p. 26 | Effects of Alcohol on the Human Body

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1908

Effects of Alcohol on the Human Body

By George Knapp Abbott, M. D.

“THE child is father to the man.” This fact is obvious, yet how little use we make of it in the fight against intemperance. To place vividly before the rising generation the dire effects, morally and physically, of the use of alcoholic beverages would do more toward closing saloons and lessening intemperance than any other one method. But this must not be a spasmodic effort. The effects of alcohol (and other narcotics) on the human body should be given a larger place in the schools. We should have better text-books, and see that a greater number of hours are devoted to their study. The older books are weak in failing to make definite and positive statements. The evils of alcoholic drink have been known ever since fermented liquors have been used. But the belief that in some mysterious way alcohol in small amounts is beneficial, and the idea that it is a stimulant, and hence useful in emergencies as a medicine, has encouraged its use even as a beverage, and weakened the cause of total abstinence. “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” is the only way to carry a solid, conquering front in the battle against alcohol or against any other evil.

In the last few years a great volume of experimental work along the line of the effects of alcohol has been carried on. The results are startling and conclusive, so much so that they should be in the hands of every temperance worker, school-teacher, minister, and parent. “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby

is not wise.” Deception is not possible where the public is educated.

This experimental work, together with statistics upon the effects of alcohol upon heredity, the national health and vital resistance to disease, has been embodied in a small work by Sir Victor Horsley. It is a book that will appeal to all educators, being written in a simple style, yet accurate in every item.

It is a common belief that beer, since it contains less alcohol than wine, is less injurious. Dr. Horsley shows that, contrary to this belief, beers are usually more injurious than wines, since they contain such a variety of other poisons derived from the refuse material and substitutes used in their brewing. These facts were derived from the report of the chancellor of the exchequer before the House of Commons as a result of the Inland Revenue Analysis. The samples examined showed the presence of arsenic, copper, quillai bark or extract, and alcoholic flavoring extracts.

That alcohol in small doses acts as a brain-and-muscle stimulant is another false idea quite commonly accepted. Dr. Johnson is quoted as saying: “This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.” One of the strongest proofs given that neither thought nor muscular energy is stimulated lies in the results of the experiments of Dr. Aschaffenburg. The work of compositors under normal conditions was compared with the work of the same men under the influence of alcohol. The impairment in efficiency amounted to from 10.6 per cent to 18.9 per cent.

From the report of the public actuary of South Australia, Dr. Horsley quotes the following significant facts: “The total weeks of illness for each member in abstainers’ societies is 1.248 weeks; while in non-abstainers’ societies it is 2.317 weeks. The average weeks of sickness per member sick is in the abstainers’ societies, 4.45 weeks; in the non-abstainers’ societies, 10.91 weeks.” In other words, alcohol increased the length of illness, 69.1 per cent.

T. D. Crothers, M. D. says: “The latest and most scientific statistics show that over ten per cent of all mortality is due to the abuse of alcohol, and fully twenty per cent of all disease is traceable to this cause; also, that over fifty per cent of insanity, idocy, and pauperism springs from this source.” All authorities agree that from seventy-five to ninety per cent of all criminality is caused by the abuse of alcohol.

GEORGE KNAPP ABBOTT, M. D.