Produced by Bryan Ness, Deirdre M., and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as
faithfully as possible; please see detailed list of printing issues at
the end of the text.
* * * * *
ALCOHOL
A DANGEROUS AND UNNECESSARY MEDICINE
HOW AND WHY
What Medical Writers Say
BY
MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN
Superintendent of the Department of Medical Temperance
for the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Published by the
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL TEMPERANCE OF THE
NATIONAL WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION
MARCELLUS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1900.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION 5
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 7
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF ALCOHOL.
Discovery of distillation--First American investigator of
effects of alcohol--Medical Declarations--Sir B. W.
Richardson's researches--Scientific Temperance Instruction
in American Schools--Committee of Fifty 9
CHAPTER II.
THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION IN
OPPOSITION TO ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE.
How the Opposition began--Memorial to International
Medical Congress--Origin of Medical Temperance
Department--Objects of the department--Public agitation
against patent medicines originated by the department--Laws
of Georgia, Alabama and Kansas on Medical
prescription of alcohol 21
CHAPTER III.
ALCOHOL AS A PRODUCER OF DISEASE.
Alcohol a poison--Sudden deaths from brandy--Changes
in liver, kidneys, heart, blood-vessels and nerves caused
by alcohol--Beer and wine as harmful as the stronger
drinks--Alcohol causes indigestion--Other diseases
caused by alcohol--Deaths from alcoholism in Switzerland 28
CHAPTER IV.
TEMPERANCE HOSPITALS.
The London Temperance Hospital--Methods of treatment--The Frances
E. Willard Temperance Hospital, Chicago--"As a beverage" in the
pledge--Address by Miss Frances E. Willard at opening of
hospital--The Red Cross Hospital--Clara Barton and non-alcoholic
medication--Reports of treatment in Red Cross Hospital--Use of
Alcohol declining in other hospitals 37
CHAPTER V.
THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE HUMAN BODY.
The body composed of cells--Effect of alcohol on cells--Alcohol
and Digestion--Effects on the blood--The heart--The liver--The
kidneys--Incipient Bright's disease recovered from by total
abstinence--Retards oxidation and elimination of waste
matters--Lengthens duration of sickness and increases mortality 58
CHAPTER VI.
ALCOHOL AS MEDICINE.
Medical use of alcohol a bulwark of the liquor traffic--Alcohol
not a Food--Alcohol reduces temperature--Food principle of grains
and fruits destroyed by fermentation--Alcohol not a
Stimulant--Experiments proving this--Alcohol not a
tonic--Professor Atwater on Alcohol as Food 96
CHAPTER VII.
ALCOHOL IN PHARMACY.
Strong tinctures rouse desire for drink in reformed
inebriates--Glycerine and acetic acid to preserve
drugs--Non-alcohol tinctures in use at London Temperance
Hospital--Sale of liquor in drug-stores condemned by pharmacists 131
CHAPTER VIII.
DISEASES, AND THEIR TREATMENT WITHOUT ALCOHOL.
Alcoholic Craving--Anaemia--Apoplexy--Boils and
Carbuncle--Catarrh--Hay-Fever--Colds--Colic--Cholera--Cholera
Infantum--Consumption--Displacements--Debility--Diarrhoea--
Dysentery--Dyspepsia--Fainting--Fits--Flatulence--Headache--
Hemorrhage--Heart Disease--Heart Failure--Insomnia--La
Grippe--Measles--Malaria--Neuralgia--Nausea--Pneumonia--Pain After
Food--Snake-bite--Rheumatism--Spasms--Shock--Sudden
Illness--Sunstroke--Typhoid Fever--Vomiting 140
CHAPTER IX.
ALCOHOL AND NURSING MOTHERS.
Beer not good for nursing mothers--Helpful diet--Opinions of
medical men--Analysis of milk of a temperate woman--Of a drinking
woman--Advice of Dr. James Edmunds, of the Lying-In Hospital,
London--How to feed the baby--Case of a young mother who used
beer--Nathan S. Davis on beer and gin 234
CHAPTER X.
COMPARATIVE DEATH-RATES WITH AND WITHOUT THE USE OF ALCOHOL.
Fewer deaths in smallpox hospitals without alcohol--200 cases of
scarlet fever without alcohol--Non-alcoholic treatment of fevers
with less than 5 per cent. death-rate--Report of cases in English
and Scotch hospitals--340 cases of typhus--London Lancet articles
on typhoid--Mercy Hospital, Chicago--Death-rates in pneumonia and
typhoid in large hospitals--Sir B. W. Richardson's report of
practice 247
CHAPTER XI.
