carbohydrates, not alcohol), in addition to its six or eight per cent, alcohol. “Twenty-five per cent.’ spirit and water, on the other hand, contains nothing of a food nature other than the plain stimulant effect of its solitary constituents —alcohol. “Spirits—whisky, brandy, gin, etc. —are purely stimulants, and not foods in the same sense as stout or cooper. “A stimulant is that which causes the body to hasten it processes of change and wear and tear at the expense of the body entirely. “A pure stimulant, then, produces its action at the expense of the tissues of the body. In other words, it ‘robs Peter to pay Paul.’ “Malt liquors, on the other hand, are food as well as stimulants; in other words, stout provides a large quantity of food material in its composition (non-alcoholic carbohydra, tes), which is used to produce the results of the stimulant effect of its salutary and moderate percentage of alcohol. Stout, therefore, helps and aids the system at the same time that it stimulates it to increased vital functions. “There are other stimulants besides spirit which act in the same way as spirits—that is, they stimulate, but do not supply the wherewithral to produce to resultant energy. These are the so-called meat extracts. “Meat extracts lead to increased ’wear and tear, and supply nothing to take the place of the tissues used up. This is a positive truth! “No man or woman could live long, without other food, on pure spirit and water, or pure meat extract and water alone, the interesting fact being that the more they partook of them the nearer and quicker death would be in ensuing. With malt beverages such as stout alone, life could be maintained and prolonged, almost indefinitely, to speak comparatively. “It has long been known to medical science that a person can consume, without harm, for a longer period, malt liquor, without taking food, than if he or she were subsisting on spirits alone in any form. “A man can do a hard day’s work on stout, and be less fatigued than if he did the same work on the same equivalent of spirits or meat extract. “The foregoing clearly shows the vast superiority of malt beverages over any other form of spirit or meat extract stimulants. “Stout is the most digestible malt beverage. “Persons who cannot partake of ale or beer, owing to heartburn, dyspepsia, and Iflatulence, can, if they begin gradually, ultimately take stout or cooper with ease and benefit. “You could honestly and conscientiously set forth the scientific claims as follows: — “Stout contains a digestive ferment called diastase, which aids and benefits the stomach. “Stout helps the digestion and absorption and assimilaton of many ordinary foods. “Stout s a stimulat of salutary alcoholic strength. “Stout is a regulated stimulant of constant strength. “Stout is a food, especially useful during convalescence. “Stout is beneficial in most wasting diseases, not the result of previous abuse of spirits. “Stout is a general tonic for digestion, and is, therefore, useful in most dyspepsias. “Stout does not contain anything in Its composition which is necessarily harmful to the internal organs. “Stout aids assimilation, and is, therefore, beneficial to those whose tissues are depleted and wasted. “Stout stimulates the natural functions of the body, and is, therefore, a capital food, tonic, and stimulant for nursing mothers, who suffer from deficiency. (The above has been proved over and over again by direct experiments) . “Stout is the ideal beverage of the worker (brain or manual). “Stout is the happy mean between puted as being able to consume, use

the unreasoning teetotal fanatic ad the sensible advocate of alcohol as being beneficial to the human race. “A nation of malt beverage (beer and stout) drinkers must of necessity be a better, healthier, stronger, and more virile people than a nation of spirit drinkers. While England drank beer and stout she flourished, and no one heard anything of physical degeneration (and degenerate and deformed children). Since becoming a spirit or whisky drinking nation, England has alarmed all earnest observers by the undoubted signs of physical degeneration among the consumers of spirit. “If the above facts could become popularly kown and recognised, without advertising my name and address, I would have done a good life work.