k 
 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 JNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 Class No. 
 
 U u u-~Ut^K U— L? 
 
 ■«&*# 
 
r 
 
ALCOHOL 
 
 A DANGEROUS AND UNNECESSARY MEDICINE 
 HOW AND WHY 
 
 What Medical Writers Say 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN 
 
 Superintendent of the Department of Non-Alcoholic Medication for the 
 National Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
 
 Norwich, Conn. 
 
 CHAS. C. HASKELL & SON 
 
 L. N. Fowler & Co., 7 Imperial Arcade 
 
 LUDGATE CIRCUS, LONDON 
 1900 
 

 Copyright, 1900, by 
 CHAS. C. HASKELL & SON 
 
 REGISTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND 
 
 A II rights reserved 
 
 Printed in U. S. A merica 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 5 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 28 
 
 37 
 
 Introduction . ... 
 
 I. History of the Study of Alcohol 
 II. The W. C. T. U. in Opposition to the 
 Medical Use of Alcohol 
 (jjjj Alcohol as a Producer of Disease 
 IV. Temperance Hospitals, and Their Meth- 
 ods of Treatment .... 
 
 ^C (fy Effects of Alcohol Upon the Human 
 
 Body . . . . . . . .58 
 
 VI. Alcohol as a Medicine .... 96 
 
 VII. Alcohol in Pharmacy . . . .131 
 
 VIII. Diseases and Their Non-Alcoholic 
 
 Treatment 140 
 
 IX. Alcohol and Nursing Mothers . . 234 
 X. Comparative Death-Rates With and 
 
 Without the Use of Alcohol . . 247 
 XI. Reasons Why Alcohol is Dangerous 
 
 as Medicine . . . . . 262 
 
 XII. Reasons Why Doctors Still Prescribe 
 
 Alcoholics 291 
 
 XIII. Alcoholic Proprietary Medicines . 299 
 
 XIV. " Drugging" 335 
 
 XV. Testimonies of Physicians Against the 
 
 Medical Use of Alcohol . . . 356 
 XVI. Two Great Leaders in Medical Temper- 
 ance 392 
 
 XVII. Medical Temperance Societies . . 399 
 XVIII. Miscellaneous .... . . 402 
 
 95309 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This book is the outcome of many years of 
 study. With the exception of a few quotations, 
 none of the material has ever before appeared in 
 any book. The writer has been indebted for years 
 past to many of the physicians mentioned in the 
 following pages for copies of pamphlets and maga- 
 zines, and for newspaper articles, bearing upon the 
 medical study of alcohol. Indeed, had it not been 
 for the kindly counsels and hearty co-operation of 
 physicians, she could never have accomplished all 
 that was laid upon her to do as a state and national 
 superintendent of Non-Alcoholic Medication for 
 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She 
 is also under obligation for helps received from the 
 secretaries of several State Boards of Health, and 
 from eminent chemists and pharmacists. 
 
 The object of the book is to put into the hands 
 of the people a statement of the views regarding 
 the medical properties of alcohol held by those 
 physicians who make little, or no use of this drug. 
 In most cases their views are given in their own 
 
 5 
 
O INTRODUCTION. 
 
 language, so that the book is, of necessity, largely 
 a compilation. 
 
 It is hoped that while the laity may be glad to 
 peruse these pages because of the very useful and 
 interesting information to be obtained from them, 
 the medical profession, also, maybe pleased to find, 
 in brief form, the teachings of some of their most 
 distinguished brethren upon a question now fre- 
 quently up for discussion in society meetings. 
 
 The writer does not presume to set forth her 
 own opinions upon a question which is still a sub- 
 ject of dispute among/ the members of a learned 
 profession ; she simply culls from the writings of 
 those members of that profession who, having 
 made thorough examination of the claims of 
 alcohol, have decided that this drug, as ordinarily 
 used, is more harmful than beneficial, and that 
 medical practice would be upon a higher plane, 
 were it driven entirely from the pharmacopoeia. 
 
 The writer can testify from experience in the 
 rearing of three children that alcohol is never neces- 
 sary as a household remedy. She has never given 
 this, nor any otJier drug to her children, and has 
 never lost a single night's sleep because of illness 
 of any member of her family. Prevention is better 
 than cure. Yet she thoroughly believes in calling 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 in a competent physician in case of any illness that 
 seems threatening. But she would not allow the 
 use of alcohol even if a physician prescribed it, 
 not because of any fanaticism, but for the reason 
 that she believes thoroughly in the teachings set 
 forth in this book. It was the stubborn refusal of 
 some cholera patients to take brandy, and their 
 speedy recovery, which led to the experiments in 
 the non-use of alcohol in England. 
 
 If all temperance people would utterly refuse 
 alcoholic prescriptions, and abandon the home-use 
 of this drug in all its forms, the cause of total 
 abstinence would receive such an impetus as it has 
 never had in all its history. 
 
 Note — Many of the selections in this book are from reports of addresses 
 given at medical meetings, hence are not all so well expressed as they might 
 be if written by the physicians themselves. The chapter upon " Reasons 
 Why Alcohol is Dangerous as Medicine," is rather technical in language for 
 the ordinary reader, but will be prized by those who desire to know some- 
 thing of the thoroughness with which scientific men are pursuing their 
 researches in this direction. A Standard Dictionary will be found useful in 
 understanding the terminology. The chapter upon " Diseases and their Non- 
 Alcoholic Treatment,' 1 is not in any measure intended to take the place of a 
 physician when one is needed, nor is it supposed that every physician 
 would approve all points of treatment mentioned. The chapter is intended 
 simply to answer questions repeatedly asked as to methods of treatment pur- 
 sued by eminent and successful physicians who abjure alcohol as a remedy. 
 It is worthy of careful study. 
 
 M. M. A. 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
ALCOHOL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF ALCOHOL. 
 
 The only intoxicating drinks known to the 
 ancients were wines and beers. That these were 
 used for medicinal as well as beverage purposes is 
 evident from sacred and secular history. About 
 the tenth century of the Christian era, an Arabian 
 alchemist discovered the art of distillation, by 
 which the active principle of fermented liquors 
 could be drawn off and separated. To the spirit 
 thus produced the name alcohol was given. A 
 plausible reason cited for this name is that the 
 Arabian for evil spirit is A I ghole, and the effects 
 of the mysterious liquid upon men suggested 
 demoniacal possession. 
 
 Medical knowledge at this time was very limited ; 
 there was no accurate way of determining the real 
 nature of the new substance, nor its action upon 
 the human system. It could be judged only by its 
 seeming effects. As these were pleasing, it was 
 supposed that a great medical discovery had been 
 made. The alchemists had been seeking a panacea 
 
 9 
 
IO ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 for all the ills to which flesh is heir, indeed for 
 something which would enable men even to defy 
 Death, and the subtle new spirit was eagerly pro- 
 claimed as the long-looked-for cure-all, if not the 
 . very aqua vita itself. Physicians introduced it to 
 their patients, and were lavish in their praises of its j 
 curative powers. The following is quoted from 
 the writings of Theoricus, a prominent German of 
 the sixteenth century, as an example of medical 
 opinion of alcohol in his day : — 
 
 " It sloweth age, it strengthened youth, it helpeth digestion, 
 it cutteth phlegme, it cureth the hydropsia, it healeth the 
 strangurie, it pounces the stone, it expelleth gravel, it keepeth 
 the head from whirling, the teeth from chattering, and the 
 throat from rattling ; it keepeth the weasen from stiming, the 
 stomach from wambling, and the heart from swelling; it 
 keepeth the hands from shivering, the sinews from shrinking, 
 the veins from crumbling, the bones from aching, and the 
 marrow from soaking." 
 
 Being a medicine, which very rapidly creates a 
 craving for itself, the demand for it became 
 enormous, and, as time advanced, people began 
 prescribing it for themselves, until its use both as 
 medicine and beverage became almost general. 
 
 If the medical profession is responsible for* the 
 wide-spread belief that alcoholics are of service to 
 mankind both as food and medicine, it should not 
 be forgotten that it is to members of the same 
 profession the world is indebted for the correction 
 of these errors. All down through the centuries 
 there have been physicians who doubted and 
 
1 
 
 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. II 
 
 opposed its claims to merit. It remained for the 
 medical science of the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century to clearly demonstrate with nicely adjusted 
 chemical apparatus and appliances the wisdom of 
 these doubts. 
 
 The scientific study of the effects of alcohol 
 upon the human body began about fifty years ago. 
 The first American investigator was Dr. Nathan S. 
 Davis, of Chicago, of whom a biographical sketch is 
 given elsewhere in this book. During the months 
 of May, June, July, September and October, 1848, 
 Dr. Davis published in the Annalist, a monthly 
 medical journal of New York City, a series of 
 articles controverting the universal opinion that 
 alcoholic drinks are warming, strengthening and 
 nourishing. In 1850 he executed an extensive 
 series of experiments to determine tne effects of a 
 diet exclusively carbonaceous (starch), one exclu- 
 sively nitrogenous (albumen), and alcohol (brandy 
 and wine), on the temperature of the living body ; 
 on the quantity of carbonic acid exhaled ; and on 
 the circulation of the blood. The results of these 
 investigations were embodied in a paper read before 
 the American Medical Association in May, 185 1. 
 They showed that alcohol, instead of increasing 
 animal heat, and promoting nutrition and strength, 
 actually produced directly opposite effects, reduc- 
 ing temperature, the amount of carbonic acid 
 exhaled, and the muscular strength. S ) opoosed 
 were these conclusions to the general! r accepted 
 
12 ALCOHO.L AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 teachings of the day that the Association did not 
 refer the paper to the committee of publication. 
 It was published later in the Northwestern Medical 
 and Surgical Journal. 
 
 In 1854 Dr. Davis published one of the most 
 remarkable of the numerous works which have come 
 from his prolific pen ; it was entitled, " A Lecture 
 on the Effects of Alcoholic Drinks on the Human 
 System, and the Duty of Medical Men in Relation 
 Thereto." This lecture was delivered in Rush Medi- 
 cal College, Chicago, on Christmas, 1854. An 
 appendix to the work contained a full account of 
 the series of original experiments which the author 
 had been conducting in relation to the effect of 
 alcohol upon respiration and animal heat, and gave 
 the same conclusions as those presented before 
 the A. M. A. several years previously. These 
 experiments laid the foundation for the scientific 
 study of the physiological effects of alcohol ; and 
 their bearing upon the study of the temperance 
 question can even yet scarcely be appreciated. 
 They were the first experiments which showed 
 conclusively that the effect of alcohol is not that of 
 a stimulant, but the opposite. 
 
 In 1855 Prof. R. D. Mussey, of Vermont, read an 
 able paper before the American Medical Associa- 
 tion upon " The Effects of Alcohol in Health 
 and Disease," in which he said, " So long as 
 alcohol .retains its place among sick patients, so 
 long will there be drunkards." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 3 
 
 In England as early as 1802, Dr. Beddoes pointed 
 out the dangers attendant upon the social and 
 medical use of intoxicating drinks, laying stress 
 upon u The enfeebling power of small portions of 
 wine regularly drunk." In 1829 Dr. John Cheyne, 
 Physician General to the forces in Ireland said : — ■ 
 
 " The benefits which have been supposed from their liberal 
 use in medicine, and especially in those diseases which are 
 vulgarly supposed to depend upon mere weakness, have 
 invested these agents with attributes to which they have no 
 claim, and hence, as we physicians no longer employ them as 
 we were wont to do, we ought not to rest satisfied with the 
 mere acknowledgment of error, but we ought also to make 
 every retribution in our power for having so long upheld one of 
 the most fatal delusions that ever took possession of the human 
 mind." 
 
 Dr. Higginbotham, F. R. S., of Nottingham, a 
 keen and able clinical practitioner, abandoned the 
 prescription of alcohol in 1832, saying : — 
 
 " I have amply tried both ways. I gave alcohol in my prac- 
 tice for twenty years, and have now practiced without it for the 
 last thirty years or more. My experience is, that acute disease 
 is more readily cured without it, and chronic diseases much 
 I more manageable. I have not found a single patient injured 
 • by the disuse of alcohol, or a constitution requiring it ; indeed, 
 to find either, although I am in my seventy-seventh year, I would 
 walk fifty miles to see such an unnatural phenomenon. If I 
 ordered or allowed alcohol in any form, either as food or as 
 medicine, to a patient, I should certainly do it with a felonious 
 intent." — Ipswich Tracts. No. 346. 
 
 In 1839 Dr. Julius Jeffreys drew up a medical 
 declaration which was signed by seventy-eight 
 leaders of medicine and surgery. This document 
 
14 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 declared the opinion to be erroneous that wine, 
 beer or spirit was beneficial to health ; that even in 
 the most moderate doses, alcoholic drinks did no 
 good. This, of course, dealt only with the beverage 
 use of alcoholics. In 1847 a second declaration 
 was originated, signed by over two thousand of the 
 most eminent physicians and surgeons. This also 
 referred only to liquor as a beverage. In 1871 a 
 third declaration, signed by two hundred and sixty- 
 nine of the leading members of the medical profes- 
 sion was published in the London Times. 
 This declaration was in part as follows : — 
 
 " As it is believed that the inconsiderate prescription of large 
 quantities of alcoholic liquids by medical men for their patients 
 has given rise, in many instances, to the formation of intemper- 
 ate habits, the undersigned, while unable to abandon the use 
 of alcohol in the treatment of certain cases of disease, are yet 
 of opinion that no medical practitioner should prescribe it with- 
 out a sense of grave responsibility. 
 
 " They are also of opinion that many people immensely 
 exaggerate the value of alcohol as an article of diet, and they 
 hold that every medical practitioner is bound to exert his 
 utmost influence to inculcate habits of great moderation in the 
 use of alcoholic liquids." 
 
 In the same year the American Medical Associa- 
 tion passed a resolution that " alcohol should be 
 classed with other powerful drugs, and when pre- 
 scribed medically, it should be done with conscien- 
 tious caution, and a sense of great responsibility." 
 
 The physicians of New York, Brooklyn and 
 vicinity not long afterward published a declaration 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 15 
 
 practically the same as that of the A. M. A., add- 
 ing : " We are of opinion that the use of alco- 
 holic liquor as a beverage is productive of a large 
 amount of physical disease." 
 
 The publication of these later declarations was 
 the beginning of a marked change in the medical 
 use of alcohol. 
 
 In England the scientific temperance movement 
 began with Dr. B. W. Richardson, afterwards 
 knighted by Queen Victoria for his great services 
 to humanity as a medical philanthropist. Dr. 
 Richardson's success in bringing before physicians 
 the remarkable medicinal agent known as nitrite of 
 amyl, led to a request from the British Association 
 for the Advancement of Science that he investigate 
 other chemical substances. The result was that 
 several years of study, beginning with 1863, were 
 given to the physiological effects of various alco- 
 hols, ethylic alcohol, which is the active principle in 
 wines, beers and other intoxicating drinks, receiv- 
 ing special attention. 
 
 The following is taken from his " Results of 
 Researches on Alcohol " : — 
 
 " In my hands ethylic alcohol and other bodies of the same 
 group ; viz. methylic, propylic, butylic, and amylic alcohols 
 were tested purely from the physiological point of view. They 
 were tested exclusively as chemical substances apart from any 
 question as to their general use and employment, and free 
 from all bias for or against their influence on mankind for 
 good or for evil. « 
 
l6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The method of research that was pursued was the same 
 that had been followed in respect to nitrite of amyl, chloroform, 
 ether, and other chemical substances, and it was in the follow- 
 ing order : First, the mode in which living bodies would take 
 up or absorb the substance was considered. This settled, the 
 quantity necessary to produce a decided physiological change 
 was ascertained, and was estimated in relation to the weight of 
 the living body on which the observation was made. After 
 these facts were ascertained the special action of the agent was 
 investigated on the blood, on the motion of the heart, on the 
 respiration, on the minute circulation of the blood, on the 
 digestive organs, on the secreting and excreting organs, on the 
 nervous system and brain, on the animal temperature and on 
 the muscular activity. By these processes of inquiry, each 
 specially carried out, I was enabled to test fairly the action of 
 the different chemical agents that came before me. ***** 
 
 " The results of these researches were that I learned purely 
 by experimental observation that, in its action on the living 
 body, alcohol deranges the constitution of the blood ; unduly 
 excites the heart and respiration ; paralyzes the minute blood- 
 vessels ; disturbs the regularity of nervous action ; lowers the 
 animal temperature, and lessens the muscular power. 
 
 " Such, independent of any prejudice of party or influence 
 of sentiment, are the unanswerable teachings of the sternest of 
 all evidences, the evidences of experiment, of natural fact 
 revealed to man by testing of natural phenomena." 
 
 When Dr. Richardson reported to the Association 
 for the Advancement of Science the results of his 
 researches so at variance with commonly accepted 
 ideas, the Association was as incredulous as the 
 American Medical Association had been in 1 85 1 
 when Dr. Davis gave a similar report, and Dr. Rich- 
 ardson's paper was returned to him for correction. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 7 
 
 It should be stated here that Dr. Richardson 
 was not a total abstainer when he began his study 
 of the effects of alcohol, but became an ardent 
 and enthusiastic advocate of total abstinence, and 
 later of non-alcoholic medication, because of what he 
 learned by his experiments with this drug. He 
 was the first to suggest that scientific temperance 
 be taught in the public schools, and he prepared the 
 first text-book ever published for this purpose. In 
 1874 he delivered his famous "Cantor Lectures on 
 Alcohol," by request of the Society of Arts. This 
 series of lectures created a sensation, being attended 
 by crowds of people, as it was the first time that any 
 physician of eminence had spoken from experi- 
 mental evidence in favor of total abstinence. 
 
 The agitation begotten in medical circles by the 
 discussion of Dr. Richardson's researches upon 
 alcohol led to extensive experimenting upon the 
 same line by scientists of England, Continental 
 Europe and America. The efforts of the National 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the 
 United States, led by that intrepid woman, Mrs. 
 Mary H. Hunt, to introduce scientific temperance 
 instruction into public schools gave impetus to the 
 study in this country. The call for text-books 
 caused publishers to request professors in medical 
 colleges to make minute research into the nature 
 and effects of alcohol, that the demands of the new 
 educational law might be met. The bitter opposi- 
 tion to these temperance education laws was a great 
 
l8 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 stimulant to the scientific study of alcohol, for it was 
 hoped by many that the teachings regarding the 
 deleterious effects of alcohol might be proved incor- 
 rect. Unfortunately for the lovers of the bibulous, 
 the proof was all the other way ; great medical men 
 could not be bought by distillers or brewers to tell 
 anything but the truth, and the truth of experimental 
 research was all against alcohol. The text-books en- 
 dorsed by Mrs. Hunt and her advisory committee 
 being assailed again and again as containing errone- 
 ous teaching, were finally, in 1897, submitted to an 
 examining committee of medical experts, nearly all of 
 whom were connected with medical colleges. This 
 committee consisted of Dr. N. S. Davis, Sr., of Chi- 
 cago, 111. ; Dr. Leartus Connor, of Detroit, Michigan ; 
 Dr. Henry Q. Marcy, of Boston, Mass. ; Dr. E. E. 
 Montgomery, of Philadelphia, Pa. ; Dr. Henry D. 
 Holton, of Brattleboro, Vt. ; and Dr. George F. 
 Shrady, of New York City. From their reports 
 upon the books the following is culled : — 
 
 * I find no errors in the teaching of any of them on this 
 subject." 
 
 " No statement was found at variance with the most reliable 
 studies of especially competent investigators." 
 
 " I was asked to point out any errors in these books which 
 need correcting. I find no such errors." 
 
 " I find their teaching completely in accordance with the 
 facts determined through scientific experimentation and investi- 
 gation." 
 
 " I find them to be in substantial accord with the results of 
 the latest scientific investigations." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 19 
 
 Dr. Baer, of Berlin, Germany, the foremost Euro- 
 pean specialist on the subject treated in these text- 
 books, has recently subjected the books to rigid 
 examination. He says in his report upon them : — 
 
 " On the basis of the examination I have made I can assert 
 that the above mentioned school text-books, (the endorsed 
 physiologies), in respect to their statements regarding alcoholic 
 drinks contain no teachings which are not in harmony with the 
 attitude of strict science." 
 
 The testimony of these experts shows that the 
 results of the investigations made years ago by Dr. 
 N. S. Davis and Dr. Richardson, received then with 
 so much incredulity, are now held as scientific 
 truths by the great leaders of the medical profes- 
 sion, for the matter relating to alcohol contained in 
 the endorsed school physiologies is in -strict har- 
 mony with the findings of these pioneer investi- 
 gators. 
 
 The school text-books deal exclusively with the 
 effects of alcohol used as a beverage ; for obvious 
 reasons this is all they can do. But as intoxicating 
 drinks have been generally supposed to contain 
 great virtue as remedial agents, this phase of their 
 nature and effects has not been overlooked by those 
 pursuing inquiries concerning them. While full 
 agreement has not yet been reached by experts as 
 to the value of alcoholic liquids as medicines, it is 
 noteworthy that some of the most eminent investi- 
 gators were led to drop alcohol from their pharma- 
 
20 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ceutical outfit, and the remainder to admit that its 
 sphere of usefulness is extremely limited. 
 
 There are now medical colleges of high standing 
 where students are advised against the use of alco- 
 hol as a remedy ; hospitals are gradually using it 
 less and less, some entirely discarding it ; and many 
 progressive physicians, while saying nothing as to 
 their position upon the alcohol question, yet show 
 their lack of faith in this drug by ignoring it unless 
 patients or their friends desire it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WOMANS CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION IN 
 OPPOSITION TO ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE. 
 
 When the W. C. T. U. was first organized there 
 was no thought among its members of antagonizing 
 the use of alcohol in medicine. One almost im- 
 mediate result of the organization, however, was 
 that the women began to study the causes of in- 
 ebriety, and prominent among the prevailing influ- 
 ences leading to drunkenness they found the medical 
 use of alcoholics. The early efforts of these women 
 were chiefly in rescue work through Gospel temper- 
 ance meetings, and visitations of jails and poor- 
 houses. By reason of this contact with the effects 
 of inebriety they learned many sad tales of ruined 
 lives, blighted homes and lost souls, through the 
 appetite for strong drink created, or aroused, by 
 alcoholic prescription. They saw, as time passed, 
 that some of the drunkards reclaimed through their 
 influence lapsed again into their evil habits because 
 a little beer, or wine, " for the stomach's sake," or 
 some other sake, had been advised them. Some of 
 the workers had this trouble in their own homes, 
 husband, son or other relative enslaved to alcohol 
 through prescription in disease. Is it any wonder 
 
 21 
 
22 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 that women of the spirit of the Crusaders, having 
 once had their attention thoroughly aroused to the 
 danger of alcohol in medicine, should begin to ex- 
 amine this stronghold of the enemy to discover, if 
 possible, whether or not, his fortress, the medicine- 
 chest, was impregnable ? Greatly to their joy they 
 found that the medical profession was not a unit in 
 commending alcoholics as remedial agencies, that 
 all along since alcohol came into common use there 
 have been physicians who distrusted, and opposed 
 it. They learned, too, that some of the most dis- 
 tinguished physicians of America and of England 
 were using little or no alcohol in their practice, and 
 that a hospital had been established in London, 
 England, which was clearly demonstrating the su- 
 periority of non-alcoholic medication by its small 
 death-rate in comparison with hospitals using al- 
 cohol. 
 
 This knowledge encouraged those possessing it so 
 that they began to refuse alcoholics as remedies in 
 their own households, and rarely did they find 
 physicians unwilling or unable to supply another 
 agent when asked to do so, and thousands of women 
 can now testify to the fact of having recovered from 
 ill health without the wine, beer or brandy they 
 were advised to take. So the W. C. T. U. discovered 
 several good reasons for opposing alcohol in medi- 
 cine. 
 
 i. Its liability to create or revive an uncontrollable appetite. 
 
 2. A considerable number of the leading physicians of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 23 
 
 America and of Great Britain discard it from their list of 
 remedies, considering it harmful rather than helpful. 
 
 3. The lessened mortality consequent upon its entire disuse 
 demonstrated by the London Temperance Hospital. 
 
 4. By their own experience they knew that alcohol is not 
 necessary to the restoration of health, nor to the upbuilding of 
 strength. 
 
 The first active work touching the medical use of 
 alcohol was a memorial from the National W. C. T. 
 U. to the International Medical Congress of 1876, 
 which met in Washington, D. C. This memorial 
 was suggested by Miss Frances E. Willard, and co- 
 operated in by the National Temperance Society. 
 It asked for a deliverance from the Congress upon 
 alcohol as a food and as a medicine. \ 
 
 The Congress was divided into sections for the 
 more thorough discussion of the various topics. 
 Upon the program was a paper on " The Therapeu- 
 tic Value of Alcohol as Food, and as a Medicine," 
 by Ezra M. Hunt, M. D., delegate from the New 
 Jersey Medical Society. This paper was read before 
 the " Section on Medicine," and, after earnest dis- 
 cussion, the conclusions of the author' were adopted 
 "quite unanimously" as the sentiments of the Sec- 
 tion on Medicine. As such they were reported for 
 acceptance to the General Congress, and by it 
 ordered to be transmitted as a reply to the memori- 
 alists. 
 
 The report was published in full by the National 
 Temperance Society, and may be obtained from it 
 
24 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 in paper binding for twenty-five cents. As it makes 
 a book of 137 pages the conclusions only will be 
 quoted here. They are as follows : — 
 
 1. " Alcohol is not shown to have a definite food value by any 
 of the usual methods of chemical analysis or physiological inves- 
 tigation. 
 
 2. " Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant, 
 and often admits of substitution. 
 
 3. " As a medicine it is not well fitted for self-prescription by 
 the laity, and the medical profession is not accountable for such 
 administration, or for the enormous evil arising therefrom. 
 
 4. " The purity of alcoholic liquors is in general not as well 
 assured as that of articles used for medicine should be. The 
 various mixtures when used as medicine should have definite 
 and known composition, and should not be interchanged pro- 
 miscuously." 
 
 It is matter for sincere regret that this deliverance 
 was not, in some way, brought prominently before 
 every physician in the land. There are, doubtless, 
 thousands of physicians who never heard of it, and, 
 consequently have never been influenced by it to 
 doubt the utility of the popular brandy bottle. 
 
 In 1883 Mrs. Mary Towne Burt, President of 
 New York State W. C. T. U., in her annual address, 
 suggested that a department of work be created to 
 endeavor to induce physicians to not prescribe 
 alcohol, unless in such cases as allowed of the use of 
 no other agent. Mrs. (Rev.) J. Butler, of Fairport, 
 was the first superintendent of this department, 
 which was named, " Influencing Physicians to not 
 Prescribe Alcoholics as Medicines." Mrs. Butler 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 2$ 
 
 was succeeded in 1887, by Mrs. E. G. Moore of 
 Medina, who had the subject presented before 
 several medical associations. In 1888 Dr. Susan A. 
 Everett was appointed, and in 1889 Mrs. Martha M. 
 Allen, who has since held the position. Until 1890 
 the work was confined mainly to circulating a 
 pledge among physicians binding them to use alco- 
 holics with the " same grave sense of responsibility 
 with which they prescribe other poisons." In 1890 
 the name of the department was changed to " Non- 
 Alcoholic Medication," and the "physicians' pledge" 
 abandoned. The method of work then adopted, 
 and since pursued, was to teach the members of the 
 W. C. T. U., and through them the public in general, 
 the reasons assigned by successful physicians of 
 prominence for abandoning the medicinal use of 
 alcohol. This work has been carried on by means 
 of lectures, articles in the press, study in meetings 
 of the local unions and by the distribution of 
 leaflets and pamphlets written by physicians and 
 others. 
 
 The results of this work in New York State have 
 been very encouraging. While for a long time 
 many of the women were disposed to regard the 
 opposition to the medical use of alcohol as fanatical, 
 as they became familiar with the scientific basis of 
 the matter presented, they were won to interest, 
 and then to enthusiasm. At present this is the 
 leading department in interest in the state. Every 
 woman of prominence in the organization is thor- 
 
26 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 oughly in sympathy with the work, and able to 
 give an intelligent reason for her disapproval of 
 alcoholics as remedies in disease. It is worthy 
 of note that the pledge of New York State W. C. 
 T. U. does not include the words " as a beverage," 
 though no one is refused membership on account 
 of using liquor medicinally. The hope is always 
 felt that such members will soon be so permeated 
 with the general knowledge upon this question, 
 that they will abandon even the old-fashioned 
 camphor bottle. 
 
 The National W. C. T. U. adopted this depart- 
 ment in 1884, Mrs. Caroline A. Leech, of Louisville, 
 Ky., being superintendent. In 1889 Mrs. Leech 
 resigned because of ill-health, and the department 
 was dropped, to be taken up again in 1895 at the 
 earnest solicitation of Mrs. Mary T. Burt, and upon 
 Mrs. Burt's recommendation, Mrs. Martha M. Allen, 
 New York's superintendent, was made national 
 superintendent. Since her appointment she has 
 prepared several leaflets, beside plans of work, for 
 study by local unions, and for general distribution. 
 Her latest leaflet is upon concealed alcohol in 
 proprietary medicines. It is making a decided 
 sensation, so surprising are its revelations. As 
 counsellors she has such physicians as Dr. N. S. 
 Davis, Sr., of Chicago, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle 
 Creek, and Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford. Many 
 other physicians have given her great assistance in 
 supplying her with pamphlets and periodicals 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 27 
 
 containing information upon the scientific study of 
 alcohol. 
 
 This book contains the teachings which the 
 department of Non-Alcoholic Medication is striving 
 to bring before the attention of the American peo- 
 ple. When these views are generally accepted the 
 liquor-problem will be well-nigh solved. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALCOHOL AS A PRODUCER OF DISEASE. 
 
 That alcohol is a poison is attested by all 
 chemists and other scientific men ; taken undiluted 
 it destroys the vitality of the tissues of the body 
 with which it comes in contact as readily as creosote, 
 or pure carbolic acid. The term intoxicating 
 applied to beverages containing it refers to its 
 poisonous nature, the word being derived from the 
 Greek toxicon, which signifies a bow or an arrow ; 
 the barbarians poisoned their arrows, hence, toxicnm 
 in Latin was used to signify poison ; from this 
 comes the English term toxicology, which is the 
 science treating of poisons. Druggists in selling 
 proof spirits usually label the bottle, " Poison." 
 , Apart from the testimony of science in regard to 
 its poisonous nature, it is commonly known that 
 large doses of brandy or whisky will speedily cause 
 death, particularly in those unaccustomed to their 
 use. The newspapers frequently contain items 
 regarding the death of children who have had 
 access to whisky, and drunk freely of it. Cases 
 are reported, too, of men, habituated to drink, 
 who after tossing off several glasses of brandy at 
 the bar of a saloon have suddenly dropped dead. 
 28 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 2g 
 
 Dr. Mussey says : — 
 
 " A poison is that substance, in whatever form it may be, 
 which, when applied to a living surface, disconcerts and dis- 
 turbs life's healthy movements. It is altogether distinct from 
 substances which are in their nature nutritious. It is not 
 capable of being converted into food, and becoming a part of 
 the living organs. We all know that proper food is wrought 
 into our bodies ; the action of animal life occasions a constant 
 waste, and new matter has to be taken in, which, after digestion, 
 is carried into the blood, and then changed ; but poison is 
 incapable of this. It may indeed be mixed with nutritious sub- 
 stances, but if it goes into the blood, it is thrown off as soon as 
 the system can accomplish its deliverance, if it has not been 
 too far enfeebled by the influence of the poison. Such a poison 
 is alcohol — such in all its forms mix it with what you may." 
 
 Dr. Nathan S. Davis said in an address given in 
 
 " When largely diluted with water, as it is in all the varieties 
 of fermented and distilled liquids, and taken into the stomach, 
 it is rapidly imbibed, or taken up by the capillary vessels and 
 carried into the venous blood, without having undergone any 
 digestion or change in the stomach. With the blood it is 
 carried to every part, and made to penetrate every tissue of the 
 living body, where it has been detected by proper chemical 
 tests as unchanged alcohol, until it has been removed through 
 the natural process of elimination, or lost its identity by 
 molecular combination with the albuminous elements of the 
 blood and tissues, for which it has a strong affinity. 
 
 "The most varied and painstaking experiments of chemists 
 and physiologists, both in this country and Europe, have shown 
 conclusively that the presence of alcohol in the blood dimin- 
 ishes the amount of oxygen taken up through the air-cells of 
 the lungs ; retards the molecular and metabolic changes of both 
 
30 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 nutrition and waste throughout the system and diminishes the 
 sensibility and action of the nervous structures in direct propor- 
 tion to the quantity of alcohol present. By its stronger affinity 
 for water and albumen, with which it readily unites in all pro- 
 portions, it so alters the hemaglobin of the blood as to lessen 
 its power to take the oxygen from the air-cells of the lungs and 
 carry it as oxyhemaglobia to all the tissues of the body ; and by 
 the same affinity it retards all atomic or molecular changes in 
 the muscular, secretory and nervous structures ; and in the 
 same ratio it diminishes the elimination of carbon-dioxide, phos- 
 phates, heat and nerve force. In other words, its presence 
 diminishes all the physical phenomena of life. 
 
 " I say, then, that from the facts hitherto adduced, whether 
 from accurate experimental investigations in different countries, 
 from the pathological results developed in the most scientific 
 societies, from the most reliable statistics of sickness and mor- 
 tality, as influenced by occupations and social habits, or from 
 the life insurance records kept on a uniform basis through 
 periods of ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years, it is clearly 
 shown that alcohol when taken into the human system not 
 only acts upon the nervous system, perverting its sensibility,, 
 and, if increased in quantity, causing intoxication or insensibil- 
 ity, but it also, even in small quantities, lessens the oxygena- 
 tion and decarbonization of the blood and retards the molecular 
 changes in the structures of the body. When these effects are 
 continued through months and years, as in the most temperate 
 class of drinkers, they lead to permanent structural changes, 
 most prominently in the liver, kidneys, stomach, heart, blood- 
 vessels and nerve structures, and lessen the natural duration 
 of life in the aggregate fro7n ten to fifteen years. Conse- 
 quently there is no greater, nor more destructive error existing 
 in the public mind than the belief that the use of fermented 
 and distilled drinks does no harm so long as they do not in- 
 toxicate. 
 
 " Another popular error is the opinion that the substitution 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 31 
 
 of the different varieties of beer and wine in the place of dis- 
 tilled liquors promotes temperance, and lessens the evil effects 
 of alcohol on the health and morals of those who use them. 
 Accurate investigations show that beer and wine drinkers gen- 
 erally consume more alcohol per man than the spirit drinkers ; 
 and while they are not as often intoxicated, they suffer fully as 
 much from diseases and premature death as do those who use 
 distilled spirits. Again, the beer drinker drinks more nearly 
 every day, and thereby keeps some alcohol in his blood more 
 constantly ; while a large percentage of spirit drinkers drink 
 only periodically, leaving considerable intervals of abstinence, 
 during which the tissues regain nearly their natural condition. 
 The more constant and persistent is the presence of alcohol 
 in the blood and the tissues, even in moderate quantity, the 
 more certainly does it lead to perverted and degenerative changes 
 in the tissues, ending in renal (kidney) and hepatic (liver) 
 dropsies, cardiac (heart) failures, gout, apoplexy and pa- 
 ra/ysis." 
 
 Sir B. W. Richardson says : — 
 
 \" Alcohol produces many diseases ; and it constantly hap- 
 pens that persons die of diseases which have their origin solely 
 in the drinking of alcohol, while the cause itself is never for a 
 moment suspected. A man may say quite truthfully that he 
 never was tipsy in the whole course of his life ; and yet it is 
 quite possible that such a man may die of disease caused by 
 the alcohol he has taken, and by no other cause whatever. 
 This is one of the most dreadful evils of alcohol, that it kills 
 insidiously, as if it were doing no harm, or as if it were doing 
 good, while it is destroying lifey Another great evil of it is 
 that it assails so many different parts of the body. It hardly 
 seems credible at first sight that the same agent can give rise to 
 the many different kinds of diseases it does give rise to. In 
 fact, the universality of its action has blinded even learned men 
 as to its potency for destruction. 
 
32 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " Step by step, however, we have now discovered that its 
 modes of action are all very simple, and are all the same in 
 character ; and that the differences that have been and are seen 
 in different persons under its influence are due mainly to the 
 organs, or organ, which first give way under it. Thus, if the 
 stomach gives way first, we say that the person has indigestion 
 or dyspepsia, or failure of the stomach ; if the brain gives way 
 first, we say the person has paralysis, or apoplexy, or brain dis- 
 ease ; if the liver gives way first, we say the man has liver dis- 
 ease, and so on. 
 
 V " All persons who indulge much in any form of alcoholic 
 drink are troubled with indigestion. When they wake in the 
 morning they find their mouth dry, their tongue coated, and 
 their appetite bad. In course of time they become confirmed 
 ' dyspeptics,' and as many of them find a temporary relief from 
 the distress at the stomach, and the deficient appetite from 
 which they suffer by taking more liquor, they increase the quan- 
 tity taken, and so make matters much worse. ***** 
 
 " There are a great number of diseases caused by alcohol, 
 some of which are known by terms that do not convey to the 
 mind what really has been the cause of the diseases." They are : 
 
 (a) Diseases of the brain and nervous system : 
 indicated by such names as apoplexy, epilepsy, pa- 
 ralysis, vertigo, softening of the brain, delirium tre- 
 mens, loss of memory and that general failure of the 
 mental power called dementia, {b) Diseases of the 
 lungs : one form of consumption, congestion and 
 subsequent bronchitis, (c) Diseases of the heart : 
 irregular beat, feebleness of the muscular walls, dila- 
 tion, disease of the valves, (d) Diseases of the blood: 
 scurvy, dropsy, separation of fibrine. (e) Diseases 
 of the stomach : feebleness of the stomach and indi- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 33 
 
 gestion, flatulency, irritation and sometimes inflam- 
 mation. (/) Diseases of the bowels : relaxation or 
 purging, irritation, (g) Diseases of the liver: con- 
 gestion, hardening and shrinking cirrhosis. (Ji). 
 Diseases of the kidneys : change of structure into 
 fatty or waxy-like condition and other changes lead- 
 ing to dropsy, (z) Diseases of the muscles : fatty 
 changes in the muscles, by which they lose their 
 power for proper active contraction. (/) Diseases 
 of the membranes of the body : thickening and loss 
 of elasticity, by which the parts wrapped up in the 
 membrane are impaired for use, and premature 
 decay is induced. 
 
 But it constantly happens that when deaths from 
 these diseases are recorded and alcohol has been 
 the primary cause, some other cause is believed to 
 have been at work. 
 
 While drinking parents by virtue of a strong con- 
 stitution sometimes escape the penalty of their 
 bibulous habit, it is not uncommon to see their 
 children suffering from some disease or nervous 
 weakness such as is caused by alcohol, " the sins of 
 the father being visited upon the children." 
 
 Erasmus Darwin says upon this point : — 
 
 " It is remarkable that all the diseases from drinking spiritu- 
 ous or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary, even 
 to the third generation, gradually increasing, if the cause be 
 continued, till the family become extinct." 
 
 / Prof. Christison, of Edinburgh, in answer to in- 
 
34 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 quiries from the Massachusetts State Board of 
 Health, says of general diseases due to alcohol : — 
 
 " I recognize certain diseases which originate in the vice of 
 drunkenness alone, which are deliriuni tremens, cirrhosis of the 
 liver, many cases of Bright's disease of the kidneys, and dipso- 
 mania, or insane drunkenness. 
 
 " Then I recognize many other diseases in regard to which 
 excess in alcoholics acts as a powerful predisposing cause, such 
 as gout, gravel, aneurism, paralysis, apoplexy, epilepsy, cystitis, 
 premature incontinence of urine, erysipelas, spreading cellular 
 inflammation, tendency of wounds and sores to gangrene, in- 
 ability of the constitution to resist the attacks of epidemics. I 
 have had a fearful amount of experience of continued fever in 
 our infirmary during many epidemics, and in all my experience 
 I have only once known an intemperate man of forty and up- 
 wards to recover." 
 
 Professor Christison also claims that three-fourths, 
 or even four-fifths, of Bright's disease in Scotland is 
 produced by alcohol. 
 
 Dr. C. Murchison, in speaking of alcohol as a pre- 
 ventive of disease, says : — 
 
 " There is no greater error than to imagine that a liberal 
 allowance of alcoholic liquids fortifies the system against con- 
 tagious diseases." 
 
 In a paper read before the Royal Medical and 1 
 Chirurgical Society, Oct. 22, 1872, Dr. W. Dickin- 
 son gave the following conclusions : — 
 
 '* Alcohol causes fatty infiltration and fibrous encroachments ; 
 it engenders tubercles ; encourages suppuration, and retards 
 healing ; it produces untimely atheroma (a form of fatty degen- 
 eration of the inner coats of the arteries), invites hemorrhage, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 35 
 
 and anticipates old age. The most constant fatty changes, re- 
 placement by oil of the material of epithelial cells and muscular 
 fibres, though probably nearly universal, is most noticeable in 
 the liver, the heart and the kidneys. Drijik causes tuberculo- 
 sis, which is evident not only in the lungs, but in every amena- 
 able organ." 
 
 Dr. William Hargreaves says : — 
 
 " Brandy is not a prophylactic. To the temperate it is an 
 active, exciting cause. It is well known that a single act of 
 intemperance during the prevalence of cholera, will often pro- 
 duce a fatal attack. The sense of warmth and irritation 
 (called stimulation) produced by alcoholic liquors, has led to 
 the erroneous notion that they may prevent cholera. But the 
 contrary we have seen is the truth, for the effects of alcoholics 
 are to reduce the temperature of the body, and instead of 
 stimulating, they narcotize, and reduce the life-forces, and 
 predispose the system to all kinds of disease." 
 
 The following testimonies are culled from the 
 writings of eminent physicians : — 
 
 4*» Sir Andrew Clark, M. D., F. R. C. P., London, Physician in 
 Ordinary to the Queen, Senior Physician at the London 
 Hospital: "As I looked at the hospital wards to-day, and 
 saw that seven out of ten owed their diseases to alcohol, I 
 could but lament that the teaching about this question is not 
 more direct, more decisive and more home-thrusting. ***** 
 Can I say to you any words stronger than these of the terrible 
 effects of alcohol? When I think of this I am disposed to 
 give up my profession, and go forth upon a holy crusade, 
 preaching to all men— Beware of this ene7ny of the race." 
 
 Sir William Gull, F. R. S. (late Physician to her Majesty) : 
 " I should say, from my experience, that alcohol is the most 
 destructive agent that we are aware of in this country. I 
 would like to say that a very large number of people in society 
 
$6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 are dying day by day, poisoned by alcohol, but not supposed to 
 be poisoned by it." 
 
 Dr. Abernethy : " If people will leave off drinking alcohol, 
 live plainly, and take very little medicine they will find that 
 many disorders will be relieved by this treatment alone." 
 
 Dr. Forel, of the University of Zurich, Switzerland : " Life 
 is considerably shortened by the use of alcohol in large quanti- 
 ties. But a moderate consumption of the ^ame also shortens 
 life by an average of five to six years. This is consistently and 
 unequivocally seen in the statistics kept for thirty years by 
 English insurance companies, with special sections for ab- 
 stainers. They give a large discount, and still make more 
 profit, as not nearly so many deaths occur as might be expected 
 under the usual calculations. According to federal statistics in 
 the fifteen largest towns of Switzerland, over ten per cent, of 
 the men over twenty years of age die solely, or partly of alco- 
 holism." 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Mich. : " Every organ feels 
 the effect of the abuse through indulgence in alcohol, and no 
 function is left undisturbed. By degrees, disordered function, 
 through long continuance of the disturbance, induces tissue 
 change. The most common form of organic or structural 
 disease due to alcohol is fatty degeneration, which may effect 
 almost every organ in the body. * * * * * No class of persons 
 are so subject to nervous diseases due to degeneration of 
 nerves and nerve-centres as drinkers. Partial or general 
 paralysis, locomotor ataxia, epilepsy and a host of other nervous 
 disorders, are directly traceable to the use of alcohol." 
 
 One of the visiting physicians of Bellevue Hos- 
 pital, New York, states that at least two-thirds of 
 all the diseases treated there originated in drink. 
 
 Dr. W. A. Hammond : " It is of all causes most prolific in 
 exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal cord, and the 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 TEMPERANCE HOSPITALS. 
 
 THE LONDON TEMPERANCE HOSPITAL. 
 
 In 1865 Dr. S. Nicholls, medical officer of the 
 Longford Poor-law Union, published a report of 
 the results of non-alcoholic treatment of' disease as 
 practiced by him for sixteen years in the institutions 
 under his control. The figures for 1865 were : — 
 
 
 ADMITTED. 
 
 RECOVERED. 
 
 DIED. 
 
 Fever, 
 
 142 
 
 135 
 
 7 
 
 Scarlatina, 
 
 33 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 Small-pox, 
 
 48 
 
 47 
 
 1 
 
 Measles, 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 231 220 II 
 
 The treatment was altogether without wines, 
 spirits or alcohol in any form. 
 
 The death-rate reported by Dr. Nicholls was so 
 small that some of the more observing and pro- 
 gressive physicians were led by it to begin similar 
 experiments in the disuse of alcohol in other hospi- 
 tals. Among these was Dr. James Edmunds, senior 
 physician at the Lying-in Hospital, London. The 
 experiments continued a year with a reduced death- 
 
 37 
 
38 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 rate among both mothers and children. But the 
 great brewers of London, who contributed largely 
 to the support of this hospital raised such a storm 
 of opposition to the discontinuance of alcoholic 
 liquors that the experiments had to be abandoned. 
 
 The establishment of a temperance hospital was 
 now suggested, and in October, 1873, a temporary 
 institution was opened in Gower Street, accommoda- 
 ting only seventeen in-patients at one time. Later 
 a fine site was secured on Hampstead Road, and in 
 1 88 1 the east wing and centre were opened by the 
 Lord Mayor of London. In 1885 the west wing 
 was finished, and the opening ceremonies conducted 
 by the Bishop of London. 
 
 At the time of the launching of this enterprise, 
 wine and spirits were literally " poured into " sick 
 persons, with frightful results. Death-rates were 
 enormous. The success of the Temperance Hospi- 
 tal has no doubt had much to do in modifying this 
 abuse. Its death-rate, on an average, has been only 
 6 per cent, throughout the years since its beginning. 
 This is lower than that of any other general hospi- 
 tal in London, and certainly proves conclusively 
 that alcohol is not necessary in the treatment of 
 disease. The physicians connected with it have 
 been men of eminence in the profession, such as 
 Dr. James Edmunds, Dr. J. J. Ridge and Sir B. 
 W. Richardson. 
 
 The visiting staff is not compelled to pledge dis- 
 use of alcohol, but is required to report if it is used. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 39 
 
 During all these years it has been given only seven- 
 teen times, then almost entirely in surgical cases, 
 and in nearly all of these a fatal result proved it to 
 be useless. The patients who are restored to 
 health leave without having had aroused or im- 
 planted in them a desire for alcoholic liquors, 
 neither have they been taught to regard them as 
 valuable aids to the recovery of health and strength. 
 On the contrary, there have been many who have 
 come in, suffering from this delusion, who have had 
 it thoroughly dispelled, both by their own experi- 
 ence and the experience of their fellow patients. 
 
 Sir B. W. Richardson took charge of this hospital 
 from 1892 until his death in 1897. In his report in 
 1893 he said: — 
 
 " I remember quite well when according to custom, I should 
 have prescribed alcohol in all those cases that were not actually 
 inflammatory (speaking of diseases of the alimentary system) ; 
 but I never remember having seen such quick and sound 
 recoveries as those which have followed the non-alcoholic 
 method." 
 
 The following selection showing points of prac- 
 tice in this hospital is taken from the same report : 
 
 " For medicinal purposes, we are as free as possible from all 
 complexity. We use glycerine for making what may be called 
 our tinctures, and in my clinique I am introducing a series of 
 * waters ' — aqua ferri, aqua chloroformi, aqua opii, aqua quinas, 
 and so on — to form the menstruums of other active drugs when 
 they are called for. I also follow the plan of having the medi- 
 cines administered with a free quantity of water, and with as 
 accurate a dosage as can be obtained, for I agree with Mr. 
 
40 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Spender's original proposition that the administration of medi- 
 cines in comparatively small and frequent doses is more 
 effective and useful than the more common plan of large doses 
 given at long intervals. 
 
 " I treat many cases by inhalation, and for this end I use 
 oxygen in a new" and, I hope, efficient manner. I make oxygen 
 gas a medium for carrying other volatile substances that admit 
 of being inhaled with it. The mode is very simple. ***** 
 In the pneumonic and bronchial cases the treatment has been 
 of the simple and sustaining kind. The medicines that have 
 been given during the acute febrile stages have been chiefly 
 liquor ammonias acetatis and carbonate of ammonia in small 
 and frequently repeated doses. The patients have all been 
 well and carefully fed on the milk and middle diet until con- 
 valescence was declared. In some of the more extreme in- 
 stances, where there was fear of collapse from separation of 
 fibrine in the heart or pulmonary artery, ammonia has been 
 given freely according to the method I have, for so many years 
 inculcated. I have also in cases of depression under which 
 fibrinous separation is so easily developed, lighted on a mode 
 of administering ammonia which combines feeding with the 
 medicine. I direct that a three or five-grain tabloid of bicar- 
 bonate of ammonia shall be dissolved in a cup of coffee or 
 of coffee with milk, and be taken by the patient in that man- 
 ner. The coffee can be sweetened with sugar if that is desired 
 by the patient, and the ammonia can be so administered with- 
 out any objectionable taste to the beverage. After what is 
 called the crisis in acute pneumonia, I administer very little 
 medicine of any kind ; I trust rather to careful feeding with 
 an occasional alterative or expectorant, as may be required. 
 ***** I am satisfied that no aid I could have derived from 
 alcoholic stimulants, as they are called, could have bettered my 
 results. I feel sure any candid medical brother who will have 
 the steady courage to put aside many old and unproven, though 
 much-practiced, methods, based only on unquestioning and 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 41 
 
 unquestioned experience, and to move into these new fields of 
 observation and experience, will, in the end, find no fault with 
 me for leaving a track which, though it be beaten very firmly 
 and be very wide and smooth to traverse, may not, after all, be 
 the surest and soundest path to the golden gate of cure." 
 
 THE FRANCES E. WILLARD NATIONAL TEMPERANCE 
 HOSPITAL. 
 
 This hospital is situated at 1619 Diversey Avenue, 
 Chicago, and is an " affiliated interest " of the Na- 
 tional W. C. T. U. The history of its origin is 
 best told in the words of the woman to whom the 
 conception of such an institution first came, Dr. 
 Mary Weeks Burnett, for several years the phy- 
 sician in charge : — 
 
 " In the fall of 1883 there came to a few of us the thought 
 that there was a point of weakness in the temperance pledge. 
 It reads, ' We promise to abstain from all liquors — as a bever- 
 age' We had found in many instances in reform work that 
 pledging to abstain from liquor • as a beverage,' and leaving 
 the victim to the unlimited use of it in physicians' prescriptions, 
 was simply a skirmish with the devil's outposts, that the con- 
 flict, based upon these grounds, was short, and defeat almost 
 sure ; and the great fact remained that the innermost recesses 
 of evil force and power were by this pledge still left unassailed. 
 We found that this power of evil had largely entered the homes 
 of our land through the family physicians, and that willingly or 
 not, the physicians were being used to bring in even our inno- 
 cent children as recruits to this unrighteous warfare. 
 
 "Now, how could we hope to eliminate those three little 
 words * as a beverage ' from our pledge ? 
 
 " In some way we must bring about an arrest of thought in 
 the minds of 100,000 men and women physicians whose medi- 
 
42 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 cal education warranted them in supposing that they knew that 
 of alcohol which justified them in its full and free use in medi- 
 cal practice. Nothing short of a great national object lesson 
 could ever convict and convert this broad constituency through 
 which the power of darkness is doing his deadliest work. 
 
 " In January, 1884, four of us met and organized under the 
 name of the National Temperance Hospital. To have our sick j 
 properly cared for in our hospital we found that we should be 
 obliged to train our own nurses. The nurse who has always • 
 been accustomed to administering alcohol under the physician's 
 prescription at all times and under all circumstances, and to ad- 
 ministering it herself at her own discretion if the physician is 
 not at hand, is a terror to the temperance physician. So we in- 
 cluded in our charter a Training School for Nurses. It is now 
 open, and we expect, as the years go by, to send out armed 
 with our training school diplomas, grand, noble women and 
 men thoroughly trained in true temperance methods for reliev- 
 ing the sick. 
 
 " Our organization lived on paper, and was sustained in pur- 
 pose by prayer and planning for two years. In September, 
 1885, Mr. R. G. Peters, of Manistee, Michigan, signified to us 
 his intention to give $50,000 toward our buildings whenever we 
 had satisfactorily materialized. About the same time a good 
 old gentleman in Michigan placed in his will for us $2,500. 
 The dear man is still living, and we hope will live many years. 
 Even the money when it comes can never be of greater service 
 to us than was the knowledge at that time that the Lord was 
 our leader and was raising up helpers in the work. 
 
 "In January, 1886, we found, according to the law under 
 which our charter was obtained, that we must commence active 
 operations at once, or obtain a new charter. After a blessed 
 season of prayer and counseling together in the board meeting 
 held January 29, there being present only the members of the 
 board at that time, Mrs. Plumb offered to advance $3,500, if 
 necessary, toward the expenses for the first year. We accepted 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 43 
 
 it with great thankfulness, rented a building the 1 5th of March, 
 1886, and formally opened the National Temperance Hospital on 
 the 4th of May, 1886. 
 
 " In April, 1886, we took a firm stand upon the alcohol ques- 
 tion, and decided to eliminate it entirely from our list of thera- 
 peutics, as we had become convinced that there were better and 
 more reliable remedies as stimulants and tonics. 
 
 " In September, 1886, at our annual meeting, we reaffirmed 
 this decision, and we now have the following as one of the arti- 
 cles of our constitution : 'All medicines used in the hospital 
 must be prepared without alcohol, and all physicians accepting 
 positions on the medical staff of the hospital or dispensary must 
 pledge themselves not to administer alcohol in any form to any 
 patient in hospital or dispensary, nor to call in counsel for such 
 patients any physician who will advise the use of alcohol. 
 
 " Any physician of pure character, and in good standing, who 
 is a total abstainer from liquor and tobacco can, by subscribing 
 to this pledge, become a member of our physicians' association, 
 and if so desired, be placed upon the visiting and consulting 
 staff of the hospital. 
 
 " The cases treated in the hospital include many of the seri- 
 ous medical and surgical maladies. In no case has any parti- 
 cle of alcohol been used, and the usual inflammatory secondary 
 symptoms resulting when alcohol is used have been entirely 
 avoided. 
 
 " Our course of building-up treatment is, we believe, unique 
 in hospital practice. It consists of treatment by massage, heat, 
 rest, passive exercise, etc. together with proper medication and 
 a thoroughly nutritious diet adapted to the individual needs of 
 the patient. 
 
 "To alleviate, and, if possible, cure disease, is the design of 
 all hospital treatment. In our hospital we seek to gain this re- 
 sult by means which the highest science of the day approves, 
 and in addition to this we have especially at heart the advance- 
 
44 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ment of the temperance reform. There are, we believe, thou- 
 sands of temperance adherents, who do not yet fully apprehend 
 the importance of this hospital to the permanent extension and 
 progress of temperance principles. Although prohibition as a 
 prmciple has been accepted by many, yet in its practical appli- 
 cation in the home in serious illness, it is still feared by the im- 
 mense majority of even our strongest prohibitionists. We are 
 organized upon the basis no alcohol in medicine, and we are 
 preparing to demonstrate fully and scientifically, so he who runs 
 may read, that as in health, so in disease and accident, alcohol 
 in any form works to the hindrance and injury of the vital 
 forces, and prevents the establishment and advancement of 
 health processes in the system." 
 
 At the opening of the hospital, May 4, 1886, Miss 
 Frances E. Willard, the president of the National 
 W. C. T. U., gave the following address : — 
 
 " Nothing is changeless except change. The conservatives of 
 one epoch are the madmen of the next, even as the radicals of 
 to-day would have been the lunatics of yesterday. To prove 
 this, just imagine the founders of this hospital declaring to my 
 great-grandfather that because he had taken a cold was no rea- 
 son why he should take a toddy ; and per contra, imagine my 
 great-grandfather's doctor marching into our presence here and 
 now, with saddle-bags on arm, and after treating us each to a 
 glass of grog for our stomach's sake, giving us a scientific 
 disquisition on the sovereign virtues of the blue pill, and inform- 
 ing us that bleeding, cupping and starvation were the surest 
 methods of cure ! 
 
 " That the story of Evolution is true I am by no means certain, 
 but that ' We, Us, and Company,' are ' evoluting ' with elec- 
 tric speed ourselves it is useless to deny. This very hospital 
 is the latest mile-stone on the highway of progress in the Ameri- 
 can temperance reform. The conditions that have made its 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 45 
 
 existence possible have developed in this country within about 
 twelve years. 
 
 " Public opinion, that mightiest of magicians, has within that 
 time been educated up to this level and has said in its omnipo- 
 tence : ' Hospital, be ! ' and, behold, the hospital is, 
 
 "When I joined the ranks of temperance workers in 1874, a 
 thought so adventurous as that alcoholics in relation to medi- 
 cine were a curse and not a blessing had never lodged within 
 my cranium. But, as in duty bound, I studied the subject from 
 the practical, which is the nineteenth century standpoint. 
 
 " I investigated the cause of inebriety, and found the medical 
 use of alcoholic stimulants a prominent factor in this horrible 
 result ; I sought for expert testimony, and found Dr. N. S. Davis, 
 ex-President American Medical Association, saying ' that in his 
 ample clinical practice he had for over thirty years tested the 
 medical uses of alcoholics, and had found no case of disease 
 and no emergency arising fro?n accident that he could not 
 treat more successfully without any form of fermented or 
 distilled liquors than with ' ; found Dr. James R. Nichols, of 
 Boston, so long editor of The Journal of Chemistry, declaring 
 as his deliberate scientific opinion that the entire banishment of 
 these liquors ' would, not deprive us of a single one of the indis- 
 pensable agents which modern civilization demands ' ; found Dr. 
 Green, of Boston, saying before the physicians of that city that 
 it is upon the members of the medical profession and the excep- 
 tional laws which it has always demanded, that the whole 
 liquor fraternity depends more than upon anything else to 
 screen it from opprobrium and just punishment for the evils it 
 entails, and that after thirty years of professional experience he 
 felt assured that alcoholic stimulants are not required as medi- 
 cines, and that many, if not a majority of the best physicians, 
 now believe them to be worse than useless. Meanwhile I 
 learned that across the sea such great physicians as Dr. Benja- 
 min Ward Richardson, St Andrew Clark, Sir Henry Thompson 
 and Sir William Gull held views which for their latitude were 
 
46 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 almost equally radical ; and Dr. James Edmunds, founder of 
 the London Temperance Hospital had demonstrated publicly 
 and on a grand scale the more excellent way, his hospital having 
 4l per cent, fewer deaths than any other in London, taking the 
 same run of cases, and that the Royal Infirmary at Manchester 
 reported the medicinal use of alcohol fallen off 87 per cent, in 
 recent years, with a decrease in its death-rate of over one-third. 
 Besides all this, and independent of any such investigation, the 
 ' intuitions ' of our most earnest women were leading them out of 
 the wilderness. As is their custom, they determined to put 
 this matter to the test of that ' experience which one experi- 
 ences when he experiences his own experience,' and a whole 
 body of divinity upon the advantages of non-alcoholic treatment 
 could be furnished from their evidence. I was not able person- 
 ally to pursue this method, my own condition of good health 
 having become chronic. Away back in 1875, in executive 
 committee, one of our leading officers was stricken with angifta 
 pectoris. A physician was promptly summoned. ' Give her 
 brandy,' he said, and insisted so stoutly upon it as vital to her 
 recovery that we should probably have sent for it, but the dear 
 woman gasped out faintly, ' I can die, but I can't touch brandy.' 
 She is alive and flourishing to-day. Another national officer 
 absolutely refused whisky for a violent attack of a very different 
 character, the physician telling her that she could not live 
 through the night without it ; but she is still an active worker 
 — a living witness that doctors are not infallible. Instances 
 like these have multiplied by hundreds and thousands in our 
 Woman's Christian Unions and Bands of Hope. ' No, mamma 
 I can't touch liquor; I've signed the pledge,' is a protest 
 ' familiar as household words.' Meanwhile, I beg you to con- 
 template something else that has happened. Behold, our own 
 beloved beverage itself, 
 
 ' Sparkling and bright, 
 
 In its liquid light,' 
 has come grandly to our rescue in this crusade against alcohol 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 47 
 
 in the sick room. Water has become a favorite — nay, even a 
 fashionable — medicine ! The most conservative physicians 
 freely prescribe it in the very cases where some form of alcohol 
 was the specific so long. To be sure, they give it hot, but we 
 do not object to that, since ' water hot ne'er made a sot,' and it 
 cures dyspepsia and all forms of indigestion as whisky never 
 did, but only made believe to ; while its external use as a 
 fomentation is banishing alcohol even for old folks' ' rheu- 
 matiz ' where, as a remedy, it would be likely to make its final 
 stand. 
 
 " Farewell, thou cloven-foot, Alcohol ! Thou canst no longer 
 hide away in the home-like old camphor bottle, paregoric bottle, 
 peppermint bottle or Jamaica-ginger bottle ; and a tender 
 good-by, Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, for be it known to 
 you that the wonderful discovery stumbled over for six thousand 
 years has in our day been made, namely, that hot water will 
 soothe the baby's stomach-aches and the grown people's 
 pains, and drive out a cold when all else fails. Jubilate I 
 Clear out the cupboard and top shelf of the closet now that the 
 sideboard has gone. Let great Nature have a chance to 
 ' mother up ' humanity with the medicine, as well as the 
 beverage, brewed in Heaven. 
 
 " May God's presence and blessing be upon each brain that 
 plans for the National Temperance Hospital, and upon every 
 heart that holds it dear." 
 
 The report for 1898 of the Board of Trustees says : 
 " We are fully convinced that our institution has made great 
 advancement in substantiating before the world the principle 
 upon which our hospital was founded — that alcohol has no 
 place in medicine, and is entirely unnecessary even for external 
 use, thus obliterating a fruitful source of drunkenness and vice. 
 This truth has been proved by results, and is acknowledged by 
 a rapidly increasing number of the medical profession. 
 
 " The medical staffs, both regular and homeopathic, include 
 
48 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 men and women of prominence in the profession. Physicians 
 may bring their patients to our hospital, and treat them, after 
 signing our pledge to abstain from the use of alcohol for the 
 treatment of all patients admitted to the hospital." 
 
 The average death-rate has been about 5 per 
 cent, since the opening of the hospital. 
 
 The following letter is from the president of the 
 Frances Willard Temperance Hospital, and is 
 given here by her consent: — 
 
 " My Dear Mrs. Allen : — 
 
 " Several years since, I began my work in Temperance 
 Hospital prejudiced in favor of alcohol as a medicine — while 
 I have never approved of it as a beverage. I am glad to say 
 that I am now thoroughly convinced of its uselessness and 
 even harmf ulness in the diseases for which I formerly prescribed 
 it. 
 
 " I had drawn the line between chronic and acute disease, 
 seldom or never using it for chronic cases, and in acute cases 
 giving it as alcohol, pure and simple, rather than as wine, 
 brandy or whisky, thinking thereby to prevent the forming of 
 an appetite — few people relish the taste of alcohol. 
 
 " It was very hard for me to convince myself that pneumonia 
 and typhoid cases were as safe without as with alcohol, and now 
 I am prepared to say that I consider both diseases can be 
 treated much better without alcohol, and just here I find my- 
 self between two fires. When the question is propounded to me 
 as to what I use as a substitute for alcohol, I realize that no 
 one but a physician can make a diagnosis of a disease, and 
 certainly no one but a physician is capable of prescribing for a 
 disease. On the other hand, alcohol in the form of wine, 
 brandy, whisky, is so universal, so accessible, so easily prescribed 
 and administered, that it seems almost necessary that the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 49 
 
 remedies which take its place should be equally common and 
 as easily prescribed. 
 
 " This is a great error. While it is seldom possible that much 
 immediate harm can come from the one or two doses of 
 alcohol prescribed in emergencies by the lookers-on, it is possi- 
 ble to do harm with the remedies such as strychnine, nitro- 
 glycerine, atropine, digitalis, camphor, ammonia, etc. that we 
 use as stimulants in the place of alcohol. The immediate 
 drunkenness produced by alcohol, though revolting, is not its 
 worst effect upon the body — the effects upon the cells of the 
 liver, kidney and brain are remote — the result of continuous 
 use without possibly ever having reached the stage of drunken- 
 ness. But these are deep waters requiring the technicalities of 
 physiological chemistry to fully understand. 
 
 " The point I wish to make is : the difficulty of popularizing 
 the use of any poisons, because it is impossible to make every 
 man, woman and child a diagnostician who shall know when, 
 and when not to use those poisons. 
 
 " In regard to the influence of the Temperance Hospital, it is 
 quite extended and is growing. The hospital has been handi- 
 capped in several ways. First, it was started by surgeons 
 rather than physicians, therefore the majority of the cases have 
 always been and still are surgical. Surgeons seldom have any 
 use for alcohol except to cleanse the surgical field for operation. 
 Occasionally they use it for ' shock,' or for ' blood poison. ' In 
 these days of ' surgical cleanliness,' surgeons seldom have 
 4 blood poisoning.' So the non-alcoholic treatment of surgical 
 cases does not materially help the cause of medical temperance. 
 Secondly, the hospital has never been able to afford large wards 
 in which hundreds of cases of continuous fevers could be treated 
 without alcohol. When you make this hospital really national, 
 and endow it with enough money to treat the sick poor with- 
 out money and without price, then you can gather from its 
 statistics such an object lesson that even the enemies of tem- 
 perance can not explain away — an object lesson that will do 
 
50 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 more good than all the lectures that ever have been or will be 
 delivered in the cause of temperance. 
 
 " As to the stand our physicians are taking upon the subject, 
 I have to say that the best of our own, and the best physicians 
 of other countries, are beginning to see that alcohol is a most 
 dangerous and harmful drug. 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Sarah Hackett Stevenson, 
 
 " President Frances Willard 
 National Temperance Hospital." 
 
 In August, 1898, the name " Frances E. Willard " 
 was added to " National Temperance Hospital," by- 
 vote of the Board of Trustees. There is great need 
 for a more commodious building for this worthy- 
 enterprise. Philanthropic people wishing to place 
 money where it can do much good, should aid in 
 making this important object-lesson in total absti- 
 nence what it really should be, a great metropolitan 
 hospital, with medical college attached. 
 
 THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL. 
 
 A philanthropic young woman, Miss Bettina A. 
 Hofker, entered Mount Sinai Training School for 
 Nurses in 1891. Her desire was to fit herself as a 
 nurse for the poor. After her graduation in 1893, 
 she met Mrs. Charles A. Raymond, a benevolent 
 lady, who offered her pecuniary assistance in net- 
 work. Miss Hofker suggested that she would like 
 to institute a Red Cross Hospital and Training 
 School for Nurses. Mrs. Raymond succeeded in in- 
 teresting others in the proposition. The name of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 5 1 
 
 Red Cross however could not be used without 
 permission of the officers of the society bearing 
 that name, but after consultation with Miss Barton, 
 permission was granted. Several years previous to 
 this, Dr. A. Monse Lesser, Dr. Thomas McNicholl 
 and Dr. Gottlieb Steger had opened a small hospital 
 under the name of St. John's Institute. This was 
 now amalgamated with the Red Cross, and Dr. 
 George F. Shrady and Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas, two 
 of New York's leading physicians, were requested 
 to act as consulting physicians. 
 
 The hospital does not confine itself to service in 
 its building alone, but sends its workers wherever 
 called, to mansion or tenement. The " Sisters " are 
 trained for field service or for any national calamity 
 such as floods, earthquakes, forest fires, epidemics, 
 etc. When neither war nor calamities require their 
 presence, they devote themselves to the service of 
 the needy poor, or wait upon the rich, if called. 
 The heroic service rendered by the surgeons and 
 nurses from this hospital in the Cuban War, 
 brought their work into great prominence. 
 
 At the suggestion of Miss Barton, the medical 
 department of the hospital was commissoned to 
 treat diseases without the use of alcoholic liquids. 
 
 Dr. Lesser, the executive surgeon, is a German, 
 and of German education, having received his med- 
 ical education in the Universities of Berlin and 
 Leipsic. In a conversation with a press represent- 
 ative, Dr. Lesser said some time a^o : — 
 
52 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " We have been convinced that the use of alcohol can be 
 entirely eliminated from our medical practice, and this has been 
 practically accomplished at the Red Cross Hospital. We find 
 that where stimulants are required, such remedies as caffeine, 
 nitro-glycerine and kolafra take the place of alcohol, and are 
 even more satisfactory. The main use of alcohol is to stimulate 
 the action of the heart in various ailments. The blood is thus 
 forced to the remote parts of the system, and poisonous sub- 
 stances carried away. But, besides serving this good purpose, 
 the drug tears down and ultimately destroys the cellular tissues 
 of the body. A relapse is certain to follow the application. 
 The drugs that I have mentioned serve exactly the same purpose 
 without the disastrous results. We are proving this every day 
 at the Red Cross Hospital. 
 
 M Only a few days ago a boy was brought in, apparently at 
 the point of death. He was put into bed and watched by the 
 nurse. After a little ammonia had been given to him as a 
 stimulant, he unconsciously expressed himself to the effect 
 that it was not the same as they gave him in another place, and 
 gradually when it dawned upon him that no alcohol was 
 administered by the Red Cross, he said, ' Gin has allers made 
 me better.' The doctor in charge, who already suspected that 
 the boy was pretending illness for the sake of the drink, was not 
 surprised an hour or two afterwards to learn that he had 
 demanded his clothes, dressed himself, and left the hospital 
 most ungratefully, but apparently quite well." 
 
 Dr. George F. Shrady, one of the consulting phy- 
 sicians, is famous as having been in attendance 
 upon both President Garfield and President Grant. 
 He is the editor of the Medical Record, one of the 
 most important medical journals published in 
 America. While not a non-alcoholic physician, he 
 says of the medical use of intoxicants : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 53 
 
 " There is altogether too much looseness among physicians 
 in prescribing alcohol. It is a dangerous drug. There is much 
 more alcohol used by physicians than is necessary, and it does 
 great harm. Whisky is not a preventive; it prevents no dis- 
 ease whatever, contrary to a current notion. Another thing, 
 we physicians get blamed wTongfully in many cases. People 
 who want to drink, and do drink, often lay it on to the physician 
 who prescribed it. ***** i think that in most cases 
 where alcohol is now used, other drugs with which we are 
 familiar could be used with far better effect, and with no harm- 
 ful results." 
 
 Dr. Steger, another physician of the staff, says : — 
 
 " I don't use alcohol at all in my practice. I used to use it, 
 but my observation has been that other drugs do the same 
 work without the harmful results. Alcohol over-stimulates the 
 heart, and tears down the cellular tissues of the system, besides 
 causing other deleterious effects. The use of alcohol is simply 
 a superstition among physicians. They have used it so long 
 that they think they always must. I am not a total abstainer, 
 but that only shows that I take better care of my patients than 
 I do of myself. It is not good for a healthy man to drink, but 
 sometimes folks like myself do things which had better be left 
 undone. I have seen patients in hospitals made absolutely 
 drunk by their physicians." 
 
 The following interesting items ia regard to 
 practice in this hospital are culled from the report 
 of 1897 : — 
 
 " Temperature was never reduced by active drugs known as 
 antipyretics. 
 
 " Water was allowed freely after all kinds of surgical oper- 
 ations and in fevers. 
 
 " Alcohol was never used as an internal medicine. 
 
54 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The free use of water in saline solutions directly injected 
 into the tissues was found of great service. Quarts have been 
 injected that way with most satisfactory results. 
 
 " Antipyretics were altogether discarded as it is well known 
 that their action diminishes the tone of the heart. Artificial 
 reduction of temperature only deludes one into the belief that 
 the drug has improved the condition of the patient, while in 
 reality, it has no beneficial influence on the disease, and has 
 reduced the vital resistance of the patient. In no case has high 
 temperature harmed a patient and there was every evidence 
 that in some instances a high temperature was preferable to a 
 low one. 
 
 " Special attention has been given to the use of alcohol in 
 disease, not with any desire to approve or disapprove it, but 
 solely for the purpose of discovering the truth, for nothing 
 seems of greater public interest from a medical standpoint than 
 the truth regarding a subject for which so many virtues are 
 claimed on the one hand, and so many destructive elements 
 proven on the other. ***** 
 
 "We criticise the treatment of no institution, antagonize no 
 school of medicine, claim no unusual or peculiar scientific 
 virtue, but what we do maintain and insist upon is this ; that 
 the human body may be ever so afflicted, ever so reduced, the 
 heart ever so feeble, and the spark of life ever so dim, the 
 conscientious student of medicine can secure as good results 
 without as with administration of antipyretics, sparkling wines, 
 beers or liquors. 
 
 " Experience teaches that true science does not antagonize 
 nature. In surgical cases, in septicaemia, in pneumonia, or in 
 any of the fevers, water freely administered has proven to be a 
 real source of comfort, and an aid to recovery. It is amazing 
 how favorably diseases terminate under this beneficent bever- 
 age. The withholding of food does not retard, but rather hastens 
 convalescence. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 55 
 
 " In the conduct of our Red Cross patients, irrespective of 
 their condition when admitted, it can be truly said that after 
 treatment began, delirium has not been witnessed in a single 
 instance, and as our hospital reports indicate, our mortality 
 has been unusually small. 
 
 " Alcohol has not figured as a life-saver in our institution. 
 Cases of extreme collapse following major operations, cases of 
 pneumonia, where the pulse ranged from 160 to 220, patients 
 suffering from pernicious anaemia, septicaemia, pyaemia, cholera 
 infantum and typhoid fever, some of whom when first seen were 
 in the worst stages of delirium and collapse have without 
 alcohol regained consciousness, overcome delirium and made 
 excellent recoveries. 
 
 " The following cases very forcibly illustrate the results of 
 non-alcoholic treatment : — 
 
 "Case No. 1. A child, aged nine months, under treatment 
 for six days for pneumonia, came under our notice on the 
 seventh day. The temperature was 106 5-10 ; pulse was 220 ; 
 respirations 90. Whisky, which had been given previously to 
 the extent of two ounces daily, was stopped. Carbonate of 
 ammonia, caffeine salicylate, nitro-glycerine and 1-10 of a drop 
 of aconite were given internally ; camphorated lard applied 
 externally ; with the result that on the ninth day temperature 
 stood 99 ; pulse 100 ; respiration 20. The child made a complete 
 recovery. 
 
 " Case No. 2. L. was a child aged eight months, suffering 
 from a very violent attack of entero-colitis. For three weeks 
 previous to coming under our notice the patient received 
 brandy, stimulating foods and alkaline mixtures. Fearfully 
 emaciated, temperature 106, feeble pulse 182, frequent bloody 
 discharges from the bowels, numbering as much as thirty in a 
 day and constant vomiting, the child was considered beyond 
 hope. Under these circumstances, and at this time we first 
 saw her. Brandy and all foods were stopped ; bowel flushings 
 
5 6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 were given, 1-12 of a drop of tincture of aconite was adminis- 
 tered every half hour and salicylate of caffeine every two hours. 
 In twenty-four hours the temperature was 105 and the pulse 
 160. In two days, temperature was 102 and the pulse 140. In 
 one week, temperature was 99 5-10, pulse 1 10. In three weeks, 
 the patient was discharged cured. 
 
 " Case No. 3. Mrs. C, aged forty-three, who had been under 
 treatment for seven weeks for metorrhagia, nietortes and peri- 
 tonitis came under our notice. Brandy which had been previ- 
 ously given in large quantities had proved of no avail and the 
 patient was considered beyond recovery. We found her com- 
 pletely prostrated, temperature 102, pulse 170, and unconscious. 
 The heart very weak and irregular. The brandy was discon- 
 tinued, salicylate of caffeine and nitrate of strychnia were 
 given with the result that in a short time the patient was con- 
 valescent and finally recovered. 
 
 "Each case in our hospital is an additional proof that 
 whether found in wines, spirits or beers, alcohol can claim no 
 right as an indispensable medicine." 
 
 Dr. Lesser, who was Surgeon-General of the 
 American Red Cross in the Cuban War said after 
 his return from his first visit to Cuba that four out 
 of six of his patients, to whom he allowed liquor to 
 be given as a concession to the popular idea that it 
 was necessary, died " while subsequently in treating 
 absolutely without alcohol sixty-three similar cases, 
 only one died, and he upon the day on which he 
 was received at the hospital. 
 
 OTHER TEMPERANCE HOSPITALS. 
 
 There are other hospitals 'where alcohol is not 
 used, not because it is the desire to study non- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 57 
 
 alcoholic treatment of disease, but because the 
 physicians in charge believe they have better results 
 without, than with, any form of alcoholic drink. 
 Among the best known of these is the hospital 
 connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Some 
 record of its work will be found in the chapter upon 
 " Comparative Death-Rates With, and Without 
 Alcohol." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE 
 HUMAN BODY. 
 
 The body is made up mainly of cells, fibres and 
 fluids. The cell is the most important structure in 
 the living body. Life resides in the cell, and every 
 animal may be considered a mass of cells, each of 
 which is alive, and each of which has its own work 
 to accomplish in the building up of the body. 
 
 The matter which forms the mass of a cell is called 
 protoplasm, or bioplasm. It resembles somewhat 
 the white of a raw egg, which is almost pure albumen. 
 Cells make up the body, and do its work. Some are 
 employed to construct the skeleton, others are used 
 to form the organs which move the body ; liver-cells 
 secrete bile, and the cells in the kidneys separate 
 poisonous matters from the blood in order that they 
 may be expelled from the system. 
 
 These cells, composing the mass of the body, 
 being very delicate, are easily acted upon by sub- 
 stances coming into contact with them. If sub- 
 stances other than natural foods or drinks are 
 introduced into the body, the cells are injuriously 
 affected. Alcohol is especially injurious to cells, 
 " retarding the changes in their interior, hindering 
 58 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 59 
 
 their appropriation of food, and elimination of 
 waste matters, and therefore preventing their 
 proper development and growth." 
 
 "Bioplasm is living matter; it is structureless, semi-fluid, 
 transparent and colorless. It is the only matter that can grow, 
 move, divide itself and multiply, the only matter that can take 
 up pabulum (food) and convert it into its own substance ; and is 
 the only matter that can be nourished. The bioplasm in the 
 cell gets its nourishment by drawing in of the pabulum through 
 the cell wall, and in that way building up the formed material 
 while it is being disintegrated on the outer surface. This proc- 
 ess is continually being carried on, and is what is meant by 
 nutrition. Disintegration of the formed material is as essential 
 as the building up of it. All organic structure is the result of 
 change taking place in bioplasm. These small cell-like bio- 
 plasts are the workmen of the organism. All wounds are 
 repaired by them, all fractures are united, and all diseased tis- 
 sues brought back to their normal and healthy condition, unless 
 there is not vitality enough to overcome disease, or they have 
 been injured or killed by poisonous material. The body is kept 
 in repair by this living matter, and all the functions of the body 
 are but the result of its action. We may examine, watch and 
 study bioplasm under the microscope ; we see it take up pabu- 
 lum and convert that which is adapted to itself into its own sub- 
 stance, while all other substances are rejected. We take a 
 solution of what we call a stimulant and immerse the bioplasm 
 in it, and we find that it increases its activity, moves faster, takes 
 up more pabulum, and divides more rapidly than in the unstim- 
 ulated condition. We next add an astringent, and it begins to 
 move more slowly, and soon contracts into a spherical shape 
 and remains contracted, or may move slowly to a limited ex- 
 tent, depending on the strength of the solution. We next take 
 a relaxant, and gradually the living matter begins to spread in 
 all directions, in a laxy-like manner, and becomes so thin as to 
 
60 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 be almost undiscernible, and takes up very little, if any, pabu- 
 lum. If sufficiently relaxed or astringed, the movements may 
 entirely cease so as to appear lifeless, but when a stimulant is 
 again added the same result is obtained as before — it begins to 
 move, and acts as vigorous as ever, which shows that it was 
 not injured in the least by the agents used. Alcohol is called a 
 stimulant. We take a weak solution of alcohol and try it in the 
 same way ; but we find that almost instantly the living matter 
 contracts into a ball-like mass. Now, we may through ignor- 
 ance suppose that alcohol acts as an astringent, and so we try- 
 to stimulate it with the same harmless agent before used, but 
 no impression is made on it ; it does not move ; it is dead mat- 
 ter. These are demonstrable facts, and lie at the foundation of 
 physiology, pathology and the practice of medicine. Alcohol 
 destroys the very life force that alone keeps the body in repair. 
 For a more simple experiment as to the action of alcohol, take 
 the white of an egg (which consists of albumen, and is very 
 similar to bioplasm), put it into alcohol, and notice it turn 
 white, coagulate and harden. The same experiment can be 
 made with blood with the same result — killing the blood bio- 
 plasts. Raw meat will turn white and harden in alcohol. Al- 
 cohol acts the same on food in the stomach as it does on the 
 same substances before introduced into the stomach, and acts 
 just the same on blood and all the living tissues in the system 
 as out of it ; and this alone is enough to condemn its use as a 
 medicine." From Alcohol, Is It a Medicine? by W. F. Pech- 
 uman, M. D., of Detroit, Michigan. 
 
 ALCOHOL AND STOMACH DIGESTION. 
 
 The nitrogenous portions of the food are the 
 only ones digested in the stomach. The oily and 
 fatty, as well as the starchy portions, are digested 
 in the small intestines. 
 
 Very little was known about digestion until 1833, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 6l 
 
 when Dr. Beaumont published the results of his 
 investigations upon the stomach of Alexis St. 
 Martin. St. Martin received a severe wound in the 
 left side from a shot-gun. The wound in healing 
 left an opening into the stomach about $ of an 
 inch in diameter, closed on the inside by a flap of 
 mucous membrane. Through this opening the 
 interior of the stomach could be thoroughly exam- 
 ined. Dr. Beaumont made hundreds of observations 
 upon this young man, who was in his home several 
 years. He says : — 
 
 " In a feverish condition, from whatever cause, obstructed 
 perspiration, excitement by alcoholic liquors, overloading the 
 stomach with food, fear, anger or whatever depresses or dis- 
 turbs the nervous system, the lining of the stomach becomes 
 somewhat red and dry, at other times pale and moist, and loses 
 its smooth and healthy appearance, the secretions become 
 vitiated, greatly diminished or entirely suppressed." 
 
 One day after giving St. Martin a good whole- 
 some dinner, digestion of which was going on in 
 regular order, Dr. Beaumont gave him a glass of 
 gin. The digestive process was at once arrested, 
 and did not begin again until after the absorption 
 of the spirit, after which it was slowly renewed, 
 and tardily finished. 
 
 Gluzinski made some conclusive experiments 
 with a syphon. He drew off the contents of the 
 stomach at various times with and without liquor. 
 He concluded that alcohol entirely suspends the 
 transformation of food while it remains in the 
 stomach. 
 
62 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr. Figg, of Edinburgh, fed two dogs with roast 
 mutton; to one of them he gave i£ ounces of 
 spirit. Three hours later he killed both dogs. 
 The dog without liquor had digested the mutton ; 
 the other had not digested his at all. Similar 
 experiments have been made repeatedly with like 
 result. 
 
 The elements of our food which the stomach can 
 digest depend upon the pepsin of the gastric juice 
 for their transformation. Alcohol diminishes the 
 secretions of the gastric juice, unless given in very- 
 minute quantities, and kills and precipitates its 
 pepsin. It also coagulates both albumen and 
 fibrine, converting them into a solid substance, 
 thus rendering them unfit for the action of the 
 solvent principles of the gastric juice. Hence, any 
 considerable quantity of alcohol taken into the 
 stomach must for the time retard the function of 
 digestion. 
 
 Many experiments have been made with gastric 
 juice in vials, one, having alcohol added, the other, 
 not having alcohol. The meat in the vials without 
 alcohol, in time dissolved till it bore the appearance 
 of soup ; in the vials to which alcohol was added 
 the meat remained practically unchanged. In the 
 latter a deposit of pepsin was found at the bottom, 
 the alcohol having precipitated it. Dr. Henry 
 Munroe, of England, one of the experimenters in 
 this line of research, says :— 
 
 " Alcohol, even in a diluted form, has the peculiar power of 
 interfering with the ordinary process of digestion. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 63 
 
 " As long as alcohol remains in the stomach in any degree 
 of concentration, the process of digestion is arrested, and is not 
 continued until enough gastric juice is thrown out to overcome 
 its effects." — Tracy s Physiology, page 90. 
 
 Iii The Human Body, Dr. Newell Martin says : — 
 
 " A vast number of persons suffer from alcoholic dyspepsia 
 
 without knowing its cause ; people who were never drunk in 
 
 their lives'and consider themselves very temperate. Abstinence 
 
 from alcohol, the cause of the trouble, is the true remedy." 
 
 Sir B. W. Richardson : — ■ 
 
 " The common idea that alcohol acts as an aid to digestion 
 is without foundation. Experiments on the artificial digestion 
 of food, in which the natural process is closely imitated, show 
 that the presence of alcohol in the solvents employed interferes 
 with and weakens the efficacy of the solvents. It is also one of 
 the most definite of facts that persons who indulge even in 
 what is called the moderate use of alcohol suffer often from 
 dyspepsia from this cause alone. In fact, it leads to the symp- 
 toms which, under the varied names of biliousness, nervous- 
 ness, lassitude and indigestion, are so well and extensively 
 known. 
 
