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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 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