Another Blow for King Alcohol

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 17, 1914

Another Blow for King Alcohol

OUR attention has been called to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association upon the treatment of pneumonia, from the pen of Dr. Robert N. Willson, of Philadelphia, in which the following words occur:— “Alcohol is no longer considered a cardiac tonic, and has well-nigh lost its right to a place in sane pharmacopoeia. . . . Alcohol is a cardiac muscle poison and a vasomotor paralyzant. Both of these forces we wish to preserve, not destroy. Therefore, after many hundreds of years filled with object demonstrations so plain that they stare us in the face, we are reluctantly beginning to cease teaching our patients well-nigh incurable drug habits under the guise of beneficial treatment.”

Desiring to ascertain whether the author’s statements in regard to the use of alcohol met with support or adverse criticism, Dr. R. T. Stratton, of Oakland, Cal., wrote him a note of inquiry. The response was most interesting. The writer says: “Though I have received many very courteous notes, not one has taken exception to the alcohol statement. . . . I have personally come to the point — very gradually — at which I believe alcohol always a harmful influence, at least to the circulatory system.” The growing tendency among medical men to give alcohol an inferior place as a therapeutic agent is well worth our attention. — Selected.