The White Ribbon. "For God and Home, and Humanity" WELLINGTON, MAY 18, 1943. WHAT IS THE DRINK EVIL?

White Ribbon, Volume 49, Issue 4, 18 May 1943, Page 4

The White Ribbon. "For God and Home, and Humanity" WELLINGTON, MAY 18, 1943. WHAT IS THE DRINK EVIL?

By MRS. LILY K. V. GRIGG.

What is the drink evil ? These are the first words in the book, “The Church and The Drink Evil," by Arthur Evans, Surgeon and Lecturer in Surgery, Westminster Hospital, London. He answers them by saying that the drink evil is the evil wrought by drink, i.e., the manifold evils that follows the use of alcoholic beverages. At one time the attention of social and religious workers was concentrated on drunkenness and the salvation of the drunkard. Work in this connection is still very necessary, but the subject before us is not drunkenness but the evil wrought by drink. After all, no man or woman ever started '’-inking with the deliberate intention of becoming a drunkard, and then again it is not possible to define accurately when drunkenness begins. It is a loose term signifying the obviously mental and muscular condition at some stage in a drinking bout. It i§ untrue to say that the evil of alcoholism is confined to this ill-defined period of drunkenness and that the effect of alcohol is very different than in the stage of mental and muscular derangement commonly described as drunkenness. This derangement is the narcotic effect of alcohol on the brain, and this effect commences a few minutes after even a small dose of alcohol. For every drunkard obviously poisoned with alcohol there are thousands of so-called moderate drinkers suffering from similar though less obvious narcotic effects. We know that all the activities of the body, both conscious and unconscious, are under the control of the

nervous system, i.e., the brain, medulla, spinal-cord and nerves. (1) The centre which controls heart beating is fully developed and acting vigorously before the birth of the child, and the centre controlling the act of breathing is fully developed at birth. These activities have to be increasing to continue life. They are the first to be developed in the brain and the last to be affected by hurtful influences.

(2) Next to develop are emotional dispositions located in the lowest levels of the brain, just above the centres for breathing and heart beating.

(3) The control of limbs and sense perceptions develop next in the intermediate levels of the brain.

• (4) Last to be developed, and in the highest levels of the brain, are the intellectual processes of judgment, selfcontrol, and the highest of all, selfcriticism.

It is well known that when the brain is subjected to any harmful influence the first functions to be affected are those latest acquired. Thus selfcriticism is the first to be affected and is so, after very small doses of alcohol, when there are no apparent signs of intoxication. The intermediate functions, sense perception and skilled movement, are next disturbed. The drinker becomes clumsy in movement and sensory feelings are blunted. He passes quickly from one emotion to another. In the third stage, the processes of judgment and self-criticism are suspended, sense perception and skilled movement are greatly impaired, and the emotional tendencies are weakened. At length the drinker sinks into a heavy sleep, which lasts till the alcohol consumed has been oxidised or carried away in the blood and consumed by other tissues. “Alcohol paralyses the judgment/’ says Sir Lauder Brunton, “and . paralysis begins with the first glass." While a small dose of alcohol makes a man less efficient at his work, the drinker loses the powder of properly valuing his own performance. A number of tests illustrating this were carried out by McDougall and Smith. Accompanying failure in performance there was increased satisfaction with the impaired performance. The effects of alcohol on mental processes are similar in the case of muscular work, which depends on the nervous system. Alcohol has no claim

whatever to the title of stimulant. Its proper name should be narcotic, or depressant. Then again, alcohol is NOT a heart stimulant, contrary to popular belief. When it appears to promote recovery from fainting it probably acts simply by virtue of its irritant action on the mucous membrane of the mouth and threat. Smelling salts or the fumes of burnt feathers have the same effect.

Alcohol lessens immunity to disease because of its paralytic effect on the white corpuscles, in that they remain passive in the presence of dangerous microbes which it is their duty promptly to destroy. This enables us to understand why it is that the death rate in an infectious disease like pneumonia is so much higher in intemperate people than it is in abstainers. Thus the average death rate from pneumonia is as follows: Abstainers, 18.5 per cent. Moderate Drinkers, 25.4 per cent. Intemperates, 52.8 per cent

“This fact,” says Sir William Osier, “has long been known to life assurance companh 3 as holding good for many diseases other than pneumonia.” A famous actuary in response to a question by a policy-holder as to the reason for teetotallers having a larger bonus, replied, “The bonus is a matter of fact. I cannot help people dying. Those who don’t drink don’t die so fast. Further, not only does the abstainer live longer than the non-abstainer, but when sick he makes a speedier recoverv.”

