After all, it may not have been so bad a thing that many defenders rose up
during the past years to champion the failing cause of alcohol. The debate
which has resulted from their mistaken contentions has really led to a
determination on the part of people in general to look into the question
and to determine for themselves whether alcohol is really a benefit or a
menace to the user.
No believer in abstinence needs to ask for anything better than just such
a spirit of scientific investigation. The best thing that can happen to
the truth is that it be investigated. Such investigation into the drink
question has been the result of the general questioning, and it has led
to the general conclusion that alcohol works harm and not good to the
human system.
One of the most useful of American scientific establishments is the
Carnegie Institution at Washington. During the last few years, two of its
experts, Drs. Dodge and Benedict, have been following special lines of
study on the effect of alcohol upon the human brain and nervous system.
Their achievements in this field of investigation have been notable for
both their scientific and their moral value.
These investigations were, of course, conducted with that care which
always characterizes the work of the genuine scientist. The laboratory
expert never works from a prejudiced viewpoint. He approaches his task
with an open mind. He does not seek the proof of some contention of his
own. He looks for nothing more nor less than the truth about a thing. He
would rather fail altogether in an investigation than to reach a false
conclusion and publish it to the world. Such a result would not only be
failure but deception as well. When one is following the results of the
work of a true scientist, he may rely upon it that no unfair advantage
will be taken of the facts.
Of course, it must be remembered that much still remains to be discovered
concerning alcohol. Those who have studied the subject thus far have only
been pioneers in their field. We shall learn a great deal more about it,
but we have already learned enough to indicate the fact that alcohol is
an enemy of men.
One of the conclusions reached is that alcohol is not, as has so long been
supposed, a stimulant. It is, instead, really a depressant. The seeming
increase of vitality which follows its use is entirely deceptive.
According to fundamental tests, it really robs the body of a measure
of vitality.
We have long been accustomed to suppose the case otherwise. Even the most
ardent opponent of liquor has taken for granted its power to stimulate.
Working upon the basis of this assumption, the medical profession has too
long taken it for granted that, being a stimulant, alcohol had a proper
and rightful place in the dispensing of drugs and the practice
of medicine.
Of course, the use of alcohol is always followed by a certain increase of
seeming vivacity. The user becomes more talkative, and, up to a certain
stage, even more active. Whence do these manifestations come, and what is
their cause, if alcohol depresses rather than stimulates?
They rise directly from the fact that the depressing effect of alcohol
reaches to the inhibitory centers—the storehouses of self-control. The
point is, then, that alcohol does not increase the power of action. It
only decreases the power of self-restraint. The things one does and says
when under the influence of liquor are simply the things from the doing
or saying of which he would ordinarily have restrained himself. If he were
sober, his words and actions would be tempered with good judgment. Under
the influence of liquor, he has no fear of any kind of risk or trespass.
Some have supposed that these manifestations prove the power of liquor to
render one temporarily clever. The fact is that the seeming cleverness in
the actions or words of a tipsy person simply represents the things which,
as a sober person, he would know better than to do or say.
Each advance in our knowledge of the effect of alcohol upon the human
system only serves to confirm the old contention that it is a foe of
efficiency. This is true not only because it tends to deteriorate the
tissues and organs of the body, but also because it strikes directly at
the seat of reason as well.
The muscular reflex is dulled. The power to react to sounds and other
_stimuli_ is distinctly lessened. The memory is affected. The fingers lose
approximately nine per cent of their deftness. The eye loses about eleven
per cent of its quickness and accuracy.
These are results following directly upon the effects exerted by alcohol
upon the brain and nervous system in general. Ordinary men failed to slay
the hydra of old because they struck only at some one of its many heads.
It perished only when there came a man who thought to strike at the one
vital center. Alcohol does not content itself with striking at those parts
of the physical life which are able to renew themselves or without which
the life can still go on. It strikes at the seat of all that makes life
worth while. It stands second in the list of causes of insanity. It
damages the efficiency of many thousands, however, who never reach the
stage of complete insanity.
No further words are needed to indicate the truth of the old dictum that
drink and workmanship do not go together. Each ounce of liquor consumed
reduces a man’s capacity for skilled labor by a definite and
unfailing percentage.
It has always been important that a workman should be at his best, but it
has now come to be more so than ever before. The powers of men are taxed
in an unusual degree, and processes of production are put upon the most
severe strain of all their history. In former years, one owed it to
himself, his family, and his friends to steer clear of alcohol, but his
obligation is now vastly increased. He owes it to his country and his flag
as well.
An interesting development concerning the effect of alcohol upon human
efficiency has come as a result of the military efforts of the last
several years. It has been proven that liquor makes a poor soldier. This
is true in spite of the notion that once prevailed to the effect that
strong drink was a necessity in an army camp. A few cherish that notion
still, but their tribe steadily decreases.
About six years before the outbreak of the great war, the Bavarian
ministry of war determined upon a shooting tournament in which the
participating marksmen were to be under various degrees of the influence
of alcohol. Thousands of shots were fired, and the results were very
important and significant from both the military and the human viewpoint.
It was found that a man can not hope, after taking a drink of liquor, to
shoot with the accuracy that was his before. Under even the slightest
degrees of intoxication the marksmanship of the participants was lowered,
in many cases as much as twelve per cent.
The tournament mentioned also emphasized the promptness of the effect of
alcohol upon the nerves. It was discovered that the influence of a drink
of liquor begins to manifest itself in a man’s marksmanship almost
immediately after the beverage is taken. Five minutes suffices in any case
for the results to begin to show. As moments multiply, the effect is
increasingly apparent.
As is true of work, war in the latest notable instance is no haphazard
thing. It requires mechanical accuracy and scientific precision, and it
can not be successfully carried on by a race of inebriates. However much
we may hope that warfare will soon be a thing of the past, while it
remains with us our only hope of escaping death in its awful clutches is
our disposition and ability to maintain efficient armies. An efficient
army necessarily means, for one thing, a sober one. Whether in the
workshop or in the military camp, liquor and efficiency are sworn and
uncompromising foes.