 " From the paralysis of the minute blood-veSsels which is 
 induced by alcohol, there occurs, when alcohol is introduced 
 into the stomach, injection of the vessels and redness of the 
 mucous lining of the stomach. This is attended by the sub- 
 jective feeling of a warmth or glow within the body, and 
 according to some, with an increased secretion of the gastric 
 fluids. It is urged by the advocates of alcohol that this action 
 of alcohol on the stomach is a reason for its employment as an 
 aid to digestion, especially when the digestive 'powers are 
 feeble. At best this argument suggests only an artificial aid, 
 which it cannot be sound practice to make permanent in place 
 of the natural process of digestion. In truth, the artificial 
 
64 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 stimulation, if it be resorted to even moderately, is in time 
 deleterious. It excites a morbid habitual craving, and in the 
 end leads to weakened contractile power of the vessels of the 
 stomach, to consequent deficiency of control of those vessels 
 over the current of blood, to organic impairment of function, 
 and to confirmed indigestion. Lastly, it is a matter of experi- 
 ence with me, that in nine cases out of ten, the sense of the 
 necessity, on which so much is urged, is removed in the 
 readiest manner, by the simple plan of total abstinence, with- 
 out any other remedy or method." 
 
 In Medicinal Drinking, by John Kirk, M. D., this 
 passage occurs : — 
 
 " Especially in the matter of support, it is essential to our 
 inquiry to examine fully into alcoholic influence on the change 
 by which food introduced into the stomach becomes capable of 
 passing into the circulation and constituent elements of the 
 living frame. It may be best to suppose a case for illustration. 
 Here, then, is a child of, say, six or seven years of age. This 
 child is of the slenderer sex and has been brought into a state of 
 extreme weakness as the consequence of fever. The fury of 
 the disease is expended, but it has, as nearly as may be, extin- 
 guished life. The medical man's one hope for saving this 
 child is now concentrated in what he fancies to be ' support.' 
 Beef-tea, arrowroot and port wine are prescribed. Let it be 
 kept in mind that the pure wine of the grape is discarded in 
 favor of alcoholic wine. Our question is, What effect will the 
 alcohol in this wine have on that process by which the food is 
 to prove really nourishing, and so to be that support which is 
 the only hope for this child ? Will it help her ? or will it so 
 hinder the necessary change in the food as to kill her, unless 
 she has sufficient strength left to get above its influence? 
 These are surely important questions. Neither of them can be 
 set at rest by the fact that she recovers ; for she may have 
 strength enough, as many have had, to survive even a serious 
 error in her treatment. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 65 
 
 " What light, then, does true science throw on these important 
 questions ? All who know anything on the subject are aware 
 that alcohol, instead of dissolving_/<sW, or aiding in its dissolu- 
 tion, is one of the most powerful agents in preventing that 
 dissolution. On what principle, then, is it possible that its 
 being mixed with the materials of food, in this case, can aid in 
 their dissolution, so that they may more easily be changed into 
 the fresh blood required to sustain and recover life in this 
 child ? " 
 
 He then refers to the experiments with gastric 
 juice in vials, and proceeds : — 
 
 " Here, then, is indisputable evidence that alcohol effectually 
 prevents that process which is known as digestion, and which 
 is essential to food's being of any use to support life in man. 
 On what principle can the physician explain his introduction of 
 it into the stomach of a child whose thread of life is attenuated 
 to the slenderest hair ? 
 
 " We urge the chemical truth that the alcohol, given to pro- 
 mote support, is of such a nature as to prevent that which 
 would nourish, from effecting the end so much to be desired, 
 and for which true food is adapted." 
 
 The pure, unfermented juice of the grape, free 
 from chemical preservatives, is now used by many 
 physicians where the miserable concoction of drugs 
 and alcohol, known as port wine, was once con- 
 sidered essential. Unfermented grape juice con- 
 tains all the nutriment of the grape, without any of 
 the poison, alcohol. After being opened it should 
 be kept in a cool place, or it will ferment and pro- 
 duce alcohol. Fruit juices are very grateful to a 
 fever patient, and should not be withheld as they 
 are in so many cases. 
 
66 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 non-alcoholic physicians, recommend them highly. 
 They are better than milk, as milk frequently pro- 
 duces " feverishness," while fruit juices allay it. 
 
 For those who think beer or ale an incentive to 
 appetite, Dr. N. S. Davis, and others, recommend 
 an infusion of hops, made fresh each day. It is the 
 bitter which promotes appetite, not the alcohol. 
 For the sake of the little bitter in beer, it is not 
 wise to vitiate the tone of the stomach with the 
 alcohol it contains, and which is its active principle. 
 Many mothers have become drunkards, secret 
 drunkards, possibly, through the use of beer as a 
 fancied aid to digestion. Multitudes of men suffer 
 untold horrors from dyspepsia, caused by the beer 
 which they mistakenly suppose to be a friend to 
 their stomach. 
 
 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BLOOD. 
 
 " The blood is a thick, opaque fluid, varying in 
 color in different parts of the body from a bright 
 scarlet to a dark purple, or even almost black." If 
 a drop of blood be placed under a microscope, im- 
 mense numbers of small bodies will be seen. These 
 are called blood-globules, or corpuscles, or discs. 
 There are both red, and white or colorless, corpus- 
 cles. Each red corpuscle is soft and jelly-like. 
 Its chief constituent, besides water, is a substance 
 called hemoglobin, which has the power of combin- 
 ing with oxygen when in a place where that gas is 
 plentiful, and of giving it off again in a region 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 6? 
 
 where oxygen is absent, or present only in small 
 quantity. Hence, as the blood flows through the 
 lungs, which are constantly supplied with fresh air, 
 its corpuscles take up oxygen, which, as it flows on, 
 is carried by them to distant parts of the body 
 where oxygen is deficient, and there given up to 
 the tissues. This oxygen-carrying is the function 
 of the red corpuscles. 
 
 Hemoglobin, as the coloring-matter of the blood 
 is called, is dark purplish-red in color ; combined 
 with oxygen it is bright " scarlet red." Accord- 
 ingly, the blood which flows to the lungs after giv- 
 ing up its oxygen is dark red in color, its dark 
 color being due to the impurities it contains; and 
 that which, having received a fresh supply of oxy- 
 gen, flows away from the lungs is bright scarlet — 
 having been cleansed of its impurities. The bright 
 red blood is called arterial, and the dark red venous. 
 
 The work assigned to the blood in the economy 
 of the human system is : first, to pick up nutriment 
 in its course through the walls of the alimentary 
 canal, and oxygen, as it flows through the lungs, 
 and convey these to all other parts of the body. 
 Second, to act as a sort of sewage stream that 
 drains off waste matter, and to carry this to the 
 organs of excretion by which waste is expelled 
 from the body. 
 
 " The blood is the great circulating market of the body, in 
 which all the things that are wanted by all parts, by the mus- 
 cles, the brain, the skin, the lungs, liver and kidneys, are 
 
68 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 bought and sold. What the muscles want they buy from the 
 blood ; what they have done with, they sell back to the blood ; 
 and so with every other organ and part. As long as life lasts 
 this buying and selling is forever going on, and this is why the 
 blood is forever on the move, sweeping restlessly from place to 
 place, bringing to each part the things it wants, and carrying 
 away those with which it has done. When the blood ceases to 
 move, the market is blocked, the buying and selling cease, and 
 all the organs die, starved for "lack of the things they want, 
 choked by the abundance of things for which they have no 
 longer any need." — Foster. 
 
 This is one way of saying that the processes of 
 repair and waste are constantly going on in the 
 body. Every action of the body, every impulse of 
 the mind uses up some cell-matter, which must 
 then be passed from the body as waste. This is 
 called tissue disintegration. New cells to repair 
 tissue waste are built up from the nutriment which 
 the blood carries from the alimentary canal after 
 the process of food digestion is accomplished. 
 This is called tissue construction, or the process of 
 assimilation. Technically, these are the metabolic, 
 or destructive and constructive processes. Both 
 are essential to health and life. Any substance 
 taken into the body, which will interfere with these 
 processes of nutrition and waste is inimical to 
 health, and in time of disease, dangerous to life. 
 
 Alcohol is suck a substance. 
 
 The cells and tissues of the body which are 
 touched by alcohol are more or less hardened and 
 injured by it, hence are less perfectly nourished 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 69 
 
 than they are when alcohol is not present in the 
 blood. Even a teaspoonful of alcohol to a ^ gallon 
 of water hinders natural growth. If liquor is given 
 to puppies it keeps them small. Young growing- 
 cells are most affected by it, because they are most 
 tender. There are growing-cells in adults as well 
 as in children, for people are growing and changing 
 all through their lives. 
 
 Hence, when alcohol is administered in sickness 
 the cells are hindered in the full performance of 
 their function of taking up food for the building up 
 of tissue, and as a consequence, the patient's body 
 is really robbed of nutriment by the" agent which is 
 supposed to be " keeping up his strength." Truly, 
 " Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and who- 
 soever is deceived thereby is not wise." 
 
 That alcohol interferes with the passage of waste 
 matter from the body is generally conceded. In- 
 deed this is claimed by the advocates of its me- 
 dicinal use as one of its virtues ; the fact that less 
 waste passes from the body being urged as evidence 
 that there is less waste, that in some way alcohol 
 preserves tissue from being used up in the natural 
 way. Those who speak thus seem to think that ■ 
 they know better than the Creator how the body 
 should be treated. He made the body so that in 
 health, work, waste and repair should be equal to 
 one another. 
 
 Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says in Alcohol as a Food and 
 as a Medicine : — 
 
70 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " We believe that any one who will candidly review the 
 claims put forth for alcohol, in that it delays in any of these 
 hypothetical ways, tissue-change, will conclude that it has no 
 such power in a salutary sense, and that it is unwarrantably 
 assumed that to retard tissue metamorphosis (change) is 
 equivalent to tissue nutrition." 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis says: — 
 
 " It seems hardly possible that men of eminent attainments 
 in the profession should so far forget one of the most funda- 
 mental and universally recognized laws of organic life as to pro- 
 mulgate the fallacy here stated. The fundamental law to 
 which we refer is, that all vital phenomena are accompanied by, 
 and dependent upon, molecular or atomic changes ; and what- 
 ever retards these retards the phenomena of life ; whatever sus- 
 pends these suspends life. Hence, to say that an agent which 
 retards tissue metamorphosis is in any sense a food, is simply 
 to pervert and misapply terms." 
 
 Non-alcoholic physicians unite in declaring that 
 the retention of waste matter in the system, caused 
 by alcohol, invites disease, and tends to inflamma- 
 tory action ; and in illness retards, and frequently 
 prevents, recovery, for the germs of disease remain 
 longer in the body than they would were it not for 
 the delay in the passage of effete matter. 
 
 Alcohol not only hinders the blood in its work of 
 tissue nutrition ; it also prevents the full oxidation of 
 the blood in the lungs. 
 
 " In order that a steam engine may work and keep warm it 
 is not merely necessary that it have plenty of coal, but it must 
 also have a draft of air through its furnace. Chemistry teaches 
 us that the burning in this case consists in the combination of a 
 gas called oxygen, taken from the air, with other things in the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 7 1 
 
 coals ; when this combination takes place a great deal of heat is 
 given off. The same thing is true of our bodies ; in order that 
 food matters may be burnt in them and enable us to work and 
 keep warm, they must be supplied with oxygen ; this they get 
 from the air by breathing. We all know that if his supply of 
 air be cut off a man will die in a few minutes. His food is no 
 use to him unless he gets oxygen from the air to combine 
 with it ; while he usually has stored up in his body an excess 
 of food matters which will keep him alive for some time if he 
 gets a supply of oxygen, he has not stored up in him any re- 
 serve, or, if any, but a very small one, of oxygen, and so he dies 
 very rapidly if his breathing be prevented. In ordinary lan- 
 guage we do not call oxygen a food, but restrict that name to 
 the solids and liquids which we swallow ; but inasmuch as it is 
 a material which we must take from the external universe into 
 our bodies in order to keep us alive, oxygen is really a food as 
 much as any of the other substances which we take into our 
 bodies from outside, in order to keep them alive and at work. 
 Suffocation, as death from deficient air supply is named, is 
 really death from oxygen-starvation." — Martin's Human Body. 
 
 Much of the food taken into the body is burned 
 to supply energy and heat. This burning is called 
 oxidation. When food is burned, or oxidized, either 
 in the body, or out of it, three things are produced, 
 carbon dioxide {carbonic acid gas), water and 
 ashes. These are waste matters, and must be ex- 
 pelled from the body, or they will clog up the vari- 
 ous organs, as the ashes and smoke of an e'ngine 
 would soon put its fire out if they were allowed to 
 accumulate in the furnace. It is the duty of the 
 lungs to pass the carbon dioxide out to the air. 
 With every breath exhaled, this poison gas, gen- 
 erated in the body through the oxidation of food, 
 
72 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 passes from the system. With every breath inhaled 
 the life-giving oxygen is taken into the body ; pro- 
 viding that the person is not in a close room from 
 which the fresh air is excluded. 
 
 Any substance taken into the body which inter- 
 feres with the reception of oxygen into the blood, 
 and with the giving off of carbon dioxide from 
 the same is a dangerous substance. 
 
 Alcohol is such a substance. 
 
 It has already been stated that it is the duty of 
 the little red corpuscles in the blood to take up 
 oxygen in the lungs, and carry it to every part of 
 the body, and upon the return passage to the lungs 
 to convey the debris, or used-up material, from the 
 tissues, called carbon dioxide gas. A little vapor 
 and ammonia accompany this gas. The action of 
 alcohol upon these little corpuscles, or carriers of 
 the blood, is to somewhat harden and shrivel them, 
 so that they are unable to take up and carry as 
 much oxygen as they can when no. injurious sub- 
 stance is present in the blood. In consequence of 
 this, the blood can never be so pure when alcohol is 
 present, as it may be in the absence of this agent. 
 
 The following is taken from The Temperance 
 Lesson Book, by B. W. Richardson, M. D. : — 
 
 " When the blood in the veins is floating toward the right 
 side of the heart, which communicates with the lungs, it carries 
 with it the carbonic acid {carbon dioxide), and, as I have found 
 by experiment, a great part of this gas is condensed in these 
 little bodies, the corpuscles. Arrived at the lungs, the blood 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 73 
 
 comes into such contact with the air we breathe, that the 
 oxygen gas in the air is freely absorbed by the little corpuscles, 
 while the carbonic acid is given up into the air-passages of the 
 lungs, and is thrown off with every breath we throw out. In 
 this process the blood changes in color. It comes into the 
 lungs of a dark color ; it goes out of them a bright red.* * * * * 
 The parts of the blood on which alcohol acts injuriously are the 
 corpuscles and the fibrine. The red corpuscles are most dis- 
 tinctly affected. They undergo a peculiar process of shrink- 
 ing from extraction of water from them. They also lose some 
 of their power to absorb oxygen from the air. In confirmed 
 spirit-drinkers the face and hands are often seen of dark 
 mottled color, and in very bad specimens of the kind, the face 
 is sometimes seen to be quite dark. This is because the blood 
 cannot take up the vital air in the natural degree. ***** 
 
 " If anything whatever interferes with the proper reception of 
 oxygen by the blood, the blood is not properly oxidized, the 
 animal warmth is not sufficiently maintained, and life is reduced 
 in activjty. If for a brief interval of time the process of breath- 
 ing is stopped in a living person, we see quickly developed the 
 signs of difficulty, and we say the person is being suffocated. 
 We observe that the face becomes dark, the lips blue, the 
 surface cold. Should the process of arrest or stoppage of the 
 breathing be long continued the person will become uncon- 
 scious, will stagger and fall, and should relief not be at hand, 
 he will in a very few minutes die. 
 
 " I found by experiment t^iat in presence of alcohol in blood 
 the process of absorption of oxygen was directly checked, and 
 that even so minute a quantity as one part of alcohol in five 
 hundred of blood proved an obstacle to the perfect reception of 
 oxygen by the blood. The corpuscles are reduced in size, 
 when large quantities of alcohol are taken, and become irregu- 
 lar in shape." 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge says in Addresses on the Physio- 
 logical A ction of A IcoJiol : — 
 
74 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " It has been found by experiment that, when alcohol is 
 taken, less carbonic acid comes away in the breath than when 
 it is not. This is partly because the blood-corpuscles cannot 
 •carry so much, and partly because so much is not produced, 
 because there is less oxygen to join with the food and produce 
 it. Just as burning paper smokes when it does not get enough 
 oxygen, so other things are formed and get into the blood when 
 there is not enough oxygen to make carbonic acid. These 
 things make the blood impure, and cause extra work and 
 trouble to get rid of them. This is why persons who drink 
 alcohol are more liable to have gout and other diseases, than 
 total abstainers." 
 
 Dr. Alfred Carpenter, formerly president of the 
 •Council of the British Medical Association, says in 
 Alcoholic Drinks : — 
 
 " A blood corpuscle cannot come into direct contact with an 
 ■atom of alcohol, without the function of the former being 
 spoiled, and not only is it spoiled, but the effete matter which 
 it has within its capsule cannot be exchanged for the necessary 
 -oxygen. The breath of the drunken man does not give out 
 the quantity of carbonic acid which that of the healthy man does, 
 and the ammoniacal compounds are in a great measure absent. 
 Some of the carbon and effete nitrogenous matter is kept back. 
 The retention of these poisonous matters within the body is 
 highly injurious. Let the drinker suffer from any wound or 
 injury and this effete matter in his blood is ready at a moment's 
 notice to prepare and set up actions called inflammatory or 
 erysipelatous, or some other kind ; by means of which too 
 often the drinker is hurried into eternity, although, perhaps, 
 he may have been regarded as a perfectly sober man, and have 
 never been drunk in his life." 
 
 In the light of these scientific facts, what can 
 appear more utterly foolish than the swallowing of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 75 
 
 alcoholic patent medicines which are widely adver- 
 tised as " Blood Purifiers " ? That they will ren- 
 der the blood impure is only too evident in the 
 light of scientific truth. 
 
 Dr. Nathan S. Davis has written much in dis- 
 approval of the use of alcohol in fevers, pneumonia 
 and diphtheria, putting stress upon the fact that 
 these diseases, of themselves, interfere with the 
 reception of oxygen into the blood, and hence the 
 use of all remedies that notably diminish the 
 internal distribution of oxygen, or impair the cor- 
 puscles of the blood, should be avoided. I Not only 
 is alcohol of such a nature, but all the coal-tar 
 series of antipyretics also. Since the internal dis- 
 tribution of oxygen, and the processes of tissue 
 change are essential to the repair of the body, and 
 alcohol hinders the blood in the full performance 
 of its duties in these respects, it certainly seems 
 clear that those physicians, who are extremely 
 cautious in the use of this drug, or who do not use 
 it at all, are more likely to be successful in saving 
 their patients than are those who use it freely. 
 Death-rates, with and without alcohol, show conclu- 
 sively the superiority of the latter treatment. 
 
 ALCOHOL AND THE HEART. 
 
 The organs of circulation are the heart and the 
 blood-vessels. The blood-vessels are of three kinds, 
 arteries, capillaries and veins. The arteries carry 
 blood from the heart to the capillaries ; the veins 
 
y6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 collect it from the capillaries and return it to the 
 heart. There are two distinct sets of blood-vessels 
 in the body, both connected with the heart ; one set 
 carries blood to, through and from the lungs, the 
 other guides its flow through all the remaining 
 organs ; the former are known as the pulmonary, 
 the latter as the systemic blood-vessels. 
 
 The smallest arteries pass into the capillaries, 
 which have very thin walls, and form very close net- 
 works in nearly all parts of the body ; their immense 
 number compensating for their small size. It is 
 while flowing in these delicate tubes that the blood 
 does its nutritive work, the arteries being merely 
 supply-tubes for the capillaries, through whose 
 delicate walls liquid containing nourishment exudes 
 from the blood to bathe the various tissues. 
 
 The quantity of blood in any part of the body at 
 any given time is dependent upon certain relations 
 which exist between the blood-vessels and the nerv- 
 ous system. The walls of the arteries are abun- 
 dantly supplied with involuntary muscular fibres, 
 which have the power of contraction and relaxation. 
 This power of contraction and relaxation is con- 
 trolled by certain nerves called vasomotor nerves, 
 because they cause or control motion in the vessels 
 to which they are attached. When arteries supply- 
 ing blood to any particular part of the body con- 
 tract, the supply of blood to that part will be du 
 minishedin proportion to the amount of contraction. 
 If the nervous control be altogether withdrawn, the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. JJ 
 
 arterial walls will completely relax, and the amount 
 of blood in the part affected will be increased corre* 
 spondingly. 
 
 Alcohol, even in moderate doses, paralyzes the 
 vasomotor nerves which control the minute blood- 
 vessels, thus allowing these vessels to become 
 dilated with the flowing blood. 
 
 " With the disturbance of power in the extreme vessels, more 
 disturbance is set up in other organs, and the first organ that 
 shares in it is the heart. With each beat of the heart a certain 
 degree of resistance is offered by the vessels when their nerv- 
 ous supply is perfect, and the stroke of the heart is moderate 
 in respect both to tension and to time. But when the vessels 
 are rendered relaxed, the resistance is removed, the heart begins 
 to run quicker like a clock from which the pendulum has been 
 removed, and the heart-stroke is greatly increased in frequency. 
 It is easy to account in this manner for the quickened heart 
 and pulse which accompany the first stage of deranged action 
 from alcohol."— Richardson. 
 
 Dr. Parkes of England, assisted by Count 
 Wollowicz, conducted inquiries upon the effects of 
 alcohol upon the heart, with a young and healthy 
 man. At first they made accurate count of the 
 heart beats during periods when the young man 
 drank water only ; then of the beats during succes- 
 sive periods in which alcohol was taken in increasing 
 quantities. Thus step by step they measured the 
 precise action of alcohol on the heart, and thereby 
 the precise primary influence induced by alcohol, 
 Their results are stated by themselves as follows : — 
 
 " The average number of beats of the heart in 24 hours (as 
 
78 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 calculated from eight observations made in 14 hours), during 
 the first, or water period, was 106,000 ; in the earlier alcoholic 
 period it was 127,000, or about 21,000 more ; and in the later 
 period it was 131,000, or 25,000 more. 
 
 " The highest of the daily means of the pulse observed during 
 the first, or water period, was 77. 5 ; but on this day two obser- 
 vations are deficient. The next highest daily mean was 77 
 beats. 
 
 " If, instead of the mean of the eight days, or 73.57, we com- 
 pare the mean of this one day ; viz. 77 beats per minute, with 
 the alcoholic days, so as to be sure not to over-estimate the 
 action of the alcohol, we find : — 
 
 " On the 9th day, with one fluid ounce of alcohol, the heart 
 beat 4,300 times more. 
 
 " On the 10th day, with two fluid ounces, 8,172 times more. 
 
 " On the nth day, with four fluid ounces, 12,960 times more. 
 
 '•• On the 1 2th day, with six fluid ounces, 20,672 times more. 
 
 " On the 13th day, with eight fluid ounces, 23,904 times more. 
 
 " On the 14th day, with eight fluid ounces, 25,488 times 
 more. 
 
 " But as there was ephemeral fever on the 12th day, it is right 
 to make a deduction, and to estimate the number of beats in 
 that day as midway between the nth and 13th days, or 18,432. 
 Adopting this, the mean daily excess of beats during the alco- 
 holic days was 14,492, or an increase of rather more than 13 
 per cent. 
 
 " The first day of alcohol gave an excess of 4 per cent., and 
 the last of 23 per cent. ; and the mean of these two gives almost 
 the same percentage of excess as the mean of the six days. 
 
 " Admitting that each beat of the heart was as strong durfng 
 the alcoholic period as in the water period (and it was really 
 more powerful), the heart on the last two days of alcohol was 
 doing one- fifth more work. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 79 
 
 " Adopting the lowest estimate which has been given of the 
 daily work of the heart; viz. as equal to 12.2 tons lifted one 
 foot, the heart during the alcoholic period, did daily work in 
 excess equal to lifting 15.8 tons one foot, and in the last two 
 days did extra work to the amount of 24 tons lifted as far. 
 
 " The period of rest for the heart was shortened, though, per- 
 haps, not to such an extent as would be inferred from the 
 number of beats, for each contraction was sooner over. The 
 heart, on the fifth and sixth days after alcohol was left off, and, 
 apparently at the time when the last traces of alcohol were 
 eliminated, showed in the sphygmographic tracing signs of 
 unusual feebleness ; and, perhaps, in consequence of this, when 
 the brandy quickened the heart again, the tracings showed a 
 more rapid contraction of the ventricles, but less power than in 
 the alcoholic period. The brandy acted, in fact, on a heart 
 whose nutrition had not been perfectly restored." 
 
 Richardson quotes these experiments of Parkes. 
 and Wollowicz as if he agrees with them that in- 
 creased heart-beat must of necessity mean increased 
 work done by the heart. Dr. Nathan S. Davis, Dr. 
 Newell Martin, Dr. A. B. Palmer, and some other 
 investigators, show conclusively that mere increased 
 frequency of beat above the natural standard is no 
 evidence of increased force or efficiency in the cir- 
 culation. 
 
 " The more frequent beats under the influence of alcohol con- 
 stitute no exception to the general rule, for while the heart beats 
 more frequently, its influence on the vasomotor nerves causes 
 dilatation of the peripheral and systemic blood-vessels, as 
 proved by the pulse-line written by the sphygmograph, which 
 more than counterbalances the supposed increased action of the 
 heart. The truth is, that under the influence of alcohol in the 
 blood the systolic action of the heart loses in sustained force in 
 
SO ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 direct proportion to its increase in frequency, until, by simply 
 increasing the proportion of alcohol, the heart stops in diastole, 
 as perfectly paralyzed as are the coats of the smaller vessels 
 throughout the system. This was clearly demonstrated by the 
 experiments of Professor Martin of Johns Hopkins University, 
 to determine the effects of different proportions of alcohol on 
 the action of the heart of the dog; and those of Drs. Sidney 
 Ringer and H. Sainsbury, to determine the relative strength of 
 different alcohols as indicated by their influence on the heart of 
 the frog. Professor Martin states that blood containing J per 
 cent, by volume of absolute alcohol, almost invariably dimin- 
 ishes, within a minute, the work done by the heart." 
 
 (This estimate would equal in an adult man an 
 amount equal to the absolute alcohol in two or 
 three ounces of whisky or brandy.) 
 
 " These investigations of Professor Martin, being directly 
 corroborated by those of Drs. Ringer and Sainsbury, complete 
 the series of demonstrations needed to show the actual effects 
 of alcohol on the cardiac, as well as on the vasomotor, and 
 also on the direct contractability of the muscular structure, 
 when supplied with blood containing all gradations in the rela- 
 tive proportion of alcohol, leaving no longer any basis for the 
 idea, popular both in and out of the profession, that alcohol in 
 any of its forms is capable of increasing, even temporarily the 
 force or efficiency of the heart's action." — Dr. N. S. Davis in 
 Influence of Alcohol On the Human System. 
 
 The following letter will be of great interest to 
 all students of the physiological effects of alcohol : — 
 
 "Chicago, III., March 3, 1899. 
 "To Mrs. Martha M. Allen, 
 "Syracuse, N. Y., 
 
 " Madam : Your letter asking my attention to the 
 apparent contradiction of authorities concerning the work done 
 by the heart when influenced by alcohol was received yesterday. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 8 1 
 
 " The explanation is not difficult. It depends entirely on the 
 different views of what constitutes the work of the heart. 
 
 " One class of investigators, led by the original and valuable 
 experiments of Parkes and Wollowicz base their estimate of 
 the heart's work entirely on the number of times it contracts or 
 beats per minute. Thus Dr. Parkes, finding that moderate 
 doses of alcohol increased the number of contractions of the 
 heart from three to six beats per minute more than natural, 
 readily estimated the number of additional contractions that 
 would occur in twenty-four hours, and thereby demonstrated a 
 large amount of increased work done by the heart under the 
 influence of alcohol. All writers who speak of ' stimulating ' or 
 increasing the action of the heart by alcohol follow this method 
 of measuring the amount of work done. They generally add 
 that it is like applying ' the whip to a tired horse.' 
 
 " The other class of investigators who claim that alcohol di- 
 minishes the actual work done by the heart base their estimates 
 on the amount of blood the heart passes through its cavities 
 into the arteries in a given time. This is the physiological 
 function of the heart ; i. e. to aid in circulating the blood. 
 Professor Martin's experiments were admirably contrived to 
 determine, not how frequently the heart beat, but the amount of 
 blood it delivered per minute under the influence of alcohol and 
 without alcohol. 
 
 " He, and all others who take this basis of work, found that 
 alcohol in any dose diminished the efficiency of the heart in cir- 
 culating the blood in direct ratio to the quantity taken. 
 
 " My own original experiments, made fifty years ago, uni- 
 formly showed that alcohol quickly increased the number of 
 heart beats per minute, but at the same time diminished the 
 efficiency of the circulation generally. Every experienced prac- 
 titioner knows that the weaker the heart becomes, the faster it 
 beats. Consequently, the number of times the heart contracts 
 per minute is no measure of the efficiency of its work in circula- 
 
82 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ting the blood. Indeed the mechanism of the heart is such 
 that there must be sufficient time between each of its con- 
 tractions for its cavities to Jill, or it is made to contract on an 
 insufficient supply, and the efficiency of the circulation is di- 
 minished. 
 
 "Yours respectfully, 
 
 " N. S. Davis." 
 
 The International Medical Congress of 1876 
 adopted as its reply to the Memorial of the National 
 Temperance Society, and of the National Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union respecting " Alcohol 
 as a Food and as a Medicine," the paper by Dr. 
 Ezra M. Hunt, one conclusion of which was, " Its 
 use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stim- 
 ulant." 
 
 As experiments conducted since that time show 
 that it is not a cardiac stimulant, but a direct car- 
 diac paralyzant, what excuse is there for using it as 
 a medicine now? 
 
 " Whenever the heart is compelled to more rapid contraction 
 than is natural, it has less time to rest. Although it seems to 
 be constantly at work, it really rests more than half the time, 
 so that, although the periods of relaxation are very short, they 
 are so numerous that the aggregate amount of rest in a day is 
 very great. Now, if the rapidity of the contractions is increased 
 materially and continuously, although the aggregate amount of 
 time for rest may be the same as before, yet the waste caused by 
 the contractions is greater, while the time for rest after each 
 one is shorter. This lack of rest produces exhaustion of the 
 heart-muscle, ending in partial change of the muscular tissue 
 into fat. The heart then becomes flabby and weak and its 
 walls become thinner, a condition known to physicians as a 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 83 
 
 ■ fatty heart,' often resulting in sudden death." — Tracy's Physi- 
 ology* page 158. 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., has made 
 many observations with the sphygmograph to 
 learn the effects of alcohol upon the heart. He 
 says : — 
 
 ** On general principles, and clinically, the increased activity 
 and subsequent diminution of the heart's action brings no 
 medicinal aid or strength to combat disease. This is simply a 
 reckless waste of force for which there is no compensation. 
 Without any question or doubt the increased heart's action, 
 extending over a long period, is dangerous. 
 
 " The medicinal damage done by alcohol does not fall ex- 
 clusively upon the heart, although this organ may show it more 
 permanently than others." — Transactions of Second Annual 
 Meeting of A. M. T. A. 
 
 Dr. I. N. Quimby, of Jersey City, N. J., in an 
 address before the American Medical Temperance 
 Association, after describing two clinical cases which 
 ended in death, made the following statement : — 
 
 " There was nothing so strange about the death of these 
 two patients, although they both died unexpectedly to the 
 physician and their friends, but the declaration I am about to 
 make may be somewhat new and startling, namely : That 
 neither of these patients, in my candid judgment, died from the 
 effect of disease, but rather from vasomotor paralysis of the 
 heart, superinduced by the administration of the alcohol, 
 which brought on a sudden and unexpected collapse and death." 
 
 Alcohol causes fatty degeneration of the heart 
 and other muscular structures. Old age also 
 causes these degenerations, hence alcohol is said to 
 produce premature aging of the body. 
 
84 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 '* In fatty degeneration the cells and fibres of the body be- 
 come more or less changed into fat. If a muscular fibre under- 
 goes fatty degeneration, the particles of which it is made dis- 
 appear one by one, and particles of oil or fatty matter take 
 their place, so that the degree or amount of degeneration varies 
 according to the extent to which this change has gone on. 
 When the fibres of which a muscle is composed have become 
 thus altered by fatty degeneration they become softer accord- 
 ing to the amount of it ; they are more easily torn and may 
 even tear across when the muscle is being used during life. 
 The more a muscle is thus degenerated the weaker it is, be- 
 cause it contains less muscular substance and more fat. Not 
 only do the heart and other voluntary muscles thus degenerate, 
 but those of the arteries also. 
 
 " Fatty degeneration is promoted by alcohol because alcohol 
 prevents the proper removal of fat, which has been seen to 
 accumulate in the blood ; alcohol prevents the proper oxidation 
 or burning up of waste matters ; growing cells which are affected 
 by the chemical influence of alcohol are not quite natural or 
 healthy, so are more liable to degeneration ; alcohol hinders the 
 proper removal of waste matter from individual cells and 
 tissues." — Dr. J. J. Ridge, London. 
 
 Dr. Newell Martin says in The Human Body : — 
 " Although fatty degeneration of the heart may occur from 
 
 other causes, alcoholic indulgence is the most frequent one. 
 
 Fatty liver or fatty heart is rarely if ever curable ; either will 
 
 ultimately cause death." 
 
 Dr. Ridge says these degenerations occur in the 
 tissues of thin people as well as in those of stout 
 persons. In thin people they are usually in the 
 fibres only, not between them. 
 
 It is because of this degeneration of the heart 
 and other muscles caused by alcohol that athletes in 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 85 
 
 training need to be so very careful to avoid the use 
 of beer and other intoxicating drinks. 
 
 Diseases such as fevers, diphtheria, and pneu- 
 monia which interfere with the reception, and inter- 
 nal distribution of oxygen, favor granular and fatty 
 degeneration of the heart and other structures of 
 the body. Hence non-alcoholic physicians urge that 
 alcohol and such other drugs, as have like action in 
 hindering full oxidation of the blood, and causing 
 fatty degenerations should be studiously avoided. 
 These physicians attribute many of the deaths from 
 heart-failure in such diseases to the combined action 
 of the disease and the alcohol in exhausting the 
 heart, and weakening its structure. 
 
 Comparative death-rates with and without alcohol 
 show conclusively the superiority of the latter treat- 
 ment. 
 
 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LIVER. 
 
 The liver is a very large organ, the largest and 
 heaviest in the body, weighing in a healthy adult 
 from three to four pounds. It secretes the bile. 
 Its cells also store up, " in the form of a kind of 
 animal starch called glycogen," excess of starchy or 
 sugary food absorbed from the intestine during the 
 digestion of a meal. This it gradually doles out 
 to the blood for general use by the organs of the 
 body until the next meal is eaten. 
 
 Dr. William Hargreaves says : — 
 
 " The office of the liver is to take up new substances having 
 
$6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 not yet become blood, as well as the portions of integrated, 
 matter that can be worked over, and brought again into use. 
 It is in fact the economist of the system. It excretes bile, and 
 liver-sugar, and renews the blood. When the liver is disor- 
 dered the whole body is more or less deranged and the proper 
 nutrition of its parts arrested." 
 
 Dr. Alfred Carpenter says : — 
 
 " The liver has to do several things ; a considerable part of its 
 duty is to purify the blood from ddbris (waste matter), to filter 
 out some things, to break up and alter others, and to expel 
 them from the body in the form of bile. There are certain dis- 
 eases in which the liver suddenly declines to do any more work. 
 Acute atrophy of the liver is the name of this condition, and 
 when it arises death rapidly results from suppression of the se- 
 cretion of bile. It brings about a state of things called acholia; 
 the patient is actually poisoned by the non-removal of those in- 
 gredients from the blood which it is the duty of the liver to re- 
 move. This corresponds in effect to the condition which alco- 
 hol can bring about by slow degrees." 
 
 The liver is the first important organ, next to the 
 stomach and bowels, to receive the poisonous in- 
 fluence of alcohol. 
 
 " If alcohol is used habitually, though only in small quantities 
 at a time, the liver may become the seat of serrous changes. 
 There may be a great increase of fat deposited in the cells, 
 producing what is called ' fatty liver,' or it may lead to a great 
 increase of connective tissue (membrane) between the cells, and 
 surrounding the blood-vessels. This newly-developed con- 
 nective tissue gradually contracts, and in so doing crushes the 
 ■cells and obstructs the blood-vessels, making the organ much 
 smaller than natural, and causing the surface to be covered 
 with little projecting knobs, consisting of portions of liver-tissue 
 that have been less compressed than the part that separates 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 87 
 
 them. The pressure upon the liver-cells and the destruction of 
 many of them, prevents the proper formation of bile and liver- 
 sugar. The contraction of the newly-developed tissue,, by ob- 
 structing the blood-vessels, interferes with the circulation. 
 Malt liquors seem to produce fatty degeneration, while the 
 stronger liquors cause the development of connective tissue." — 
 Tracy 's Physiology. 
 
 Speaking of diseases of the liver, Dr. Trotter said 
 in his Essay on Drunkenness : — 
 
 " The chronic species is not a painful disease ; it is slow in 
 its progress, and frequently gives no alarm, till some incurable 
 affection is the consequence. Hence, the fallacy and danger of 
 judging merely by the feelings of the beneficial effects of the 
 use of intoxicating drinks ; for the liver and stomach may be 
 seriously diseased, while a man imagines himself in moderate 
 health." 
 
 Hardening of the liver, or " hob-nailed " liver, is 
 said to be the result, largely, of taking liquor upon 
 an empty stomach. Dr. E. Chenery, of Boston, in 
 his excellent book, Facts for the Millions, tells of a 
 patient of his who was well up to the evening be- 
 fore, when he went out and drank with some com- 
 panions, taking the liquor on an empty stomach. 
 That night, vomiting and pain in the right side 
 came on, with high fever. Headache began and in- 
 creased, followed by delirium and a general jaun- 
 diced condition. He died as a result. The disease 
 was acute inflammation of the liver, brought on by 
 the one broadside of alcohol poured " point blank " 
 into the organ. 
 
 Dr. Chenery says further on in the same book : — 
 
88 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " There is another disorder of a very serious nature which 
 science is now laying at the doors of the liver — diabetes mellitus, 
 or sugar in the urine. Till quite recently, this formidable af- 
 fection has been regarded as having its seat in the kidneys ; 
 and it is so classified in medical writings. Later researches, 
 however, show that the sugar has been formed in the economy 
 before it reaches the kidneys, and that these organs act only as 
 strainers with respect to it, removing it from the blood as they 
 remove salt and various other substances. In seeking for the 
 fountain-head of diabetic sugar, it is found that the liver is the 
 great glycogenic, or sugar-originating factory of the body. In 
 an ordinary state of health this substance is produced in just 
 the proper amount for the uses for which it is intended, so that 
 it is all disposed of in the organism, and does not pass off by 
 the kidneys. If any cause interrupts the processes by which 
 the sugar is consumed, while its manufacture goes on normally, 
 there will come to be an over-supply of sugar in the blood, 
 which, w r hen it reaches 3 parts to 1,000 of the blood, will begin 
 to pass off by the kidneys and appear in the urine. On the 
 other hand, if an undue amount of it is formed, the consumption 
 remaining normal, it will also accumulate in the circulation, and 
 be eliminated by the kidneys. In either case we have diabetes, 
 the sugar irritating and diseasing the kidneys as it passes." 
 
 Dr. Harley, of the Royal Society of London, has 
 made the subject of alcohol and diabetes, matter for 
 considerable study. He says a small quantity only 
 of alcohol injected into the portal (liver) circulation 
 of healthy animals will cause diabetic urine. 
 
 "If any one doubt the truth of the assertion that alcohol 
 causes diabetes, let him select a case of that form of the disease 
 arising from excessive formation, and after having carefully esti- 
 mated the daily amount of sugar eliminated by the patient, 
 allow him to drink a few glasses of wine, and watch the result. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 89 
 
 He will soon find the ingestion of the liquor is followed by an 
 increase of sugar. If alcoholics increase the amount of sac- 
 charine matter in the urine of the diabetic, we can easily under- 
 stand how their excessive use may induce the disease in 
 individuals predisposed to it." — Dr. Harley. 
 
 Some physicians claim that in jaundice and cer- 
 tain other bilious disorders even medicines prepared 
 in alcohol are decidedly prejudicial and aggravating. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg, and other writers draw atten- 
 tion to the effects of alcohol in hindering the liver 
 in its duty of destroying the toxic substances gen- 
 erated within the system of a sick person by the 
 specific microbes to which the disease owes its 
 origin, saying that the activity of the liver in de- 
 stroying these poisons is one of the physiologic 
 processes which stand between the patient and 
 death. 
 
 The more this question is studied the more ap- 
 parent is it that, other things being equal, the sick 
 person who is cared for by a non-alcoholic phy- 
 sician has a much better chance of recovery than the 
 one dosed by " a brandy doctor." 
 
 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 "The kidneys, being the chief organs for the excretion of 
 nitrogen waste, are among the most important organs of the 
 body. Any defect in their healthy activity leads to serious in- 
 terference with the working of many organs, due to the accu- 
 mulation in the body of nitrogenous waste products. If both 
 kidneys be cut out of an animal, it dies in a few hours from 
 blood-poisoning, due to the accumulation of waste poisonous 
 
90 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 substances which the kidneys should have got rid of. Serious 
 kidney-disease amounts to pretty much the same thing as cut- 
 ting out the organs, since they are of little use if not healthy. 
 It is always fatal if not checked, and often kills in a short time. 
 The things which most frequently cause kidney disease are un- 
 due exposure to cold, and indulgence in alcoholic drinks." — 
 Martin's Human Body. 
 
 " The kidneys are supplied with arterial blood, which, having 
 given up water, urea, salt, and certain other substances, either 
 secreted or simply strained from it, returns to the kidneys 
 nearly as bright and fresh as when it entered them. While the 
 lungs are concerned in removing carbonic acid — the ashes of 
 the furnace — it is the peculiar province of the kidneys to remove 
 the products of the wear and tear of the bodily machinery — the 
 wasted nerve and muscle — in the form of urea, or other crystal- 
 lizable substances, the presence of which in the economy for 
 any considerable time is attended with disastrous results. 
 
 " Now, nature has put these organs, charged with so impor- 
 tant work, as far away as possible from any source of irritation. 
 Could alcohol get as direct access to them as to the liver, there 
 is no doubt that their function would be destroyed almost at 
 once, since the change in arterial blood by alcohol is much 
 more extensive and damaging than that wrought in such venous 
 blood as the liver receives from the portal veins. Thus while 
 the liver takes the alcohol immediately from the alimentary 
 canal, the kidneys receive it only after it has passed through 
 the liver, the heart, the lungs, and the heart again ; by which 
 time much of it has escaped, while the remainder has been 
 greatly diluted by the blood of the general circulation ; yet com- 
 ing to the kidneys even_so considerably diluted, it has power to 
 congest, irritate, and excite them to the excretion of an unusual 
 amount of the watery elements of the urine, as if .to wash the 
 irritant away. 
 
 " But it is only the watery element that is increased, not the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 9 1 
 
 urea, which is the substance representing the waste of vital 
 action, and is a poison to the system ; this it is the special office of 
 the kidneys to remove. Not only does alcohol not increase 
 its elimination, but actually lessens the discharge. And should 
 the irritation of the spirit continue, or be augmented in force, 
 inflammation would follow, and the excretion of urea nearly or 
 entirely cease and life be in the greatest jeopardy. Relief or 
 death then must speedily follow." — Dr. E. Chenery, of Bos- 
 ton, in Alcohol Inside Out. 
 
 "Alcohol causes kidney-disease in several ways. In the first 
 place it unduly excites the activity of the organs. Next, by 
 impeding oxidation it interferes with the proper preparation of 
 nitrogen wastes : they are brought to the kidneys in an unfit 
 state for removal, and injure those organs. Third, when more 
 than a small quantity of alcohol is taken, some of it is passed 
 out of the body unchanged, through the kidneys, and injures 
 their substance. The kidney-disease most commonly pro- 
 duced by alcohol is one kind of " Bright's disease," so called 
 from the physician who first described it. The connective 
 tissue of the organ grows in excess, and the true excreting 
 kidney-substance dwindles away. At last the organ becomes 
 quite unable to do its work, and death results. 
 
 " The three most common causes of Bright's disease are an 
 acute illness, as scarlet fever, of which it is a frequent result ; 
 sudden exposure to cold when warm (this often drives blood in 
 excessive quantity from the skin to internal organs, and leads 
 to kidney-disease) ; and the habitual drinking of alcoholic 
 liquids."— Dr. Newell Martin in The Human Body. 
 
 " Every physician knows or should know, that the quantity 
 and quality of the effete, or waste, material separated from the 
 blood by the kidneys and voided in the urine, is such as to 
 render a knowledge of the action of any remedy or drink on 
 the function of these organs, of the greatest importance in the 
 treatment of all diseases, and especially those of an acute febrile 
 character. As was long since demonstrated by clinical obser- 
 
92 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 vation, and more recently by patient and accurate experiments 
 by Bouchard and others, the amount of toxic, or poisonous, 
 material naturally separated from the blood by the kidneys and 
 passed out in the urine is so great that if wholly retained by 
 failure of the kidneys to act for two or three days, speedy 
 death ensues. Equally familiar to every observing physician is 
 the fact that in all the acute febrile and inflammatory diseases, 
 not only is the quantity of the urine secreted generally dimin- 
 ished, but its quality or constituency is also changed to a 
 greater degree than even its quantity. Thus, some of the more 
 important constituents are increased, others diminished, and 
 often new or foreign elements are found present, all resulting 
 from the disordered metabolic processes taking place through- 
 out the system during the progress of these diseases. 
 
 " It is, therefore, hardly necessary to remind the physician 
 that it is of the greatest importance to know as correctly as 
 possible both the direct and the indirect influence of every 
 medicine or drink on the action of the kidneys and all other 
 eliminating organs and structures, lest he unwittingly allow the 
 use of such as may not only retard the elimination of the specific 
 causes of disease, but also favor auto-intoxication by retarding 
 the elimination of the natural elements of excretion. 
 
 " That the presence of alcohol in the living system positively 
 lessens the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, and 
 consequently retards the oxidation processes of disassimilation 
 by which the various products for excretion are perfected and 
 their elimination facilitated, is so fully demonstrated, both by 
 observation and experiment, as no longer to admit of doubt. 
 
 " As nearly all the toxic elements of urine are the results of 
 these oxidation processes, the presence of alcohol in the system 
 could hardly fail to interfere with them in a notable degree. 
 
 " The direct and somewhat extensive series of experiments 
 instituted by Glazer, as published in the Dent. Med. Woch- 
 ensch., Leipsic, Oct. 22, 1891, demonstrated this, as shown by 
 the following conclusions : ' Alcohol, in even relatively moder- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 93 
 
 ate quantities, irritates the kidneys, so that the exudation of leu- 
 cocytes and the formation of cylindrical casts may occur. It 
 also produces an unusual amount of uric acid crystals and oxa- 
 lates, due to the modified tissue changes produced by the alcohol. 
 The effect of a single act of over-indulgence in alcohol does not 
 last more than thirty-six hours, but it is cumulative under con- 
 tinued use.' 
 
 " Dr. Chittenden kept several dogs under the influence of 
 alcohol eight or ten days, and found it to increase the amount 
 of uric acid in their urine more than ioo per cent, above the 
 normal proportion. 
 
 " Mohilansky, house-physician to Manassein's clinic, in the 
 conclusions drawn from his interesting experiments on fifteen 
 young men to determine the effects of alcohol on the metabolic 
 processes generally, stated that ' it does not possess any diu- 
 retic action ; but rather tends to inhibit the elimination of water 
 by the kidneys.' It is further stated that this result is owing to 
 the coincident effect of diminished systemic oxidation and of 
 blood pressure. 
 
 " On the other hand, several observers have reported that the 
 flow of urine was increased by the use of alcohol. From as 
 full an examination of the subject as I have been able to make, 
 it appears that the diverse results obtained have depended upon 
 the previous habits of those experimented on, and -the widely 
 i varying quantities of water drank with the alcohol. When the 
 alcohol is taken with large quantities of water, as is usual with 
 those who use beer and fermented drinks generally, the total 
 amount of urine passed is usually increased, but not more than 
 is found to result from taking the same quantity of water with- 
 out any alcohol. When alcoholic drinks are taken by those 
 already habituated to its use, it has less marked effect on the 
 quantity and quality of the urine than when taken by those who 
 had previously been total abstainers. This was illustrated by 
 the experiments of Mohilansky on the fifteen men, some of whom 
 
94 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 were habitual drinkers, some occasional drinkers, and others 
 total abstainers. When all were subjected to the same diet and 
 drinks, with alcohol, in two the daily amount of urine voided re- 
 mained unaltered, in five it was increased seven per cent., and in 
 eight it decreased twelve per cent. But whatever may be the va- 
 riations in the mere quantity of urine voided under the influence 
 of alcohol, the alterations in quality pretty uniformly show an 
 increase in the products of imperfect internal metamorphosis or 
 oxidation, such as uric acid, oxalates, casts, leucocytes, albumen 
 and potassium, with less of the normal products, as urea and 
 salts of sodium. 
 
 '* During the past year I have met with three cases in which 
 the regular daily use of alcoholic drinks for several months, in 
 quantities not sufficient to produce intoxication, had so altered 
 the blood, and the renal function, that the urine contained both 
 casts and albumen, and some degree of cedema was observable 
 in the face and extremities. These changes were so marked as 
 to justify a diagnosis of incipient nephritis, or Bright's disease. 
 Yet after totally abstaining from the use of alcoholic drinks 
 and remedies, and taking such vasomotor tonics as strychnine 
 and digitalis, with a regulated diet and fresh air, they com- 
 pletely recovered. 
 
 ** When it is remembered that in diphtheria, pneumonia and 
 typhoid fever, the acute diseases in which a large part of the 
 profession administer most freely alcoholic remedies, the func- 
 tion of the kidney is altered in almost the same direction as are 
 found to take place under the influence of alcohol, it should 
 certainly cause every practitioner to pause and critically review 
 the pathological basis on which he has been prescribing. An 
 anaesthetic, like alcohol, may certainly render a patient with 
 diphtheria, pneumonia or typhoid fever more quiet, and cause 
 him to say he feels better, but if it at the same time diminishes 
 the internal distribution of oxygen, retards the oxidation and 
 elimination of waste and toxic products through the kidneys 
 and lungs, and lessens vasomotor force, it cannot fail to pro- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 9$ 
 
 tract the duration of disease, and increase the ratio of mortal- 
 ity." — Dr. N. S. Davis, A. M. T. A. Quarterly, April, 1894. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg, by a series of carefully executed 
 experiments, conclusively demonstrated that alcohol 
 hinders the elimination of poisonous matter by the 
 kidneys. This property of alcohol is one of the 
 objections which he sees to its use as a medicine. 
 He says : — 
 
 "Water applied externally stimulates elimination by the 
 pores of the skin, and employed freely internally by water 
 drinking, and enemas to be retained for absorption, aids liver 
 and kidney activity. If the patient dies it is because his liver 
 and kidneys have failed to destroy and eliminate the poisons 
 generated with sufficient rapidity to prevent their producing 
 fatal mischief in the body." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH nearly all of the foremost scientific 
 investigators of the effects of alcohol upon the body 
 have altogether, or almost, abandoned the use of 
 alcoholic liquids as remedial agencies, a large pro- 
 portion of the members of the medical profession 
 still prescribe these liquors as freely as if no doubt 
 of their usefulness had ever been expressed. This 
 attitude of physicians seems to imply either indif- 
 ference to the great evils of intemperance, or lack 
 of knowledge of what the more progressive members 
 of the profession practice and teach. 
 
 The medical use of alcohol has been, and still is, 
 the great bulwark of the liquor traffic. The user of 
 alcoholics as beverages always excuses himself, if 
 hard pressed by abstainers, upon the ground that 
 they must be of service or doctors would not recom- 
 mend them so frequently. In all prohibitory 
 amendment, and no-license campaigns, the cry of 
 * Useful as Medicine " has been the hardest for 
 temperance workers to meet, for they have felt 
 that they had to admit the statement as true, know- 
 ing nothing to the contrary. Indeed, thousands of 
 those who advocate the prohibition of the sale of 
 96 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 97 
 
 liquor as a beverage, use alcohol in some form quite 
 freely as medicine, and are as determined and 
 earnest in defence of their favorite " tipple " as any 
 old toper could well be. Many use it in the guise 
 of cordials, tonics, bitters, restoratives and the 
 thousand and one nostrums guaranteed to cure all 
 ills to which human flesh is heir. 
 
 The wide-spread belief in the necessity and 
 efficacy of alcoholics as remedies is the greatest 
 hindrance to the success of the temperance cause. 
 It is impossible to convince the mass of the people 
 that what is life-giving as medicine can be death- 
 dealing as beverage. The two stand, or fall, 
 together. Hence there is no more important ques- 
 tion before the medical profession, and the people 
 generally, than that of the action of alcohol in dis- 
 ease, and, as a goodly number of the most dis- 
 tinguished and successful physicians of Europe and 
 America declare it to be harmful rather than 
 helpful, it behooves thoughtful people to care- 
 fully study the reasons they assign for holding 
 such an opinion. Certainly it is true that if physi- 
 cians and people would all adopt the views of the 
 advocates of non-alcoholic medication the temper- 
 ance problem would be solved, and the greatest 
 source of disease, crime, pauperism, insanity and 
 misery would be driven from the face of the earth. 
 
 To understand the arguments advanced in favor 
 of non-alcoholic medication it is needful to make 
 some study of the effects of alcohol upon the 
 
98 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 body, and of the purposes for which alcoholics are 
 prescribed medically. 
 
 A IcoJiol is used in sickness as a food, when solid 
 foods cannot be assimilated, " to support " or sustain, 
 the vitality ; it is used as a stimulant, a tonic, a 
 sedative or narcotic, an anti-spasmodic, an antiseptic 
 and antipyretic ; it is used in combination with 
 other drugs, in tinctures and in pharmacy. It is 
 not wonderful that the people esteem it above all 
 other drugs, for none other is so variously and so 
 generally employed. Those who discard it as a 
 remedy teach that only in human delusions is it a 
 food or a stimulant, and for the other uses to 
 which it is put, outside of pharmacy, there are 
 different agents which may be more satisfactorily 
 employed. 
 
 IS ALCOHOL FOOD? 
 
 So well agreed are all the scientific investigators 
 that alcohol has no appreciable food value that it 
 would seem foolish to spend time upon a discussion 
 of alcohol as food were it not that the idea of its 
 "supporting the vitality" in disease, in some 
 mysterious way is deeply rooted in the professional, 
 as well as the popular mind. 
 
 Foods are substances which, when taken into the 
 body, undergo change by the process of digestion ; 
 they give strength and heat and force ; they build 
 up the tissues of the body, a?td make blood ; and 
 they induce healthy, normal action of all the bodily 
 functions. 
 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 99 
 
 Alcohol does none of these. It undergoes no 
 change in the stomach, but is rapidly absorbed and 
 mixed with the blood, and has been discovered 
 hours after its ingestion in the brain, blood and 
 tissues, unchanged alcohol. In many of the experi- 
 ments made with it upon animals, considerable 
 quantities of the amount swallowed were recovered 
 from the excretions of the body, without any 
 change having taken place in its composition. 
 This, of itself, is sufficient evidence to show that it 
 is a substance which the body does not recognize 
 as a food. 
 
 Foods buildup the tissues of the body. All phys- 
 iologists are agreed that since alcohol contains no 
 nitrogen it cannot be a tissue-forming food ; there 
 is no difference of opinion here. Dr. Lionel Beale, 
 the eminent physiologist, says that alcohol is not a 
 food and does not nourish the tissues. 
 
 " There is nothing in alcohol with which any part of the body 
 can be nourished." — Cameron's Manual of Hygiene. 
 
 " Alcohol contains no nitrogen ; it has none of the qualities 
 of the structure-building foods; it is incapable of being trans- 
 formed into any of them ; it does not supply caseine, albumen, 
 fibrine or any other of those substances which go to build' up 
 the muscles, nerves and other active organs." — Sir B. W. j 
 Richardson. 
 
 " It is not demonstrable that alcohol undergoes conversion 
 into tissue." — Dr. W. A. Hammond. 
 
 If it is a food why do all writers and experiment- 
 ers exclude it from the diet of children, and why is 
 
IOO ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 the caution always given people to not take it upon 
 an empty stomach ? Foods are supposed to be 
 particularly suited to an empty stomach. 
 
 Foods induce healthy, normal action of all the bodily 
 functions. 
 
 The chapter upon " Diseases Produced by Alco- 
 hol " is evidence that by this test alcohol shows 
 up in its true nature as a poison, and not a food. 
 Alcohol destroys healthy normal action of all the 
 bodily functions, and builds up impure fat, fatty 
 degeneration, instead of strong, firm muscle. Dr. 
 Parkes, one of the most famous of English students 
 of alcohol, says : — 
 
 " These alcoholic degenerations are certainly not confined to 
 the notoriously intemperate. I have seen them in women ac- 
 customed to take wine in quantities not excessive, and who 
 would have been shocked at the imputation that they were 
 taking too much, although the result proved that for them it. 
 was excess." 
 
 Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, late secretary of New Jersey 
 State Board of Health, remarks : — 
 
 " The question of excess occurs in sickness as well as in 
 health, and all the more because its determination is so difficult 
 and the evil effects so indisputable. The dividing line in medi- 
 cine, even between use and abuse, is so zigzag and invisible that 
 common mortals, in groping for it, generally stumble beyond it, 
 and the delicate perception of medical art too often fails in the 
 recognition." 
 
 All non-alcoholic writers assert that the continu- 
 ous use of alcohol as a medicine is equally injurious 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. IOI 
 
 to all the bodily functions as the employment of It 
 as a beverage. Calling it medicine does not change 
 its deadly nature, nor does the medical attendant 
 possess any magical power by which a destructive 
 poison may be converted into a restorative agent. 
 
 Dr. Noble, w r riting recently to the London Times, 
 said : — 
 
 " The internal use of alcohol in disease is as injurious as in 
 health." 
 
 Since foods induce healthy, normal action of alL 
 the bodily functions, and alcohol injures every organ 
 of the body in direct proportion to the amount con- 
 sumed, by this test it is proved to not be a food. 
 
 Foods give strength. Alcohol weakens the body. 
 This has been determined again and again by ex- 
 periments upon gangs of workmen and regiments 
 of soldiers. These experiments always resulted in 
 showing that upon the days when the men were 
 supplied with liquor they could neither use their 
 muscles so powerfully, nor for so long a time, as on 
 the days when they received no alcoholic drink. 
 Of the results of such tests Sir Andrew Clark, late 
 Physician to Queen Victoria, said : — 
 
 " It is capable of proof beyond all possibility of question that .. 
 alcohol not only does not help work but is a serious hinderer 
 of work." 
 
 So satisfied are generals in the British army of 
 the weakening effect of alcohol that its use is now 
 forbidden to soldiers when any considerable call is 
 
102 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 to be made upon their strength. The latest ex- 
 ample of this was in the recent Soudan campaign 
 under Sir Herbert Kitchener. An order was issued 
 by the War Department that not a drop of intoxi- 
 cating liquor was to be allowed in camp save for 
 hospital use. The army made phenomenal forced 
 marches through the desert, under a burning sun 
 and in a climate famous for its power to kill the 
 unacclimated. It is said that never before was 
 there a British campaign occasioning so little sick- 
 ness and showing so much endurance. Some 
 Greek merchants ran a large consignment of liquors 
 through by the Berber-Suakim route, but Sir Her- 
 bert had them emptied upon the sand of the desert. 
 A reporter telegraphed to England : — 
 
 " The men are in magnificent condition and in great spirits. 
 They are as hard as nails, and in a recent desert march of 
 fifteen miles, with manoeuvring instead of halts, the whole last- 
 ing for five continuous hours, not a single man fell out ! " 
 
 This was in decided contrast to the march in the 
 African war some years before when, as they passed 
 through a malarial district, and a dram was served, 
 men fell out by dozens. Dr. Parkes, one of the 
 medical officers, prevailed upon the commander-in- 
 chief to not allow any more alcoholic drams while 
 the troops were marching to Kumassi. 
 
 Experiments in lifting weights have also been 
 tried upon men by careful investigators. In every 
 case it was found that even beer, and very dilute 
 solutions of alcohol, would diminish the height to 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. IO3 
 
 which the lifted weight could be raised. As an il- 
 lustration of the deceptive power of alcohol upon 
 people under its influence, it is said that persons 
 experimented upon were under the impression, after 
 the drink, that they could do more work, and do it 
 more easily, although the testing-machine showed 
 exactly the contrary to be true. 
 
 Athletes and their trainers have learned by ex- 
 perience that alcohol does not give strength, but is, 
 in reality, a destroyer of muscular power. No care- 
 ful trainer will allow a candidate for athletic honors 
 to drink even beer, not to speak of stronger liquors. 
 When Sullivan, the once famous pugilist, was de- 
 feated by Corbett, he said in lamenting his lost 
 championship, " It was the booze did it " ; meaning 
 that he had violated training rules, and used liquor. 
 University teams and crews have proved substan- 
 tially that drinking men are absolutely no good in 
 sports, or upon the water. Football and baseball 
 teams, anxious to excel, are beginning to have a 
 cast-iron temperance pledge for their members. So 
 practical experience of those competing in tests of 
 strength and endurance teach eloquently that 
 alcohol does not give strength, but rather weakens 
 the body, by rendering the muscles flabby. 
 
 Sandow, the modern Samson, wrote his methods 
 of training in one of the magazines a few years ago, 
 and stated that he used no alcoholic beverages. 
 The ancient Samson was not allowed to taste even 
 wine from birth. 
 
104 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 A question worthy of serious consideration is: 
 how are the sick to be strengthened and " sup- 
 ported " by drinks which athletes are warned to 
 specially shun as weakening to the body ? Either 
 the sick are mistakenly advised-, or the athletes are 
 in error. Which seems the more likely ? 
 
 Dr. Richardson says in Lectures on Alcohol : — 
 " I would earnestly impress that the systematic administration 
 of alcohol for the purpose of giving and sustaining strength is 
 an entire delusion." 
 
 In another place he says : — 
 
 " Never let this be forgotten in thinking of strong drink : that 
 the drink is strong only to destroy ; that it never by any pos- 
 sibility adds strength to those who drink it." 
 
 Sir William Gull, late physician to the Prince of 
 Wales, said before a Select Committee of the House 
 of Lords on Intemperance : — 
 
 " There is a great feeling in society that strong wine and 
 other strong drinks give strength. A large number of people 
 have fallen into that error, and fall into it every day." 
 
 Any unprejudiced person can readily see that ex- 
 perience and experiment unite in testifying that 
 alcohol does not give strength, hence differs rad- 
 ically from most substances commonly classed as 
 foods. Yet millions of dollars are spent annually 
 by deluded people upon supposedly strength-giving 
 drinks, and thousands of the sick are ignorantly, or 
 carelessly, advised to take beer or wine to make 
 them strong and to support them when solid fo^ 
 cannot be assimilated. Truly, " My people is de- 
 stroyed for lack of knowledge." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 10$ 
 
 Foods give force to the body. 
 Dr. Richardson says : — 
 
 "We learn in respect to alcohol that the temporary excite- 
 ment is produced at the expense of the animal matter and 
 animal force, and that the ideas of the necessity of resorting 
 to it as a food, to build up the body or to lift up the forces of 
 the body, are ideas as solemnly false as they are widely dis- 
 seminated." 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Brodie says in Physiological In- 
 quiries : — 
 
 " Stimulants do not create nerve power ; they merely enable 
 you, as it were, to use up that which is left." 
 
 Dr. E. Smith:— 
 
 " There is no evidence that it increases nervous influence, 
 while there is much evidence that it lessens nervous power." 
 
 Dr. Win. Hargreaves, of Philadelphia : — 
 
 " It is sometimes said by the advocates and defenders of 
 alcohol, that by its use force is generated more abundantly. 
 This it certainly cannot do, as it does not furnish anything to 
 feed the blood or to store up nourishment to replenish the 
 expenditure. For by their own theory, the increase of action 
 must cause an increase of wear and tear ; hence alcohol 
 instead of sustaining life or vitality, must cause a direct waste 
 or expenditure of vital force." 
 
 Dr. Auguste Forel, of Switzerland : — 
 
 " All alcoholic liquors are poisons, and especially brain- 
 poisons, and their use shortens life. They cannot therefore be 
 regarded as sources of nourishment or force. They should be 
 resisted as much as opium, morphia, cocaine, hashish and 
 the like." 
 
106 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr. W. F. Pechuman, of Detroit, in his valuable 
 little treatise, Alcohol — Is it a Medicine ? says 
 clearly : — 
 
 " When alcohol or any other irritant poison is put into the 
 system, the conservative vital force, recognizing it as an enemy, 
 at once makes an effort through the living matter to rid the 
 system of the offender ; — the heart increases in action and new 
 strength seems to appear. Now, right here is where the great 
 mass of people and a large number of physicians are deluded. 
 They mistake the extra effort of the vital force to preserve the 
 body against harmful agencies for an actual increase in 
 strength as the result of the agent given ; we wonder that they 
 can be so blind as not to see the reaction which invariably 
 occurs soon after the administration of their so-called stimu- 
 lant." 
 
 Dr. F. R. Lees, of England : — 
 
 " All poisons lessen vitality and deteriorate the ultimate 
 tissue in which force is reposited. Alcohol is an agent, the 
 sole, perpetual and inevitable effects of which are to avert 
 blood development, to retain waste matter, to irritate mucous 
 and other tissues, to thicken normal juices, to impede diges- 
 tion, to deaden nervous sensibility, to lower animal heat, to 
 kill molecular life, and to waste, through the excitement it 
 creates in heart and head, the grand controlling forces of the 
 nerves and brain." 
 
 If alcohol is a destroyer of bodily force, as any 
 ordinary observer of drinking men can readily see, 
 it is a problem beyond solving, how it is going to 
 give force to, or sustain vitality in, the patient 
 hovering between life and death. Too often has it 
 been the means of hastening into eternity those 
 who, but for its mistaken use, might have recovered 
 from the illness affecting then. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 107 
 
 Food gives heat to the body. 
 
 Alcohol does not, but really robs the body of its 
 natural warmth. This finding of science was re- 
 ceived with the utmost incredulity when first 
 presented to the medical world, but the invention 
 of the clinical thermometer settled it beyond con- 
 troversy. It is now believed by all but a very few 
 of those who have knowledge of the physiological 
 effects of alcohol. While Dr. N. S. Davis, of 
 Chicago, was the first to demonstrate this fact, it 
 was Dr. B. W. Richardson, of England, who succeed- 
 ed in putting it prominently before the attention 
 of physicians. 
 
 The normal temperature of the human body is a 
 little over 98 degrees by Fahrenheit's thermometer. 
 If the temperature is found to be much above or 
 below 98 degrees the person is considered out of 
 health ; indeed by this condition alone physicians 
 are able to detect serious forms of disease. By the 
 use of the clinical thermometer, placed under the 
 tongue, it is easy to determine what agents acting 
 upon the body will cause the temperature to vary 
 from the natural standard. When alcohol is swal- 
 lowed there is at first a decided feeling of warmth 
 induced ; if the temperature be taken now it will 
 be found that in a person unaccustomed to alcohol 
 the warmth may be raised half a degree ; in one 
 accustomed to alcohol the warmth may be raised 
 a full degree, or even a degree and a half beyond 
 the natural standard. But this warmth is only 
 temporary, and is soon succeeded by chilliness. 
 
108 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr. Richardson says in his Temperance Lesson 
 
 Book : — 
 
 " The sense of warmth occurs in the following way : When 
 the alcohol enters the body, and by the blood-vessels is conveyed 
 to all parts of the body, it reduces the nervous power of the 
 small blood-vessels which are spread out through the whole of 
 the surface of the skin. In their weakened state these vessels 
 are unable duly to resist the course of blood which is coming 
 into them from the heart under its stroke. The result is that 
 an excess of warm blood fresh from the heart is thrown into 
 these fine vessels, which causes the skin to become flushed and 
 red as it is seen to be after wine or other strong drink has 
 been swallowed and sent through the body. So, as there is 
 now more warm blood in the skin than is natural to it, a sense 
 of increased warmth is felt. The skin of the body is the most 
 sensitive of substances and the sense of warmth through, or 
 over the whole surface of the skin is conveyed from it to the 
 brain and nervous centres of the body, by which we are enabled 
 to feel. 
 
 " The warmth of surface which seems to be imparted by 
 alcohol, only seems to be imparted. Positively the warmth is 
 not imparted by the alcohol, but is set free by it. 
 
 " In a short time the sense of warmth is succeeded by a feel- 
 ing of slight chilliness. Unless the person is in a very warm 
 room, or has recently partaken of food, the thermometer will 
 now show a decided decrease in temperature, reaching often to 
 a degree. Should the person go out into a cold air, and 
 especially should he go into a cold air while badly supplied with 
 food, the fall of temperature may reach to two degrees below the 
 natural standard of bodily heat. In this state he easily takes 
 cold, and in frosty weather readily contracts congestion of the 
 lungs, and that disease which is known as bronchitis. If the 
 person drinks to drunkenness his temperature will be found to 
 be from two and a half to three degrees below the natural 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. IO9 
 
 standard. It takes from two to three days, under the most 
 favorable circumstances, for the animal warmth to become 
 steadily re-established after a drunken spree. 
 
 '* The excitement of the mind in the early stages of drunken- 
 ness is not natural ; it is exhaustive of the bodily powers, and 
 exhaustive for no useful purpose whatever. ***** 
 
 " As nothing- has been supplied by the alcohol to keep up the 
 supply of heat the vital energy is rapidly exhausted, and if the 
 person is exposed to cold, the exhaustion becomes extreme, 
 sometimes fatal. All great consumers of alcohol are chillier 
 during winter than are abstainers, and as they labor under the 
 delusion that they must take wine or ale or spirits to keep 
 them warm, they keep on making matters worse by constantly 
 resorting to their enemy for relief." 
 
 Dr. Newell Martin makes this very clear in his 
 physiology, The Human Body. 
 
 "Our feeling of being warm depends on the nerves of the 
 skin. We have no nerves which tell us whether heart or 
 muscles or brain, are warmer or cooler. These inside parts 
 are always hotter than the skin, and if blood which has been 
 made hot in them flows in large quantity to the skin, we feel 
 warmer because the skin is heated. As alcoholic drinks make 
 more blood flow through the skin, they often make a man feel 
 warmer. But their actual effect upon the temperature of the 
 whole body is to lower it. The more blood that flows through 
 the skin, the more heat is given off from the body to the air, 
 and the more blood, so cooled, is sent back to the internal 
 organs. The consequence is that alcohol, in proportion to the 
 amount taken, cools the body as a whole, though it may for a 
 time heat the skin." 
 
 If other evidence that alcohol is not heat-produc- 
 ing in the body were necessary it could be found in 
 the fact that the products of combustion are de« 
 
IIO ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 creased when it is present in the body. The 
 quantity of carbonic acid exhaled by the breath is 
 proportionately diminished with the decline of 
 animal heat. 
 
 Arctic explorers learned by experience what 
 science discovered by experiment. Dr. Hayes, the 
 explorer, says : — 
 
 " While fresh animal food, and especially fat, is absolutely 
 essential to the inhabitants and travelers in Arctic countries, 
 alcohol, in almost any shape, is not only completely useless, but 
 positively injurious." 
 
 Lieutenant Johnson, who accompanied Nansen 
 upon his northern expedition, said, when inter- 
 viewed by a reporter of the London Daily News : — 
 
 " The common opinion that alcohol becomes in some way a 
 necessity in cold countries is entirely a mistaken one. This 
 has been conclusively proved by the expedition. In making up 
 his list of the Frams equipments, Nansen did not include 
 any spirits, with the exception of some spirits of wine for lamps 
 and stoves." 
 
 In the list of stores taken upon the long sledging 
 expedition after leaving the Fram no liquors are 
 mentioned. See Farthest North, by Nansen. The 
 omission of spirits was not because of any " tem- 
 perance fanaticism," but because the experience of 
 former Arctic expeditions had shown clearly that 
 men freeze more readily after partaking of alcohol 
 than when they totally abstain from it. 
 
 That wine is not a fuel-food was shown conclu- 
 sively in the Franco-Prussian war during the siege 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. Ill 
 
 of Paris. Food was scarce in the French army, 
 and wine was liberally supplied. The men com- 
 plained bitterly of the extreme chilliness which 
 affected them. Dr. Klein, a French staff surgeon, 
 was reported in the Medical Temperance Journal of 
 England, October, 1873, as saying of this :— 
 
 " We found most decidedly that alcohol was no substitute for 
 bread and meat. We also found that it was no substitute for 
 coals. We of the army had to sleep outside Paris on the frozen 
 ground. We had plenty of alcohol, but it did not make us 
 warm. Let me tell you there is nothing that will make you 
 feel the cold more, nothing which will make you feel the dread- 
 ful sense of hunger more, than alcohol." 
 
 There is no evidence against alcohol stronger 
 than that which shows it to be not heat-producing, 
 as commonly believed, but a reducer of heat in the 
 body. Indeed, this question of bodily temperature 
 is used in recent times to decide whether a man 
 who has fallen upon the street is troubled by apo- 
 plexy, or influenced by alcoholism. If the clinical 
 thermometor shows the temperature to be above 
 normal, it is apoplexy ; if below normal, it is al- 
 coholism. 
 
 "Alcohol is clearly proved to not be a fuel-food, for if it were 
 it would enable the body to resist cold, instead of making it 
 colder ; and in the extreme degrees of cold it would go on 
 burning like other fuel-foods, and would maintain, instead of 
 helping to destroy, life." — Richardson's Lesson Book. 
 
 Yet because it creates a glow of warmth in the 
 skin immediately after drinking it, thousands of 
 
112 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 people will discredit all evidence that it is a reducer 
 of bodily heat. Clinical thermometers, and after- 
 sensations of chilliness, are unheeded, for " Wine is 
 a mocker," and multitudes are willing to be deceived 
 by it. 
 
 So, also, with the conclusions against it as a 
 strengthening agent ; because it dulls the sense of 
 hunger and of fatigue, those who crave it will de- 
 clare in the face of all scientific testimony that it 
 strengthens them, and takes the place of food. 
 They will cite, too, the cases of people who " lived 
 upon whisky" during an illness of greater or less 
 duration. Of the sustaining of life upon alcohol 
 only, Dr. N. S. Davis has said : — 
 
 " The falsity of all such stories is made apparent by the fact 
 that nineteen-twentieths of all the alcoholic drinks given to the 
 sick are given in connection with sugar, milk, eggs or meat- 
 broths, which furnish the nutriment, and would support the 
 patients better if given with the same perseverance without the 
 alcohol than with it. While we have quite a number of exam- 
 ples of men living on nothing but water forty or fifty days, I 
 have never seen or learned of a well-authenticated case of a 
 man's taking or receiving into his system nothing but alcohol 
 for half of that length of time, without becoming sick with either 
 gastro-duodenitis, nephritis, or delirium tremens." 
 
 Some of the defenders of the medicinal use of 
 alcohol claim that since it lias been shoivn to reduce 
 tissue waste it should be classed as an indirect food, a 
 conserver of tissue. Of this claim, Dr. N. S. Davis 
 says in the Bulletin of the A.M. T. A., November, 
 1895:- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 113 
 
 " A careful study of the conditions and processes necessary 
 for both tissue building or nutrition, and tissue waste or dis- 
 integration, in all the higher order of animals, will show that 
 neither process can be materially retarded without retarding or 
 preventing the other. Both processes take place only in bioplasm 
 or vitalized matter, supplied with oxygen, water and heat. 
 Neither the assimilation of new material food, nor its use in 
 tissue building can be effected without the presence of free 
 oxygen and nuclein, or corpuscular elements of the blood. 
 And without the presence of the same elements we can have 
 no natural tissue disintegration and removal of the waste. 
 The processes of tissue building and tissue disintegration, are 
 therefore, so intimately related, and dependent upon the same 
 materials and forces, that neither can be hastened or retarded 
 from day to day without influencing the other. When alcohol 
 or any other substance, introduced into the blood, retards the 
 tissue waste, as shown by the diminished amount of excretory 
 products, it must do so by either diminishing the amount of 
 free oxygen in the blood, by impairing the vasomotor and 
 trophic nerve functions or by direct impairment of the prop- 
 erties of the nuclein or protogen elements of the blood and 
 tissues. The popular idea, both in and out of the profession is, 
 that the alcohol, by further oxidation in the blood, lessens the 
 amount of oxygen to act on the tissues, and generates heat or 
 ' some kind of force.' Those who advocate this theory of saving 
 the tissues by combining the oxygen with alcohol seem to for- 
 get that in doing so they are diverting and using up the only 
 agent, oxygen, capable of combining with, and promoting the 
 elimination of, all natural waste products as well as the 
 various toxic elements causing disease. 
 
 " But the theory that alcohol directly combines with the 
 oxygen of the blood by which it would be converted 1 into car- 
 bonic acid and water with evolution of heat is completely 
 refuted by the well-known fact that its presence in the blood 
 diminishes both temperature and elimination of carbonic acid 
 
114 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 as already stated. Physiologists of the present day very gener- 
 ally agree that the capacity of the blood to receive oxygen from 
 the lungs, and convey it to the systemic capillaries and various 
 tissues, depends chiefly on its hemoglobin (red coioring matter), 
 protein, or albuminous and saline elements. 
 
 " Both experimental and clinical facts in abundance show 
 that alcohol at all ordinary temperatures displays a much 
 stronger affinity for these elements of the blood and tissues, 
 than it does for oxygen. And when present in the blood, it 
 rapidly attracts both water and hemoglobin from the cor- 
 puscular and albuminoid elements of that fluid, and thereby 
 diminishes its reception and distribution of oxygen. We are 
 thus enabled to see clearly how the alcohol diminishes the 
 oxygenation and decarbonization of the blood, and retards all 
 tissue changes both of nutrition and waste without itself under- 
 going oxidation with evolution of heat. Consequently, instead 
 of acting as a shield or conservator of the tissues by simply 
 combining with the oxygen, the alcohol directly impairs the 
 properties and functions of the most highly vitalized elements 
 of the blood itself, and thereby not only retards tissue waste 
 but also equally retards the highest grades of nutrition, and 
 favors only sclerotic, fatty and molecular degenerations, as we 
 see everywhere resulting from its continued use. Can an agent 
 displaying such properties and effects be called a food, either 
 direct or indirect, without a total disregard for the proper 
 meaning of words ? " 
 
 In another place he says : — 
 
 " This lessening of the elimination of tissue waste is simply 
 an evidence of the accumulation of poisonous substances with- 
 in the body, through the lessened activity of liver and kidneys 
 and the impairment of the blood." 
 
 Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says in Alcohol as Food and as 
 Medicine, page 37 : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 11$ 
 
 " It sounds conservative of health to say of a substance that 
 it delays the breaking down of tissue, but the physiologist does 
 not allow a substance which occasions such delay, to possess, 
 because of that, either dietetic or remedial value. To increase 
 weight by prolonged constipation is not a physiological process." 
 
 Dalton says : — 
 
 " The importance of tissue change to the maintenance of life 
 is readily shown by the injurious effects which follow upon its 
 disturbance. If the discharge of the excrementiticus substances 
 be in any way impeded or suspended, these substances ac- 
 cumulate either in the blood or tissues, or both. In con- 
 sequence of this retention and accumulation they become 
 poisonous, and rapidly produce a derangement of the vital 
 functions. Their influence is principally exerted upon the 
 nervous system, through which they produce most frequent 
 irritability, disturbance of the special senses, delirium, insensi- 
 bility, coma, and finally, death." 
 
 The power to retard the passage of waste matter 
 from the system is one of the gravest objections to 
 the use of alcohol in sickness, as the germs of dis- 
 ease are thereby caused to remain longer in the 
 body than they would, were no alcohol or drug of 
 similar action, used. Thus recovery is delayed, if 
 not effectually hindered. 
 
 The preponderance of scientific evidence is all 
 against alcohol as possessing food qualities. It 
 contains no elements capable of entering into the 
 composition of any part of the body, hence cannot 
 give strength ; it is not a fuel-food as it does not 
 supply heat to the body, but decreases temperature ; 
 and its classification as indirect food because it re- 
 
Il6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 tards the passage of waste matter is shown to be 
 utterly unscientific, as any agent which interferes 
 with the natural processes of assimilation and dis- 
 integration is a dangerous agent, a poison rather 
 than a food. 
 
 The question naturally arises : — 
 
 If these drinks are not liquid food, as we have 
 been taught to believe, how is it, since they are 
 made from food, as barley, corn, grapes, potatoes, 
 etc? 
 
 These drinks are not food, although made from 
 food, because in the process of manufacturing them 
 the food principle is destroyed. The grain is 
 malted to change starch into sugar — loss of food 
 principle begins here — then the malted grain is 
 soaked in water to extract the saccharine matter. 
 When the sugar is all in the water the grain goes to 
 feed cattle or hogs, and the sweetened water is 
 fermented. The fermentation changes the sugar 
 into alcohol. 
 
 Analyses of beer by eminent chemists show an 
 average of 90 per cent, water, 4 per cent, alcohol, 
 and 6 per cent, malt extract. The malt extract 
 consists of gum, sugar, various acids, salts and hop 
 extract. Starch and sugar are all of these capable of 
 digestion, and the amount of them would be equal 
 to 39 ounces to the barrel of beer. Liebig, the 
 great German chemist, said : — 
 
 " If a man drinks daily 8 or 10 quarts of the best Bavarian 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 11/ 
 
 beer, in a year he will have taken into his system the nutritive 
 constituents contained in a 5 pound loaf of bread." 
 
 Eight quarts a day for a year would be 2,920 
 quarts, or a little more than 23 barrels. If sold to 
 the consumer at the low rate of five cents a pint, it 
 would cost him $292 ; a high price for as much nour- 
 ishment as in a 5 pound loaf ! 
 
 Analyses of wine by reliable chemists show that 
 the consumer must pay $500 for the equivalent in 
 nourishment of a 5 pound loaf of bread, wine being 
 higher priced than beer. Wines average 80 per cent, 
 water, about 15 per cent, alcohol, and 5 per cent, 
 residue. This residue is composed of sugar, tar- 
 taric, acetic and carbonic acids, salts of potassium 
 and sodium, tannic acid, and traces of an ethereal 
 substance which gives the peculiar or distinguishing 
 flavor. The only one of these ingredients possess- 
 ing food value is sugar ; this exists chiefly in what 
 are called sweet wines. Yet how many thousands 
 of people spend money they can ill afford for wines 
 and beers to build up the failing strength of some 
 loved one ! A costly delusion, and too often a 
 fatal one ! 
 
 ■' Distilled liquors, if unadulterated, contain literally nothing 
 but water and alcohol, except traces of juniper in gin, and the 
 flavor of the fermented material from which they have been dis- 
 tilled." — Influence of Alcohol, by N. S. Davis, M. D. 
 
 It is the solemn duty of those to whom the people 
 look for instruction in matters of health to unde- 
 ceive the toiling masses as to the food-value of alco- 
 
118 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 holic liquids. Some of the medical profession are 
 faithful in this regard, but too many others are 
 themselves deceived, or care not for the destruction 
 of the people. 
 
 IS ALCOHOL A STIMULANT? 
 
 A lady asked her family physician several years 
 ago what he thought of the views of those medical 
 writers who class alcohol as a narcotic, and not a 
 stimulant. He answered with some heat, "Any 
 one who says alcohol is not a stimulant is either a 
 fool or a knave ! " He could not have been aware 
 that some of the most distinguished professors in 
 American medical colleges teach that alcohol is 
 not, properly speaking, a stimulant, but a narcotic. 
 
 The accepted definition of a stimulant in medical 
 literature is some agent capable of exciting or in- 
 creasing vital activity as a whole, or the natural 
 activity of some one structure or organ. 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis has said repeatedly that both 
 clinical and experimental observations show that 
 alcohol directly diminishes the functional activity 
 | of all nerve structures, pre-eminently those of res- 
 piration and circulation, thus decreasing the internal 
 distribution of oxygen, which is nature's own 
 special exciter of all vital action. 
 
 •"Consequently it is antagonistic to all true stimulants or 
 remedies capable of increasing vital activity. Instead, therefore, 
 of meriting the name of stimulant, alcohol should be designated 
 and used only as an anaesthetic and sedative, or depressor of 
 vital activity." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. II9 
 
 The following is taken from an editorial article 
 in the American Medical Temperance Quarterly for 
 January, 1894: — 
 
 " Drs. Sidney Ringer and H. Sainsbury in a carefully exe- 
 cuted series of experiments on the isolated heart of the frog, 
 found that all the alcohol when mixed with the blood circulat- 
 ing through the heart, uniformly diminished the action of that 
 organ in direct proportion to the quantity of alcohol used, until 
 complete paralysis was induced. In closing their report in re- 
 gard to the action of different alcohols, they say that ' by their 
 direct action on the cardiac tissue these drugs are clearly 
 paralyzant, and that this appears to be the case from the out- 
 set, no stage of increased force of contraction preceding.' 
 
 " Professor Martin, while in connection with the Johns Hop- 
 kins University, performed an equally careful series of experi- 
 ments in regard to the action of ethylic, or ordinary alcohol, 
 directly on the cardiac structures of the dog, and with the same 
 results. He makes the following explicit statement of the 
 results obtained by him. ' Blood containing one-fourth per 
 cent, by volume, that is two and a half parts per 1000 of abso- 
 lute alcohol, almost invariably diminishes, within a minute, the 
 work done by the heart ; blood containing one-half per cent, 
 always diminishes it, and may even bring the amount pumped 
 out by the left ventricle to so small a quantity that it is not suffi- 
 cient to supply the coronary arteries.' 
 
 " In 1883, R. Dubois, by direct experimenting upon animals, 
 found that the presence of alcohol in the blood much intensified 
 the action of chloroform and thereby rendered a much less 
 dose fatal. 
 
