p. 23 | Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 8, 1885

Temperance.

Beer as a Medicine.

IT is painful to note the vast amount of evil which is being done by an ignorance of the poisonous nature of beer. Thousands of persons use this vile stuff continually as medicine, upon the advice of physicians, without knowing its real nature and effect, innocently supposing it to be doing them good. It is of course impossible in all cases for patients to know the nature of that which they take as medicine, but any one can easily ascertain the true nature of beer, and when there is so much crime resulting from its use as a beverage, it is every one’s duty to know what it is which they are encouraging the use of by taking it as a medicine. We are not prepared to say why physicians prescribe it, but whether they do so without having analyzed it or with a perfect knowledge of it is equally to their discredit. In the one case they would be giving that which they know nothing of, and in the other case they would be prescribing that which they must know to be a poison. But patients are guilty of sin in the use of it, even though they do not know anything of its pernicious effects upon the system, since, by the use of it, they furnish an example and an apology for others, who, under the pretext of using it as a medicine, really do so as a beverage. To all such we call attention to the following extract by Dr. Crothers, the able editor of the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety:—

“For some years past a decided inclination has been apparent all over the country to give up the use of whisky and other strong alcoholic liquors, using as a substitute beer and bitters, and other compounds. This is evidently founded on the idea that beer is not harmful, and contains a large amount of nutriment; also that bitters may have some medicinal quality which will neutralize the alcoholic concerns, etc. These theories are without confirmation in the observations of physicians and chemists where either has been used for any length of time. The constant use of beer is found to produce a species of degeneration of all the organism, profound and deep-seated. Fatty deposits, diminished circulation, conditions of congestion, and perversion of functional activities, local inflammation of both the liver and the kidneys, are constantly present. Intellectually, a stupor amounting almost to paralysis arrests the reason, precipitating all the higher faculties into a mere animalism, sensual, selfish, sluggish, varied only with paroxysms of anger that are senseless and brutal. In appearance the beer drinker may be the picture of health, but in reality he is most incapable of resisting disease. A slight injury, severe cold, or shock to the body or mind, will commonly provoke acute disease, ending fatally. Compared with inebriates who use different forms of alcohol, he is more incurable, and more generally diseased. The constant use of beer every day gives the system no time for recuperation, but steadily lowers the vital forces; it is our observation that beer drinking in this country produces the very lowest forms of inebriety, closely allied to criminal insanity. The most dangerous class of tramps and ruffians in our large cities are beer drinkers. It is asserted by competent authority that the evils of heredity are more positive in this class than from alcoholics. If these facts are well founded, the recourse to beer as a substitute for alcohol merely increases the danger and fatality following.”

Another physician, who calls beer “the least hurtful of all the alcoholic beverages,” says: “All the eliminating and excreting organs, the kidneys, skin, lungs, etc., are doing fullest duty, but are unequal to the task. So the watery fluid permeates and saturates all of the tissues of the body, and the man is just as completely waterlogged as the ill-fated Ironsides was when she went down. Hence the bloated appearance; and what was taken for healthy glow of the face is only a distention of the minute blood-vessels of the surface, from the same cause.”

We make no point here concerning the use of beer openly, as a beverage; the limitless and measureless harm resulting therefrom is now evident to all. But we do feel that it is high time for Christians to cease injuring themselves and encouraging beer drinking and deceit in others by the use of this terrible stuff as a medicine. It is one of the devil’s devices to establish himself in the midst of moral and Christian families.—Christian Statesman.