Bad Effects of Beer Drinking.
In the London hospitals it is said that the draymen suffer the worst results from accidents. Though they are apparently models of health and strength, yet if one of them receives a serious injury, it is nearly always necessary to amputate in order to give him the most distant chance of life. The draymen have the unlimited privilege of the brewery cellar. Sir Ashley Cooper was once called to a drayman, who was a powerful, fresh colored, healthy looking man, and had suffered an injury in his finger from a small splinter of a stave. The wound, though trifling, suppurated. He opened the small abscess with his lancet, which, upon retiring, he found he had left. Returning for it, he found the man in a dying condition. The man died in a short time. Dr. Gordon says, “The moment beer drinkers are attacked with acute diseases, they are not able to bear depletion, and die.” Dr. Edwards says of beer drinkers, “Their diseases are always of a dangerous character, and in case of accident they can never undergo even the most trifling operation with the security of the temperate. They most invariably died under it.” Dr. Buchan says, “Malt liquors render the blood sizy and unfit for circulation; hence proceeds obstructions and inflammation of the lungs. There are few great beer drinkers who are not phthisical brought on by the indigestical nature of ale and porter.” These liquors inflame the blood and tear the tender vessels of the lungs to pieces. Mr. Maxson says: “Intoxicating drinks, whether taken in the form of fermented or distilled liquors, are very frequent predisposing causes of disease.” The hospitals of New York show an equally unfavorable record of the intemperate, and private practitioners everywhere have the same experience.—Sanitarium for January.