THE WOMAN'S 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
immediate result of the organization, however, was that the women began
to study the causes of inebriety, and prominent among the prevailing
influences leading to drunkenness they found the medical use of
alcoholics. The early efforts of these women were chiefly in rescue work
through Gospel temperance 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 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 examine
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 distinguished 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 superiority of non-alcoholic
medication by its small death-rate in comparison with hospitals using
alcohol.
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 medicine.
1. Its liability to create or revive an uncontrollable appetite.
2. A considerable number of the leading physicians of 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 Therapeutic
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 discussion, the
conclusions of the author were adopted "quite unanimously" as the
sentiments of the Section 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 memorialists.
The report was published in full by the National Temperance Society, and
may be obtained from it 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
investigation.
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
promiscuously."
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." The National W. C. T. U. adopted the department in 1883,
but soon dropped it. In 1895 it was reinstated and Mrs. Martha M. Allen,
New York's superintendent, was made national superintendent. In 1905 the
name of the department was changed from Non-Alcoholic Medication, which
it had borne for fifteen years, to Medical Temperance.
The objects of this department of work are:
1. To inform the public of the objections to the medical use of
alcoholic drinks now held by many successful physicians.
2. To show the dangers in the home-prescription of alcohol and other
powerful drugs.
3. To expose fraudulent and dangerous proprietary and "patent" medicines
and liquid "foods," the main ingredients of which are alcohol and
morphine.
4. To use persuasion with publishers of newspapers and magazines against
fraudulent medical advertising. Also to seek legislation which shall
hinder such advertising.
5. To endeavor to win the attention of physicians who prescribe
alcoholic liquors to the teachings of great leaders in their profession
who have abandoned such practice.
6. To bring to the attention of nurses the same teachings, and to seek
their co-operation in education against the self-prescription of
alcohol.
7. To work for legislation which shall correct the evils of the whisky
drug-store, the whisky-prescribing doctor, and the dangerous "patent"
medicine.
8. To gather the opinions upon alcohol of well-known physicians who do
not use it, and publish them.
This department originated the public agitation against injurious and
fraudulent "patent" medicines which later was so ably carried on by
_Collier's Weekly_, and the _Ladies' Home Journal_. That its early work
in this direction was not better known to the general public was due to
the fact that religious as well as secular papers were reaping large
revenues from the advertising of these nostrums, and consequently
refused to publish anything which might injure the trade. Indeed, in
accepting some of this advertising, newspaper managers had to sign a
contract that they would not publish any reading matter opposed to the
nostrum business.
The _Christian Advocate_ of New York city deserves special mention for
having published in 1898 two articles written by Mrs. Allen under the
caption, "The Danger and Harmfulness of Patent Medicines." These were in
the fall of that year published in pamphlet form, and a copy sent to
every local W. C. T. U. in the United States for study. Tens of
thousands of copies of this and other leaflets on that theme were
distributed within a few years, some local unions placing them in every
home in their community. Medical journals took note of this work and
commended it highly. When Mr. Bok began his campaign of education in the
_Ladies' Home Journal_, for which he deserves lasting gratitude, the
_American Druggist_ said he was "bowing to the clamor of the W. C. T.
U."
This department which began in weakness, and was for years regarded as
fanatical even by many members of the W. C. T. U. has entered upon an
era of victories. The National Pure Food Law requires the percentage of
alcohol in patent medicines, and the presence of different dangerous
drugs, to be stated upon the label. The prohibition law of Georgia
forbids physicians to prescribe alcoholic beverages, absolute alcohol
only being permitted. Kansas has amended her law so that whisky
drug-stores are eliminated. If physicians prescribe alcohol the law
forbids charge for it. Alabama forbids the sale of liquor for everything
but the communion. The Internal Revenue Department has examined a large
number of "patent" medicines and has listed them as intoxicating
beverages. Two state medical societies and some county societies in 1908
passed resolutions to discourage the medical use of alcoholic liquors.
Two national societies of druggists and pharmacists in 1908 passed
resolutions against whiskey drug-stores.
These are some of the results of Medical Temperance agitation. Much more
may be expected in the next decade if the work is as faithfully and
fearlessly carried on as in the past.
This book contains much of the teachings of the department of Medical
Temperance. When these views are generally accepted the liquor-problem
will be well-nigh solved.