 " Prof. H. C. Wood of the University of Pennsylvania, in an 
 address upon Anaesthesia to the Tenth International Medical 
 Congress, of Berlin, in 1890, said : ' In my own experiments with 
 alcohol, an eighty per cent, fluid was used largely diluted with 
 water. The amount injected into the jugular vein varied in the 
 
120 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 different experiments from 5 to 20 c. c. ; and in no case have I 
 been able to detect any increase in the size of the pulse or in the 
 arterial pressure produced by alcohol, when the heart was failing 
 during advanced chloroform anaesthesia. On the other hand, 
 on several occasions, the larger amounts of alcohol apparently 
 greatly increased the rapidity of the fall of arterial pressure, 
 and aided materially in extinguishing the pulse.' 
 
 " Sir Henry Thompson says : ' That alcohol is an anaesthetic 
 and paralyzant is a fact too well established to be questioned 
 or contradicted.' 
 
 '' Dr. J. J. Ridge, of London, has published elaborate tables, 
 showing that even small doses of alcohol, averaging one table- 
 spoonful of spirits — not quite half a wineglass of claret or 
 champagne, and not quite a quarter of a pint of ale — impair 
 vision, feeling, and sensibility to weight, without the subject's 
 being conscious of any alteration. Dr. Scougal, of New York, 
 has repeated and confirmed these experiments, and also demon- 
 strated that the hearing was similarly affected. 
 
 " Drs. Nichol and Mossop, of Edinburgh, conducted a series 
 of experiments on each other, examining the eye by means of 
 the ophthalmoscope while the system was under the influence of 
 Various drugs. They found that the nerves controlling the 
 delicate blood-vessels of the retina were paralyzed by a dose of 
 about a tablespoonful of brandy. 
 
 " Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., has deduced some 
 valuable facts from his experiments with the sphygmograph, 
 upon the action of the heart. He has found by repeated ex- 
 periments that while alcohol apparently increases the force and 
 volume of the heart's action, the irregular tracings of the sphyg- 
 mograph show that the real vital force is diminished, and 
 hence its apparent stimulating power is deceptive." — Extract 
 from the Annual Address before the Medical Temperance 
 Association at San Francisco, Cal., June 8, 1894, by Dr. I. N. 
 Quimby, of Jersey City, N. J. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 121 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Mich., has 
 made extensive experiments as to the effects of 
 alcohol. In summing up the results of these he 
 says : — 
 
 " It would seem that no further evidence could be required 
 that alcohol is a narcotic and an anaesthetic, rather than a 
 stimulant, and that its use as a supporting and tonic remedy is a 
 practice without foundation in either scientific theory or natural 
 clinical experience." 
 
 Sir B. W. Richardson at a medical breakfast in 
 London in 1895, stated that though alcohol produced 
 an increase in the motion of the heart it was ulti- 
 mately weaker in its action, so he resolved to give 
 up using such an agent. 
 
 Dr. A. B. Palmer of the University of Michigan 
 prepared a " Report " upon alcohol in 1885 for the 
 Michigan State Medical Society in which he cited 
 experiments showing that the opinion that alcohol 
 stimulates the heart by an increase of real force, is 
 an error. It creates a flutter, but decreases power. 
 
 " Increased frequency of pulsation is often the strongest evi- 
 dence of diminished power — as the fluttering pulse of extreme 
 
 weakness." 
 
 He classes alcohol with chloroform. 
 
 " If chloroform is a narcotic, alcohol is a narcotic. If chloro- 
 form is an anaesthetic, alcohol is an anaesthetic. If one is 
 essentially a depressing agent, so is the other. Their strong 
 resemblance no one can question. The chief difference is that 
 the alcoholic narcosis is longer continued, and its secondary 
 effects are more severe." 
 
122 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 In closing his summary of the changes in scientific 
 "knowledge of this drug he says : — 
 
 " We said it was a direct heart exciter. We now know it is 
 a direct heart depressor. We said, and nearly all the text-books 
 still say, it is a direct cardiac stimulant. We know from most 
 conclusive experiments it is a*direct cardiac paralyzant." 
 
 The following is taken from one of the many ex- 
 cellent papers upon alcohol written by that Nestor 
 among physicians, Dr. N. S. Davis : — 
 
 " Alcoholics are very generally prescribed in that weakness of 
 the heart sometimes met with in low forms of fever and in the 
 advanced stage of other acute diseases. It is claimed that 
 these agents are capable of strengthening and sustaining the 
 action of the heart under the circumstances just named, and 
 also under the first depressing influence of severe shock. 
 
 " There is nothing in the ascertained physiological action of 
 alcohol on the human system, as developed by a wide range of 
 experimental investigation, to sustain this claim. I have used 
 the sphygmograph and every other available means for testing 
 experimentally the effects of alcohol upon the action of the 
 heart and blood-vessels generally, but have failed in every in- 
 stance to get proof of any increased force of cardiac action. 
 
 " The first and very transient effect is generally increased 
 frequency of beat, followed immediately by dilatation of the 
 peripheral vessels from impaired vasomotor sensibility, and 
 the same unsteady or wavy sphygmographic tracing as is given 
 in typhoid fever, and which is usually regarded as evidence of 
 cardiac debility. Turning from the field of experimentation to 
 the sick-room, my search for evidences of the power of alcohol 
 to sustain the force of the heart, or in any way to strengthen 
 the patient has been equally unsuccessful. I was educated 
 and entered upon the practice of medicine at a time when 
 alcoholic drinks weje universally regarded as stimulating and 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 23 
 
 heat-producing, and commenced their use without prejudice or 
 preconceived notions. But the first ten years of direct clinical 
 or practical observation satisfied me fully of the incorrectness 
 of those views, and very nearly banished the use of these 
 agents from my list of remedies. While it is true that during 
 the last thirty years I have not prescribed for internal use the 
 -aggregate amount of one quart of any kind of fermented or 
 distilled drinks, either in private or hospital practice, yet I have 
 continued to have abundant opportunity for observing the 
 effects of these agents as given by others with whom I have 
 been in council ; and simple truth compels me to say that I 
 have never yet seen a case in which the use of alcoholic drinks 
 either increased the force of the heart's action or strengthened 
 the patient beyond the first thirty minutes after it was swal- 
 lowed. ***** 
 
 " Nothing is easier than self-deception in this matter. A 
 patient is suddenly taken with syncope, or nervous weakness, 
 from which abundant experience has shown that a speedy 
 recovery would take place by simple rest and fresh air. But in 
 the alarm of patient and friends something must be done. A 
 little wine or brandy is given, and, as it is not sufficient to 
 positively prevent, the patient in due time revives just as would 
 have been the case if neither wine nor brandy had been used." 
 
 In the Medical Pioneer of November, 1895, Prof. 
 E. MacDowel Cosgrave, Professor of Biology, 
 Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, says : — 
 
 " The result of all recent investigation is to show that the 
 use of alcohol when a stimulant effect is desired, is an error ; 
 and that, from first to last alcohol acts as a narcotic." 
 
 Dr. Edmunds, of London, said in an address 
 given in Manchester: — 
 
 " By giving alcohol as a stimulant in exhausting diseases, I 
 believe we always do as we should in giving a dose of opium 
 
124 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 and brandy and water to comfort a half suffocated patient ; 
 i. e., increase his danger. If that be so, we reduce alcohol not 
 only from the position of food medicine, but we reduce it from 
 the position of a goad ; and we say that the supposititious stimu- 
 lating or goading influence of alcohol is a mere delusion ; that 
 in fact alcohol always lessens the power of the patients, and 
 always damages their chance of recovery, when it is a question 
 of their getting through exhausting diseases." 
 
 Many more such quotations might be adduced. 
 Enough are given to show that the popular use of 
 alcohol, when a stimulant is required, is considered 
 a grave error by those who have most thoroughly 
 studied.the effects of this drug. 
 
 ALCOHOL AS A TONIC. 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge, of London, says : — 
 
 " The action of alcohol in relaxing unstriped muscular fibre, 
 which entitles it to be called an anti-spasmodic, robs it of all 
 claim to give tone. The sense of exhilaration which follows 
 small doses of alcohol has been mistaken for real strength and 
 increase of vitality. It is well known that relaxation of the 
 blood-vessels throughout the body is one of the first effects of 
 alcohol. The arteries of the retina have been observed to 
 dilate after very small doses of alcohol. The diminution of 
 tone is well seen in the tracings of the pulse under the influ- 
 ence of alcohol. If one needs a tonic, therefore, alcohol is one 
 of the things to be shunned altogether. 
 
 " But alcoholic beverages contain other things beside alcohol. 
 Beer contains infusion of hops, or other bitter stomachics. 
 Some wines contain tannin. These ingredients, by creating or 
 stimulating the appetite, increase the strength and vital power 
 in certain cases. But we have a large number of drugs which 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 125 
 
 will do the same without the disadvantages arising from the 
 presence of alcohol, and, if the flavor be objected to, many of 
 them, can be taken in the form of coated pills. 
 
 " The external use of cold, either by a dripping sheet, cold 
 sponging, or a shower-bath, according to the power of reaction, 
 is a valuable means of giving real tone. 
 
 " Wine is frequently prescribed for those young persons who 
 are growing rapidly, and whose strength does not seem to keep 
 pace with their growth. It is important to know that alcohol is 
 not desirable in such circumstances. There is often found in 
 such cases a defective appetite, perhaps even sub-acute gastric 
 catarrh, which may be due to imperfect mastication through bad 
 teeth, or aggravated by it. There are other causes, such as late 
 hours, bad habits, improper food or irregular meals. In such 
 cases those means must be resorted to which are so effectual in 
 improving the condition and strengthening the heart of athletes. 
 Regular and regulated meals, exercise in the fresh air, a good 
 amount of rest and sleep — these will do more than anything 
 else to invigorate the bodily health." 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis says : — 
 
 " Although I was taught, like all others, to use alcohol as a 
 tonic when patients were sick, to hasten their recovery and pro- 
 mote their strength, yet it did not take me very long to find out 
 that here and there was one already a teetotaler who would not 
 take wine long, nor any kind of alcoholic drink unless prescribed, 
 just as castor-oil, dose by dose, but who, when he got beyond 
 the necessity of having it as a medicine, took no more. What 
 was the comparison ? My patients who refused, or did not take 
 al-cohol, got strong quicker and had less tendency to relapse 
 than those who continued its use. Here was the first step in 
 progress, and consequently I came soon to cease the recom- 
 mending it merely to hasten recovery of strength. As a tonic, 
 I found it of no value." 
 
126 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr, James Miller, of Edinburgh, says in Alcohol* 
 Its Place and Power, written many years ago : — 
 
 " It may be well here to correct an important error, yet very 
 current, in regard to the medicinal use of alcohol. People 
 regard it as a simple and common tonic ; and are ready to 
 accept its supposed help as such in every form of weakness and 
 general disorder of health. But it is ordinarily, no true tonic." 
 
 Dr. Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical 
 Journal, stated some years ago at a meeting of the 
 British Medical Temperance Association that " the 
 medical profession were nearly all agreed that alco- 
 hol is neither a food nor a tonic." 
 
 Many drunkards have been made, especially 
 among women, by the delusion that alcohol has 
 tonic effect. As a sample of these sad cases the 
 following is given, taken from a recent number of 
 The National Advocate : — 
 
 " There is in the jail at Elizabeth, N. J., a woman who was 
 arrested while participating in wild drunken orgies with a gang 
 of tramps in the woods near the town. She appears nothing 
 but a besotted hag, but was only a short time ago a dutiful wife 
 of a respectable man, and the mother of three beautiful children. 
 Her father, who is said to be living in a village in New York 
 State, is a highly respected minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. Her children are in an asylum, and her husband is a 
 wanderer in the West. The cause of her ruin was beer, pre- 
 scribed for her by the family physician as a tonic. At first she 
 refused to take it, having always been a teetotaler, but per- 
 suaded to obey the physician, she soon acquired a taste for the 
 drink that speedily developed into the overmastering appetite, 
 which has brought her and hers to this sad condition." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 12/ 
 
 ALCOHOL AS A SEDATIVE. 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge says in the Medical Pioneer, April, 
 1893:— 
 
 11 Alcohol, chiefly in the form of spirits, is often given to pro- 
 cure sleep and to relieve pain, such as that of neuralgia, 
 dyspepsia, colic and diarrhoea. It is as a sedative that alcohol 
 is so insidious and seductive in cases of chronic disease, as, if 
 frequently resorted to, the drink craving is almost certainly 
 developed. Hence the importance in many cases of rather 
 bearing the ills we have than of flying to others that we know 
 not of. It is clear that other narcotics, such as opium, morphia, 
 chorodyne, chloral, are open to the same objection, and the 
 victims of these drugs are terribly numerous. ***** j n 
 many instances some form of dyspepsia is the cause of the 
 sleeplessness, palpitation or other uneasy feeling for which a 
 sedative is desired, and when this is cured the symptoms 
 vanish." 
 
 A prominent minister in a large American city 
 was afflicted with insomnia a few years ago, and, 
 after trying various remedies, was advised by a 
 physician to try whisky " night-caps." He became 
 a hopeless drunkard. A young medical student in 
 New York appealed to one of his professors for aid 
 in overcoming aggravated insomnia. The professor 
 advised whisky and morphine ! The advice led to 
 the ruin of the young man. 
 
 ALCOHOL AS AN ANTIPYRETIC. 
 
 " By the power of alcohol to retard the evolution of heat in 
 retarding molecular changes in the tissues, the liquids contain- 
 ing it may be used as antipyretics when the temperature is too 
 high, and to retard the processes of waste when these are too 
 rapid. But the antipyretic influence of alcohol is so feeble in 
 
128 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 comparison with the proper application of water to the surface, 
 or with the internal administration of sulphate of quinia, sali- 
 cylic acid, digitalis, etc. that no one thinks of using it for anti- 
 pyretic purposes." — Dr. N. S. Davis in Principles and Prac- 
 tice of Medicine. 
 
 PROFESSOR ATWATER'S CONCLUSIONS UPON ALCOHOL 
 AS A FUEL-FOOD. 
 
 Prof. Atwaterof Middletown, Conn., has recently- 
 announced that he has proved that as much as 2\ 
 ounces of pure alcohol a day can be oxidized in the 
 body, giving off as much heat as the same quantity 
 of alcohol burned in a lamp. The subject of the 
 experiment was a man shut up in a box prepared 
 for the purpose. Both Drs. Davis and Richardson 
 used the thermometer test, and by it a decline in 
 temperature almost invariably followed within half 
 an hour after the ingestion of alcohol. If Dr. 
 Atwater used the thermometer test it is strange 
 that no mention is made of it. It agrees perfectly 
 with the experience of Arctic travelers in showing 
 that alcohol robs the body of heat. 
 
 But even if it could be proved that alcohol can 
 be oxidized in the body, that does not say that it is 
 a suitable substance to ever introduce into the body. 
 For instance, in cases of ptomaine poisoning the 
 substances are undergoing oxidation, but no one 
 regards the feverish condition produced as desirable. 
 Until absolute physiological experiment demon- 
 strates that alcohol in the changes it undergoes is 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 29 
 
 doing good and not harm, the conclusion cannot be 
 accepted that it is in any correct sense a fuel-food. 
 Dr. Cyrus Edson, the eminent New York physi- 
 cian, is reported in the New Voice as saying : — 
 
 " Medical science has repeatedly shown that the human sys- 
 tem cannot absorb more than one ounce of alcohol in 24 hours. 
 Prof. Atwater has simply shown that the system is not affected 
 by two ounces in a day. That is, he has shown that there are 
 no harmful results ; that at the end of that period there are no 
 traces of the alcohol found in the secretions of the pores, lungs 
 or bowels. 
 
 " These I judge to be simply negative results. The subject 
 of his experiment was not harmed by taking two ounces of 
 alcohol during one or two or possibly six days, but who shall 
 say that the same man would not be harmed in six weeks, two 
 months or a year ? Grant the consumption of this stated 
 amount of liquor does not injure physically a certain man, there 
 is nothing to show that the subject, to say nothing of others, 
 will not increase the amount until it has an intoxicating effect. 
 
 " My opinion is that alcohol will do harm in time no matter 
 how it is taken. You will find, out of the number of persons 
 who start in to follow the theory that two ounces of alcohol, of 
 its equivalent in liquor, taken daily, furnishes food for the body, 
 many will get the liquor appetite, and become addicted to its 
 use." 
 
 The Bulletin of the A. M. T. A. for July, 1899, 
 contained an article upon Prof. Atwater by Dr. J. 
 H. Kellogg, from which the following is taken : — 
 
 " Starch, sugar and fats become foods or fuels only through 
 their assimilation. Abundant physiological evidence attests 
 that no substance can act as a food, or as a true source of energy, 
 unless it has first entered into the composition of the body. It 
 
130 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 must be assimilated. The forces manifested by the body, the 
 muscular forces, or nervous energy, are the result of the break- 
 ing down of organized structure into simpler forms. For 
 example, in the case of nervous energy, material from which 
 nerve energy is derived is stored up in the nerve cell, and can 
 be seen with the microscope in the form of minute granules, 
 which disappear as the cell energy is expended, leaving the cell 
 blank and shriveled when in a state of extreme fatigue from 
 overwork. The same is essentially true of the muscle cell. 
 The source of muscular energy is glycogen, an organized sub- 
 stance which becomes a part of the muscle tissue in a well- 
 nourished muscle in a state of rest. 
 
 " Experiments have clearly shown that fat, sugar and starch 
 must all alike be converted into the form of glycogen and enter 
 into the muscle structure before they can become a source of 
 energy. 
 
 " Professor Atwater tells us that alcohol can not form tissue, 
 hence the query is pertinent, How can it be a source of vital 
 energy ? The body does not burn food as a stove does fuel. 
 Food can be called fuel only in a highly figurative sense. The 
 oxidation of food in the body does not take place directly. 
 Food is assimilated, becoming a part of the tissue. Oxygen is 
 also assimilated, entering into the composition of the tissue 
 along with the food elements under the action of special 
 organic ferments brought into play by nervous impulses re- 
 ceived from the central ganglia. 
 
 "The molecules of these residual tissues which form the/ 
 storehouse of energy in the body are rearranged in simpler 
 forms, thereby giving up a portion of the energy which holds 
 them together in the state in which they exist in the tissues, 
 and this energy thus set free appears as muscle force, mental 
 activity, glandular work and various other forms of functional 
 activity." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ALCOHOL IN PHARMACY. 
 
 In the Journal of the American Medical Associa- 
 tion for November 13, 1897, Dr. T. D. Crothers, 
 editor of the Journal of Inebriety, says in a paper 
 upon " Concealed Alcohol in Drugs " : — 
 
 " A very important question has been repeatedly raised, and 
 answered differently by persons who claim to have some 
 expert knowledge. The question is, can strong tinctures of 
 common drugs be given in all cases with safety ; tinctures of 
 the various bitters which contain from 10 to 40 per cent, of 
 alcohol, and are used very freely by neurotic and debilitated 
 persons ? It is asserted with the most positive convictions that 
 such tinctures are more sought for the narcotic effect of the 
 alcohol than for the drugs themselves. 
 
 " In my experience a large number of inebriates who are 
 restored, relapse from the use of these tinctures given for their 
 medicinal effects. ***** 
 
 " The question is asked, how much alcohol can be used as a 
 solvent in drugs without adding a new force more potent than 
 that which is brought out by the alcohol ? Opinions of experts 
 differ. One writer thinks 10 per cent, of alcohol in any drug 
 will, if given any length of time, develop the physiologic effect 
 of alcohol in addition to that of the drug. An English writer 
 says that in some cases a 5 per cent, tincture is dangerous from 
 the alcohol which it contains. 
 
 " There is some doubt expressed by many authorities as to 
 
 131 
 
132 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 the potency of a drug which is covered up in a strong tincture. 
 It is clear that the value of a drug is not enhanced, and it is 
 certain that a new force-producing, or exploding agency, has 
 been added to the body. 
 
 '' In experience, any drug which contains alcohol can not be 
 given to persons who have previously used it without rousing up 
 the old desire for drink, or at least producing a degree of irrita- 
 tion and excitement that clearly comes from this source. It is 
 also the experience of persons who are very susceptible to alco- 
 hol, that any strong tincture is followed by headache and other 
 symptoms that refer to disturbed nerve centres. 
 
 " In many studies I have been surprised at the increased ac- 
 tion of drugs when given in other forms than the tincture. Gum 
 and powdered opium, have far more pronounced narcotic action 
 than the tincture. Yet the tincture is followed by a more rapid 
 narcotism, but of shorter duration, and attended with more 
 nerve disturbance at the onset. 
 
 " I am convinced that a more exact knowledge of the physio- 
 logic action of alcohol on the organism will show that its use 
 in drugs as tinctures is dangerous and will be abandoned. 
 
 " There are many reasons for believing that its use in pro- 
 prietary drugs will be punished in the future under what is 
 called the poison act." 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge published in May, 1893, in the 
 Medical Pioneer, the following statement of the 
 pharmacy of the London Temperance Hospital : — 
 
 " When the Temperance Hospital was first opened, it became 
 a question of practical importance, what should be done with 
 regard to the alcohol so largely employed as a vehicle and drug 
 excipient. Not that the principle of the treatment of disease 
 without the ordinary administration of alcoholic beverages pre- 
 cludes the employment of alcoholic tinctures, but it was felt that 
 in such a test case as this it was important to obviate the objec- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 133 
 
 tion that while withholding alcohol as a beverage, it was given 
 in the medicine. As a matter of fact, it is surprising, when one 
 looks into it, how much alcohol is often given merely as a vehi- 
 cle for other drugs, and without the special action of alcohol 
 being required or desired. In prescriptions which are to be 
 seen in many text-books, it is not uncommon to find from one 
 to two or three, or even four drachms of rectified spirit in the 
 form of tinctures or spirits. This is very undesirable. If alco- 
 hol is needed it should be given in proper measured dose. 
 But if it is not indicated, then it is not well to administer it in 
 this indirect manner. 
 
 " Experiments were therefore made, partly at the hospital 
 and specially by Messrs. Southall Bros. & Barclay, of Birming- 
 ham, with the result that new non-alcoholic tinctures were 
 made replacing the following alcoholic tinctures and wines : — 
 
 Tinct. Aloes. 
 Arnicas. 
 Aurantii. 
 Belladonnas. 
 Buchu. 
 Calumbas. 
 Camph. Co. 
 Capsici. 
 Cascarillas. 
 Catechu. 
 Chiratas. 
 Cinchonas Co. 
 
 Flav. 
 Cinnamomas. 
 Colchici Sem. 
 Conii. 
 Digitalis. 
 Ferri Acet. 
 Ferri Perchlor. 
 Gentiani Co. 
 
 Tinct. Hyosciami. 
 
 " Kino. 
 
 " Kramerias. 
 
 <; Limonis. 
 
 " Lobelias. 
 
 " Nucis Vomicae. 
 
 " Opii. 
 
 " Quassias. 
 
 " Rhei. 
 
 " Scillas. 
 
 " Serpentarias. 
 
 14 Stramonii. 
 
 " Valeriana?. 
 
 " " Ammon. 
 
 Vin. Aloes. 
 
 " Colchici Rad. 
 
 " " Sim. 
 
 " Ipecac. 
 
 " Opii. 
 
 " Rhei. 
 
134 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " These were made by extracting the principles of the drugs 
 in the usual way except that instead of alcohol a mixture of 
 glycerine and water was used in the proportion of one-fourth to 
 one-third part of glycerine, and about five per cent, of acetic 
 acid. These made very elegant preparations, and in the major- 
 ity of cases appeared to have just the same, and just as great 
 physiological action. Subsequently the ordinary tinctures were 
 distilled, and the extracts thus obtained dissolved in the above 
 menstruum, as far as was possible, in most cases the residuum 
 being found to be inert. 
 
 " Gum resins and essential oils were found to be insoluble in 
 this menstruum, and hence such drugs have been given in the 
 form of pill, powder or mixture. Such tinctures are those of 
 assafcetida, benzoin, cannabis indica, cantharides, castor, cubebs, 
 lavender, myrrh, pyrethrum, sumbul, tolu and ginger. Out of 
 62 tinctures it was found that 46 made good preparations, and 
 16 did not. 
 
 " These were employed for several years. But for some time 
 past, somewhat more reliable preparations have been made for 
 us which contain all the constituents of the alcoholic tinctures 
 without the alcohol. They are for the most part made by tak- 
 ing standardized tinctures, mixing with them sugar of milk, and 
 distilling off the alcohol. The alcoholic extract remains behind 
 in a finely divided condition mingled with sugar of milk. This 
 is broken up, pulverized and compressed into tabloids of a 
 definite dose, which can be taken either in that form or rubbed 
 up and dissolved or suspended in gum water. 
 
 " The following have been made up in this form : aconite, 
 belladonna, camph. co., cannabis indica, capsicum, cinchon. co., 
 and cinchon. simpl., digitalis, gelseminum, hyosciamus, nux 
 vomica, opium, strophantus, ginger and Warburg. Other tinc- 
 tures will be gradually added to this list. 
 
 "As external liniments thosccommonly used are the linimen- 
 tum terebinthinse and the linimentum terebinthinas aceticum, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 135 
 
 which do not contain alcohol. A strong solution of iodine is 
 made with iodide of potassium. 
 
 " The spiritus ammonias aromaticus is made without the spirit, 
 the aromatic oils being emulsionized by means of rubbing up 
 with fine sand, but most of these subsequently rise to the sur- 
 face. The spiritus etheris nitrosi is impossible without alcohol, 
 but nitrite of amyl, and nitrites of potash or soda can be substi- 
 tuted. The spiritus chloroformi is replaced by aqua chloroformi, 
 or as a sweetening agent by solution of saccharin. Thus a favor- 
 ite expectorant mixture contains carbonate of ammonia five 
 grains, acetum ipecac, ten minims, and solution of saccharin in 
 each dose. 
 
 " As a special stimulant a subcutaneous injection of a drachm 
 of pure ether has been given in a few cases : in others digitalis, 
 or caffeine or ammonia in some form, such as the carbonate 
 dissolved in a cup of hot coffee ; or hot solution of Liebig's 
 extract, or rectal injections of hot water," 
 
 It may be objected by some that glycerine be- 
 longs to the family of alcohols, hence hospitals 
 using glycerine tinctures are not, strictly speaking, 
 non-alcoholic. To this the answer is, that while 
 glycerine certainly is classed in the family of alco- 
 hols, it is of* a very different nature from ethyl 
 alcohol, which is used for beverage purposes. 
 Ethyl alcohol, the alcohol in all intoxicating bever- 
 ages in common use, and the alcohol generally used 
 in medicine, creates a fatal craving for itself, and is 
 injurious to the body. Glycerine does not create 
 any craving for itself, and has not been demonstrated 
 to have injurious properties, and is not used for 
 beverage purposes. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the New York State 
 
I36 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Medical Society, held in New York City, in October, 
 1898, a discussion was held upon the use of alcohol 
 as medicine. Dr. E. R. Squibb, a leading pharma- 
 cist of Brooklyn, stated that during the last two or 
 three years much had been accomplished in retiring 
 alcohol as a menstruum for' exhausting drugs. Of 
 the other menstrua experimented with up to the 
 present time, that which had given the best results 
 was acetic acid, in various strengths. It had been 
 discovered that a ten per cent, solution of acetic 
 acid was almost universal in its exhausting powers. 
 There were now in use in veterinary practice, and 
 in some hospitals, extracts made with acetic acid. 
 They were made according to the requirements of 
 the pharmacopoeia, except that acetic acid was 
 substituted for alcohol. Acetic acid, when used 
 with alkaloids gives the physician some advantages 
 in prescribing, owing to there being fewer incom- 
 patibles. In small doses, the percentage of acetic 
 acid in the extract is so small as to be hardly 
 appreciable, and when larger doses are required, 
 the acetic acid can be neutralized by the addition 
 of potash or soda. 
 
 Dr. Noble said, in article to London Times'bziorQ 
 referred to : — 
 
 "Modern science has shown that those drugs which are 
 soluble in alcohol only, are, in all probability, more hurtful than 
 useful." 
 
 The following from Dr. Jas. R. Nichols, editor 
 Boston Journal of Chemistry, is too good to be 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 37 
 
 omitted, although it should be familiar to temper- 
 ance students: — 
 
 " The facetious Dr. Holmes has said, that if the contents of 
 our drug-stores were taken out upon the ocean and thrown 
 overboard, it would be better for the human race, but worse for 
 the fishes. This statement may be a little sweeping ; but it is 
 true that all the showy bottles in drug-stores which contain 
 alcoholic decoctions and tinctures might be submerged in 
 the ocean, and invalids would suffer no detriment. Since the 
 active alkaloidal and resinoidal principles of roots, barks and 
 gums have been isolated and put in better and more convenient 
 forms, there is no longer need of alcoholic tinctures and elixirs. 
 Laudanum, which is a tincture of opium, might, be banished 
 from the shelves of every apothecary, as it is not needed. It is 
 now known that the valuable narcotic and hypnotic principles 
 of opium are contained in certain crystalline bodies, which can 
 be isolated, and used in minute and convenient forms, and that 
 they can be held in aqueous solutions. Alcohol is no longer 
 needed to hold the active principles of opium, Peruvian bark 
 or other indispensable drugs. As regards the vegetable tonics 
 so called, the best among them is the columbo (Radix columbo) 
 and this readily yields its bitter principle to water, as does 
 quassia, gentian, senna, rhubarb and most other valuable sub- 
 stances. A careful survey of the contents of a well-appointed 
 modern pharmacy leads to the conclusion that there is no one 
 indispensable medicinal preparation which requires alcohol as a 
 free constituent. 
 
 " The catalogue of modern remedies is almost endless, and 
 many of them hold alcohol in some form ; but every intelligent 
 physician knows that 90 per cent, of these alleged remedies 
 have little or no intrinsic value. The nostrums of t*»p quack, 
 the bitters, elixirs, cordials, extracts, etc. nearly all contain al- 
 cohol, and this is the ingredient which aids their sale. The 
 whole unclean list might, with advantage to mankind, be 
 thrown to the fishes. 
 
I38 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The chemist, more particularly the pharmaceutical chemist, 
 may inquire how he is to conduct his processes without alcohol. 
 It is from the pharmaceutical laboratory we derive some of 
 the most important substances used in medicines and the arts. 
 Among them may be named ether, chloroform and chloral hy- 
 drate, three of the most indispensable agents known to science, 
 and the employment of alcohol is essential to their production, i 
 Alcohol is a laboratory product ; it is a chemical agent which 
 belongs to the laboratory ; it is the handmaid of the chemist, 
 and, so long as it exists, should be retained within the walls of 
 the laboratory. In the manufacture of most of the important 
 products in which alcohol is either directly or indirectly used, 
 its production may be made simultaneous with the production 
 of the agent desired. In the manufacture of ether and chloro- , 
 form, the apparatus for alcohol may be made a part of the de- 
 vices from which the ultimate agents, ether and chloroform, 
 result. Fermentation and distillation may be conducted at one 
 end, and the anaesthetics received at the other. It is true that 
 in a chemical laboratory alcohol is an agent very convenient in 
 a thousand ways. But, if it were banished utterly, what would 
 result? There are other methods of fabricating the useful 
 products named, and many others, without the use of alcohol, 
 but the processes would be rather inconvenient and more costly. 
 The banishment of alcohol would not deprive us of a single one 
 of the indispensable agents which modern civilization demands, 
 and neither would chemical science be retarded by its loss. 
 
 " It must be remembered that modern science has given us 
 glycerine, naptha, bisulphide of carbon, pyroligneous products, 
 carbolic acid and a hundred other agents which are capable of 
 taking the place of alcohol in a very large number of appliances 
 and processes." 
 
 The sale of liquor in drug-stores is beginning to 
 be deplored by the more respectable pharmacists. 
 At the annual meeting of the Massachusetts State 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 39 
 
 Pharmacists' Association in 1895 the president said 
 in his address : — 
 
 " One thing that every pharmacist, who has the best interests 
 of his calling at heart, must bear in mind is that the liquor part 
 of their business is being, and must be, slowly crowded out. 
 Public sentiment has changed greatly in the last few years, and 
 instead of all being classed alike, the line has been sharply 
 drawn, and the stores that sell the least amount of liquor that 
 they possibly can are gaining the confidence and esteem of the 
 public, and consequently their business is growing from year to 
 year, while the others are losing ground and dropping lower 
 and lower." 
 
 The Evening Record of Boston contained the fol- 
 lowing in its issue of March 7, 1896 : — 
 
 " The number of flagrant offences on the part of druggists in 
 certain no-license towns — offences not only against the liquor 
 laws, but also against the laws of decency and humanity — 
 brought before the board of pharmacy, would appall the public 
 if they were known. The Looker-On has seen the record of 
 several of these druggists as transcribed from the police courts 
 and they are very black records. One druggist after selling 
 liquor over and over again to one customer, and several times 
 getting him completely intoxicated, finally deposited him one 
 night in a snowbank, 'in a state of frozen stupor, where he 
 would have frozen to death had not the wife of the druggist's 
 clerk threatened to complain to the police unless he was rescued. 
 
 " The story is told of one of the druggists of a neighboring 
 no-license town. A man came in and asked for a pint of 
 whisky. He was asked what he wanted it for. His reply was 
 that he wanted it to soak some roots in. He got it, and as he 
 went out he dryly remarked, ' I should have told you that it 
 was the roots of me tongue that I want to soak. ' " 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DISEASES, AND THEIR TREATMENT WITHOUT 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 THE question, " What shall I take instead of 
 wine, beer or brandy ? " is frequently asked by 
 those who have been trained to think some form of 
 alcohol really necessary to the cure of disease, but, 
 who, from principle would prefer other agents, if 
 they knew of any equal in effect. This chapter 
 deals somewhat with the answer to that question. 
 
 Alcoholic Craving : — The craving for alcohol 
 may be present for a time after a person has com- 
 menced to abstain from all beverages containing it. 
 Or, it may occur periodically, as a sort of irresistible 
 impulse. For the periodical craving Dr. Higgin- 
 botham, of England, recommends that a half drachm 
 of ipecacuanha be taken so as to produce full vomit- 
 ing. He says the desire for intoxicating drinks will 
 be immediately removed. The craving is caused by 
 vitiated secretions of the stomach ; the vomiting 
 removes these. Dr. Higginbotham says : — 
 
 " If a patient can be persuaded to follow the emetic plan for 
 a few times when the periodical attacks come on, he will be 
 effectually cured." 
 
 Some men in trying to abstain have found the 
 
 140 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. I4I 
 
 use of fresh fruit, especially apples, very helpful. 
 Nourishing and digestible food should be taken 
 somewhat frequently. A cup of hot milk or hot 
 coffee taken at the right moment has saved some. 
 
 Anaemia: — In this complaint there is a defi- 
 ciency of the red corpuscles of the blood. It may be 
 the result of some fever or exhausting illness; it 
 may accompany dyspepsia, and is then due to im- 
 perfect digestion and assimilation of the food. 
 The poverty of the blood produces shortness of 
 breath, and often palpitation of the heart also, 
 especially on a little exertion. There is generally 
 more or less weariness, languor and debility, some- 
 times also giddiness, sickness, fainting and neuralgia. 
 
 " In the treatment of anaemia, port wine and other alcoholic 
 liquors are worse than useless." — Dr. J. J. Ridge, London. 
 
 " The common prescription of wine or some form of spirits 
 for states of general exhaustion and anaemia, is a serious mistake. 
 It assumes that the temporary increase in the action of the heart 
 is renewed vigor, and that some power is added to the failing 
 energies. This theory rests solely on the statement of the 
 patient that he feels better. In reality the exhaustion is intensi- 
 fied, though covered up.'' — Medical Pioneer. 
 1 " Deficiency of nutrition, of light and of pure air may be 
 mentioned as common causes of anaemia. ***** It is 
 evident that the first step in the treatment of this disease is to 
 remove the cause. If the cause is dyspepsia, this must receive 
 attention ; if intestinal parasites, they must be dislodged ; if 
 prolonged nursing, nursing must be interdicted ; if too little 
 food, a larger quantity of nourishing, wholesome food must be 
 employed. Such simple and easily digested foods as eggs, 
 poached or boiled, boiled milk, kumyzoon, good buttermilk, 
 
142 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 puree of peas, beans or lentils, boiled rice, well-cooked gruels 
 and other preparations of grains are suitable. Beef tea and 
 extracts are worthless. * * * * * 
 
 " A careful course of physical training is essential to securing 
 perfect recovery in cases of chronic anaemia due to indigestion, 
 or any other serious disturbance of the nutritive processes." — 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg. 
 
 Appetite, Loss of :— " There is often disinclination for 
 food because */ is not required. Many cannot eat much break- 
 fast, because they have had a hearty supper. Or having had 
 both a hearty breakfast and luncheon, they feel but little desire 
 for a dinner of four or five courses. Generally the stomach is 
 right and the habits wrong. What is to be done then, for 
 such lack of appetite ? Simply go without food until appetite 
 comes. 
 
 " When ale or beer is taken regularly with meals the stomach 
 learns to expect them, and the food is not relished without 
 them. The appetizing power of beer and bitter ales is chiefly 
 due to the hop or other bitter ingredients which they contain. 
 When it seems necessary to assist the appetite temporarily, a 
 small quantity of simple infusion of hops may be taken. 
 
 " Sometimes appetite fails because of exhaustion of body 
 and mind. This may be nature's warning against overwork, 
 and cannot be neglected with impunity. Life will inevitably be 
 shortened if it is found necessary to rely upon the aid of 
 alcohol in any form in order to do a day's work. 
 
 " Bouillon, or beef soup, at the beginning of a meal are in 
 centives to appetite. Change of scene, and life in the open 
 air are the very best aids to appetite, when aids are really re- 
 quired." 
 
 Apoplexy : — " There is a popular idea that whenever a per- 
 son is taken ill with giddiness, fainting or insensibility, brandy 
 should be at once procured and poured down his throat. 
 Nothing can be more dangerous in apoplexy. This disease is 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. I43 
 
 due to the bursting of some blood-vessel in the head, and the 
 poured-out blood presses on the brain and leads to more or less 
 insensibility. If fainting occurs, it may possibly save the 
 patient's life, because then the blood-vessels contract, and the 
 flow of blood ceases immediately ; time is thus given for the 
 ruptured blood-vessel to became sealed up by a clot, which will 
 prevent further loss of blood. If brandy is given, there is, first, 
 great risk of choking the patient : if that danger is escaped 
 and the brandy is swallowed and absorbed, the vessels become 
 relaxed and the heart recovers its force; hence the ruptured 
 vessel, if not sufficiently sealed by clot, may be started again, 
 and fatal hemorrhage result. 
 
 " The only treatment which unskilled hands can adopt is to 
 lay the patient on his back on the floor or sofa with the head 
 and shoulders somewhat raised ; to loosen all the dress round 
 the neck and body ; to apply cold to the head and hot flannels 
 or a hot bottle to the feet and hands, or to soak them in hot 
 mustard and water, and to gently rub the arms and legs." — Dr. 
 J. J. Ridge. 
 
 Dr. Alfred Smee, surgeon to the Bank of Eng- 
 land, says : — 
 
 " Give nothing by the mouth. Apply a stream of cold water 
 to the head. If the feet are cold apply warm cloths. If relief 
 is not soon obtained, apply hot fomentations to the abdomen, 
 keeping the head erect." 
 
 BED-SORES : — Some object to using alcohol even 
 as an outward application. Dr. Ridge recommends 
 that when a patient is confined to bed the parts 
 pressed on be well washed every day with strong 
 salt and water or alum water, and carefully dried. 
 Glycerine of Tannin may then be applied. If any 
 redness appears, especially if any dusky patch is 
 
144 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 formed, collodion may be applied with a brush, and 
 all pressure should be taken off the part by a circu- 
 lar air-pillow or by a cushion ; or small bran or 
 sand-bags may 'be made and carefully arranged. If 
 the skin is broken, zinc or resin ointment may be 
 applied. 
 
 Some recommend finely powdered iodoform 
 sprinkled over the surface of the sore. 
 
 Boils and Carbuncle : — " In many cases these troubles 
 result from an overloaded condition of the system, which is the 
 result of taking too much food, or some error in diet. The 
 boils are an effort of nature to be rid of offending matter. In 
 some cases they are due to the use of impure water, or the 
 presence of sewer gas in the house. In others, overwork, or 
 •other debilitating causes, may have produced the state of the 
 digestive organs which usually causes the boils. Carbuncle is, 
 essentially, an extensive boil. 
 
 " Apply iodine early or a piece of belladonna plaster. The 
 diet should be plain and unstimulating, condiments being 
 avoided and plenty of fresh vegetables taken, if possible. 
 Fresh-air, exercise and proper rest should be obtained, and 
 late hours avoided. 
 
 " Medical advice is requisite in carbuncle. The popular 
 notion that port wine is absolutely necessary is both erroneous 
 and mischievous." — Ridge. 
 
 Catarrh : — Among the causes are repeated 
 colds ; errors in diet, especially excess in the use of 
 fats and sugar, and an inactive state of the liver. 
 
 Cut off from your bill of fare all salted foods, 
 avoid fats and condiments ; drink freely of pure 
 water ; live in the open-air and sunshine as much as 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 145 
 
 possible, taking much out-door exercise. Take a 
 cold sponge or towel bath every morning, beginning 
 at the face and finishing by plunging the feet into 
 a foot-tub. Follow with vigorous rubbing with a 
 crash or Turkish towel. Those subject to sore 
 throat should hold the head over a basin of cold 
 water and lave the neck with the water for about 
 two minutes. The writer was formerly subject to 
 frequent sore throats, but has had none for over 
 two years, as she believes, because of the adoption 
 of this measure, together with the towel bath every 
 morning, summer and winter. 
 
 Care should be taken to avoid exposure to 
 draughts, or any other means which will produce lia- 
 bility to cold. Care in diet, good ventilation and the 
 morning cold bath are essential if a radical cure is de- 
 sired. Local measures, while giving relief, will not 
 remove the predisposing causes. Dr. Kellogg rec- 
 ommends saline solutions in the form of the nasal 
 douche, a teaspoonful of salt to a pint of soft water, 
 adding twenty to thirty drops of carbolic acid, if 
 there is offensive odor, as a relief measure. 
 
 Sleeping in a poorly ventilated room is said to be 
 one cause of catarrh. 
 
 Hay Fever is a form of catarrh. The vapor 
 bath is recommended as very helpful in this trouble. 
 Nature Cure says that two vapor baths and a two 
 or three days' fast will cure any case of hay fever. 
 The use of pork and other clogging foods should be 
 
I46 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 avoided by those afflicted with this trouble. The 
 bowels should be kept in good condition. If con- 
 stipated, the use of prunes, figs, grapes, apples and 
 other such fruits will be very beneficial ; walking, 
 and massage of the bowels, being added if the fruits 
 are not sufficient. No one able to walk should 
 depend upon drugs to relieve a constipated condi- 
 tion. 
 
 Colds : — " If the bowels are constipated, the skin over- 
 burdened and clogged with bilious matter, and the lungs weak, 
 it is as easy to take cold as to roll off a log. If, on the con- 
 trary, the lungs are well developed, and the respiratory power 
 large, providing abundant oxygen to keep bright the internal 
 fires, the colon clean, the skin daily washed, and the system 
 hardened by the cold bath, taking cold is next to impossible. 
 
 " The first remedial agent for a cold should be a copious 
 enema. Then open the pores of the skin by a hot bath ; take a 
 glass of hot lemonade and go to bed." — The New Hygiene. 
 
 Chills: — For chill, take a hot foot and hand 
 bath, with mustard in the water, % pound to a 
 gallon ; then go to bed in a well ventilated room. 
 Drink freely of hot lemonade or hot water. Ca- 
 tarrh, colds and hay fever may all be effectually re- 
 lieved by hot baths. Relief may be gained also 
 from inhaling the vapor from pine needles or hem- 
 lock leaves. Put them in a bowl, pour boiling 
 water over them, hold the face down over the bowl, 
 the head being covered, and inhale the vapor well 
 up into the nostrils and head. A few drops of 
 hemlock oil in the hot water will do as well. 
 
 Coughs and Hoarseness :— Boil flaxseed in 1 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 147 
 
 pint water, strain, add two teaspoons honey, I 
 ounce rock candy, and juice 3 lemons. Drink hot. 
 Also ; roast a lemon till hot, cut, and squeeze on 3 
 ounces powdered sugar. 
 
 Colic : — This may arise from cold, or from error 
 in diet. If the latter it is desirable to induce 
 vomiting. For the pain, apply hot flannels or 
 fomentations ; drink hot water. In severe cases, 
 sprinkle a little turpentine on flannel, wrung from hot 
 water, and apply to abdomen. Colic resulting from 
 the accumulation of fecal matter should be treated 
 with hot enemas until relieved. A hot hip-bath is 
 sometimes necessary to relief. 
 
 The colic of children and infants should never be 
 treated with alcoholics. In infants it generally 
 arises from excessive or improper feeding ; care 
 should be taken that the milk provided them is not 
 sour. 
 
 In severe cases the babe should be immersed in 
 warm water, keeping the head above water, of 
 course. This is also the best remedy in convul- 
 sions. The hot bath, with a copious enema of 
 warm water, has saved the lives of many babes. 
 
 For adults, hot water, with a pinch of red pepper 
 added, will do all that brandy can do, and more. 
 
 CHOLERA : — Brandy has been considered by many 
 a really necessary medicine in cholera. The follow- 
 ing is a discussion upon Alcohol in Cholera which 
 was held at the annual meeting of the British 
 
I48 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Medical Temperance Association, in May, 1893, and 
 is taken from the Medical Pioneer of June, 1893 : — 
 
 " Dr. Richardson opened a discussion on Cholera in relation 
 to Alcohol. He said he would bring forward five points on the 
 subject. 
 
 1. The negligence among the people at large produced by 
 alcohol in the presence of a cholera epidemic. There was no 
 doubt on the part of any who had seen an epidemic of cholera 
 as to the mischief done by alcohol, apart from its action as a 
 remedy. People rush to the public houses and take it to ward 
 off the danger, or to relieve them when they begin to feel ill, 
 and the result is very bad morally. He had seen this in differ- 
 ent epidemics. Or people got in spirits to face the danger, and 
 many became intoxicated and less able to resist. 
 
 2. Its misuse by those affected. It was often given to cheer 
 them up and remove their fear and nervousness. In his opinion 
 it invariably produced mischief. 
 
 3. He w T as unable to find any physiological reason for giving 
 it. There was a constant drain of fluid, causing spasms and 
 cramp, both of the muscles and blood-vessels, and difficult cir- 
 culation through the lungs. Spasm may be relaxed by alcohol, 
 but, on the other hand, alcohol is exceedingly greedy of water, 
 and so increases the flux. But it also reduces animal tempera- 
 ture, which is a strong feature of cholera, so much so that he 
 could almost diagnose cholera blindfold in the stage of collapse, 
 by the icy coldness. 
 
 4. Its uselessness as a remedy during the acute stage. He 
 had seen a great deal of cholera and never saw alcohol do any 
 good whatever. There was a temporary glow which passed 
 away in a few minutes, and then the evil it does in other ways 
 was brought out. Water was far better, even if cold. The 
 College of Physicians had given some instructions and ordered 
 great care in the administration of alcohol ; this was not far 
 enough, but good as far as it went. The recoveries were best 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. I49 
 
 where the treatment was simplest, such as external warmth 
 with plenty of diluents. He had given creasote largely. 
 
 5. Its injuriousness during the stage of reaction. The reac- 
 tive fever following collapse caused a great number of deaths. 
 In this stage alcohol was absolutely poisonous. He could re- 
 call many such cases in which he had given alcohol through 
 ignorance, and always with disaster. 
 
 " Brigade-Surgeon Pringle said that when he went out to India 
 he thought alcohol was something to stand by, but he had soon 
 found out his mistake ; he had himself suffered from it. He could 
 confirm what Dr. Richardson had said as to the demoralization 
 produced by alcohol to which men resort to keep up their 
 spirits, and men seized under these circumstances were in the 
 greatest danger. Nature effects a cure in many cases with- 
 out assistance, and often with wonderful rapidity. People ap- 
 parently dead and about to be buried, he had known to get up 
 and recover. When alcohol is given during collapse there is 
 often no absorption until reaction occurs, and then the quantity 
 accumulated speedily produces intoxication. It was the same 
 with opium ; he had found pills unchanged in the stomach for 
 hours. He recommended hot drinks ; he had tried every kind 
 of medicine and had little faith in it. The nursing was very 
 important, and it was important that the nurses should abstain. 
 
 " Dr. Morton said it was easy to see that on physiological 
 grounds alone, alcohol, with its strong affinity for water and its 
 tendency to lower temperature, could not be a useful drug in 
 the treatment of cholera collapse, and with its powers of par- 
 alyzing vascular inhibition and checking elimination of effete 
 matter, could not be otherwise than harmful in the stage of re- 
 action. As these conclusions were corroborated by practical 
 experience he did not think members would hesitate to banish 
 it from their equipment against cholera. 
 
 " Dr. Ridge said it should be remembered that Doyen had 
 made experiments on guinea-pigs and had found they were 
 proof against cholera, unless they had previously had a dose of 
 
150 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 alcohol. This explained why drunkards and hard drinkers 
 were so much more liable to have cholera, and have it badly as 
 all observers declared to be the case. Another reason might 
 be that small quantities of alcohol, such as would be found cir- 
 culating in the blood, favored the growth and multiplication 
 of bacteria, certainly those of decomposition, and probably 
 those of cholera. Hence, other things being equal, the abstainer 
 had a great advantage. 
 
 " Dr. Norman Kerr said that he had observed both in America 
 and Glasgow that not only notorious drunkards but free 
 drinkers suffered ; abstainers were less liable unless they took 
 contaminated water, and the less liquid taken the less chance 
 of taking cholera ; beer-drinkers often took more than abstain- 
 ers. The alcohol-drinker uses up more water from his blood 
 and so has less to flush out the system. Alcohol, given to a 
 patient, disguised his condition so that he might seem better 
 though really worse. Hence it is better and safer not to give 
 any. The doctors and nurses ought to be abstainers. A doc- 
 tor after dinner was more likely to take a roseate view of a 
 case, looking at it through an alcoholic pair of spectacles. Al- 
 cohol was not really a stimulant, but a depressant, and this is a 
 very depressing disease ; it was important to have our vital re- 
 sisting power as vigorous as possible. Hot water both relaxes 
 and stimulates, and the whole cry of the sufferer is for water. 
 Many persons who died in cholera did not die of the disease, 
 but of the drugs such as alcohol and opium. Acid drinks 
 should be given, as the bacilli could not live in acid mixtures. 
 Cholera might come, but he believed we were better prepared 
 to meet it and to treat it. 
 
 " Surgeon-General Francis sent a communication which was 
 read by the Honorable Secretary. He said : ' Having had 
 many opportunities of treating cholera in various parts of India 
 and amongst all classes, I have no hesitation in affirming that 
 alcohol in any shape is one of the very worst remedies. Life 
 is, so to speak, paralyzed, and we give a remedy which, appar- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 151 
 
 ently stimulating, is in reality a paralyzer and therefore mis- 
 chievous ; the death-rate might be considerably reduced pro- 
 vided alcohol were rigidly excluded.' " 
 
 Dr. Norman Kerr in a valuable paper upon 
 Cholera says : — ■ 
 
 " The first thing is to get rid of the poison. How ? By as- 
 sisting it out ; but alcohol keeps it in by blocking the doors, 
 just as the doors were blocked in the terrible calamity at Sun- 
 derland not long ago. The alcohol makes the heart and circu- 
 lation labor more. Alcohol not only retains the cholera poison, 
 but retards the action of the heart. Brandy and opium used to 
 be employed, but the records show that if the object had been 
 to make cholera as fatal as possible, that object was achieved 
 by the indiscriminate administration of brandy and opium. 
 Better leave the victim alone, and his chances of recovery will 
 be greater than if he have a thousand doctors, and as many 
 nurses, administering to him brandy and opium. Alcohol is 
 especially dangerous in the third stage, that of reactive fever, 
 because it adds to the fever. Then, alcohol is not only unsafe 
 in the three stages of genuine cholera, but especially unsafe in 
 the premonitory diarrhoea stage, which gives nearly every one 
 warning before they are attacked by genuine cholera. Brandy 
 is taken simply because it puts away the pain. If there are 
 only the pain and slight diarrhoea, speaking medically, it is all 
 right, but if there is anything behind the pain, it is all wrong. 
 After the alcohol, the mischief is going on, only the patient does 
 not know it, and valuable time is lost. All the alcohol does is 
 to deaden sensation. ***** Here I can thoroughly recom- 
 mend ice and iced water. I have always treated cholera patients 
 with these. Let them drink iced water to their hearts' content ; 
 they can never drink too much ; and this opinion is fortified by 
 that of Professor Maclean, of Netley. There is no need of a 
 substitute for brandy in cholera, because in ordinary circum- 
 stances in that disease the action of a stimulant is bad. Flush- 
 
152 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ing of the blood is required, and water will do it. Milk will 
 not do it, because it is too thick — nothing but pure, cold water, 
 all the better if iced." 
 
 In 1893 Dr. Ernest Hart, editor of the British 
 Medical Journal, read an able paper upon Cholera 
 before the American Medical Association. His 
 argument was that the introduction of such a sub- 
 stance as alcohol, itself being a product of germ ac- 
 tion, into a system already suffering from the toxic 
 influence of a ptomaine, could not be otherwise 
 than pernicious. 
 
 Cholera Morbus :— Dr. Kellogg says : " The stomach 
 should be washed by means of the stomach-tube when possible. 
 A large hot enema should be given after each evacuation of 
 the bowels. The addition of tannin, one drachm to a quart of 
 water, is serviceable. When the vomited matter no longer 
 shows signs of food, efforts should be made to stop the vomit- 
 ing. Give the patient bits of ice the size of a bean to swallow 
 every few minutes. At the same time apply hot fomentations 
 over the stomach and bowels. If the patient suffer much from 
 cramp, put him into a warm bath. The first food taken should 
 be farinaceous. Oatmeal gruel, well boiled and strained, is 
 useful." 
 
 Cholera Infantum : — "Iced water may be given in very 
 small quantities every few minutes. Give the stomach entire 
 rest for at least twenty-four hours. There will be no suffering 
 for want of food as long as the stomach is in such a condition. 
 Withhold milk until nature has had time to rid the alimentary 
 canal of the poison-producing germs. White of egg dissolved 
 in water is an excellent preparation in these cases. Egg ene- 
 mata may also be advantageously used. 
 
 " Warm baths, the hot blanket pack when the surface is 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 53 
 
 cold, and the hot enema are all useful. Keep the child wrapped 
 warmly. 
 
 " Great care should be taken in returning to the milk diet. 
 The milk should be thoroughly sterilized by boiling for half an 
 hour, and should be mixed with some barley water so as to 
 avoid the formation of large curds in the stomach. Cream, 
 diluted with water, may be used instead of milk." 
 
 CONSUMPTION. 
 
 Dr. Koch, the celebrated German microscopist, 
 pronounces consumption contagious, because during 
 its progress a very minute bacterium is developed 
 which may be transmitted from one person to 
 another. 
 
 It is said that a person with healthy lungs might 
 daily breathe millions of tubercle bacilli without 
 any danger, and that the best preventive of this 
 disease is to live much in the open air, or if this is 
 impossible to spend ten or fifteen minutes a day in 
 deep breathing exercises in the open air. " Fresh- 
 air and disease-germs are antagonistic." 
 
 Alcohol, chiefly in the form of whisky, has been 
 considered by many as not only a cure of consump- 
 tion, if a cure is possible, but also as a prophylactic 
 or preventive, of great service to those predis- 
 posed to this, disease by reason of narrow chest 
 and weak lungs. This belief has made many 
 drunkards. 
 
 Dr. B. W. Richardson was the first scientist who 
 showed plainly that alcohol, instead of being a pre- 
 ventive of consumption, is really the sole cause of 
 
154 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 one type of this disease, the type now classed under 
 the head of " alcoholic phthisis." For this kind of 
 phthisis there is no cure. 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis in the Bulletin for April, 1896, 
 had a lengthy article upon " The Development of 
 Pulmonary Tuberculosis," in which he cited in- 
 stances of consumption in different drinking persons 
 who had come under his care. He says : — 
 
 " In the first class, numbering 68 cases, the disease uniformly 
 commenced, and regularly progressed through its first and 
 second stages, while the subjects of it were at the time, and 
 had been for from one to twelve years previous, regularly and 
 habitually using alcoholic drinks, either fermented or distilled. 
 In 33 of these cases the disease was developed between the 
 ages of sixteen and thirty years; in 18, between thirty and 
 forty years ; in 7, between forty and fifty years ; and in 10, 
 between fifty and sixty years. 
 
 " The average duration of the disease in those who remained 
 under observation until a fatal result was reached, was nineteen 
 months, dating from the time when the patient began to be 
 troubled with cough. 
 
 11 In the second class, numbering 91 cases, were included 
 many who had long used alcoholic drinks, and sometimes in 
 excess, but not as a daily habit ; while others in this group 
 drank but very sparingly, and only on some social occasion. 
 
 " In 50 of these, the disease was developed between the ages 
 of sixteen and thirty years ; 28 between the ages of thirty and 
 forty years ; 6 between forty and fifty years ; and 7 between 
 fifty and sixty years. The average duration of the disease, in 
 those who remained under observation until the fatal result was 
 reached, was twenty-three months. 
 
 "The third class, numbering 51, includes a larger relative 
 proportion of females than either of the other classes. In 21, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 155 
 
 the disease commenced between the ages of sixteen and thirty- 
 years ; in 17, between thirty and forty years; in 9, between 
 forty and fifty years ; in 4, between fifty and sixty years. The 
 average duration of the disease in those who died, was twenty- 
 five months. 
 
 " From the foregoing collection of facts, it will be observed 
 that in one-third of the whole number of cases the tubercular 
 disease commenced and progressed through all its stages, 
 while the subjects of it were, at the time, and had been from 
 one to twelve years previous, habitually using either fermented 
 or distilled spirits. It is thus clearly demonstrated that the use 
 of alcoholic beverages, however uniform their administration, 
 and however long continued, neither prevents the development 
 of tubercular phthisis, nor retards the rapidity of its progress. 
 
 " If we turn from the narrow circle of personal observation 
 to more general inquiries, we shall be forced to the same con- 
 clusion. Thus, by the sickness and mortality reports of the 
 English and American armies, it is made apparent that 
 soldiers who use regular rations of alcoholic liquors furnish a 
 higher ratio of mortality than any equal number of men who 
 do not use such liquors. So true is this, that many army sur- 
 geons have regarded the free use of alcoholic drinks as one of 
 the prominent causes of consumption. 
 
 " Again, the statistics compiled by Dr. Bell, of New York, in 
 his prize essay on this subject, led him to the conclusion not 
 only that alcoholic drinks did not prevent the development of 
 tubercular disease, but that their use actually favored it. 
 
 " The foregoing results of my own clinical observations, cor- 
 roborated as they are by all the reliable statistics to be found in 
 the literature of the profession, are also in strict accordance 
 with the rational inferences to be drawn from the known effects 
 of alcohol upon the various functions of the human system. 
 By a series of experiments commenced in 1849, and continued 
 at intervals until the present time, I have fully satisfied myself 
 
156 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 that the presence of alcohol, in the human system positively 
 diminishes the important functions of respiration, capillary cir- 
 culation, calorification and metamorphosis of tissue ; and, as a 
 necessary consequence, leads to diminished excretion, and to 
 the accumulation of effete matter, both in the blood and the 
 tissues. This is corroborated by the experiments of Dr. Boker, 
 showing that the presence of alcohol in the system diminishes 
 the sum total of all the excretions and eliminations ; and by the 
 uniform tendency to fatty degeneration in the muscles, the 
 liver, the kidneys, etc., in those who have been long accustomed 
 to use alcoholic liquors. If the presence of alcohol thus dimin- 
 ishes the exchange of oxygen and carbonic acid in the lungs, as 
 well as the sum total of all the excretions, and retards both 
 capillary circulation and calorification, it is easy to see how its 
 habitual use would lead to deficient oxidation, and metamor- 
 phosis of tissues, and, consequently, to accumulation of 
 adipose matter, fatty degenerations and morbid deposits ; but 
 it is extremely difficult to conceive how it should act as a tonic 
 or invigorating agent. 
 
 " Although the object of this paper is simply to give the 
 results of clinical observations on the use of alcoholic drinks, 
 as prophylactics against tuberculosis, it may not be amiss to 
 allude to their influence or value as remedial agents after the 
 disease is already fully developed. For it by no means follows 
 that if the beverages are shown to be useless as prophylactics 
 in preventing the development of tubercles, they are therefore 
 equally useless as remedies. 
 
 " Since the popularity of cod-liver oil began to wane, it i ; 
 probable that no remedies have been more generally used in 
 the treatment of all stages of phthisis than the alcoholic stimu- 
 lants. And when taken freely, their anaesthetic effect on the 
 nerves of respiration, diminishing cough ; their exhilaration of 
 the brain, relieving mental despondency ; and their diminution 
 of organic change, or metamorphosis of tissue, by which the 
 progressive emaciation is retarded, and the fatty matter re- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 57 
 
 tained— all contribute to give them an apparently beneficial 
 effect, at least temporarily, that has increased their popularity, 
 both in and out of the profession. In endeavoring to trace 
 the effects of alcohol on the development and progress of tub- 
 erculosis through a series of years, I have met with many cases 
 of the disease in the second and third stages of its advance- 
 ment, in which any form of alcoholic drink so directly and mani- 
 festly deranged either the stomach or the brain that, after a 
 few trials, the patient would voluntarily refuse to take any 
 more. I have met with many more who would take this class 
 of agents for a few weeks, with apparent amelioration of 
 symptoms, when they would begin to create acid eructations, 
 burning in the stomach, and sometimes vomiting, with almost 
 entire loss of appetite. I have met, also, with a smaller class 
 of patients who could take them freely for any length of time, 
 without either deranging the stomach, or the brain, and with a 
 decided amelioration of all the pulmonary symptoms, and an 
 arrest of the emaciation. Some of these have actually in- 
 creased in embonpoint, and for three to six months were highly 
 elated with the hope that they were recovering. But truth 
 compels me to say that I have never seen a case in which this 
 apparent improvement under the influence of alcoholic drinks 
 was permanent. On the contrary, even in those cases in 
 which the emaciation seems at first arrested, and the general 
 symptoms ameliorated, the physical signs do not undergo a 
 corresponding improvement ; and, after a few months, the 
 digestive function becomes impaired ; the emaciation begins to 
 increase more rapidly than ever ; and in a few weeks the pa- 
 tient is fatally prostrated. 
 
 " From all the facts, experiments and clinical observations 
 that have come under my notice, I am led to the following con- 
 clusions : — 
 
 1. "That the development of tubercular disease is facili- 
 tated by all those agents and influences, whether climatic or 
 hygienic, which directly or indirectly impair or retard the 
 
158 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 metamorphosis of the organized structures, and the efficiency 
 of the excretory functions. 
 
 2. " That observations and carefully devised experiments 
 both show that the presence of alcohol in the human system, 
 notwithstanding its temporary exhilaration of the cerebral func- 
 tions, positively retards both metamorphosis and elimination. 
 
 3. " That neither the action of alcoholic stimulants on the 
 functions of the human body, nor the actual results of experi- 
 ence furnish any evidence that these agents are capable of pre- 
 venting or retarding the development of tubercular phthisis." 
 
 This passage occurs in a new French treatise on 
 medicine published under the supervision of 
 Bouchard and Charnot, in the article "Alcoholism," 
 by M. Richardiere : — 
 
 "Alcohol cannot produce disease of itself, but it greatly 
 favors it by preparing the soil by which the tuberculous germ 
 is rendered fruitful. The tuberculosis thus created is generally 
 a tuberculosis of advanced age ; it runs a rapid course. The 
 granular sputa are thin, and accompanied by abundant hemor- 
 rhages, which are facilitated by a previous bad condition of the 
 pulmonary vessels. Very often the tuberculosis of alcoholics is 
 accompanied by grave hepatic disturbances under the form of 
 fatty or tubercular cirrhosis." 
 
 Dr. Newell Martin says : — 
 
 " The lungs, from the congested state of their vessels pro-, 
 duced by alcohol, are more subject to the influence of cold, the 
 result being frequent attacks of bronchitis. It has also been 
 recognized of late years that there is a peculiar form of con- 
 sumption of the lungs which is very rapidly fatal, and found 
 only in alcohol-drinkers." 
 
 Dr. Woodbury, of the Philadelphia Medical So- 
 ciety, says : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 59 
 
 " Nothing in clinical medicine is more certain than that the 
 continual use of alcohol, in even moderate doses, stimulates the 
 development of connective tissue all over the body; nothing in 
 pathology more evident than the fact that alcohol is a prolific 
 source of pulmonary disease ; nothing in toxicology better 
 established than the observation of the action exerted by alco- 
 hol upon the respiratory centre. For this reason it is especially, 
 dangerous in pulmonary consumption." 
 
 Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says : — 
 
 " In the whole management of lung diseases, with the excep- 
 tion of the few who can always be relied upon to befriend alco- 
 hol, other remedies have largely superseded all spirituous 
 liquors." 
 
 For several years past a set of proprietary medi- 
 cines, claiming to be specifics in all lung troubles, 
 have been extensively advertised in religious as well 
 as secular papers. Samples are freely offered to all 
 who apply. Upon the label of one of the bottles 
 said to be an " infallible cure for consumption," the 
 following directions appear : — 
 
 " Take two teaspoonfuls in half a wine glass of pure whisky 
 just before each meal. Ladies and delicate invalids sometimes 
 prefer sherry wine to the whisky." 
 
 It is unlikely that any of the religious papers in- 
 serting advertisements of these preparations have 
 ever noticed the whisky and wine recommendation 
 -on these bottles, or probably they would refuse to 
 be party to making drunkards of poor mortals pre- 
 disposed to, or afflicted with, lung difficulties. 
 
 Rev. J. M. Buckley, D.D., editor of The Christian 
 Advocate y was in early manhood considered an in- 
 
l6o ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 curable consumptive. Being a man of great will 
 power and indomitable perseverance, he resolved to 
 try the open-air cure, together with the use of an 
 inspirator. The result was perfect restoration to 
 health, so that, as is well known, he can be easily 
 heard by audiences of thousands at Chautauqua 
 «.nd other places where he is greatly in request for 
 lectures. He has written a pamphlet giving a full 
 history of his case. It can be obtained from Eaton 
 & Mains, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, for fifty 
 cents, and should be read by all consumptives who 
 have any "grit " in their composition. 
 
 Dr. Forrest, a hygienic physician, says : — 
 
 " What is to be done if the germs have already obtained 
 lodgement in the lungs ? Increase the general nutrition of the 
 body in every way, and then the lungs can resist the inroads of 
 the disease. The first thing necessary to improve the nutrition 
 ' of the body is to stimulate the digestive and absorbent functions 
 of the stomach and intestines. Naturally then, you must throw 
 the so-called cough medicines out of the window. The drugs 
 used to stop a cough are sedatives. Now, no sedative or nau- 
 seam is known that does not lock up the natural secretions 
 and thus lessen the digestive powers. The cough is nature's 
 method of expelling offending matter from the lungs and bron- 
 chial tubes. It is infinitely better to have this stuff thrown out 
 of the lungs than retained there." 
 
 Keep the bowels clean is this physician's next 
 recommendation. 
 
 Sweet cream is preferable to cod-liver oil as it is 
 not so likely to derange the stomach. Easily di- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. l6l 
 
 gested food is necessary, as the organs of digestion 
 are in weakened condition. 
 
 Again Dr. Forrest says : — 
 
 " The consumptive should live as much as possible in the 
 open air. 
 
 " Dr. Trudeau inoculated twelve rabbits with tubercle or con- 
 sumptive germs. Six of these he turned loose on an island 
 where they ran wild. The other six were kept confined in 
 hutches such as rabbits are usually kept in. Results — All the 
 six rabbits in the open air recovered from the inoculation and 
 remained well. Five of the confined rabbits died of tubercles in 
 the lungs and different parts of the body. The sixth was still 
 lingering, badly diseased, when the experiment was brought to 
 a close. Fresh air and exercise enabled the first six to overcome 
 the disease germs. Confinement gave full play to the disease in 
 the others. 
 
 " Now, you house lovers, sleepers in close bedrooms, people 
 afraid of cold air, you are the rabbits in the hutches. Beware, 
 lest the verdict be in your case, ' Died of tubercles in the 
 lungs.' If you are not able to leave your home, live with open 
 windows, day and night, summer and winter. 
 
 u Exercise systematically, especially those exercises, accom- 
 panied by deep breathing, that open and strengthen the lungs — 
 exercises without fatigue. 
 
 " If you are hoping that some wonderful, mysterious drug 
 has been or will be discovered, a drug that will cure consump- 
 tion without your help, you are hoping against hope. Improved 
 nutrition is your salvation, and that must come through exercise, 
 diet and fresh air." 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg, in his Home Hand-BooZ' of 
 Hygiene and Medicine, recommends a salt sponge 
 
l62 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 bath upon retiring, to arrest night sweats, or spong- 
 ing with hot water. He adds : — 
 
 " It is important that patients should know that the sweats 
 are greatly aggravated by opium in any form, and hence are in- 
 creased by cough mixtures of any sort which contain this drug. 
 Very simple remedies are often effective to relieve the most 
 distressing cough, such as gargling of water in the throat, 
 holding bits of ice in the mouth, taking occasional sips of 
 strong lemonade, and similar remedies. As a general rule, 
 patients run down and the disease progresses much more 
 rapidly, after beginning the use of opium in any form. Some- 
 times it is best that the cough should be encouraged instead of 
 being repressed. When the patient expectorates very freely, 
 'he cough is a necessary means of relieving the chest of matters 
 which would seriously interfere with the functions of the lungs 
 if retained, by filling up the bronchial tubes and air-cells. The 
 kind of cough needing relief is an irritable, ineffective cough, 
 unaccompanied by any considerable degree of expectoration. 
 Loaf sugar, honey or a mixture of honey and lemon juice, and 
 other simple, familiar remedies are often effective in relieving 
 such a cough. ***** 
 
 " It is perhaps needless to add that the numerous quack 
 remedies for consumption advertised in the newspapers are 
 wholly without merit. There is no known drug which will cure 
 this disease, or in any certain degree influence its progress. 
 Numerous remedies have been recommended as curative, but 
 not one has thus far stood the test of experience." 
 
 DlPH*TriERlA : — Diseases of all kinds result from 
 violation of health laws. The external, immediate 
 occasion of the development of diphtheria is usually 
 a cold ; the real cause is impure matter in the blood, 
 accumulating for weeks or months, until the normal 
 resisting power, possessed by those in perfect 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 63 
 
 health, is exhausted, and the system is unable to 
 longer conquer invading disease germs. 
 
 Whisky and brandy are looked upon by many 
 physicians as absolutely necessary in diphtheria. 
 Not long ago the daughter of a prohibition father and 
 a W. C. T. U. mother, died of malignant diphtheria. 
 The doctor in attendance told the sorrowing pa- 
 rents that her death was due to their refusal to 
 allow him to give her whisky. He was a very 
 young man, or he would have remembered that 
 multitudes of diphtheria patients die, although 
 liberally dosed with his wonderful and sure cure. 
 
 Dr. H. D. Didama, Dean of the Medical College 
 of Syracuse University, New York State, says : — 
 
 " The prevailing opinion of the great majority of wise and 
 otherwise physicians — an opinion founded in part on personal 
 observation and perhaps in greater part on the oral or printed 
 dicta of other physicians — is that alcohol is a stimulant ; that 
 it gives strength to a flagging heart ; that its use is eminently 
 proper in pneumonia and typhoid fever, when the pulse is 
 weak ; and that, in these and all other diseases, the amount 
 administered should be constantly increased as the pulse grows 
 weaker ; and also that in diphtheria heroic doses are not only 
 justifiable, but almost omnipotent, in rescuing the patient from 
 the jaws of death. 
 
 " Years ago a celebrated Brooklyn physician advocated the 
 free use of brandy in this dread disease. This practice — modi- 
 fied in some instances by substituting whisky or wine for 
 brandy — has been pursued extensively throughout this country 
 and foreign lands. An eminent doctor, of large and varied ex- 
 perience in a children's hospital in New York, heartily indorses 
 the practice, and asserts that large doses of alcohol have little 
 
164 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 or no intoxicating effect on diphtheritic infants. In one of the 
 latest books on children's diseases, a writer declares that the 
 reason why whisky so often fails in the treatment of diphtheria 
 is because it is not given in larger quantities. ***** 
 
 " In the treatment of diphtheria, it has been the custom of 
 not a few physicians to administer Rhine or MOselle wine in 
 decided preference to brandy or whisky. The comparatively 
 beneficial effects noted must be attributed to the considerable 
 amount of vegetable acid in the wine, and not to the small por- 
 tion of alcohol. There is reason to hope that unfermented 
 wine, which contains all the desirable qualities of the grape, 
 with none of its harmful properties, will supersede the intoxi- 
 cating variety. 
 
 " The free use of alcohol in the treatment of diphtheria 
 throughout Europe and in some American cities, has been 
 almost universal. The mortality, according to reported statis- 
 tics, has been appalling. The deaths in the metropolis-at home 
 have been forty-seven per cent., while in Paris, Berlin and 
 other cities abroad, they have reached the enormous number of 
 more than sixty out of one hundred cases. 
 
 " If the antitoxin treatment, which is under hopeful but still 
 somewhat unsettled consideration, shall be proved to possess 
 all the merits which its discoverers and friends -claim, there will 
 be no excuse for continuing the employment of alcohol in the 
 treatment of diphtheria. 
 
 " Curiously enough, in the last report from abroad, which has 
 just been furnished by Dr. Rabot, of Lyons, the success of 
 antitoxin in curing and preventing the -dreadful disease is con- 
 sidered by the doctor as specially 'brilliant,' the mortality in 
 forty-seven cases being but thirty-four per cent., while the mor- 
 tality in 1893 was fifty per cent. ; and he significantly and jubi- 
 lantly adds, ' No alcohol was given.' 
 
 " It is just possible that some incredulous caviler will suggest 
 that the more favorable outcome— bad enough as it still is — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. l6$ 
 
 was because the customary alcohol was not used ; and he may 
 even insinuate that the result might have been equally good 
 had the antitoxin also been omitted." 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis tells of a case where he was 
 called as a consulting physician when the patient 
 was thought to be dying. A young man previously 
 in good health, during the first two weeks of a fair 
 attack of diphtheria, took from twelve to sixteen 
 ounces of whisky per day, and at the end of that 
 time had well-marked enteric typhoid symptoms, 
 suppuration in the middle ear and one thigh, and 
 so much feebleness of circulation as to have been 
 twice thought to be dying ; then the whisky was 
 suddenly and entirely omitted, and instead of fatal 
 collapse he soon began to improve, and in one week 
 was convalescent. 
 
 The doctor adds to his account this remark: — 
 
 " Could there be any more direct or stronger clinical proof 
 that the alcohol acted neither as a stimulant, a cardiac tonic 
 nor a conservator of tissue ; but as a ' nerve paralyzer,' an in- 
 hibitor of oxygenation and decarbonization of the blood and a 
 promoter of tissue degeneration and suppuration ? " 
 
 Dr. T. R. Chambers, of East Orange, N. J., re- 
 lated some time ago in Archives of Pediatrics his 
 experience with several diphtheria cases, which 
 throws light -upon the use of alcohol in this disease. 
 The following is his article : — 
 
 " During last August, having attended nine cases of diphthe- 
 ria, and since having had several other cases treated without 
 alcohol in any form, I feel competent to draw conclusions, one 
 
166 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 of which is at variance with the old-established lines of treat- 
 ment. 
 
 " A boy nine years old, who had recently grown very 
 rapidly and was of the neurotic type, not at all strong, easily 
 excited when crossed in any way, was very sick with diphthe- 
 ria. The membrane covered the roof of the mouth, palate, 
 tonsils and posterior nares. After the disease was over, these 
 parts showed considerable change in appearance, and there 
 was paralysis of the parts as a sequence. The swallowing act 
 was incomplete ; a portion of the liquid taken into the mouth 
 came out of the nose, this condition lasting for about two months. 
 Four other members of the family suffered in like manner, only 
 in less degree and without the paralysis sequence. But the 
 contagion was there. I regret that microscopic examination 
 was not made. 
 
 " The constitutional symptoms were most marked. In the 
 case of the boy cited, there was excessive exhaustion, with 
 rapid, weak pulse and sluggish circulation for about ten days. 
 Several times he seemed near death. It was during and for 
 this condition that whisky or old wine was urgently recom- 
 mended by me. 
 
 " The mother, a most thoughtful and patient woman, deter- 
 mined that if her boy once tasted alcohol, he would certainly fill 
 a drunkard's grave, and she took the responsibility upon her- 
 self of deciding that he must not have it. She said, ' If whisky 
 be necessary for his life, let him die now.' 
 
 "He received no whisky and recovered. One minim of 
 Squibb's tr. nucis vomicae was given every half hour and less 
 often, according to the pulse and general condition. It was 
 wonderful to note how well it took the place of alcohol. The 
 other medicinal treatment of the case was simple calomel in 
 frequent small doses, and a mixture of tr. iron with chlorate of 
 potash, together with beef peptonoids, broths and milk, pushed 
 to the limit of his digestion. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 167 
 
 " The local treatment was directed to keeping the throat 
 almost constantly under the influence of steam, carbolized, and 
 with bichloride steam spray. Peroxide of hydrogen was tried 
 in the beginning, but had to be stopped on account of the irri- 
 tation it caused. As to the father of the child, nothing further 
 was needed to dispel the deposit in his throat than twenty-four 
 hours' use of the peroxide. 
 
 " Local applications were made by the nurses and parents in 
 several of the cases treated with papoid glycerole. All agreed 
 there was benefit in the procedure. 
 
 " The circumstances in the case of the boy were all against 
 his recovery, the faithful but injudicious and over-indulgent 
 parents often undoing and hindering the progress at critical 
 moments. Notwithstanding, the boy recovered without alcohol. 
 All the other cases were treated without whisky, tr. nux taking 
 its place where necessary, and all recovered. 
 
 " The author is not a prohibitionist, but believes the whisky 
 heretofore considered by him the best heart tonic in this disease 
 is not a sine qua non ; and when the patient is a child, which, 
 of course, is not yet addicted to its use, the nux, or nux and 
 digitalis, or nitro-glycerine, are better than whisky. 
 
 " There are many reasons why whisky is objectionable, and 
 none against a careful use of a good tr. nux. 
 
 " In some of the cases, instead of calomel, bichloride was 
 employed in doses of one hundredth of a grain hourly, and its 
 exhibition is without doubt abortive." 
 
 The following experience of a prominent physi- 
 cian was given at a meeting where diphtheria was 
 under discussion : — 
 
 " In one year I lost four cases of diphtheria in which I had 
 given alcohol freely from the start. They were malignant, 
 but all the conditions and surroundings were the best for 
 recovery. I followed the theory urged by a medical teacher 
 
1 68 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 of much prominence, that alcohol was a valuable antiseptic, 
 and that in this disease its injurious effects would be neutra- 
 lized by the poison. 
 
 "The next five cases of this disease were in tenement-houses, 
 where all the conditions were unfavorable for recovery. No 
 alcohol was given, and yet every case recovered. From that 
 experience I have abandoned alcohol in all stages of diphtheria, 
 and am confident that the recoveries are greater in number, 
 and the convalescence shorter." — Medical Bulletin. 
 
 Dr. Norman Kerr, of England, says : — 
 
 " There are two complaints about which I am continually 
 being worried, namely, bronchitis and diphtheria ; people want 
 me to give alcohol and I will not do so. Many doctors order 
 whisky and milk even to young infants, but the results are bad 
 to the patients. I think it is very bad in bronchitis to give that 
 which interferes with the oxygenation of the blood. But if I do 
 not give it I am afraid it is often given surreptitiously. In 
 diphtheria it is also very dangerous ; they are knocked down 
 entirely, and if the patient is depressed and his nervous energy 
 destroyed, what a risk to give a further nerve-depressant I 
 The more they have the lower they get." 
 
 In a lengthy discussion upon the use of alcohol 
 in diphtheria, Dr. N. S. Davis has the following : — 
 
 " In view of the foregoing facts relating to the effects of alco- 
 hol or whisky or brandy in ' full doses ' on the functions of f 
 digestion, tissue metabolism and vital resistance to infection, it ' 
 is not sui prising that under the very liberal administration of 
 alcohol in the treatment of diphtheria which prevailed prior to 
 the introduction of the serum therapy, the ratio of mortality 
 had come to range from forty to sixty per cent. ; or that thirty- 
 three per cent, of all the deaths were attributed to ' heart- 
 failure.' Neither is it surprising to find that in proportion as 
 the attention of the physician has become engrossed in the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 169 
 
 use of antitoxins, or serum therapy, he has used less alcohol, 
 resulting in a greatly reduced mortality ; i. e., from eight to 
 twenty- five per cent. Judging from an extensive personal ex- 
 perience, I am quite sure that if the use of the antitoxin 
 serums had been permitted to exclude entirely the use of 
 alcohol, whisky and brandy in the treatment of diphtheria, the 
 ratio of mortality would have been still further reduced. 
 
 " Most of the recent writers and teachers appear to overlook 
 one very important indication in the management of diphtheria 
 and all other infectious diseases ; that is, to promote the elimina- 
 tion not only of the specific infection, but also of the excretory 
 products of 7iatural tissue metabolism. The neglect of this 
 latter has often resulted in a degree of auto-infection more fatal 
 to the patient than the specific toxin from without. Indeed, it 
 is no exaggeration to claim that eight tenths of all the deaths 
 from diphtheria are determined by failure of the functions of the 
 heart, the respiratory organs, or the kidneys. And yet every 
 physiological and therapeutic investigator tells us that ' full 
 doses ' of alcohol directly impair each and all of these func- 
 tions, and if continued in very large doses, suspend them al- 
 together. Yet the routine of text-books on the practice of 
 medicine continue to recommend the giving of ' full doses * 
 of whisky or brandy in all severe cases of diphtheria, typhoid 
 fever, pneumonia, etc., from the beginning to the end of these 
 diseases, and of course continue to record numerous deaths 
 from failure of the heart, laryngeal and pulmonary obstruction, 
 and renal congestion." 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg in his large and very valuable 
 work, The Home Hand-Book of Hygiene and Medi- 
 cine, says that diphtheria germs are often found in 
 the throat of persons apparently enjoying perfect 
 health. The germs are most often found in the 
 little pockets which exist in enlarged and diseased 
 tonsils. 
 
170 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 In the prevention of this disease it is necessary 
 to maintain a thoroughly healthy state of the 
 throat. Diseased tonsils are active as a predispos- 
 ing cause of diphtheria. 
 
 Dr. Kellogg says in regard to the treatment of 
 this disease : — 
 
 " There is no known means by which the growth and devel- 
 opment of germs may be more efficiently checked than by the 
 use of cold applications which should be made to the throat 
 externally, and the patient should be allowed to hold bits of ice 
 in the mouth, and to swallow them occasionally. The cold ap- 
 plications must be made thoroughly enough to reduce the 
 temperature of the throat as near the freezing point as the 
 patient can endure without suffering, as otherwise it will do 
 almost nothing towards modifying the morbid process. The 
 best mode of accomplishing this is to apply to the throat com- 
 presses composed of several folds of linen or cotton, between 
 which are placed numerous bits of ice, or small quantities of 
 snow. The compress must be large enough to cover the throat, 
 and extend well around the sides of the neck. Once an hour 
 the cold compress may be removed, and the throat fomented 
 for ten minutes. 
 
 " To alleviate the difficulty in breathing, and swallowing, and 
 to facilitate the removal of the false membrane, no single rem- 
 edy is so efficient as the inhalation of hot vapor. ***** 
 
 " Constant irrigation of the nasal cavity and throat with a 
 weak solution of common salt has been used with great success 
 in the New York Hospital for Children." 
 
 Nature Cure says : — 
 
 "Fasting is imperative, as in all sickness. A cup of hot 
 lemonade or orangeade should be given every hour to cleanse 
 the blood, and thus remove the cause." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 171 
 
 Hygienic physicians in this, as in all acute diseases, 
 advise first a full enema, or, as they term it, " the 
 flushing of the colon." This is, undoubtedly, the 
 best possible method of quickly ridding the pa- 
 tient's body of much poisonous matter. Their next 
 measure is to open up the pores of the skin by a 
 hot bath, wet sheet pack, or vapor bath. The wet 
 sheet pack is best for children. If the patient is 
 chilly, wring the sheet out of hot water ; if feverish, 
 out of cold water ; at the same time apply the cold 
 compress to the throat. 
 
 For local treatment they recommend a gargle of 
 equal parts of salt, borax and baking soda, dissolved 
 in water. Withhold food until the patient is really 
 hungry. 
 
 The negroes of the South use pineapple juice 
 freely in diphtheria. A mother in New York State 
 whose son was very ill with malignant diphtheria 
 thinks pineapple juice was very helpful in his case. 
 
 Dr. Delthel of the French Academy of Medicine 
 states that the vapors of liquid tar and turpentine 
 I will dissolve the matter which chokes the throat in 
 1 croup and diphtheria. " Pour equal parts of tar 
 and turpentine into a tin pan. Set fire to the mix- 
 ture. The smoke arising will loosen the membrane." 
 
 Debility : — " The debility of convalescence requires fresh air, 
 easily digested food, the avoidance of over-exertion, with a 
 gradually increasing amount of exercise. Such debility is only 
 aggravated by alcohol, though it may for a time be partially 
 masked thereby. Milk, eggs, fresh fruit and farinaceous 
 
172 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 articles are the best foods. General debility without obvious 
 cause, may be treated by cold or tepid bathing. Salt added to 
 the bath is helpful. Change of air is a good tonic. Port wine 
 and other alcoholics while giving a false sensation of increased 
 vigor, really reduce the tone of the pulse, and therefore tend to 
 enfeeble the system. Alcohol is a relaxant, not a tonic." 
 
