COMING GENERATION.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 286, 19 April 1919, Page 10

COMING GENERATION.

I»RIZE ESS.W

USES AND ABl SKS OF ALCOHOL

i lie* Ashburton W.UVI.U. recent 1) arranged .«n essay competition among the pupils ot the public sc bools. About 200 children took part, the sue - cessiul w riter be in g 1 i i>Me Brunton, of the High School, with the follow-

ing production ; “Alcohol a volatile Hu id formed by the fermentation of certain sugars. I ntil recently there has been little accurate, i.c\, experimental, knowledge of the properties of this drug, «ind the popular belief that the effect of alcohol was beneficially soothing and stimulating ha* been accepted without criticism. But modern scientific research has proved the fallacy of this belief, and eminent physicians who have made a thorough study of alcohol and its effects on the body tell us that alcohol is a poisonous drug, and is invariably placed side by side with chloroform, ether, strychnine, and opium, and is described as a narcotic poison.

“The scientific evidence now at the command of the medical profession has enabled physicians not only to find out that alcohol is narcotic poison and docs not aid the human economy in the way popularly supposed, but also to go further and to prove that the structure and functions of the different organs are actually impaired by it. Experiments have been made to Drove that cell-growth is retarded and ultimately stopped by relatively small doses of alcohol, and it is due to this that the body of a person who drinks before he is properly grown becomes

“Further investigations prove that alcohol damages ♦he digestiw* organs, and causes an extra supply of gastric juice to flow into the stomach. I his juice is wasted in the absence of food, and serious injuiies may result. Hie effect of alcohol on the kidneys is disastrous. It causes this organ to become fatty, to swell, and, in some cases, to shrink. The cells of which the kidney is composed lose their elasticity and power of contraction, and allow a colloid.il matter, called albumen, in the* blood to escape. Alcohol causes the liver to become coat-

ed with small* swellings, which are liable to bring about the drinker’s premature death. The effect of alcohol on the heart is to act as a stimulant at first, but after a few minutes the stimulating effect wears off, and in its stead a feeling of depression over takes the person who imbibes. The heart beats more slowly, and, as a c onsrquence, the body becomes odder, though in reality tlu victim thinks his body is warmer, owing t»> the blood which the alcohol sends to the surface of the body. Alcohol has its greatest and most fatal effect upon the* brain. Doctors have proved that it diminishes the rapidity of thought, weakens the' will, warps the' judgment, awakens in man animal passions, and lesults in strif**, insanity, and crime*. It diminishes and, in time, breaks clown all self-control. After its brief, exciting effec t on the brain, there follows a prolonged period of depression or reaction, which is often unbearable to the* drinker. This, together with the steady impoverishment of the body of the ‘alcoholist,’ is often responsible for man) cases of suicide. It is the opinion of Dr. Sullivan th.it alcohol is the cause of many tragic and premature deaths, which deprive the State of comparatively young and valuable lives. The verdict, while temporarily insane, often infers that the brain of the victim has been acted upon by alcohol, which deprives it of all energy and control, and only a very morbid outlook on life remains, causing the drinker to act as he would never do in his full senses.

“The majority of military authorities at the present day state that the total abstainer is the best soldier. He can march better, and is a superior lighter to the drinker. A great General has said that of 30,000 111 cm on a route inarch those who were unable to keep up were ‘not the little men, not the big men, they were the* drinkers, and they dropped out as c learly as if they had been marked with a huge letter on their backs.' Lord Grenfell, the leader of an expedi lion in Egypt, stated as far back as INB6 that *his rrum drank the* Nile, and nothing added, and he* sacs: ‘Never have 1 seen a force of men so tit as that force employed upon the Nile.*

“It is a well-known fact that the late* Lord Kitchener allowed his men no intoxicants, blit encouraged them

to drink cold tea while on route marches.

“Only the ‘abuses’ of alcohol have been mentioned so far. The ‘uses’ are few. A great physician writes that if alcohol were abolished only the doctors would suffer, as it is a drug more easily procured and cheaper than an> other, and is therefore* extensively used by them in tluir work. But every doctor realises that this drug, used by many nations as a beverage* or as a medicine very often, without the least discrimination, causes physic a! deterioration, insanity, crime, and poverty. Dr. R. R. Kimc says: ‘What wr need is a universal housecleaning, banishing alcohol from the home, and a universal demand from tin* public that physicians use this drug le** as a medicine.’ ”