We have dealt with the harmful influence on the brain and on mental and bodily efficiency, and we have seen that an early effect of small doses is to interfere with the latest developed mental powers, judgment, self-control and self-criticism. We now want to point out some of the consequences resulting from this action of 'alcohol on the brain owing to the very serious issues involved. Namely, sex morality. The continuance of the race depends on the sex instinct. Yet, if this instinct is uncontrolled, human life would be mere animal life. During the adolescent period the highest regions of the brain are rapidlv developing, and instinct is dominated by judgment, self-control, social sense and moral sense. Unless these are guiding and controlling, life must be lived on the lower levels.

This period is a time of great stress in many lives. Life is a struggle between the flesh and the spirit. A

Christian should be on the side of the spirit. Alcohol is always on the side of the flesh. As a physiological fact alcohol, like opium and cocaine, acts first on the power of control and the moral sense, the highest and latest developed qualities in mar. Hence the part played by alcohol in venereal disease.

The testimony of Fleet Surgeon W. G. Home is: “One-third of all illness in the Na\y is due to venereal disease, and two-thirds of these cases were contracted when patient was under the influence of drink.” Another testimony from J. E. R. McDonugh, Surgeon to the London Hospital: “Ninety per cent, of patients with venereal disease were under the influence of alcohol when they contracted it. It is estimated that there arc more than three million syphilitics in tlie United Kingdom, and that cases of gonorrhea are probably several times as numerous as those of syphilis. The mere loss of working time through these diseases must be immense. It is obvious that decrease in the use of aicohol would bring about a decrease in venereal diseases.

After even small doses of alcohol such mental processes as judgment, modesty, reserve, shame, prudence, become weakened and suspended. Thus multitudes of men and women who, without alcohol, would have withstood, with alcohol succumb to the temptation. One of the saddest things about alcohol is that manv a woman who would otherwise have kept her purity and become a happv wife and mother now inhabits as a prostitute the underworld of our social system, and there, sooner or later infected, becomes a source of infection to other lives trooping that way led by alcohol. Thus one of the greatest safeguards a young person can have is that of tota 1 abstinence from alcoholic drinks. Other things, and very many of them, could be said about police courts, divorce courts, criminal courts, ruined homes, and wrecked lives in which alcohol has the leading part. This is the drink evil, and surely the Church of Testis Christ was founded to destroy all evils.

St. John writes: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil,” i.e., all kinds of evil, and in Hebrews we read that Christ became incarnate that through death He micht destroy the devil and deliver those who had been in bondage; and He Himself said, “Every plant which My heavenlv Father has not planted shall be rooted up.”

When Christ was on earth He denounced unsparingly the evils of His day—hypocrisy, pride, prejudice, greed —and actually drove the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip. As He dealt with them He would have us deal with evil today. But the trouble is that the Church today is too tolerant of modern and social and moral evils. Some of us stressed this point at meetings for the recent cam-

paign for Christian Order, but in many cases our words fell on deaf ears. What Christ came on earth to do He formed His Church, of which you and I are members, to carry on. We all use the petition in the Lord’s Prayer which says, “Lead us not into temptation,” and yet prominent Church people have said to me that they see no harm in their children taking drir.k so long as not to excess. They say it is a good thing for them to learn selfcontrol in such things. Evidently they think there is some special value in the temptation which comes through the public house, and yet we know well that alcohol has the peculiar power of breaking down moral control, thus making people less capable of resisting every form of temptation. Hence the common enough excuse put forward by lawyers in Magistrates’ Courts, “My

client was drunk when he committed x the offence, and if he had not been he would not have done so.” Also remember the facts I quoted about the contraction of venereal disease while under the influence of drink.

From the point of view of the Church the drink trade is a most fruitful cause of sin and an active enemy of spirituality. Do we find that when people begin to frequent public houses they become more active in spiritual things? Certainly not! On the other hand, we can trace steady progress from drinking to other forms of evil. Paul writes, “No drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of God,” and here is a trade which may lead people to hell. I am concluding this paper with an extract from John Wesley’s sermon on “The Use of Money.”

“Neither may we gain by hurting our neighbour or his body. Therefore we may not sell anything which tends to impair health. Such is eminently all the liquid fire, commonly called drams, or spirituous liquors. It is true these may have a place in medicine; they may be of use in some bodily disorders ; although there would rarely be occasion for them were it not for the unskilfulness of the practitioners. Therefore, such as prepare and sell them only for this end may keep their conscience clear. But who are they? Who prepares them only for this end? Do you know ten such distillers in England? Theii excuse these. But all who sell them in the common way to any that will buy, are poisoners general They murder His Majesty’s subjects by wholesale, neither does their eve pitv or spare. They drive them to hell, like sheep. And what is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? Who then would envy their large estates and sumptuous palaces?

“This is dear bought gain. And so is whatsoever is procured by hurting our neighbour in his soul; by ministering, suppose, it either directly or indirectly, to his unchastity or intemperance ; which certainly none can do who has any fear of God, or any real desire of pleasing Him.”