 Depression of Spirits :— " Learn the Delsarte exercise 
 for the ' blues,' and practice them daily. Hot air baths. 
 Avoid rich food. Take out-door exercise." 
 
 Diarrhcea: — "This is a symptom of the presence of an 
 irritant of which the stomach is trying to be rid. Do not arrest 
 it permaturely, but assist it. If it persists, arrowroot, or corn 
 starch, or flour, mixed with cold water to the consistency of 
 cream may be taken, a tablespoonful at a time. 2. Bread 
 charcoal with cold milk. 3. A tablespoonful of cinnamon 
 water with a teaspoonful of lime water, mixed, every one, two 
 or three hours. Smaller dose for a child. Diet should be con- 
 fined to toast, milk toast, milk, cold or boiled. Tea, broth, 
 meat, etc., are sure to renew the trouble. Diarrhoea in infants 
 is generally due to errors in feeding, either over-feeding or the 
 use of improper kinds of food. Boiled milk thickened with 
 flour is a simple remedy in light cases. Alcoholics, are 
 utterly unnecessary in diarrhcea, and to order them for young 
 children is quite wrong. A full enema of w T ater, as hot as can 
 be borne, will remove offending substances from the bowels. 
 
 " Bew T are of diarrhcea medicines containing opium in any form. 
 They are unnecessary and dangerous, particularly for young 
 children." v 
 
 Dysentery : — " At the beginning of the disease the stomach 
 should be relieved by the use of a large warm-water emetic. 
 The quantity of food should be restricted to the smallest 
 amount compatible with comfort. Ripe fruits, especially grapes, 
 and most stewed fruits, may be used in abundance to keep the 
 bowels regular. Salads, spices and other condiments, fats 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 173 
 
 and fried foods should be strictly avoided, together with tea, 
 coffee, alcoholics and all other narcotics. 
 
 " The diet should consist chiefly of simple soups, well boiled 
 oatmeal gruel, egg beaten with water or milk, and similar foods. 
 In many cases regulation of the diet is sufficient. Either the 
 1 hot or the cold enema may be employed. 
 
 " The use of opium, which is exceedingly common in this 
 disease, is not advisable, as it produces a feverish condition of 
 the system, decidedly prejudicial to recovery. Herroner, an 
 eminent German physician, very strongly discourages the use 
 of opium in this disease." — Dr. J. H. Kellogg. 
 
 Dyspepsia : — " It is commonly supposed that a little good 
 whisky or brandy aids digestion, while on the contrary it has 
 been proved conclusively by observing the processes of diges- 
 tion upon persons who have fistula of the stomach, or by evac- 
 uating the contents of the stomach by means of a stomach- 
 pump about an hour after taking a meal — in one instance after 
 taking an ounce of alcohol, and in another where no alcohol 
 was taken — that alcohol coagulates the albuminoids, throws 
 down the pepsin, decreases the acidity (the combined chlorin 
 and free hydrochloric acid), and increases the fixed chlorids. 
 Any one can make the observation upon himself, that a meal 
 taken without alcohol is more quickly followed by hunger than 
 one with it. 
 
 " Blumenau says : ' On the whole, alcohol manifests a decid- 
 edly unfavorable influence on the course of normal digestion 
 even when ingested in relatively small quantities, and impairs 
 the normal digestive functions.' 
 
 " Dr. Chittenden, professor of physiologic chemistry in Yale 
 College, as a result of some investigations made by himself and 
 Dr. Mendel, states in the American Journal of Medical 
 Sciences, that he finds that as small a quantity as three per 
 cent, of sherry, porter, or beer lessens the activity of the diges- 
 tive powers." — BuHetin of A. M. T. A. 
 
174 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " It should be observed that doses of alcohol which have no 
 appreciable effect in delaying digestion, are so small as to be 
 practically useless for any beneficial action." — 'Medical Pioneer. 
 
 One doctor writes: — 
 
 "What makes dyspepsia so hard to cure? This very 
 alcohol taking. The best cure is to refuse all alcoholic drinks, 
 at meals and all other times, and drink nothing but water." 
 
 The causes of dyspepsia are various ; errors of 
 diet being the most common. Others are mental 
 worry, care and anxiety, and the use of drugs. 
 An eminent writer upon this disease says : — 
 
 " My main object in the treatment is to prevent the sufferers 
 from resorting to drugs, which in such cases, not only produce 
 their own morbid conditions, but also confirm those already ex- 
 isting. 
 
 "The extensive and often habitual use of alkalies for acidity, 
 of purgatives for constipation, nervines and opiates for sleep- 
 lessness, and after-dinner pills to goad into action the lagging 
 stomach, has been a potent factor in the production of a large 
 class of most inveterate dyspepsias." 
 
 Underdone bread, cake, and pie, are unfit for any 
 stomach, yet are seen upon many tables. " Break- 
 fast foods," cooked for ten or twenty minutes, are 
 also dyspepsia producers. All breads, cakes, pies 
 and cereals, require thorough cooking to fit them 
 for digestion. Most cereals are better for supper 
 than for breakfast, as they should be cooked in a 
 double boiler for several hours. A young man, 
 troubled with dyspepsia, learned to his amazement 
 that the oatmeal, which he supposed was his best 
 food, had much to do with the giddiness which 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 75 
 
 often overcame him. He was advised to use dry 
 foods, such as toast, zwieback and shredded wheat. 
 This diet, together with the abandonment of nos- 
 trums, led to a cure. Zwieback is bread sliced, and 
 dried in a moderate oven until light brown. Whole 
 wheat bread is best. It is very delicious and is 
 quite easily digested. In the case of the young 
 man, it is probable that the difficulty with the oat- 
 meal was the lack of sufficient cooking. Oatmeal 
 made into gruel, well cooked, and diluted with a 
 large quantity Of scalded milk is easy of digestion. 
 Eating between meals, and excess in eating, lead 
 to stomach derangement. 
 
 " The best remedy for acidity of the stomach is hot-water 
 drinking. Two or three glasses should be taken as hot as can 
 be sipped, one hour before each meal, and half an hour before 
 going to bed. The effect of the hot water is to wash out the 
 stomach, and so remove any fermenting remains of the previ- 
 ous meal. Heartburn may be treated the same as acidity." 
 
 Persons troubled with slow digestion are better 
 to eat only two meals a day. The writer has per- 
 sonal knowledge of a goodly number of women who 
 have been benefited wonderfully by adopting the 
 two meal a day plan. 
 
 Some persons, much troubled with dyspepsia, 
 have adopted the plan of prolonged fasting advo- 
 cated by Dr. Dewey, and testify to a cure by this 
 method. While heroic, it is certainly more rational 
 than drug treatment. For acute dyspepsia a fast 
 is requisite. 
 
176 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 All that alcoholics can do for dyspepsia is to 
 allay the uneasy sensations for a time, while adding 
 to the trouble. It has been abundantly proved 
 that alcohol must pass from the stomach before 
 digestion can begin. 
 
 Dr. Ridge says : — 
 
 " Many cases which seem to be relieved by the use of beer 
 are really benefited by the hop, or other bitter, which the ale or 
 beer contains. Hop tea is a useful stomachic, and a quarter of 
 a pint, or half that quantity, may be taken cold. It is made in 
 the same way as tea, using a handful of hops to a pint of boil- 
 ing water. Make fresh every day." 
 
 Dr. Kellogg says : — 
 
 V In cases of chronic dyspepsia the use of alcohol seems to be 
 particularly deleterious, although not infrequently prescribed, if 
 not in the form of alcohol or ordinary alcoholic liquors, in the 
 form of some so-called ' bitters,' ' elixir ' or ' cordial.' Nothing 
 could be further removed from the truth than the popular 
 ' notion that alcohol, at least in the form of certain wines, is 
 helpful to digestion. Roberts showed, years ago, that alcohol 
 even in small doses, diminishes the activity of the stomach in 
 the digestion of proteids. Gluzinski showed, ten years ago, 
 that alcohol causes an arrest in the secretion of pepsin, and 
 also of its action upon food. Wolff showed that the habitual 
 use of alcohol produces disorder of the stomach to such a de- 
 gree as to render it incapable of responding to the normal ex- 
 citation of the food. Hugounencq found that all wines, without 
 exception, prevent the action of pepsin upon proteids. The 
 most harmful are those which contain large quantities of alco- 
 hol, cream of tartar or coloring matter. Wines often contain 
 coloring matters which at once completely arrest digestion, such 
 as methylin blue and fuchsin. 
 
 " A few years ago I made a series of experiments in which I 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. IJJ 
 
 administered alcohol in various forms with a test meal, noting 
 the effect upon the stomach fluid as determined by the accurate 
 chemic examination of the method of Hayem and Winter. 
 The result of these experiments I reported at the 1893 meeting 
 of the American Medical Temperance Association. The sub- 
 ject of experiment was a healthy young man whose stomach 
 was doing a slight excess of work, the amount of combined 
 chlorin being nearly fifty per cent, above normal, although the 
 amount of free hydrochloric acid was normal in quantity. 
 Four ounces of claret with the ordinary test meal reduced the 
 free hydrochloric acid from 28 milligrams per 100 c. c. of 
 stomach fluid to zero, and the combined chlorin from .270 to 
 .125. In the same case the administration of two ounces of 
 brandy with the ordinary test meal reduced the combined 
 chlorin to .035, scarcely more than one eighth of the original 
 amount, the free hydrochloric acid remaining at zero. Thus 
 it appears that four ounces of claret produced marked hypo- 
 pepsia in a case of moderate hyperpepsia, whereas two ounces 
 of brandy produced practically apepsia." 
 
 Fainting or Syncope:— The following letter 
 from the late Sir B. W. Richardson was addressed 
 to a lady who had sought the great physician's 
 advice on the subject : — 
 
 "25 Manchester Square, W M July 18, 1896. 
 " Dear Madam : There is no substance which acts as a 
 substitute for alcohol, nor is anything like it wanted. The 
 human body is a water engine, as I have often described it, 
 and alcohol plays no part in its natural motion. The idea 
 that when it begins to fail, a stimulant has to be called for, 
 springs merely from habit, and if, whenever any of the symptoms 
 of fainting you speak of occur, the person merely lies down on 
 the side or back and drinks a glass of hot water, or hot milk 
 and water, all that can be/ done is done. In the London 
 Temperance Hospital I have been treating the sick for diseases 
 
178 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 of all kinds and during all stages, and have never administered 
 a minim of alcohol, or any substitute for it, and we have got on 
 better than when I — feeling it at all times at command — made 
 use of it in the ordinary way. 
 
 " I am, dear Madam, faithfully yours, 
 " B. W. Richardson." 
 
 Treatment :— " Lay the patient down in a current of air with 
 the feet raised higher than the head, preferably on one side in 
 case of sickness occurring, or bend the head down to the knees, 
 to restore the flow of blood to the brain. Loosen all clothing. 
 Rub the limbs, chest and over the heart with the hand or a 
 rough towel. Sprinkle cold water on the head and face. Smell 
 ammonia, strong vinegar, smelling salts or any pungent odor. 
 Put hot bottles to the feet, and in severe cases a mustard 
 plaster over the heart. Sip hot milk, hot water, hot tea, hot 
 black coffee, beef tea or a meat essence. Crowding round the 
 patient and all excitement should be avoided. In 999 cases out 
 of 1,000, no medicine is necessary. 
 
 " Faintness often proceeds from indigestion, flatulence induc- 
 ing pressure on the heart." 
 
 Faintness, Weakness, Exhaustion, Fatigue :— " The 
 truth is that for simple weakness, faintness, exhaustion, fatigue, 
 cold or wet, the best remedies are simple fresh air, pure water, 
 digestible food and rest. These are nature's restoratives, and 
 the sooner both physicians and people learn to rely upon them 
 instead of upon drugs the better it will be for all parties. And 
 as the effect of alcoholic liquors are directly depressing to the 
 strength and activity of all the natural functions and processes 
 of life, as shown by the most varied and scientific investigations, 
 it is important that this fact be taught to both doctors and 
 people everywhere." — Dr. N. S. Davis. 
 
 Fits : — " Whether the fit be apoplexy or epilepsy all alco- 
 holics are extremely bad, both at the time and afterwards. AIcot 
 hoi, the ' genius of degeneration,' is the chief cause of apoplexy, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 79 
 
 and also a cause of epilepsy, especially when taken in the form 
 of beer. It diminishes the tone of the arteries and blood-vessels, 
 and thus tends to cause, aggravate and maintain a congested 
 state of the capillaries throughout the whole body. In the treat- 
 ment of epilepsy, therefore, neither alcohol nor any so-called 
 substitute should be given. ***** 
 
 "In the convulsions of children alcohol is equally injurious.". — 
 Dr. Ridge. 
 
 Flatulence: — " Many uneasy sensations or pains, even in 
 distant parts of the body, are due to wind in the bowels, result- 
 ing from indigestion. Asthma, cramps, depression of spirits, 
 faintness, giddiness, hiccough, prostration, sinking sensations 
 and sleeplessness, are all frequently due to the same cawse. 
 The diet needs careful attention where there is much flatulence ; 
 tea is often a cause. Charcoal biscuits are useful in some 
 cases ; lemon juice in others. Fluid Magnesia may be taken. 
 Watch for the cause and remove it." 
 
 Headache : — The New Hygiene says : " This is the mani- 
 festation of a deeper-seated trouble, usually in the stomach. 
 The use of stimulants is a sure promoter of headache. All 
 users of alcoholic liquors are, I believe, subject to headache, 
 and it is also a sure result of overindulgence in tea and coffee. 
 
 " To prevent the attacks, live regularly, avoid late hours and 
 excessive brain work ; avoid tea, coffee and alcoholic beverages, 
 also sweets of all kinds, including sauces and pastries, and any- 
 thing fried in fat. Eat plenty of good, plain food, including 
 fruit, especially oranges. Eat none late at night. Exercise 
 regularly in such a way as to bring all the muscles into play, 
 at least once a day. 
 
 "To relieve an attack flush the colon. 
 
 " Headaches, which so largely result from the retention of 
 impure matter in the body, will be cured if a good quantity, 
 say two or three glasses, of hot water be drank in the morning 
 or at night, and then the next regular meal omitted, so that aa 
 
180 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 interval of house-cleaning can be had before other material is 
 moved in." — Life and Health. 
 
 " Avoid pills and powders. Persons suffering from headache 
 need to be warned against taking remedies that contain opium 
 and alcohol, and also against the use of a recent popular 
 remedy, usually called a ' white powder ' or ' white tablet.* 
 They take the latter readily because the druggist or physician 
 says it contains no opium. This is true, but it is one of the 
 lately discovered coal tar preparations (anti-febrine, acetanilid, 
 etc.) and is very depressing to the human system. Headache 
 is usually a symptom of trouble somewhere else, often in the 
 alimentary canal, and overloaded stomach, constipation, or 
 tight clothing. Learn the cause and remove that, and the 
 headache will disappear." — Dr. H. J. Hall, Franklin, Ind. 
 
 " Gentle massage is helpful and the use of cold compresses. 
 Lack of sufficient sleep will cause headache. Women often 
 bring on nervous headache by overwork and worry. " 
 
 Hemorrhage : — " Never give alcohol in a ease of profuse 
 hemorrhage. The faint feeling, or irresistible inclination to lie 
 down is nature's own method of circumventing the danger, by 
 quieting the circulation and lessening the expulsive force of the 
 heart, thus favoring the formation of clot at the site of the 
 injury." — Clinique. 
 
 " For uterine hemorrhage an emetic to induce vomiting is 
 the best cure." — Dr. Higginbotham in British Medical Journal. 
 
 " If the faint is dispelled too quickly, and the blood-vessels 
 are relaxed by alcohol, or the heart aroused to energetic action 
 by any remedy, the hemorrhage may recommence, and may 
 prove fatal. Quiet, the application of cold, pressure, the eleva- 
 tion of the wound where possible, and the absence of stimulants, 
 are the cardinal points of treatment in most cases." — Dr. 
 Ridge. 
 
 " If then, it seems absolutely necessary to rouse a person out 
 of a dead faint, what can be done ? Swallowing is out of the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. l8l 
 
 question, lest the patient choke. The head must be laid low, 
 and the face and chest flapped with a cold wet cloth, or alter- 
 nately with hot wet cloths ; smelling salts (not too strong) may 
 be applied to the nose. 
 
 " When the faint has been recovered from, but the hemor- 
 rhage continues so much that it is feared another faint may 
 occur, and, perhaps, be fatal, it may be warded off by drinking: 
 any hot liquid ; if Liebig's extract of meat, or strong beef tea, is 
 at hand and can be given hot, there is nothing better." 
 
 Heart Disease: — Dr. Ridge says: "I trench here on a 
 delicate subject, because, when there is real disease of the 
 heart, medical advice will of course have been obtained, and 
 very probably a doctor may have said that some alcoholic liquor 
 is essential. There are, also, several different forms of heart 
 disease which require altogether different treatment, and only a 
 physician can tell the difference, or appreciate the necessity for 
 the particular treatment required. But it may be pointed out 
 that alcohol is utterly unable to • strengthen ' the heart, or give 
 tone to the blood-vessels, or to the system at large. 
 
 " The alteration in the pulse due to alcohol is chiefly owing- 
 to its paralyzing action on the blood-vessels, and when they are 
 too contracted, and thereby cause the weakened heart to labor 
 too much, the alcohol will give relief for the time. But we 
 have in nitrite of amyl, a fluid which will act more quickly and 
 more powerfully ; but this must not be employed without med- 
 ical direction. It is very useful in cases of angina pectoris, or 
 breast pang, but is rarely required in the majority of cases in 
 which the valves of the heart are diseased. The paralyzing: 
 action of alcohol is not generally produced by less than half a 
 wine-glassful of brandy or whisky, or twice that quantity of 
 wine, and often much more is required. The relief to uneasy 
 sensations which much smaller quantities sometimes produce is 
 due to their ansesthetic or benumbing action, by which the 
 nerves of the patient are rendered less sensible, although the 
 danger is by no means diminished. ***** 
 
1 82 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The only sensible way to avert the evil consequences of 
 heart disease is to strengthen the heart, and that is to be done 
 by strengthening the body generally. The amount of exercise, 
 the kind of baths, etc., which should be taken, have to be mod- - 
 ified in accordance with the nature of the case. If these nat- 
 ural health-giving measures cannot be employed nothing is an 
 effectual substitute. 
 
 " Weak ox feeble heart is a common complaint, and is as 
 ordinary an excuse for resorting to alcoholic liquors as ' Tim- 
 othy's stomach.' If there is no organic disease; if the valves 
 of the heart are healthy and act properly, all anxiety on this 
 point may be entirely banished. The slow pulse, the feeble 
 pulse, the cold feet, the want of energy, these are not to be got 
 rid of'by such a mere temporary agent as alcohol, even if relief 
 can be thus obtained from day to day. The constant applica- 
 tion of alcohol to the tissues of the body alters them gradually 
 by its chemical action. In addition to this, the balance of the 
 nervous system is altered, an unnatural condition is produced, 
 and the unhappy patient becomes more liable to disease and 
 more easily succumbs when attacked. 
 
 " Many of these ■ feeble hearts ' mean too little exercise, very 
 often also, too much or improper food and drink. 
 
 " The best remedies are cold sponging (according to the 
 season) ; avoidance of coddling ; plain, wholesome food ; ab- 
 stinence from tea, hot drinks and condiments ; regular out-of- 
 doors exercise and all similar true tonic measures." 
 
 Dr. Kellogg says : — 
 
 " Persons subject to attacks of angina pectoris should carry 
 with them a small bottle containing a sponge saturated with 
 nitrite of amyl, and place it to the nose when necessary. 
 
 " Sympathetic palpitation may be relieved by bending the 
 head downward, allowing the arms to hang down. The effect 
 of this measure is increased by holding the breath a few 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 83 
 
 seconds while bending over. Another ready means of relief is 
 to press strongly upon the large arteries on either side of the 
 neck. 
 
 " Palpitation of the heart is often mistaken for real organic 
 disease of the organ. ***** a careful regulation of the 
 diet is in most cases all that is necessary to effect a cure." 
 
 Dr. Edmunds, of London, was asked during a 
 medical discussion what he thought of the use of 
 alcohol in heart disease. His answer is embodied 
 in the following : — 
 
 " With regard to the use of brandy in cases of heart disease, 
 he was convinced it was a mistake to use it in such cases. 
 There were many forms of heart disease, but the most common 
 kind arose from the heart being too fat. Excess of fat debili- 
 tated the heart and injured its working, just as a piece of wax 
 attached to a tuning fork would impair its usefulness. In such 
 cases he dieted his patients in order to reduce their weight. 
 Every dose of brandy taken for heart disease increased the 
 evil. The moment brandy was taken for heart disease, or any 
 other chronic complaint of a similar kind, the disease was 
 increased. If doctors recommended alcohol to their patients, 
 he had been asked what abstainers should do. In such cases, 
 as had been suggested, he thought the patients might ask what 
 the alcohol was to do for them, and if the reply was not 
 satisfactory, they should get another doctor." 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., has de- 
 duced some valuable facts from his experiments 
 with the sphygmograph, upon the action of the 
 heart. He has found by repeated experiments that 
 while alcohol apparently increases the force and 
 volume of the heart's action, the irregular tracings 
 of the sphygmograph show that the real vital force 
 
1 84 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 is diminished, and hence its apparent stimulating 
 power is deceptive. 
 
 Dr. C. W. Chapman, of the National Hospital for 
 Diseases of the Heart, wrote in the Lancet : — 
 
 " The very thing (alcohol) which they supposed had kept 
 their heart going was responsible for many of its difficulties." 
 
 Of cases of palpitation and irregularity caused by 
 business anxieties or indigestion, he said : — 
 " To give alcohol is only to add fuel to the fire." 
 
 Heart Failure : — " In cases of cardiac weakness, the 
 thing needed is not simply an increased rate of movement of 
 the heart, or an increased volume of the pulse, but an increased 
 movement of the blood current throughout the entire system. 
 In the application of any agent for the purpose of affording 
 relief in a condition of this kind, the peripheral heart as well as 
 the central organ must be taken into consideration. In fact, 
 the whole circulatory system must be regarded as one. The 
 heart and the arteries are composed of essentially the same 
 kind of tissue, and have practically the same functions. The 
 arteries as well as the heart are capable of contracting. 
 
 " Both the heart and the arteries are controlled by excitory 
 and inhibitory nerves. These two classes of nerves are kindred 
 in structure and in origin, the vagus and the vasodilators being 
 medullated, while the accelerators of the heart and the vaso- 
 constrictors of the arteries are non-medullated and pass 
 through the sympathetic ganglia on the way to their distribu- 
 tion. 
 
 " Winternitz and other therapeutists have frequently called 
 attention to the value of cold as a cardiac stimulant or tonic. 
 The tonic effect of this agent is greater than that of any 
 medicinal agent which can be administered. The cold com- 
 press applied over the cardiac area of the chest may well 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 185 
 
 replace alcohol as a heart tonic. The thing necessary to 
 encourage the heart's action is not merely relaxation of the 
 peripheral vessels, but, as Winternitz has shown, increased 
 activity of the peripheral circulation in the skin, muscles and 
 elsewhere. Alcohol paralyzes the vasoconstrictors, and so 
 dilates the small vessels and lessens the resistance of the heart 
 action ; but at the same time it lessens the activity of the 
 nerve centres which control the heart, diminishes the power of 
 the heart muscle, and lessens that rhythmical activity of the 
 small vessels whereby the circulation is so efficiently aided at 
 that portion of the blood circuit most remote from the heart. 
 A continuous cold application applied to that portion of the 
 chest overlying the heart stimulates the nerves controlling the 
 walls of the vessels, and at the same time energizes the corre- 
 sponding cardiac nerves. It is wise to remember that the 
 vasoconstrictor nerves are one in kind with the excitor nerves 
 of the heart, while the vasodilators are in like manner associ- 
 ated with the vagus. With this in mind, it is clear that while 
 alcohol paralyzes the vasoconstrictors, it at the same time 
 weakens the nerves which initiate and maintain the activity of 
 the heart; while, on the other hand, cold excites to activity 
 those nerves which produce the opposite effect. 
 
 " The apparent increase of strength which follows the ad- 
 ministration of alcohol in cases of cardiac weakness is delusive. 
 There is increased volume of the pulse for the reason that the 
 small arteries and capillaries are dilated, but this apparent im- 
 provement in cardiac action is very evanescent. This is a 
 natural result of the fact that while the heart is relieved mo- 
 mentarily by sudden dilation of the peripheral vessels, the ac- 
 cumulation of the blood in the venous system, through the loss 
 of the normal activity of the peripheral heart, gradually raises 
 the resistance by increasing the amount of blood which has to 
 be pushed along in the venous system. This loss of the action 
 of the peripheral heart more than counterbalances the tempo- 
 rary relief secured by the paralysis of the vasoconstrictors. 
 
1 86 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " Thermic applications, general and local, may safely be af- 
 firmed to be the true physiological heart tonic. In the employ- 
 ment of the cold pericardial compress as a heart tonic, the 
 application should generally be continued not more than half 
 an hour at a time, and its use may be alternated with general 
 cold applications to the surface. A cold towel rub, or the cold 
 trunk pack is the best form for application if the patient is very 
 feeble. 
 
 " The cold towel rub is applied thus : wring a towel as dry 
 as possible out of very cold water, and spread it quickly and 
 evenly over the surface ; rub vigorously outside until the skin 
 begins to feel warm ; then remove, dry the moistened surface, 
 rub until it glows, and make the same application to another 
 part ; and so on until the whole surface of the body has been 
 gone over. The procedure should be rapid and vigorous. 
 
 " If the cold trunk pack is employed, a sheet of not more 
 than one thickness should be wrung as dry as possible out of 
 very cold water, and wrapped quickly about the body, after 
 first dipping the hands in water, and rubbing the trunk vigor- 
 ously. In cases of extreme cardiac weakness, very cold and 
 very hot applications may be alternately applied over the region 
 of the heart. The duration of the hot and cold applications 
 should be about fifteen seconds each. 
 
 " Any one who has ever witnessed the marvelous effects of 
 applications of this sort in reviving a flagging heart will never 
 doubt their efficacy, and will have no occasion to resort to 
 alcohol, or any other intoxicant, to stimulate a flagging heart. 
 The writer has employed these measures for stimulating the 
 heart for more than twenty years, and might cite hundreds 
 of instances in which their efficiency has been demonstrated. 
 They are applicable not only to the cardiac depression en- 
 countered in the adynamic stage of typhoid and other fevers, 
 but in cases of heart failure from hemorrhage, of surgical 
 shock, collapse under chloroform or ether, opium poisoning, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. l8/ 
 
 coal gas asphyxia, drowning, etc."— Dr. J. H. Kellogg, in 
 Bulletin of the A. M. T. A., Jan., 1899. 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis tells of a case of threatened col- 
 lapse where he was called in consultation. Patient 
 was in a small, unventilated room. 
 
 " It was easy to see that what she needed was fresh air 
 in her lungs. Instead of giving alcohol in any form she 
 was moved into a large, well-ventilated room. All symp- 
 toms of * heart failure ' disappeared. Had she begun to take 
 whisky or brandy, physician and friends would have attributed 
 her recovery to that, when in fact it would have retarded re- 
 covery by hindering oxygenation of the blood." 
 
 " It would also be a very great mistake to suppose that when 
 reaction follows collapse, in cases in which alcohol has been 
 given, this result is always due to the alcohol. I have seen so 
 many cases of severe collapse recover without alcohol that I 
 cannot but be skeptical as to its necessity, and even as to its 
 value. I was much struck many years ago by a case of post 
 partum hemorrhage which was so severe that convulsions set 
 in. I should then have given brandy if there had been any to 
 give, but there was none in the house and none to be got. I 
 administered teaspoonfuls of hot water and the patient revived 
 and recovered ; next day, except for anaemia, she was as well 
 as ever, with no reactionary fever or other disturbance, as would 
 almost certainly have been the case if brandy had been given. 
 
 " In collapse from hemorrhage, we have learned the value of 
 injections of warm saline water, either into the veins, the skin 
 or the rectum, and the same treatment is available in other 
 cases of collapse with contracted vessels. 
 
 " Another measure which has proved most efficacious is the 
 inhalation of oxygen gas. This is especially useful in cases in 
 which alcohol is decidedly injurious, namely, those in which 
 there is increasing congestion of the lungs, which the heart, 
 
188 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 though doing its utmost, is unable to overcome. Alcohol only- 
 increases the congestion, and the heart is already over-exerted 
 and nearly exhausted. The effect of the oxygen is apparent in 
 a few seconds, and cases have been rescued in which death ap- 
 peared to be inevitable and imminent." — Dr. Ridge. 
 
 Heart Stimulants :— " The advantage of beef extract 
 over alcohol as a stimulant was demonstrated on a large scale 
 in the Ashantee war." — Dr. Ridge, London. 
 
 For those who must have a drug ; aqua ammonia,. 
 8 drops to y 2 cup of hot water, or 2Q grains carbon- 
 ate ammonia to Y* cup water. Hot water alone is a 
 useful stimulant ; also water, hot or cold, with a few 
 grains of Cayenne pepper added. The latter is 
 good, not only to start the heart's action in collapse, 
 but also to relieve violent pain. Hot milk is a most 
 valuable stimulant. Many persons to whom hot 
 milk has been given during the extreme weakness. 
 of acute disease have testified afterward to its good 
 effects in comparison with the wine formerly admin- 
 istered. The wine caused an after-feeling of chilli- 
 ness and weakness, while the milk gave warmth and 
 added strength. 
 
 Insomnia or Sleeplessness : — * A person who suffers 
 from sleeplessness should avoid the use of tea and coffee, 
 tobacco, alcoholic liquors and all other disturbers of the ner- 
 vous system. Eating immediately before retiring has been rec- 
 ommended, but the ultimate result may be an aggravation of 
 the difficulty instead of relief. If a person suffers from 'all 
 gone feelings ' so that he cannot sleep, he should take a few 
 sips of cold water or a glass of lemonade. As complete relief 
 will generally be obtained as from eating, and the stomach will 
 be saved work when it should be resting. A warm bath just 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 89 
 
 before retiring, a wet-hand rub, a cool sponge bath, gentle 
 rubbing of the body with the dry hand, a moist bandage worn 
 about the abdomen during the night, are all useful measures. 
 When the feet are cold, they should be thoroughly warmed by 
 a hot foot or leg bath, and thorough rubbing. When the head 
 is congested, these measures should be supplemented by the 
 application of cold to the head, as the cold compress or the 
 ice-cap." 
 
 A walk in the evening, or gentle calisthenics, may- 
 help those of sedentary habits. Bicycle riding and 
 horse-back riding in the evening have helped many. 
 
 The practice of long deep breathing will often put 
 persons to sleep when all other devices fail. The 
 lungs should be filled to their utmost capacity, and 
 then emptied with equal slowness, repeating the 
 respiration about ten times a minute, instead of 
 eighteen or twenty, the natural rate. Those who 
 fall asleep upon first going to bed, and after a few 
 hours awake, and are unable to sleep again, may- 
 find relief by getting out of bed, and rubbing the 
 surface of the body with the dry hand. Or walk 
 about the room a few minutes, exposing the skin to 
 . the air, go back to bed and try the deep breathing. 
 
 * The use of drugs for the purpose of inducing sleep should 
 be avoided as much as possible. Opium is especially harmful. 
 Sleep obtained by the use of opiates is not a substitute for 
 natural sleep. The condition is one of insensibility, but not of 
 natural refreshing recuperation. Three or four hours of natural 
 sleep will be more than equivalent to double that amount of 
 sleep obtained by the use of narcotics. When a person once 
 becomes dependent upon drugs of any kind for producing 
 sleep, it is almost impossible for him to dispense with them. 
 
I90 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 It is often dangerous to resort to their temporary use, on. 
 account of the great tendency to the formation of the habit of 
 continuous use. The use of opiates for securing sleep is one of 
 the most prolific means by which the great army of opium- 
 eaters is annually recruited. Chloral, bromide of potash, 
 whisky and other drugs are to be condemned almost as- 
 strongly as opium." — Dr. Kellogg. 
 
 Dr. Furer, of Heidelberg, Germany, in a paper 
 before the International Congress against alcohol^ 
 held in Basle, Switzerland, in Sept., 1895, said :— 
 
 " The sleep from alcohol does not act as a mental tonic, but 
 leaves the mind weaker next day." 
 
 Some noble specimens of manhood have become 
 wrecks through accepting the advice to try " whisky 
 night-caps." Edison recommends manual labor, 
 instead of going to rest, for aggravated insomnia. 
 He says sleep will soon come naturally. 
 
 La Grippe: — " Alcohol has no place in the treatment of la 
 grippe ; on the contrary it is because of the too frequent use 
 of this, and other narcotics, that epidemics make such fearful 
 headway in our land, and such must be the rule until the 
 people study the laws of health and obey them. Profuse 
 sweating, followed by a careful bathing of the body in tepid 
 water, gradually cooling it to a normal temperature, and avoid- 
 ing unnecessary exposure, will relieve. The patient should 
 sleep in pure air and eat as little as possible, and that only 
 when hungry. ***** Quinine is essentially a nerve poison, 
 and capable of producing a profound disturbance of the nervous 
 centres. A drug of such potency for evil should be employed 
 with the greatest care, and never when a milder agency will 
 secure the result. Exceedingly pernicious is the habit of dosing 
 children with this drug." — Dr. Charles H. Shepard, Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. I9I 
 
 " A late surgeon of the gold coast of Africa wrote the follow- 
 ing to the London Lancet of Jan. 2, 1890 : 'Some of the worst 
 cases of this disease, the grippe, remind me of an epidemic I 
 saw among the natives of the swamps of the Niger. ***** 
 Irrespective of disinfectants and inhalations there is a simple, 
 effective and ready remedy, the juice of oranges in large quanti- 
 ties, not of two or three, but of dozens. The first unpleasant 
 symptoms disappear, and the acid citrate of potash of the juice, 
 by a'simple chemic action decreases the amount of fibrine in the 
 blood to an extent which prevents the development of pneu- 
 monia.' " 
 
 The Syracuse (N. Y.) Post-Standard contained 
 the following during the epidemic of 1899 : — 
 
 " Dr. George D. Whedon declared to a Post- Standard reporter 
 yesterday that there is practically no subsiding of the grippe 
 in this city. Dr. Whedon said that the weather conditions 
 have little, if anything, to do with the disease, and that it is im- 
 possible to define the conditions which produce it. It is 
 some morbific agency, the influence of which, Dr, Whedon 
 said, is exerted upon the pneumogastric nerve. 
 
 " Dr. Whedon was emphatic in denouncing treatment by 
 means of alcoholic stimulants, and coal tar derivatives. In dis- 
 cussing the subject at some length he said : — 
 
 ' I find that infants and young children are practically 
 exempt from the disease, and the liability increases with age. In 
 my own experience, which has since 1889 amounted to an 
 a gg re g ate °f 3>°°° cases, alcoholic stimulants have appeared to 
 be usually of little or no value ; their usual stimulating effect 
 does not seem to be realized in this condition. Unless mala- 
 rial complications exist quinine appears of no benefit, and then 
 should not be used in larger than two grain doses. Large 
 doses depress the weakened heart, and in all cases increase the 
 terrible confusion and headache, constantly present in severe 
 cases. 
 
I92 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ' From the views I entertain of its pathology, and from the 
 terrible fatality which has attended the extensive use of the 
 coal tar derivatives in treatment of la grippe, I argue that the 
 manner in which they have been prescribed in the beginning of 
 the disease, to reduce fever, and relieve the often intense suffer- 
 ing, lowers the heart's action, which is already sufficiently inca- 
 pacitated by the toxic agent producing the disease. 
 
 ■ The intention is usually to stimulate later, but later is in 
 many cases unfortunately too late. The heart being over- 
 whelmed by the poison, and by the added depression of all coal 
 tar preparations, cannot keep up the pulmonary circulation. 
 The swelling of the lungs increases, and the result is fatal. 
 
 1 1 am aware of the weight of authority for their administration 
 and of the relief they afford, but am just as w r ell assured that 
 were their use discontinued, the greatly increased death-rate from 
 la grippe would cease to appear. 
 
 ' These coal tar remedies are being used everywhere, and 
 the medical journals recommend them despite the fatal results. 
 They are being used every hour in the day in Syracuse, and, as 
 a result, are knocking out good people. Among the most popular 
 coal tar derivatives I might mention anti-kamnia, salol-phenace- 
 tine, anti-pyrine and salicylate of soda. 
 
 ' Prognosis is favorable at all ages. Patients should be kept 
 warm, and perfectly quiet in bed, and supplied with such nutri- 
 tious and easily digested food, at frequent intervals, as the par- 
 tially paralyzed stomach can take care of. All nourishment 
 must be fluid and warm rather than cold.' " 
 
 The Journal of Inebriety for April, 1889, says: — 
 
 " The present epidemic of influenza has proved to be very 
 fatal in cases of moderate and excessive alcoholic drinkers. 
 
 u Pneumonia is the most common sequel, breaking out sud- 
 denly, and terminating fatally in a few days. Heart failure 
 and profound exhaustion, is another fatal termination. One case 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 193 
 
 was reported to me of an inebriate, who, after a full outbreak 
 of all the usual symptoms, drank freely of whisky and became 
 stupid and died. It was uncertain whether cerebral hemorrhage 
 had taken place, or the narcotism of the alcohol had combined 
 with the disease and caused death. 
 
 " A physician appeared to have unusual fatality in the cases 
 of this class under his care. 
 
 " It was found that he gave some form of alcohol freely, on 
 the old theory of stimulation. Another physician gave all 
 drinking cases with this disease alcohol, on the same theory, 
 and had equally fatal results. It has been asserted that alcohol, 
 as an antiseptic, was useful in these bacterial epidemics, but its 
 use has been followed by greater depression, and many new 
 and complex symptoms. The frequent half domestic and 
 professional remedy, hot rum and whisky, has been followed 
 by more serious symptoms, and a protracted convalescence. 
 Many facts have been reported showing the danger of alcohol 
 as a remedy, also the fatality in cases of inebriates who were 
 affected with this disease. 
 
 " The first most common symptom seems to be heart exhaus- 
 tion and feebleness, then from the catarrhal and bronchial irri- 
 tation, pneumonia often follows." 
 
 The vapor or Turkish bath is the best means of 
 " breaking up " this disease, together with hot 
 lemonade and rest in bed for a day or two. The 
 inhalation of hot steam should be tried when there 
 is much bronchial irritation. 
 
 Life-Saving Stations, The Use of Alcohol In: — 
 " There is no possible useful place for alcoholic liquors in con- 
 nection with a life-saving station. Applied externally the rapid 
 evaporation of alcohol reduces the temperature ; taken internally 
 it diminishes the efficiency of both respiration and circulation, 
 and by increasing congestion of the kidneys it directly increases 
 
194 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 the danger of secondary bad effects from exposures of any kind. 
 To restore warmth and circulation to the surface, light, rapid 
 friction and the wrapping with dry flannel is the safest, cheap- 
 est and most efficient, while free breathing of fresh air, and fre- 
 quent small doses of milk, beef-tea, ordinary tea or coffee, or 
 even simple water, will afford the greatest amount of strength 
 and endurance, and leave the least secondary bad consequences. 
 It is just as easy to keep at" hand a jug or flask of any one of 
 the articles named as it is to keep a flask of whisky or brandy. 
 There is no need of keeping them hot, as they act well at any 
 temperature at which they can be drunk."— Dr. N. S. Davis, 
 Chicago. 
 
 Measles : — " In mild cases, very little treatment is required, 
 except such as is necessary to make the patient comfortable. 
 Good nursing is much more important than medical attendance. 
 If the eruption is slow in making its appearance, or is repelled 
 after having appeared, the patient should be given a warm 
 blanket pack. 
 
 " The old-fashioned plan of keeping the patient smothered 
 beneath heavy blankets, and constantly in a state of perspira- 
 tion is wholly unnecessary. The irritation of the skin, as well 
 as the sensitiveness to cold, may be relieved by rubbing the 
 skin gently two or three times a dav with vaseline or sweet oil. 
 There is no danger from the application of cold water to the 
 surface except in the last stages of the disease, after the erup- 
 tion has disappeared. 
 
 " The patient should be allowed cooling drinks as much as de- 
 sired. During the disease a simple but nutritious diet should be 
 allowed, but stimulants of all ki?ids should be prohibited." 
 
 " It is wholly unnecessary, and dangerous as well, to give 
 whisky to bring out the eruption."— Dr. I. N. Quimby, Jersey 
 City. 
 
 " Any hot drink, such as ginger tea or hot lemonade, may- 
 be used to hasten the eruption, if delayed." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 19$ 
 
 Malaria : — Observers of this disease in such re- 
 gions as the gold coast of Africa have noted the 
 fact that malarial attacks are generally preceded by 
 impaired digestion. The disease is said to be due 
 to animal parasites. These parasites are supposed 
 to generate in the soil of certain regions, and thence, 
 through the drinking water, or otherwise, find en- 
 trance to the human body. 
 
 "A healthy stomach is able to destroy. germs of all sorts, 
 hence the best protection from malaria is the boiling of all 
 drinking water, and the maintenance of sound digestion and 
 purity of blood by an aseptic dietary." 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg says in The Voice : — 
 
 " It must be understood, however, that fruit in malarial re- 
 gions, especially watermelons, may be thickly covered with 
 malarial parasites and the parasites may sometimes find en- 
 trance to the fruit when it becomes over-ripe, so that the skin 
 is broken. It is evident, then, that care must be taken to dis- 
 infect such fruit by thorough washing, or by dipping in hot 
 water, which is the safer plan. The same remark applies to 
 cucumbers, lettuce, celery, cabbage and other green vegetables 
 which are commonly served without cooking. Not only ma- 
 larial parasites but small insects of various kinds are often 
 found clinging to such food substances, their development being 
 encouraged by the free use of top dressing on the soil, a process 
 common with market gardeners. 
 
 " The treatment of malarial disease is too large and intricate 
 a subject for proper treatment in these columns. We will say- 
 briefly, however, at the risk of being considered very unorthodox, 
 that the majority of cases of malarial poisoning can be cured 
 without the use of drugs of any sort. In fact, in the most 
 obstinate cases of chronic malarial poisoning, drugs are of 
 
I96 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 almost no use whatever. Quinine, however, is certainly of 
 value as a curative agent in these cases, either in destroying 
 the parasites, or in preventing their development ; but as it does 
 not remove the cause, its curative effect is likely to be very 
 transient. The practice of habitually taking quinine as a pre- 
 ventive of malarial disease is a most injurious one, as quinine 
 is itself a non-usable substance in the system, and therefore 
 must be looked upon as a mild poison, to be dealt with by the 
 liver and kidneys the same as other poisons. By habitual use 
 it may itself become a cause of disease. One or two periodical 
 doses of quinine often prove of great service in interrupting the 
 paroxysms of an intermittent fever, but other treatment must 
 also be employed to develop the bodily resistance, and fortify the 
 system against disease. The morning cold bath, followed by 
 vigorous rubbing, is a most excellent measure for this purpose, 
 but the old-fashioned German wet-sheet pack is one of the best 
 remedies known. The paroxysm itself can generally be 
 avoided by means of the dry pack, begun before the chill 
 makes its appearance ; but this requires the services of an ex- 
 pert nurse. In not a few cases it is wise for a person who 
 suffers frequently from malarial disease to seek a change of 
 climate to some non-malarial region." 
 
 " Col. T. W. Higginson of the First South Carolina Volunteers, 
 in 1862, said of Dr. Seth Rogers, an eminent Southern physician, 
 who was surgeon of the regiment : ' Fortunately for us, he 
 was one of that minority of army surgeons who did not believe 
 in whisky, so that we never had it issued in the regiment while 
 he was with us, and got on better, in a highly malarial district, 
 than those regiments which used it.' " 
 
 Maternity : — Dr. Ridge says :— " It is one of the greatest 
 mistakes to make use of alcoholic beverages to ' keep up the 
 strength ' during labor. It is, of course, impossible to predict 
 at the commencement how long the labor will last ; if then 
 brandy, or other similar drink, is resorted to early, it acts most 
 injuriously. The desire for food is often entirely removed ; the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 1 97 
 
 demand of the system being therefore unperceived, and so not 
 supplied, a state of weakness and prostration is in time pro- 
 duced, if the labor should be protracted, which may be really 
 serious. The nervous system becomes exhausted by the re- 
 peated action of the alcohol. If a fatal result is not occasioned, 
 yet the prostration of body and mind after delivery is aggra- 
 vated, and convalescence thereby retarded. Alcoholic drinks 
 produce paralysis and congestion of the blood-vessels, and in 
 this way largely increase the liability to flooding after the labor 
 is over. Alcohol also increases the liability to a feverish 
 condition. 
 
 " It is necessary to take small quantities of plain, nourishing: 
 food at regular intervals, and nothing is of greater value than 
 well-cooked oatmeal; other farinaceous food may be substi- 
 tuted, if preferred. If there is much prostration, meat extracts 
 or beef tea are of great value. Tea tends to produce flatulence 
 and to prevent sleep. 
 
 " After the labor is over, the best restorative is a cup of hot 
 beef tea or an egg beaten up in warm milk or a cup of warm 
 gruel. Rest, and absence of excitement and worry are es- 
 sential and alcohol is specially injurious." 
 
 Menstruation, Painful: — Young girls often 
 resort to the use of brandy during the monthly 
 period, and parents ask anxiously, " What can they 
 use instead of the brandy ? " 
 
 The very best thing that can be done is to go to 
 bed, wrapped in flannels, with a hot-water bottle or 1 
 other hot application to the abdomen, and to the 
 feet. Take hot ginger tea, or pepper tea. 
 
 A warm hip-bath taken at the beginning may give 
 relief, or a large hot enema retained for half an hour 
 or so. Rest is necessary. 
 
I98 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 For those who must go to work, Dr. Ridge 
 recommends five drops of oil of juniper, to be 
 taken on sugar. 
 
 Neuralgia : — " The principal cause of neuralgia is defective 
 nutrition of the nerves. Disorders of digestion are very often 
 accompanied by neuralgia in various parts of the body. It 
 may also result from taking cold, from loss of sleep, from dis- 
 sipation, and also from the use of tobacco, alcohol, tea and 
 coffee. 
 
 " The patient's general health must be improved by a whole- 
 some, simple diet, and the employment of tonic baths, as a 
 daily sponge bath, and massage in feeble cases. Sun-baths 
 and exercise in the open air are of first importance. Ordinary 
 neuralgia may almost always be relieved by either moist or dry 
 heat. In some cases, cold applications give more relief than 
 hot. As a rule, abnormal heat requires cold, and unnatural 
 cold requires hot applications. In many cases it is necessary 
 to give the patient a warm bath of some kind. Electricity 
 often succeeds when all other remedies fail. 
 
 ". For facial neuralgia apply hot fomentations, together with 
 the use of sitz baths, or hot foot baths. The head may be 
 steamed by holding it over hot water, adding pieces of hot 
 brick occasionally to keep water steaming, head being covered. 
 
 " There is no complaint, perhaps, in the treatment of which 
 the use of port wine will be more strongly urged by kind 
 friends, with the assurance that it is impossible to get well 
 without it. This is quite untrue, as thousands can testify." — 
 Dr. Ridge. 
 
 " Avoid opiates of all sorts. ' It is better to bear the ills we 
 have than fly to others that we know not of.' The pangs of 
 neuralgia are as nothing to endure compared with the sufferings 
 of an opium wreck. Build up the general health, and the neu- 
 ralgia will disappear." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. I99 
 
 Nausea. — " A feeling of sickness is not uncommonly due to 
 indigestion. If it is caused by rich food take a pinch of bicar- 
 bonate of soda in a little water, or a teaspoonful of fluid mag- 
 nesia. The acidity of the food will thus be neutralized, and 
 this course is far preferable to benumbing the stomach with 
 brandy. If indigestion is the cause, it is often salutary to miss 
 one or two meals, so as to allow the stomach to recover. 
 
 " When due to pregnancy, a little aerated water, or soda 
 water is useful ; sometimes a small wafer or a crust, eaten be- 
 fore rising in the morning, will check it. An early morning 
 Walk, if the weather is pleasant, is helpful. 
 
 " The moist abdominal bandage is a very excellent means of 
 relieving nausea during pregnancy. It should be worn con- 
 stantly for a week or two, and then omitted during the night. 
 Daily sitz baths are also of great advantage. In many cases 
 electricity relieves this symptom very promptly. In very urgent 
 cases in which the vomiting cannot be repressed, and the life of 
 the patient is threatened, the stomach should be given entire 
 rest, the patient being nourished by nutritive injections. Fo- 
 mentations over the stomach, and swallowing small bits of ice, 
 are sometimes effective when other measures fail." — Dr. J. H. 
 Kellogg. 
 
 Outgrowing the Strength : — " There is sometimes de- 
 bility or weakness in rapidly growing boys and girls which is 
 attributed to this cause. It is popularly supposed that port 
 wine or beer, is the great remedy ; but nothing can be worse. 
 It is true that gin given continuously to puppies will keep them 
 small, but no one would advocate the amount of spirit required 
 in proportion by a lad or girl to produce the same effect. If 
 the growth could be checked by chemicals it would be most 
 injurious to do so. 
 
 " In the treatment of such cases fresh air by day and night 
 is essential ; cold sponging, followed by friction -with a rough 
 towel, and exercise are desirable." 
 
200 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 PNEUMONIA. 
 
 Dr. Julius Poheman says in Medical News : 
 
 " The effect of alcohol upon nearly all the organs of the body 
 has been carefully investigated. But, strange to say, literature 
 contains only a few straggling hints upon the action of alcohol 
 on the pulmonary tissue. It has long been known that the 
 abuse of alcohol is a predisposing cause of death when the 
 drinker is attacked with pneumonia. No experimental evidence 
 has been published of the action of alcohol in producing patho- 
 logical conditions in the lungs. In order to determine this 
 action, a series of experiments was made upon dogs in the win- 
 ters of 1 890-1 891 and 1892-1893. The dogs were a mixed lot 
 of mongrels gathered in by the city dog catchers. They varied 
 in weight from fifteen to twenty-five pounds, and were appar- 
 ently in good health. In all, thirty animals were experimented 
 on. 
 
 " The experiments were performed as follows : — A carefully 
 etherized animal had injected into his trachea just below the 
 larynx a quantity of commercial alcohol varying from one dram 
 to one ounce in amount. The effects of equal amounts of alcohol 
 upon animals of the same weight varies greatly. Two dogs, 
 weighing twenty-five pounds each, were injected with two 
 drams of alcohol. One died in one hour, and the other in six 
 hours after the injection. Four other dogs, two weighing 
 twenty-four pounds each, another eighteen pounds, and the 
 fourth fifteen pounds, were all injected with the same amount, 
 two drams. All four survived, and were as well as usual in 
 four weeks. Another dog of eighteen pounds died five minutes 
 after an injection of two drams, while another of fifteen pounds 
 took one ounce and recovered. 
 
 " The symptoms in the dogs were all alike, dyspnea, increas- 
 ing as the inflammation increased, until the accessory muscles 
 of respiration were called into play. The stethoscope showed 
 that air had great difficulty in entering the bronchi and air 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 201 
 
 vesicles, and showed also the tumultuous beating of the heart in 
 pumping blood through the lung. It was impossible to take the 
 temperatures. Post-mortem examinations showed the lungs 
 dark, congested and solid in some places. The air passages 
 were rilled with frothy, bloody mucus, even in the dog that died 
 in five minutes. On section, the lungs were dark, congested, 
 and full of bloody mucus. This shows how acutely sensitive 
 the respiratory passages are to the action of alcohol. On mi- 
 croscopic examination of the lungs, the air tubes and vesicles 
 w T ere found filled with immense numbers of red and white cor- 
 puscles and much mucus. The same picture was presented as 
 in a slide from the lungs of a broncho-pneumonic child. 
 
 " The striking similarity between the two is enough to prove 
 that the pathological condition is the same, and that alcohol 
 has produced a lesion very closely resembling, if not absolutely 
 like, that of broncho-pneumonia in the human subject. This 
 to some extent explains why drunkards attacked by pneumonia 
 succumb more readily than the temperate. The sensitive lung 
 tissue is enveloped in alcohol — flowing through the capillaries 
 of the lung on one side, and exhaled, filling the air vesicles and 
 tubes on the other. The condition must create a state of semi- 
 engorgement or of mild inflammation, similar to the drunkard's 
 red nose, or his engorged gastric mucous membrane. Such a 
 state will reduce the vitality of the pulmonary tissue, and its 
 power of resistance to external influences. Add to this an in- 
 flammation such as a pneumonia, and the lungs find themselves 
 unable to stand the pressure." 
 
 As previous chapters contain much showing the 
 reasons why alcohol is dangerous in pneumonia, 
 space need not be taken here to do more than in- 
 dicate briefly some points of non-alcoholic treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Pneumonia is generally supposed to result from a 
 
202 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 cold ; it is ushered in by the symptoms of a chill, 
 followed by fever, headache, shortness of breath, 
 pain in chest, etc. It sometimes occurs as a com- 
 plication of typhoid fever and other acute diseases. 
 " It is not a very fatal disease in young and healthy subjects, 
 but in weak children, old persons and habitual drinkers, it is a 
 very fatal malady." 
 
 Nature Cure recommends a vapor bath immedi- 
 ately upon the appearance of the first symptoms, 
 together with copious drinking of hot lemonade, 
 and a good supply of pure fresh air in the room, 
 together with the application of alternating hot and 
 cold compresses, and no drugs. 
 
 Dr. Kellogg says : — 
 
 "Cool compresses or ice-bags, alternated every three hours 
 by hot fomentations for ten minutes, should be applied to the 
 chest, particularly to the affected side, the seat of pain. The 
 hot fomentations relieve the pain, and the cold compresses 
 check the diseased process. The compresses should be wrung 
 out of cold water, and changed every five to eight minutes, or as 
 often as they become warm. Although the cool compresses 
 are not- usually liked by the patient, they will soon give relief 
 if their use is continued, and they do much towards shortening 
 the course of the disease. Care should be taken to keep the 
 patient's body from being wet except where the treatment is 
 applied. The cold compress is much used in the large hospi- 
 tals of Germany. When the pulse becomes as rapid as 95 to 
 no or more, cool sponging, the wet-sheet pack, the cool full 
 bath or the cool enema should be employed. When much 
 chilliness is produced by the contact of water with the skin, the 
 cold enema is a most admirably useful measure. The amount 
 of water required is from half a pint to a pint. The tempera- 
 
. ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 203 
 
 ture may be 40 to 60 degrees. The apartment should be kept 
 as cool as possible without discomfort, and an abundance of 
 fresh air should be continually supplied. 
 
 " The diet of the patient should consist of milk, oatmeal 
 gruel, ripe fruit, and similar easily digested food. No meat, 
 eggs or other stimulating food should be allowed. 
 
 " Discontinue the cold treatment after the first twenty-four to 
 forty-eight hours. If the surface is cold, apply hot sponging or 
 a hot pack. Avoid causing chilliness." 
 
 Pre-Natal Influence of Alcohol :— " The use of beer 
 as a medicine during pregnancy is without doubt perilous to 
 the health and vigor of the offspring. Children born under 
 such conditions are sickly and feeble, and suffer from disease 
 more severely than others, or die early. Alcoholic prescriptions 
 to pregnant women are, from all present knowledge of the 
 facts, both dangerous and reprehensible in the highest degree." 
 —Dr. T. D. Crothers, Hartford, Conn. 
 
 " M. Fere, an eminent French physician, recently reported to 
 the Biological Society of Paris the results of experiments which 
 he had been conducting for the purpose of throwing light upon 
 this question. These experiments demonstrate that the expo- 
 sure of hen's eggs to the influence of the vapor of alcohol, 
 previous to incubation, retards the development of the embryo, 
 and favors the production of malformations. It is evident from 
 these experiments that alcohol may act directly upon the em- 
 bryo when there is no marked influence of alcoholism in the 
 parent." 
 
 Pain After Food : — " This may occur in acute or chronic 
 gastric catarrh, or in a neuralgic or oversensitive condition of 
 the stomach, or in ulcer or cancer of that organ. In all these 
 it comes on soon after food has been swallowed ; but, if occur- 
 ring a long time after a meal, it is probably due to atonic dys- 
 pepsia. Alcohol will undoubtedly sometimes relieve this kind of 
 pain by deadening the nerves of the stomach so that the pain is 
 
204 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 not felt so much ; but this effect soon passes off, and if the cause 
 of the malady is not removed by other means, increasing quanti- 
 ties of alcohol will be required to give relief. Many cases of 
 drink-craving have originated in this way. Medical aid will gen- 
 erally be required. A small mustard poultice over the pit of the 
 stomach is often useful, especially in inflammatory cases, or any 
 other outward application of heat. Food should be fluid, or 
 semi-fluid, and digestible. Ginger tea, or peppermint water, 
 may serve to disperse gas. " 
 
 POISON, ANIMAL. 
 
 The following by Dr. Chas. H. Shepard, of Brook- 
 lyn, who introduced the Turkish bath into America, 
 is taken from the Journal of the A. M. A., for 
 Nov. 13, 1897 : — 
 
 " Animal poison is by no means uncommon, and so quick 
 and mysterious is its action that a prompt remedy is a vital ne- 
 cessity. There is good reason to believe that the numerous 
 remedies that have been recommended from earliest times as 
 antidotes for animal poison are worthless, as they have not the 
 properties commonly ascribed to them. The paucity of reme- 
 dies is so great that alcohol is the one which comes most 
 quickly to the mind of those who have been taught in the tradi- 
 tions of the past, and who are not fully aware of its action on 
 the human system. We shall endeavor to show that the action 
 of alcohol is not helpful, but on the contrary is really detrimen- 
 tal ; and also that there is a better way out of the difficulty. 
 
 " If we get a splinter in the body, vital energy is aroused to 
 get rid of the offending substance, inflammation is set up, and 
 sloughing goes on until the splinter is voided. If the splinter 
 is covered with acrid material, the same process is intensified, 
 and nature endeavors to eliminate the offending substance 
 through the natural excretions. Upon the peculiarity of the 
 material depends the direction of this elimination. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 20$ 
 
 " It is well known that some poisons are thrown off by the 
 kidneys, some by the lungs, while others again are attacked by 
 all the emunctories. The difference in the power of the sys- 
 tem to absorb different substances, appropriate whatever can 
 be utilized, and throw off whatever can not be used, is some- . 
 times called idiosyncrasy, but more properly it may be called 
 vital resistance, and upon the integrity of this power rests the 
 ability to combat disease in all its forms, whether it be the ab- 
 sorption of any animal virus or the poison resulting from undi- 
 gested food. This ability is in proportion to the integrity and 
 soundness of every tissue and organ of the body. This may be 
 illustrated by the fact that with a person suffering from kidney 
 disease, which necessarily impedes elimination, the ordinary 
 effects of a poison are intensified ; therefore whatever aids in 
 the promotion of good health, or in other words, the normal 
 action of all the functions, will contribute to the safety of the 
 individual in any and every emergency. 
 
 " When a person dies from the effect of poisoning, it is sim- 
 ply because the system was unable to eliminate the offending 
 substance and was exhausted in the effort. There»is a tolerance 
 of some substances which frequently results in chronic disease, 
 and again it is shown in what is called the cumulative effect or 
 acute disease. 
 
 " Those who would hold that a substance is at one time a 
 medicament, and at another time a poison, have much trouble 
 in drawing the line between the beneficial and the poisonous 
 effect. The idea that poisonous substances act on the system 
 is responsible for many grave mistakes, whereas always, and 
 under all circumstances, it is the system that does all the action. 
 
 " There might be some excuse for the idea that disease is an 
 entity, from the facts that have been brought to light by the 
 germ theory, but this theory is of recent date, while the entity 
 theory is as old as superstition. 
 
 " Snake poison, which may be cited as a type of other animal 
 
206 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 poisons, takes effect through the circulation, and acts by para- 
 lyzing the nerve centres, and by altering the condition of the 
 blood. In ordinary cases death seems to take place by arrest 
 of respiration, from paralysis of the nerves of motion. The 
 poison also acts septically, producing at a later period slough- 
 ing and hemorrhage. 
 
 " Dr. Calmette, a noted French scientist, claims that what is 
 poisonous in the snake's bite, is not the venom absorbed into 
 the blood, but a principle which the blood itself has developed 
 out of the poison. This would necessitate very quick action 
 when the poison is inserted in one of the large veins, as that is 
 followed by instant death. 
 
 " The following cases fairly represent some of the tragedies 
 that are occurring in our everyday life. 
 
 " A man 60 years old falls and dislocates his finger, he goes 
 to the hospital, where in a short time he dies from blood poison- 
 ing, ***** Another man 48 years old, many years a wine 
 merchant, whose great toe was severely crushed by a heavy 
 man stepping on it, was taken with blood-poisoning and in 
 spite of all treatment, even to the amputation of the leg, he 
 soon succumbed to the disease. ***** a young woman 
 24 years old, picks a pimple on her chin and at once her face 
 begins to swell. In vain was all medical treatment, for in a 
 few days she died in terrible agony. ***** About a year 
 ago there died in Brooklyn, N. Y., a physician in his 38th year, 
 who six days previously received a slight scratch in his hand 
 while performing a post-mortem examination. All that medical 
 science could suggest was done to no avail. ***** i n 
 the summer of 1896 a young woman 22 years of age was bitten 
 on the leg by an insect. Several physicians were called in but 
 their treatment gave no relief ; blood-poisoning set in ; it was 
 decided to amputate the leg, but before it could be done she 
 died. ***** In July, 1896, a veterinary surgeon 34 years 
 of age, while removing a cancer from a horse pricked his finger 
 with his knife. The wound was so slight that he forgot all 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 207 
 
 about it. A few days later blood-poisoning set in and in a 
 short time his end came. ***** Some forty years ago a 
 man named Whitney was teasing a rattlesnake in a Broadway 
 barroom, was bitten by it, and, though whisky was poured 
 down his throat by the quart, he soon died. 
 
 " Such results seem entirely unnecessary were the proper 
 course pursued, and at the same time they are a fearful com- 
 mentary on the medical resources of the day. 
 
 " The latest researches in regard to alcohol reveal it as a 
 poison to the human system in whatever way it may be diluted 
 or disguised. Its effect is always the same in proportion to the 
 amount taken. It is impossible to habitually use it in any 
 form, even in small quantities, without disease and degenera- 
 tion resulting therefrom. When taken into the stomach the 
 action is the same as with any other narcotic ; the meaning of 
 this word is to become torpid. It benumbs the nerves of sensa- 
 tion, and thus the vital resistance to any offending material is 
 reduced, and while the patient/><?/.? less of any disturbance the 
 real harm goes on with accumulated force because of the lack 
 of vitality and non-resistance of the nervous system. 
 
 " When the body is in the throes of a vital struggle with a 
 virulent poison it would seem, to any unprejudiced mind, the 
 height of folly to further weaken the vital resistance by the 
 administration of any narcotic, and especially alcohol. 
 
 " The eminent German, Professor Bunge, says : ' All the 
 results which on superficial observation appear to show that 
 alcohol possesses stimulant properties, can be explained on the 
 ground that they were due to paralysis. ' ***** Professors 
 S. Weir Mitchell and E. T. Reichert, in Researches on Ser- 
 pent Poison, make this notable statement : ' Despite the 
 popular creed, it is now pretty sure that many men have been 
 killed by the alcohol given to relieve them from the effects of 
 snake bite, and it is a matter of record that men dead drunk 
 with whiskey and then bitten, have died of the Lite.' 
 
208 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " As a great contrast to the weakness of the mass of our 
 people who are drug-takers and alcohol-consumers, and who 
 are liable to almost any epidemic that comes along, and quickly 
 succumb to a serious injury, may be mentioned the Turkish 
 soldiers of to-day, who know nothing of drugs as we use them 
 and never use alcohol in any form. During the late controversy 
 with the Greeks, one of them who was reported as having been 
 shot in the stomach, remained in the ranks, and afterward 
 walked ten miles. Another one who was wounded twice in 
 the legs and once in the shoulder, continued attending to his 
 duties for twenty-four hours, until an officer noticed his con- 
 dition and ordered him to the hospital. The heat was tremen- 
 dous, but the troops endured it without complaint, and the 
 doctors were astonished at the wonderful vitality of the wounded 
 Turks, who recovered with remarkable rapidity. This, with good 
 reason, is attributed to their abstemious lives. 
 
 " It has been stated that the Moqui Indians handle the 
 rattlesnake with impunity, and are not inconvenienced by its 
 occasional bite. 
 
 " The rational treatment of animal poison is to endeavor to 
 prevent the entry of the virus into the circulation and to neutralize 
 it in the wound before it is absorbed ; but when it has entered 
 the system everything should be done for its elimination. 
 
 " The most powerful aid to the human system, and the most 
 perfect eliminator known to man is heat. It is used with much 
 advantage, and great success by means of water, both internally 
 and externally, but above all is its use by hot air, as in the 
 Turkish bath, which works in harmony with every natural 
 function, promoting the action of all the secretions, and more 
 particularly the excretions. By this means will the system un- 
 load itself of an accumulation of impurities in an incredibly 
 short space of time, while the heat aids in destroying whatever 
 there may be of virus therein. 
 
 " Calmette, whom we have previously quoted, has shown 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 20O, 
 
 that whatever be the source of snake venom, its active principle 
 is destroyed by being submitted to a temperature of about 212 
 degrees for a variable length of time. 
 
 " In the not remote future thousands of human beings will 
 owe to the Turkish bath not only an immunity from disease 
 in general, but also an escape from the horrors of a premature 
 death from hydrophobia, the poison of snake bite, or the slower 
 action of infectious disease. 
 
 * The mass of testimony that has been accumulating for 
 over thirty years past is more than sufficient to convince any 
 reasonable mind that is willing to examine the facts. 
 
 " The medical profession has searched the world over and 
 under for the means of controlling disease, while within the 
 human body itself lies the vital power which needs only to be 
 cultivated and exalted to its true function to banish the mass 
 of disease from the land." 
 
 Dr. Shepard states in another article that Turkish 
 baths are now used in London and Paris for the 
 cure of hydrophobia. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg says : — 
 
 " A great number of remedies have acquired the reputation 
 of being cures for snake bites. The partisans of each one of 
 these have been able to produce a large number of cases, which 
 apparently supported their claims ; the uniform testimony of all 
 scientific authorities upon this subject, however, is that all these 
 so-called antidotes are worthless. Prof. W. Watson Cheyne, 
 M. B., F. R. C. S., surgeon of Kings College Hospital, London, 
 England, states, in the International Encyclopedia of Surgery, 
 that ■ there is no known antidote by which the venom can be 
 neutralized, nor any prophylactic' This eminent authority also 
 remarks further : ' Hence medication with this view is to be 
 avoided altogether, and the aim of treatment should be to pre- 
 vent the poison from gaining access to the general circulation, 
 
210 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 and to avoid its prostrating effects if its entrance has already- 
 taken place.' The same writer asserts that the only aim of the 
 constitutional treatment should be « to sustain the strength un- 
 til the poison shall have been eliminated.' The idea that the 
 saturation of the body with whisky to the point of intoxication, 
 if possible, is beneficial in these cases, is in the highest degree 
 erroneous. Whisky intoxication, according to Dr. Cheyne, 
 actually ' favors the injurious effect of the poison. What is re- 
 quired is to keep the patient alive until the poison has been 
 eliminated.' Whisky will not do this, but actually aids the 
 poison in its fatal work by lessening the resistance of the 
 patient, and hence lessening his chances for recovery. 
 
 " The reputation of whisky as a remedy in these cases is due 
 to the fact that on an average only one person in eight who is 
 bitten by a rattlesnake is really poisoned ; the reasons for this 
 were fully explained in an interesting paper on ' Rattlesnakes,' 
 by the eminent Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and published in the 
 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge for i860. If the 
 snake strikes several times before inflicting a wound, the sacs 
 containing the venom may be emptied, so that the succeeding 
 bite will introduce only the most minute quantity of poison — 
 not enough to produce serious, or fatal results. If the part 
 bitten is covered by clothing, the poison may be absorbed by 
 the clothing, so that but very little enters the circulation. In 
 various other ways the snake is prevented from inflicting a fatal 
 wound. The popular idea, that every bite of a rattlesnake is 
 necessarily poisonous, is thus shown to be erroneous. It is not 
 at all probable that the administration of whisky has ever in 
 any case contributed to the long life of a person bitten by a 
 rattlesnake. 
 
 " Whisky is often recommended by physicians with the idea 
 that it will sustain the energies of the patient, or will stimulate 
 the heart, etc. ; but it has been clearly shown that alcohol 
 in all forms is not only useless for these purposes, but does 
 actual damage, since it lessens the resistance of the patient, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 211 
 
 weakens the heart, and helps along the prostration which is the 
 characteristic effect of the rattlesnake venom. Alcohol has, 
 for many years, been used as an antidote for collapse under an 
 anaesthetic administered for surgical purposes, but no intelligent 
 physician nowadays thinks of using alcohol for such a purpose ; 
 instead, alcohol is given before the anaesthetic forthe purpose 
 of facilitating its effect. Errors of this sort which have once 
 become established are very hard to uproot. Probably some 
 physicians will continue to use alcohol for shock, exhaustion, 
 general debility and similar conditions as well as for rattle- 
 snake poisoning for another quarter of a century, but such use 
 of alcohol does not belong to the domain of rational medi- 
 cine and is not supported by scientific facts." 
 
 11 Under the Pasteur method, a man who did not take alcohol 
 was much more likely to recover from the bite of a mad dog 
 than one bitten under the same conditions, who used that drug ; 
 wh^le in lock-jaw there was absolute failure to secure immunity 
 if the patient had taken alcohol. In India it used to be given in 
 large quantities for snake bite, but it was found that it had a 
 direct effect in interfering with the processes of repair, and so 
 is being abandoned." — Dr. Sims Woodhead, of the Royal 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, London, Eng. 
 
 Dr. Ricketts, writing on " Snake Bites," says : — • 
 
 " Over-stimulation, from alcohol and other agencies, is oftener 
 the cause of death than virus-inoculation."— Journal of In- 
 ebriety, Oct., 1899. 
 
 Rheumatism : — " Unquestionably, the most active cause of 
 rheumatism, as well as of migraine, sick-headache, Bright's 
 disease, neurasthenia and a number of other kindred diseases, 
 is the general use of flesh food, tea and coffee, and alcoholic 
 liquors. As regards remedies, there are no medicinal agents 
 which are of any permanent value in the treatment of chronic 
 rheumatism. The disease can be remedied only by regimen, 
 
212 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 — that is, by diet and training. A simple dietary, consisting of 
 fruits, grains, and nuts, and particularly the free use of fruits, 
 must be placed in the first rank among the radical curative 
 measures. Water, if taken in abundance, is also a means of 
 washing out the accumulated poisons. 
 
 " An individual afflicted with rheumatism in any form should 
 live, so far as possible, an out-of-door life, taking daily a suf- 
 ficient amount of exercise to induce vigorous perspiration. A 
 cool morning sponge bath, followed by vigorous rubbing, and a 
 moist pack to the joints most seriously affected, at night, are 
 measures which are worthy of a faithful trial. Every person 
 who is suffering from this disease should give the matter im- 
 mediate attention, as it is a malady which is progressive, and is 
 one of the most potent causes of premature old age, and general 
 physical deterioration. American nervousness is probably more 
 often due to uric acid, or to the poisons which it represents, 
 than to any other one cause." — Good Health. 
 
 " Alcohol favors the development of rheumatism. It does 
 this by preventing waste matter from leaving the system. Beer 
 and w T ine, because they contain lime and salts, are said to 
 cause rheumatism, or at least to aid in its development. These 
 salts are absorbed into the system, unite with the uric acid, 
 and form an insoluble urate of lime, which is deposited around 
 the joints, thus causing them to become enlarged and stiff ***** 
 
 " The success of the Turkish bath treatment has been phe- 
 nomenal. Of over 3,000 cases treated here at least 95 per cent, 
 have been entirely relieved, or greatly helped. Some who were 
 treated over twenty years ago have stated that they have not 
 had a twinge of rheumatism since. Very few have persevered 
 in the use of the bath without experiencing permanent relief." — 
 Dr. Charles H. Shepard, Brooklyn. 
 
 " Those having a bath cabinet can have a good substitute at 
 home for the Turkish bath. Remember that if tobacco and al- 
 cohol are indulged in, there can be no permanent relief." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 21 3 
 
 The New Hygiene says : — 
 
 " Under no circumstances take any of the thousand and one 
 nostrums advertised as sure cures for this disease. Pure un- 
 adulterated blood is the only remedy. This can only 'be pro- 
 duced by cleansing the system of impurities, and giving it the 
 right kind of material out of which to make it. Keep out the 
 poisonous physic, clean out the colon, strengthen the lungs, and 
 feed the system with proper food, and this disease will vanish 
 like a fog before the rising sun." 
 
 The same book in advocating the use of the Turk- 
 ish bath for rheumatism, says : — 
 
 " The fact, which is well attested, that when a person enters 
 the bath the urine may be strongly acid, but, on leaving the 
 bath, after half an hour, it is markedly alkaline, shows that the 
 bath has a strong effect upon the system." 
 
 Dr. Ridge says of rheumatic fever : — 
 " I would urge most strongly the desirability of avoiding 
 every form of alcoholic liquor, from the very commencement of 
 the disease, as affording the best chance for a speedy and safe 
 recovery. The highest authorities are agreed on this point, but 
 there is a lingering practice which makes reference necessary in 
 order to confirm the wavering." 
 
 In Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, the hot blanket 
 pack is used in acute rheumatism, almost to the ex- 
 clusion of other methods. The pack should be 
 continued two to four hours at least, and may be 
 repeated two or three times within the twenty-four 
 hours with advantage. 
 
 Nature Cure says that thorough massage, and 
 half a dozen cups of hot lemonade will cure a severe 
 case of sciatica : — 
 
214 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The massage should be commenced moderately, and in- 
 creased as the patient can bear it. Rubbing and slapping of 
 the muscles with bare hands will hasten a cure, and be agree- 
 able to the patient. One to two hours treatment, if vigorous, 
 will effect a cure." 
 
 Sea-Sickness : — Brandy is a common resort in 
 this trouble, many taking it under such circum- 
 stances who would under no other. Yet it fre- 
 quently adds to the sickness, instead of relieving 
 it. 
 
 " Be sparing in diet for two or three days before the expected 
 voyage. If very sensitive, take to your berth as soon as you 
 go on board, or lie down on deck ; get near the centre of the 
 vessel, and lie with your feet to the stern. Go to sleep if 
 possible. Iced water may be sipped, but nothing solid should 
 be taken at first ; after a while a cracker or wafer may be 
 taken." 
 
 It is said upon good authority that if two or three 
 apples are eaten shortly before going on board, or 
 before rough water is encountered, sea-sickness is 
 entirely averted. It will be well to partake of no 
 other food for some hours previous to the voyage 
 I when trying this. 
 
 Good Health says : — 
 
 "'If any of our readers have occasion to cross the ocean in the 
 stormy season, we recommend three things ; keep horizontal, 
 with the head low ; put an ice-bag to the back of the neck ; 
 keep the stomach clean, free from greasy foods and meats, and eat 
 nothing till there is an appetite for food. A habitually clean 
 dietary before going on board is doubtless a good preparation 
 for such a voyage, as well as for any other nerve strain, or test 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 21 5 
 
 of endurance. It pays to be good — to your stomach, as well as 
 in other ways." 
 
 The following is guaranteed by a Russian physi- 
 cian to be an effective cure and a means of avoid- 
 ing sea-sickness when the symptoms first make their 
 appearance. Take long and deep inspirations. 
 About twenty breaths should be taken every 
 minute, and they should be as deep as possible. 
 After thirty or forty inspirations the symptoms will 
 be found to abate. This is recommended for 
 dyspepsia also. 
 
 Sore Nipples : — " Alum water, or tannin, used for several 
 months in advance will harden as effectually as brandy. If 
 there is soreness on commencing to nurse, put a pinch of alum 
 into milk, and apply the curd to the nipple." 
 
 Spasms : — " These are caused by flatulence, as a result of 
 indigestion. A little hot ginger tea, or capsicum tea, may do 
 all that is required. If these are not at hand, loosen every 
 tight band, rub well the region of the heart and stomach, flap 
 the face with the corner of a wet towel, and give sips of cold 
 water." 
 
 Shock : — " In shock, or collapse, the state is similar in some 
 respects to that which is present in fainting. Every function is 
 almost at a standstill ; absorption from the stomach and else- 
 where is at its lowest point, because the circulation of the 
 blood is so much interfered with. Hence much of the brandy 
 which is so often given, and to such a wonderful amount, with 
 very little apparent effect of intoxication, is really not absorbed 
 at all, and is very often rejected from the stomach by vomiting, 
 when reaction does occur, if not before. 
 
 " The patient should be wrapped up warmly, and put to bed 
 as soon as possible. The limbs may be rubbed with hot 
 
21.6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 flannels, and hot water bottles put to hands and feet. In some 
 cases, also, towels wrung out of hot water may be wrapped 
 around the head. Hot milk and water, hot water slightly- 
 sweetened, or with a little peppermint water in it, should be given 
 as soon as the patient can swallow. Hot beverages will warm 
 the skin more rapidly and powerfully than any alcoholic liquor. 
 
 " If the patient cannot swallow, an enema of hot water, or 
 hot, thin gruel, should be administered, and may be of use in 
 addition to hot drinks. Beef extract may be added to the hot 
 water with advantage. 
 
 " In the vast majority of cases there need be no anxiety so 
 far as the shock is concerned ; reaction will occur in due time 
 if ordinary care be taken, and will be more natural and steady 
 if the system is not embarrassed by the presence of the nar- 
 cotic alcohol. In the state of collapse the voluntary nervous 
 system is depressed ; alcohol diminishes the power and activity 
 of the nervous centres of the brain, hence its action is unde- 
 sirable in shock or collapse."— Dr-. J. J. Ridge, London. 
 
 " No procedure could be more senseless than the administer- 
 ing alcohol in shock. A stimulant of some kind is necessary 
 in such cases, and alcohol, instead of being a stimulant is a 
 narcotic. ***** Alcohol causes a decrease of tempera- 
 ture, the very thing to be avoided in cases of shock." — Dr. J. 
 H. Kellogg. 
 
 " I am perfectly sure that a large dose of alcohol in shock 
 puts a nail in the coffin of the patient." — Dr. H. C. Wood of 
 the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Sinking Sensations : — Many women have a 
 feeling of weakness or " goneness M at about eleven 
 o'clock in the morning, and are led by it to the 
 injurious practice of eating between meals. It is 
 often due to indigestion, or to the use of beer or 
 wine. A few sips of hot milk, of fruit juice, or 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 21J 
 
 even of cold water will often relieve it, especially if 
 total abstinence is persevered in. 
 
 Sudden Illness: — " Those taken suddenly ill are likely to 
 fare best if placed in a recumbent position, with head slightly 
 elevated, all tightness of garments about the neck or waist 
 relieved, and a little cold water given in case of ability to 
 swallow. A mustard plaster on the back of the neck, or over 
 the stomach, and hot water or hot bottles to the feet, are never 
 out of place, while vinegar, or smelling salts, or dilute ammonia 
 to the nostrils is reviving." — Ezra M. Hunt, M. D., late 
 secretary of New Jersey State Board of Health. 
 
 " Both the popular and professional beliefs in the efficacy of 
 alcoholic liquids for relieving exhaustion, faintness, shock, etc. 
 are equally fallacious. All these conditionsare temporary, and 
 rapidly recovered from by simply the recumbent position, and 
 free access to fresh air. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of 
 such cases pass the crisis before the attendants have time to 
 apply any remedies, and when they do, the sprinkling of cold 
 water on the face, and the vapor of camphor or carbonate of 
 ammonia to the nostrils, are the most efficacious remedies, and 
 leave none of the secondary evil effects of brandy, whisky or 
 wine."— Dr. N. S. Davis. 
 
 Sunstroke:— "There has lately been a correspondence in 
 the Morning Post on the subject of ' Sunstroke and Alcohol.' 
 We quite agree with the statement that ' nothing predisposes 
 people to sunstroke so much as this pernicious habit of taking 
 stimulants (so-called) during the hot weather.' As far as this 
 country is concerned, nearly every case of sunstroke might be 
 more appropriately designated ' beerstroke.' One effect of 
 alcohol is to paralyze the heat-regulating mechanism ; the blood 
 becomes overloaded with waste material, and the narcotism, 
 and vasomotor paralysis, produced by the alcohol, is added to 
 that produced by the heat. Abstainers, other things being 
 equal, can always endure extremes of temperature better than 
 consumers of alcohol." — Medical Pioneer, England. 
 
21 8 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " During the month of January, 1896, there occurred over three 
 hundred deaths from sunstroke in Australia. When called 
 upon to offer suggestions relative to its prevention, the medical 
 board promptly informed the Colonial government that, of all 
 the predisposing causes, none were so potent as indulgence in 
 intoxicating liquors, and in its treatment nothing seemed to 
 have a more disastrous effect than the administration of alco- 
 holic stimulants." — Medical News. 
 
 The Bulletin of the A. M. T. A. for August, 1896, 
 contained the following : — 
 
 " Recently a leading medical man, a teacher in a college, 
 warned his student audience against the anti-alcoholic theories 
 urged by extremists and persons whose zeal was greater than 
 their intelligence. He affirmed positively that the value of 
 alcohol was well known in medicine, and established by long 
 years of experience. 
 
 " Not long afterward a man was brought into his office in a 
 state of collapse from sunstroke, and this physician and teacher 
 ordered large quantities of brandy to be administered ; the pa- 
 tient died soon after." 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers tells of a case where alcohol 
 was administered to a child for partial sunstroke, 
 and says, " there were many reasons for believing 
 that the profound poisoning from alcohol gave a 
 permanent bias and tendency that developed into 
 inebriety later." 
 
 " When a person falls with sunstroke (or heatstroke) he 
 should at once be carried to a cool, shady place. His clothing 
 should be removed, and cold applications made to the head, 
 and over the whole body. Pieces of ice may be packed around 
 the head, or cold water may be poured upon the body. Cold 
 enema may also be employed. In case the face is pale, hot 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 219 
 
 applications should be made to the head and over the heart 
 and the body should be rubbed vigorously."— Dr. J. H. Kel- 
 logg. 
 
 TYPHOID FEVER. 
 
 As many lives are lost by this disease, its treat- 
 ment must ever be one of intense interest, not only 
 to physicians, but also to all humanity. Since 
 non-alcoholic treatment has reduced the death-rate 
 in typhoid to five per cent., the views regarding such 
 treatment expressed by leading practitioners will 
 doubtless be read with eagerness. 
 
 The following is a paper by Dr. N. S. Davis 
 taken from the Medical Temperance Quarterly. 
 
 " Alleged Indications for the Use of Alcohol in 
 the Treatment of Typhoid Fever : — On the first page of 
 the first number of a new medical journal bearing date July, 1895, 
 maybe found the following statement : ■ The question of admin- 
 istering alcohol comes up in every case of typhoid fever. In mild 
 cases, especially when the patient is young, healthy and tem- 
 perate, stimulants are not needed so long as the disease follows 
 the typical course. Here, as elsewhere, alcohol should be 
 avoided when not absolutely demanded. There is, however, 
 I generally such a dangerous tendency toward nervous exhaus- 
 tion, that in a majority of cases more or less alcohol is required. 
 The indication which calls for its use is an inability to adminis- 
 ter enough food. ***** Again, the existence of high 
 temperature nearly always makes it necessary to stimulate the 
 patient, as does threatened nervous exhaustion and heart 
 failure, for immediate effect , likewise a weak, small, compres- 
 sible, rapid pulse, with impaired cardiac impulse and systolic 
 sound, is a frequent indication ; other remedies may be re- 
 quired, but alcohol cannot be dispensed with.' The next para- 
 
220 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 graph continues : ' It is necessary to give alcohol in serious 
 complications of typhoid fever, such as pneumonia, pleurisy, 
 hemorrhage and severe bronchitis or diarrhoea. It is best to be- 
 gin giving it early and in small quantities : two to six ounces is 
 a moderate amount, eight to twelve ounces daily is not too 
 much for adynamic or complicated cases.' 
 
 " The foregoing quotations purport to have been condensed 
 from one of our recent authoritative works on practical medi- 
 cine, and doubtless fairly represent the prevailing opinions 
 concerning the use of alcohol in the treatment of typhoid and 
 other fevers, both in and out of the profession. A careful 
 reading will show that the whole is founded on the following 
 four assumptions : — 
 
 " i. That alcohol when taken into the living body acts as a 
 general stimulant, and especially so to the cardiac and vaso- 
 motor functions. 2. That in mild, uncomplicated cases of 
 typhoid fever in young and previously healthy subjects, stimu- 
 lants are not required and no alcohol should be given. 3. That 
 in a ' majority of cases ' the tendency toward dangerous ' ner- 
 vous exhaustion ' and ' heart failure ' is so great that the giving 
 of ' more or less alcohol is required.' 4. The amount required 
 may vary from two to twelve or more ounces per day. 
 
 " In the two preceding numbers of this journal, I have en- 
 deavored to show that the chief causes of nervous exhaustion 
 and heart failure, in typhoid and other fevers were impairment 
 of the hemoglobin and corpuscular elements of the blood, defi- 
 cient reception and internal distribution of oxygen, and molecu- 
 lar degeneration of the muscular structures of the heart itself. 
 These important pathological conditions are doubtless caused 
 by the specific toxic agent or agents giving rise to the fever. 
 Consequently the rational objects of treatment are to stop the 
 further action of the specific cause, either by neutralization, or 
 elimination, or both ; to stop the further impairment of the 
 hemoglobin and other elements of the blood ; and to increase 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 221 
 
 the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, by which we 
 will most effectually prevent further fatty or granular degenera- 
 tion of cardiac and other structures. The language of the 
 paragraphs I have quoted, fairly assumes that alcohol is a 
 stimulant capable of relieving nervous exhaustion and cardiac 
 failures, regardless of the causes producing those pathological 
 conditions, and consequently its use is necessary in the ' major- 
 ity of cases ' of typhoid fever. 
 
