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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.


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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--<DW44>s 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