REASONS WHY ALCOHOL IS DANGEROUS AS MEDICINE.
Researches of Abbott--Vital Resistance lowered by
alcohol--Experiments upon Urinary Toxicity--Effect of alcohol upon
the guardian-cells of the body--Dr. Sims Woodhead on
immunity--Delearde's experiments at the Pasteur Institute--Dr. A.
Pearce Gould on alcohol and cancer--Delirium in illness caused by
alcohol 262
CHAPTER XII.
WHY DOCTORS STILL PRESCRIBE ALCOHOLICS.
Public often demand it--Lack of knowledge of true nature of
alcohol--Alcohol given undeserved credit for recoveries--Use of
alcohol results from custom--Education of the people in teachings
of non-alcoholic physicians necessary--Prescription of alcohol a
matter of routine--Two examples 291
CHAPTER XIII.
ALCOHOLIC PROPRIETARY OR "PATENT" MEDICINES.
The Pure Food Law--The guarantee--Newspaper opposition to the
law--Headache remedies--Fake testimonials--Dangers of soothing
syrups and morphine cough syrups--Fraud orders issued by
Post-Office Department--Internal Revenue Department and Patent
Medicines--Proprietary "Foods" strongly alcoholic--Alcoholic
Cod-Liver Oil preparations--Australia's Royal Commission on Patent
Medicines--Committee on Pharmacy analyses--Malt extracts--Coca
Wines--Advertising, the strength of the Nostrum business--An
effectual remedy 299
CHAPTER XIV.
DRUGGING.
Drugs do not cure disease--Nature cures--Opinions of drug
medication of prominent physicians--La grippe caused by drug
taking--Coal-tar drugs--Quinine--Sir Frederick Treves on disuse of
drugs--People demand drugs of physicians--Mothers make drug
victims of their children--Habit-producing drugs--Causes of
drug-taking--How to be well 335
CHAPTER XV.
TESTIMONIES OF PHYSICIANS AGAINST ALCOHOLIC MEDICATION.
No need for substitutes for alcohol--Alcohol hides symptoms of
disease--Responsibility of physicians--Opinions of many teachers
in medical colleges--Hot milk better than alcohol--_Journal of the
American Medical Association_ on researches of Abbott and
Laitinen--Resolution against alcohol of West Virginia Medical
Society--Dr. Knox Bond on Scarlet Fever--Metchnikoff on white
blood-cells--Kassowitz describes his treatment of fevers--Sims
Woodhead's opinions--Opinions of German Physicians--Dr. Harvey
blames medical profession for careless use of alcohol and
opium--Use of Alcohol declining rapidly in medical practice 356
CHAPTER XVI.
RECENT RESEARCHES UPON ALCOHOL.
Experiments of Laitinen--Resistance of blood-cells to disease
lowered by alcohol--International Congress on Alcoholism, London,
1909--Alcohol and Immunity--Effect of Alcohol Drinking on Human
Off-spring--Researches of Kraepelin and Aschaffenberg--Economic
losses by reduced work through beer and wine drinking--Researches
of Dr. Reid Hunt--Mice given alcohol killed by small doses of
poison--Difference in effect of alcohol and starch
foods--Chittenden on food theory of alcohol--Researches of Dr. S.
P. Beebe--Liver impaired by alcohol--Dr. Winfield S. Hall's
interpretation of the researches of Beebe and Hunt--Oxidation of
alcohol by liver a protective action--Researches show that alcohol
is a poison, not a food 392
CHAPTER XVII.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Alcohol Baths--Beverages for the Sick--Tobacco and the
Eyesight--Advertised "Cures" for Drunkenness--How to quit
drinking--Dr. T. D. Crothers' remedy for drink crave--Alcohol and
Children--Alcohol Tested--Beer-Drinking Injurious to Health--Drug
Drinks--Special Directions for Women--Total Abstinence and Life
Insurance--Opinions of Life Insurance Companies on drinkers as
risks 410
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
magazines, 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
Medical Temperance 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 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, may be pleased to find, in
brief form, the teachings of some of their most distinguished brethren
upon a question now frequently up for discussion in society meetings.
The writer does not presume to set forth her own opinions upon a
question which is still a subject 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.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
When the first edition of this book was published in 1900, there were
only a few leading physicians either in Europe or America who were ready
to condemn the medical use of alcohol. Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson,
Sims Woodhead, and a few others in England; Forel, Kassowitz and one or
two more on the Continent, and Nathan S. Davis, T. D. Crothers and J. H.
Kellogg, in America, were about all that could be quoted largely as
opposed to alcoholic liquors as remedies in disease. Whisky was then
looked upon as necessary in the treatment of consumption and diphtheria.