 " Can such an assumption be sustained by either established 
 facts, or correct reasoning ? Can nervous and cardiac exhaus- 
 tion, induced by the presence of toxic agents in the blood, with 
 deficiency of both hemoglobin and oxygen, be relieved by a 
 simple stimulant, that neither neutralizes nor eliminates the 
 toxic agents, nor increases either the hemoglobin or oxygen ? 
 That alcohol does not neutralize or destroy toxic ptomaines, or 
 tox-albumins, is proved by abundant clinical experience, and also 
 by the fact that chemists use it freely in the processes for separa- 
 ting these substances from other organic matters for experi- 
 mental purposes. That its presence in the living body retards 
 metabolic changes generally, and thereby aids in retaining 
 instead of eliminating toxic agents of all kinds, has been so 
 fully shown in the pages of preceding numbers of the Medical 
 Temperance Quarterly, that the leading facts need not be re- 
 peated here. That its presence does not increase the hemo- 
 globin, or favor oxy-hemoglobin or increased internal distribu- 
 tion of oxygen, but decidedly the reverse, has been equally well 
 demonstrated by numerous and reliable experimental researches 
 in this and other countries. 
 
 " Then it must be conceded that alcohol is not capable of 
 fulfilling either of the important indications presented in the 
 treatment of typhoid fever as stated above. Nevertheless, the 
 advocates of its use apparently recognize but two ideas or 
 factors in these cases, namely, the popularly inherited assump- 
 tion that alcohol is a stimulant, and as the patient is in danger 
 from nervous and cardiac weakness, therefore the alcohol must 
 
222 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 be given, pro re nata without the slightest regard to the exist- 
 ing causes of the weakness, or the modus operandi of the so- 
 called stimulant. v 
 
 "This is proved by the fact that they group together as- 
 stimulants, and give to the same patient in alternate doses, 
 remedies of directly antagonistic action, as alcohol and strych- 
 nine, or digitalis, etc. 
 
 " The accepted definition of a stimulant in medical literature, 
 is some agent capable of exciting or increasing vital activity as 
 a whole, or the natural activity of some one structure or organ. 
 
 "For instance, both clinical and experimental observations 
 show that strychnine directly increases the functional activity of 
 the respiratory, cardiac and vasomotor nervous systems, and 
 thereby increases the internal distribution of oxygen, which is- 
 nature's own special exciter of all vital action. Therefore it is 
 properly a direct respiratory, cardiac and vasomotor stimulant 
 and indirectly a stimulator of all vital processes. But the same 
 kind of clinical and experimental observations show that 
 alcohol directly diminishes the functional activity of all nerve 
 structures, pre-eminently those of respiration and circulation, 
 and also of all metabolic processes, whether respirative, disin- 
 tegrative or secretory. Consequently it not only acts as directly 
 antagonistic to strychnine, but equally so to all true stimulants 
 or remedies capable of increasing vital activity. Instead, there- 
 fore, of meriting the name of stimulant, alcohol should be des- 
 ignated and used only as an anaesthetic and sedative, or 
 depressor of vital activity. 
 
 " And a thorough and impartial investigation will show that its 
 use in the treatment of typhoid and other fevers, while deceiv- 
 ing both physician and patient, by its anaesthetic effect in dimin- 
 ishing restlessness, both prolongs the duration and increases 
 the ratio of mortality of the disease, by its impairment of vital 
 activity in the organizable elements of both blood and tissues." 
 
 Equally interesting is the following outline of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 223 
 
 treatment pursued by Dr. W. H. Riley, now super- 
 intendent of a sanitarium in Colorado. 
 
 " The purpose of the present paper is to give briefly an out- 
 line of the method of treatment of typhoid fever as used by the 
 writer in a considerable number of cases. 
 
 " A consideration of the pathology of this disease does not 
 properly come under this head, but we wish simply to call at- 
 tention to the well-known fact that typhoid fever is a germ 
 disease. The germ which causes this fever has generally been 
 supposed to be the bacillus of Eberth. More recent bacterio- 
 logical studies rather indicate that the bacillus coli may also 
 cause the disease. These germs are usually carried into the 
 body in food or drink, and, lodging in the small intestines, be- 
 gin to grow and multiply, and by their life produce poisonous 
 ptomaines which are absorbed and carried by the circulation to 
 all the organs and tissues of the body. 
 
 " It is these ptomaines, thus carried to all parts of the body, 
 that are largely the immediate cause of the pyrexia and attend- 
 ing symptoms. The organisms which produce these poisons 
 for the most part remain in the intestines, although they have 
 been found in the spleen. 
 
 " The indications for treatment are : — 
 
 "1. To remove or destroy the cause (to eliminate the germs 
 and ptomaines from the body). 
 
 " 2. To sustain the vital and resisting powers of the patient. 
 
 " If the patient is seen early in the disease, it has been my 
 practice to immediately put him to bed and give a free dose of 
 magnesium sulphate. This is preferably given in the morning 
 or forenoon, and may be repeated once or twice on successive 
 days. Besides this the patient should have a large enema of 
 water at a temperature of from 75 to 8o° F. ; and this may be 
 repeated daily or even oftener, for some time, if necessary, to 
 keep the bowels empty of the poisonous substances. 
 
224 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The salines and enemas thus used carry out bodily a large 
 number of germs and ptomaines that are present in the intest- 
 ines; and further, the salines, by producing an increased 
 secretion of the mucous membrane of the intestines, tend to 
 disentangle and set free many of the germs that have found a 
 lodging place in the walls of the intestines. 
 
 " For the elimination of the ptomaines which have been ab- 
 sorbed into the circulation and carried to the tissues, nothing is 
 better than the internal use of water. From three to five pints 
 should be drunk during every twenty-four hours. It should be 
 taken in small quantities — six to eight ounces every hour or two 
 during waking hours, except when food is taken. I will refer 
 to this point more in detail later. 
 
 " A consideration of the general care of the patient properly 
 comes under the second head of the indications for treatment as 
 given above. The patient should be put to bed in a large, light, 
 well-ventilated room. At least two sides of the room should 
 communi'cate directly by windows with out-of-doors, in order 
 that the room may be properly ventilated. 
 
 " All unnecessary articles of furniture, such as carpets, 
 couches, upholstered chairs, pictures, etc. should be removed. 
 
 " The room should be thoroughly cleaned before the patient 
 is put into it. 
 
 " There should be two beds in the room for the use of the 
 patient. These should be, preferably, narrow and so placed in 
 the room that there is a free approach to both sides of the bed, 
 for the convenience of the nurse in giving treatment. Iron bed- 
 steads are preferable to wooden. The bedding should be firm, 
 yet soft and smoothly drawn. There should be just sufficient 
 covering to protect the body. The patient should be changed 
 from one bed to the other daily. This may be done by placing 
 the two beds side by side and carefully moving the patient 
 from one to the other. The sheets on the bed from which the 
 patient has been taken should be washed and disinfected at 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 225 
 
 each change of the beds, and all other bedding should be thor- 
 oughly aired and exposed to the sunlight daily. 
 
 " The patient should have the care of a thoroughly educated, 
 careful and competent nurse, one who understands perfectly 
 the various methods of using water in the treatment of fevers. 
 
 " There is no other single remedy that I consider so valuable 
 in the treatment of fever as the internal use of water. As 
 above stated, the patient should drink six or eight ounces every 
 hour during the waking hours, except for about two hours after 
 food is taken. The water should be thoroughly sterilized, and 
 as a rule may be taken either cool or hot. Ice water is objec- 
 tionable. Hot water is often preferable. This is a simple 
 remedy, but nevertheless is efficacious. It should be given to 
 the patient whether he calls for it or not, and it should be con- 
 sidered an important part of his treatment. When water is 
 taken into the stomach and absorbed into the circulation, it 
 throws into solution the ptomaines which have been absorbed 
 from the intestines and are present in the circulation and tissues, 
 and thereby puts them in a favorable condition for elimination. 
 It increases the activity of the kidneys, and thus hastens and 
 increases the elimination of the poisons in the system. 
 
 "In the early stage of the fever, when the pulse is full, and 
 the action of the heart increased, it is best to give the patient 
 cool water. Later in the disease, when the action of the heart 
 is weak, and the patient feeble, it is best to give the water hot. 
 
 " Winternitz, many years ago, demonstrated that hot water 
 taken into the stomach acts as a cardiac stimulant, and the in- 
 creased heart's action is immediate, or at least before the water 
 has time to absorb, which indicates that the water in the stom- 
 ach acts reflexly as a cardiac stimulant. The water after ab- 
 sorption also increases the circulation by filling the blood-vessels, 
 and increasing arterial pressure. The writer has frequently 
 noticed a decided increase in the fullness, and rapidity of the 
 pulse, after a patient has drunk a glassful of hot water. 
 
226 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The external use of water also forms an important part of 
 the treatment. The patient should be sponged off with tepid 
 water every hour or two when the temperature is 103 , or above. 
 When the temperature is less than this, it is not necessary to 
 sponge the body so frequently. Sometimes a hot sponge bath 
 is more efficacious in reducing the temperature than the tepid 
 or cool bath. The sponge bath reduces the temperature, re- 
 lieves many of the distressing nervous symptoms, is refreshing 
 to the patient, and promotes sleep. The temperature of the 
 body may also be reduced by the use of cool compresses placed 
 over the abdomen, and changed frequently. 
 
 " The matter of diet is an important factor in the treatment 
 of typhoid fever. The diet should be aseptic, easily digested, 
 and should contain the necessary food elements. Probably no 
 one article of diet meets all these requirements as well as 
 sterilized milk. The patient should take from two to three 
 pints daily. The milk is best taken four times during the day 
 at intervals of four hours, taking eight to ten ounces at a time. 
 Should the patient become tired of the milk, gluten gruel may 
 be substituted for the milk. 
 
 " The diarrhoea and bowel symptoms, when present, may be 
 relieved by the application of hot fomentations to the abdomen, 
 warm or hot enemas and twenty grains of subnitrate of bis- 
 muth given every four hours. 
 
 " The patient should be kept as quiet as possible, and should 
 be turned in bed at intervals, to prevent hypostatic congestion 
 and the formation of bed-sores. The bony prominences which 
 are apt to become eroded should be sponged frequently with a 
 solution of tannic acid in equal parts of alcohol and water ; 
 a dram of the tannic acid to a pint of alcohol and water, is 
 about the proper strength to use. 
 
 By the methods briefly outlined above — that is by the free 
 use of water internally and externally, by keeping the intestines 
 thoroughly emptied of poisonous material by the free and 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. , 227 
 
 frequent use of enemas, by proper feeding and the careful 
 attention of a good nurse to the patient and his surroundings 
 — the duration of the fever may be shortened and the severity 
 of the disease lessened ; heart failure, and other complications 
 will seldom occur, and the patient will in nearly every instance 
 make a good recovery. The best method to pursue to prevent 
 heart failure is to keep the poisons which are generated in the 
 bowels and absorbed into the body, and which are the 
 direct cause of the heart failure, eliminated from the body. 
 Should the heart become weak, it may be effectually stimulated 
 by giving hot water to drink, applying heat to the heart in the 
 form of a fomentation, and the application of fomentations to 
 the upper spine. 
 
 " In the treatment of a large number of cases of typhoid fever, 
 extending over several years' practice, the writer has never 
 made use of alcohol internally to support the action of the 
 heart, or for any other purpose. 
 
 " The number of cases of death from typhoid fever coming 
 under the writer's observation, where the method of treatment 
 pursued has been similar to that briefly indicated above, have 
 been very few, a much smaller per cent, than in practice where 
 alcohol has been used as a ' cardiac stimulant.' I believe that 
 the use of alcohol in the treatment of typhoid fever is not only 
 useless, but absolutely harmful." 
 
 Dr. Kate Lindsay, of Battle Creek Sanitarium and 
 Hospital, contributed an article upon Typhoid Fever 
 to the Bulletin of the A. M. T. A. for January, 
 1896, from which a few notes are here taken : — 
 
 "The chief toxic centre is evidently the intestinal tract, 
 especially the termination of the ileum. The ulcerations, 
 necroses, perforations and hemorrhages are most frequently 
 found in the last twelve inches of the small intestine, and may 
 extend into the large intestine. The ulcerated surface and 
 open vessels increase the facility with which the poison finds 
 
228 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 entrance into the circulation. The microbes, blood clots, 
 necrosed tissue and pus, furnish abundant supplies of toxic 
 matter, which, saturating the system, over-power and stop the 
 activity of the functions of all the organs of the body, causing 
 degeneration of tissues. Death is said to take place from 
 heart, lung or brain failure, but the failure involves every other 
 organ as well. 
 
 " Regarding the intestinal tract as any other abscess at this 
 time, the physician should seek for methods of treatment 
 or remedies which will remove the morbid matters, and 
 destroy, or at least inhibit their action, thus decreasing the 
 fever and stimulating the circulation. Secondary toxic centres 
 often develop in the course of this disease, notably in the 
 glands, lungs and dependent organs, the hypostatic congestion 
 resulting from lying in one position, causing stasis of blood, 
 death and necrosis of tissue, both of the external and internal 
 organs. All vessels connected with the dying tissues carry 
 toxins to other parts of the body. Suppurating glands, and phle- 
 bitis of the femoral veins are examples of this secondary infect- 
 ion, and are accountable for the heart failure and collapse so 
 often fatal during the second, third and fourth weeks of typhoid, 
 fever ' ** ' * 
 
 " The old idea that in peristaltic action lay the great danger of 
 increase of the hemorrhage and perforation of the bowels, is 
 giving way to the more rational view that gaseous distention 
 and septic absorption, are what bring about fatal results from 
 these complications, and that the moderate peristalsis of the 
 intestinal walls lessens these dangers by closing the gaping ends 
 of the injured vessels, and expelling the septic matter and foul 
 gases. To meet these indications I have found lavage of the 
 bowels, even during hemorrhage, with water of 105 to no° F. 
 or even hotter, given in moderate quantity of from one pint to 
 three, to give great relief by freeing the large intestines of blood 
 clots, fecal matter and other morbid matter. It also increases 
 peristaltic action in the small intestines, thus favoring the expul- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 229 
 
 sion of gas. The heat stimulates the circulation in the periph- 
 eral vessels of the intestines, and overcomes the tendency, to 
 blood stasis. 
 
 "In the cases cited, ice-bags, alternated with fomentations, 
 were used over the abdomen externally, and heat, or hot and 
 cold, to spine. The extremities were kept warm. From ten to 
 thirty minims of turpentine, in an ounce of gum acacia or starch 
 water, increased the efficiency of the enemata, and aided in ex- 
 pelling the gas and checking hemorrhage. 
 
 " The tendency to hypostatic congestion and bed-sores, was 
 prevented by frequent change of position, and the use of hot and 
 cold to the spine by fomentations and compresses, or better 
 still, hot fine spraying, or the alternate hot and cold spray. In 
 one grave case, spraying was kept up for about twelve hours, 
 with only short intermissions. The heart was stimulated by 
 heat applied over it, whenever depression and collapse threat- 
 ened, and by hot and cold sponging of the spine." 
 
 Dr. Noble said some time, ago in the London 
 Times : — 
 
 " Although it is true that alcohol is an antipyretic, yet its ex- 
 hibition neither shortens nor modifies (favorably) the diseases 
 of which the fever is but a symptom. The paralysis of the 
 brain which is so frequent a cause of death in typhoid fever, is 
 more often brought about by alcohol than any other cause, and 
 more than one woman suffering from puerperal fever has been 
 done to death by the administration of this substance, which, 
 not being convenient er naturae, is contra naturam." 
 
 J. S. Cain, M. D., in an able paper, read at the 
 Nashville Academy of Medicine, on " Rational Sug- 
 gestions in the Treatment of Typhoid Fever," dis- 
 sents from the practice, which still obtains largely 
 in the medical profession, of administering alcoholic 
 
230 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 liquors, in the belief that they are "stimulants, con- 
 servators of force and even nutrients," and says : — 
 
 " After a careful and thoughtful study of this subject, I have 
 reluctantly, and against firm early convictions, been forced to the 
 conclusion that these theories with regard to the beneficial ef- 
 fects of alcohol in disease are wholly fallacious. The only ra- 
 tional conclusion at which I can arrive is that the agent is ever, 
 and under all circumstances, a depressor of temperature ; that 
 it arrests the physiological interchange of carbonic acid gas and 
 oxygen in the tissues, as well as in the air vesicles of the 
 lungs ; that it impedes the elimination of tissue waste, and 
 causes the accumulation of this refuse in the system ; that it is 
 lethal anaesthetic in all quantities ; that it is not stimulant in the 
 true sense, and never exerts that influence ; and that it supplies 
 no element to the diseased and vitiated system calculated to 
 antagonize disease, repair waste, or invigorate lowered vital 
 forces, and therefore for these purposes is not called for in the 
 rational treatment of typhoid fever." 
 
 At the annual meeting of the American Medical 
 Association held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1896, Dr. 
 G. B. Garber, of Dunkirk, Ind., read a paper upon 
 "Alcohol in Typhoid Fever " from which a few 
 points are here taken : — 
 
 " The fact that the mortality from typhoid fever seems to be 
 gradually lowering is no doubt due in great measure to the 
 . non-use of alcohol in the treatment of the disease. Hardly a 
 week passes that some of our journals do not report a series of 
 cases treated without the aid of alcohol in any form. I used 
 alcohol in the 'treatment of the disease until two years ago, 
 when I became alarmed at the mortality; so I changed my 
 plan, and in 1894 I treated thirty-seven well marked cases of 
 varying degrees of intensity. I had two fatal cases, and in both 
 of them I had used alcohol. In 1895 I treated thirty cases of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 23 1 
 
 about the same type, with no death. I only used alcohoi in 
 one of them, and it caused me more trouble than any of the 
 others. As this case was in the family of a saloon-keeper, I 
 could not control the matter, as they would give it during my 
 absence. On my return I would find the face flushed, the 
 temperature high, the pulse rapid and the patient nervous. 
 By close inquiry I would find that some of the family had 
 given ' just a little good whisky ' which had been in the house 
 for twenty years. 
 
 " In closing, I wish to state that I am well convinced that in 
 the treatment of typhoid fever our patients will do better and 
 stand a greater chance of recovery, if we abstain entirely from 
 the use of alcohol in the treatment of the disease." 
 
 Prof. J. Burney Yeo, of London, in a paper read 
 before the International Medical Congress held at 
 Rome, Italy, said : — 
 
 " In order to maintain the intestinal antisepsis which forms 
 an essential part of this method of treatment, I insist on the 
 necessity of scrupulous attention and caution in feeding patients 
 suffering from enteric fever, great danger arising from a failure 
 to note the extremely limited digestive and absorptive capacity 
 exhibited by such patients. 
 
 " In conclusion, the use of alcoholic stimulants, and the 
 common employment of depressing antipyretic agents, must be 
 condemned." 
 
 In a report of the treatment of typhoid fever by 
 seventy-two physicians of Connecticut, thirty-eight 
 declared that they did not use alcohol in any stage 
 of this disease. The remainder used it sparingly in 
 the last stages, and only two considered it valuable 
 from the beginning of the disease. 
 
 In a discussion of typhoid fever by a medical 
 
232 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 society meeting in Rochester, N. Y., recently, sixty 
 physicians being present, only three spoke in favor 
 of using alcohol in this disease. 
 
 Hygienic physicians all insist upon a rigid fast as 
 long as the high temperature continues, or until the 
 patient is sufficiently hungry to eat a piece of plain, 
 stale, graham bread, " dry upon the tongue." Dr. 
 Charles E. Page of Boston says there would be 
 very few relapses if this plan were carefully carried 
 out. He contends that the whisky and milk diet, 
 together with the not over-fresh air of the average 
 sick room is enough to produce fever in a healthy 
 person, hence is not likely to be conducive to re- 
 covery in one already infected with the disease. 
 
 In an article in the Arena of September, 1892, Dr. 
 Page says : — 
 
 " In my fever practice I have frequently observed the effect 
 of fasts of six, eight, ten and twelve days to be in the highest 
 degree productive of the health and comfort of patients, as, on 
 the other hand I have, during the past twenty years observed 
 the deplorable effects of the almost universal plan of constant 
 feeding. In some of the most distressing cases that have 
 happened to be thrown in my way, when all hope in the minds 
 of friends had been abandoned, I have found that withdrawal of 
 food, drugs and stimulants, and the substitution of simple, fresh, 
 soft water, has produced results that seemed almost miracu- 
 lous." 
 
 Fruit juices are now permitted by many physi- 
 cians in fever, a few drops of lemon or orange 
 juice, being a grateful addition to the water. Grape 
 juice, unfermented, is highly recommended by some. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 23$ 
 
 A young minister of great promise died recently 
 of typhoid fever. His young wife, only one year 
 married, is in settled melancholy, because she cannot 
 understand why " God took her husband." Inquiry 
 developed the fact that the physician in attendance 
 was a believer in alcohol as a remedy, and used it 
 in this case. In view of the better chances of 
 recovery under non-alcoholic treatment shown by 
 comparative death-rates, may it not be that the 
 alcohol was responsible for the young man's death, 
 instead of its being " God's will to take him ? " 
 The Author of all good has too frequently been 
 held responsible for the errors of physicians, and 
 the carelessness of nurses. 
 
 Vomiting :— " If the vomiting is due to undigested food, 
 and the sickness can be traced to excess, or to improper diet, 
 draughts of hot water should be taken in order to be rid of 
 offending matter in the stomach. After the stomach is empty- 
 bits of ice may be sucked, or cold water sipped. A quarter of 
 a Seidlitz powder may be taken. A flannel, folded to four 
 thicknesses, dipped in hot water, and wrung dry in a towel, 
 may be applied to the pit of the stomach. Cover the flannel 
 with a hot plate, being careful to have the flannel large enough 
 to prevent the plate's burning the skin. Pin a dry towel over 
 all, around the body. This may be renewed every half-hour or 
 hour, as required. Sometimes a cold wet compress on the pit 
 of the stomach, covered with a dry towel is more efficacious, 
 heat developing by reaction. Fluid magnesia is often helpful." 
 — Dr. Ridge. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ALCOHOL AND NURSING MOTHERS. i 
 
 It frequently happens that the nursing mother 
 is unable by reason of defective digestive apparatus, 
 or imperfect assimilative powers, to supply suffi- 
 cient nourishment for her babe. In such case she 
 is often advised to drink ale or beer. It is true 
 that these liquors will excite the secretions of the 
 mammary gland, but it is increase in quantity, not 
 in quality, for the milk is impoverished by the ad- 
 ded water and alcohol, taken in the beer. Milkmen 
 sometimes salt cows heavily so that they will drink 
 largely of water, and thus give more milk, but one 
 quart of good, rich milk is worth three quarts of the 
 poor, thin stuff resulting from such method. It is 
 proper feeding, and care, that ensure good milk. 
 
 When.women complain that they are unable to 
 nurse their babies the cause is often an error in 
 diet. Too great reliance is put upon meat as 
 strength-giving. While meat, used in moderation, 
 may be valuable to many persons, the nursing 
 mother should not depend upon it to any great ex- 
 tent. She will find farinaceous foods, with plenty 
 of warm milk, what she most requires. At bed- 
 234 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 235 
 
 time she should have a bowl of well-cooked oat- 
 meal gruel, diluted with rich milk, and sweetened, 
 if she prefer it so. The milk should be added to 
 the gruel while it is boiling, as it digests more read- 
 ily if scalded. People who cannot, or think they 
 cannot, take milk of itself, often find it easy to di- 
 gest it, after it is scalded in the gruel. Anything 
 that a mother can do in the way of nourishing her 
 babe will be done upon such a diet, that is, farina- 
 ceous foods and milk. Sweet fruits are of course 
 valuable also, as tending to keep the system in 
 good order. 
 
 It is well to bear in mind that it is not the quan- 
 tity of food eaten, but that which is digested, and 
 assimilated, that goes to build up the tissues of the 
 body. So the habit of eating between meals is 
 pernicious, as it disturbs the digestive processes, 
 and robs the stomach of much-needed rest. This 
 habit is the cause, in many cases, of the falling off 
 in the milk after the first month or two. 
 
 As nourishment for both mother and babe can 
 come from food only, good appetite, and good di- 
 gestion are essential to health and strength. The 
 very best help towards gaining a good appetite is 
 exercise in the open air. All mothers recognize 
 the need of keeping their little ones out of doors a 
 while every day, but all do not see the necessity of 
 the same mode of life for themselves. Dr. Nathan 
 S. Davis has said : " I have persuaded thousands of 
 mothers to try fresh air, instead of \vi • or beer, 
 
236 . ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 with gratifying results." The mother who takes 
 her babe out, herself, for its daily airing, is laying 
 up stores of health and vitality, to aid her in provid-. 
 ing for the needs of the little one, dependent upon 
 her. 
 
 Good digestion is as essential as good appetite. 
 Alcohol, whether in beer, wine, whisky, or any 
 other form, is injurious to the stomach, and a hin- 
 derer of digestion, hence must do harm, rather than 
 good, to the mother in search of added nourishment 
 for her babe. 
 
 Dr. Condi says : — 
 
 " The only drink of the nurse should be water or milk. All 
 fermented and distilled liquors, as well as strong tea and coffee, 
 she should strictly abstain from. Never was there a more ab- 
 surd or pernicious notion than that wine, ale or porter is nec- 
 essary to a nursing mother in order to keep up her strength, or 
 to increase the quantity, and improve the properties of her milk. 
 So far from producing these effects, such drinks, when taken in 
 any quantity, invariably disturb more or Jess the health of the 
 stomach, and tend to impair the quality, and diminish the quan- 
 tity, of nourishment furnished by her to her infant." 
 
 Dr. William Hargreaves says : — 
 
 " Every farmer knows that all a healthy cow requires to give 
 good milk and butter is, to give her good feed, and pure water; 
 and he also knows that the way to make a cow give poor 
 watery milk, which they might churn until doomsday without 
 obtaining butter, is to feed her on distillery slops, or grains 
 from the brewery. It is also well known that cheese cannot be 
 made from such milk, it being deficient in curd, or casein. 
 
 " Alcohol is not only useless but injurious ; for children 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 237 
 
 whose mothers try to keep themselves upon beer, etc., very 
 frequently suffer from vomiting and diarrhoea, and often from 
 convulsions. Sometimes a single glass of whisky, taken by the 
 mother, will produce sickness and indigestion in the child, for 
 twenty-four hours after. 
 
 " In the milk of a healthy woman the water ranges from 879 
 to 905 parts in 1,000. The oily substance ranges from 25 to 
 42 ; casein from 15 to 39; sugar of milk from 31 to 45, and the 
 salts from 1 to 4 parts in 1,000. 
 
 " Alcoholic drinks materially alter these proportions, for, on 
 the analysis of the milk of the same woman, a few hours before 
 and after the use of a pint of beer, it was found that the alcohol 
 increases the proportion of the water, and diminishes that of 
 casein ; and that alcohol is very perceptible in it." 
 
 " The only rational way to be adopted by mothers to increase 
 the supply of nutrition for their infants, is to secure plenty of 
 suitable nutritious food, prepared in the way that will most fit 
 it for digestion, while they at the same time, avoid as far as 
 possible all fatigue, and mental excitement. It is impossible 
 that alcoholic beverages can add anything to the nutrition of 
 either the infant or mother." — Dr. Bussey, in Stimulants for 
 Nursing Mothers. 
 
 Dr. E. G. Figg, in The Physiological Operation of 
 Alcohol, gives the analyses of the milk of a temper- 
 I ate woman in good health, and of a drinking wo- 
 ' man as follows : — 
 
 Milk of temperate mother. Milk of drinking mother. 
 
 Salts, " " 8.50 Salts, •« " 5.50 
 
 Casein, " " 3.0 Casein, " " 2.0 
 
 Oil, " " 7.50 Oil, " " 6.5 
 
 Water, " " 81.0 Water, " " 84,0 
 
 Alcohol, " " 2.0 
 
238 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr. Edward Smith says in his Practical Dietary : — 
 
 " Alcoholics are largely used by many women in the belief 
 that they support the system, and maintain the supply of milk 
 for the infant ; but I am convinced that this is a serious error, 
 and is not an infrequent cause of fits and emaciation in the 
 child." 
 
 Dr. James Edmunds, of the Lying-in Hospital, 
 London, Eng., says in Diet for Ntirsing Mothers : — 
 
 " The nursing mother is peculiarly placed, in that she has to 
 provide a supply of nutriment for the child which is dependent 
 upon her, as well as for the ordinary requirements of her own 
 system. The nutrition of the child is to be provided for upon 
 the same principles, and by the same food-elements, as is the 
 nutrition of the mother, the only difference being that the 
 young child is possessed of less perfect masticatory and diges- 
 tive powers, and therefore requires food to be presented to it 
 in a state more simple, uniform, and readily assimilable than 
 the adult, who is furnished with strong teeth, and possessed of 
 a fully-grown stomach. The mastication, digestion, and primary 
 assimilation of the nursing infant's food is thrown upon the 
 mother's organs ; but the tissues of the child are nourished pre- 
 cisely as are the tissues of the mother, and a nursing mother 
 requires simply to digest a larger supply of wholesome, and 
 appropriate food. As a matter of course mothers with imper- 
 fect teeth, or weak stomachs, cannot perform the digestion of 
 extra food for the infant so well as those mothers who have 
 an abundance of reserve power in their digestive apparatus ; 
 and with such patients, the question arises, how are they to 
 make up for the deficiency which they soon experience in the 
 the supply of milk? Such mothers appeal to their medical 
 advisers to prescribe some stimulant which will enable them to 
 overcome the difficulty which they experience, and often are 
 greatly dissatisfied if informed that there is no drug in the 
 materia medic a which will make up for structural weakness in 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 239 
 
 the organs which masticate, digest or assimilate the food. 
 The proper course for such women to adopt is a simple and 
 rational one. They should assist their digestive apparatus as 
 much as possible by securing an abundance of suitable and 
 nutritious food, prepared in the best way, and as is most digest- 
 ible, while they should lessen the demands of their own system 
 by the avoidance of bodily fatigue, and mental excitement. 
 These means, aided by that philosophical hygiene which is at 
 all times essential to the preservation of pure and perfect 
 health, will enable them to supply a maximum quantity of pure 
 and wholesome milk ; and further calls by the child require 
 proper artificial food. Unfortunately such advice fails to 
 satisfy many anxious mothers who refuse to admit, or believe, 
 that they are less robust, or less capable, than other ladies of 
 their acquaintance, and such mothers fall easy victims to circu- 
 lars vaunting the nourishing properties of. • Hoare's Stout,' 
 ' Tanqueray's Gin,' or Gilbey's * strengthening Port,' circulars 
 which are always backed up by the example, and advice, of 
 lady friends, who themselves have acquired the habit of using 
 these liquors, and who view as a reproach to themselves the 
 practice of any other lady who may not keep them in counte- 
 nance, as the perfection of all moral and physical propriety. 
 Unfortunately the pressure of such lady friends is often so 
 persistent as to paralyse the influence of a conscientious and 
 thoughtful medical adviser, while the appetites and beliefs of 
 such friends often throw them into active antagonism to any 
 medical adviser, who may not endorse the habits in which, as 
 they believe, and no doubt conscientiously, duty to their child 
 requires them to indulge. The only course that a medical 
 practitioner, whose family is dependent upon his practice, can 
 safely take with veteran mothers on this question, is to let them 
 have their own way without reiterated admonition. When 
 once they have acquired the habit of depending upon large 
 quantities of beer for nursing their children, they become per- 
 fectly infatuated, and are practically incapable of passing 
 through the probationary fortnight which takes place before 
 
24O ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 the digestive apparatus can work under its natural, but to them 
 strange, conditions, while the temporary longing for beer, and 
 the sudden lessening of the quantity of milk afforded by their 
 strained and impoverished systems, are at once set down as clear 
 proofs that their medical adviser is a crochetty, and dangerous 
 person, who must be superseded at the first convenient oppor- 
 tunity. Facts and arguments have no more influence on such 
 mothers than they have upon opium-eaters, drunkards, or 
 inveterate consumers of tobacco ; while the extreme propriety 
 of conduct which these ladies manifest, and the encouragement 
 they receive from other medical men, make the convictions 
 based upon their own personal sensations incontrovertible, and 
 their position practically unassailable. I think I might fairly say 
 that among the comfortable middle classes of society the views 
 at present held on this question are so deplorable that a large 
 proportion of children are never sober from the first moment of 
 their existence until they have been weaned ; while often after a 
 few years the use of alcohol is again introduced to the children 
 as a ' medical comfort,' as a part of their regular diet, or as an 
 invariable accompaniment of all their juvenile visitation, and 
 company-keeping. Under such circumstances, it is not sur- 
 prising that temperance reformers appeal in vain on this ques- 
 tion, and that their facts and arguments are viewed with 
 plausible indifference, or insidious opposition, by persons whose 
 appetites and instincts have been undergoing debasement, and 
 perversion from the very dawn of their lives. My own deliber- 
 ate conviction is that nothing but harm comes to nursing 
 mothers, and to the infants who are dependent upon them, by 
 the ordinary use of alcoholic beverages of any kind. 
 
 " Infants nursed by mothers who drink much beer also be- 
 come fatter than usual, and to an untrained eye sometimes ap- 
 pear as ' magnificent children.' But the fatness of such children 
 is not a recommendation to the more knowing observer ; they 
 are extremely prone to die of inflammation of the chest (bron- 
 chitis) after a few days' illness from an ordinary cold. They 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 24I 
 
 die, very much more frequently than other children, of convul- 
 sions and diarrhoea, while cutting their teeth, and they are very 
 liable to die of scrofulous inflammation of the membranes of the 
 brain, commonly called ' water on the brain,' while their child- 
 hood often presents a painful contrast — in the way of crooked 
 legs, and stunted or ill-shapen figure — to the ' magnificent,' and 
 promising appearance of their infancy. 
 
 "Those ladies who adopt the general views I have thus 
 expressed in relation to the nursing of their children, will 
 want to know what is the ' proper artificial food ' with which 
 to supplement their milk when it is deficient in quantity. With 
 some patients the milk will fall off in quantity at the end of two 
 or three months. With others, although the quantity may not 
 fall off, the child seems unsatisfied ; and there is a third class 
 with whom a profusion of milk is supplied, and the child thrives 
 exceedingly, but the mother gets flabby, weak, nervous, pale and 
 exhausted. In the last case, the mother is simply goaded on 
 by susceptibility of her nervous system, or by inordinate activity 
 of the breasts to yield an amount of milk which her digestive 
 powers are not equal to providing for. The treatment of such 
 cases should be simply repressive. The mother should separate 
 herself somewhat more from the child, and make a rule of only 
 nursing it from five to eight times in the twenty-four hours, 
 while the neck of the mother should be kept cool in regard to 
 dress, and cold sponging may be practiced carefully night and 
 morning. Her attention should be diverted by outdoor exer- 
 cise on foot, and additionally in a carriage if necessary. When 
 the mother's milk, though apparently not deficient in quantity, 
 proves unsatisfying to the child, great attention should be paid 
 to varying the diet of the mother, while such staple foods should 
 be taken as are most easily and thoroughly assimilated into milk. 
 The unsatisfying quality of the milk will generally be remedied 
 by taking a more varied diet, together with three or four half 
 pints of milk in the course of the day, accompanied with farina- 
 ceous matter, as in the shape of well-made milk gruel ; and in 
 
242 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 case these measures fail, the only alternative is to supplement 
 the mother's milk by obtaining a wet-nurse to suckle the child 
 three or four times a day alternately with the mother, or by 
 feeding the child with proper artificial food. The same meas- 
 ures may be resorted to where the milk, though satisfying in 
 character, is deficient in quantity; and in preparing artificial 
 food for the child it must always be remembered that the food 
 requires to be adapted to the stage of development which is 
 manifested by a young infant's digestive organs. The infant's 
 digestive apparatus is, in fact, designed to digest milk, and to 
 digest nothing else, but when the teeth are cut farinaceous mat- 
 ter of a more or less solid character should be gradually mixed 
 with the milk. Almost all the illnesses of infants under twelve 
 months of age are caused by some gross impropriety of diet, or 
 otherwise, on the part of the mother, for which the child suffers 
 through the medium of the milk, or they are caused by feeding 
 the child with improper artificial food. Thick sop, and many 
 other articles often given as food are as indigestible to an infant 
 of three months old as beefsteaks would be to a horse ; and, un- 
 til the child has cut its teeth, it should have nothing but food 
 resembling the mother's milk as closely as possible. 
 
 " The proper way to feed an infant of three months old, 
 whose mother is only able to partially support it, is as follows : 
 When the child wakes in the morning it should not go to the 
 mother, but should be taken away by the nurse, and immedi- 
 ately fed from the bottle, sucking its milk through a suitable 
 teat. After the mother has breakfasted the child may go to the 
 breast, and during the day it should be alternately fed from the 
 bottle, and nursed by the mother. At six o'clock the baby 
 should invariably be placed in its crib, by the side of the moth- 
 er's bed, and fed just before going to sleep, and the habit of 
 going to bed at six o'clock should be strictly and invariably en- 
 forced. If once the child be allowed to come down to the fam- 
 ily circle after dark, the habit of going to sleep will be broken, 
 and the child will continuously cry to come down. In the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 243 
 
 course of the evening the mother may nurse the child once, and 
 at ten or eleven o'clock, when the mother goes to bed, the child 
 should be again fed from the bottle, and the mother should have 
 a basin of well-made milk-gruel ; and by her bedside should be 
 placed, at the last moment, as much gruel as she is likely to 
 drink with relish during the night. Whenever the child is 
 restless it should be taken out of its crib, gently, by the mother, 
 and nursed, say two or three times during the night, and put 
 back again into its crib, the child never being allowed to sleep 
 with the mother. When the night is fairly over, and the child 
 awakens, it should be fetched by the nurse, and have its first 
 morning meal from the bottle. This plan of feeding should be 
 persisted in continuously until the child has cut its teeth ; and it 
 is only when every means have been taken to ensure the sweet- 
 ness, freshness and niceness, not only of the milk and water, 
 but of the bottle and of the teat, and the child still fails to get 
 on, that, in rare cases, I advise the admixture of a little farina- 
 ceous matter, in the way of food containing one part milk, and 
 two parts of properly sweetened barley-water. As the milk 
 teeth come through, other farinaceous matter may be gradually 
 blended with the milk, and there is nothing better than to be- 
 gin at about eight months with a teaspoonful of baked flour, 
 well boiled in a pint of milk and water, or in the water, to be 
 afterwards cooled with milk. Oftentimes a little salt, as well as 
 sugar, will materially help its digestion. The child will do well 
 on that food— the quantity being duly increased— until it has 
 cut almost all its milk teeth, when it may eat bread and butter, 
 rice, and egg puddings, and occasionally eat a tfoiled egg once 
 a day. I believe that it is a great mistake to give red flesh meat 
 to children in their early years, unless there be some very special 
 reason for it, and then it should only be temporarily used ; but 
 nice potatoes, flavored with fresh gravy from a joint, may be 
 given at dinner, as the child becomes able to feed itself. * * * * * 
 " Bear in mind that when you take wine, beer or brandy, you 
 are distilling that wine, beer or brandy into your child's body. 
 
244 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Probably nothing could be .worse than to have the very fabric of 
 the child's tissues laid down from alcoholized blood." 
 
 Another English physician deplores " the perni- 
 cious habit of drinking large quantities of ale or stout 
 by nursing mothers, under the idea that they thereby 
 increase and improve the secretion of milk, whereas 
 they are in reality deteriorating the quality of that 
 upon which the infant must depend for health and 
 life." 
 
 Dr. Edis says : — 
 
 " Infant mortality is mainly due to two causes, the substitu- 
 tion of farinaceous food for milk, and the delusion that ale or 
 beer is necessary as an article of diet for nursing mothers. ***** 
 Countless disorders among infants are due simply and solely 
 to the popular fallacy, that the nursing mother cannot properly 
 fulfil her duties, unless she resorts to the aid of alcoholics. " 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis says : — 
 
 " The opinion prevails quite extensively among certain classes 
 of people, and with some physicians, that a liberal use of beer 
 is beneficial to women while nursing their children. They 
 drink it under the impression that it will both strengthen them 
 and make their milk more abundant. But I have never seen a 
 case in which it had been used regularly for any considerable 
 period of time, where it did not result in more or less indiges- 
 tion from gastric irritation and disordered secretions, and an 
 early failure in the secretion of milk. It probably never in- 
 creases the flow of milk any more than would the drinking of 
 the same quantity of pure water ; while the alcohol it contains, 
 by daily repetition, induces congestion of the gastric mucous 
 membrane, with disordered gastric and hepatic secretions. 
 
 " A case strikingly illustrating these results was examined by 
 me to-day. The patient was a young married woman who was 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 245 
 
 nursing her first child, now nine months old. At the time of 
 her confinement she was in fair health, rather nervous tempera- 
 ment, weight 120 pounds. During the first few days her milk 
 did not flow very freely, and she says her physician advised her 
 to drink beer. Consequently she commenced to drink a glass 
 of beer at each mealtime, and a bottle during the night. Dur- 
 ing the first six months she had sufficient milk for her baby ; 
 but before the end of that time she had begun to suffer from 
 flatulency, constipation, gaseous and acid eructations, what she 
 calls • heart-burn,' and sometimes vomiting. During the last 
 three months she has suffered, in addition to the preceding 
 symptoms, one or two attacks each week of extreme pain, from 
 the lower point of the sternum to the back between the scapula, 
 accompanied by retching, or severe efforts to vomit. To relieve 
 these attacks she has taken liberal doses of gin, in addition to 
 her regular supply of beer. Now at the end of nine months, 
 her milk has nearly ceased to flow, her bowels are costive, her 
 stomach tolerates only small quantities of the simplest nourish- 
 ment, her flesh and strength are very much reduced, her weight 
 being only 96 pounds ; and yet she thinks both the beer and gin 
 make her feel better every time she takes them. Such is the 
 delusive power of the anaesthetic effect of alcohol. A persist- 
 ence in the same management would probably terminate fatally 
 in from six to twelve months more, from chronic gastritis, and 
 inanition. But if she will rigidly abstain from all -alcoholic rem- 
 edies, and take only the most bland, unirritating nourishment, 
 aided by mildly soothing and antiseptic remedies, and fresh air, 
 she will slowly recover." 
 
 In a clinical lecture delivered before the Senior 
 Class in the Northwestern University Medical 
 School, Dr. Davis told of a case similar to the pre- 
 ceding : — 
 
 " The flow of milk in her breasts has also diminished to such 
 a degree that she does not have half enough for her baby. Yet ' 
 
246 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 she says the beer makes her feel better after each drink, and 
 that the gin helps to relieve the severe attacks of pain, and 
 consequently she thinks she could not do without them. It is 
 undoubtedly true that the patient feels temporary relief from 
 the anaesthetic effect of the alcohol in her beer and gin, just as 
 she would from any anaesthetic or narcotic. And it is equally 
 true that so long as the alcohol is present in her blood it so 
 modifies the hemoglobin and albuminous constituents, as to 
 diminish the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, and 
 thereby retards metabolic changes. But the combined influence 
 of the alcohol in retarding the internal distribution of oxygen and 
 the drain upon the nutritive elements of her blood, in furnishing 
 milk for her baby, led to rapid impoverishment of the blood and 
 tissues, and the early establishment of a sufficient grade of gas- 
 tritis to cause indigestion, frequent vomiting, and, later, parox- 
 ysms of severe gastralgia, with general emaciation, and loss of 
 strength. 
 
 " In accordance with the present popular ideas, both in and 
 out of the profession, this patient tells me she has tried a great 
 variety of foods, peptonized, sterilized, and predigested, but all 
 to no purpose. And why ?— Simply because her troubles are 
 not in the kind of food she takes, but in the morbid condition of 
 her blood, and of the mucous membrane and nerves of her 
 stomach. Consequently the rational indications for treatment 
 are : (a) to get her stomach and blood free from the alcohol of 
 beer and gin ; (b) to encourage the reception and internal dis- 
 tribution of oxygen by plenty of fresh air ; (c) to give her the 
 most bland, or unirritating food in small, and frequently repeated 
 doses, of which good milk with lime-water, and milk and wheat- 
 flour gruel are the best ; (d) such medicines as possess suffi- 
 cient antiseptic, and anodyne properties to allay the irritability 
 of the gastric mucous membrane, and lessen fermentation." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 COMPARATIVE DEATH-RATES WITH AND WITHOUT 
 THE USE OF ALCOHOL AS A REMEDY. 
 
 A STUDY of statistics relating to the difference 
 in results of the treatment of disease with and 
 without the use of alcohol, cannot but be of great 
 interest to all students of the alcohol question. 
 The appended statistics are culled mainly from the 
 Medical Pioneer of England, now, Medical Temper- 
 ance Review, the journal of the British Medical Tem- 
 perance Association, and from the Bulletin of the 
 American Medical Temperance Association. 
 
 A paragraph in the British Medical Journal, for 
 Dec. 2, 1893, says: — 
 
 " An interesting fact has been noted by Dr. Claye Shaw, at | 
 the London County Asylum, Banstead, for the Insane. Since 
 the withdrawal of beer from the dietary, the rate of recovery 
 has gone up. During the past year, for example, the recoveries 
 reached 46.97 per cent. Nearly one half of the patients had 
 thus recovered during the period stated. The inmates take 
 their food better without the liquor, and they are thus taught 
 that intoxicants are not a necessity of ordinary health." 
 
 In the Medical Pioneer for January, 1894, Dr. John 
 Mois, medical superintendent of West Haven Infec- 
 
 247 
 
248 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 tious Diseases Hospital, states that prior to 1885 he 
 had treated 2,148 cases of smallpox " in the usual 
 routine method, with the use of alcohol when the 
 heart's action seemed to indicate it ; " resulting in a 
 mortality of 17 per cent. But since 1885 he has 
 treated 700 additional cases under similar circum- 
 stances except that the use of alcoholic preparations 
 was entirely omitted, and the resulting mortality 
 was only 1 1 per cent. 
 
 In the same journal, Dr. J. J. Ridge states that 
 he had treated the 200 cases of scarlet fever ad- 
 mitted into the Enfield Isolation Hospital during 
 the years 1892 and 1893, without alcohol in any 
 form, with a mortality of only 2.5 per cent. ; while 
 the mortality in the hospitals under the Metropoli- 
 tan Asylums Board in 1893, in which alcohol was 
 used in accordance with the usual practice in scar- 
 let fever, was 6.3 per cent. 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge says later : — 
 
 " In January, 1894, I published the result of the treatment of 
 the first 200 cases of scarlatina admitted into the temporary- 
 wards of the Enfield Isolation Hospital during 1892 and 1893. 
 I stated that there had been five fatal cases, but that one was 
 dying when admitted and only lived a few hours. The 
 mortality was 2 per cent., or 2.5 if the later case is included. 
 
 " Since then 300 more cases have been admitted and dis- 
 charged and among these there have been 7 fatal. Hence there 
 have been 14 deaths in 500 consecutive cases extending over a 
 period of a little more than four years. One of these ought 
 to be excluded, no time having been given for treatment. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 249 
 
 Hence the mortality has been just 2.6 per cent. This, I think 
 it will be admitted, is a low mortality, although it is possible it 
 may be even lower when the cases are treated in a permanent 
 hospital about to be erected. 
 
 " It may be interesting to state that 4 of the cases died on 
 the third day after admission ; 1 on the fourth ; 1 on the sixth ; 
 1 on the tenth, with pneumonia ; 1 on the thirteenth ; 1 on the 
 fifteenth ; 1 on the sixteenth ; 1 on the eighteenth ; 1 on the 
 thirty-sixth, with nephritis and pleuropneumonia ; and 1 on the 
 forty-sixth, with otitis and meningitis. 
 
 " All the cases have been treated without alcohol either as 
 food or drug, although many have been of great severity with 
 various complications. It is certain that the absence of alcohol 
 has not been detrimental, since the mortality is less than three- 
 fourths of that of the mortality among all notified cases in Eng- 
 land and Wales. I am bound to say that it is my firm con- 
 viction that had alcohol been given in the usual fashion, the 
 death-rate would have been higher. Cases have been admitted 
 to which alcohol has been given previous to admission, appar- 
 ently with harm, as they have improved without it. One case 
 was particularly noticeable in this respect. A child, aged 6, 
 had had a good deal of whisky, and was supposed to be dying 
 when admitted on the fourth day of the disease, so that the 
 doctor who had seen it was surprised, when he called the fol- 
 lowing day to inquire, to find it was still alive. Without a 
 drop of alcohol it began to improve and made a good recovery. 
 I may say that delirium is very rare, even in the worst cases 
 treated non-alcoholically." 
 
 Dr. Norman Kerr says : — 
 
 " In my paper on ' The Medical Administration of Alcohol,'" 
 read to the section of medicine at the Sheffield meeting in 1876, 
 I cited several medical testimonies in favor of non-alcoholic 
 treatment of fevers, notably that of my friend, the late Dr. 
 Simon Nicolls, who had a mortality of less than 5 per cent, in 
 230 cases. 
 
250 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The record of the results of a greatly lessened administration 
 of alcohol in the treatment of smallpox in the London hospital 
 ships, is of deep interest. Having been requested to inquire 
 into the effects of this diminished alcoholic stimulation on mor- 
 tality and convalescence, Dr. Birdwood stated that though the 
 gravity of the cases had increased, with a mortality of 15 per 
 100 in the metropolis, the ship's death-rate had remained at 
 less than 7 per 100. Convalescence had been more rapid, and 
 there had been fewer and less serious complications from ab- 
 scesses and inflammatory boils. Other causes had contributed 
 to this improvement, but the medical officers attributed a con- 
 siderable share in the amelioration to a greatly diminished pre- 
 scription of alcohol." 
 
 The Medical Pioneer says : — 
 
 " In 1872 there appeared in the Saturday Review an article 
 in which the medical practitioners of this country were accused 
 of inciting their patients to free drinking, and in the discussion 
 which this article called forth, Dr. Gairdner, of Glasgow, said 
 that fever patients in that city, when treated with milk and 
 without alcohol, did much better than those reported as having 
 been treated by Dr. Todd with large doses of alcohol ; the 
 latter resulting in a mortality of about 25 per cent., while those 
 treated by Dr. Gairdner with milk had had a death-rate of 
 only 12 per cent. About this time the British Medical Tem- 
 perance Association was founded, owing to the exertions of 
 Dr. Ridge, of Enfield, and in 1876 it was enrolled, under the 
 presidency of Sir B. W. Richardson. It now contains 269 
 members in England and Wales, 53 in Scotland and 80 in Ire- 
 land, or more than 400 altogether, all professional men and 
 women. This, I think, is but a sign of the change of opinion 
 on the use of alcoholic fluids in medical practice, for all who re- 
 member what medical practice was in London thirty years ago 
 know that the use of wine and brandy in hospital practice was 
 so common that it was quite a rarity in some hospitals to find a 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 25 I 
 
 patient who was not ordered, by some of the staff, from three 
 to four ounces of brandy or six to eight fluid ounces of wine. 
 The expense caused to the hospitals by this practice was, of 
 course, great, and increased notably between 1852 and 1872, 
 owing to the prevalence of the views of Liebig and his follower, 
 Dr. Todd. The writings of Parkes, Gairdner, Dr. Norman 
 Kerr and of Sir B. Ward Richardson, Dr. Morton and others, 
 gradually lessened this predilection for treating diseases by al- 
 cohol, and accordingly between 1872 and 1882 a great change 
 came over the practice of London hospitals. Thus the sum 
 paid for milk in 1852 in Saint Bartholomew's Hospital was 
 ^684, and in 1882 it was £2,012 ; whilst alcohol in that hospital 
 cost in 1852, ^406; in 1862, ^1,446 ; in 1872, ^1,446 ; and in 
 1882 only ^653. Westminster Hospital in 1882 spent ^137 on 
 alcohol and ^500 on milk. One hospital, St. George's, long 
 continued to *jse large quantities of alcohol. That hospital in 
 1872 had the high mortality among its typhoid fever patients of 
 24 per cent., which was twice as high as that noted by Dr. 
 Gairdner as occurring in Glasgow, when alcohol was aban- 
 doned and milk used instead. Dr. Meyer, who reported these 
 cases of typhoid treated in Saint George's Hospital at that time, 
 mentioned that alcohol in large doses was given to 87 per cent, 
 of the patients. Three-fifths of these patients took daily eight 
 ounces of brandy when there was danger of sinking from fail- 
 ure of the heart's action. One-fourth of the number took six- 
 teen fluid ounces of brandy in the 24 hours." 
 
 " In 230 typhoid cases in St. Mary's Hospital, Dr. Chambers 
 reduced the ratio of deaths from 1 in 5 with alcohol to 1 in 40 
 without it. Dr. Perry, of Glasgow, found that of 534 cases 
 treated with alcohol, 138 died, while of 491 treated without al- 
 cohol, only 9 died." 
 
 In a recent text-book on medicine occurs the 
 following: — 
 
 " English physicians use spirits in fevers, and all experience 
 
252 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 sustains the conviction that no substitute has been found for 
 them." 
 
 In a late number of the Temperance Record, Dr. 
 Smith gives a different view of the experience of 
 English physicians : — 
 
 "When Bentley Todd was at King's College, and leading 
 his profession, brandy was the rule in febrile cases. Then the 
 mortality varied from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. 
 That the treatment was as fatal as the disease, experience 
 demonstrates : — 
 
 " i. Professor W. T. Gairdner, of Glasgow, writing to the 
 Lancet (1864), gave his experience as follows : — 
 
 Fever cases treated. Average of wine and spirits. Mortality. 
 
 1,829 34 oz. to each 17.69 per cent. 
 
 595 i\ oz. to each 11.93 per cent. 
 
 212 none 1 death only, 
 (young lives) 
 
 " These were mostly typhus cases, but the rationale, so far as 
 alcohol is concerned, is the same as in typhoid. 
 
 " 2. At the British Medical Association in 1879, Professor H. 
 MacNaughton Jones gave particulars ot 340 cases of typhus, 
 typhoid and simple fever. I append a summary : — 
 
 Cases. Deaths. Mortality 
 
 per cent. 
 
 Given brandy 58 19 32.7 
 
 Given claret 51 2 3.8 
 
 Given no alcohol 231 4 1.7 
 
 " 3. Dr. J. C. Pearson writes to the Lancet (Dec. 5 and 26, 
 1891), giving his experience of typhoid. He had treated sev- 
 eral hundreds of cases without a single death, and never'pre- 
 scribed stimulants in any shape or form in the disease. 
 
 "4. Dr. Knox Bond writes to the Lancet (Nov. 25, 1893), 
 giving his experience of typhoid at the Liverpool Fever Hospital. 
 He says : ' Asa resident for some years in the fever hospitals, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 253 
 
 my views of the value of alcohol in fever underwent, solely as a 
 result of the experience there gained, entire modification. The 
 conviction became forced upon my mind that in no case in 
 which it was used did benefit to the patient ensue ; that in a 
 proportion of cases its use was distinctly hurtful ; and that in a 
 small but appreciable number of cases the resultant harm was 
 sufficient to tilt the balance as against the recovery of the 
 patient.' 
 
 " In plain terms, alcohol tended to the destruction of the 
 patients. Dr. Bond's figures are : — ■ 
 
 No. of cases. No. of deaths. 
 
 Given alcohol 71 18 
 
 Given no alcohol 309 15 
 
 380 33 
 
 In May, 1890, Dr. Nathan S. Davis, read a paper 
 before the American Medical Association upon the 
 use of certain drugs in disease. Among the drugs 
 mentioned was alcohol, and comparative death-rates 
 were given in typhoid fever and pneumonia, be- 
 tween Mercy Hospital, Chicago, during a term of 
 years when no alcohol was used in the medical 
 wards, Dr. Davis being in charge of them, and 
 some of the large metropolitan hospitals using alco- 
 hol. In Mercy Hospital without alcohol, the death- 
 rate in typhoid fever was only five per cent. ; in 
 pneumonia only twelve per cent. 
 
 " Of 161 cases of typhoid fever treated in Cook County Hospi- 
 tal during 1889, 27 died, or one in six — nearly 17 ner cent. 
 
 " According to the annual report of the Cincinnati Hospital 
 for 1886, 47 cases of typhoid fever were treated during that 
 year, with seven deaths, a mortality rate of 16 per cent. 
 
254 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The Garfield Memorial Hospital, at Washington, reported for 
 the year 1889, 22 cases of typhoid fever, with 5 deaths — or 22 
 per cent. 
 
 " In the Pennsylvania Hospital the mortality rate in pneumo- 
 nia for the years 1884- 1886, was 34 per cent. 
 
 " The mortality of pneumonia in the Massachusetts General 
 Hospital, between the years 1822 and 1889, comprising 1,000 
 cases, was 25 per cent. ; but a gradual increase in mortality had 
 been noted from 10 per cent, in the first decade of the seventy 
 years represented by this report, to 28 per cent, in the last 
 decade. 
 
 " According to the report of the Supervising Surgeon General 
 of the U. S. Marine Hospital Service for 1888, the number of 
 cases of pneumonia treated between 1880 and 1887 was 1,649, 
 with 311 deaths — nearly 19 percent. 
 
 " The Cincinnati Hospital reported for 1886 a mortality rate 
 in pneumonia of 38 per cent. 
 
 " The mortality rate in the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, 
 for 1889, according to Dr. Heltoin, relating to 80 cases of pneu- 
 monia, was 36 per cent." 
 
 Only a five per cent, death-rate in typhoid fever 
 without alcohol, and from sixteen to twenty-two 
 per cent, with alcohol ; only a twelve per cent, death- 
 rate in pneumonia without alcohol, and from 19 to 
 as high as 38 per cent, with alcohol. Such are the 
 comparative death-rates given by Dr. Davis. They 
 should be committed to memory by every opposer 
 of the use of alcohol, as they show clearly that 
 people have many more chances for recovery, other 
 things being equal, in the diseases mentioned, if 
 alcohol is not used than if it is. 
 
 It is worthy of mention in this connection that 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 25$ 
 
 Cook County Hospital contains in its report for 
 1897 the following items: Number of patients 
 x 9>536 ; cost of liquors $80.00 ; per cent, of deaths 
 from all causes, 5.7. The cost of liquors is only 
 .004 for each patient. This shows a decided ad- 
 vance in the disuse of alcohol, when so very little is 
 used in a great hospital, with so large a number of 
 patients. 
 
 Dr. A. L. Loomis, in the treatmemt of 600 typhus 
 fever cases on Blackwell's Island in 1864, excluded 
 alcoholics, with the result of reducing the mortality 
 rate to only six per cent, whereas it had previously 
 been twenty-two per cent., in Bellevue Hospital 
 from which the patients had been removed. 
 
 In Battle Creek Sanitarium no alcohol is used in 
 any disease, simply because the management be- 
 lieve better results are obtained by the use of other 
 agencies. In the October, (1893) number of the 
 American Medical Temperance Quarterly now Bulle- 
 tin of the A. M. T. A., Dr. J. H. Kellogg gives 
 statistics of deaths from various diseases in the Bat- 
 tle Creek Sanitarium. The total of these statistics 
 is as follows : la grippe, 827 cases, 4 deaths — or two 
 per cent. ; scarlet fever, 83 cases, 2 deaths — less 
 than three per cent. ; 333 cases of typhoid fever, 9 
 deaths — or 2.7 per cent. ; 82 cases of pneumonia, 4 
 deaths — or 4.9 per cent. These exceptional results 
 are not attributed solely to the non-use of alcohol. 
 The nursing and surroundings were of the best. 
 But these results certainly show that the use of 
 
256 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 alcohol as a remedy in acute diseases is not neces- 
 sary, and that patients have a much better chance 
 for life, other things being equal, where alcohol is 
 not used than where it is. 
 
 Dr. Kellogg says of the surgical cases : — 
 " In a hospital of 100 beds, connected with the institution, 
 more than 2,000 surgical cases have been treated, to whom alco- 
 hol has never been administered except in connection with 
 chloroform anaesthesia ; my uniform custom being to adminis- 
 ter an ounce of brandy or whisky five minutes before beginning 
 the administration of the anaesthetic, when chloroform is used. 
 
 " The surgical cases include more than 300 cases of ovariotomy, 
 and over 300 other cases involving the peritoneal cavity, such as 
 operations for strangulated hernia, the radical cure of hernia, 
 etc. The statistics of death and recoveries are certainly as 
 good as can be produced by any hospital in the world, dealing 
 with the same class of cases. The total mortality from the 
 operation of ovariotomy, including nearly 300 cases, is less than 
 three per cent., and for the last few years, in which the antisep- 
 tic measures have been perfected, the record is still better, 
 showing a succession of 172 cases of laparotomy for the re- 
 moval of ovarian tumors, or diseased uterus and ovaries, with- 
 out a death. These cases include a number of hyterectomies, 
 and many cases so desperate that those who trust in alcohol as 
 a heart stimulant, and as a means of supporting the vital ener- 
 gies, would certainly have considered it necessary to resort to 
 the use of this drug. Nevertheless, it was not administered in 
 -a single case, and I have seen no reason to regret its non-use 
 in a single instance." 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., tells the 
 following: — 
 
 " In a large hospital a study of the mortality of pneumonia 
 indicated a greater fatality at intervals of six months. There 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 257 
 
 were five per cent, more deaths during periods of two months 
 at a time, twice during the year. This extended back for two 
 years, and was finally narrowed down to the service of an emi- 
 nent physician who gave spirits freely in all cases of pneumonia 
 from their entrance to the hospital. The other visiting physi- 
 cians gave very little spirits, and only in the later stages. The 
 physician was skeptical of these statistics, but finally consented 
 to test them by giving up spirits practically in all cases of pneu- 
 monia. This was continued for a year, and the mortality went 
 back to the average statistics. That physician has abandoned 
 alcohol as a food and a medicine, only in very limited degree. 
 He writes, ' My stupidity in accepting theories and statements 
 of others, concerning spirits, which I could have tested person- 
 ally, is a source of deep sorrow, and I do not know but it could 
 be called criminal. I certainly feel that punishment would be 
 just." 
 
 Brandy has been considered the great necessity 
 in cholera, yet the use of it and other alcoholics are 
 known to expose people to greater danger when 
 this disease prevails. 
 
 The Bulletin of the A. M. T. A. is authority 
 for the following : — 
 
 "During the epidemic of 1832, Dr. Bronson said : ' In Mon- 
 treal 1,000 persons have died of chofera, only two of whom 
 were teetotalers.' A Montreal paper said : ' Not a drunkard 
 who has been attacked has recovered from the disease, and al- 
 most all the victims have been at least moderate drinkers.' 
 
 "In Albany, N. Y., the same year, cholera carried off 366 per- 
 sons above sixteen years of age, all but four of whom belonged 
 to the drinking classes. Packer, Prentice & Co., large furriers 
 in Albany, employed 400 persons, none of whom used ardent 
 spirits, and there were only two cases of cholera among them. 
 Mr. Delevan, a contractor, said : • I was engaged at the time in 
 
258 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 erecting a large block of buildings. The laborers were much 
 alarmed, and were on the point of abandoning the work. They 
 were advised to stay and give up strong drink. They all re- 
 mained, and all quit the use of strong drink except one, and he 
 fell a victim to the disease.' He says also : ' I had a gang of 
 diggers in a clay bank, to whom the same proposition was 
 made ; they all agreed to it, and not one died. On the opposite 
 side of the same clay bank were other diggers who continued 
 their regular rations of whisky, and one third of them died.' 
 
 " In New York City there were 204 cases in the park, only six 
 of whom were temperate, and these recovered, while 1 22 of the 
 others died. In many parts of the city the saloon keepers saw 
 and acknowledged the terrible connection between their busi- 
 ness and the spread of the disease, and, becoming alarmed for 
 their own safety, shut up their saloons and fled, saying : ■ The 
 way from the saloon to hell is too short.' 
 
 " In Washington the Board of Health was so impressed with 
 the terrible facts that they declared the grog shops nuisances, 
 ordered them closed, and they remained closed for three months. 
 
 " A prominent physician of Glasgow reported : ' Only nine- 
 teen per cent, of the temperate perished, while ninety-one and 
 two-tenths per cent, of the intemperate died.' One extensive 
 liquor dealer of Glasgow, said, ' Cholera has carried off half of 
 my customers.' 
 
 " In Warsaw ninety per cent, of those who died from cholera 
 were wine drinkers. 
 
 " At Tifels, Prussia, a town of 20, 000 inhabitants, every drunk- 
 ard died of cholera." 
 
 The St. Paul Medical Journal, of September, 
 1899, gives the following report of a railway sur- 
 geon, Dr. Kane : — 
 
 " From June 1, 1898, to June 1, 1899, the author performed a 
 few more than four hundred operations. Forty-nine abdomi- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 259 
 
 nal sections, fifty odd more operations of a graver sort, one 
 hundred miscellaneous of less gravity than above, over one 
 hundred operations upon female perineum and uterus. Of the 
 four hundred, more than three hundred demanded anaesthesia. 
 There were but three deaths, making the mortality a little less 
 than one per cent. 
 
 " The author does not claim a phenomenally low mortality, nor 
 does he claim specially brilliant results. He has to contend 
 with unreasoning fear on the part of the patients for hospital 
 surgeons, and also most of his cases had been in the hands 
 of quacks, and had subjected themselves to remedies prescribed 
 by old women. Many cases came after the family physician 
 had exhausted his resources. He thinks his results are consid- 
 erably better than the average in hospitals and in country 
 districts. Alcohol medication was dispensed with entirely 
 after the patients came under his care, and to this he attributes 
 much of his success. He does not believe that alcohol is a stim- 
 ulant, or a tonic. On the contrary, he believes that it retards 
 digestion, arrests secretion, and hinders excretion. The courage 
 and fortitude of his patients were lessened instead of increased 
 by the use of alcoholic medication. 
 
 " Pain is better borne, endured longer and more patiently 
 when alcohol is not used. 
 
 " He urges the practical surgeon to carefully weigh the subject 
 of alcohol, and verify for himself the expediency of its use." 
 
 Dr. B. W. Richardson in the report of his prac- 
 tice for 1895 in the London Temperance Hospital 
 refers to non-alcoholic treatment of rheumatism. 
 He said : — 
 
 " Out of seventy-one cases of acute or subacute rheumatism 
 —the large majority acute, and attended with temperatures 
 moving up to 104 ° F.-sixty-nine recovered, and two, although 
 they were discharged without being put on the recovery fee 
 
260 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 were so far relieved that a few days' change in country air 
 seemed all that was required to induce full restoration. Com- 
 paring the experience of the treatment of acute rheumatic dis- 
 ease without alcohol with that which I have previously ob- 
 served with alcohol, I can have no hesitation in declaring that it 
 is of the greatest advantage to follow total abstinence abso- 
 lutely in this disease. The pain and swelling of joints is more 
 quickly relieved under abstinence, the fever falls more rapidly, 
 there is less frequent relapse, and there is quicker recovery. 
 In brief, the experience of treament of rheumatic fever minus 
 alcohol, presents to me as much novelty as it does pleasure, 
 and I am convinced that if any candid member of the profes- 
 sion could have witnessed what I have witnessed in this matter, 
 he would agree with me that alcohol in rheumatic fever, how- 
 ever acute, is altogether out of place. I am also under the 
 conviction, though I express it with great reserve, that in acute 
 rheumatism, treated without" alcohol, the cardiac complica- 
 tions, endocardial and pericardial, are much less frequently de- 
 veloped than where alcohol is supplied." 
 
 Dr. Pechuman in Alcohol — Is It a Medicine, pub- 
 lished in 1891, says: — 
 
 " There is no disputing that many deaths occur each day as 
 the result of the administration of alcohol in acute diseases, to 
 say nothing of the deaths caused by its habitual use ; and those 
 who give it ignore the very fundamental principles of phys- 
 iology and the many published statistics. The Boston Hos- 
 pital report tells a sad story in this connection-; it shows that 
 out of 1,042 cases treated with alcoholics 386 died, while out of 
 the same number treated without alcohol only 81 died. Using 
 plain English 305 were actually killed by it." 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers, in the January, 1899, Bulletin 
 of the American Medical Temperance Association, 
 gave the following Hospital Statistics, showing a 
 decline in the use of spirits in hospitals : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 26l 
 
 " Evidently a great change is going on in the use of alcohol 
 as a remedy in large hospitals. The annual reports of ten hos- 
 pitals in the New England and the Middle States show the 
 following widely varying figures. The spirits used include 
 beers, wines, whiskies and brandies, and vary from eleven to 
 sixty-one cents a person for all the cases treated. These hos- 
 pitals treat from eighty to seven hundred cases a year, both 
 surgical and medical, and the medical staff are the leading 
 physicians of the towns and cities where they are located. The 
 hospital where the largest amount of spirits was used is not 
 different from others, nor is the one where the lowest amount 
 is reported. The conclusion is that this difference is due 
 entirely to the judgment of the medical men. The lowest rate 
 (eleven cents each) was in a hospital where one hundred and 
 twenty-one cases had been under treatment. The highest 
 rate (sixty-one cents) was in a hospital of five hundred and 
 forty cases. The mortality from typhoid fever and pneumonia 
 was eight per cent, higher in this hospital than in the one 
 where only eleven cents a head had been expended for spirits. 
 The general mortality did not vary greatly in any of these hos- 
 pitals, and the records of one year could not be expected to 
 show this. In the remaining hospitals the mortality of the 
 fever and the septic cases was about the same. The free use 
 of spirits did not show any improvement, but rather an increase 
 of the death-rate, while the same amount of spirits used 
 showed but little change, and that in the line of improvement 
 of death-rate. These are only the figures of one year, but 
 they indicate a change of practice, and show the passing of 
 alcohol as a remedy." 
 
CHAPTER XL ! 
 
 REASONS WHY ALCOHOL IS DANGEROUS AS 
 MEDICINE. 
 
 In the chapter upon " The Effects of Alcohol 
 upon the Human Body " are cited some of the 
 reasons assigned by scientific investigators for their 
 disuse of alcohol as a remedy in disease. In this 
 chapter the same may be briefly hinted at, while 
 others, some the results of quite recent research, 
 will be added. 
 
 In the Bulletin of the A. M. T. A., for January 
 1898, Dr. N. S. Davis says :— 
 
 " The supposed effects of alcohol as a medicine were 
 originally based solely on the sensations and actions of the 
 patients taking it. The first appreciable effect of the alcohol 
 after entering the blood is that of an anaesthetic ; that is, it 
 diminishes the sensibility of the brain and nerve structures, in 
 the same direction as ether and chloroform. vVnd, as the brain 
 is the material seat of man's consciousness, tfcre alcohol renders 
 him less conscious of cold or heat, of weariness or pain, and 
 less conscious of his own weight or of any external resistance. 
 Consequently, when under the influence of small doses, he 
 feels lighter and less conscious of any external impressions, 
 and thinks he could do more than without it. It was^ these 
 effects that led both the patient and his physician to regard 
 the alcohol as a general stimulant or tonic, notwithstanding 
 the fact that by simply increasing the doses of alcohol the 
 262 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 263 
 
 sensibility soon became entirely suspended, and the patient 
 helpless and altogether unconscious. ***** 
 
 " Simple increased frequency of the heart action is no evi- 
 dence of either increased force or efficiency in promoting the 
 circulation of the blood. Indeed, it may be stated as a physi- 
 ological law, that the more frequent the heart action above the 
 normal standard, the less efficiently does it promote the circula- 
 tion and strength of the living system. But the effect of a 
 moderate dose of alcohol in increasing the frequency of the 
 heart-beat and of blood pressure is so temporary that the doses 
 must be repeated so often that the alcohol accumulates in the 
 blood and tissues, and extends its paralyzing effects to all 
 the vasomotor, cardiac and respiratory nerves. Indeed, all 
 the investigators agree that alcohol in any dose capable of pro- 
 ducing an appreciable effect, diminishes the function of the 
 lungs in direct proportion to the quantity taken ; and as the 
 lungs are the only channel through which free oxygen reaches 
 the blood, and such oxygen is the natural exciter of all vital 
 activities in the living body, it is not possible to explain how 
 alcohol, or any other drug that diminishes the function of the 
 lungs can, at the same time, act as a cardiac, or any other kind 
 of tonic. 
 
 " The truth is that all intelligent physicians and writers on 
 therapeutics of the present day agree in stating that alcohol in 
 large doses directly diminishes all the vital processes in the 
 living body, and in still larger doses suspends the life of the 
 individual by paralyzing the cerebral, vasomotor, respiratory 
 and cardiac functions, generally in the order named. If large 
 doses produce such effects, we must logically claim that small t 
 doses act in the same direction, but in less degree. In other 
 words, alcohol is as truly and exclusively an anaesthetic as is 
 ether or chloroform, and, like them, is to be used as a medi- 
 cine only temporarily to relieve pain, or suspend nerve sensi- 
 bility. But as for these purposes it is less efficient than either 
 ether or chloroform, and other narcotics, there is no neces- 
 
264 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 sity for using it as a remedy in the treatment of disease. And 
 in health its use in any dose can be productive of nothing but 
 injury. The only legitimate fields for the uses of alcohol are in 
 chemistry, pharmacy and the arts." 
 
 In another issue of the same magazine, Dr. Davis 
 writes of the investigations pursued by M. Robin 
 of France in regard to the chemistry of respiration. 
 These investigations, he says, afford conclusive 
 proof that the acts of oxidation are defensive proc- 
 esses of the organism in its struggle with bacteria, 
 and therefore that the physician should favor in 
 every possible way the absorption of oxygen in 
 every infection, especially when there are typhoid 
 complications. 
 
 He then speaks of the researches of other scien- 
 tists in the same line, concluding thus : — 
 
 " If we add to the foregoing investigations the results obtained 
 by Dr. A. C. Abbott, demonstrating that the presence of 
 alcohol directly diminished the vital resistance to infections, 
 we cannot fail to see that the administration of alcohol in 
 diphtheria, typhoid fever, pneumonia and other infectious 
 diseases, is directly contraindicated. If, as shown byM. Robin, 
 1 the acts of oxidation are defensive processes ' against bacterial 
 infections, then certainly the administration of alcohol to pa- 
 tients with such infections is in the highest degree illogical and ' 
 injurious. The oxygen being obtained for oxidation purposes 
 in the blood and tissues, through the respiratory process, it 
 would be equally absurd to administer alcohol in all cases in 
 which it is desirable to increase the processes of oxidation, as a 
 long series of experiments has shown that the presence of 
 alcohol diminishes the efficiency of the respiratory process in 
 direct proportion to the quantity used. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 265 
 
 " How much longer will practical writers continue to recom- 
 mend for the same patient on the same day, fresh air, sponge 
 baths, and vasomotor and respiratory tonics to increase the 
 absorption of oxygen and oxidation processes, and alcohol in 
 the form of wine, whisky and brandy to directly diminish the 
 respiratory function and all the oxidations of the living sys- 
 tem?" 
 
 In his address before the Medical Congress for 
 the Study of Alcohol, held at Prohibition Park, 
 Staten Island, July 15, 1891, Dr. Davis said : — 
 
 " If the foregoing views regarding the effects of alcoholic 
 liquids on the human system in health, are correct, what can 
 ■we say concerning their value as remedies for the treatment of 
 disease ? If it be true that the alcohol they contain acts di- 
 rectly upon the corpuscular elements of the blood, and so far 
 diminishes the metabolic processes of nutrition and disintegra- 
 tion as to lessen nerve sensibility and heat production, and favor 
 tissue degenerations, their rational application in the treatment 
 of any form of disease must be very limited. And yet the 
 same errors and delusions concerning their use in the treatment 
 of diseases and accidents are entertained and daily acted upon 
 by a large majority of medical men as are entertained by 
 the non-professional part of the public. Throughout the 
 greater part of our medical literature they are represented as 
 stimulating and restorative, capable of increasing the force and 
 efficiency of the circulation, and of conserving the normal living 
 tissues by diminishing their waste ; and hence they are the first 
 to be resorted to in all cases of sudden exhaustion, faintness or 
 shock ; the last to be given to the dying ; and the most constant 
 remedies through the most important and protracted acute 
 general diseases. Indeed, it is this position and practice of the 
 profession that constitutes, at the present time, the strongest 
 influence in support of all the popular though erroneous and de- 
 structive drinking customs of the people. 
 
266 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " The same anaesthetic properties of t;he alcohol that render 
 the laboring man less conscious of the cold or heat or weariness, 
 also render the sick man less conscious of suffering, either 
 mental or physical, and thereby deceive both him and his 
 physician by the appearance, temporarily, of more comfort. 
 But if administered during the progress of fevers or acute 
 general disease, while it thus quiets the patient's restlessness 
 and lessens his consciousness of suffering, it also directly dimin 
 ishes the vasomotor and excito-motor nerve forces with slight 
 reduction of temperature, and steadily diminishes both the 
 tissue metabolism and the excretory products, thereby favoring 
 the retention in the system of both the specific causes of disease 
 and the natural excretory materials which should have been 
 eliminated through the skin, lungs, kidneys and other glandu- 
 lar organs. Although the immediate effect of the remedy is 
 thus to give the patient an appearance of more comfort, the 
 continued dulling or anaesthetic effect on the nervous centres, 
 the diminished oxygenation of the blood, and the continued 
 retention of morbific and excretory products, all serve to pro- 
 tract the disease, increase molecuiar degeneration, and add to 
 the number of fatal results. 
 
 " I am well aware that the foregoing views, founded on the 
 results of numerous and varied experimental researches and 
 well-known physiological laws, and corroborated by a wide 
 clinical experience, are in direct conflict with the very generally 
 accepted doctrine that alcohol is a cardiac tonic, capable of in- 
 creasing the force and efficiency of the circulation, and there- 
 fore of great value in the treatment of the lower grades of 
 general fevers. But there have been many generally accepted 
 doctrines in the history of medicine that have been proved 
 fallacious. And the more recent experiments of Professors 
 Martin, Sidney Ringer, and Sainsbury, Reichert, H. C. Wood 
 and others, have clearly demonstrated that the presence of 
 alcohol in the blood as certainly diminishes the sensibility of 
 the vasomotor and cardiac nerves in proportion to its quantity 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 267 
 
 until the heart stops, paralyzed, as that two and two make 
 four. 
 
 " After an ample clinical field of observation in both hospital 
 and private practice for more than fifty years, and a continuous 
 study of our medical literature, I am prepared to maintain the 
 position that the ratio of mortality from all the acute general 
 diseases has increased in direct proportion to the quantity of 
 alcoholic remedies administered during their treatment. How 
 can we reasonably expect any other result from the use of an 
 agent that so directly and uniformly diminishes the cerebral 
 respiratory, cardiac and metabolic functions of the living 
 human body ? " 
 
 The Medical Pioneer of January, 1896, contained 
 a very interesting article by Dr. J. H. Kellogg upon 
 " The Influence of Alcohol upon Urinary Toxicity, 
 and its Relation to the Medical Use of Alcohol." 
 He gives the results of many of his own experi- 
 ments to determine the effects of alcohol in hinder- 
 ing the elimination of poisonous matter by the 
 kidneys. The subject of one experiment was a 
 healthy man of 30 years, weighing 66 kilos. For 
 fifty days prior to the experiment he had taken a 
 carefully regulated diet, and the urotoxic coefficient 
 ! had remained very nearly uniform. The urine care- 
 fully collected for the first eight hours after the 
 administration of 8 ounces of brandy diluted with 
 water, showed an enormous diminution in the uro- 
 toxic coefficient, which was, in fact, scarcely more 
 than half the normal coefficient for the individual 
 in question. The urine collected for the second 
 period of eight hours showed an increase of toxicity, 
 
268 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 and that for the third period of eight hours showed 
 still further increase of toxicity, the coefficient hav- 
 ing nearly returned to its normal standard. 
 
 Of this Dr. Kellogg says : — 
 
 " The bearing of this experiment upon the use of alcohol in 
 pneumonia, typhoid fever, erysipelas, cholera and other infec- 
 tious diseases, will be clearly seen. In all the maladies named, 
 and in nearly all other infectious diseases, which include the 
 greater number of acute maladies, the symptoms which give the 
 patient the greatest inconvenience, and those which have a fatal 
 termination, when such is the result, are directly attributable to 
 the influence of the toxic substances generated within the sys- 
 tem of the patient as the result of the specific microbes to which 
 the disease owes its origin. The activity of the liver in destroy- 
 ing these poisons, and of the kidneys in eliminating them, are 
 the physiologic processes which stand between the patient and 
 death. In a very grave case of infectious disease, without this 
 destructive and eliminative activity the accumulation of poison 
 within the system would quickly reach a fatal point. The 
 symptoms of the patient vary for better or worse in relation to 
 the augmentation or diminution of the quantity of toxic sub- 
 stances within the body. 
 
 " In view of these facts, is it not a pertinent question to ask 
 how alcohol can be of service in the treatment of such disorders 
 as pneumonia, typhoid fever, cholera, erysipelas and other in- 
 fections, since it acts in such a decided and powerful manner 
 in diminishing urinary toxicity— in other words, in lessening the 
 ability of the kidney to eliminate toxic substances ? In infec- 
 tious diseases of every sort, the body is struggling under the 
 influence of toxic agents, the result of the action of mi- 
 crobes. Alcohol is another toxic agent of precisely the same 
 origin. Like other toxins resulting from like processes of bac- 
 terial growth, its influence upon the human organism is un- 
 friejidfeJt disturbs the vital processes ; it disturbs every vital 
 
 ^, 
 ITY 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 269 
 
 function, and, as we have shown, in a most marked degree 
 diminishes the efficiency of the kidneys in the removal of the 
 toxins which constitute the most active factor in the diseases 
 named, and in others of analogous character. If a patient is 
 struggling under the influence of the pneumococcus, Eberth's 
 ' bacillus, Koch's cholera microbe or the pus-producing germs 
 which give rise to erysipelatous inflammation, his kidneys labor- 
 ing to undo, so far as possible, the mischief done by the invad- 
 ing parasites, by eliminating the poisons formed by them, what 
 good could possibly be accomplished by the administration of a 
 drug, one of the characteristic effects of which is to diminish 
 renal activity, thereby diminishing also the quantity of poisons 
 eliminated through this channel ? Is not such a course in the 
 highest degree calculated to add fuel to the flame ? Is it not 
 placing obstacles in the way of the vital forces which are al- 
 ready hampered in their work by the powerfully toxic agents to 
 the influence of which they are subjected ? 
 
 " In his address before the American Medical Association 
 at Milwaukee, Dr. Ernest Hart, editor of the British 
 Medical Journal, very aptly suggested in relation to the treat- 
 ment of cholera, the inutility of alcohol, basing his suggestion 
 upon the fact that in a case of cholera, the system of the pa- 
 tient is combating the specific poison which is the product of 
 the microbe of this disease, and hence is not likely to be 
 aided by the introduction of a poison produced by another 
 microbe ; namely, alcohol. This logic seems very sound, and 
 - the facts in relation to the influence of alcohol upon urinary tox- 
 icity or renal activity, which are elucidated by our experiment, 
 fully sustain this observation of Mr. Hart. 
 
 M In a recent number of the British Medical Journal, Dr. 
 Lauder Brunton, the eminent English physiologist and neurolo- 
 gist, in mentioning the fact that death from chloroform anaes- 
 thesia rarely occurs in India, but is not infrequent in England, 
 attributed the fact to the meat-eating habits of the English peo- 
 ple, the natives of India being almost strictly vegetarian in diet, 
 
270 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 partly from force of circumstances doubtless, but largely also, 
 no doubt, as the result of their religious belief, the larger pro- 
 portion of the population being more or less strict adherents to 
 the doctrines of Buddha, which strictly prohibit the use of flesh 
 foods. 
 
 " The theory advanced by Dr. Lauder Brunton in relation to 
 death from chloroform poisoning, is that the patient does not 
 die directly from the influence of chloroform upon the nerve 
 centres, but that death is due to the influence of chloroform 
 upon the kidneys, whereby the elimination of the ptomaines and 
 leucomaines naturally produced within the body, ceases, their 
 destruction by the liver also ceasing, so that the system is sud- 
 denly overwhelmed by a great quantity of poison, and succumbs 
 to its influence, its power of resistance being lessened by the in- 
 halation of the chloroform. 
 
 " The affinity between alcohol and chloroform is very great. 
 Both are anaesthetics. Both chloroform and alcohol are simply 
 different compounds of the same radical, and the results of our 
 experiment certainly suggest the same thought as that expressed 
 by Dr. Brunton. How absurd, then, is the administration of 
 alcohol in conditions in which the highest degree of kidney 
 activity is required for the elimination of toxic agents ! 
 
 " In a certain proportion of chronic cases there is a tendency 
 to tissue degeneration. Modern investigations have given good 
 ground for the belief that these degenerations are the result of 
 the influence of ptomaines, leucomaines and other poisons pro- 
 duced within the body, upon the tissues. It is well known that 
 many of these toxic agents, even in very small quantity give 
 rise to degenerations of the kidney. It is this fact which ex- 
 plains the occurrence of nephritis in connection with diphtheria, 
 scarlet fever and other infectious maladies. Dana has called 
 attention to the probable role played by ptomaines produced in 
 the alimentary canal in the development of organic disease of 
 the central nervous system. 
 
 " It is thus apparent that the integrity of the renal functions 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 2J\ 
 
 is a matter of as great importance in chronic as in acute dis- 
 ease, hence any agent which diminishes the efficiency of these 
 organs in ridding the system of poisons, either those normally 
 and regularly produced, or those of an accidental or unusual 
 character, must be pernicious and dangerous in use." 
 
 Among the more recent findings of science in 
 regard to the effects of alcohol are the action of 
 this drug upon the leucocytes or " guardian cells " 
 of the body. Leucocytes are defined to be " minute, 
 nucleated, colorless masses of protoplasm, capable 
 of ameboid movements, found swimming freely in 
 blood and lymph, in the reticulum of lymphatic 
 glands, and in bone-marrow and other connective 
 tissue." The white corpuscles of the blood are leu- 
 cocytes. "The work of these cells is to prey upon 
 and take into their substance bacteria and other 
 micro-organisms within the blood and tissues. 
 This destruction of bacteria, and other noxious 
 organisms, has the biological name of phago- 
 cytosis." 
 
 Dr. Alonzo Brown in Physician and Surgeon says 
 of phagocytosis : — 
 
 " Recently a brilliant theory has been projected into the 
 histological world. It is the principle of phagocytosis. The 
 beauty of it is so great that we are attracted by it, and its 
 reasonings have riveted general attention. It is said that 
 certain cells have the power to absorb and so destroy other 
 cells. This is phagocytosis. It is said that ' the cells which 
 are known to possess phagocytocic properties are the leu- 
 cocytes, mucous corpuscles, connective tissue cells, endothelia 
 of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, alveolar eypithelium of 
 
2.J2 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 the lungs, and the cells of the spleen, bone, marrow and 
 lymphatic glands.' (Senn). This is a very significant array of 
 colloid matter ; and it has been repeatedly affirmed by the high- 
 est authorities that alcohol is poisonous to the colloid element. 
 
 " Now, among the most important of the phagocytes just 
 enumerated are the leucocytes. They embrace and enfold the 
 pathogenic germs with which they come in contact by what is j 
 known as an ameboid force. They enclose, disintegrate and 
 absorb the enemy. It is well known that the moment the leu- 
 cocytes are submitted to an alcoholic solution, their, ameboid 
 movements cease, and their function is arrested. It is plain 
 that their phagocytocic power is immediately destroyed. It is 
 possible, also, that the fixed tissue-cells are likewise impaired 
 or killed by alcoholic imbibition. How deleterious, and even 
 deadly, must the internal administration of alcoholic liquors then 
 be in the treatment of diphtheria, and of other diseases having 
 a germinal origin ? It therefore follows, to my mind, that all the 
 diseases which are the result of germinal infection, are most 
 badly treated when alcohol is used in their therapy. 
 
 With extreme brevity I advert to another view in the field. 
 It is that of adynamic disease. It has been conclusively proven 
 that alcohol decreases the muscular power. It decreases (from 
 the minimum dose to the maximum) the power of the heart as 
 well as that of all other muscles. I say this has been absolutely 
 demonstrated by Richardson and others. In death from ady- 
 namia it is through failure of muscle, that is, of the heart, of 
 the scaleni and intercostals, of the diaphragm, and of the laryn- 
 geal muscles, et cetera. All of the muscles may gradually fail, 
 become wearied unto death. How pernicious then must 
 alcohol be in adding its influence to bring about the tragic end ! 
 
 " It is my belief that it is in diphtheria that the most dire 
 results are to be observed. In that disease the vast majority 
 of cases die by asthenia, or else by sudden failure of the heart. 
 To what is this sudden cardiac paralysis due ? The elucidation 
 is as follows. In the grave cases there is almost invariably a 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 273 
 
 subnormal temperature, together with great muscular prostra- 
 tion. Also it is a physiological fact that a decrease of the 
 temperature slows nervous conduction. As the system is 
 made colder, the nervous force flows slower and slower. In 
 diphtheria the heart muscle is very weak, the temperature falls, 
 the lessened nervous energy but feebly animates the muscular 
 fibres, and so actual paralysis ensues, death closing the scene 
 almost instantaneously. Now, in such a state of imminent 
 danger, brought about by such causes, what could be worse 
 than to administer an agent which notably reduces temper- 
 ature, and at the same time enfeebles muscular power ? May 
 I add, what could be the remedy in such a condition ? and I 
 answer, External heat freely applied to the whole surface of 
 the body. This will prevent the cardiac paralysis whenever it 
 is preventable." 
 
 The Medical Pioneer of Dec, 1892, contained an 
 editorial article upon " The Toxine Alcohol," which 
 deals with leucocytes and their functions. The 
 following is the article : — 
 
 " Dr. Broadbent's introductory address at the opening of the 
 session at Owen's College, Manchester, deserves more attention 
 than most of these formal deliveries. He dwelt on the intel- 
 lectual interest which attaches to the study of medical science, 
 and illustrated it, among other ways, by the interest excited by 
 recent observations on the action of bacilli and the combat 
 which goes on between these invading hosts and the guardian 
 cells or leucocytes of the living body. Inflammation surround- 
 ing a wound is regarded as caused by the influx and multipli- 
 cation of leucocytes to engulf and destroy septic bacilli which 
 have gained entrance from the air, a ' local war ' of defence. 
 The issue of this pitched battle will depend on the relative 
 number and activity of the respective hosts. Inflammation 
 round a poisoned wound is an evidence of vital power and a 
 means of protecting the system at large from invasion and dev- 
 
2/4 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 astation. If this first line of defence is broken through, the 
 bacilli pass through the lymphatic spaces and ducts to the 
 glands, and another battle ensues which produces glandular 
 swelling and inflammation and possibly abscess. This second 
 line of defence may be insufficient and then we get general 
 septicaemia. It is now well proven that the injury is done, 
 not by the bacilli themselves but by the toxines which they 
 secrete or excrete. Dr. Broadbent very properly points out 
 that the action of the bacilli of fever in the body is strictly 
 comparable to the action of yeast in a fermentable liquid. The 
 yeast cells grow and multiply at the expense of the sugar, in de- 
 stroying which they produce alcohol, carbonic dioxide and other 
 substances. When the alcohol amounts to some 17 per cent, of 
 the liquid the process is stopped by the poisonous action of the 
 alcohol on the yeast cells. In just the same way the toxines 
 produced by the bacilli at length stop their further multiplica- 
 tion and put an end to the disease. Alcohol is in fact, the tox- 
 ine produced by yeast, and, like many other toxines, it is not 
 only poisonous to cells which produce it, but to any animal into 
 whose veins it may happen to get. 
 
 " There can be little doubt that the state of immunity which 
 one attack of certain fevers confers against future attacks 
 depends partly upon what is called the phagocytic action of 
 leucocytes. These have been actually observed to draw into 
 their interior and destroy bacilli which would otherwise have 
 multiplied and produced their special effects. There can be 
 little doubt, either, that we are continually taking into our 
 systems bacilli of all sorts, and that, again, disease is averted 
 by the activity of the germ-devouring leucocytes. Dr. Broad- 
 bent describes an experiment which proves that power of re- 
 sisting disease is largely dependent on the activity of these 
 cells. A rabbit, having had a certain quantity of bacilli in- 
 jected under its skin, suffers from inflammation at the spot, and 
 perhaps abscess, but recovers. At the same time, another 
 rabbit is treated in precisely the same way, but, simultaneously^ 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 2J% 
 
 a dose of chloral is injected into another part of the body. The 
 chloral, circulating in the blood, is known to paralyze leuco- 
 cytes, and, as a result of this, they do not collect and wage war 
 on the bacilli injected under the skin ; there is very little local 
 reaction, the bacilli get free course into the lymph and blood, 
 and the animal dies. But, in the words of Dr. Broadbent, 
 ' alcohol in excess has a similar action on the leucocytes, and 
 this, as well as the deteriorating influence of chronic alcoholism 
 on the tissues, predisposes to septic infection. A single de- 
 bauch, therefore, may open the door to fever or erysipelas.' 
 A similiar experiment of Doyen confirms this. He found that 
 guinea pigs can be killed by the cholera microbe, when intro- 
 duced by the mouth, if a dose of alcohol has been previously 
 administered. It has been the general testimony of observers 
 in cholera epidemics that those addicted to much alcohol are 
 far more liable to fatal attacks. But while large doses of 
 alcohol are, of course, more obviously injurious, it would be 
 absurd to imagine that lesser quantities are entirely without 
 influence in the same direction. It has, indeed, been shown by 
 Dr. Ridge, that even infinitesimal quantities of alcohol, such as 
 one part in 5,000, cause a more rapid multiplication of the 
 bacillus subtilis and other bacilli of decomposition, while, by 
 the same quantities, the growth of both animal and vegetable 
 protoplasm is retarded. Hence there can be no longer any 
 question that alcohol renders the body more liable to conquest 
 by invading microbes, less able to resist and destroy them. 
 Alcohol, a toxine injurious to living cells, is destroyed or re- 
 moved from the body as fast as nature can effect it, but while 
 it remains, and while able to affect the cells at all, its action is 
 detrimental to healthy growth and healthy life, and the less we 
 take of such an agent the better for us. This is a dictum which 
 it becomes the profession to enunciate far and wide. ' The 
 less, the better ' is a watchword which all may use, and the 
 wise will interpret it in a way which will infallibly preserve them 
 altogether from all possible danger from such a source." 
 
276 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 On the sixteenth of December, 1897, Dr. Sims 
 Woodhead, president of the British Medical Tem- 
 perance Association, gave a masterly address in 
 London upon " Recent Researches on the Action 
 1 of Alcohol." The lecture was illustrated by- 
 lantern slides. From the report given in The Medi- 
 cal Temperance Review of Jan., 1898, the following is 
 culled : — 
 
 " In a series of drawings of kidney you will notice first that 
 there is a condition known as cloudy swelling ; this is one of 
 the first changes that can be observed. Notice the character- 
 istic features of this cloudy swelling in the cells of all these 
 specimens. The large swollen cells are granular, and very fre- 
 quently there is a granular mass in the lumen of the tubule. 
 In some cases the cells are so much swollen that the lumen of 
 the tubule is represented merely by a ' star-shaped ' radiating 
 chink. The nucleus is usually somewhat obscured, that this 
 alcoholic cloudy swelling (similar to that met with as the result of 
 the administration of certain poisons) is the first change observed 
 in the parenchymatous cells of the organs of animals that have 
 died of acute alcoholic poisoning. This condition, unless the 
 cause is removed, goes on to a condition of fatty-degeneration,, 
 as shown in the next specimen in which we have, in addition 
 to the granular appearance of the protoplasm of the cell, a de~ 
 position of masses of fat in and at the expense of this proton- 
 plasm. 
 
 " There is another series of changes to which I wish to draw 
 your attention. In the tubules of the kidney we have, in addi- 
 tion to the granular appearance of the protoplasm of the cells, 
 an increase in the number of leucocytes, and connective tissue 
 cells between the tubules around the glomeruli and along the 
 course of the blood-vessels. This condition of small cell infil- 
 tration, we know, is constantly associated with inflammatory 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 277 
 
 conditions of the kidney as in other organs. Here then are the 
 changes in the epithelium plus increase in the number of leuco- 
 cytes. 
 
 " I show you too a specimen of heart muscle, in which the 
 granular degeneration, or cloudy swelling is well marked 
 whilst here and there the process is going on to fatty degenera- 
 tion, similar to that seen in the kidney. Here again, then, the 
 active elements of the organ are becoming broken down, or, at 
 any rate, losing their normal structure and affording evidence 
 of fundamental changes in these cells. Such changes are set 
 up, not by any one poison alone, or by any single disease 
 toxin, but by members of many groups of poisons, by alcohols, 
 ethers, etc. indeed by very various poisons — animal, vegetable 
 and mineral. 
 
 f Now, it is a peculiar fact, as shown by Massart, Bordet and 
 others, in researches on chemiotaxis, that nearly all these 
 poisons have the power of repelling leucocytes, and of seriously 
 interfering with them in the performance of their functions, and 
 this power assumes a special significance in connection with 
 our subject this afternoon. 
 
 " Now, two of the great functions of leucocytes under ordi- 
 nary conditions are those of policing and scavenging. Massart 
 and Bordet showed, under the action of certain substances, 
 alcohol amongst others, these functions are lost, but following 
 up Metchnikoff and others they observed that after a time these 
 same leucocytes became accustomed to the presence of these 
 poisons, gradually becoming • acclimatized ' as it were. At 
 first paralyzed or repelled, they after a time pluck up courage to 
 attack the invading substances and carry on or renew their 
 accustomed work of scavenging ; they try to get rid of both 
 poisons and poison-producers, and even acquire the power of 
 forming substances (anti-toxins) which can neutralize the poison 
 and allow the cells to devote their energy to doing their own 
 proper work. 
 
 " Here are drawings of minute abscesses that have formed 
 
2/8 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 in the wall of the heart. We see at once the part that the leuco- 
 cytes play in attacking micro-organisms, and of localizing their 
 action. Look at the blood-vessel in the wall of the heart with 
 its plug of micro-organism (staphylococci) in the centre of a clear 
 space ; here the leucocytes are not numerous, indeed they are 
 very sparsely scattered, and appear to have been driven back 
 by the organisms or their toxics. Then a little distance away 
 from the toxin and toxin-forming organisms, the leucocytes are 
 coming up in large numbers, forming a sort of protecting army, 
 as it were. This is known as leucocytosis. In the small 
 patent vessels around this commencing abscess numerous 
 leucocytes, far in excess of the usual proportion, may be seen 
 — the nearer the abscess, the more numerous they become. 
 Thus the leucocytes make their way to what is to become the 
 wall of the abscess, and form a layer around a mass of micro- 
 organisms, localizing, or attempting to localize, such mass. 
 So long as the leucocytes can make their way to this mass, 
 and shut it off from the surrounding tissue, so long we shall 
 have no extension of the abscess. 
 
 " Now, if you add something — alcohol in the case we are 
 considering — which not only exerts a negative chemiotaxic 
 action— i. e., which drives the leucocyte away— but which, as 
 we have seen, also causes degeneration of nerve, muscle and 
 epithelial cells, shall we not injure the infected patient both 
 directly and indirectly by interfering with the return of the 
 leucocytes driven away, by diminishing or altering the func- 
 tional activity of these cells, and indirectly by interfering with 
 the excretion of the poisons (owing, as we have seen, to a 
 degenerated condition of the secretory epithelium) ? Have we 
 not, in fact, a cumulative action of two substances, either of 
 which alone would do damage, but not in the same proportion 
 as do the two when acting together. 
 
 " Now let us see what we may learn from a series of experi- 
 ments carried out by Dr. Abbott, working in the Laboratory of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 279 
 
 Hygiene of the University of Pennsylvania, under the auspices 
 of the committee of fifty, to investigate the Alcohol Question. 
 
 " These are his conclusions : — 
 
 1. " That the normal vital resistance of rabbits to infection by 
 streptococcus pyogenes is markedly diminished through the 
 influence of alcohol when given daily to the stage of acute 
 intoxication. 2. That a similar, though by no means so con- 
 spicuous, diminution of resistance to infection and intoxication 
 by the bacillus coli communis also occurs in rabbits subjected 
 to the same influences. 
 
 " Throughout these experiments, with few exceptions, it will 
 be seen that the alcoholized animals not only showed the 
 effects of the inoculations earlier than did the non-alcoholized 
 rabbits, but in the case of the streptococcus inoculations, the 
 lesions produced (formation of miliary abscesses) were much 
 more pronounced than are those that usually follow inoculations 
 with this organism. 
 
 " With regard to the predisposing influence of the alcohol, 
 one is constrained to believe that it is in most cases the result 
 of structural alterations consequent upon its direct action on 
 the tissues, though in a number of animals no such alterations 
 could be made out by microscopic examinations. I am in- 
 clined, however, to the belief, in the light of the work of 
 Berkley and Friedenwald, done under the direction of Pro- 
 fessor Welch, in the pathological laboratory of the Johns 
 Hopkins University, that a closer study of the tissues of these 
 animals would have revealed in all of them structural changes 
 of such a nature as to indicate disturbances of important vital 
 functions of sufficient gravity fully to account for the loss of 
 normal resistance. 
 
 " Following up Dr. Abbott's experiments, Dr. Delearde, 
 working in Calmette's laboratory in the Institut Pasteur at 
 Lille, made a series of observations which are, from many 
 points of view, of very great interest and importance as he 
 
28o ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 attacks it from an entirely new standpoint, one that will, I 
 hope, ere long, be taken up by those working in this country. 
 It has already been demonstrated that ' alcoholics ' suffer far 
 more seriously from microbic affections than do those of sober 
 life, and it is now accepted that amongst them the mortality 
 from this class of disease is higher than amongst those who 
 are not accustomed to take alcohol regularly or to excess. 
 
 " It is pointed out, as most of us have from time to time had 
 the opportunity of observing, that, taking pneumonia as an 
 example of this class of disease, there can be no doubt that the 
 alcoholic patient has not merely an appreciably smaller chance 
 for recovery, but an apparently slight attack becomes one in 
 which the chances of recovery come to be against the patient 
 rather than in his favor. I well remember when I was House 
 Physician in the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh that Dr. Muir- 
 head, who almost invariably treated his pneumonic patients 
 without alcohol, used to say that an ordinary case of acute 
 pneumonia should always recover under careful treatment, but 
 that cases of pneumonia in ' alcoholics ' were always most 
 anxious cases and in every way unsatisfactory. (Slides were 
 shown on screen to illustrate the changes taking place in pneu- 
 monia, the conditions of leucocytosis, and the very important 
 part which leucocytes play in the process of ' clearing up ' dur- 
 ing the course of the patient's recovery). Dr. Delearde in an 
 admirable summary gives the principal features of pneumonia 
 in alcoholics. He describes it as running a comparatively 
 prolonged course, as being often accompanied by a violent 
 delirium, following which is a period of prostration or of coma ; 
 even in those who recover, abscesses frequently 'occur in the 
 liver, or in other organs. He also points out that there may be 
 a similar chain of events in other infective conditions such as 
 erysipelas and typhoid fever, but as he insists that, until Abbott's 
 experiments on the streptococcus,* staphylococcus * and bacter- 
 ium coli, * in alcoholized and non-alcoholized animals, little 
 
 * Microbes or bacteria of different kinds. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 28l 
 
 attempt has been made to indicate the mechanism, or, at any 
 rate, the process by which alcoholized individuals are rendered 
 more susceptible to the invasion and action of micro-organisms. 
 " As we have already seen, Abbott's experiments prove beyond 
 doubt that attenuated disease-producing organisms, which in 
 healthy animals do not kill immediately, bring about a fatal 
 result when the animal has previously been treated with alco- 
 hol. In order to determine which was the most important 
 factor in the destruction or weakening of the resisting agents 
 in the body, Dr. Delearde conceived the idea of experimenting 
 with those diseases in which it has been found possible to pro- 
 duce, artificially, as it were, and under controlled conditions, an 
 immunity or insusceptibility in healthy animals. He carried 
 out a series of experiments on rabbits, immunizing against and 
 infecting with the virus of hydrophobia, tetanus and anthrax.* 
 To these rabbits he first administered a quantity of alcohol, 
 from 6 to 8 c. c. at first, and gradually rises to 10 c. c. doses 
 per diem. 
 
 " There is in the first instance a slight falling off in weight of 
 the animal, but after a time this ceases, and the animal may 
 again become heavier, until the original weight is reached. He 
 then took a series of animals and vaccinated them against 
 hydrophobia. In one set the animals were afterwards alco- 
 holized and then injected with a considerable quantity of viru- 
 lent rabic cord. It was here found that immunity against 
 rabies had not been lost. 
 
 " In a second set the vaccination and alcoholization were car- 
 ried on simultaneously, a fatal dose (as proved by control ex- 
 periment) of rabic cord was then injected, when it was found 
 that little or no immunity had been acquired. In a third series 
 the alcohol was stopped before the immunizing process was 
 commenced. In this case marked immunity was acquired. 
 
 " As regards rabies, then, acute alcoholism, especially when 
 
 * Carbuncle. 
 
282 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 continued for comparatively short periods, simply has the effect 
 of preventing the acquisition of immunity when alcohol is ad- 
 ministered during the period when the immunizing process 
 ought to be going on. This indicates that the action of the 
 alcohol in acute alcoholism is direct, and that although its 
 administration prevents the acquisition of immunity it does not 
 alter the cells so materially that they cannot regain some of 
 their original powers, whilst once the immunity has been gained 
 by the cells, alcohol cannot, immediately, so fundamentally 
 alter them that they lose the immunity they have already 
 acquired. When we come to the consideration of the case of 
 tetanus, however, we are carried a step further. Dr. Delearde 
 repeating his immunizing and alcoholizing experiments, but 
 now working with tetanus virus in place of rabic virus, found — 
 and, perhaps, here it may be as well to give his own words : — 
 
 (r) " * That animals vaccinated against tetanus and afterwards 
 alcoholized lose their immunity against tetanus ; 
 
 (2) " ' That animals vaccinated against tetanus and at the same 
 time alcoholized do not readily acquire immunity ; 
 
 (3) " * That animals first alcoholized and then vaccinated may 
 acquire immunity against tetanus if alcohol is suppressed from 
 the commencement of the process of vaccination.' 
 
 ** In the case of anthrax too, as we gather from another 
 series of experiments, it is almost impossible to confer immun- 
 ity, if the animal is alcoholized during the time that it is being 
 vaccinated, and although the animals, first alcoholized and then 
 vaccinated, may acquire a certain amount of immunity, they 
 rapidly lose condition and are certainly more ill than non- 
 alcoholized animals vaccinated simultaneously. 
 
 " We have already mentioned that Massart and Bordet some 
 years ago pointed out that alcohol, even in very dilute solutions, 
 exerts a very active negative chemiotaxis, i. e., it appears to 
 have properties by which leucocytes are repelled or driven 
 away from its neighborhood and actions. Alcohol thus pre- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 283 
 
 vents the cells from attacking invading bodies or of reacting in 
 the presence of the toxins which also, as is well known, exert a 
 more or less marked negative chemiotaxis, i. e., the cells appear 
 to be paralyzed. In all diseases, then, in which the leucocytes 
 help to remove an invading organism or in which they have the 
 power of reacting or of carrying on their functions in the pres- 
 ence of a toxin, we should expect that alcohol would to a cer- 
 tain extent deprive them of this power or interfere with their 
 capacity for acquiring a greater resisting power or of reinforc- 
 ing the powers of resistance. It appears indeed to reinforce 
 the poison formed by pathogenic organisms. Dr. Delearde 
 maintains moreover that chronic alcoholism increases enor- 
 mously the difficulty of rendering an animal immune to anthrax, 
 whilst as those who have had any experience of cases of 
 anthrax know full well alcoholics, whether acute or chronic, 
 manifest a remarkable susceptibility both as regards attacks of 
 anthrax and the fatality of the disease when once contracted. 
 Further as clinical proof of the correctness of another of these 
 sets of experiments, Dr. Delearde instances two cases of rabies 
 which have come under observation in the Institut Pasteur — 
 one, a man of 30 years of age, of intemperate habits who after 
 a complete treatment of 18 days after a bite in the hand died of 
 hydrophobia ; the other, a child of 13 years who was bitten on the 
 face by the same dog that had attacked the other patient, and 
 on the same day — who underwent the same treatment re- 
 mained perfectly well. In this case the more severe bite (the 
 face being the most serious position in which a person can be 
 bitten) was received by the child ; indeed the intemperate habits 
 of the man, who even took alcohol during treatment, appear to 
 have been the only more serious factor in his case as compared 
 with that of the child. 
 
 " From all this Dr. Delearde draws the practical conclusion 
 that patients who have been bitten by a mad dog should as far 
 as possible abstain from the use of alcohol not only during the 
 process of treatment, but also for some time afterwards, even 
 
284 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 for a period of eight months, during which period, apparently, 
 increase of immunity may be going on. Beyond this he main- 
 tains that doctors often commit a grave error in administering 
 strong doses of alcohol to patients suffering from certain infec- 
 tious diseases such as pneumonia, or from certain intoxications 
 such as those produced by snake-bite, during which an increase 
 in the number of leucocytes appear to be a necessary part of 
 any process that leads to the cure of the patient. Finally, he 
 points out how necessary it is that we should respect the integ- 
 rity of the leucocytes in the presence of microbic infections or 
 intoxications. We may accept these statements all the more 
 readily as Dr. Delearde states that ' although we must recognize 
 that small doses of dilute alcoholic beverages are indicated in 
 certain cases where it is necessary to stimulate the nervous 
 system, one must guard oneself against an abuse which may 
 certainly be prejudicial to the putting into operation of the 
 mechanism of defence against the organisms of disease.' 
 
 " In so far as these conclusions rest on a series of exact ex- 
 periments we are justified in accepting them as being a most 
 valuable contribution to the question ; where there is no experi- 
 mental basis, we must exercise our own judgment. To show 
 the very strong impression that exists that there is some con- 
 nection between severe cases of pneumonia and alcohol I may 
 mention that the other day I heard a gentleman (not a medical 
 man) say, ' It is well known that most men (of a certain pro- 
 fession) die from alcoholism.' When asked to explain he said, 
 • They all die from cirrhosis or pneumonia, and if those condi- 
 tions are not due to alcoholism, what is ? ' 
 
 " There can be no doubt that in addition to its specific action, 
 alcohol has a general action— the mal-nutrition, which is usually 
 associated with the use of alcohol, especially as a result of its 
 action on the mucous membranes of the stomach, etc." 
 
 That the " guardian cells " of the body play a part 
 in a considerable number of diseases was illustrated 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 285 
 
 by Dr. Woodhead by drawings and photographs, 
 shown on the lantern screen. The photographs in- 
 cluded cells containing anthrax, typhoid and tuber- 
 cle bacilli, the spirilla of relapsing fever, specimens 
 from cases of anthrax. Specimens were shown in 
 which the cells were actually ingesting and digest- 
 ing the specific micro-organisms. In a case of ty- 
 phoid, showing large masses of typhoid bacilli in 
 one of Peyer's patches, there were seen certain of 
 the cells which contained the typhoid bacilli, some 
 of them undergoing degenerative changes, and 
 showing unequal standing. 
 
 Of the researches made by Dr. Abbott referred 
 to in the foregoing lecture Dr. N. S. Davis says : — 
 
 " Thus we have another and direct positive demonstration of 
 the fact that the presence of alcohol in living bodies not only 
 impairs all the physiological processes, but also impairs their 
 vital resistance to the effects of all other poisons. It was 
 hardly necessary, however, to trouble the rabbits to obtain 
 proof of this ; for such evidence may be found in abundance 
 by examining the vital statistics of every civilized country. The 
 late Frank H. Hamilton, in his valuable work on military 
 , hygiene, gives an interesting account of an experiment executed, 
 not on a few rabbits, but on whole regiments of human beings, 
 who were being exposed to the inhibition, not of the strep- 
 tococcus pyogenes, but to the infections of malarial and typho- 
 malaria fever. And, as many were attacked with sickness, it 
 was thought by some of those in authority that if the soldiers 
 were given a specified ration of alcoholic liquor two or three 
 times a day, it might enable them to resist the morbid influ- 
 ences to which they were exposed. The proposed ration was 
 accordingly ordered, and Dr. Hamilton informs us that the 
 
286 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 soldiers taking the liquor ration succumbed to the morbific 
 influences surrounding them so much more rapidly than before, 
 that in less than sixty days the order was countermanded, and 
 the liquor ration stopped. And that eminent surgeon and 
 sanitarian added, with peculiar emphasis, that he wished never 
 to see the same experiment tried again." 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge, of London, has learned through 
 his experiments that alcohol not only hinders the 
 leucocytes in their war upon disease germs, but also 
 tends to the multiplication of germs. Of this he 
 says : — 
 
 " The antagonism of alcohol to the fundamental functions of 
 life is further exhibited by its action on the cellular elements of 
 living tissues and the free cells or leucocytes of the blood. Dr. 
 Lionel Beale long ago pointed out how it affected the proto- 
 plasm of cells, and diminished the movements of amoebae, to 
 which leucocytes are apparently analogous. 
 
 " But while alcohol is thus injurious to living protoplasm, or 
 constructive protoplasm as it may be called, that which builds 
 up, and forms all kinds of structures, and living beings of all 
 higher types, I accidentally discovered that in minute quantities, 
 under about one per cent., and even in such almost incredible 
 amounts as I part in 100,000. (iV millilitre in 10 litres) it favors 
 the growth and multiplication of many microbes whose func- 
 tion is antagonistic to the protoplasm of organized beings, and 
 which may therefore be called destructive protoplasm. We 
 know that these microbes are kept at bay by the vitality of the 
 tissues : if this vitality is lowered they may prevail : as soon as 
 life departs they set to work, and decomposition is the result. 
 It is, therefore, not very surprising that an agent, like alcohol, 
 which, we have seen, lowers the vitality of constructive pro- 
 toplasm, should, on the other hand increase the vitality of de- 
 structive protoplasm. At any rate such is the fact. In the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 287 
 
 presence of these minute quantities of alcohol, decomposition 
 goes on more rapidly, and the micrococci and bacilli, thrive and 
 swarm more abundantly. This is easily demonstrable by the 
 more rapid, and thicker, cloudiness of any clear decomposable 
 liquor in the course of a day or two, or in a few days, according 
 to circumstances. But I have demonstrated the more rapid 
 multiplication of some forms by means of plate cultivations, of 
 which I show specimens.* It is true of the bacteria of decom- 
 position, of the streptococci, and staphylococci of pus, and of 
 diphtheria. Time alone has been wanting to demonstrate this 
 in other cases, which I hope to do." 
 
 The Medical Week some time ago contained this 
 paragraph : — 
 
 " Dr. Viala, in collaboration with Dr. Charrin, says : * I have 
 carried out a series of researches on the toxicity of various al- 
 coholic beverages in common use, such as wines and brandies 
 of all brands, from those which are reputed the best to those of 
 very inferior quality. All these products have been analyzed 
 with the greatest care. Our experiments were carried out on 
 fifty animals. Intravenous injections confirm Dr. Daremberg's 
 statement that liquors considered as the best are the most toxic, 
 more particularly as regards their immediate effects.' " 
 
 Although the foregoing statement directs the 
 reader's attention to the comparative effects of dif- 
 ferent alcoholic liquors, it also plainly implies sev- 
 eral facts of great importance. The first is, that all 
 alcoholic liquors, fermented or distilled, are toxic 
 or poisonous ; and the more pure alcohol they con- 
 tain, the more poisonous are they, the qualities of 
 liquor differing only in the rapidity of their injuri- 
 ous effects. 
 
 In the same number of the Medical Week, Pro- 
 
288 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 fessor Grehant states that after injecting a quantity 
 of alcohol into the venous circulation of a dog equal 
 to one twenty-fifth, or four per cent., of the esti- 
 mated weight of the blood of the animal, he found 
 by several analyses at different times that it re- 
 quired " a little over twenty-three hours for com- 
 plete elimination of the alcohol from the blood." 
 If we consider these results obtained by Viala, 
 Charrin, Daremberg and Grehant, with those ob- 
 tained by Dr. A. C. Abbott, showing the direct ef- 
 fect of alcohol in diminishing the normal vital 
 resistance of the living body to infection, we see 
 excellent reasons why the liberal use of alcohol in 
 the treatment of such infectious diseases as diphthe- 
 ria, typhoid fever and pneumonia, under the sup- 
 position that it was a cardiac tonic, has resulted in 
 so great a mortality as from thirty to sixty per cent. 
 
 Dr. A. Pearce Gould, a London hospital surgeon 
 of the first rank, has made special study of the 
 surgery of the blood-vessels, and of the chest. He 
 was one of the earliest to practice and advocate the 
 careful removal of the axillary glands in all oper- 
 ations for cancer of the breast. 
 
 He is a strong believer in the value of total 
 abstinence as promoting robust health of body and 
 mind. He regards the value of alcohol in disease 
 as exceedingly small, and prescribes it only very 
 rarely. He thinks that alcohol increases the 
 activity of cancer and other malignant growths, an 
 opinion which is of great importance from one with 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 289 
 
 such exceptional opportunities for observation in 
 these complaints. 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis in the American Medical Tem- 
 perance Quarterly of January, 1895, gives reports of 
 cases which came under his observation as a con- 
 sulting physician, where the use of alcoholics 
 throughout an extended illness favored the con- 
 tinuance of delirium, or mild mental disorder, after 
 convalescence was established. In each case the 
 withdrawal of the alcohol was followed by a cessa- 
 tion of the mental delusion. 
 
 One of these cases may be taken as an example : — 
 
 " The third case was that of a woman over sixty years of age, 
 who had suffered from a mild grade of fever and protracted 
 diarrhoea, somewhat resembling a mild grade of enteric typhoid 
 fever. 
 
 " As she became much reduced in strength during the latter 
 part of her diarrhoea, her friends began to give her wine, and 
 sometimes stronger alcoholic drink, under the popular delusion 
 that these could strengthen her. Her mind soon became wan- 
 dering, and she was troubled with illusions, which were attrib- 
 uted to her weakness, and the so-called stimulants were 
 increased. But the mental disorder increased also, and con- 
 tinued after the fever and diarrhoea had ceased, until the ques- 
 tion was raised concerning the propriety of her removal to an 
 asylum for the insane. 
 
 " Being consulted at that time, and listening to an accurate his- 
 tory of the case, I suggested that the anaesthetic effect of the alco- 
 hol on the cerebral hemispheres, in connection with its effect on 
 the hemoglobin, and other elements of the blood, in lessening 
 the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, might be 
 the cause of both the perpetuation of her weakness, and her 
 
29O ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 mental disorder. I advised a trial of its entire omission, and 
 the giving of only simple nourishment, and moderate doses of 
 strychnine and digitalis, as nerve tonics. My advice was fol- 
 lowed, though not without much hesitation on the part of her 
 friends. The result, however, was entire recovery from the 
 mental disorder, and some improvement in her general health." 
 
 Puerperal mania resulted in one case cited, from 
 the use of a moderate amount of wine at mealtimes ; 
 when the wine was abandoned the mania subsided. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WHY DOCTORS STILL PRESCRIBE ALCOHOLICS. 
 
 WORKERS in the department of Non-Alcoholic 
 Medication of the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union are told repeatedly by the better class of 
 physicians that they would be glad often to not 
 prescribe alcohol if patients and their friends would 
 not insist upon its use. There is a deep-rooted 
 prejudice in favor of alcohol as a remedy in the 
 minds of the great multitude of people, and they 
 are ready to distrust as fanatical, or incompetent, 
 any physician who does not use it. Dr. Norman 
 Kerr, a well-known physician of England, says, that 
 during a ten years' residence in America, he found 
 people unwilling to pay him as much for his serv- 
 ices as they were willing to pay one who prescribed 
 alcoholics. . Even those who were abstainers from 
 liquors as beverages distrusted him for not using 
 these things as medicines. Indeed, this prejudice 
 goes so far with many that they will refuse to 
 employ a non-alcoholic physician, if they know him 
 to be such. In consequence of this latter fact, 
 there are great numbers of skilful physicians who 
 say nothing about alcohol lest they be con- 
 
 291 
 
292 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 sidered " faddists," and lose practice, but who 
 never prescribe it unless it is asked for by the 
 patient or his friends. 
 
 Again, consulting physicians will sometimes insist 
 upon the use of alcohol, and thus seeds of distrust 
 of the non-alcoholic physician will be sown. 
 
 Dr. J. J. Ridge says of medical prescriptions : — 
 
 " Hundreds of medical men order alcoholic liquors from 
 habit, from ignorance of their real effect, from fashion, or 
 from a desire to please, or not to offend, their patients. Port- 
 wine is constantly being ordered when persons are recovering 
 from various diseases ; day by day they regain their strength, 
 and the port-wine gets all the credit of it, especially since 
 each glass seems to diffuse a comfortable glow over the whole 
 body. They forget that the process of recovery would have 
 gone on without the port, and that hundreds and thousands of 
 people do get well without it. They often ignore the fact that 
 they are taking real tonics in addition. They are misled by 
 the sensations which the alcohol causes ; they do not know 
 that it relaxes the blood-vessels instead of improving their tone; 
 that it exhausts the heart by making it beat away more rapidly 
 to no profit. Hence the convalescence is actually more 
 prolonged than it would otherwise be. Gentle exercise, regu- 
 lated baths, good food, balmy sleep, these are the true restor- 
 atives of the exhausted system, and no jugglery with sedatives, 
 such as alcohol, can produce the desired result. 
 
 " It is by its sedative action that alcohol has obtained its posi- 
 tion in public opinion. It will render persons insensible to 
 various uneasy sensations, and the majority prefer to continue 
 the bad habits which produce the uneasy sensations, and then 
 to take them away by a dose or two of some alcoholic liquor, 
 or, indeed, to take this before the uneasy sensations come on. 
 In this way they do themselves injury and make themselves 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 293 
 
 unconscious of it. Dr. Beaumont, who had the opportunity of 
 examining the interior of Alexis St. Martin's stomach, and of 
 seeing how digestion Went on, was astonished to see how 
 inflamed the mucous membrane could be without any con- 
 sciousness of it. He observed, as a matter of fact, that alco- 
 holic drinks of all kinds hindered the process of digestion, and 
 produced this morbid condition of the mucous membrane. 
 The relief, therefore, which can be obtained by alcohol is 
 delusive and dangerous. 
 
 " But some persons say they are afraid to abandon the use of 
 alcohol because they have been in the habit of taking it for a 
 long period. This fear is entirely groundless. The alcohol' 
 will be missed for a time, just as a person who has been using 
 crutches would miss them if thrown away ; but they will do 
 better without both after a little while. There is no kind of 
 constitution which renders a person unable to do without alco- 
 hol. The prisoners in all our jails have to leave off their drink 
 at once, and altogether, on entering there, and no harm ever 
 ensues in consequence. But some say that this is because their 
 diet is so carefully arranged, and the hygienic condition of the 
 prison so perfect. Quite so. This shows us clearly that when 
 total abstainers become ill outside the prison, their illness is to 
 be attributed to some error in diet or hygiene, or to some 
 accidental circumstance. It is absurd to think that the infrac- 
 tion of one law of health can be nullified by breaking another ; 
 that if you eat too much, or too fast, or too often, or what is 
 not good for you, you can escape the consequences by injur- 
 ing yourself with alcohol." 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis was for many years openly 
 sneered at by many of his professional brethren as 
 "a cold-water fanatic." Since his views are now 
 being rapidly adopted by progressive medical men 
 all over the civilized world, he says that soon those 
 
294 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 physicians who cling to alcohol will deserve the 
 soubriquet of " alcohol fanatics." He adds : — 
 
 " If I am asked why the profession continues to prescribe 
 these drinks, I answer ; simply from the force of habit and tradi- 
 tional education, coupled with a reluctance to risk the experi- 
 ment of omitting them while the general popular notions 
 sanction their use. Nothing is easier than self-deception in 
 this matter. A patient is suddenly taken with syncope, or 
 nervous weakness, from which abundant experience has shown 
 that a speedy recovery would take place by simple rest and 
 fresh air. But in the alarm of friends something must be done. 
 A little wine or brandy is given, and as it is not sufficient to 
 positively prevent, the patient in due time revives just as would 
 have been the case if neither wine nor brandy had been used. 
 
 " Of course both doctor and friends will regard the so-called 
 stimulant as the cause of the recovery. So, too, w T hen patients 
 are getting weak, in the advanced stage of fever, or some other 
 self-limited disease, an abundance of nourishment is regularly 
 administered, in the greater part of which is mixed some kind 
 of alcoholic drink. The latter will always occupy the chief at- 
 tention, and if, after a severe run, the fever, or disease, finally 
 disappears, it will be said that the patient was sustained or 
 
 * kept alive ' for over two or three weeks, as the case may be, 
 
 • solely by the stimulants,' when, in fact, if the same nourish- 
 ment and care had been given without a drop of alcohol, he 
 would have convalesced sooner, and more perfectly, as I have 
 seen demonstrated a thousand times in my experience." 
 
 Dr. Casgrau, of Dublin, says that physicians who 
 make personal use of alcohol are not able to give 
 an unbiased opinion about its action, as one of its 
 most marked effects is that of a narcotic to the men- 
 tal powers ; such physicians are not so acute to ob- 
 serve the action of this, or any drug. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 295 
 
 Sir B. W. Richardson, M. D., in an address upon 
 the reasons why physicians still prescribe alcoholics, 
 says that the magnetism of public opinion has 
 great weight with professional men. 
 
 " All professions are under that subtle influence. All pro- 
 fessions whatever their duties, whatever their learning may be, 
 are sensitive and obedient to that influence. In their pride 
 they think they lead public opinion ; it is a mistake, they always 
 follow it on every question in which the people, at large, have a 
 voice. They can assist in influencing the public voice, and 
 sometimes, to quote the words of Abbe Purcelle, spoken in the 
 dawn of the great French Revolution, they may prove that 
 ' respect for sovereign power sometimes consists in transgress- 
 ing its orders,' but as a general rule not merely the orders but 
 the inclinations are obeyed. We have to wait on, and for, pub- 
 lic opinion, and in nothing so much as on the subject of alco- 
 hol. The use of alcoholic beverages rests not on argument but 
 on habit, custom. To those whom it affects personally it is an 
 absolute monarch. It makes its own empire. By the very 
 action which it has upon the body of those who receive it into 
 themselves it rules and governs. The joke of the inebriate 
 man that when he had taken his potation he was quite another 
 man and that then he felt it his duty to treat that other man, 
 is literally true, a terse and faithful expression of a natural fact. 
 The man or woman born and bred under the influence of alco- 
 hol is of the race of alcohol, and as distinct a person as any 
 racial peculiarity can supply. The reason, the judgment, the 
 temper, the senses are attuned by it. It is loved by its lovers 
 like life. The grape to them is no longer a luscious fruit ; it is 
 ' the mother of mighty wine,' and he who is bold enough to dis- 
 own that motherhood must stand apart. How can a profession 
 however strong, march all at once against such an overwhelm- 
 ing influence ? Itself born, perchance, under the influence 
 bred under it, how shall it immediately be transformed ? Why 
 
296 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 disobey the influence ? It is in the interest of the doctor to 
 obey, in a worldly sense of view ; but more — it is in his nature 
 to obey. The strong bands of nature and interest go hand in 
 hand. Is it wonderful that the genius of a professional man 
 so situated should, according to the quality of his genius, up- 
 hold, root and branch, the role of his nativity ? On the con- 
 trary the wonder is that he has ever done anything else. It is 
 most natural that he should be amongst the last to take up 
 what revolutionizes all the manners, and customs, and faiths, of 
 society. A lady will ask her physician the question, May I 
 take wine, Sir ? As much as you like Madam ; it is very bad 
 for you and I take none, but that is your business entirely. 
 Henceforth that gentleman is said to be one who prescribes al- 
 cohol in any quantity. In fact, he never prescribes it, for al- 
 though when forbidding is hopeless, there is all the difference 
 in the world between prescribing and permitting, permitting 
 goes down as if it were prescribing. Often a patient will try 
 to compromise. On an ocean of whisky and water, brandy and 
 soda, or other poisonous mixture, he is floating into fatal paraly- 
 sis. You tell him so faithfully, and he says he knows it and 
 will drop down to claret. If you assent, he tells his friends you 
 have changed his brandy or whisky to wine ; if you dissent, he 
 says you have left your duty as a doctor undone, in order to be- 
 come an advocate for abstaining temperance, about which he is 
 as competent a judge as you are, and he won't pay fees for that 
 advice. He pays to be cured of his disease, not to be dragooned 
 into a system peculiar in its tenets. In an alcoholic world 
 there is a strong argument in this decision. It rolls splendidly, 
 especially down hill." 
 
 After speaking of non-alcoholic physicians, and 
 their opinions of the harmfulness of alcohol, he 
 adds : — 
 
 " On the other side, there are practitioners who, under the 
 magnetism of public opinion, as earnestly believe the opposite 
 in relation to alcohol, who declare they could not, conscienti- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 297 
 
 ously, practice their profession if they were debarred the use of 
 alcohol, and who look on the advance and the growth of scien- 
 tific abstaining principles — which they cannot avoid recognizing 
 — with positive dread. The extremists on this side are indeed 
 extreme in their fanaticism. They shut their eyes to the most 
 obvious facts, and do not hesitate in their blindness to misrepre- 
 sent the most obvious truths. They affirm that under the in- 
 fluence of total abstinence and, by inference, because of total 
 abstinence, the yearly decreasing death-rate of the population 
 is accompanied by reduction of vitality ; that people who live 
 long are more enfeebled than those who live short lives and 
 merry ; that under abstinence from alcohol fearful diseases are 
 being developed ; that the total abstainers have less power for 
 resisting disease than the moderate temperate ; and that under 
 the current system of advance towards total abstinence, a very 
 small advance yet by the way, diseases of a low type have de- 
 veloped and extended their ravages." 
 
 It is only physicians of large conscientiousness, 
 or of great independence of character, who will dare 
 to go counter to the prejudices of the people. 
 
 Consequently, it is necessary to educate the peo- 
 ple in the teachings of those physicians, whose em- 
 inence in the profession has permitted them, or 
 whose conscientiousness has driven them, to expose 
 the delusions concerning the medical value of alco- 
 holic beverages. When the people cease to believe 
 in alcoholic remedies, physicians will no longer pre- 
 scribe them. But while the majority desire the 
 " physicians' prescription " as a cover for indulgence, 
 there will be found physicians willing to give such 
 prescriptions. 
 
 That the prescription of alcohol by physicians is 
 
298 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 largely a matter of routine may be seen from the 
 following two cases, reported to the writer by 
 county superintendents of the department of Non- 
 Alcoholic Medication. 
 
 In the first case, the physician said to the nurse, 
 " If the patient's heart becomes weak, you might 
 give a little brandy or whisky." Seeing reluctance 
 expressed upon the nurse's countenance, he added 
 hastily, " Or coffee, strong coffee will do just as 
 well." The nurse in reporting this to the writer, 
 said, " Why couldn't he have ordered coffee in the 
 first place if he thought it equally good ? " 
 
 The second case was that of an aged woman 
 whose physician ordered whisky as a tonic. Her 
 granddaughter ventured to ask, "Would not whisky 
 have a narcotic rather than a tonic effect?" He 
 replied thoughtfully, " Well, tell the truth, I sup- 
 pose it would." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ALCOHOLIC PROPRIETARY OR " PATENT " MEDI- 
 CINES. 
 
 It has been said that America is the paradise of 
 quacks. The statement is true for various reasons. 
 One is, the widespread credulity which accepts as 
 truth the startling claims to miraculous cures, of 
 various pills and potions, as set forth under glaring 
 headlines, in the daily newspapers. Another is, the 
 absence of laws, in most of the states, compelling 
 manufacturers of medicines to place upon the labels 
 the formulae of their preparations, or to use names 
 properly designating the ingredients. A third is, 
 the absence of laws against setting forth false claims 
 in advertisements. A fourth is, the amazing volume 
 of the traffic. 
 
 Dr. A. Emil Hiss, Ph. G., of Chicago, an author- 
 ity upon these preparations, says on this last 
 point : — 
 
 " At the time of the repeal, in 1883, of the stamp taxes on 
 proprietary medicines, the national internal revenue receipts 
 from this source aggregated $2,000,000 annually, of which sum 
 probably not less than $1,000,000 was from patent medicines. 
 This would represent a retail value, at one cent tax for each 
 
 299 
 
300 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 twenty-five cents value, of $40,000,000 in annual sales. The 
 present annual sales, if proportioned, as may safely be assumed, 
 to the larger present population, would now reach the enormous 
 sum of $60,000,000 annually. This enormous drain upon the 
 substance of the people, attended with the infliction of injury 
 incalculable, presents an economic problem vital to the peo- 
 ple in general." 
 
 In view of these figures it is small wonder that 
 speculation in patent medicine ventures has changed 
 poor, itinerant nostrum venders into powerful mil- 
 lionaires in the course of a few years. 
 
 A careful compilation of manufacturers' announce- 
 ments list 1,806 so-called patent medicines sold in 
 open markets, in which alcohol, opium or other 
 toxic drugs form constituent parts. 675 of the 
 preparations are known as "bitters," stomachics, or 
 cordials, and alcohol enters into their composition in 
 quantities varying from fifteen to fifty per cent. ; 
 390 are recommended for coughs and colds, nearly 
 all of which contain opium. Sixty remedies are sold 
 for the relief of pain, and no other purpose. 120 are 
 for nervous troubles, and of this number, sixty-five 
 have entering into their composition coca leaves, or 
 kola nut, or both, or are represented by their respec- 
 tive active principles, cocaine or caffeine. 129 are 
 offered for headaches, and kindred ailments, and 
 usually with a guarantee to give immediate relief. 
 In these are generally compounded phenacetine, 
 caffeine, antipyrine, acetanilid, or morphine, diluted 
 with soda, or sugar of milk. Dysentery, diarrhoea, 
 cholera morbus, cramp in bowels, etc., have 185 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 301 
 
 quick reliefs or " cures M to their credit, nearly all of 
 which contain opium, many of them in addition, 
 alcohol, ginger, capsicum # or myrrh in various com- 
 binations, and there are numerous cases on record 
 where children and adults have been narcotized by 
 their excessive use. Some manufacturers print on 
 the labels covering these goods, words of caution 
 limiting the amount to betaken. Forty-eight com- 
 pounds for asthma contain caffeine and morphine. 
 Sufferers from toothache have their choice from 
 thirty-eight remedies, and thirty-six soothing, or 
 teething, syrups are provided for infants. 
 
 There are many people ignorantly and innocently 
 forming an alcohol, opium or cocaine habit through 
 the use of patent medicines. As superintendent of 
 the department of Non-Alcoholic Medication for 
 the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
 the writer has abundant opportunity to learn of the 
 evils resulting from these much lauded remedies. 
 Women from many sections of the country tell of 
 friends and acquaintances who have been ensnared 
 in time of physical weakness by what promised a 
 cure, but proved a ruin. Many reformed inebriates 
 have lapsed into drunkenness again through these 
 insidious agencies of evil. The increase of drunken- 
 ness among women is largely due to disguised alco- 
 holic medicines, a considerable number of com- 
 pounds being advertised especially for their pecu- 
 liar ills ; one of these, having immense sale, has 
 been analyzed repeatedly showing from 18 to 20 per 
 cent, of alcohol. 
 
302 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 It may be asked, " How is it if these mixtures are 
 harmful only, that so many people profess to have 
 received benefit from them ? There are different 
 reasons for this. 
 
 1. The nature of such drugs as alcohol, opium and 
 cocaine is to benumb sensation, so that pain is 
 stilled, and the pain, or functional disturbance for- 
 gotten for the time, because the nerves are drugged 
 into insensibility. The person feels better while 
 under the influence of the drug, so thinks it is bene- 
 fiting him. 
 
 2. There are people who imagine they have dis- 
 eases which they do not have ; since trained physi- 
 cians occasionally err in diagnosis, it is not strange 
 if the laity should do likewise. Such persons are 
 always ready to aver that a certain medicine " cured " 
 them. 
 
 A ludicrous example of this is a woman out West, 
 whose picture graces the advertisements of a certain 
 nostrum, accompanied by a testimonial that said 
 nostrum cured her of a " polypus " ! Upon being 
 written to as to how such a preparation could effect 
 such a cure, she answered that, after giving the testi- 
 monial, she found that she had not had a polypus ! 
 
 3. Some of the cures attributed to drugs, are 
 doubtless due to Nature. It is estimated that from 
 30 to 90 per cent, of ailments are cured by Nature, 
 unassisted, and often in spite of, the drugs swallowed. 
 Many of the books advertising these remedies (?) 
 give excellent rules of health, which, if followed, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 303 
 
 would restore persons to vigor more speedily with- 
 out the accompanying medicine, than they can be 
 restored while the system has the poisonous drugs 
 to throw off. It may be reasonably assumed that a 
 goodly number of recoveries ascribed to drug treat- 
 ments are due, in reality, to the resisting force of a 
 good constitution, or to obedience to the laws of 
 health given in the circular. 
 
 4. It is not uncommon for people suffering from 
 certain diseases to have temporary remissions in the 
 course of the disease. No doubt, some of the cases 
 reported as cures are such spontaneous remissions, 
 which are followed, after the testimonials have been 
 written, by relapse. The majority of people are 
 ignorant of the natural course of diseases — of what 
 happens when no treatment is taken. They do not 
 know that a great many affections are characterized 
 by periods of apparent recovery. For instance in 
 some varieties of paralysis, as well as in consumption, 
 the sufferer may to appearance recover completely 
 for a few months or longer ; if a remedy was being 
 used at the time, it would naturally get the credit 
 of causing the favorable change. 
 
 However, all of the glowing testimonials of won- 
 derful benefits accruing from patent medicines are 
 not what they seem to be. Dr. J. H. Kellogg says 
 in his Monitor of Health : — 
 
 " The average manufacturer of patent medicines regularly 
 employs a person of some literary attainment whose duty it is 
 to invent vigorous testimonials of sufferings relieved by Dr. 
 
304 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Charlatan's universal panacea. In many instances persons are 
 hired to give testimonials, and answer letters of inquiry in such 
 a way as to encourage business. The shameless dishonesty 
 and ingenious villainy. exhibited are beyond description." 
 
 Recently an advertisement of one of these nos- 
 trums stated in the headlines that said nostrum 
 was used in the Frances Willard Temperance Hospi- 
 tal, Chicago. The testimonial appended purported 
 to be from a nurse in that hospital, but the testimon- 
 ial did not state, as did the headlines, that the pre- 
 paration was ever used in that hospital. The presi- 
 dent of the hospital board of trustees states that trie 
 nurse positively denies having given any testimonial 
 to the company thus advertising. She did give one 
 to another patent medicine concern, but not to this, 
 and never said either was used in the hospital, nor 
 have they been. Suit could be brought for dama- 
 ges, but unfortunately the patent medicine people 
 have unlimited money, and the hospital has not. 
 
 Early in the present year there appeared in many 
 daily papers a large advertising picture of a man 
 whose name was appended as a professional nurse of 
 a western city. 
 
 The following testimonial accompanied .the pic- 
 ture : — 
 
 " Mr. of , who is a professional nurse of experi- 
 ence, writes, — ' My friend is improving, thanks to , and 
 
 you. I am called on to nurse the sick of all classes. I recom- 
 mend to such an extent that I am nicknamed : 
 
 (giving name of nostrum) by nearly everybody. ' " 
 
 As the writer of this book was acquainted with a 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 305 
 
 physician residing in the small city mentioned in 
 the advertisement, she wrote to him, requesting that 
 he investigate this testimonial. 
 
 He replied that he found the chief part of the 
 advertisement, namely, that Mr. was a pro- 
 fessional nurse, false ; " First, by his own statement 
 as he told me this morning that he never claimed 
 to be a professional nurse. And my personal ac- 
 quaintance with him, as well as that of a number of 
 other physicians in our little city, and reliable men 
 and women of this community who are acquainted 
 with him, all testify to the same thing, namely ; 
 that he is not a professional nurse, neither is he a 
 nurse, or even a reliable man. He is an innocent, 
 ignorant man, very close to the pauper class. He 
 told me when I read the commendation to which 
 his name is affixed, that it was all true except the 
 professional nurse part, and that was entirely false, 
 as stated above." 
 
 As the picture was of a fine-looking, intelligent- 
 appearing man it probably was as genuine as the 
 testimonial. 
 
 The following was clipped from a copy of Merck's 
 Report, April, 1899, a druggists' paper published in 
 New York city : — 
 
 Many Druggists Indignant. 
 
 a patent-medicine advertisement contains unau- 
 
 . thorized endorsements. 
 
 " Fully a score of East-side druggists are up in arms over the 
 unauthorized use of their names in a full-page newspaper adver- 
 
306 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 tisement of a widely-known specific. This advertisement ap- 
 peared recently in certain New York daily papers, and retail 
 druggists who have made it a rule of their business never to 
 recommend any particular proprietary article, found themselves 
 quoted in unqualified laudation of the article so liberally adver- 
 tised. The names and addresses of the druggists were given 
 in full, and when several of the men quoted conferred together 
 they found that the most barefaced misrepresentation had been 
 resorted to. 
 
 " One of the pharmacists thus misrepresented, happened to be 
 Sidney Faber, the secretary of the Board of Pharmacy. He 
 was not selling this particular specific, and had never said a 
 word for or against it, nevertheless, six or eight lines of en- 
 dorsement of the article were directly attributed to him. He 
 called on some of his druggist neighbors whose names he saw 
 in the advertisement, and ascertained that they, too, had been 
 falsely and unwarrantably quoted. Mr. Faber promptly wrote 
 to the proprietors of the specific in question, and denounced the 
 published endorsements bearing his name, as a forgery. His 
 indignation was by no means appeased when he received a 
 letter from the proprietary concern, couched in the following 
 language : ' We regret to learn that you have been annoyed by 
 any statements that have appeared in New York city papers. 
 We will forward your letter to them.' 
 
 " Within the past few days several of the druggists whose 
 names were used in this advertisement without authority, have 
 been considering the advisability of taking legal proceedings in 
 order to ascertain their rights in the matter. It is contrary to 
 pharmaceutical ethics for a pharmacist to specially endorse any 
 proprietary article, or patent medicine. Some of the offended 
 druggists propose to contribute to a fund for the purpose of 
 publicly, and widely, advertising this unwarranted use of their 
 names." . 
 
 When patent medicine advertisers would dare to 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 30/ 
 
 resort to such a wholesale fraud as this, what may 
 they be expected to refrain from ? 
 
 As an illustration of how, commendations from 
 notable persons are sometimes obtained, the follow- 
 ing is cited : In the winter of 1899, appeared an 
 advertising picture of the lovely Christian lady 
 from Denmark, the Countess Schimmelmann, who 
 was spending some time in Chicago. Below her 
 picture were the words : — 
 
 " Adeline, Countess Schimmelmann, whose portrait is here 
 
 given, in a recent letter to the company, (mentioning 
 
 proprietors of nostrum) speaks of friends of hers who have 
 
 been benefited by (mentioning nostrum), and who first 
 
 advised her to recommend it to her sick friends. 
 
 " The Countess, as is well known, is a prominent member of 
 the Danish court. Her coming to this country has been much 
 talked of. Her real object is one of charity. She is stopping 
 in Chicago, and from, there writes her straightforward en- 
 dorsement of (mentioning nostrum)." 
 
 The italics are the writer's. The picture and the 
 testimonial were cut from the paper, and sent to 
 the countess, asking if she had so spoken of this 
 medicine, and, if so, did she, a strong total absti- 
 nence woman, know that this mixture contains a 
 large percentage of alcohol. 
 
 She responded as follows : — 
 
 " Thank you for asking me about the enclosed. A white- 
 ribbon lady came and asked me if I would do her the great 
 
 kindness to recommend compound (made up of the 
 
 juice of celery). I said I could not personally recommend it 
 as I neither use, nor want, medicine. But some very reliable 
 
308 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 friends of mine {temperance people, and true Christians) told 
 me I would do a good thing in recommending it as they used 
 it, and found it excellent. Then I wrote the following: 'I 
 
 myself cannot recommend compound as I do not suffer 
 
 from any of the ailments it is said to be good for, but reliable 
 friends of mine tell me that it is excellent, and I would do a 
 good thing in recommending it to my friends. Adeline, Count- 
 ess Schimmelmann.' 
 
 " I will only consent to the publishing of this letter if you 
 publish the whole letter, and no extract from it, as the white- 
 ribbon lady did for the compound." 
 
 If a white-ribboner played this mean trick upon 
 this distinguished Christian worker she is un- 
 worthy of membership in the Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union. It is more than likely that 
 the " white-ribbon lady," was a paid advertising 
 agent of the patent medicine manufacturer, and 
 wore a white-ribbon to gain the confidence of the 
 Countess. 
 
 Whether patent medicine manufacturers know 
 how to doctor all ills to which human flesh is heir 
 may be doubted, but that their advertising agents 
 are skilful " doctors " of testimonials is very evident 
 to any one acquainted with the facts. 
 
 The Department of Public Charities of New 
 York city in a " Report on the use of so-called 
 Proprietary Medicines as Therapeutic Agents,'* 
 says : — 
 
 " In connection with this subject it might be mentioned that, 
 for years past, the name of Bellevue Hospital has been taken 
 in vain by a number of persons and firms, without any authority 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 309 
 
 whatever. It is a common occurrence that samples of proprie- 
 tary medicines, foods, mineral waters, plasters, etc., etc. are 
 sent to the hospital, or to members of the house-staff for 
 4 trial,' whereupon the subsequent advertisements of the 
 articles in question often assert that the latter are • used in 
 Bellevue Hospital,' leaving the impression upon the mind of 
 the reader that the article, or articles, have been used with 
 the sanction of some member of the Medical Board. It is 
 probably impossible to find a remedy for this evil, from which 
 many other institutions of repute likewise suffer. To publish a 
 denial of such false assertions would only aggravate the evil. 
 The utmost that can be done appears to be, to caution the 
 medical staff against any entanglements with, or encourage- 
 ment of, the agents of the interested parties." 
 
 This report, which was adopted by the Medical 
 Board of Bellevue Hospital, classifies proprietary 
 preparations as " Objectionable " or " Unobjection- 
 able " according to the following rules : — 
 
 " Unobjectionable preparations are those, the origin and 
 composition of which is not kept secret, and which are known 
 to serve a useful and legitimate purpose. Malted Milk is an 
 example. Objectionable proprietary preparations, by far the 
 largest group of the whole class, comprise all those which are 
 aimed at under the medical code of ethics under the term 
 ' secret nostrum,' which term may be more closely defined thus : 
 
 " A secret nostrum is a preparation, the origin or composi- 
 tion of which is kept secret, the therapeutic claims for which 
 are unreasonable or unscientific, or which is not intended for a 
 legitimate purpose. 
 
 " Examples : The various ' Soothing Syrups,' ' Female 
 Regulators,' ' Blood Purifiers,' and thousands of others." 
 
 Dr. A. Emil Hiss, Ph. G., says of the secrecy of 
 these preparations : — 
 
310 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " A secret compound with a meaningless title is presump- 
 tively a fraud. Why a secret if not to permit extravagant, or 
 fraudulent, claims as to therapeutic merit ? ***** ^he 
 ruling motive of the secret being essentially false and dis- 
 honest, its employment in the interest of any remedy is clearly 
 a sufficient cause for its condemnation and ostracism." 
 
 Mothers sometimes wonder why their boys take 
 so readily to cigarettes, or their daughters to cocaine, 
 never thinking that the soothing syrup, or cough 
 mixture given freely by themselves to their children 
 developed a craving for something stronger later 
 on. Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, advertised for 
 years in church as well as secular papers as " in- 
 valuable for children," is cited in the report for 
 1888 of the Massachusetts State Board of Health 
 as containing opium; also Ayer's Cherry Pectoral, 
 Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup, Jayne's Expectorant, 
 Hooker's Cough and Croup Syrup, Moore's Essence 
 of Life, Mother Bailey's Quieting Syrup, and others 
 too numerous to mention. The report says : — 
 
 " The sale of soothing syrups, and all medicines designed for 
 
 the use of children, which contain opium and its preparations 
 
 l should be prohibited. Many would be deterred from using a 
 
 i preparation known to contain opium, who would use without 
 
 question a soothing syrup recommended for teething children." 
 
 Again, on page 149 the following is quoted from 
 a prominent physician : — 
 
 "" Among infants, and in the early years of life, soothing 
 syrups are the cause of untold misery ; for seeds are doubtlessly 
 sown in infancy only to bear the. most pernicious fruit in adult 
 Jife. It is said that one of the best known soothing syrups con- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 31I 
 
 tains from one to three grains of morphia to the ounce of 
 syrup. I believe that stringent legal measures should immedi- 
 ately be taken to stop the sale of so-called soothing syrups 
 containing opium, morphia or codeine." 
 
 The writer has known mothers so ignorant of the 
 nature of these soothing syrups as to deliberately 
 put the baby to sleep upon them in order to insure 
 relief from care for some hours. 
 
 Prof. J. Redding, M. D., says on this point : — 
 
 " While it may be true that an adult, of his own free will, and 
 without incentive, or predisposing causes, does occasionally be- 
 come a drunkard, I am convinced that nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine out of every one thousand individuals who become 
 drunkards are made so in embryo, infancy, or childhood, by the 
 use of alcoholic decoctions, soothing syrups, opiates, calomel, 
 etc. which are given as medicines to allay pain, obtUnd nerve 
 sensibility, to cure the little sufferer of his vital manifestations, 
 of his mental discomforts, but leave the actual disease and its, 
 perhaps, putrid causation to time and debilitated vitality to 
 remove." 
 
 Of the danger and harmfulness of patent cough 
 mixtures The American Therapist says : — 
 
 " Cough mixtures as a rule, do more harm than good. Nine 
 times out of ten the principal ingredient is opium. It is true 
 that opium may lessen the tendency to cough, but it does great 
 damage by arresting the normal secretions, and the system 
 becomes affected by the poisons from the kidneys, skin, 
 stomach, intestines and the mucous membrane lining the up- 
 per air passages. Not only do these mixtures arrest every 
 secretion in the body, but they also show their deteriorating 
 and degrading effect through the stomach. They contain sub- 
 stances which tend to disorder and derange digestion." 
 
312 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., in a re- 
 cent number of The Journal of the American Medi- 
 cal Association, tells of cases he has known of 
 persons suffering from some bronchial irritation, 
 who were addicted to a cough remedy which con- 
 tained morphia. They suffered from the use of it, 
 but with great difficulty were made to abstain from 
 it. He also cites the case of a clergyman who cer- 
 tified to a cure of consumption by a certain cough 
 drug, but he could not keep from using it more 
 than a day or two. He afterward became a morphia 
 inebriate. 
 
 In the report upon Food and Drug Inspection of 
 the Massachusetts State Board of Health for 1896 
 is a list of fifty proprietary medicines, showing the 
 percentage of alcohol by volume, as found by the 
 analysts employed by the Board. The following 
 percentages are taken from that report. 
 
 Per Cent, of 
 Alcohol. ' 
 
 " Best Tonic," , y.6 
 
 Hoofland's German Tonic, 29.3 
 
 Howe's Arabian Tonic, label says " not a rum drink,".. . 13.2 
 
 Liebig's Coca Beef Tonic 23.2 
 
 Mensman's Peptonized Beef Tonic, 16.5 
 
 Parker's Tonic, labelled, " Purely Vegetable," " recom- 
 mended for inebriates," 41.6 
 
 Schenck's Sea Weed Tonic, labelled, " entirely harmless," 19.5 
 
 Atwood's Quinine Tonic Bitters, 29.2 
 
 Baker's Stomach Bitters, 4 2 -6 
 
 Burdock Blood Bitters, 25.2 
 
 Copp's White Mountain Bitters, labelled " not an alcoholic 
 
 beverage," 6.0 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 313 
 
 Drake's Plantation Bitters, 33.2 
 
 Hoofland's German Bitters, " entirely vegetable, and free 
 
 from alcoholic stimulant," 25.6 
 
 Hostetter's Stomach Bitters, 44.3 
 
 Kaufmann's Sulphur Bitters, " contains no alcohol," 25.6 
 
 As a matter of fact it contains no sulphur, 
 
 Paine's Celery Compound, 21.0 
 
 Puritana, 22.0 
 
 Richardson's Concentrated Sherry Wine Bitters, 47.5 
 
 Warner's Safe Tonic Bitters, 35.7 
 
 Whiskol, labelled " a non-intoxicating stimulant, whisky 
 
 without its sting," 28.2 
 
 Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic, "recommended for treat- 
 ment of alcohol habit," 26.5 
 
 Ayers's Sarsaparilla, 26.2 
 
 Hood's Sarsaparilla, 1 8.8 
 
 Allen's Sarsaparilla, 13.5 
 
 Dana's Sarsaparilla, 13.5 
 
 Brown's Sarsaparilla, 13.5 
 
 Radvvay's Resolvent, 7.9 
 
 The least known of the fifty preparations ex- 
 amined, are omitted. The dose recommended upon 
 the labels of these medicines (?) varied from a 
 teaspoonful to a wineglassful, and the frequency 
 also varied from one to four times a day, " increased 
 as needed." The Secretary of the Board of Health 
 making these examinations says there is no doubt 
 but that such doses may beget an alcoholic craving. 
 
 It will be noticed that the percentage of alcohol 
 in many of these preparations is much greater than 
 in ordinary wine, beer or cider. Some of them 
 are said to have immense sale in prohibition states 
 as beverages. 
 
3 14 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Another nostrum, advertising as " a positive cure 
 for the opium and alcohol habits," was analyzed 
 for the Boston Journal of Health, and found to 
 contain about 19 per cent, of alcohol. A later ex- 
 amination by Dr. R. G. Eccles, and published in 
 the Druggists Circular, drew particular attention 
 to the fact that the preparation contained cocaine. 
 Yet the circular accompanying this medicine makes 
 the statement that though tasting like a wine 
 thirty years old, it is positively free from alcohol or 
 narcotics, and that it " creates no craving, and can 
 be left off at any moment without the slightest 
 desire for it." 
 
 Why the manufacturers of such a preparation are 
 not proceeded against for obtaining money under 
 false pretenses is probably because " what is every- 
 body's business is nobody's business." 
 
 The report of the Board of Health mentioned 
 gives also a list of twenty so-called " opium cures," 
 all of which were found to contain morphine in 
 variable amounts. The examination of " sarsa- 
 parilla " remedies, or " blood-purifiers," by the anal- 
 ysts employed by this Board of Health, shows that 
 nearly all of them contain a considerable percentage 
 of iodide of potassium, in addition to the large 
 quantities of alcohol. Of this iodide the report 
 says : — 
 
 " The sale of such an article in unlimited quantities by drug- 
 gists, grocers and others is censurable. More than this, the 
 method of its sale is dishonest, since the unwary purchaser is 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 315 
 
 led to believe that he is purchasing a harmless vegetable remedy, 
 namely, sarsaparilla. It may be seriously questioned whether 
 the blood of persons who take iodide of potassium continuously 
 is not decidedly impoverished, instead of being purified, as is 
 claimed by the manufacturers. Unlike sarsaparilla, iodide of 
 potassium is classed among poisons by nearly every writer on 
 toxicology. 
 
 " The pale, sallow complexion of the habitual user of the 
 sarsaparilla iodides is unfortunately too often met with wher- 
 ever these remedies are freely sold." 
 
 Yet these sarsaparillas, so injurious, and so dan- 
 gerous because of the alcohol in them, are adver- 
 tised freely in many religious, and some, temperance 
 papers. These papers could not be induced at any 
 price to insert advertisements of wine, beer or cider, 
 yet from lack of thought, or lack of knowledge, 
 they give space to sarsaparillas, opium cures, and 
 other drug preparations as injurious to health as 
 most of the alcoholic beverages commonly sold. 
 
 " Instant cold relief " is mentioned in the report 
 as containing cocaine, with sugar of milk, menthol, 
 and common salt. The danger in using remedies 
 containing cocaine consists in the liability to the 
 formation of a cocaine habit. Instances have been 
 cited in which persons purchasing this remedy have 
 used a half dozen bottles per day, with the result of 
 producing permanent injury to health. According 
 to the " United States Dispensatory," the habitual 
 use of cocaine readily grows upon the individual, 
 and the inveterate user can be recognized by his 
 uncertain step, general apathy, sunken eyes, trem- 
 
3l6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 bling lips, fetid breath, etc. Incurable insomnia is 
 apt to be developed, emaciation becomes extreme, 
 dropsy appears, and even death results. Poisoning 
 and death have resulted from both its internal ad- 
 ministration, and its local use. 
 
 There are some headache cures upon the market 
 which are said by analysts to contain cocaine. 
 Others, advertised as harmless, consist chiefly of 
 antipyrine, a very powerful substance derived from 
 eoal tar. It relieves pain, but has a most depressing 
 effect upon the heart, and is a dangerous remedy, 
 unfitted for self-prescription. 
 
 Malt extracts are very extensively used at the 
 present time, under the popular notion that they 
 are an aid to starch digestion. That they are a 
 product of the brewery has caused them to be 
 looked upon with suspicion by cautious people, but 
 the multitude has apparently given no thought, or 
 care, as to whether or not they may be alcoholic. 
 Dr. Charles Harrington presented the results of an 
 examination of these preparations at a meeting of 
 the Boston Society of Medical Sciences, held Nov. 
 17, 1896. The following is quoted from the journal 
 of the society for November, 1896 : — 
 
 " Twenty-one different brands of liquid malt extract were 
 obtained and analyzed. That they were not true malt extracts 
 is shown by the fact that in no one was there the slightest di'as- 
 tatic power ; all were alcoholic, some being stronger than beer, 
 ale, or even porter. In a number of specimens a large amount 
 of salicylic acid was detected." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 317 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg, in commenting upon this re- 
 port, said in the Dec., 1896, Bulletin of the A. M. T. 
 A.:— 
 
 " In the light of these facts, it is apparent that ale or lager 
 beer might as well be prescribed for a patient as these so-called 
 malt extracts, which are practically nothing more than concen- 
 trated ale or lager." 
 
 There are malt extracts, made up like honey, or 
 syrup, in consistency, which are valuable. 
 
 The following list of malt extracts, with accom- 
 panying letter from Prof. Sharpies, is taken from a 
 paper published by Hon. Henry H. Faxon, of 
 Quincy, Mass. : — 
 
 "Boston, Mass., March 20, 1897. 
 " I enclose a list of the malt extracts examined in this office 
 during the past year or two. These samples were all in 
 original packages, obtained by officers in various parts of 
 Eastern Massachusetts. They probably very fairly represent the 
 various malt extracts on the market. I have added two 
 samples of Porter and one of Old Brown Stout for purposes of 
 comparison. 
 
 " Yours respectfully, 
 
 " S. P. Sharples. 
 " State Assayer." 
 
 Name. Solids. A Icohol. 
 
 5193 English Malt Extract 9.70 5.63 
 
 5214 Old Grist Mill Malt Extract 10.57 5.54 
 
 5418 Old Grist Mill Malt Extract 9.98 5.63 
 
 5490 Old Grist Mill Malt Extract 1 2.28 5.86 
 
 5626 Old Grist Mill Malt Extract 9.63 5.00 
 
 5207 Liquid Food, a Malt Extract 10.47 4.27 
 
 5225 Pure Malt, a Liquid Food, a Tonic 9.71 5.00 
 
318 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 5416 Pure Malt, a Liquid Food, a Tonic 10,76 6.32 
 
 *56iq King's Pure Malt 9.52 6.6a 
 
 5421 A Nutritious Tonic, Pure Malt Extract 10.88 6.24 
 
 5226 Noris' Extract of Malt 1 1.57 5.94 
 
 5258 Noris' Extract of Malt 9.31 6.55 
 
 5397 Noris' Extract of Malt 10.63 6.24. 
 
 5485 Noris' Extract of Malt 10.50 6.63 
 
 5620 Noris' Extract of Malt 12.55 5- Q<> 
 
 5229 Pabst Malt Extract, The Best Tonic 10.43 5- l( > 
 
 5230 Hoff s Malt Extract (Tarrant's) 11.33 8 - 8 & 
 
 5489 Hoff's Malt Extract (Tarrant's) 12.25 7.17 
 
 5231 Johann Hoff'sches Malz-Extract, Gesund- 
 
 heit's Beir 11.31 4.34 
 
 5491 Johann Hoff'sches Malz-Extract, Gesund- 
 
 heit's Beir 11.02 4.85 
 
 5621 Johann Hoff'sches Malz-Extract, Gesund- 
 
 heit's Beir ,. 10.49 4- 5° 
 
 5408 Johann Hoff'sches Malz-Extract, Gesund- 
 
 heit's Beir 1 1.47 47& 
 
 5340 Haffenreffer & Co. Malt Wine 1 1 .02 6.65 
 
 5423 Haffenreffer & Co. Malt Wine 11.71 5.63 
 
 Liquid Bread, A Pure Extract of Malt 6.78 6.63 
 
 5395 Durgin's Malt, Liquid Extract of Malt 7.12 5.94 
 
 5433 Durgin's Liquid Extract of Malt 6.49 5.55 
 
 5396 Wyeth's Liquid Malt Extract 1480 3.35 
 
 5488 Wyeth's Liquid Malt Extract 1 5. 50 2.86 
 
 5622 Wyeth's Liquid Malt Extract 15.73 2 -35 
 
 5406 Wampole's Concentrated Extract of Malt. . 9.84 9.86 
 
 5407 Anheuser-Busch 's Malt Nutrine. 15.98 3.00 
 
 5600 Anheuser-Busch's Malt Nutrine 15.82 2.25 
 
 5417 Malt Extract (Sterilized), John L. Gleeson.. 7.97 4.71 
 
 5422 Malt Extract (Sterilized), Charles C. Hearn.* 8.58 5.00 
 5436 Burkhart Brewing Co.'s Malt Extract 10.73 7- 01 
 
 * The label on King's Malt states that for a strong, healthy person, with a 
 good appetite, a pint with each meal and another on retiring at night will not 
 be too much. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 319 
 
 5486 Menzel's Extract of Malt 5-9° 5- 2 4 
 
 5625 Menzel's Extract of Malt 6.75 4.35 
 
 5623 King of Malt Tonics, Lion Tonic 10.95 7.05 
 
 5624 Teutonic, " A concentrated Extract of Malt 
 
 and Hops " 9-95 745 
 
 5409 Van Nostrand's Old Stout Porter, " a pure 
 
 malt extract " 7>97 6.55 
 
 5233 Philadephia Porter 5-34 6.63 
 
 5232 Burke's Guiness Stout 6.66 7.17 
 
 The alcohol in the above table represents the cubic centimeters 
 of alcohol in a 100 cubic centimeters of the liquid. The solids 
 are the number of grams of solid extract in each 100 centi- 
 meters of the liquid. 
 
 S. P. Sharples. 
 
 The British Medical Journal, and the British 
 Medical Temperance Review have been calling atten- 
 tion to the danger in coca wines. Intemperance 
 among invalids is said to be greatly on the increase 
 from the use of these wines. In every case the 
 basis of these preparations is strongly alcoholic 
 wine, ranging from 18 to 20 per cent. The coca 
 added is either the leaves, or liquid extract of coca, 
 or hydrochlorate of cocaine. 
 
 Dr. Frederic Coley says in the British Medical 
 Journal'. — * 
 
 " Coca, and its chief alkaloid, cocaine, are drugs which pos- 
 sess some power of removing the sense of fatigue, just as anal- 
 gesics remove the consciousness of pain. But they no more 
 remove the physical condition of muscles, and nerve centres, 
 of which the sense of pain gives us warning, than a dose of 
 morphine, which removes the pain of toothache, removes the of- 
 fending tooth, or even arrests the caries in it. The truth of 
 this will be obvious to any one who remembers enough of physio- 
 
320 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 logy to know what fatigue really means. A muscle which is 
 tired out is different chemically from the same muscle in its 
 more normal condition, when it is ready to respond vigorously 
 to ordinary stimuli. It has lost something, and is, besides, over- 
 charged (poisoned, in fact) with the products of its own activity, 
 and it can only be restored by a fresh supply of the material 
 which it requires, and the carrying away of the poisonous waste 
 products. Fatigue of nerve centres is no doubt strictly analog- 
 ous to fatigue of muscles. 
 
 " It is practically impossible for us, by voluntary exertion, to 
 reach the degree of absolute fatigue, which the physiologist pro- 
 duces by electric stimulation of a nerve-muscle preparation. 
 The sense of fatigue becomes so intense that voluntary effort 
 cannot overcome it. So no man can produce asphyxia by 
 simply holding his breath, because the besoi7i de respirer be- 
 comes irresistible ; but it is quite possible for a narcotic to so 
 dull the sensory part of the respiratory reflex mechanism as to 
 permit asphyxia to take place. 
 
 " The sense of fatigue, and the besoin de respirer are both 
 Nature's danger signals. Drugs which hide such signals from 
 us are a more than doubtful benefit. If it were possible for us 
 to suppose that a fraction of a grain of cocaine could afford to 
 exhausted nerve centres, and muscles, the nutriment which they 
 require for their restoration, and at the same time eliminate the 
 poisonous waste products, then it would be reasonable to pre- 
 scribe the drug for use by all who are overworked, and perhaps 
 suffering from the malnutrition consequent upon, ' nervous 
 dyspepsia,' as well as mere want of rest. 
 
 " In this go-ahead century it is no wonder that many are but 
 too ready to experiment with a drug which professes to be able 
 to remove fatigue, and to enable a man to go on working when, 
 without its aid, weariness had become unendurable. Cocaine 
 claims all this ; and it is most dangerous just because, for a 
 time, it seems able to keep its promise. That is how victims to 
 cocainism are made. Let us be honest with our overworked 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 321 
 
 patients, who want us to help them with drugs ; let us tell them 
 that rest is the only safe remedy for weariness. 
 
 " To combine such a drug as coca, or cocaine, with an al- 
 coholic stimulant, is to multiply the dangers of cocainism by 
 those of alcoholism. It would be impossible to find terms suf- 
 ficiently severe in which to condemn the recklessness of those 
 who promiscuously recommend such a compound for all who 
 are overworked or debilitated. One firm actually has the as- 
 surance to advertise a preparation of this kind as a remedy for 
 dipsomania. Truly this is casting out devils by Beelzebub, with 
 a vengeance. Invoking Beelzebub for such a purpose has 
 never been a success. And I suspect that any form of coca 
 wine will make a great many more dipsomaniacs than it will 
 cure." 
 
 Dr. Walter N. Edwards, F. C. S., says of coca 
 wines : — 
 
 " These wines are sold as being useful in an immense variety 
 of ailments. The following are a few of the many that are 
 named upon the bottles or in the circulars accompanying 
 them : — ■ 
 
 " Weakness after illness, 
 
 " Nervous disorders, 
 
 " Sleeplessness, 
 
 " Influenza, 
 
 " Whooping cough, 
 
 " Exhaustion of mind and body, 
 
 " Allays thirst, 
 
 " Restores digestive function, 
 
 " Enables great physical toil to be undergone, 
 
 " Great value in excesses of all kinds, 
 
 '* General debility, 
 
 " Prevents colds and chills, 
 
 " Makes pure, rich blood, 
 
322 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ** Anaemia, 
 
 " Invaluable after pleurisy, pneumonia, etc., 
 
 " Aid to the vocal organs. , 
 
 " This is a fairly respectable list of complaints, and the very 
 fact that these preparations of coca wine are put forward as a 
 cure for so wide a range of various complaints is in itself a 
 condemnation of them. 
 
 ** When any particular remedy is said to be of universal 
 application for a large number of different complaints it may be 
 looked upon with great suspicion. 
 
 " It must always be remembered that there is the commercial 
 side to this question. The proprietors have no particular 
 regard for the welfare of the people ; their business is to make 
 a profit, and many of them gain enormous fortunes. By skil- 
 ful and lavish advertisements, and by carefully worded testi- 
 monials, they appeal to the credulity of the public, and often de- 
 ceive even those who regard themselves as belonging to the 
 thinking classes. 
 
 " There are two specific dangers in regard to these wines. 
 They are ordinary wines, either port or sherry for the most 
 part, and therefore strongly alcoholic. The user of them is in 
 considerable danger of cultivating a taste for alcohol, and cer- 
 tainly, there is the greatest possible danger to any one having 
 had the appetite, of reviving it. 
 
 " The dose is an elastic one, it can be repeated with consider- 
 able frequency three or four times a day. 
 
 " What would be said of growing girls or youths having re- ' 
 course three or four times .a day to the wine bottle ? This is 
 exactly what they are doing when coca, and the so-called food 
 wines are placed in their hands as medicine. They like the 
 pleasant taste, there is the call of habit and appetite, and so 
 there arises the greatest possible danger of a general liking for 
 alcoholic liquors being set up. The ailing man or woman of 
 set years is in similar danger, for they are having recourse to 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 323 
 
 alcohol when their powers of mind and body are to some extent 
 exhausted, and they are thus less able to resist the fascination 
 for alcohol that may so quickly be brought into existence. 
 
 " Another element of danger is that the recourse to coca and 
 kola is an attempt to get more out of the body, and the mind, 
 than nature intended. Overwork, overstrain, worry, all produce 
 exhaustion of physical and nervous power. Nature pulls us up 
 by asserting herself, and we feel run down and seedy, and, per- 
 haps, quite unwell. What is wanted is rest, proper diet, and 
 change. These would quickly be restorative, and once again 
 we should be fit for the duties of life. 
 
 " In a busy age there is the strongest possible temptation to 
 seek a restorative by some occult method, rather than to give 
 the rest and refreshment that nature demands. It is upon this 
 that the whole trade in these so-called restoratives depends. 
 
 " There is no food quality in alcohol, cocaine or kola, 
 but there is in them all a narcotizing influence that in its lesser 
 stages is hurtful, and in its greater stages disastrous. 
 
 " The cocaine habit may be cultivated as easily as the alcohol 
 habit, and the two forms of disease, alcoholism and cocainism, 
 are by no means rare. The great factor in each of them is the 
 loss of will power, and when that is accomplished the descent 
 to complete moral and physical ruin is quite easy. 
 
 " A pure and simple life, in accord with the laws of health 
 and hygiene, is^the panacea both for the maintenance, and the 
 restoration of health, and that is what we should strive to aim 
 at, rather than having recourse to drugs that are not only ineffec- 
 tive, but positively dangerous." — United\Temfterance Gazette. 
 
 In Dr. Milner Fothergill's Practioners Hand-book 
 of Treatment, fourth edition, the following state- 
 ment is made : — 
 
 " Coca wine, and other medicated wines are largely sold to 
 people who are considered, and consider themselves, to be total 
 
324 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 abstainers. It is not uncommon to hear the mother of a family 
 say, • I never allow my girls to touch stimulants of any kind, 
 but I give them each a glass of coca wine at 1 1 in the morning, 
 and again at bedtime.' Originally coca wine was made from 
 coca leaves, but it is now commonly a solution of the alkaloid, 
 in a sweet and strongly alcoholic wine. This is really the gist 
 of the whole matter ; coca wine is largely consumed by people 
 who fondly believe themselves to be total abstainers, and who 
 are active enough in denouncing those who take a little wine, or 
 a glass of beer at their meals. The sooner their delusion is 
 dispelled the better for themselves, and for the unfortunate 
 children over whom they exercise supervision." 
 
 Another physician tells of seeing a distinguished 
 ecclesiastical dignitary, a sworn foe of alcohol and 
 its congeners, giving his young child a generous 
 daily allowance of one of these wines. 
 
 The user of coca wines runs a double risk — an 
 alcohol craving may be revived, or created ; and, at 
 the same time, cocainism may be set up, and 
 nothing but physical, mental and moral ruin follow. 
 