Ten years have brought about a great change. There are many American
physicians now willing to admit that they have very little or no use for
alcoholic liquors as remedial agents, and now, instead of recommending
whisky for consumption anti-tuberculosis literature almost everywhere
warns against the use of intoxicating drinks. The use of anti-toxin in
diphtheria has driven out whisky treatment in that disease with markedly
favorable results. Under the whisky treatment death-rates ran up to
fifty-five and sixty per cent.; now the diphtheria death-rate is very
low. Ten years ago many good authorities still ranked alcohol as a
stimulant; now, almost all rank it as a depressant. In England, leading
physicians and surgeons have spoken so strongly against alcohol in the
last few years that the London _Times_, England's leading newspaper,
said: "According to recent developments of scientific opinion, it is not
impossible that a belief in the strengthening and supporting qualities
of alcohol will eventually become as obsolete as a belief in
witchcraft."
So far as the writer can learn from replies sent to her inquiries by
teachers of medicine, and by study of text-books on medicine, and
articles in good medical journals, alcohol now has only a very limited
use in medicine with the great majority of successful physicians. Some
recommend wine in _diabetes mellitus_, saying that it acts less like a
poison and more like a food in that disease than in any other. Some use
alcoholic liquors in fevers as a food "to save the burning of tissue,"
but an article on "Therapeutics" in the _Journal of the American Medical
Association_, for November 6, 1909, page 1564, says that sugar would
probably have equal value in such case. The same article says that hot
baths, with hot lemonade, and a quickly acting cathartic, will abort a
cold without any need of recourse to alcohol.
The writer wishes here to make grateful acknowledgment of courtesies
received from busy physicians who have aided materially in her work by
answering personal letters of inquiry, also letters published in the
_Journal of the American Medical Association_, by kindness of the
editor. Especially would she thank those professors of medicine and
superintendents of large hospitals, who so courteously aided her in
preparing a paper for the International Congress on Alcoholism, held in
London, July, 1909, to which she was a delegate, representing the United
States government. A few of the replies received at that time are given
in this book. There was not room for all.
She wishes also to acknowledge kindness and much help received from
pharmacists and druggists in the fight against dangerous patent
medicines and drug drinks sold at soda fountains. The _Druggists'
Circular_, of New York, deserves special mention in this connection.
It has been necessary to make many changes in this edition because of
the changing views on alcohol and the publicity on patent medicines.
Physicians will find Chapter XVI entirely new, and of great interest.
M. M. A.
* * * * *
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 _Al 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 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 proclaimed as
the long-looked-for cure-all, if not the very _aqua vitae_ itself.
Physicians introduced it to their patients, and were lavish in their
praises of its 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 strengtheneth 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 stiffling,
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 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 sixty years ago. The first American investigator was Dr. Nathan S.
Davis, of Chicago, who was the founder of the American Medical
Association. 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 the effects of a diet exclusively carbonaceous (starch), one
exclusively 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, 1851. They showed that alcohol, instead of
increasing animal heat, and promoting nutrition and strength, actually
produced directly opposite effects, reducing temperature, the amount of
carbonic acid exhaled, and the muscular strength. So opposed were these
conclusions to the generally accepted 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
Medical 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 Association 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."
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 "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 practice 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 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
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 profession 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
intemperate 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
without 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 Association passed a resolution
that "alcohol should be classed with other powerful drugs, and when
prescribed medically, it should be done with conscientious caution, and
a sense of great responsibility."
The physicians of New York, Brooklyn and vicinity not long afterward
published a declaration practically the same as that of the A. M. A.,
adding: "We are of opinion that the use of alcoholic 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 alcohols, ethylic alcohol,
which is the active principle in wines, beers and other intoxicating
drinks, receiving 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.
"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 following
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 1851 when Dr. Davis gave a similar
report, and Dr. Richardson's paper was returned to him for correction.
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
experimental 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 opposition to these
temperance education laws was a great 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 incorrect. 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 endorsed by Mrs. Hunt and her advisory
committee being assailed again and again as containing erroneous
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 Chicago,
Ill.; 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
investigation."
"I find them to be in substantial accord with the results of the
latest scientific investigations."
Dr. Baer, of Berlin, Germany, the foremost European 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."
Still the opposers of the text-books were not satisfied, and a self
constituted Committee of Fifty undertook an investigation. Men of
unquestioned ability were chosen to make researches, but the result of
their investigations was so different from what was looked for, that,
with the exception of Professor Atwater's contention for the food value
of alcohol, the report of the Committee of Fifty did not stir up much
controversy.
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 investigators were led to drop alcohol from their
pharmaceutical 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 alcohol 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.