 The British Medical Journal of January 23rd, 
 1897, says : — 
 
 " There can be no doubt that in many parts of the world co- 
 caine inebriety is largely on the increase. The greatest num- 
 ber of victims is to be found among society women, and among 
 women who have adopted literature as a profession ; and there 
 is no doubt that a considerable proportion of chronic cocainists 
 have fallen under the dominion of the drug from a desire to 
 stimulate their powers of imagination. Others have acquired 
 that habit quite innocently from taking coca wines. The symp- 
 toms experienced by the victims of the cocaine habit are illu- 
 sions of sight and hearing, neuromuscular irritability, and 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 32$ 
 
 localized anaesthesia. After a time insomnia supervenes, and 
 the patient displays a curious hesitancy, and an inability to ar- 
 rive at a decision on even the most trivial subjects." 
 
 Dr. F. Coley says later on in the article before 
 referred to : — 
 
 " There is another combination which, though utterly absurd 
 from a therapeutical point of view, is not in itself quite so dan- 
 gerous .as coca wine. It will probably do a larger amount of 
 mischief, however, because more people take it. I refer to the 
 various preparations, so largely advertised, which profess to be 
 compounded of port wine, extract of malt, and extract of meat. 
 To the medically uneducated public this doubtless seems a most 
 promising combination : extract of meat for food, extract of 
 malt to aid digestion, port wine to make blood. Surely the very 
 thing to strengthen all who are weak, and to hasten the restor- 
 ation of convalescents. Unfortunately what the advertisements 
 say — that this stuff is largely prescribed by medical men — is not 
 wholly untrue. 
 
 " I do not suppose that any physician of anything like front 
 rank would make such a mistake. But busy general practition- 
 ers may be excused if they prove to be a bit oblivious of physi- 
 ology, and so become attracted by a formula which is more 
 plausible than sound. In the first place, we all know that ex- 
 tract of meat is not food at all. From the manner of its pro- 
 duction, it cannot contain an appreciable quantity of proteid 
 material. It consists mainly of creatin, and creatinin, and salts. 
 These are, it is needless to say, incapable of acting as food. 
 Extract of meat, and similar preparations, have their uses how- 
 ever ; made into * beef-tea,' their meaty flavor often enables 
 patients to take a quantity of bread, which would otherwise be 
 refused ; or lentil flour, or some other matter may be added. 
 In this way, though not food itself, it becomes a most useful 
 aid to feeding. It is besides, a harmless stimulant, especially 
 when taken, as it always should be, hot. It should be needless 
 
326 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 to add that to combine extract of meat with port wine is simply 
 to ignore its real use. The only intelligible basis for such an 
 invention must be the wholly erroneous notion that extract of 
 meat is a food." 
 
 The prices asked for " secret nostrums " are 
 said by chemists to be ofttimes far beyond the value 
 of the materials. Of one article the New Idea, a 
 druggists' paper, says : — 
 
 " It retails at $1.50 per bottle. Such an article could be put 
 up for less than fifteen cents, including bottle, leaving by no 
 means a small margin for the profit of its manufacturers." 
 
 The same paper says of a cure for catarrh, 
 neuralgia, etc. sold in the form of a small ball : — 
 
 " This cure costs $2.50 per ball. A handsome profit cou/d 
 be made upon it at 5 cents a ball." 
 
 Some proprietary preparations are not harmful, 
 but are positively inert. The Mass. State Board of 
 Health in report of 1896 gives Kaskine as an ex- 
 ample of these. Although sold at a dollar an ounce 
 it was found to consist of nothing but granulated 
 sugar of the fine grade used in homeopathic pharma- 
 cy, without any medication or flavoring whatever. 
 
 Dr. Edward Von Adelung in an article in Life 
 and Health, Dec, 1897, tells of a well advertised 
 cure for consumption, the analysis of which showed 
 it to be composed of water, slightly colored by the 
 addition of a very small quantity of red wine, and 
 two mineral acids, muriatic and impure sulphuric, 
 in quantities just sufficient to lend it a taste ! He 
 says : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 327 
 
 " Fortuitously I had the opportunity of observing the influence 
 of this remedy on a consumptive who took it regularly, and 
 who was so enamored of its favorable action that he gave up 
 his business to conduct an agency for its sale. It was not long 
 after he had entered upon his new vocation that I received 
 word of his death, due to pulmonary hemorrhage." 
 
 The " returned missionary " fraud has been ex- 
 posed by different druggists' papers, among them 
 the New Idea. The " missionary " would advertise 
 a " free cure," if people would send to him. The 
 " cure " would be in the form of a prescription. 
 There being no drugs in any drugstore bearing the 
 names given in the prescription, the dupe was ex- 
 pected to pay an exorbitant price for them to the 
 philanthropic "missionary." In one case of this 
 kind the " medicinal plants brought from South 
 America, the only place where they grew," were 
 upon examination by chemists of the New Idea 
 found to be ordinary drugs, not one of which 
 comes from South America. 
 
 The same paper tells of another "South Ameri- 
 can " fraud, 60,000 bottles of which were said to be 
 sold in Detroit in a few weeks, by an itinerating 
 vendor. 
 
 A certain liver, and kidney, and constipation 
 cure, sold in the form of herbs, is said by New Idea 
 to be chiefly couch grass, and senna leaves. Yet 
 it sells for 25 cents for a small package. 
 
 To this paper the public is also indebted for the 
 information that a kind of wafer advertised to " cure 
 
328 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 in a few days all coughs, colds, irritation of the 
 uvula and tonsils, influenza, bronchitis, asthma, sore 
 throat, consumption, and all diseases of the lungs 
 and chest" was found to consist wholly of sugar and 
 corn starch ! 
 
 Medical World recently told of the investigation 
 
 of " H " by Prof. John Uri Lloyd of Cincinnati. 
 
 It was advertised as a plant discovered by a doctor 
 traveling in Florida. Its juices were said to be 
 antidotal to snake poisoning, and would also cure 
 the opium habit. Prof. Lloyd found it to be a liq- 
 uid consisting of a solution of sulphate of mor- 
 phine and salicylic acid, in alcohol and glycerine, 
 with suitable coloring matter. 
 
 Another fraud exposed by New Idea was a 
 " cure " for the peculiar ills of women. The cure is 
 put up in the form of little oblong blocks about a 
 half inch in length. 
 
 " A circular accompanies them, and is well calculated to pro- 
 duce alarm in the young. It is another sample of the demor- 
 alizing documents which unscrupulous quacks are continually 
 circulating among the laity, in order to create alarm, and 
 profit by this alarm." 
 
 After giving a description of the diseases peculiar 
 to the sex it is stated that all of these are curable 
 by using eight dollars worth of this wonderful med- 
 icine. 
 
 New Idea continues : — 
 
 " The cure consists, according to our examination, of nothing 
 but flour, made into a paste and allowed to harden in the form 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 329 
 
 of small oblong blocks. Evidently the quack relied upon the 
 faith-cure principle, and his auxiliary treatment, as set forth in 
 the rules of living given in the circular." 
 
 While these inert preparations are of the nature 
 of frauds, they will not injure the health, nor make 
 drunkards, or opium fiends, as the disguised prepara- 
 tions of whisky and morphine are likely to do. 
 
 That the use of patent medicines has made many 
 drunkards is a fact well attested. The American 
 Association for the Study of Inebriety appointed a 
 committee several years ago to investigate the vari- 
 ous nostrums advertised especially for the benefit of 
 alcohol and opium inebriates. The report of this 
 committee, prepared by Dr. N. Roe Bradner, late 
 of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, in 
 speaking of the marvelous cures advertised in con- 
 nection with the use of these mixtures, calls them 
 " volumes of gilded falsehood, designed for an inno- 
 cent, unsuspecting public," and adds : — 
 
 " The use of such nostrums would do more toward confirm- 
 ing than eradicating the habit, if it existed, and would invite 
 and create addiction to an almost hopeless fatality, where the 
 habit had not previously existed. Insanity, palsy, idiocy, and 
 many forms of physical, moral and mental ruin have followed 
 the sale of these nostrums throughout our land." 
 
 Dr. E. A. Craighill, President of the Virginia 
 State Pharmaceutical Association, is quoted in the 
 July (1897) Journal of Inebriety, as saying: — 
 
 " In my experience I have known of men filling drunkards' 
 graves who learned to drink taking some advertised bitters as 
 
33° ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 legitimate medicine. It would be hard to estimate the number 
 of young brains ruined, and the maturer opium wrecks from 
 nostrums of this nature. I could write a volume on the mis- 
 chief that is being done every day to body, mind and soul, all 
 over the land, by the thousands of miserable frauds that are be- 
 ing poured down the throats of not only ignorant people, but, 
 alas, intelligent ones, too." j 
 
 A lady informed the writer recently that her 
 brother had taken forty bottles of one of these 
 preparations, and had become a drunkard through it. 
 
 Many seem unaware that the ethics of the medi- 
 cal profession restrain reputable physicians from ad- 
 vertising themselves or their remedies, so that these 
 much-lauded patent medicines are put upon the 
 market by quacks, never by physicians of good 
 standing. It is purely a money-making enterprise, 
 without consideration of the health or destruction 
 of the people. It is popularly supposed that phy- 
 sicians decry these things from fear that their sale 
 will injure regular practice. This is another error 
 as they increase work for the doctor by aggravating 
 existing trouble, as well as causing disease where 
 there was only slight disturbance. 
 
 Dr. F. E. Stewart, Ph. G., of Detroit, Mich., says 
 in the October, 1897, Life and Health : — 
 
 " Taking all these facts into consideration, it is apparent that 
 the patent, trade-mark and copyright laws should be so inter- 
 preted and administered by the court that they will secure the 
 greatest good to the greatest number, and aid in attaining the 
 end of government, viz., * moral, intellectual and physical per- 
 fection.' It is not the object of these laws to create odious mon- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 33 1 
 
 opolies, to throw a mantle of protection over fraud, to enable 
 quacks and charlatans to encroach on the domain of legitimate 
 medical and pharmacal practice, or to support an advertising 
 business designed to mislead the public in regard to the nature 
 and value of medicines as curative agents. The morals of the 
 community are injured by some of this advertising, intellectual 
 vigor is impaired by the use of many things advertised, and 
 physical, as well as moral, degradation frequently results. Crime 
 is often inculcated — even the crime of murder, that the nostrum 
 manufacturer may profit thereby. Cures for incurable diseases 
 are promised, and guaranteed. Every scheme that human and 
 devilish ingenuity can devise to wring money from its victim is 
 resorted to, which can be employed without actually bringing 
 the advertisers into court. All this wicked quackery parades 
 under the guise of ' patent ' medicines, and asks the protection 
 of our courts. It is time for the medical and pharmaceutic pro- 
 fessions to unite, and unmask this monster, and show the public 
 its true nature. And this can be accomplished in no better way 
 than through a study of the object of the laws which the secret 
 nostrum manufacturers are now endeavoring to prostitute for 
 their own advantage, and the teaching of the public what these 
 laws were enacted for. 
 
 " The secret nostrum business in some of its phases has as- 
 siduously found its way into the medical arts, and physicians, 
 pharmacists, and manufacturing houses, seem to have forgotten, 
 to a certain extent, the obligations which they owe to the public. 
 Medicine, in all its departments, must be practiced in accord 
 with scientific, and professional requirement, or it will sink to 
 the level of a commercial business. The e?td of medical prac- 
 tice is service to suffering humanity, 7iot the acquisition of 
 money. Money making is a necessary part of the practice of 
 medical arts, not, however, its chief object. This fact must be 
 kept in view always. Once lost sight of, and trade competition 
 substituted for competition in serving the interests of the sick, 
 medical and pharmacal practice will become an ignoble scrabble 
 
332 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 for wealth, in which the sick become victims of avarice and 
 greed. Better set free a pack of ravening wolves in a com- 
 munity than to change the end of medical practice to a commer- 
 cial one, for physicians and pharmacists would soon degenerate 
 into quacks and charlatans, and take shameful advantage of 
 the community for gain." 
 
 Where Dr. Stewart speaks of murder he probably 
 refers to the sale of abort of acients. 
 
 Dr. Roe Bradner, of Philadelphia, in his report 
 upon alleged cures for drunkenness before the So- 
 ciety for the Study of Inebriety several years ago, 
 said : — 
 
 " There is a certain other class of so-called remedies, pre- 
 pared sometimes by physicians and pharmacists, that do a great 
 deal of harm. I allude to the ' non-secret proprietaries ' that 
 claim to publish their formulas, but do not. One in particular 
 has made thousands, and likely tens of thousands, of chloral 
 drunkards, dethroned the reason of as many more, besides 
 having killed outright very many. It is impossible for any one 
 to estimate the mischief that is being done by such remedies, 
 and the physicians who recommend them." 
 
 There is evident need for laws in America, such as 
 Germany, and some other countries have, compel- 
 ling manufacturers of these preparations to print 
 formulae upon the labels. Then State Boards of 
 Health should be empowered, money being voted 
 for the purpose, to occasionally examine such med- 
 icines to see whether or not the ingredients corre- 
 spond to the formula. 
 
 There are great difficulties in the way of enforc- 
 ing such a law, yet it would accomplish some good. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 333 
 
 As things are at present, a patent-medicine manu- 
 facturer may use narcotics for years ; analysts may 
 publish that he is so doing, and the analysis may 
 go undisputed. Then the manufacturer may see by 
 the trend of public opinion that to advertise that he 
 is making without narcotics will catch trade, and he 
 does so make. Now, if any one has- quoted in print 
 the analysis, undisputed for years, that this man's 
 preparations contain narcotics, said manufacturer 
 may after time enough has elapsed for none of his 
 old material to be found on the market, enter suit 
 for damages against the person so quoting. While 
 it may not be impossible to prove that he did for- 
 merly use narcotics, it means large expense to defend 
 such a suit, and, as a rule, the patent-medicine man 
 has millions, and the one quoting has but little. 
 Consequently names of preparations, unless those 
 examined by a State Board of Health, would better 
 not be given by those opposing the evil of concealed 
 alcohols, and its congeners. 
 
 It is true, also, that after a manufacturer has 
 impressed the public mind with the fact that he is 
 not using narcotics, there is no law in America 
 compelling him to continue making them so ; he may 
 return to the use of these ingredients whenever he so 
 pleases, none daring to make him afraid. 
 
 This does not say that the better class of manu- 
 facturers of proprietary preparations would adver- 
 tise their medicines as different from what they 
 really are ; it means only that there are no laws, 
 
334 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 unless in a few states, properly governing the 
 manufacture of these articles, so that the people 
 *are at the mercy of unscrupulous men who may be 
 in this business. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. | 
 
 "DRUGGING." 
 
 The main reason why so many people use patent 
 medicines is the popular supposition that drugs 
 cure disease. This is a great error. Drugs never 
 cure disease. Nature alone has power to heal. 
 There are agents, which in the hands of a trained 
 and painstaking physician may assist nature, but 
 the physician needs to understand something of the 
 idiosyncrasies of his patient's system, or the use of 
 these agents may do great harm instead of good. 
 Those medical men who have made the most dili- 
 gent study of health and disease assert as their 
 deliberate opinion that excessive professional drug- 
 ging has been decidedly destructive of human life. 
 
 Dr. Jacob Bigelow, professor in the medical 
 department of Harvard University, in a work 
 published a few years ago stated as his belief that 
 the unbiased opinion of most medical men of sound 
 judgment, and long experience, is that the amount 
 of death and disaster in the world would be less, if 
 all diseases were left to themselves, than it now is 
 under the multiform, reckless, and contradictory 
 modes of practice, with which practitioners of 
 
 335 
 
33° ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 diverse denominations carry on their differences, at 
 
 the expense of the patient. 
 
 Sir John Forbes, M. D., F. R. S., said:— 
 
 " Some patients get well with the aid of medicine, more 
 
 without it, and still more in spite of it." 
 
 Dr. Bostwick, author of The History of Medicine, 
 said : — 
 
 " Every dose of medicine given is a blind experiment upon 
 the vitality of the patient." 
 
 Dr. James Johnson, editor of the Medico-Chirurgi- 
 tal Reviezv, says : — 
 
 " I declare as my conscientious conviction founded on long 
 experience and reflection, that if there were not a single physi- 
 cian, surgeon, man-midwife, chemist, apothecary, druggist 
 nor drug on the face of the earth, there would be less sickness 
 and less mortality than now prevail." 
 
 Prof. J. W. Carson, of the New York College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, says : — 
 
 " We do not know whether our patients recover because we 
 give them medicine, or because nature cures them. Perhaps 
 bread-pills would cure as many as medicine." 
 
 Prof. Alonzo Clark, of the same college, has 
 said : — 
 
 " In their zeal to do good physicians have done much harm ; 
 they have hurried many to the grave who would have recovered 
 if left to nature." 
 
 Prof. Martin Paine, of the New York University 
 Medical College, said : — 
 
 " Drug medicines do but cure one disease by producing 
 another." 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 337 
 
 Dr. Marshall Hall, F. R. S. :— 
 
 " Thousands are annually slaughtered in the quiet sick- 
 room." 
 
 Dr. Adam Smith : — 
 
 " The chief cause of quackery outside the profession is the 
 real quackery in the profession." 
 
 Prof. Gilman : — 
 
 '■ The things that are administered for the cure of scarlet 
 fever and measles kill far more than those diseases kill." 
 
 Prof. Barker, of New York Medieal College : — 
 " The drugs that are administered for the cure of scarlet 
 fever kill far more patients than the disease, does." 
 
 Prof. Parker : — 
 
 " As we place more confidence in nature, and less in prepar- 
 ations of the apothecary, mortality diminishes." 
 
 The examining physician of a large insurance 
 company in New York said to a Mercury re- 
 porter: — 
 
 " The primary cause of so many cases of la grippe in this 
 and other cities is the almost universal habit of drug taking 
 from the milder tonics to patent medicines. Whenever the 
 average man or woman feels depressed or slightly ill, resort is 
 made at once to medicine, more or less strong. If they would 
 try to find out the cause of the trouble, and seek to obviate it 
 by regulating their mode of living, the general health of the 
 community would be better. The drug habit tends continually 
 to lower the tone of the system. The more it is indulged in 
 the more apparent becomes the necessity of continuing the 
 downhill course. The majority of persons do not look beyond 
 the fact that they seem to feel better after the use of a stimulat- 
 ing drug, or patent medicine. This feeling comes from a be- 
 
338 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 numbing action of the drug, because it has no uplifting action. 
 With the system in such a weakened state, the microbes of the 
 disease find excellent ground to grow." 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg says in the April, 1899, Bulle- 
 tin of the A. M. T. A. .•— 
 
 " Every drug capable of producing an artificial exhilaration of 
 spirits, a pleasure which is not the result of the natural play of 
 the vital functions, is necessarily mischievous in its tendencies, 
 and its use is intemperance, whether its name be alcohol, to- 
 bacco, opium, cocaine, coca, kola, hashish, Siberian mushroom, 
 caffeine, betel-nuts, mate or any other of the score or more 
 enslaving drugs known to pharmacology. As the result of the 
 depression which follows the unnatural elevation of sensation 
 resulting from the use of one of these drugs, the second appli- 
 cation finds the subject on a little lower level than the first, so 
 that an increased dose is necessary to produce the same inten- 
 sity of pleasure or the same degree of artificial felicity as the 
 first. The larger dose is followed by still greater depression 
 which demands a still larger dose as its antidote, and thus there 
 is started a series of ever-increasing doses, and ever-increasing 
 baneful after-affects, which work the ultimate ruin of the drug 
 victim. All drugs which enslave are alike in this regard, how- 
 ever much they may differ otherwise in their physiological ef- 
 fects. Alcohol is universally recognized as only one member of 
 a large family of intoxicating drugs, each of which is capable 
 of producing specific functional and organic mischief, besides 
 the vital deterioration common to the use of so-called felicity- 
 producing drugs. 
 
 " Is it not evident, then, that in combating the use of alcohol 
 we are attacking only one member of a numerous family of 
 enemies to human life and happiness, every one of which must 
 be exterminated before the evil of intemperance will be up- 
 rooted ? " 
 
 Among the most popular drugs for self-prescrip- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 339 
 
 tion at the present time are the coal-tar products. 
 Of these Dr. N. S. Davis has said : — 
 
 " Only a few years since, the profession were taught to re- 
 gard the degree of pyrexia, or heat, as the chief element of 
 danger in all the acute general diseases. Consequently, to con- 
 trol the pyrexia became the leading object of treatment ; and 
 whatever would do this promptly, and at the same time allay 
 pain and promote rest, found favor at the bedside of the pa- 
 tient. 
 
 " It was soon ascertained that antipyrin, antifebrin, phenacetin 
 and other analogous products, if given in sufficient doses, would 
 reduce the heat, and allay the pains with great certainty and 
 promptness, not only in continued fevers, but also in rheuma- 
 tism, influenza, or la grippe, etc. ; and thus their use soon be- 
 came popular with both the profession and the public. No one, 
 however, undertook to first ascertain by strictly scientific 
 appliances the actual pathological processes causing the pyrexia 
 in each form of disease, or even to determine whether in any 
 given case the increased heat was the result of increased heat 
 production, or diminished heat dissipation. Neither were any 
 of the remedies subjected to such experimental investigation as 
 to determine their influence on the elements of the blood, the 
 internal distribution of oxygen, the metabolism of the tissues, 
 or on the activity of the eliminations. Consequently their 
 exhibition was wholly empirical, and the one that subdued the 
 pyrexia most promptly was given the preference. Yet we all 
 know that the pyrexia invariably returned as soon as the effects 
 of each dose were exhausted, and in a few years the results 
 showed that while the antipyretics served to keep down the 
 pyrexia, and give each case the appearance of doing well, the 
 average duration of the cases, and their mortality, were both in- 
 creased. 
 
 " Step by step experimental therapeutic investigations have 
 proved that the whole class of coal-tar antipyretics reduce ani- 
 
340 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 mal heat by impairing the capacity of the hemoglobin and cor- 
 puscular elements of the blood to receive and distribute free 
 oxygen, and thereby reduce temperature by diminishing heat, 
 production, nerve sensibility and tissue metabolism. There- 
 fore, while each dose temporarily reduces the fever, it retards 
 the most important physiological processes on which the living 
 system depends for resisting the effects of toxic agents ; namely, 
 oxidation and elimination. This not only encourages the reten- 
 tion of toxic agents and natural excretory materials by which 
 specific fevers are protracted, but it greatly increases the num-« 
 ber of cases of pneumonia that complicate the epidemic influ- 
 enza, or la grippe, as it has occurred since 1888-89. 
 
 " The bad work that people make in dosing themselves with 
 patent medicines, without a physician's prescription is not un- 
 frequently punctuated with a sudden death from overdosing 
 with antipyrin, sulphonal, or some other coal-tar prepara-':- 
 tion." 
 
 Dr. C. H. Shepard, Brooklyn, N. Y., says : — 
 " Quinine is a most fatal drug. Of course, it is the orthodox 
 treatment for malarial conditions, but quinine never did nor 
 never can cure malaria or any other disease. The action 
 brought about by its use is simply to benumb the nervous 
 activity and interfere with the natural action of the system to 
 throw off the poison, which is expressed by the chill. Because 
 of this interference with the manifestation or symptom of the 
 disease, many imagine that the disease is being cured, but 
 there never was a greater mistake. A drug disease is added to 
 the original disease. This is shown by the invariable depres- 
 sion that follows the administration of the drug, and the length 
 of time required to recuperate, which imperils restoration, and 
 sometimes hastens the final results. This is ordinarily met by 
 the use of what are called stimulants, that is, more drugs, and the 
 last state is worst than the first ; the' poor patient is thus made 
 the victim of a triple wrong, which only a most vigorous consti- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 34I 
 
 tution can pass through and live, and even then he is crippled 
 and made more liable to whatever disease may come along 
 ever afterward. 
 
 " Disease is not entity to be killed by a shot from a profes- 
 sional gun, but a condition, an effort of outraged nature to free 
 itself from an incumbrance, and should be aided rather than 
 hindered by the administration of any nerve irritant. There 
 never will come a time when the laws of health can be evaded. 
 Nor is there any vicarious atonement. The full penalty of dis- 
 obedience will invariably be exacted. The hunt for a panacea is 
 as sure to be disappointing in the future as it has been in the 
 past." 
 
 A writer in the Brooklyn Citizen says : — 
 
 " Few people are aware of the extent of a peculiar kind of 
 dissipation known as ginger-drinking. The article used is the 
 essence of ginger, such as is put up in the several proprietary 
 preparations known to the trade, or the alcohol extract ordinarily 
 sold over the druggist's counter. Having once acquired a liking 
 for it, the victim becomes as much a slave to his appetite as the 
 opium eater or the votary of cocaine. In its effect it is much 
 the most injurious of all such practices, for in the course of 
 time it destroys the coating of the stomach, and dooms its vic- 
 tim to a slow and agonizing death. 
 
 " The druggist who told me about the thing says that as 
 ginger essence contains about one hundred per cent, alcohol, 
 and whisky less than fifty per cent., the former is therefore 
 twice as intoxicating. In fact, this is the reason why it is used 
 by hardened old topers whose stomachs are no longer capable 
 of intoxicating stimulation from whisky. They need the more 
 powerful agency of the pure alcohol in the ginger extract. He 
 told me that he had two regular customers, one a woman, who 
 had ginger on several occasions for stomachic pains. The re- 
 lief it afforded her was so grateful that she took it upon any 
 recurrence of her trouble. She found, too, that the slight ex- 
 
342 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 hilaration of the alcohol banished mental depression. In this 
 way she got to using it regularly, and finally to such excess 
 that she was often grossly intoxicated. Large doses produce a 
 quiet stupor ; additional doses induce a profound lethargic 
 slumber, which lasts in some cases for twenty-four hours. His 
 other customer was a peddler, who came at a certain hour 
 every morning, bought a four-ounce bottle and drank its con- 
 tents by noon. The man craved the stuff so ardently that he 
 was unable to go about his business until he set the machinery 
 of his stomach in operation, and started the circulation of the 
 blood by means of the fiery draught. He says that the habit 
 is well known to the drug trade." 
 
 " The morphia habit, the cocaine habit, the chloral habit, and 
 other poison habits which are prevalent in this and other 
 countries, are only different manifestations of a wide-spread 
 and apparently increasing love for drugs which benumb or ex- 
 cite the nerves, which seems to characterize our modern civili- 
 zation. Indeed, there appears to be, at the present time, 
 almost a mania for the discovery of some new nerve-tickle, or 
 some novel means of fuddling the senses. It is indeed high 
 time that the medical profession raised, with one accord, its 
 voice in solemn protest against the use of all nerve-obtunding 
 and felicity producing drugs, which are all, without exception, 
 toxic agents, working mischief and only mischief in the hu- 
 man body." — Dr. J. H. KELLOGG. 
 
 Dr. Frederic C. Coley, in the October, 1899, 
 Medical Temperance Review, sounds a warning 
 against a popular drug preparation known as 
 chlorodyne as follows : — 
 
 " Chlorodyne is a much advertised combination of drugs of 
 which morphine is the most important. I understand that 
 analysis of the best known (i. e., most advertised) kinds gives 
 a strength of that drug about equal to the Liquor Morphinae 
 hydrochloratis of the pharmacopeia. 
 
 ^ V OF THE *>* 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 343 
 
 " That such a medicament should be pleasant to the taste, is 
 by no means an unmixed advantage. That it should be 
 readily accessible — to be bought at any chemist's — no questions 
 asked as to the use to which it is to be put — is a serious 
 danger. That it should be recommer/.ded in advertisements for 
 general use as a remedy for diseases the danger of which 
 it would seriously aggravate — is an iniquity. 
 
 " I have before me a religious (!) publication wherein chloro- 
 dyne is advertised as ' the best known remedy for whooping- 
 cough, bronchitis and asthma.' Considering that whooping- 
 cough is especially a disease of children, and that children are 
 dangerously susceptible to the influence of morphine, it is (to 
 say the least) risky to recommend chlorodyne for use by un- 
 skilled persons in the treatment of whooping-cough. As to 
 bronchitis, the merest tyro in medicine knows the danger of 
 suppressing the cough by the administration of narcotics, 
 especially any preparation of opium, of morphine. To do so is 
 apt to result in an accumulation of secretion in the bronchial 
 tubes, which intensifies the distress of the patient, and may 
 be gravely dangerous to life. 
 
 " Chlorodyne, as a remedy for asthma, is open to the very 
 strongest objections. In the first place, I think my readers will 
 agree with me that, even as a mere palliative, chlorodyne 
 would not be the most generally effective drug that could be 
 chosen. But in those cases in which it did give present relief, 
 the advantage would be gained at terrible risk. Those who 
 have the widest practical knowledge of asthma, are most con-' 
 scious of the danger of treating it by narcotics. The more 
 such remedies are employed in cases of spasmodic asthma, the 
 more they are called for. Their habitual use is followed by an 
 increase in the frequency, and severity, of the attacks, which 
 leads of course to, the constantly increasing craving for the 
 narcotic in stronger doses. 
 
 " That it may not be supposed that I am giving an alarm, 
 based merely on theoretical considerations, I may state that I 
 
344 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 know of a case in which an asthmatic patient began to take 
 chlorodyne for the relief of his dyspnoea. He was only 
 rescued from slavery to the drug, after a fearful struggle, by 
 the help of his wife and daughter. 
 
 " Another advertisement of chlorodyne states that it 'rapidly 
 cuts short all attacks of epilepsy and hysteria,' and ' is the 
 true palliative in neuralgia.' As regards epilepsy, the state- 
 ment is simply nonsense. An epileptic fit would be over 
 before chlorodyne, or any other such remedy, could be admin- 
 istered. But the Devil himself could hardly contrive a more 
 certain method of producing morphinomaniacs in large 
 numbers, than to recommend a preparation of morphine, to be 
 taken at the patient's own discretion (or indiscretion) for the 
 relief of neuralgia, or hysteria. 
 
 " What should we, as medical men, say of a chemist who, 
 being told of a child suffering from whooping-cough, or an old 
 man dangerously ill of bronchitis, should venture, on his own 
 responsibility, to recommend, and supply as a remedy, a medi- 
 cine containing a pretty strong dose of morphine ? I think we 
 should unanimously describe that as the most horribly reckless 
 « counter prescribing ' which we had ever heard of. If harm 
 came of it, the coroner might reasonably commit the chemist 
 for trial for manslaughter. And yet the advertisers of chloro- 
 dyne do not hesitate to incur this frightful responsibility whole- 
 sale. 
 
 " But, great as are the physical dangers attending the common 
 use of chlorodyne, the moral dangers are greater still. How 
 could it be otherwise ? Concoct a powerful narcotic nostrum, 
 not unpleasant to taste, and offer it for sale to the general pub- 
 lic, recommending it for the relief of pains, and other disagree- 
 ables, liable to frequent recurrence, what could be more 
 certainlv predicted than the production of numerous cases of 
 moral wreckage through formation of the morphine habit? 
 No one but a lunatic would expect any different result. 
 
 # # # * * 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 34$ 
 
 " No publication, which claims a high moral character, should 
 admit advertisements of chlorodyne. It is not too much to say 
 that many so-called religious periodicals are shamefully, and 
 abominably, unscrupulous as to the quack advertisements 
 which they admit. If they insist on the right to make money 
 by publishing cruelly fraudulent lies, whereby they endanger 
 the health and lives of their ill-informed and credulous readers,, 
 they should at least hesitate to make profit by encouraging a 
 trade, which cannot be carried on without great peril to the 
 souls, as well as to the bodies of its victims." 
 
 A new drug which is now being advertised as a 
 great nerve restorer is kola, made from the nut of 
 the Cola acuminata, a tree which is a native of the 
 tropical parts of the western coast of Africa, but is 
 cultivated in other tropical countries. 
 
 Pharmaceutical Products warns against this drug 
 thus : — 
 
 " Kola has been taken up by people who would never enslave 
 themselves to rum or -opium, because it is announced as a 
 stimulant without reaction. That is sheerest nonsense. 
 There must be reaction from the exhilaration of any stimulant. 
 The first effect of kola is hardly noticeable ; the man who takes 
 it simply feels refreshed, but after eight or ten hours the heart's 
 action is increased enormously ; then later, in the habitual kola 
 drinker, there is the lassitude, the nervous weakness, and the 
 tremulousness that ensue from over-drinking. It is in the 
 insidiousness of the drug that the danger lies. The important 
 point for the public to bear in mind is, that kola is not harm- 
 less, but must be used with the same caution as opium, or 
 morphine." 
 
 The Therapeutic Gazette says : — 
 
 " Kola and coca, while they temporarily cause work done by 
 means of nerve force to seem lighter, do so only by using up- 
 
34-6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 those units of force which a man ought most sacredly to keep 
 as his reserve.-fund." 
 
 The Bulletin of the A. M. T. A. cries out the 
 warning thus : — 
 
 " Nearly all the leading manufacturers of drugs are just now- 
 placing upon the market various alcoholic, and other prepara- 
 tions of kola, an Eastern drug to which is ascribed the most 
 magical power as a brain and nerve restorer. The physiolog- 
 ical effects of this substance show it to be closely allied to 
 caffeine, which Lehman long ago proved to be a toxic drug, and 
 •capable of producing most profound narcotic effects*. 
 
 " Kola is largely sold in the form of an elixir or cordial, 
 which contains a large percentage of alcohol, and it is reason- 
 able to suppose that the temporary exhilaration produced by 
 the use of this drug, either with, or without, its alcoholic mix- 
 ture, will be the means of leading a large number of persons to 
 the use of alcohol in some form, or to the employment of other 
 narcotics ; indeed it is possible that we shall soon be called 
 upon to treat the victims of the kola habit. 
 
 " The assertion made by many, that kola is a perfectly 
 harmless substance, is entirely erroneous. Every drug which 
 exhilarates, or narcotizes, is necessarily injurious, as a natural 
 consequence of its peculiar effect upon the brain and nervous 
 system." 
 
 Young people should be warned against a drink 
 now sold at soda fountains. It is called Coca-Kola, 
 and contains these drugs, if made according to 
 formula. Kola is also being added to some brands 
 of cocoa. 
 
 The use of cocaine is advancing rapidly in this 
 ■country. The following article is taken from The 
 Banner of Gold, of Feb., 1899 : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 347 
 
 " Value of cocaine leaves imported at the port 
 
 of New York in 1894 $14,284 
 
 Imported in 1897 54, 122 
 
 Indicated value of imports for 1898 75>°°° 
 
 " In these simple figures are contained the elements of a 
 warning sermon that would startle all America. We seem to 
 be rapidly becoming a nation of cocaine fiends. If the number 
 of those addicted to the use of the dreadful drug continues to 
 increase at the present rate, the importation of what was origin- 
 ally regarded as a blessed alleviation of pain, will have to be 
 classed with opium, and its use prohibited by law, except for 
 medicinal purposes. 
 
 " At present the cocaine fiend can purchase the drug without 
 trouble, and the ease with which it is taken is a fatal recom- 
 mendation to those who crave a nerve-deadener. No laborious 
 cooking of pills over a lamp, cleaning of implements, or trouble- 
 some necessity for secrecy, as with the use of opium. 'Cocaine 
 can be taken at any time, with scarcely any trouble, and with- 
 out a soul besides the user being aware of his being in the toils. 
 
 " At first, that is. It will not be long before every intimate 
 friend will observe a change, a gradual and scarcely perceptible 
 change, come over the appearance and general conduct of the 
 cocaine fiend. 
 
 " Begun in many cases in a legitimate way, as an anaesthetic, 
 the surprisingly pleasant effect is sought for again by the one 
 who has had a glimpse at the portals of the elysium. This is 
 the beginning of the terrible habit. The effect is a sense of ex- 
 hilaration followed by a quiet, dreamy state that causes the 
 worried man to forget his troubles, and the sufferer his pain. 
 Once this freedom from physical and mental sickness has been 
 experienced, the cocaine fiend will rob or kill to get the drug. 
 Enforced non-use of it will not cure the victim. Sentence him 
 to a term of imprisonment, and he will go straight from the jail 
 door to the nearest drug store to secure cocaine before he eats 
 or sleeps. 
 
34-8 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " From an occasional use of the drug to insatiable craving is 
 the rational course of the cocaine fiend. From thence to the 
 insane asylum and the grave is a swift and easy descent. 
 
 " In his fall from health to physical and mental disintegration, 
 the cocaine fiend undergoes a terrible experience. When not 
 in the temporary heaven that the drug provides, the victim is in 
 the lowest depths of an inferno. He suffers from insomnia, 
 anorexia, and gastralgic pains, dyspepsia, chronic palpitations, 
 and will-paresis. He is a terror both to himself and others. 
 The life of the man is a living death. He knows it, and with 
 this knowledge staring him in the face, he rushes for the drug, 
 and is happy for a brief period under its influence. 
 
 " It is time something was done to keep from this high- 
 strung nation a drug so deadly. Clear-minded medical men 
 have recommended its exclusion from the country, believing 
 that its use medicinally should be foregone rather than that such 
 a cursed temptation should be placed in the way of weak hu- 
 manity. 
 
 " What the real action of the drug is, and how to counteract 
 its influence, are at present puzzling questions to the medical 
 fraternity. A leading member of the profession to whom these 
 questions were put replied after careful consideration as follows : 
 * Its physiological action is practically unknown. As an anal- 
 gesic, it is uniform in its action, and this is due to the suspen- 
 sion of the physiological functions of the sensory cells which it 
 •comes in contact with. Beyond this, it is an excitant of the 
 cerebro-spinal axis, later it has a peculiar action on the encepha- 
 lon, manifest in a wide range of psychical phenomena. Beyond 
 this a great variety of widely variable symptoms appear. In 
 some cases all the intellectual faculties are excited to the high- 
 est degree. In others a profound lowering of the senses and 
 functional activities occur. Morphine-takers can use large 
 quantities of cocaine without any bad symptoms. Alcoholics 
 are also able to bear large doses. Not unfrequently the excite- 
 ment caused by cocaine goes on to convulsions, and death. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 349 
 
 Sometimes its action is localized to one part of the cerebro- 
 spinal axis, and then to another. In some cases well-marked 
 cerebral anaemi'a appears, and for a time is alarming, but soon 
 passes away. 
 
 " Small doses frequently given are more readily absorbed 
 than large doses. Habitues always use weak solutions, the 
 effects being more pleasing with less excitation. Morphine and 
 alcoholic inebriates very soon acquire certain tolerance to large 
 doses taken at once. The cocaine user takes large quantities, 
 but in small doses frequently repeated. He becomes fright- 
 ened at the effects of large doses, and when he cannot get the 
 effects from small (to him safe) doses, he resorts to alcohol, 
 morphine, or chloral. In many cases memories of the delusions 
 and hallucinations are so vivid and distressing that other nar- 
 cotics are used to prevent their recurrence. In other cases the 
 recollection is very confused and vague, and strong suspicions 
 fill the mind that the real condition is grossly exaggerated by 
 the friends for some deterring effect. In common with opium 
 and alcoholics, there is moral paralysis, untruthfulness, and low 
 cunning in order to conceal and explain the condition by other 
 than the real causes." 
 
 Hoffman Drops are used considerably as a heart 
 stimulant. They are much more intoxicating than 
 whisky, and, used as a beverage, make the drinker 
 crazy while under their influence. According to 
 Dr. F. E. Jones, of Mass. Board of Health, they 
 consist of 325 parts ether, 650 parts alcohol, and 25 
 parts ether oil. They are said to have a very bad 
 effect upon the kidneys. 
 
 The Banner of Gold for Oct., 1898, contained a 
 lengthy article upon the dangers of drugging, from 
 which an extract is given here : — 
 
 " Philanthropists, when trying to stay the hand of rum, do 
 
35 O ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 not overlook the victims of drugs. If you will go, under the 
 protecting aegis of an officer, to an opium den, such as are to 
 be found in every large city, and as a visitor view for yourself 
 the degradation of hopeless opium users, then train your 
 batteries towards removal of the cause. Do not depend upon 
 preaching, or the writing of essays, or the delivery of an address 
 before some society whose mission ends in telling others what 
 to do, but put on the armor of earnestness, go into the nurs- 
 ery, and demand of the mother to know why, when little lumps 
 of human clay are placed in her keeping for the sacred purpose 
 of moulding them into men and women, she deliberately feeds 
 the prattling babe with soothing syrups, sleeping drops, pare- 
 goric, and opiates in various other forms, rather than with the 
 healthful food, and simple remedies, that nature only requires. 
 With such commercial nostrums the thoughtless mother too 
 often paves the way for her offspring to a life of toxic-slavery 
 by creating a systemic condition, w T hich, in maturer years, 
 develops an abnormal craving, or appetite, for narcotics and 
 stimulants. Follow this little victim of nursery malpractice 
 through the imitative age, and you will discover in him the ' 
 cigarette smoker, the tippler, the self-abased youth, and later, 
 the man whose life is shadowed with the curse of baneful 
 appetite. 
 
 " Ask the druggist, and the saloon keeper, why they dispense 
 deadly poisons so freely to old and young, and they will tell you 
 the law permits it ; a sad commentary ! 
 
 " Converted men relapse into evil ways through coquet- 
 ting with sin ; and cured inebriates relapse to drink, and drugs, 
 through the use of proprietary medicines, with which the domes- 
 tic market is flooded. Tonics, compounds, nerve remedies, bit- 
 ters, vitalizers, appetizers, balsams, pectorals and kindred nos- 
 trums contain, with few exceptions, from 7 to 50 per cent, of al- 
 cohol, or opium in varying quantities, each preponderating in kind, 
 as the effect is designed to be stimulating, or sedative. The ac- 
 tive principle of some of the best known catarrh remedies is co- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 351 
 
 caine, and a few manufacturers are honest enough to so announce 
 on the labels covering their goods ; more do not, and leave the 
 victims to discover the truth after they have paid the penalty of 
 ignorance, and developed the cocaine habit. Wholesale legisla- 
 tion, as well as vigorous education, is needed along these lines,, 
 and while considering means of betterment, the reputable citi- 
 zen, the clergyman, and others of good moral repute, whose 
 names are so generally used to herald the efficacy of so-called re- 
 medial inventions, should not be overlooked for ethical attention. 
 
 " For the information of those of our readers, who are not fa- 
 miliar with the nature and use of toxic drugs, we here refer 
 briefly to the prominent characteristics of a few most danger- 
 ously potent for evil, and seductive in kind. 
 
 opium and morphine : — " Gum opium, the dried milky exu- 
 date from the green capsules of the white poppy, and its product 
 — morphine — are the most reliable drugs known for the relief 
 of pain. The dose of gum opium in medicine is from £ to I 
 grain. It contains from 8 to 14 per cent, of morphine, which 
 is its principal alkaloid. Opium is a much more stable, and 
 stronger, sedative than morphine. The cumulative effect of 
 repeated medicinal doses is frequently observed, and is followed 
 by dangerous symptoms. It is both a sedative and hypnotic, 
 and, if given in large doses, quiets the brain, and excites the 
 spinal cord. Small doses have little perceptible effect upon the 
 circulation, but, under the influence of large doses, the pulse is 
 retarded, and the respiration becomes fuller, deeper, and slower. 
 In poisonous doses the pulse may become rapid, and great de- 
 pression follow, the respiratory centres are paralyzed, thus caus- 
 ing death. If taken in from 2 to 4 grain doses it produces deep 
 comatose sleep, full breathing, full pulse, dry skin, and con- 
 tracted pupils. If the dose is sufficiently large, the sleep will be 
 more profound, the patient can hardly be roused, and if awak- 
 ened quickly, he sinks back into slumber. The face may be 
 swollen, and reddened, and the lips deeply tinged with blue. At 
 this stage the breathing may be characterized as puffing. 
 
352 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Respiration may be from 8 to 10 per minute, perhaps be reduced 
 to 4, 2 or i, and as the toxic effect is more marked, it becomes 
 shallow, the pupils are contracted, and the patient is so 
 thoroughly narcotized that nothing will arouse him, the heart 
 ceases to beat, and he dies by respiratory failure, or paralysis of 
 the pneumogastric nerve. 
 
 u Morphine, extracted from gum opium by a slow and expen- 
 sive process, is used much less in proprietary medicines than 
 is tincture of opium, which is more easily manufactured. 
 
 " A medicinal dose of sulphate of morphine is from £ to \ of 
 a grain. One grain is a dangerous dose, and 2 grains are 
 liable to prove fatal. Morphine is a true narcotic. It is a seda- 
 tive, lessens tissue change, and weakens every function of the 
 body. 
 
 tincture of opium, or laudanum :— " Laudanum, or the 
 tincture of opium, is a mixture of gum opium with alcohol and 
 water, the solution consisting of equal parts of alcohol and 
 water. Each ounce contains 5J grains of powdered gum 
 opium and half an ounce of alcohol, and is equal in alcoholic 
 strength to one ounce of strong whisky. The ordinary medical 
 dose is from 12 to 15 minims, or from 25 to 30 drops. It is 
 much used as a domestic remedy for pain from any cause, such 
 as ear or toothache, indigestion, insomnia, summer complaints 
 with children or adults, and is often used in poultices over pain- 
 ful sores or swellings. It is also used in many medicines for 
 throat and lung troubles, in nearly all medicines for painful 
 chronic diseases, and in many of the well advertised spring 
 tonics, as well as in nearly all the compounds that are offered 
 for sale for blood troubles, or as alteratives. The opium in 
 laudanum acts the same as morphine, or any other of the thirty 
 preparations of opium, officially recognized by the medical 
 profession. 
 
 paregoric : — " Paregoric of standard grade is half alcohol, 
 which is as strong of alcohol as high proof whisky. It contains 
 a little opium, some benzoic acid, oil of anise, and camphor. The 
 dose is from 1 5 to 60 drops. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 353 
 
 cocaine : — " Cocaine is an alkaloid of coca leaves, and is used 
 in medicine in the form of hydro-chlorate. It is used locally in 
 powder or solution to relieve pain. It is a strong local anaes- 
 thetic. The ordinary dose when used as medicine is from \ to 
 | grain, and is very unstable and treacherous in its effects. 
 Some patients will tolerate large doses while in others small 
 doses produce unpleasant effects. Deaths are recorded from 
 the use of 1-7 to i grain. 
 
 chloroform : — " Chloroform is an anaesthetic, and death is 
 often caused by a few inhalations. The dose internally is from 
 3 to 20 minims. It is not much used in medicine, except to 
 control pain, and produce sleep. It is inhaled to produce mild 
 slumber, or complete insensibility in surgical operations. Death 
 may come suddenly, and without warning, at any time during its 
 administration. 
 
 CHLORAL : — " Chloral, or hydrate of chloral, is an hypnotic. It 
 is of but little value in medicine, except to control nervousness, 
 and produce sleep. The dose is from 15 to 30 grains. It 
 should be administered with caution, and only by the physician. 
 It is made by passing chlorine gas through pure alcohol, and 
 gets its name from the first syllables of the two words, chlorine 
 and alcohol. It produces death by inhibition of the heart's 
 action, and by paralyzing the pneumogastric nerve. 
 
 BROMIDIA : — " Bromidia is the trademark of an hypnotic, the 
 manufacturers of which give out to the public that each fluid 
 drachm contains 15 grains of chloral hydrate, or 1 ounce to 
 every 4 ounces of bromidia. 
 
 SULPHONAL : — " Sulphonal is a coal tar preparation,- and is 
 valuable in medicine as an hypnotic only. An ordinary dose to 
 produce sleep is from 10 to 40 grains. If it is given in these 
 doses for several days in succession it produces great weariness, 
 an unsteady gait, and may involve paralysis of the lower limbs, 
 with great disturbance of digestion, and scanty secretion of urine 
 of about the color of port wine. There are a number of cases 
 
354 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 of death reported as resulting from acute, or chronic poisoning, 
 by sulphonal. 
 
 phenacetine :— " Phenacetine is a product of coal tar, and an 
 antipyretic, a drug that lessens the temperature in high fevers, 
 and rapidly disintegrates the blood. 
 
 antifebrin : — " Antifebrin, another of the coal tar prepara- 
 tions, is the registered name for acetanelid. Its effects are very 
 similar to the effects of phenacetine, and it is used in fevers for 
 lessening the temperature, and for neuralgic pains. The medic- 
 inal dose is from 3 to 10 grains. Unpleasant effects follow its 
 continued use, such as great exhaustion, blueness of the lips, 
 and a slow, labored pulse. 
 
 headache remedies :— " The indiscriminate use of the 
 many coal tar products and other hypnotics, such as sulphonal, 
 phenacetine, antifebrin, chloral, bromidia, etc., under the guise 
 of headache remedies is productive of much disaster, all being 
 nerve paralyzants." 
 
 The public owe a debt of gratitude to those 
 physicians, and chemists, who give freely such valu- 
 able information as to the real nature and effects of 
 dangerous drugs. While it is true that the popular 
 belief in drugging is due to professional practice, 
 yet it is also true that what the people know of the 
 preservation of health, and of the danger of alcohol 
 and other drugs is largely owing to the medical pro- 
 fession. There is as much difference among the 
 members of the medical profession as there is 
 among the members of any profession ; some are 
 careless, selfish, unprincipled, unobservant of the ef- 
 fects of various medicines ; while others are anxious 
 to teach the people how to avoid sickness, and gain 
 strength. It is the latter class who warn against 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 355 
 
 the self prescription of drugs, especially those of the 
 dangerously seductive, narcotic class. 
 
 Yet, with all the warnings, few pay heed. Even 
 highly educated, intelligent people seem possessed 
 of a blind faith in the power of drugs. Every little 
 ache or pain must have its sedative, be the future 
 penalty what it may. 
 
 Were people to quit drugging themselves, avoid 
 indigestible viands, eat at regular hours, chew well, 
 stop eating when they have had enough, take a suf- 
 ficiency of exercise, sleep and fresh air, with a hot 
 bath once a week, and a cold " towel bath " each 
 morning, laying aside all alcoholic beverages, tea 
 and coffee, and tobacco, there would be very little 
 sickness in the world. Over-eating leads to the drug 
 habit for relief from uneasy sensations, so does im- 
 proper food, or poorly cooked food. 
 
 It should be remembered that it is not possible 
 to violate the laws which relate to the physical well- 
 being, and then escape the natural penalty of 
 transgression by swallowing a few doses of medicine. 
 Remedies may postpone the results of physical 
 transgression, and may even seem to prevent them 
 altogether, but careful observation will show that 
 the escape from punishment is only apparent. 
 Sometimes a parent escapes, while his child pays 
 the penalty of his transgression, in a weakly nervous 
 system, which may lead to insanity, or other 
 trouble. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 TESTIMONIES OF PHYSICIANS AGAINST ALCOHOLIC 
 MEDICATION. 
 
 " In abandoning the use of alcohol it should be clearly under- 
 stood that we abandon an injurious influence, and escape from 
 a source of disease, as we do when we get into a purer atmos- 
 phere. There is not the slightest occasion to do anything, or 
 to take anything to make up for the loss of a strengthening or 
 sitpfiortitig agent. No loss has been incurred save the loss of 
 a cause of disease and death/' — Dr. J. J. Ridge, of London 
 Temperance Hospital. 
 
 Sir. B. W. Richardson, M. D., said of the London 
 Temperance Hospital: — 
 
 " No alcohol is administered, and no substitute for it. Any 
 drug with similar action would be bad ; warmth and suitable 
 nourishment are relied on to keep up the system. We know 
 that people who take alcohol often feel better ; this is from the 
 narcotic action. The pain may be stilled, and the disease for- 
 gotten, but it has not been removed ; its symptom has been 
 narcotized." 
 
 Another writer says : — 
 
 " I am asked for a substitute for brandy, and frankly and 
 gladly I tell you there is no substitute, for I have no knowledge 
 of any agent equally pleasing to the palate, and yet so destruc- 
 tive of life." 
 356 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 357 
 
 Dr. Norman Kerr, President of the Society for 
 the Study of Inebriety, England, says : — 
 
 '* My own experience of thirty-four years in the practice of 
 mv profession has taught me that in nearly all cases and kinds of 
 disease the medical use of alcohol is unnecessary, and in a large 
 number of instances is prejudicial and even dangerous. Hav- 
 ing niven an intoxicant, in strictly definite and guarded doses, 
 probably on the whole only about once in 3,000 cases (then 
 usually when nothing else was available in an emergency), and 
 having had most varieties of disease to contend with, my death- 
 rate and duration of illness have been quite as low as my neigh- 
 bors. The experience of the London Temperance Hospital and 
 other similar institutions, the current reports of that hospital 
 being now reliable scientific records, amply support this ex- 
 perience. 
 
 " The chief peril of narcotic drugs has always appeared to 
 me to lie in their disguising the real state of the patient from 
 himself as well as from his doctor and his friends. If there is 
 any serious ailment, such as cholera or fever, the sufferer may- 
 seem to be and may feel better. He is not better. He is 
 actually worse — made worse by the alcohol, and not unseldom, 
 after the evanescent alcoholic disguise and deceptive improve- 
 ment has faded, it is found that the malady itself has been pro- 
 gressing, unseen and unsuspected from the delusive aspect of 
 the alcohol, steadily toward a fatal termination, which might, in 
 many cases, have been averted but for the true state of the pa- 
 tient having been completely masked. 
 
 "^Wherever the blame really has lain, one thing is now clear, 
 that alcoholic intoxicants are very rarely useful as a medicine ; 
 are at the best dangerous remedies ; and that, other things being 
 equal, the less they are resorted to the better for the chances 
 of the patient's recovery, the better for body and brain, the bet- 
 ter for physical, intellectual and moral well-being. Alcohol 
 does not nourish, but pulls down ; does not stimulate, but de- 
 
358 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 presses ; does not strengthen, but excites and exhausts. Alco- 
 hol is the pathological fraud of frauds, degenerating while it 
 claims to be reconstructing, enfeebling while it appears to be 
 invigorating, destroying vitality while it professes to infuse new 
 life." 
 
 A medical writer in the Toledo, O., Blade holds 
 up in clear light the relation of the materia medica * 
 and alcohol, and the opportunity of the physician to 
 become a benefactor, and active temperance worker. 
 His remarks follow : — 
 
 " One of the signs of the times in the temperance movement 
 is the steady growth among physicians of a sentiment against 
 the administration of liquor of any kind as a medicine. The 
 accepted scientific view of alcohol is that it is a poison, and its 
 administration should be as guarded as that of any other 
 poison used as a medicine. Perhaps the hardest thing a 
 physician finds in his effort to restore his patients to health 
 without the use of liquors is the common, but erroneous, belief 
 that they are ' strengthening,' and that the convalescent, by 
 their use, reaches recovery more quickly. The error is in sup- 
 posing that any alcoholic liquor is nourishing, or strengthening. 
 They are neither. Alcohol does not nourish, but it pulls 
 down ; it does not strengthen, but excites and exhausts, for 
 every stimulation is necessarily followed by a period of de- 
 pression, and this is inevitably unfavorable to the patient. 
 
 " There is a grave responsibility resting on the physician 
 who prescribes alcoholic liquor. It may arouse in a suscepti- 
 ble patient a dormant, inherited tendency to drink. He may, 
 by authorizing its use during the period of convalescence, fix a 
 habit upon a patient of feeble will, which the latter will never be 
 able to shake off. No physician who realizes this great moral 
 responsibility will be willing to accept it habitually. He cer- 
 tainly knows that the best medical authorities agree that 
 alcoholic intoxicants are rarely useful as a medicine ; that at 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 359 
 
 best they are dangerous remedies, and that the less they are 
 resorted to, the better for both brain and body. 
 
 11 In point of fact the physician who does his duty to his 
 patient teaches him the error of the prevalent belief in the 
 virtues of liquor in restoring the sick to health. He becomes 
 an active temperance worker in effect. And he can do a 
 noble and useful work in the rescue of those who are under 
 the control of the drink habit. ***** 
 
 " Furthermore, every physician owes it to his profession to 
 teach his patients the utter fallacy of the common belief that 
 alcohol is an article of food value. It has no such value. 
 The use of intoxicants in any quantity whatever, or at any 
 time, is entirely useless and unnecessary. The continued use 
 of them gradually induces structural degradations and func- 
 tional derangements of the great bodily organs, thus leading 
 to the gravest physical disorders." 
 
 " I have demonstrated by actual experience that no form of 
 alcoholic drink is necessary, or desirable, for internal use, either 
 in health, or any of the varied forms of disease ; but that health 
 can be better preserved, and disease more successfully treated, 
 without the use of such drinks.* * * * * Simple truth compels 
 me to say that I have never yet seen a case in which the use of 
 alcoholic drinks either increased the force of the heart's action, 
 or strengthened the patient. But I could detail very many 
 cases in which the administration of alcoholics was quieting the 
 patient's restlessness, enfeebling the capillary circulation, and 
 steadily favoring increased engorgement of the lungs and other 
 internal viscera, and thereby hastening a fatal result, where 
 both attending physician and friends thought they were the 
 only agents that were keeping the patient alive. 
 
 " I have found no case of disease and no emergency arising 
 from accident, that I could not treat more successfully without 
 any form of fermented or distilled liquors than with. It is easy 
 to see that the anaesthetic properties of alcohol can be made 
 available by an intelligent and skillful physician to meet a very 
 
360 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 limited number of indications in the treatment of some cases 
 that will come before him. But the same intelligence and skill 
 will enable him to select other remedies capable of meeting the 
 same indications more perfectly, and, with less tendency to 
 secondary bad effects. I have no hesitation, therefore, in stat- 
 ing that for the attainment of the highest degree of success in 
 the management of all forms of disease, whether acute or 
 chronic, we need no form of fermented, or distilled, alcoholic 
 drinks. And whoever will boldly make the trial, will find that 
 his patients, of every kind, will make better progress, on good 
 air and simple nourishment, without any admixture of alcoholic 
 liquids, than they will with such addition. In other words he 
 will find that the supposed benefits of this class of agents in 
 medicine, are as illusory as they are in general society, and that 
 the words of the wise man are worthy of careful consideration 
 when he says : « Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, 
 and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.' "—Dr. N. S. 
 Davis, Chicago, 111. 
 
 " Dr. Hirschfield, a well-known physician of Magdeburg, 
 Germany, was recently arrested on a charge of malpractice. 
 The specific charge was that he had refused to give alcohol to 
 one of his patients who was supposed to need it. The doctor, 
 like the more advanced German physicians, is discarding liquor 
 from his practice, and made such a hot defence to the charge 
 that the court not only discharged the physician, but assessed 
 the cost of the defense against the prosecution."— Bulletin of 
 A. M. T. A. 
 
 Dr. Greene, of Boston, when addressing his breth- 
 ren and sisters of the medical association in that 
 city, upon alcohol, said in closing : — 
 
 " It needs no argument to convince you that it is upon the 
 medical profession, to a very great extent, that the rum-seller 
 depends to maintain the respectability of the traffic. It re- 
 quires only your own experience, and observations, to convince | 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 361 
 
 you that it is upon the medical profession, upon their pre- 
 scriptions and recommendations for its use upon many occa- 
 sions, that the habitual dram-drinker depends for the seeming 
 respectability of his drinking habits. It is upon the members 
 of the medical profession, and the exceptional laws which it has 
 always demanded, that the whole liquor fraternity depends, 
 more than upon anything else, to screen it from opprobium, 
 and just punishment for the evils which the traffic entails upon 
 society; and it is because the rum-seller, and the rum-drinker, 
 hide under this cloak of seeming respectability that they are so 
 difficult to reach either by moral suasion, or by law. Physicians 
 generally have only to overcome the force of habit, and the pre- 
 vailing fashion in medicine, to find an excellent way, when they 
 will all look back with wonder and surprise, that they, as indi- 
 viduals, and members of an honored profession, should have 
 been so far compromised." 
 
 " It will be asked, Was there no evidence of any good service 
 rendered by the agent in the midst of so much obvious bad 
 service? I answer to that question THAT THERE was NO 
 such evidence whatever, and is none." — slr b. w. 
 Richardson. 
 
 " A prominent general practitioner expressed surprise that 
 any one could do without alcohol in general medicine. He was 
 persuaded to make a trial, by abandoning the internal use of 
 spirits as medicine. A year afterward he wrote that his success 
 in the treatment of disease had been equal to that of any year 
 in the past, and that his cases recovered as well without alcohol 
 as with it. In a recent medical meeting he remarked, ' I 
 thought for many years that I could not do without spirits as 
 medicine. I was mistaken. I am constantly treating cases of 
 all degrees of severity without alcohol, and my success is fully 
 equal to the average.' " — Quarterly of A. M. T. A. 
 
 " Happily, the belief in alcohol is passing away." — Dr. C. R. 
 Francis, late Professor of Medicine, Calcutta Medical College. 
 
362 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Dr. Moor, the distinguished editor of the Pacific 
 Record, says : — 
 
 " While the use of alcohol is always injudicious and injurious, 
 it is particularly so in summer, when the system is predisposed 
 to disturbances of the gastro-intestinal tract. 
 
 " Alcohol flushes the capillaries of the mucous membranes 
 just as it does the capillaries of the skin, and where there is al- 
 ready a smouldering congestion, it will take but little to light 
 the tire of acute inflammation, which will rage with greatly in- 
 creased intensity. 
 
 " It is wiser to habitually avoid even the medicinal use of al- 
 cohol, as there are plenty of other stimulants which will give 
 the desired results without entailing any disastrous after effects." 
 
 " All the pleasant sensations of increased mental and physi- 
 cal power, which the use of alcohol produces, are deceptive and 
 arise from the paralysis of the judgment and the momentary 
 benumbing of the sense of fatigue which afterwards returns so 
 imperiously with perhaps even greater intensity." — Prof. 
 Adolf Fick, of Wurzburg. 
 
 Dr. Frank Payne, vice-president of the London 
 Pathological Society, says : — 
 
 " Alcohol is a functional and tissue poison, and there is no 
 proper or necessary use for it as a medicine." 
 
 " When I first heard that there was going to be a total absti- 
 nence hospital, I thought it would be a complete failure. That 
 was because I had been taught as a student to regard alcohol as 
 absolutely necessary in the treatment of disease. Nevertheless 
 I was an abstainer myself. When I was asked to join as physi- 
 cian, I did not consent without a good deal of consideration, and 
 then only on the understanding that if I thought a person need- 
 ed it, I should be allowed to administer alcohol. I remember 
 the first case of severe typhoid fever I had. He was hovering 
 between life and death, and I was anxiously watching to see 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 363 
 
 whether it would be necessary to give alcohol, but the man 
 made a good recovery without it. After watching many cases 
 to whom I should have given alcohol if I had been treating 
 them elsewhere, I came to the conclusion that I had been com- 
 pletely deluded. I gave it at one time to a woman in the 
 Hospital who was in a dying condition, but it did not save her. 
 I do not think I am likely to administer alcohol again. We 
 have had progress and efficiency in the Hospital. It has been 
 like an experiment for the profession, and our success shows 
 that this giving of alcohol is certainly a matter for re-considera- 
 tion for the medical profession. I believe that they are mistak- 
 en. There is no doubt that the amount of alcohol used in 
 other hospitals has diminished greatly, compared with what 
 was used in the past. To the outside public also this Hospital 
 is an example. I believe that an immense number of the public 
 have been teetotalers some time in their lives, but a great many 
 of them have gone back to the drink in time of illness, be- 
 cause they have been advised to do so. This Hospital is a 
 standing witness that disease and surgical injuries can 
 be treated without alcoholic liquors." — Dr. J. J. Ridge, of 
 London Temperance Hospital. 
 
 " It is perfectly safe to predict that the time is not far distant 
 when it will be as rare for a physician to prescribe alcohol as it 
 is now for him to prescribe blood-letting, and when a healthy 
 man will no more think of taking alcohol, with a view of pre- 
 » serving health, than he would strychnine for the same end." — 
 1 Dr. H. D. Didama, Dean of the Medical College, Syracuse 
 University, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 " In my opinion, based on a large experience, the continuous 
 use of spirits as a medicine is more dangerous and fatal than 
 when taken as a beverage, either continually, or at intervals. In 
 one case the degeneration from alcohol will intensify the diseased 
 processes either in accelerating the special form of disorder, 
 or provoking new conditions, complicating normal physiologi- 
 cal activities, and weakening possible tendencies to return to 
 
364 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 health. When taken as a beverage its effects are constantly 
 antagonized, and the degeneration following is slower, and less 
 marked."— Dr. T. D. Crothers, Hartford, Conn. 
 
 " The benefits which have been supposed from their liberal use 
 in medicine, and especially in those diseases which were once 
 universally, and are still vulgarly, supposed to depend upon mere 
 weakness, have invested these agents with attributes to which 
 they have no claim, and hence, as we physicians no longer em- 
 ploy them as we were wont to do, we ought not to rest satisfied 
 with the mere acknowledgment of error, but we ought also to 
 make every retribution in our power for having so long^ 
 upheld one of the most fatal delusions that ever took posses- 
 sion of the human mind." — Dr. Cheyne, Dublin. 
 
 " Brandy kills multitudes every year who enjoyed perfect 
 health before they began to use it ; then it seems fair to infer 
 that it will kill the sick more speedily." — Halls Journal of 
 Health. 
 
 " It does not always follow that because a patient has recov- 
 ered after taking alcoholic stimulant, he owes his recovery to 
 that stimulant. Post hoc is not necessarily propter hoc. 
 An old lady died in London a few years ago. The same 
 medical man had attended her for thirty-five years. She 
 left him a legacy carefully packed in a certain huge box. 
 When this box was opened after her death, the legacy to 
 the medical attendant, to whom she had expressed herself as so 
 indebted for his skillful advice, and excellent medicine, which 
 had kept her alive so long, was found to consist of all the bottles 
 of physic which he had ever sent her — unopened ! I have 
 known recovery to take place, and the attending physician con- 
 gratulate himself on the striking effect of the intoxicant pre- 
 scribed, when all the time the patient had not tasted it." — 
 Dr. Norman Kerr, England. 
 
 " I became deeply impressed (through some cases that hap- 
 pened in the early part of my professional life) with the awful 
 character and extent of drunkenness, and desired the diminu- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 365 
 
 tion, and if possible, the extinction, of that horrible and deadly 
 sin. I saw scores, and hundreds, arrested by abstinence in their 
 downward course, but of these not a few were set moving 
 again toward the abyss, by medical advice. I thought I would 
 do with as little as possible of alcoholic stimulants in the form 
 of drink, and was thus led to try, cautiously, to do without 
 them in cases in which before they had been administered. 
 The result of these trials was very decidedly in favor of absti- 
 nence ; and consequently, alcoholic drinks have legitimately dis- 
 appeared from my list of medicines." — Henry Mudge, M. 
 R.C. S., of England. 
 
 " The use of spirits as a stimulant in diseases, except in a very 
 limited circle, is a mere empiricism for which no good reasons 
 can be given. The teachings of medical men are no more to be 
 followed blindly, and without question. The tests of alcohol as 
 a tonic, as a food, as a stimulant, as a retarder of waste, are all 
 negative. There is no reliable evidence to support these claims, 
 but a constant accumulation of facts to indicate the danger from 
 the use of spirits. To give alcohol, or any other drug, without 
 some rational theory in accord with the scientific researches of 
 to-day, is unpardonable."-— Dr. T. D. Crothers, Hartford, 
 Conn. 
 
 " The promiscuous plan of giving alcoholics is really, in a 
 large degree, the force of habit, and has no foundation in mod- 
 ern science, or in good practice." — Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, late 
 Sec'y N. J. State Board of Health. 
 
 " Early in my practice, I became convinced that the use of 
 alcoholics was in almost all cases unnecessary, and in most 
 cases attended with direct injury. During an experience of 
 more than a third of a century in a hospital where all the im- 
 portant cases have been under my own immediate care, I have 
 no more clear and definite conviction on any point than this, 
 that the surgeon has no need of alcohol in the treatment of 
 cases, and will have better results without it." — Dr. r \ Kkrr, 
 Medical Missionary in Hong Kong, China. 
 
366 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 ^ " I have no use for alcohol, either personally, or in my prac- 
 tice. Yet I cannot say that I have entirely ,abolished it. Al- 
 cohol is used in compounding most of our tinctures, but in rem- 
 edies proper my experience has been that other stimulants, 
 such as ammonia, strychnine, caffeine, kolafra, etc., answer the 
 same purpose without alcohol's dangerous effects. ' In my prac- 
 tice, which is confined to surgery, I find very, very little use for 
 it. During the past year, in extreme cases, I used it in hypo- 
 dermic injections, and afterwards felt that ether, or ammonia 
 would have answered the same purpose. I think, in general 
 practice, physicians are dispensing with alcohol more and more, 
 but perhaps unconsciously."— ©. W. B. De Garmo, Professor 
 of surgery in Post-Graduate Hospital, New York City. 
 
 " Medicine, to-day, would be in a more satisfactory condition 
 if the use of alcohol as a medicine had been interdicted a 
 hundred years ago, and the interdict had remained to the 
 present day. The benefits derived from its use are so small 
 (even when they can be proved, which is much more rarely the 
 case than most people imagine), and the advantages gained are 
 so slight, that they are completely outweighed when we set 
 against them the evil that has been wrought by the abuse of 
 alcohol, and that has arisen out of the loose methods of pre- 
 scription that have obtained, and even still obtain, in regard to 
 this drug."— Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, F. R. C. P., F. R. S., 
 Director of the Research Laboratories of the Royal College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, London. 
 
 " The effect of continually dosing with this drug is too 
 apparent wherever it is used, benumbing the senses, and ren- 
 dering more difficult every natural function. Alcohol never 
 sustains the powers of life. It sometimes changes the symp- 
 toms of disease, but at the expense of the vitality of the body. 
 What is called its supporting action, is a fever induced by the 
 poison, which finally prostrates the patient. The secret of its 
 action is found in the laws of vitality. The man who takes 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINP:. 367 
 
 alcohol to help digest his food, must first throw off the alcohol, 
 before his stomach can act healthfully. 
 
 " There is one encouraging fact to be noted in this connec- 
 tion, that the use of alcohol in medicine has very much dimin- 
 ished during the past twenty-five years, and the present 
 tendency is constantly in that direction. Right here is an 
 important point which I wish to make : When the physician 
 ceases to prescribe alcohol as a medicine, the drink problem 
 will have reached the final stage of its solution. Mankind will 
 eventually learn that safety lies not so much in skillful doctors, 
 or in some wonderful ' new remedy,' as in daily obedience to 
 the laws of health. A small amount of prevention is of more 
 worth than all the power of cure." — Dr. C. H. Shepard„ 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 14 My observation has been that there is a decided tendency 
 among educated physicians to give less alcohol than formerly 
 in the treatment of disease. Of late years I have given but very 
 little alcohol in my own practice. The tendency is due, in 
 my opinion, to the study of the physiological action of drugs, 
 and to the better understanding of the causation of disease and 
 pathological processes. Modern investigators now know that 
 we have therapeutic agents that meet the requirements of 
 disease processes with more scientific accuracy than is obtained 
 by the exhibition of alcohol." — Dr. Donnelly, Secretary of 
 Minnesota State Medical Society, St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 " Dr. Pearce Gould recently made a speech to the National 
 Temperance League on alcohol and the advantage of doing 
 without it, both in health and in the treatment of disease. It 
 takes a strong man to say the strong things which Mr. Gould 
 said on the subject, especially if he happens to be a medical 
 man. No doubt, as Dr. Gould says, the use of alcohol in 
 medical practice is nothing now compared to what it was 
 twenty years ago, much more forty years ago, when Dr. 
 Todd's influence, and the reaction from the so-called antiphlog- 
 istic treatment were at their height. Public opinion has been 
 
368 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 enlightened by the evidence of leaders in medicine, such as Dr. 
 Parkes, Sir William Gull, Dr. Gairdner, Dr. Sanderson, and 
 others, and medical men have dared to treat disease without 
 alcohol, or with only small quantities of it. There are physi- 
 cians and surgeons of reputation and success, who are so 
 strong in their convictions that alcohol is of little use in the 
 treatment of disease, that it destroys tissues, lessens the 
 resistance to microbes, deranges functions, spoils temper, and ! 
 shortens life, that they are ready to testify to this effect in 
 public, in company with redoubtable champions of the temper- 
 ance cause like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir William 
 White (chief constructor of the navy), and the Bishop of 
 Derry, who have as much prejudice to contend against in their 
 spheres as the medical man has in his. We recognize with 
 pleasure the good done by such testimony as Dr. Gould's. 
 Men whose record and authority in the profession are such as 
 his have the courage of their opinions, and their honest testi- 
 mony will be respected even by those who do not go quite so 
 far in discarding alcohol as an element of diet, or as a medicine. 
 — The Lancet, London, May 14, 1898. 
 
 11 Dr. Usher, an eminent English physician, not strictly non- 
 alcoholic, tells of another physician who was ill with typhoid 
 fever. When called, Dr. Usher learned it was the nineteenth 
 day of the disease. The patient was in a state of profound 
 coma, apparently on the brink of the grave. Retiring with the 
 physicians who had charge of the case, Dr. Usher expressed the 
 conviction that the coma, which apparently must end in death 
 within twenty-four hours, was not entirely due to disease, but 
 partly to the brandy which had been administered, and he 
 advised : * Were 1 you, I would stop the brandy entirely and 
 give him milk and warm tea in its stead, and probably thecoma 
 will disappear.' The hint was taken and acted upon, and 
 twenty-four hours later the patient was able to answer ques- 
 tions quite coherently. The Doctor adds : ' Had this man 
 died in his comatose state instead of recovering, the severity of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 369 
 
 the disease would have been alone blamed for it, and the 
 brandy would have altogether escaped censure.' " — F. E. 
 Willard Hospital Leaflet. 
 
 " For the exercise of extreme caution in the administration 
 of alcohol to the sick, and its abandonment for the healthy, 
 experience now offers the greatest encouragement. One of the 
 latest instances is reported by a New York newspaper, of April 
 14, 1898, as occurring in Cuba. Dr. A. Monas Lesser, the 
 executive surgeon of the Red Cross Hospital, who has recently 
 returned from Havana, where he had been working amongst 
 the reconcentrados, said, ' We found the condition of those un- 
 fortunate people almost beyond description. In Los Fosos 
 there were between six and seven hundred people, with a 
 death-rate of twenty-five a day. Of our success it is perhaps 
 enough to say that when we left Havana six days had elapsed 
 without a single death in Los Fosos. The results of non-alco- 
 holic treatment were very markedly favorable. As an experi- 
 ment, and a concession to the general medical opinion that 
 prescribes alcohol, on our first arrival I allowed alcohol to be 
 given to six patients, whose condition was such as, in the judg- 
 ment of most medical men, to make the administration of 
 alcohol very desirable. To my very great sorrow four of those 
 six died. Afterwards, in treating absolutely without alcohol 
 sixty-three cases of those same diseases, of which so many thou- 
 sands have died, we lost but one patient, who died on the day 
 of entrance. In Cuba,' remarks this newspaper, 'as every- 
 where else where Dr. Lesser's observation has extended, the 
 abstainer, when sick, far more readily receives benefit from 
 the medical treatment, and the more liquor a man may drink, 
 the less his opportunity for recovery. No Red Cross physicians 
 are sent into the field, or will hereafter be sent, without the dis- 
 tinct promise that they will not use intoxicants either person- 
 ally, or in their practice.' " — Medical Temperance Review, 
 London. 
 
 Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, president of the 
 
3/0 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Frances Willard Temperance Hospital, Chicago, 
 111., in addressing the graduates of the training 
 school for nurses said : — 
 
 ** I had always supposed I was a temperance woman ; I never 
 used alcohol myself, and I never gave it except in cases of dire 
 necessity. I had always been opposed to its administration in 
 chronic cases, but felt free to use it in acute cases, when the 
 patient was bordering on collapse. I have learned now, how- 
 ever, how thoroughly we can meet exigencies of all kinds with- 
 out the use of alcohol in any form, and that we have at our 
 command remedies that are better. Thus I may say to-night, 
 I am indebted to the Temperance Hospital for a new view of 
 therapeutics, and in accepting a position on the staff I have 
 received fully as much as I have given." 
 
 Dr. Stevenson is one of the most eminent among 
 the physicians in Chicago. 
 
 " The prescribing of alcoholics by a physician can be de- 
 scribed by no weaker word than laziness. It does not cure, but 
 anaesthetizes. I believe it to be true that a vast amount of 
 people use alcoholics without the advice of a physician, but on 
 account of advertisements of some patent medicine quack, 
 who gladly fills his pockets without the dangers of a trip to the 
 Klondike. 
 
 " Let each in his sphere of life spread the true gospel of medi- 
 cine that it is not by alcoholism in medicine that health is ob- 
 tained, but by living according to those divine laws of temper- 
 ance, purity, cheerfulness and love that existed from the be- 
 ginning of time and shall endure when time shall be no more." 
 — Dr. E. Elmer Keeler, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 " I have learned this important fact — namely, that the best 
 class of thinkers, men of the best intellectual gauge, are those 
 who are doing away with this miserable, unscientific practice of 
 giving liquor ; and I want to say to you W. C. T. U. women 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 371 
 
 that if you unfurl to the breeze the flag of unconditional, uncom- 
 promising enmity to the use of liquor in any form, or for any 
 purpose, you will draw to your aid the better class of men." — 
 Dr. Boynton, of Clifton Springs, N. Y. Sanitarium. 
 
 " Philanthropic men and women, in this country and abroad, 
 have been toiling for many years to lessen and destroy the 
 debasing drink-habit. Their efforts of late have been attended 
 with encouraging results. Prominent men in Europe are giv- 
 ing their valuable aid and support. More and more members 
 of the medical profession in America are breaking the gyves of 
 a deceptive experience. They will no longer remain trigs In 
 the way of the beneficent attempts to overcome .the hideous 
 evil which through all the ages has cursed mankind. 
 
 " If the medical journals of the country, instead of advertis- 
 ing and commending medicated wines, intoxicating malt-extracts 
 and well-aged whiskies, would intimate that the non-alcoholic 
 treatment of diseases deserves a fair trial, and if their readers 
 would personally test this treatment, no harm, but an immense 
 amount of good might be the outcome. 
 
 " And can there be a reasonable doubt that if but 500 of 
 the most prominent leaders and teachers of the profession in 
 America, if but 50 of the authors of medical text-books, would 
 by earnest precept and faithful example oppose the use of alco- 
 hol in all forms as a beverage or medicine, the remainder of the 
 100,000 doctors might be influenced to follow this teaching and 
 worthy practice, and thus give a noble and lasting impetus to 
 the greatest philanthropic enterprise in the world?" — Dr. 
 H. D. Didama, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 " With regard to the treatment of disease without alcohol it 
 was almost by accident that he had hit on his present position. 
 It was when he was at the Westminster Hospital that he made 
 up his mind to try for himself the treatment of severe injuries 
 and surgical diseases without alcohol. He had a case of surgi- 
 cal erysipelas : eight ounces of brandy had been ordered as 
 usual; he knocked it all off. The house-surgeon no doubt 
 
37 2 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 thought he was a fool, but then house-surgeons always did ! 
 To his delight, and the house-surgeon's surprise, the man got 
 better. The next was a case of pyasmia : again he knocked all 
 alcohol boldly off because he was determined to see the worst ; 
 but the patient did not die, he improved. That experience has 
 been multiplied since. He would say, make the experiment for 
 yourselves. There was not the smallest doubt as to the result 
 and the effect on their own practice. Abstainers were in the 
 minority at present, but they need not be afraid of that. Minor- 
 ities become majorities. He met people who were opposed to 
 him but it was because they had never tried it ; they were 
 afraid to do so." — From an address by Dr. A. Pearce 
 Gould, Surgeon to Middlesex Hospital, London, Eng. 
 
 " I found it necessary to withstand the use of alcohol in med- 
 icine at an early period of my practice. It lowers the functions, 
 causes degeneration of the nerve centres, and produces general 
 paralysis, trembling lips, shaky hand, unsteady walk, the mus- 
 cles undergo a change, the heart becomes fatty, the nerves 
 harden and thicken from neuritis, the digestive organs become 
 morbid, loathing food, and ulceration and thickening of the 
 walls of the stomach and intestinal tract result." — Dr. S. 
 Wilks, Guy's Hospital, London. 
 
 14 All these facts are now incorporated into the medical litera- 
 ture of the last twenty-five years, and are accessible to every 
 intelligent physician who will take the trouble to look for them. 
 I And there are more than a score of eminent medical clinicians 
 and teachers who have demonstrated their correctness by treat- 
 ing all forms of disease more successfully without the use of 
 any form of alcoholic liquor than with it. Consequently every 
 physician of the present day who continues to bow to the social 
 tyranny of alcohol by sipping it at the banqueting table, or to 
 prescribe it as a remedy for the cure of disease, is making him- 
 self personally responsible for aiding in the maintenance of the 
 most gigantic and deceptive evil that is now contributing to the 
 misery and degeneration of the human race." — Dr. N. S. 
 Davis. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 373 
 
 " Alcohol is much less used in the treatment of chronic 
 maladies at the present time than formerly, but many physicians 
 still cling to the idea that it is a stimulant, a nutrient, or in 
 some way a supporter of vitality, and hence prescribe it in a 
 variety of morbid conditions which are more or less chronic in 
 character. I have demonstrated to my own satisfaction the 
 absolute inutility of alcohol for the accomplishment of any use- 
 ful purpose in the treatment of either chronic or acute mala- 
 dies." — Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Mich. 
 
 " In England at present the use of large doses of alcohol 
 seems to have greatly gone out of hospital practice, and 
 opinion is certainly growing, that not even small doses are re- 
 quired. The treatment of disease in so-called ' hydropathic 
 establishments ' which personally I have had occasion to study* 
 with interest, did much to loosen any little faith that I have ever 
 possessed in the utility of alcohol in the treatment of any dis- 
 ease, whether acute or chronic. Diseases of the stomach, liver 
 and heart and kidneys have appeared to me, in my own prac- 
 tice, to be much more satisfactorily treated without either beer^ 
 wine or spirits. Delirium tremens is now more successfully* 
 treated without the poison which has caused the disease. My* 
 conclusion, then, is that personally I would not consent, in my* 
 own case, to take any form of alcohol when suffering from dis- 
 ease. I always advise friends and patients to do without it, if 
 they have sufficient strength of mind, altogether ; and when 
 this is not possible, to take as little of that absurdly praised 
 ' food for the sick,' as I have heard it called, as they will con- 
 sent to."— Dr. C. R. Drysdale, Consulting Physician to the 
 Metropolitan Hospital, London, Eng. 
 
 " It has happened to me to see both sides of the shield. I 
 have witnessed day by day the practice of medicine for fifty* 
 years. For twenty-five years I practiced medicine with alcohol 
 as a remedy, without a break. I was taught that it was a food 
 as well as a medicine, and I never dreamed of allowing a pa- 
 tient not to have it if he or she were in danger of death, and 
 
374 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 the remedy promised to be of any service. For twenty-five 
 years I have practiced medicine entirely without alcohol. I 
 have had to give up much that was instilled into me in earlier 
 days. I have had even to forfeit friendships in carrying out 
 my views, and with the two pictures before me, the old and the 
 new, it remains for me in conscience to state that the results I 
 have witnessed during the new practice outstrip those of the 
 old. I hear friends still say that they dare not treat disease on 
 the new system ; that it is dangerous and bad. My reply, in 
 all simplicity, is : ' Do not say that until you have tried it ; you 
 have never tried it ; you have always gone on one system — 
 have rested ever upon it, and that is the old system ; you have 
 not had the courage to test the new, and there is all the differ- 
 ence between us.' "—Sir B. W. Richardson, London. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Treves, the well-known surgeon of 
 the London Hospital, in his Manual of Operative 
 Surgery, has some striking remarks on the risks at- 
 tending operations on the bodies of drunkards. 
 He says: — 
 
 " A scarcely worse subject for an operation can be found 
 than is provided by the habitual drunkard. The condition 
 contra-indicates any but the most necessary and urgent pro- 
 cedures, such as amputation for severe crush, herniotomy and 
 the like. The mortality of these operations among alcoholics 
 is, it is needless to say, enormous. Many individuals who state 
 that they ' do not drink,' and who, although perhaps never 
 drunk, are yet always taking a little stimulant in the form of 
 * nips,' and an ' occasional glass,' are often as bad subjects for 
 surgical treatment as are the acknowledged drunkards. 
 
 "Of the secret drinkers," continues Mr. Treves, " the sur- 
 geon has to be indeed aware. In his account of the ' Calami- 
 ties of Surgery,' Sir James Paget mentions the case of a person 
 who was a drunkard on the sly, and yet not so much on the sly 
 but that it was well known to his more intimate friends. His 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 375 
 
 habits were not asked after, and one of his fingers was removed 
 because joint disease had spoiled it. He died in a week or ten 
 days with spreading cellular inflammation, such as was far 
 from unlikely to occur in an habitual drunkard. Even absti- 
 nence from alcohol for a week or two before an operation does 
 not seem to greatly modify the result." — Bulletin of A. M. T. A. 
 
 " Although it is still very common to use alcohol as a reme- 
 dial agent, so that a preponderating number of doctors still 
 employ it on a large scale, yet, according to what scientific re- 
 searches into the physiological value of alcohol have shown, 
 there is not the least doubt that this prescription of alcohol is 
 only a survival of old times and their misunderstandings, and 
 that it will one day in the future completely disappear. 
 
 " While it was still believed that alcohol was both strengthen- 
 ing, nourishing and warming, and therefore that it supplied 
 force to the organism, it was natural that it should also be ap- 
 plied as a remedial agent. But when science showed that all 
 this was illusory, there was left only the so-called stimulant 
 effect. Now as this is probably always dependent on its poison- 
 ous (paralyzing) operation on the nervous system, and as we 
 possess other remedies, which, while they are powerful stimu- 
 lants (i. e., excite the organism to use up its reserve supply of 
 force) without having alcohol's dangerously seductive qualities, 
 there is no reason for retaining this remedy. Even its paralyz- 
 ing power, which might be supposed to find a fit sphere of 
 action in circumstances of spasm, can be dispensed with, and 
 alcohol can even in these cases be easily replaced by far better 
 remedies. 
 
 " That it is, nevertheless, warmly recommended by so many 
 doctors of highly respected names, is the less significant, since 
 these doctors have not sought to gain any experience how the 
 maladies run their course without being treated with alcohol ; 
 and as far as is known, all doctors who have thoroughly tried 
 both methods have expressed themselves decidedly in favor of 
 treating patients without alcohol." — Danish School Physiology. 
 
3?6 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 During the summer of 1894, a claim was made 
 that alcohol is necessary as a solvent for medi- 
 cines and to "prepare the field of operations in cap- 
 ital surgical cases." A letter was authorized by the 
 Board of Trustees of the National Temperance 
 Hospital, and addressed to a number of surgeons 
 and physicians of high repute in the city of Chicago, 
 asking whether they considered it necessary for 
 such use, and what they employed as antiseptics. 
 The following are culled from replies received : — 
 
 Dr. S. — Prepares medicine without alcohol ; does not use it 
 as a preserving agent, having found it not necessary. 
 
 L^r. E. — Is unalterably opposed to the use of alcohol ; can 
 cover the field pretty well without it. 
 
 Dr. B. — Sees no great need of alcohol in surgery. 
 
 Dr. M. — " I never use any of the preparations of alcohol as 
 an antiseptic ; rarely ever prescribe a tincture ; the tablet form 
 is much more valuable and certain." 
 
 Dr. S. — Does not consider it indispensable. Has found it 
 possible to have medicines properly compounded without it. 
 
 Dr. W. — (Pharmacist) " Should a physician choose to prac- 
 tice medicine without alcoholic preparations, I do not think the 
 task so very great if the question is given a little study." 
 
 Dr. T.— Does not use alcohol. " The patient cannot possibly 
 get any medicinal effect from alcohol." 
 
 Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, President of Hospital Staff, 
 sa y S : — « 1 do not think it necessary to use alcohol. Tablet 
 triturates are better than tinctures." — Hospital Leaflet. 
 
 Dr. Lawson Tait, a famous surgeon of Birming- 
 ham, England, was asked by Dr. J. H. Kellogg, 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 2>77 
 
 when serving as his assistant some years ago if he 
 never gave his patients any alcohol. He said : — 
 
 " Never, unless I know they are going to die, and then only 
 to give them an easy death." — A. M. T. A. Quarterly. 
 
 Rev. Canon Wilberforce of England in an ex- 
 cellent pamphlet upon " Doctors and Brandy," has 
 some fine testimonies against the medical use of 
 alcohol from which the following seven are taken : — 
 
 " I have before me a letter from an able, intelligent physician, 
 once well known in this neighborhood. He says (I quote lit- 
 erally his words)— 'Doctors often dose men to death with 
 brandy: The influence of alcoholic stimulants should be re- 
 garded in the same light as that of such potential drugs as 
 prussic acid, and other dangerous spirits." 
 
 " In answer to your question, ' Do circumstances arise when 
 alcohol alone stands between the patient and death ? ' I say, no„ 
 if you have any other medicines at command. I find no case 
 of exhaustion that may not equally be relieved by the adminis- 
 tration of ammonia or camphor as with alcohol. For the last 
 twelve years I have not administered alcohol in any form." 
 
 " All discoveries in science or philosophy fall into utter in- 
 significance, compared with a discovery that all disorders and 
 diseases can be safely and successfully treated without the use 
 of alcohol, and also that alcohol is not an aliment. The dis- 
 covery is of world-wide importance, and the blessings and ben- 
 efits arising from it are incalculable." 
 
 " When a patient is in a sinking state from disease, and 
 when a medical man has thought an alcoholic stimulant nec- 
 essary to snatch the patient from death, in this case the great 
 danger is, that such a stimulant will extinguish the small 
 spark of life remaining, and that the patie?it will be destroyed. 
 It was truly said of the Brunonian system, ■ That Dr. Brown 
 had made no provision in his system for the recovery of ex* 
 
27% ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 haustion arising from the effects of taking alcoholic stimu- 
 lants.' " 
 
 "In this hospital for the thirteen months there have been 
 about forty cases of accidents, rheumatic fever, bronchitis, dis- 
 eases of the joints, etc., which in the ordinary course would be 
 considered to require stimulants, and they have all been treated 
 by the medical men in the town, according to their cases with- 
 out any stimulants, except in one case, which died." 
 
 " During the thirty-seven years of my practice as a total ab- 
 stainer, I have never used one drop of alcohol as a ?nedicine. 
 Four years ago, in the town in which I reside, which contains 
 only i, 800 inhabitants. 1 was called upon to see 500 cases of 
 typhoid fever. Every one of those 500 cases was treated with- 
 out one drop of alcohol. And now, the question is, did I lose 
 more patients out of that 500 than I should have done had they 
 been treated with alcohol ? The statistics of the deaths by 
 typhoid fever amount to from sixteen to twenty-five per hun- 
 dred. I lost during that year four per cent., and therefore the 
 fact is established that fever — typhoid fever, one of the worst 
 fevers we have to treat, may be treated, and treated successfully, 
 without the use of intoxicating drinks." 
 
 " My father desires me to say that, after a very extensive 
 practice of more than sixty years, he firmly believes that not 
 a single life has ever been saved by alcohol, but, on the con- 
 trary, that thousands have been hurried into a pre?nature 
 grave by its use" 
 
 " In the first five years of my practice I was a strong advo- 
 cate of the alcoholic plan of treating diseases. But as time ad- 
 vanced, and experience, observation and experiments in the 
 treatment of disease ripened I came to what was at that time 
 (over a quarter of a century ago), and is yet, to a great extent, 
 an unpopular conclusion that I was, and had been, making a 
 great mistake in attributing remedial, constructive or recupera- 
 ting powers to alcohol, which it did in no way possess." — Dr. 
 I. N. Quimby, Jersey City, N. J. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 379 
 
 Twelve brief opinions of English physicians : — 
 
 " No medical man should prescribe alcohol without a sense 
 of grave responsibility." — 300 Metropolitan Doctors in 
 1871. 
 
 " There was a time when medical men gave alcohol right 
 and left in a manner that I consider simply disgraceful.'' — 
 Dr. Hare. 
 
 " An altogether unjustifiable amount of indiscriminate stim- 
 ulant ordering is indulged in by physicians."— Medical Press 
 and Circular. 
 
 " In the prescription of alcohol I recognize the very great 
 danger of inducing a habit worse in its consequences to the 
 patient than disease or even death itself could be." — Dr. W. 
 Carter. 
 
 " We ought to exercise the greatest reluctance in prescribing 
 alcohol until we are perfectly convinced that no other form of 
 treatment will be of service ; for in a very large percentage of 
 cases the patient will continue his medicine for life, and in a 
 few cases the doses will increase with wonderful rapidity." — 
 Dr. J. Muir Howe. 
 
 " In prescribing alcohol for the cure of a disease, you set up 
 one a thousand times more dangerous than the one for which 
 alcohol is prescribed." — Dr. C. J. Russell. 
 
 " If we go through the whole series of aches and pains to 
 which our human frame is subject, we shall hardly find one 
 in which alcohol has not been recommended as a specific. " — 
 Dr. Greenfield. 
 
 " If any patients seem anxious to be allowed to take alcohol, 
 they are just the ones who ought to be refused."— Dr. D. 
 Williams. 
 
 " I know of no condition of disease in which civ.: at least 
 as suitable as alcohol cannot be found, and, considering the 
 evil effects so frequently produced by alcohol on health and 
 
380 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 on social conditions, I think it will be admitted as desirable- 
 that, as a general rule, we should prefer the other agents." — 
 Dr. N. Carmichael. 
 
 " Should we contend for the medicinal use, of arsenic if its 
 widespread abuse and results were so painfully evident as is 
 the case from alcohol ? " — Dr. Branson. 
 
 "My experience is that in treating cases of fever without 
 alcohol we lose only 5 per cent. ; but 25 per cent, with alcohol. 
 In cases of delirium treme?is, where the patients were isolated 
 and cut off from all resource to spirits and liquors, I have 
 never lost a case." — Dr. H. Munro. 
 
 " I believe that all cases of operation are better without 
 alcohol, and I never administer it." — Dr. G. S. Bantock. 
 
 " Not a few physicians, by the loose practice of prescribing 
 alcoholic drinks, actually create in their patients a habit for 
 strong drink which in too many cases is beyond control." — 
 New York Medical Record. 
 
 " I have no use for alcohol as a food, drink or medicine, 
 and I believe it is never used in either large or small quantities 
 without absolute harm to the one partaking of it." — Dr. A. C. 
 Rembaugh, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 " Physicians who have confidence in their art seldom pre- 
 scribe alcohol. It is chiefly done by those who believe little in 
 the utility of drugs, or who indulge in alcoholics themselves. 
 I regard such prescribing as unquestionably a stigma upon the 
 medical profession." — Dr. A. Wilder, Newark, N. J. 
 
 "According to my experience it is never useful as a medi- 
 cine. Whatever excuse there might have been for its use as a 
 medicine when the knowledge of stimulants and antiseptics 
 was more limited than now, there certainly can be none at the 
 present time." — Dr. W. Paine, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 " From my own experience, observation and investigations 
 during twenty-five years of medical practice and the testimony 
 presented on both sides of the question, I am firmly of the 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 381 
 
 opinion that alcoholic beverages may be stricken from the list 
 of curative agents to the benefit of patients under all forms of 
 disease." — Dr. William Hargreaves, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Dr. William A. Hammond, one of the most 
 celebrated of American physicians, while not non- 
 alcoholic in practice made this statement in a letter 
 to Hon. W. H. Blair :— 
 
 "I am free to say that, weighing all the points for and 
 against, mankind would be better mentally, morally and 
 physically, if the use of alcohol were altogether abolished." — 
 Blair's Temperance Move?nent, page 69. 
 
 Dr. H. D. Didama, Dean of the Medical College 
 of Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y., said in 
 January, 1898, in the Voice : — 
 
 " For many years after my graduation at Albany, in 1846, 
 I prescribed alcohol, and for twenty years, while occupying the 
 chair of professor of the science and art of medicine in the 
 College of Medicine of Syracuse University, I followed in my 
 lectures — often reluctantly and usually afar off, but still I 
 followed — the almost unanimous teaching of authors, ancient 
 and modern, and the professors in the medical schools. 
 
 " Convinced that a great number of the diseases I was called 
 to treat owed their existence or aggravation to the use, in 
 I alleged moderation, of alcoholic beverages, and that not in a 
 few instances this use was commenced and even continued by 
 the advice of the medical attendants ; convinced also by the 
 published experiments of many acute observers at home and 
 abroad, and by my own observations, that almost all diseases 
 could be managed as well if not better by the non-use of 
 alcohol, and satisfied from the communications of some 
 brother practitioners that the fatality in certain specified dis- 
 eases was not delayed, to say the least, by the employment of 
 increasing and enormous doses of wine, whisky and brandy, 
 
382 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 and influenced also, I must admit — overwhelmed, indeed — by 
 what I know and what I read daily of the pauperism, domestic 
 wretchedness, crime, insanity and incurable maladies trans- 
 mitted to innocent offspring, I abandoned entirely, more than 
 three years ago, the use of alcoholic remedies. 
 
 " I have endeavored by personal example and earnest council 
 to dissuade my patients from the use of intoxicating beverages 
 and medicines. 
 
 " The outcome of this practice, medically and morally, has 
 been satisfactory to myself, and, I have reason to believe, tc* 
 my patients also. 
 
 " Whatever regrets I may feel for my former teaching and 
 practice, I have no apology to offer for my inconsistency ex- 
 cept that once given by Gerrit Smith : — ' I know more to- 
 day than I did yesterday ; the only persons who never change 
 their minds are God and a fool.' 
 
 ** Permit me to add that while there may be an honest differ- 
 ence of opinion regarding the efficacy of legislative enactments 
 in overcoming or restraining the drink habit, there should be 
 little doubt that a whole-hearted, persistent, precept-and-ex- 
 ample effort of the medical profession exerted as individuals on 
 their patients and the families of their patients, and as associa- 
 tions on the community at large, would do immeasurable good. 
 
 " And the newspapers might aid materially in this beneficent 
 work if, while they continue to spread before our households 
 every day the details of the brawls and fights of drunken men 
 and the horrible murders which they commit, they would dis- 
 continue advertising, without warning or dissent, side by side 
 with the atrocities, the ' innocuous beers,' the pure malt whis- 
 kies, the genuine brandies, guaranteed to prevent and cure all 
 manner of diseases." 
 
 The following testimony from an English physi- 
 cian is significant : — 
 
 "Although I know beforehand that their united testimony 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 383 
 
 must be in favor of the practice of total abstinence from all 
 intoxicating drinks, being most conducive to health and lon- 
 gevity of their patients, but very inimical to the pocket interests 
 of themselves, my own experience is, that my teetotal patients 
 are seldom ill, and that they get well very soon again, if they 
 are attacked by disease. A higher principle than that of gain 
 must influence a medical man's mind, or he will never advocate 
 the doctrine of total abstinence."— J. J. Ritchie, M. R. C. S., 
 Leek. 
 
 " One of the most dangerous phases of the use of alcohol is 
 the production of a feeling of well being in weakly, dyspeptic, 
 irritable, nervous or anaemic patients. In consequence of the 
 temporary relief so obtained, the patient develops a craving 
 for alcohol, which in many cases can end only in one way, 
 and, as I felt compelled to tell an assembly of ladies a short 
 time ago, the very symptoms for the alleviation of which 
 alcohol is usually taken are those, the presence of which 
 renders it exceedingly desirable that alcohol should not be 
 taken." — Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, of London. 
 
 In an address upon the London Temperance 
 Hospital delivered shortly before his death, Sir B. 
 W. Richardson gave a brief review of the influences 
 which led him to abandon the medical use of alco- 
 hol. The following is taken from that address as 
 reported in the Medical Pioneer : — 
 
 " I was a member of the Vestry of St. Marylebone, and we 
 had in our parish a very serious outbreak of small-pox, attend- 
 ed with a considerable mortality. In his report to us Dr. 
 Whitmore stated that in his treatment of earlier cases of the 
 confluent and hemorrhagic, and malignant forms of disease, 
 stimulants of wine and brandy were freely administered with- 
 out any apparent benefit ; and, that after consultation with Mr. 
 Cross, the resident surgeon, they resolved to substitute simple 
 
3 $4 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 nutriments, such as milk, eggs and beef-tea, at frequent inter- 
 vals, with discontinuance of stimulants altogether. The result 
 of the change was most satisfactory, and many bad cases did 
 well, which under the stimulant plan they believed would have 
 terminated fatally. Again I was struck very much by a report 
 made by Mr. Cadbury, in which that gentleman showed the 
 course that was going on in various hospitals. The amount of 
 alcohol in twelve hospitals in London, taken by the inpatients, 
 varied in ounces from 37,531 in one establishment to 300,094 in 
 another during the year 1878. I also found, from the same 
 author, that the whole cost in St. George's Union Infirmary for 
 the year 1878 was £8. 3s. 6d., amongst 2,496 patients, while the 
 cost of the same number at the average of the twelve hospitals 
 was ^124. About this same time I also remarked that in many 
 of the public institutions of England there was a reduction 
 something similar in kind, if not to the same extent, and that 
 the number of persons who suffered seemed to make better re- 
 coveries than those who were taking the free amount of stimul- 
 ant. The effect of these observations chimed in very remark- 
 ably with the physiological experiments it had been my duty to 
 carry out, and which tended to show in a most striking manner 
 that the action of alcohol in the body very much differed from 
 the ordinary opinion that had been held upon it, and thereupon, 
 in my own practice, I abandoned the use of alcohol, and began 
 to give instead small quantities of simple, nourishing, dietic 
 food, a course I pursued up to the present time with the most 
 satisfactory results, results I have never felt any occasion to re- 
 gret. By these steps, learned in the first place from the study 
 of alcohol in its action on man, I was led to become a believer 
 that alcohol is of no more service in disease than it is in health, 
 and a lengthened experience in this matter has really confirmed 
 the correctness of the idea." 
 
 In his last report as physician to the Temperance 
 Hospital Dr. Richardson made some remarkable 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 385 
 
 statements upon the fallacy of the general ideas of 
 stimulation. So interesting are his views that they 
 are incorporated here : — 
 
 " Sir B. W. Richardson, M. D., who was unable to be pres- 
 ent, communicated (through the secretary) his annual report as 
 physician to the hospital- After twelve months further trial of 
 the treatment of all kinds of disease in this institution without 
 the assistance of alcohol, either as a diet or a medicine, he (Sir 
 B. W. Richardson) was fully sustained in the belief that the 
 plan pursued had been attended with every possible advantage. 
 About 500 cases had come under his observation and" treatment 
 as in previous years, and these cases had been of the most 
 varied kind, including all patients who were not directly suffer- 
 ing from contagious disease. In not one instance had alcohol 
 been administered, nor had anything like it been used in the 
 way of a substitute, and there had not been a single case in 
 which he could conceive that it was ever called for, while the 
 success which had attended the treatment generally had been 
 superior to anything he had ever seen following upon the 
 administration of alcoholic stimulants. One great truth 
 which had forced itself upon him had reference to the doc- 
 trine of stimulation generally. It had been one of the grand 
 ideas in medicine that there came times when sick peo- 
 ple were benefited by being stimulated. It was argued that 
 they were low, and in order that they might be raised and 
 brought nearer to the natural life they required something like 
 alcohol to quicken the circulation, quicken the secretion, and 
 help to preserve the vitality. But the experience which was 
 learned here tended to show in the most distinct manner that 
 that very old and apparently rational idea was fallacious. Such 
 stimulation only tended ultimately to wear out the powers of the 
 body, as well as change the physical conditions under which the 
 body worked. True lowness meant practical over-fatigue, and 
 when the body was spurred on, or stimulated, over-fatigue was 
 
386 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 simply intensified and increased. What, therefore, was wanted 
 was not stimulation, but repose. The sufferer was placed in 
 the best position to gain entire rest, and all the surroundings or 
 environments were employed which tended to prevent waste. 
 The air was kept at the proper temperature, the body of the 
 patient kept warm, and the simplest and most easily digested 
 foods were used ; the patient's condition then swung round to 
 a natural state, and he began to get well. In other cases where 
 the sick were brought under observation suffering already from 
 excitable condition of the senses, with congestions here and there 
 of the circulatory or nervous systems, with imperfect condition 
 of the brain, and with the elements of what was usually denom- 
 inated inflammatory or febrile state — the stimulant was al- 
 ready present (was, indeed the cause of the symptoms) and did 
 not want in any degree to be enforced further by the acts of 
 treatment. Here, therefore, they were on the safest grounds as 
 regarded methods of administration, for they calmed as well as 
 they possibly could both mind and body and left nature to do 
 the rest, which she did with the best and most tranquilizing ef- 
 fect. On both sides, therefore, in the treatment of disease, they 
 did good, and that was the reason, he believed, why their re- 
 turns were so satisfactory. It often happened in an institution 
 where some particular plan was carried out that the old ideas 
 in which they had been bred were without intention refined or 
 suppressed. For example, he had been taught, and believed for 
 a number of years, that some medicament of a particular kind 
 was needful for some particular train of symptoms, be the sur- 
 rounding conditions what they might. There was no doubt 
 that this same feeling had given rise to the persistent use of 
 alcohol; but, greatly to his own surprise, he discovered that 
 when the surroundings were all good, the rule that applied to 
 alcohol constantly applied to other substances that were called 
 remedies, with the result that recovery was often just as good 
 without the particular remedies as with them, so that a revision 
 came quite simply with regard to stimulating agents and their 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 387 
 
 properties, and also with regard to every medicine that might 
 at earlier times have been employed. He had seen many cases 
 in this hospital recover without any other aid than that of the 
 environments, which cases he would have said could not possi- 
 bly have gone on well, or towards complete recovery, unless 
 some special recipe had been followed. He believed the day 
 would come when others, learning this same truth as he had been 
 obliged to learn it, would act on such simple principles that the 
 books of remedies would have to be vastly curtailed, It would 
 be seen that there was such a tendency of disease to get well 
 of itself, or by virtue of natural processes, of which people had 
 at present but a very poor idea, that the art of physic would 
 pass into directions how to live rather than into dogmatic asser- 
 tions that particular means must be employed in addition to the 
 common details of life for the process of cure. If therefore 
 they learned in this hospital by their reduced death-rates the 
 true lesson, the institution would have performed a double duty, 
 and become one of the test objects in medicine, and in the field 
 of disease. They made no attempt by selection, or by any side 
 action, to exaggerate their results. The cases were taken in- 
 discriminately, except that they gave admission to the worst 
 cases first ; that was to say, they never caused patients to come 
 under their treatment if they saw they were only slightly affect- 
 ed, and were bound to get well." — Medical Pioneer. 
 
 Dr. Landmann, of Boppard-on-the-Rhine, Ger- 
 many, says : — 
 
 " The members of the Association of Abstaining Physicians, 
 reject the use of spirituous liquors in every form, and particu- 
 larly declare the use of alcohol at the sick-bed a scientific error 
 of the saddest kind. In order to war against this abuse, they 
 earnestly appeal to the officers having charge of funds for the 
 sick, henceforth, under no circumstances, any longer to permit 
 the prescription of wine, whisky and brandy for sick members ; 
 but to resist to the utmost, according to the right given them 
 
388 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 by the laws insuring the sick, the taking of spirituous liquors, 
 under the false pretext that they have a curative and strength- 
 ening effect." 
 
 Dr. Bleuler, Rheineau, Switzerland, says : — 
 
 " The treatment of chronic diseases with alcohol is contrary 
 to our knowledge of the physiological effects of alcohol. There 
 is no probability that its use will be beneficial, certainly its ben- 
 efits have not been established. Often an injurious result is 
 proved. 
 
 " It is not implied that there may not be some benefit in the 
 use of alcohol in cases of sudden weakness with or without 
 fever. But even in such cases the benefit is not demonstrated. 
 At any rate, other remedies can with advantage be substituted 
 for alcohol. 
 
 " The essential thing in the treatment of all alcoholic dis- 
 eases, delirium tremens included, is. total abstinence. 
 
 " The physiological effect of alcohol is that of a poison, whose 
 use is to be limited to the utmost. Even the moderate use as 
 now practiced is injurious. 
 
 " The customary beneficial results unquestionably depend 
 chiefly on suggestion, and by making the patient believe falsely 
 that the momentary subjective better feeling means actual im- 
 provement. 
 
 " Physicians share the blame of the present flood of alcohol- 
 ism. They are, therefore, morally bound to remedy the eviL 
 Only by means of personal abstinence can this be done." 
 
 Dr. A. Frick, professor in Zurich, is a careful 
 student and an influential writer on alcohol. His 
 statements are weighty. This is his testimony : — 
 
 " In larger doses, alcohol is absolutely injurious in the treat- 
 ment of acute fevers, especially in case of pneumonia, ty- 
 phus and erysipelas. They first of all injure the general state 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 389 
 
 of the patient, they cause delirium, or increase it if already ex- 
 isting, and, secondly, they injure most seriously the organs of 
 digestion and interfere with proper nourishment ; thus they have 
 a weakening effect, instead of preventing weakness, which they 
 are usually supposed to do. In case no alcohol is used, the 
 convalescence is much more rapid. In no case has the benefit 
 of treatment with alcohol been established. According to the 
 view of the most eminent pharmacologists, the stimulating 
 effect of alcohol consists simply in a local irritation of the mu- 
 cous membrane of the stomach, similar to that produced by a 
 mustard plaster." 
 
 The following selection from the excellent address 
 of Dr. Harvey, president of the Virginia State Med- 
 ical Society, at a recent meeting, is a most timely 
 caution : — 
 
 " Our prisons, asylums and homes are filled with the victims 
 of the careless and indiscriminate use by the medical profession 
 of those twin demons, alcohol and opium, which, save tubercu- 
 losis, are doing more to debase and destroy the human race 
 than all the other diseases together. I most earnestly beseech 
 you, young men, who are just starting out in life, to stay your 
 hand in the use of these agents in your own persons, and in 
 your daily work, and to beware of the seductive needle, and the 
 cup that inebriates. Make it an invariable rule, never to pre- 
 scribe alcohol, nor one of the solinaceus or narcotic drugs, if 
 you can possibly avoid it. The use of alcohol and opium de- 
 bases the minds and morals of habitues, predisposes especially 
 to Bright's disease and insanity, and lays the foundation in the 
 offspring for the majority of the neuroses and degenerations of 
 modern civilized life. The physical fatigue of long working 
 hours, loss of sleep, mental strain, worry and hunger, invite the 
 tired physician, especially, to their seductive use. To totally 
 abstain from them is always business, and very often character, 
 and even life itself. I feel free to speak to you on this subject 
 
390 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 very earnestly, my younger brothers, for, having prescribed 
 alcohol for over thirty years, I am familiar with its tendencies 
 and its dangers." 
 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers of Hartford, Conn., in an arti- 
 cle upon " The Decline of Alcohol as a Medicine,'* 
 says : — 
 
 " Thoughtful observers recognize that alcohol as a medicine 
 is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Ten years ago leading 
 medical men and text-books spoke of stimulants as essentials 
 of many diseases, and defended their use with warmth and 
 positiveness. To-day this is changed. Medical men seldom 
 refer to spirits as remedies, and when they do, express great 
 conservatism and caution. The text-books show the same 
 changes, although some dogmatic authors refuse to recognize 
 the change of practice, and still cling to the idea of the food 
 value of spirits. 
 
 " Druggists who supply spirits to the profession recognize a 
 tremendous dropping off in the demand. A distiller who, ten 
 years ago, sold many thousand gallons of choice whiskies, al- 
 most exclusively to medical men, has lost his trade altogether, 
 and gone out of business. Wine men, too, recognize this 
 change, and are making every effort to have wine used in the 
 place of spirits in the sick-room. Proprietary medicine dealers 
 are putting all sorts of compounds of wine with iron, bark, etc., 
 on the market with the same idea. It is doubtful if any of these 
 will be able to secure any permanent place in therapeutics. 
 
 " The fact is, alcohol is passing out of practical therapeutics 
 because its real action is becoming known. Facts are accumu- 
 lating in the laboratory, in the autopsy room, at the bedside, 
 and in the work of experimental psychologists, which show that 
 alcohol is a depressant and a narcotic ; that it cannot build up 
 tissue, but always acts as a degenerative power ; and that its 
 apparent effects of raising the heart's action and quickening 
 functional activities are misleading and erroneous. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 391 
 
 " French and German specialists have denounced spirits both 
 as a beverage and a medicine, and shown by actual demonstra- 
 tion that alcohol is a poison and a depressant, and that any 
 therapeutic action it is assumed to have is open to question. 
 
 " All this is not the result of agitation and wild condemnation 
 by persons who feel deeply the sad consequences of the abuse 
 of spirits. It is simply the outcome of the gradual accumula- 
 tion of facts that have been proven within the observation of 
 every thoughtful person. The exact or approximate facts relat- 
 ing to alcohol can now be tested by instruments of precision. 
 We can weigh and measure the effects, and it is not essential 
 to theorize or speculate ; we can test and prove with reasonable 
 certainty what was before a matter of doubt. 
 w " Medical men who doubt the value of spirits are no more 
 considered fanatics or extremists, but as leaders along new and 
 wider lines of research. Alcohol in medicine, except as a nar- 
 cotic and anaesthetic, is rapidly falling into disfavor, and will 
 soon be put aside and forgotten." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TWO GREAT LEADERS IN MEDICAL TEMPERANCE. 
 
 Dr. Nathan Smith Davis, A. M., L. L. D., 
 of Chicago, 111., was born January 9, 181 7, in Chen- 
 ango County, N. Y. Until the age of sixteen he 
 labored upon the home farm, laying thus the foun- 
 dation for the remarkably healthy and vigorous 
 physical organization which has served him so well 
 through an unusually busy and useful career. 
 
 His father secured for him the best educational 
 advantages of the time, and at seventeen years of 
 age he began the study of medicine and graduated 
 with honor from the College of Physicians and 
 Surgeons, of the Western District of New York, 
 Jan. 31, 1837, a few days after his twentieth- birth- 
 day. He entered upon active practice at once, first 
 at Vienna, N. Y., then at Binghamton, and in 1849 
 removed to Chicago, where he has since resided. 
 
 Dr. Davis has always been a profound student of 
 physiology, and at the very beginning of his pro- 
 fessional career adopted what has happily been de- 
 nominated " rational medicine." 
 
 Soon after taking up his residence in Chicago he 
 began to make experimental studies as to the 
 392 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 393 
 
 effects of alcohol as a producer of heat. On Christ- 
 mas Day, 1854, he delivered, by request of the 
 students, a remarkable lecture in Rush Medical 
 College, where he was a professor. The lecture 
 was afterwards published under the title of" A Lec- 
 ture on the Effects of Alcoholic Drinks on the 
 Human System, and the Duty of Medical Men in 
 Relation Thereto." An appendix gave a full ac- 
 count of the experiments he had been making in 
 relation to the effects of alcohol upon respiration 
 and animal heat, by which the author showed for 
 the first time that alcohol, when administered to a 
 warm-blooded animal diminishes instead of increas r 
 ing the temperature. 
 
 It was a resolution offered by Dr. Davis in a 
 meeting of the New York State Medical Society 
 which led to the organization of the American Med- 
 ical Association. This fact, together with his ad- 
 vanced age, and great prominence in the Association, 
 has led to his being called of late years the 
 "Father" of the A. M. A. He has several times 
 been president of the Association, and was presi- 
 dent of the Ninth International Medical Congress. 
 He was for six years editor of the Journal of the 
 American Medical Association. 
 
 He also was instrumental in establishing the first 
 hospital in Chicago, the Mercy Hospital, with 
 which he was connected for thirty years, and dur- 
 ing which time no alcohol was administered in the 
 medical wards. 
 
394 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 He was one of the founders of the Northwestern 
 University, and of many other important institu- 
 tions in Chicago, and occupied for some years the 
 position of Dean of the Medical College of North- 
 western University. 
 
 At a medical meeting held several years ago he 
 stated that he had never taken a vacation except 
 such as was obtained by attendance upon the vari- 
 ous society meetings of his profession. 
 
 He was influential in the organization of the 
 American Medical Temperance Association, of 
 which he has been the president since the begin- 
 ning. In conjunction with Dr. J. H. Kellogg and 
 Dr. T. D. Crothers, he has edited the Bulletin of 
 the A. M. T. A. since its inception. It is a very 
 valuable and interesting magazine. 
 
 He has written many vigorous articles for the 
 medical press of the country, giving strong, clear, 
 scientific reasons why alcohol is injurious both as 
 beverage and as medicine. His distinguished suc- 
 cess in his profession has made his opinions 
 respected even where his brethren failed to agree 
 with him. 
 
 The great value of his work for the temperance 
 cause has not yet been fully recognized, but the day 
 is coming when this " good physician " will rank with 
 Neal Dow and Frances E. Willard, in the affection- 
 ate regard of American people. 
 
 Physicians are rapidly adopting his opinions of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 395 
 
 the uselessness and harmfulness of alcohol ; when 
 the great majority have courage and conviction to 
 stand where he stands there will no longer be any 
 excuse for the manufacture or consumption of alco- 
 holic beverages, except the innate depravity of the 
 human race. 
 
 It should be said of Dr. Davis that he has been a 
 tower of strength to two departments of the 
 National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
 that of Scientific Temperance Instruction, and that 
 of Non-Alcoholic Medication. He has never been 
 too busy to answer letters of inquiry and requests 
 for help, and has given invaluable counsel. 
 
 In religious faith, Dr. Davis is a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church. It is possible that 
 the total abstinence training of this denomination 
 may have given his mind a bias of suspicion towards 
 alcohol, a suspicion which science showed him was 
 well founded. 
 
 The late Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, M. D., 
 was for years to medical temperance work in Eng- 
 land what Dr. Davis has been to it in America, 
 with the addition of coming frequently before the 
 public to give scientific temperance addresses. 
 
 Dr. Richardson was born October 31st, 1828 at 
 Somerby, Leicestershire, England. His education 
 was obtained at Anderson's University, Glasgow, 
 Scotland, a school at that time noted for the know- 
 ledge and skill of its professional staff. 
 
396 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 After his graduation in 1850 he joined in 
 practice with the editor of the Medical Gazette, 
 afterward the Medical Times. To this, and other 
 medical papers, he contributed many scientific 
 articles of great interest. 
 
 Having become a Fellow of the Royal College of 
 Physicians, he devoted himself to original experi- 
 mental researches in medical and sanitary science, 
 and with much success. In 1867 he was elected a 
 Fellow of the Royal Society of England, and in 
 1868 was presented by six hundred of his medical 
 brethren with a splendid microscope, and a purse of 
 a thousand guineas, as a mark of their admiration 
 and regard. He was chosen repeatedly as presi- 
 dent of the London Medical Society, and other 
 learned bodies. 
 
 In 1893 Queen Victoria conferred the honor of 
 knighthood upon him for his distinguished services 
 in his profession. 
 
 In i860 to 1 86 1 while engaged in some experimen- 
 tal physiological researches, Dr. Richardson began 
 as he says, for the first time, to doubt the commonly- 
 accepted value and physiological position of alco- 
 hol. Several years were then spent in the study of 
 the action of different alcohols. He arrived at the 
 same results as Dr. Davis, that alcohol does not 
 give strength nor heat to the body, but really robs 
 the body of both. Yet he had no interest in the 
 temperance movement, and was not for some years 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 397 
 
 afterward a total abstainer, drinking only upon 
 social occasions however. 
 
 In 1869 he began to abstain for the purpose of 
 experimenting upon himself, and found himself 
 feeling so much better that he began to practice 
 total abstinence steadily. 
 
 In the winter of 1874-5 he delivered the famous 
 Cantor Lectures on Alcohol which were afterwards 
 published, and had large sale. These gave the 
 results of his study of alcohol in language free 
 from scientific terminology. 
 
 When the British Medical Temperance Associ- 
 ation was organized he became its president, and 
 continued in this office until the time of his death. 
 He was also editor of the Medical Temperance 
 Review, called Medical Pioneer for a time. 
 
 He wrote a Temperance Lesson Book which has 
 been extensively used in schools, and he is said to 
 have been the first to advocate the teaching of 
 scientific temperance in public schools. 
 
 Dr. Richardson was in great request for scien- 
 tific temperance addresses, hence the people 
 learned from him the most weighty and unanswer- 
 able arguments against the use of alcoholic bev- 
 erages. 
 
 In 1892 he was elected physician to the London 
 Temperance Hospital. He was very slow in 
 abandoning the medicinal use of alcohol, being a 
 
398 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 conservative by nature, yet finally lost all faith in 
 it as a remedial agent. 
 
 His death was a severe loss to the temperance 
 cause, but the work he did will never die. 
 Through the teachings of this great and good 
 man, and others like unto him, the appalling 
 delusions regarding man's powerful enemy, Alcohol, 
 will yet be dispelled. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg of Battle Creek, Mich., Dr. T. 
 D. Crothers of Hartford, Conn., Dr. J. J. Ridge 
 and Dr. Sims Woodhead of London, England, 
 are younger men upon whom the mantles of these 
 temperance Elijahs, Davis and Richardson, seem to 
 have fallen. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MEDICAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 
 
 The first society of physicians ever organized 
 for the study of alcohol in its effects upon man 
 was the " American Association for the Study and 
 Cure of Inebriety." This society dates its begin- 
 ning from November 29, 1870, when its first meet- 
 ing was held in the parlor of the Young Mens 
 Christian Association of New York. # 
 
 Dr. Willard Parker, one of the leading surgeons 
 of New York City was elected president, and had 
 associated with him some of the prominent pro- 
 fessional men of that day. In 1876 the Journal of 
 Inebriety was established, Dr. T . D. Crothers of 
 Hartford, Conn., being connected with it as editor 
 from its inception to the present time. 
 
 This association sets forth the following as its 
 principles : — 
 
 1. Inebriety is a disease. 
 
 2. It is curable as other diseases are. 
 
 3. The constitutional tendency to this disease may be either 
 inherited or acquired ; but the disease is usually induced by 
 the habitual use of alcohol or other narcotic substances. 
 
 4. Alcohol has its place in the arts and sciences, but as a 
 
 399 
 
400 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 medicine it is classed among the poisons, and its internal use is 
 always more or less dangerous. 
 
 5. All methods hitherto employed for the treatment of 
 inebriety that have not recognized the disordered physical con- 
 dition caused by alcohol, opium or other narcotics, have 
 proved inadequate to its cure ; hence the establishment of 
 hospitals for the specific treatment of inebriety, in which such 
 conditions are recognized, becomes a positive need of the age. 
 
 6. In view of these facts, and the increased success of the 
 treatment in inebriate asylums, this association urges that 
 every large city should have its local and temporary hospital for 
 both the reception and care of inebriates ; and ■ that every State 
 should have one or more hospitals for their more permanent 
 detention and treatment. 
 
 7. Facts and experience indicate clearly that it is the duty of 
 the civil authorities to recognize inebriety as a disease, and to 
 provide means in hospitals and asylums for its scientific treat- 
 ment, in place of the penal methods of fines and imprisonment 
 hitherto in use, with all its attendant evils. 
 
 8. Finally, the officers of such hospitals and asylums should 
 have ample legal power of control over their patients, and 
 authority to retain them a sufficient length of time for their 
 permanent cure. 
 
 Drunkenness was generally looked upon as a 
 vice only when this society began its work, but is 
 now commonly recognized as a disease as well as a 
 vice. It is to be hoped that the day may speedily 
 come when all civilized countries will have an 
 Inebriates' Act similar to that of England, which 
 provides for the establishment of inebriate reforma- 
 tories, and for the detention in such reformatories 
 of habitual drunkards after the fourth conviction 
 for drunkenness. 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 40I 
 
 This act is undoubtedly the result of the study 
 of inebriety carried on in England by a society 
 similar to the American Association set on foot by 
 Dr. Willard Parker. The leading spirit in the 
 English society for years was the late Dr. Norman 
 Kerr, a recognized authority in this branch of medi- 
 cal research. 
 
 In 1876 the British Medical Temperance Associa- 
 tian was organized with Sir Benjamin Ward Rich- 
 ardson as president, and in 1890 the American 
 Medical Temperance Association had its beginning, 
 Dr. Nathan S. Davis, being president from the first 
 meeting to the present time. The object of these 
 two associations was, and is, to promote the scien- 
 tific study of alcohol as a medicine. Only total 
 abstaining physicians are taken into membership. 
 There is no pledge against the use of alcohol in 
 medical practice. 
 
 The journal of the British society is the Medical 
 Temperance Review, edited now by Dr. J. J. Ridge ; 
 the journal of the American society is the Bulletin 
 of the A.M. T. A. Both of these magazines are 
 replete with interesting matter respecting alcohol 
 from a medicinal point of view. 
 
 Upon the continent of Europe there are now six 
 medical organizations for the study of alcohol. 
 
 There is no doubt that the work of these various 
 societies has had much to do with the noticeable 
 decline in the medical use and advocacy of alcohol. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 THE USE OF ALCOHOL WITH CHLOROFORM AND ETHER. 
 
 Dr. N. S. Davis says : — 
 
 " Clinical facts without number, and direct experiments exe- 
 cuted by numerous strictly scientific investigators, both show 
 that each of these drugs, taken separately or all in combination, 
 act as direct paralyzers, first, of the cerebral hemispheres (anaes- 
 thesia), and next of the respiratory and cardinal nerve centres 
 and ganglia, thereby inducing death either by failure of respi- 
 ration or circulation, or by both simultaneously. Facts that we 
 have collected from a great variety of sources on different oc- 
 casions, demonstrate the fact that these three agents act, as 
 just indicated, in direct proportion to the quantity used, there 
 being no dose, however small, and no stage in the progress of 
 their influence when they increase either respiratory or cardiac 
 efficiency. Acting in the same direction and on the same im- 
 portant functions, each intensifies or increases the effect of the 
 others. If any one doubts this, let him again refer to the facts 
 adduced in the address of Dr. H. C. Wood, on Anaesthesia be- 
 fore the International Medical Congress at Berlin, in 1890. 
 
 " Notwithstanding these well-established facts, both ether and 
 alcohol continue to be among the first remedies resorted to, 
 not only for counteracting the effects of chloroform, but of 
 threatened respiratory and cardiac failure from pneumonia, 
 diphtheria, or any other cause. Almost every alternate number 
 of the leading medical journals, both of this country and Eng- 
 402 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 403 
 
 land, contain reports of deaths from chloroform ; and in nine 
 cases out of ten, among the first remedies used for resuscita- 
 tion, are a hypodermic injection of ether and an enema of 
 whisky or brandy. 
 
 " In one case reported in the British Medical Journal a year 
 or two since, in which excessive anaesthesia was induced by 
 the use of the mixed anaesthetic of alcohol, ether, and chloro- 
 form, the first remedy used was a hypodermic injection of 
 ether, and the next an enema of brandy. Of course the patient 
 did not revive. Only last month, three successive numbers of 
 the British Journal contained each a report of a case of death 
 from chloroform, and in every case the inevitable hypodermic 
 injection of ether was given. The case related in the Journal 
 for Oct. 21, 1893, was that of a laboring man who met with a 
 severe mechanical injury, dislocating the femur at the hip. He 
 was taken to the hospital, given ' stimulants,' i. e., brandy or 
 whisky, and at the end of three hours was put on the operating 
 table, and chloroform administered. Being already somewhat 
 under the influence of the alcoholic anaesthetic, he passed 
 readily under the complete effect of chloroform in * five min- 
 utes,' and efforts to reduce the dislocation were begun, but had 
 proceeded only ' five minutes,' when both circulation and respi- 
 ration suddenly stopped. Then, as if by mere force of habit, 
 followed the hypodermic injection of ether. An alcoholic anes- 
 thetic at the beginning , chlorofor7)i in the middle, and ether 
 at the end, makes death about as sure as it would be from a 
 pistol ball through the ventricles of the heart. 
 
 " Many surgeons have been in the habit of giving patients a 
 liberal dose of alcoholic drink a little before administering 
 chloroform as an anaesthetic, under the plea that it lessened the 
 danger of heart failure. The apparent result is that the patients 
 pass more readily and quietly into the anaesthetic state ; but as 
 the alcohol continues to be absorbed from the stomach after the 
 chloroform anaesthesia is complete, it adds just so much to the 
 danger of sudden stoppage of respiration. And we have rea- 
 
404 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 son to believe that many lives have been lost from this cause 
 when only minimum quantities of chloroform had been used, 
 and with the utmost caution. 
 
 " Many years since a man was brought into the Mercy Hos- 
 pital with a dislocation at the shoulder. Being enough under 
 the influence of alcohol to make him obstreperous, the surgeon, 
 thinking to quiet him and make the seduction easier, adminis- 
 tered an anaesthetic. The inhalation had proceeded only far 
 enough to begin to develop its effects, when both respiration 
 and circulation stopped, and the most active efforts to revive 
 the patient failed. 
 
 " Therapeutic investigations, both clinical and experimental, 
 show that digitalis is the most direct and reliable cardiac and 
 vasomotor tonic, and strychnine the most efficient respiratory- 
 stimulant ; and if these were judiciously used in all cases of 
 cardiac, vasomotor and respiratory weakness or failure, to the 
 entire exclusion of alcohol, ether or articles of the same class, 
 it would save many lives annually." 
 
 R. Dubois, in 1883, by direct experimenting upon 
 animals, found that the presence of alcohol in the 
 blood much intensified the action of chloroform, 
 and thereby rendered a much smaller dose fatal. 
 
 Prof. H. C. Wood, in his address on Anaesthesia, 
 to the Tenth International Medical Congress, 1890, 
 said : — 
 
 " In my own experiments with alcohol, an eighty per cent, 
 fluid was used, largely diluted with water. The amount in- 
 jected into the jugular vein varied in the different experiments 
 from 5 to 20 c. c. ; and in no case have I been able to detect 
 any increase in the size of the pulse or in the arterial pressure 
 produced by alcohol, when the heart was failing during ad- 
 vanced chloroform anaesthesia. On the other hand, on several 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 40$ 
 
 occasions, the larger amounts of alcohol apparently greatly in- 
 creased the rapidity of the fall of arterial pressure, and aided 
 materially in extinguishing the pulse." 
 
 In the closing paragraph of the same address, Dr. 
 Wood said, in regard to the management of acci- 
 dents during anaesthesia : — 
 
 u Avoid the use of all drugs except strychnine, digitalis and 
 ammonia. ***** tj sg artificial forced respiration promptly, 
 and in protracted cases employ external warmth and stimula- 
 tion of the surface by the dry electric brush, etc. ; and remem- 
 ber that some at least, and perhaps many, of the deaths which 
 have been set down as due to chloroform and ether, have been 
 produced by the alcohol which has been given for the relief of 
 the patient." 
 
 " We have several times invited attention to the very com- 
 mon practice of giving hypodermic injections of ether and 
 rectal injections of alcohol to revive patients already asphyxi- 
 ated with chloroform ; and have pointed to the clear experi- 
 mental proof that both ether and alcohol directly increase the 
 effects of the chloroform and thereby increase the certainty of 
 death in every case in which they are used. In a recent num- 
 ber of the Bulletin of- the Johns Hopkins Hospital, an interest- 
 ing case of death under anaesthesia is related, in which it was 
 stated that on account of the dislike of the patient for inhaling 
 ether, the inhalation was commenced with chloroform and 
 when so far under its influence as to prevent her noticing the 
 change, ether was substituted and carried to complete anaes- 
 thesia without the slightest interruption. It was particularly 
 stated that on substituting ether for the chloroform, no appreci- 
 able change could be detected in either the respiration or the 
 circulation of the patient. And the writer further remarked 
 that he had many times made the same change in administer- 
 ing anaesthetics to patients who were opposed to inhaling ether 
 with the same uniform continuance or increase of the anass- 
 
406 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 thetic effect. Do we need any better proof that giving one 
 anaesthetic to revive a patient from the excessive effects of 
 another is very nearly to the climax of absurdity ? " — A. M. T. 
 A. Quarterly. 
 
 I Beer Compared With Other Alcoholics :— " For some 
 years a decided inclination has been apparent all over the coun- 
 try to give up the use of whisky and other strong alcohols, using 
 as a substitute beer and other compounds. This is evidently 
 founded on the idea that beer is not harmful, and contains a 
 large amount of nutriment ; also that bitters may have some 
 medical quality which will neutralize the alcohol which it con- 
 ceals, etc. These theories are without confirmation in the ob- 
 servation of physicians. The use of beer is found to produce a 
 species of degeneration of all the organs ; profound and decep- 
 tive fatty deposits, diminished circulation, conditions of conges- 
 tion and perversion of functional activities, local inflammations 
 of both the liver and kidneys, are constantly present. Intellec- 
 tually a stupor, amounting almost to paralysis, arrests the rea- 
 son, changing all the higher faculties into a mere animalism, 
 sensual, selfish, sluggish, varied only with paroxysms of anger 
 that are senseless and brutal. In appearance the beer-drinker 
 may be the picture of health, but in reality he is most incapable 
 of resisting disease. A slight injury, a severe cold or a shock 
 to the body or mind, will commonly provoke acute disease end- 
 ing fatally. Compared with inebriates who use different kinds of 
 
 l alcohol, he is more incurable and more generally diseased. The 
 constant use of beer everyday gives the system no recuperation, 
 but steadily lowers the vital forces. It is our observation that 
 beer drinking in this country produces the very lowest kind of 
 inebriety, closely allied to criminal insanity. 
 
 *' The most dangerous class of ruffians in our large cities are 
 
 beer drinkers. Recourse to beer as a substitute for other forms 
 
 of alcohol merely increases the danger and fatality." — Scientific 
 
 American. 
 
 " The New York hospital surgeons have promulgated a fact 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 407 
 
 which, coming from such a source, should be a warning to beer 
 drinkers. Their attention has been called to the large number 
 of bartenders who have lost fingers from both hands within the 
 past few years. An employee of a Bowery concert hall lost 
 three fingers from his right hand, two from his left, and the 
 physicians decided that they became rotted off by the beer 
 which he handled. The acids and the resin in the beer are said 
 to be the cause. One bartender said he knew of several cases 
 where those who handle beer habitually had lost the use of several 
 fingers and finally the use of both hands. He said : ' I know, 
 and every other bartender knows, that it is impossible to keep a 
 good pair of shoes behind the bar. Beer will rot leather as 
 rapidly almost as acid will rot into iron. If I were a temper- 
 ance orator, I'd ask what must beer do to men's stomachs if 
 it rots the fingers and sole leather ? I'm here to sell it, but I 
 won't drink it — not much.'" — A. M. T. A. Quarterly. 
 
 Spirits Deleterious to the Voice : — " Mr. Kuhe, the 
 veteran pianist and concert giver, has been giving in his remi- 
 niscences some observations on the habits of singers with regard 
 to stimulants. Formerly all singers had, in obedience to medi- 
 cal advice, to indulge greatly in stout and plenty of port for the 
 voice ; stimulants were in fact ordered lavishly. Nowadays it 
 is an accepted article of belief that spirits harden the tone ; port 
 is out of date, and lemons have become the fashion for those 
 who wish to preserve their purity of intonation and keep their 
 power of sustaining high notes." — The Musical Courier. 
 
 Alcohol and Brain Work : — " It is a general impression 
 that alcohol produces temporary ability for increased activity. 
 Dr. Lauder Brunton asserts that ' the influence of alcohol 
 upon physical processes is curious, for while it renders them 
 much slower, the individual under its influence believes them to 
 be much quicker than usual.' The same fact is true of all 
 stimulants. They give the individual the impression of greater 
 vigor and strength, but this is simply a deception. 
 
 Escaped Drowning to be Killed by Brandy :— " An 
 
408 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 inquest was held at Hastings last week on the body of a boy 
 named Binsted, aged four years. The little lad fell into the 
 sea, and on being rescued was rubbed down and put to bed. 
 Hot milk was given to him containing brandy, which, however 
 was not measured by his father. The boy soon afterwards 
 died, and a local doctor who was called in found that the cause 
 of death was alcoholic poisoning through the dose of brandy 
 being too great. The doctor found by the glass that three 
 tablespoonfuls had been given. The jury returned a verdict of 
 ' Death through an overdose of brandy given in error.' " — Hos- 
 pital Gazette. 
 
 Any student of contemporary history is well 
 aware of the fact that the despised Turk has ex- 
 hibited remarkable soldierly qualities both in the war 
 with Russia and in the more recent Greek war. The 
 following quotation from Sir Charles E. Ryan, M. 
 D., F. R. C. S. I., who served as a surgeon in the 
 Turkish army, at Plevna and Erzeroum, may throw 
 some light upon the subject. Dr. Ryan says in his 
 recently published book : — 
 
 " In all my surgical experience I have never known men to 
 exhibit such fortitude under intense agony as these Turkish 
 soldiers, nor have I ever met patients who recovered from such 
 terrible injuries in the remarkable way that these men did. 
 They w r ere magnificent material for a surgeon to work on — men 
 of splendid physique, unimpaired by intemperances or any 
 excesses. Occasionally one found isolated cases of intemper- 
 ance among the higher officers in the Turkish army ; but I never 
 saw a private soldier under the influence of liquor during the 
 whole time I was in the country. ***** \ t was impossible 
 to get them to touch alcohol, even as medicine." 
 
 On the other hand, it ought to be remembered 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 409 
 
 that the Greeks, who in their lack of courage and 
 endurance, so bitterly disappointed their friends, 
 went into the opening battles of their disastrous 
 war plentifully supplied with brandy. 
 
 LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES AND BEER. 
 
 " We especially call attention to another fact. Life insurance 
 companies have no sentiment. They are as cold-blooded as 
 banks. They do business upon strictly business principles. 
 Their business is one based purely upon experience from which 
 certain inexorable rules have been established. A life insur- 
 ance company will not insure the life of a confirmed beer- 
 dri?iker. Why ? Because it is a certain fact, as certain as 
 anything can be, that the beer-drinker can not live long enough 
 to ?nake i7isurance profitable to them. The ' expectation ' of 
 life in a beer-drinkter is cut short by his appetite. No life insur- 
 ance company is going to take a risk upon a body into which is 
 being poured every day the seeds of disease, any more than a 
 marine insurance company is going to take a risk upon a rotten 
 hulk. No life insurance company is going to take a risk upon 
 a man who is inviting Bright's disease of the kidneys, inflam- 
 matory rheumatism, congestion of the liver and enlargement of 
 the kidneys, all of which are as certain to come to him as he is 
 to persevere in beer. And the beer-drinker, as a rule, does per- 
 severe till death stops his contributions to brewers. 
 
 " These institutions dread beer more than they do whisky, 
 for its effect upon the system is even worse. A non-beer- 
 drinker at forty is considered a good risk — a beer-drinker at 
 that age can get no insurance at all. As we said, there is no 
 sentiment in life insurance companies. They act entirely upon 
 facts, which are the result of experience. Their figures never 
 lie. 
 
 "The president of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance 
 Company, one of the oldest in the country, has for years been 
 
410 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 investigating the relation of beer-drinking to longevity. His 
 object was that he might solve the problem whether beer pro- 
 motes vitality or otherwise ; in other words, to know whether 
 beer-drinkers are desirable risks to a life insurance company. 
 We give his conclusions. He declared, as the result of a series 
 of observations carried on among a selected group of persons 
 who were habitual drinkers of beer that although for two or 
 three years there was nothing remarkable, yet presently death 
 began to strike, and then the mortality became astounding and 
 uniform in its manifestations. There was no mistaking it ; the 
 history was almost invariable ; robust, apparent health, full mus- 
 cles, a fair outside, increasing weight, florid faces ; then a touch 
 of cold, or a sniff of malaria, and instantly some acute disease, 
 with almost invariable typhoid symptoms, was in violent action, 
 and ten days or less ended it. 
 
 " It was as if the system had been kept fair on the outside, 
 while within it was eaten to a shell ; and at the first touch of 
 disease there was utter collapse ; every fibre was poisoned and 
 weak. And this, in its main features, varying in degree, has 
 been his observation in beer-drinking everywhere. It is pecu- 
 liarly deceptive at first ; it is thoroughly destructive at the last." 
 — The Toledo Blade. 
 
 Wilhelmina Lemonade: — Take four or five 
 rough-skinned oranges (according to size) and two 
 pounds of sugar, in big lumps. After having cleaned 
 the oranges, rub the sugar with them, till the 
 oranges are quite white — the sugar yellow. Place 
 the sugar in a big earthernware pan or jar, and add 
 three pints of cold water. Then cover it up and let 
 it stand two days, stirring it occasionally to help the 
 melting. Now take two ounces of citric acid, dis- 
 solved in a little boiling water, and add it to the 
 syrup, stirring the whole. Then strain the whole 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 41 1 
 
 through a fine sieve, covered with muslin, so that it 
 becomes perfectly clear. In well-corked bottles it 
 will keep for more than a year. Mix one-third of 
 the lemonade with two-thirds water. [Instead of 
 the oranges five or six lemons may be used.] 
 
 Beverages for the Sick: — Unfermented grape 
 juice. Hot milk. Egg cream, made as follows: 
 Beat the white and yolk separately, add milk and 
 sugar, and stir well, flavor to suit taste. Egg lemon- 
 ade — beat yolk and sugar thoroughly, add lemon 
 and water, shake well, then add white, beaten stiff. 
 Barley water, made by boiling pearl barley five or 
 six hours, and straining the water from it ; add milk 
 or cream if wished. These are used in the National 
 Temperance Hospital of Chicago. 
 
 Baths : — " If all people understood the value of water to cool, 
 cleanse, invigorate and sustain life, and how to use it, and 
 would use it, one-half of all the afflictions from disease would be 
 removed ; and the other half might be banished if all the people 
 understood how and what to eat, how to breathe, and the ne- 
 cessity of daily vigorous exercise. A daily towel bath will do 
 more to counteract disease, and restore the body to its normal 
 ' health condition, than any other method or remedy yet discov- 
 ered. After the bath, the body should be thoroughly rubbed 
 with a crash or Turkish towel. Rub until a warm glow is pro- 
 duced. This bath is a fine tonic if taken upon rising in the 
 morning." 
 
 Hot Water as a Medicine :— " One is never," says a 
 physician, "far from a pretty good medicine chest with hot 
 water at hand. It is a most useful assistant to the mother of a 
 family of small children, who is frightened often to find herself 
 confronted by a sudden illness of one of her flock, without her 
 
412 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 usual dependence — the family doctor. If the baby has croup 
 fold a strip of flannel or a soft napkin lengthwise, dip into very 
 hot water, and apply to the child's throat. Repeat and con- 
 tinue the application till relief is had, which will be almost at 
 once. For toothache, or colic, or a threatened lung congestion, 
 the hot-water treatment will be found promptly efficacious if 
 resorted to. Nature needs only a little assistance at the first 
 sign of trouble to rally quickly in the average healthy child, and 
 often hot water is all that is wanted." 
 
 Alcohol Injurious to the Insane: — Dr. 
 Richard Maurice Bucke, whose valuable paper on 
 " The Evolution of the Mind " appeared in the De- 
 cember number of the Journal of Hygiene, in a recent 
 report of the Asylum for the Insane in London, 
 Canada, makes the following statement concerning 
 the use of alcohol in the institution over which 
 he presides : — 
 
 " As we have given up the use of alcohol, we have needed 
 and used less opium and chloral ; and as we have discontinued 
 the use of alcohol, opium and chloral, we have needed and 
 used less seclusion and restraint. I have, during the year 
 just closed, carefully watched the effect of the alcohol given, 
 and the progress of cases where, in former years, it would have 
 been given, and I am morally certain that the alcohol used 
 during the past year did no good. With humiliation I am 
 forced to admit that in the recent past my noble profession has 
 been to an alarming extent, and is still too much so, guilty of 
 producing many drunkards in the land, directly or indirectly, by 
 the reckless and wholesale manner in which so many of its 
 members have prescribed alcoholic stimulants in their daily 
 practice for all the aches and pains, coughs and colds, inflam- 
 mations and consumptions, fevers and chills, at the hour of 
 birth and at the time of death, and all intermediate points of 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 413 
 
 life, to induce sleep and to promote wakefulness, and for all 
 real or imaginary ills." 
 
 Tobacco and the Eyesight :— " Prof. Craddock says 
 that tobacco has a bad effect upon the sight, and a distinct dis- 
 ease of the eye is attributed to its immoderate use. Many 
 cases in which complete loss of sight has occurred, and which 
 were formerly regarded as hopeless, are now known to be cura- 
 ble by making the patient abstain from tobacco. These pa- 
 tients almost invariably at first have color blindness, taking red 
 to be brown or black, and green to be light blue or orange. In 
 nearly every case, the pupils are much contracted, in some 
 cases to such an extent that the patient is unable to move about 
 without assistance. One such man admitted that he had 
 usually smoked from twenty to thirty cigars a day. He con- 
 sented to give up smoking altogether, and his sight was fully 
 restored in three and a half months. It has been found that 
 chewing is much worse than smoking in its effects upon the 
 eyesight, probably for the simple reason that more of the 
 poison is thereby absorbed. The condition found in the eye in 
 the early stages is that of extreme congestion only ; but this, 
 unless remedied at once, leads to gradually increasing disease 
 of the»optic nerve, and then, of course, blindness is absolute 
 and beyond remedy. It is, therefore, evident that, to be of any 
 value, the treatment of disease of the eye due to excessive 
 smoking must be immediate, or it will probably be useless." — 
 Journal of Inebriety. 
 
 " Dr. Isaac Fellows was for many years a prominent phy- 
 sician in Los Angeles. A temperance man, he was persuaded 
 by an old physician whom he loved to try for a year substituting 
 alcohol in drop doses in water for such patients as demanded 
 alcoholic stimulants. He was delighted with the result. 
 When his patients found they could not have wine, beer or 
 brandy under the guise of medicine, but must take it in drop 
 doses in water, as they did their other medicines, they speedily 
 learned to do without ' a stimulant.' " — Pacific Ensign. 
 
414 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Alcohol and the Death-Rate :— "We have frequently 
 had occasion to point out the extraordinary and unwarranted 
 misuse of a table embodied in the report of the British Medical 
 Association's ' Inquiry into the connection of diseases with hab- 
 its of intemperance,' which was presented at the Dublin meeting 
 in 1887. Our readers will remember that the table in question 
 showed the average age at death among 4,234 patients reported 
 on, to have been : Of abstainers 51 years and 22 days, and of the 
 decidedly intemperate 52 years and 14 days. These figures, with 
 others, have been widely construed as proving that ' teetotalism 
 is dangerous to life.' Yet the report contained the distinct state- 
 ment that from these returns no conclusion could be formed as 
 to the relative duration of life of abstainers and habitually tem- 
 perate drinkers of alcoholic liquors. Though the fallacy referred 
 to has been exposed again and again in the British Medical Jour- 
 nal by the chairman of the Committee and of the Association's 
 Inebriates Legislation Committee, and by other authorities, the 
 misuse and misinterpretation are still being persisted in. Mr. 
 James Whyte has addressed to us a letter once more exposing 
 the fallacy on which this misrepresentation is based. The num- 
 ber of living abstainers over 25 years of age is much less than 
 the number of living non-abstainers, abstinence having pro- 
 gressed most largely in the young, so that the average age of ab- 
 stainers at death must be less. The Sceptre Life Office found 
 that their abstaining insurers were several years younger than 
 their non-abstaining insurers. At 25 the death-rate showed a 
 difference in favor of Rechabites of 0.64. The general Recha- 
 bite death-rate has been 7.50 per 1,000, against 24 per 1,000 
 among general males. Other tables embodied in the report 
 confirm the accuracy of this explanation. When deaths under 
 30 were excluded, the average age of the abstainers at death was 
 about four years more than that of the decidedly intemperate. 
 When all deaths under 40 were excluded, the average age of 
 the teetotalers was one year greater than that of the free drink- 
 ers, and more than five years greater than that of the intemper- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 415 
 
 ate. In protesting most strongely against this unfounded misrep- 
 resentation of the report of the inquiry, we append one of the 
 conclusions of the Committee — that#habitual indulgence in alco- 
 holic liquors, beyond the most moderate amounts, has a distinct 
 tendency to shorten life, the average shortening being roughly 
 proportionate to the degree of indulgence." — British Medical 
 Journal. 
 
 Medical Puffs of Whisky and Other Alcoholics : — 
 " Every medical man knows how he is pestered with advertis- 
 ing circulars of so-and-so's genuine whisky, and what-do-you- 
 call-em's extra stout, to say nothing of the tempting offers of 
 wines and spirits on sale with special discounts to medical men. 
 Other enterprising firms send samples or offer to send them 
 with the implied understanding that a testimonial is to be given, 
 or that at least the wares in question will be recommended to 
 patients. Even our medical papers have not always been in- 
 corruptible. We have little expectation ourselves of being fav- 
 ored with an offer of full-page advertisements of extraordinary 
 wines and spirits. We are not prepared to recommend them 
 except as vermin killers. Nor are we prepared to remain silent 
 as to their alleged virtues. The whole system of testimonials 
 is a huge imposture. Granted that the sample is all that it is 
 described as being, who can guarantee that what is served to- 
 the public in the face of severe competition will be up to the 
 sample ? 
 
 "But there is another and a sadder view of the case. We 
 cannot believe that all the eulogies of all the medical trumpeters 
 of the wines and the spirits are wilfully false or even exagger- 
 ated. It is a lamentable fact that a vast number of doctors 
 have a genuine faith in the value and virtue of these pernicious 
 drinks. It is not simply a question of medicinal use, though 
 even on that we should join issue. These things are vaunted 
 as valuable for the promotion of health in spite of all the accu- 
 mulating evidence to the contrary. We wish that these doctors 
 would carefully study this evidence. The pity of it is that the 
 
416 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE, 
 
 very worst offenders are the least likely to study it. We sup- 
 pose they must die out, and be replaced by men less prejudiced 
 and bound by the chain of alcoholic habit. We can only re- 
 gret that they should be doing so much harm in fastening the 
 fetters of drink on other people, and hindering their emancipa- 
 tion from the evil customs which play havoc amongst us." — 
 Medical Pioneer. 
 
 Alcohol and Children :— " Parents often labor under the 
 delusion that alcoholic drinks are good for children and act as 
 tonics. Mothers will put drops of brandy into the milk with 
 which their children are fed, increasing the quantity with the age 
 of the recipient. In the illness of children the same is given to 
 meet disturbances of the stomach or to increase growth and 
 development, without taking the advice of any medical man as 
 to the wisdom of the practice. This is all erroneous. The 
 excitement of the central nervous system under alcohol, excite- 
 ment which seems to be a relief to weariness and to give 
 strength, is nothing more than temporary at best, and injurious, 
 causing in fact symptoms of alcoholic poisoning, abnormal ex- 
 citement, ending, in extreme cases, in convulsions succeeded by 
 exhaustion of body and mind, and inducing a kind of paralysis. 
 Many cases of stomach and gastric catarrh in children followed 
 by emaciation and debility are due to the early administration 
 of alcoholic drinks ; and impediment of growth from the same 
 cause is thereby produced. The most serious derangement is 
 that of the nervous system, and the development in the young, 
 under the influence of alcohol, of what is known as nervous- 
 ness, to which is added the moral paralysis with which the 
 habit of alcoholic drinking smites its victims in the very spring- 
 time of life." — Prof. Demme, of Berne, Switzerland. 
 
 " The action of the New York Board of Health, in recom- 
 mending to tenement house parents, that on the hottest days of 
 summer a few drops of whisky be added to the water or food of 
 their infants, has received a strong protest and rebuke in a 
 meeting at Prohibition Park, where the opinions of eminent 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 417 
 
 physicians, collected by the Voice, were read, condemning such 
 a course. A resolution of protest was also adopted." — Set. 
 
 " For nineteen years we lived with a physician whose success 
 may be estimated from this one item : He had between 1,600 
 and 1,700 labor cases, and never once lost the mother, and only 
 twice the child, and what seems still more remarkable never 
 used instruments. When other physicians, as often happened, 
 would come to him to know how he did it, he always answered, 
 * A woman will do anything if you only encourage her.' Nor 
 was obstetrics his specialty — he had none. 
 
 " In a fifteen years' practice in Chicago and New York, where 
 these diseases are so very fatal, and he was much sought after 
 to treat them, he did not lose a case of scarlet fever, diphtheria 
 or cholera infantum which he managed himself, and saved 
 many a one where he was called in consultation, or after some 
 other physician. Now when such a man after an experience 
 more than fifty years long and as wide as the continent, gives it 
 as his unqualified opinion that wines, beers, liquors of every 
 kind, alcohol itself, are not medicines and should never be used 
 as such, for scientific reasons, not to mention moral, is not 
 his opinion entitled to a hearing ? Isn't it probable it weighs 
 more than the doctor's you were just quoting ? Is it too great 
 a risk to act upon it ? " — Pacific Ensign. 
 
 " A lady, Mrs. A., tenderly nurtured, refined, cultured, mov- 
 ing in an influential position, belonged to a family in whom the 
 tendency to intemperance existed. Realizing the danger, she, 
 for seven years of her married life, adhered to total abstinence. 
 Illness came, and the doctor ordered wine ; and her husband, 
 deaf to her arguments, insisted on her taking it. She fell into 
 habits of intemperance. Her husband died, and for a time she 
 pulled up and trained as a hospital nurse ; but temptation pre- 
 vailed, and she fell from bad to worse. Loving hands received 
 her time after time, and at last placed her in an Inebriate 
 Home. For a short time she did well, but soon became un- 
 manageable. After another desperate period she entered a 
 
41 8 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 second home, but after leaving she yielded again, was twice ih 
 prison, and fell into the lowest degradation and utter ruin, 
 surely deserving our deepest pity. Her doctor and her husband 
 had persisted in working her fall in spite of her own strongest 
 convictions. ' ' — Selected. 
 
 They did not Die.— " Dr. Lord of Pasadena suffered 
 from rheumatism of the heart for more than half of a long life- 
 time. No doctor ever felt his pulse (which intermitted) with- 
 out exclaiming, « Why, doctor, you have no business to be alive 
 with such a pulse,'— or something similar. For nineteen years 
 his wife never retired without having at least one medicine she 
 could put her hand on in the dark, the ammonia bottle within 
 reach, the electric battery ready to start like a fire-engine, and 
 preparations for heating water in less than no time. His acute 
 attacks usually came in the night— an uninterrupted night's 
 sleep was something unknown to either the doctor or his wife 
 in all these years. 
 
 " They lived in sight of an open grave, and seldom a week 
 passed when it did not seem as if death had actually occurred. 
 If ever a case called for alcoholic stimulants this one did. 
 But none were ever administered, none were ever kept in the 
 house. The doctor's standing orders were : ' If all the doc- 
 tors in the country order you to give me liquor, and say my 
 life depends upon it, don't do it. Tell them I know more about 
 it than they do. It won't save my life ; it will only lessen what 
 little chance I have.' All who knew about this case, and hun- 
 dreds did, were driven to the conclusion that if these two peo- 
 ple, one in this condition and the other feeble, could live all 
 alone as they did, miles from a doctor, and neighbors not near, 
 and could get along without alcoholics of any kind, everybody 
 can do the same everywhere. And the doctor finally wore out 
 his heart trouble and died of another disease." — Pacific Ensign. 
 
 An English weekly journal is responsible for the 
 following anecdote : — 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 419 
 
 " A Birmingham physician has had an amusing experience. 
 The other day a somewhat distracted mother brought her 
 daughter to see him. The girl was suffering from what is 
 known among people as ' general lowness.' There was nothing 
 much the matter with her, but she was pale and listless and did 
 not care about eating or doing anything. The doctor, after 
 due consultation, prescribed for her a glass of claret three 
 times a day with her meals. The mother was somewhat deaf, 
 but apparently heard all he said and bore off her daughter, de- 
 termined to carry out the prescription to the very letter. In ten 
 days' time they were back again, and the girl looked a different 
 creature. She was rosy-cheeked, smiling and the picture of 
 health. The doctor congratulated himself on his diagnosis of 
 the case. ' I am glad to see that your daughter is so much 
 better,' he said. * Yes,' exclaimed the excited and grateful 
 mother. ' Thanks to you, doctor ! She has had just what you 
 ordered. She has eaten carrots three times a day since we 
 were here, and sometimes oftener — and once or twice uncooked 
 — and now look at her ! ' " 
 
 The Rest Cure : — " After all, the veneer of civilization is 
 quite thin. Scratch most people, and very near the surface you 
 come on the savage. This is specially true when they are sick. 
 They at once want charms and miracles to restore them to 
 health, and come to the doctor— or ' medicine man,' as they 
 look upon him — with this demand : ' I want something, doctor, 
 to fix me up.' But he, unhappy man, has not wherewith to 
 satisfy them, unless he is a quack. 
 
 " He knows that in most cases all he can do is to give advice 
 as to how best Nature may be allowed to effect a cure ; for Na- 
 ture is the great physician, and the doctor's main duty is to stand 
 by and see that she gets fair play. Nature's chief cure, in a 
 large number of the diseases to which flesh is heir, is rest. 
 The tired man needs rest. The tired brain, the tired stomach, 
 the tired liver and kidneys, need the same rest. 
 
420 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " So, when the patient turns up with an overworked and ex- 
 hausted organ of some sort within him — be it what it may — 
 heart, brain or stomach— the true physician prescribes, first and 
 chiefly, not drugs, but rest. 
 
 " Now, this is generally the advice the patient doesn't want. 
 His desire is for a bottle of something, no matter how nasty it 
 may be, which shall ' fix him up,' and let him go on doing what 
 he has been doing previously. Common-sense is always at a 
 discount, and never more so than in this case. k The tired brain- 
 worker doesn't want to stop. Give him something to whip up 
 his brain and his body, something to drive the spurs into them. 
 * What I want,' he says, ' is a really strong tonic ' ; though, if he 
 knew that before, what was the use of coming to the doctor ? 
 Or he would like to be told to take a glass of whisky-and- 
 water when he is tired, which is the maddest and most disas- 
 trous advice that could be given. 
 
 " The man who has been ill-treating his stomach, eating too 
 much or too well, also demands a tonic — something to give him 
 an appetite so that he may eat more. And his poor over- 
 wrought stomach is all the time crying out for rest. 
 
 " So it is all along the line. The possessor of an inflamed and 
 swollen knee prays for a liniment to rub into it which will cure 
 it straight away, and is highly disgusted when told that he will 
 have to lie up for a week or two. 
 
 " Again, for the tired stomach the cure is starvation. Let 
 the person live on his own fat, and a little milk-and-water for a 
 few days, and his stomach will take courage again and return 
 to work with renewed zest. But it is the most difficult thing in 
 the world to persuade the patient or his kind relatives of the 
 truth of this. There are many diseases in which, for a short 
 time at least, the less food the sick person has the better. But 
 the relatives are always much wiser than the doctor. They in- 
 sist « that the strength must be kept up,' and would like to force 
 the patient to eat more than he does when well. ' You will let 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 42 1 
 
 his strength down, doctor,' is a common complaint, and one of 
 the difficulties hospital authorities have to face is to prevent 
 kind friends from smuggling in food to the inmates, wno, in 
 their opinion, are being brutally starved. 
 
 " I myself have cured people by making them rest — lie in bed 
 and starve. But the next time they were sick, /wasn't the 
 doctor. — " Physician " in Our Federation. 
 
 " The blessings of sunlight and fresh air should be more ap- 
 preciated. The sun is the godfather of us all. The source of 
 all light, heat, electricity and energy, what wonder that it was 
 once worshipped as the Creator. The future will recognize it 
 not only as the best disinfectant, an all powerful preventive of 
 disease, but also as a wonderful healer of disease. The more 
 people can be taught to live in pure air out of doors, and bask 
 in the rays of the sun, the less of disease there will be to pre- 
 vent."— Dr. C. H. Shepard, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 ALCOHOL TESTED. 
 
 11 Some years ago Dr. Beddoes, a physician of eminence, was 
 very anxious to put to the test the disputed question as to the 
 power of alcoholic liquors to give strength to the system. He 
 discovered that those who had most calls upon their physical 
 endurance were the smiths who were engaged in forging ship's 
 anchors, for at one moment they would be exposed to a heat so 
 fierce that one marveled that any human organization could en- 
 dure exposure to it, and then their work would call them away 
 to a temperature that was chilly and cold, added to which all 
 the time their work lasted they were bathed in a profuse per- 
 spiration, the demands upon their physical energy were so 
 great. To counteract this perpetual drain upon their system 
 they were in the habit of drinking unlimited quantities of beer, 
 which their masters provided for them as a matter of course, 
 and a sine qua non. One day, as they were resting from their 
 work at midday, Dr. Beddoes made his appearance amongst 
 some of these men who were employed in a certain foundry, 
 
422 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 and submitted a formal proposition to them, to this effect, that 
 twelve of their number, the strongest and stanchest, should be 
 selected for an experiment, and they should work for a week, 
 six of them drinking only water, and the other six taking their 
 beer as usual. His proposition was laughed to scorn. The 
 men would not hear of it. * Look here, mate,' said their 
 spokesman, ' do you want us to be all dead men ; you don't 
 know what our work is, and how it takes all a man's strength 
 to weld an anchor. Why, if we did not have our beer and 
 plenty of it, it would be all up with us in a brace of shakes.' 
 
 " The doctor said : ' I should be very sorry for any harm to 
 come to you. You know I am a doctor, and I will be con- 
 stantly at hand to see if any of you are going wrong, and I 
 promise that if I see any of you breaking down I will at once 
 stop my experiment.' And then taking out of his pocket ten 
 crisp five-pound notes, he displayed them to the anchor smiths. 
 ' I will put down these notes, ^50 in all ; six of you shall try 
 water for one week honestly and fairly ; if you pull through 
 without giving in, the £$0 shall be yours ; if not, I'll take the 
 ^50 back again. Is it a bargain ? ' 
 
 " This clenched the matter, and very soon the doctor's offer 
 was accepted, and a gang of six men volunteered to begin 
 their work on the Monday without beer. The beer drinkers 
 did their best to chaff the water drinkers, and aggravated them 
 by taking good care to show them how very nice it was to have 
 recourse to unlimited beer. The water drinkers kept firm, and 
 the first day, to their astonishment, found that they could do 
 just as much work as the rest of their mates. On Tuesday the 
 water drinkers began to crow over the beer drinkers, for they 
 found that, while the latter complained and grumbled at the 
 heat, they were enabled to take the work in a philosophical 
 kind of way. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday wore away, 
 and the teetotal band became more and more triumphant, the 
 laugh was all on their side, for not only did they feel more 
 comfortable than their beer-loving companions, but the ^50 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 423 
 
 came nearer and nearer, and at last, on Saturday, when the 
 time for finishing work came, they threw down their tools and 
 their hammers, and crowded up to the doctor to claim the 
 prize, and to give a faithful record of their experiences ; and 
 one and all declared that they had done their hard work with 
 more ease and comfort to themselves than ever it had been 
 done before, and, instead of feeling tired and jaded, as they 
 often did on the Saturday afternoon, they were quite ready to 
 begin work again, and if the doctor had another ^50 to dispose 
 of, they would most gladly give him a chance of protracting his 
 experiment for another week. The doctor expressed himself 
 perfectly satisfied with the trial which had already taken place, 
 and left the place amidst three hearty cheers, while the men 
 proceeded to discuss the ins and outs of the matter among 
 themselves." — National Advocate. 
 
 ALCOHOLISM IN CHILDREN. 
 
 " Dr. Goriatchkine has made a very interesting report on this 
 subject to the Moscow Society of Paediatrics. He has seen 
 quite a number of cases of ethylism, not only among the poor 
 and working classes, where, unhappily, the example is often 
 set by the father of the family or by the fellow-workers, but 
 also in families belonging to the higher classes. 
 
 " The author cites, as an example, the history of a little girl 
 of five years, who often partook of cognac, of malaga, and of 
 port wines. The use of spirits began when she was two years 
 of age, on the advice of a physician who was treating her. 
 By little and little the child has become accustomed to this 
 treatment, and actually she takes two small glasses of port and 
 a teaspoonful of cognac each day. The child is anaemic, has 
 restless sleep with nocturnal terrors, and the liver and the 
 spleen are hypertrophied. In other cases the intoxication was 
 more manifest, and showed the ordinary signs of chronic 
 alcoholism. 
 
 " In order to estimate the frequence of alcoholism in children 
 
424 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 and the causes which explain it, Goriatchkine has questioned 
 the parents of all the children that he has had occasion to see 
 in consultation at Saint Olga's Hospital. In four months he 
 has been able to collect information of one thousand, six hun- 
 dred and seventy-one children (eight hundred and forty-one 
 boys and eight hundred and thirty girls) from one to twelve 
 years of age ; of this number five hundred and six children 
 (two hundred and eighty-two boys and two hundred and 
 twenty-four girls), — that is to say, about one-third, — take alco- 
 hol, either as a result of their environment or (in half the cases) 
 upon the advice of a physician. This abuse often commences 
 in the first year. The author is convinced that, if there are so 
 many alcoholics among the children, it is in a great degree the 
 fault of physicians who habitually prescribe the various forms 
 of alcohol, either to stimulate the appetite or for other objects. 
 Children thus frequently receive different preparations (vermi- 
 fuges, diarrhoea remedies, etc. ) in alcoholic infusion. 
 
 " However, in the great majority of cases, alcohol is not in- 
 dispensable, and ought to be replaced by other substances. In 
 all cases the utility of alcohol is far from demonstrated. In 
 prescribing alcohol, the habit may be formed, the need of an 
 excitant may be felt, and in predisposed children, the issue of 
 alcoholic parents, the alcoholic diathesis created by the alco- 
 holism of the parents, and remaining until that time in a latent 
 state, may often be awakened. 
 
 " The administration of alcohol in chronic troubles of nutri- 
 tion, to ? give strength ' to the child, appears to be not only 
 useless, but even dangerous, on account of the need which it 
 creates. On the other hand, there is no known authentic case 
 in which alcohol shall have rendered real service. The fact 
 that for the past six years alcohol has been used only in cases 
 of extreme urgence at Saint Olga's Hospital (Moscow), is a 
 proof of the manner in which one may omit it in medicine. 
 
 " Therefore, the author advises strongly, in accord with 
 Strumpell and Smith, to avoid prescribing alcohol as much as 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 425 
 
 possible, and to oppose the parents with all one's power if they 
 try to make children take it, under whatever pretext." — The 
 Charlotte Medical Journal. 
 
 don't give brandy. 
 
 The moral effect of early acquaintance with sci- 
 entific truth is illustrated by a little story which the 
 Rev. Dr. Plumb tells in the Boston Transcript. 
 
 A millionare brewer, a senator in another state, 
 said to Mrs. Hunt : — 
 
 " I shall vote for your bill. I have sold out my brewery, and 
 I am clean from the whole business. Let me tell you what 
 occurred at my table. A guest was taken dangerously ill at 
 dinner— insensible — and there was a call for brandy to restore 
 him. My little boy at once exclaimed : ■ No, that is just what 
 he doesn't need ! It will paralyze the nerves and muscles of 
 the blood-vessels so they will not send back the blood to the 
 heart.' 
 
 ". When the liquor was poured out to give the man, the lad 
 insisted on pushing it back. 
 
 " ' You will kill him ; he has too much blood in his head aU 
 ready. ' 
 
 " ' How do you know all that ? ' his father afterwards asked. 
 
 " • Why, it is in my physiology at school.' 
 
 " It seems the text-books, prepared by such men as Prof. 
 Newell Martin, F. R. S., of Johns Hopkins University, had suc- 
 ceeded in giving the lad some definite information which had 
 proved useful." 
 
 " Senator," said Mrs. Hunt, " are you sorry your boy learned 
 that at school ? " 
 
 " Madame," the man replied, raising his hand, " I would not 
 take five thousand dollars for the assurance this gives me that 
 my boy will never be a drunkard." 
 
426 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 Universal Reduction in Quantity :— " The adminis- 
 tration of alcohol in pauper institutions affords remarkable 
 evidence of the great change that has passed over the public 
 mind, both lay and professional, in recent years in favor of the 
 strictest moderation in the use of alcoholic stknulants, if not of 
 their abandonment, either as a beverage or as a medicine. 
 The trend as recorded in Government returns both of medical 
 officers' prescription and of poor law guardians' allowance of 
 spirits, wine and malt liquor has been steadily towards a 
 diminution of the supply of intoxicants. So marked is this 
 reduction that it is the first thing that strikes an investigator of 
 statistics relating to intoxicants in workhouses. Twenty-six 
 years ago the paupers' drink bill for England and Wales stood 
 at ^82,000, from which large amount successive returns have 
 shown that it shrunk 27 per cent, in 10 years ; 25 per cent, 
 again in the next four years ; again 23 per cent, in six years ; 
 and finally 4^ per cent, in two years until it stood five years ago 
 at £,3 2 > 000 > this being a reduction of 60 per cent., or a total of 
 .£50,000, since which no general figures are avaible." — Medical 
 Teitiperance Review. 
 
 " Another thing in which it is most desirable that the public 
 should be enlightened, is the imperative need of rest, instead of 
 what is called stimulation; that what are called tonics or 
 stimulants are used only at a ruinous expense to the vitality, 
 and if people would take time for recreation and recuperation, 
 they would obviate the necessity for their use and prevent 
 more disease than ever was cured. 
 
 " There is an immense amount of ignorance abroad in the 
 community on the subject of health and the proper way of 
 living to secure the best physical condition, and there is a cor- 
 responding need for instruction in such matters. That is why 
 the charlatan has such free play in this country. One of the 
 most important of all studies for young and old is that of per- 
 sonal hygiene. This it is that protects from personal contagion. 
 This do and thou shalt live ! That do and thy body shall be- 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 427 
 
 come a fertile breeding ground for all manner of disease ! The 
 earlier in life this is recognized the more surely will success 
 crown man's daily pursuits." — Dr. Chas. H. Shepard, Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. 
 
 Most of us are near relatives to the old darkey 
 who told the doctor she had " given that ar chile 
 enough medicine to kill a horse, and she haint well 
 yit." 
 
 BRANDY — THAT " INFALLIBLE " REMEDY. 
 
 " A little girl was very ill. She was a child of 
 thorough abstainers who allowed no intoxicating 
 drink to enter their house. The doctor had wanted 
 for some time to prescribe stimulants, and at last, as 
 she grew worse, he insisted, and said that she must 
 take brandy to save her life. ' You would not let 
 your child die before your eyes,' he said, angrily to 
 her father. ' You would not surely let your child 
 die for the sake of your foolish fad ! ' 
 
 " The father thought it over ; should he bring in 
 the hateful drink, or should he let his child die, as 
 the doctor had said, for want of it ? Most reluc- 
 tantly he went and fetched some brandy, and took 
 it upstairs to his wife, and told her he had consented 
 to give it to the child. 
 
 " ' Have you ? ' she exclaimed, with horror. ' But 
 I have not ; ' and with a firm hand she put it away 
 into the cupboard. 
 
 " At the doctor's next visit he found the little girl 
 much better. 
 
428 ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 
 
 " ' So you got the brandy ? ' he said, turning to 
 the father. 
 
 " ' Yes, sir, I got it,' he replied, looking down to 
 hide a smile. 
 
 " • Ha, yes ; and you see the effect. It was just 
 the turning-point. If you had not got that brandy 
 your child would have been dead, and now I have 
 every hope of saving her.' The brandy remained 
 in the cupboard and the child got well, but they 
 did not venture to tell the doctor what they had 
 done with his prescription. 
 
 " It was 1 1 years after this that the mother was 
 taken dangerously ill. A teetotal doctor had set up 
 in the place a short time before, and they sent for 
 him. After examining his patient, he said to her 
 daughter, ' I do not often prescribe stimulants, but 
 this is a case which requires it. You must get your 
 mother a little brandy/ 
 
 " The daughter remembered her own case. She 
 was but a girl of 19, but she ventured to say to him,. 
 * I think you are mistaken, doctor.' 
 
 " ■ What ? ' he asked, not believing his ears. 
 
 "' I cannot give mother brandy,' she replied in a 
 trembling voice. 
 
 " ' Indeed ! Then I shall speak to your father.' 
 
 " He went downstairs and told the father in per- 
 emptory tones, ' You must get some brandy for 
 your wife. She needs it absolutely to save her 
 life.' 
 
ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 429 
 
 11 But his former experience had made the father 
 brave. * No, sir,' he said, sturdily. ' If I had 
 wanted a brandy doctor I should not have sent for 
 you ; begging your pardon, sir.' 
 
 "And as her daughter had done 11 years before, 
 she got well — without the brandy." — Medical Tem- 
 perance Review, 
 
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