CHOLERA AND ALCOHOL by G. Lowther, M. D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 42.

CHOLERA AND ALCOHOL.

By G. Lowther, M. D.

THAT no pains should be spared to prevent the spread of cholera everyone will admit. All the wisdom gathered from past study and experience should be utilized to stay its progress. It is well known that any form of filth is a hotbed for the breeding of infectious diseases. The places where intoxicating liquors are sold have proved to be generators and conductors of cholera. Not only so, but the users of alcohol are the most ready victims of the disease. This is accounted for by the fact that, by its use, the digestion is deranged, the blood vitiated, the nerves unstrung, and, further, that the presence of alcohol in the system renders it more susceptible to infection. But account for the facts as we may, here are the testimonies of physicians and others during the scourges of 1832 and 1866:

Dr. French, a medical health officer in Liverpool, says: "The outbreak of cholera in July, 1866, in that city, was in a house where a woman died of another disease. They kept the body for three days, during a drunken debauch, in a crowded room, filled with the fumes of tobacco and alcohol. This revel was called 'a wake.' One week from that time 48 persons had died from cholera within a radius of 150 yards from that place."

During the epidemic of 1832 Dr. Bronson said: "In Montreal 1,000 persons have died of cholera, only two of whom were teetotalers." A Montreal paper said: "Not a drunkard who has been attacked has recovered from the disease, and almost all the victims have been at least moderate drinkers."

In Albany, N. Y., the same year, cholera carried off 366 persons above 16 years of age, all but four of whom belonged to the drinking classes. Packer, Prentice & Co., large furriers in Albany, employed 400 persons, none of whom used ardent spirits, and there were only two cases of cholera among them. Mr. Delevan, a contractor, said: "I was engaged at the time in erecting a large block of buildings. The laborers were much alarmed and were on the point of abandoning the work. They were advised to stay and give up strong drink. They all remained, and all quit the use of strong drink except one, and he fell a victim to the disease." He says also: "I had a gang of diggers in a clay bank, to whom the same proposition was made; they all agreed to it, and not one died. On the opposite side of the same clay bank were other diggers who continued their regular rations of whiskey, and one-third of them died."

In New York City there were 204 cases in the park, only six of whom were temperate, and these recovered, while 122 of the others died. In many parts of the city the saloon keepers saw and acknowledged the terrible connection between their business and the spread of the disease, and, becoming alarmed for their own safety, shut up their saloons and fled, saying, "The way from the saloon to hell is too short." In Washington the board of health was so impressed with the terrible facts that they declared the grogshops nuisances, ordered them closed, and they remained closed for three months.

A prominent physician of Glasgow reported, "Only 19 per cent. of the temperate perished, while 91.2 of the intemperate died." One extensive liquor dealer of Glasgow said, "Cholera has carried off half of my customers."

In Warsaw 90 per cent. of those who died from cholera were wine drinkers.

At Tifels, Prussia, a town of 20,000 inhabitants, every drunkard died of cholera.

Drunkenness itself is a disease. It is a disease mainly germinated in the saloons. It is known to be the cause of many other diseases, some of which are transmitted to the offspring of the drunkard. Since this business costs the United States, in direct and indirect wastes, $140,000 every hour, and kills in the same time 185 men, and brings nothing good in return for this waste of men and money, and since it is a cesspool of contagion likely to scatter cholera throughout this nation, endangering the temperate as well as the intemperate, it would seem the dictate of wisdom to follow the example of the authorities at Washington in 1832, declaring the saloons nuisances, and close them.

The Supreme Court of the United States has said: "No Legislature can bargain away the public health or the public morals. The people themselves cannot do it, much less their servants. Government is organized with a view of their preservation, and cannot divest itself of the power to provide for them." President Harrison acted wisely in declaring a quarantine of twenty days for foreign vessels coming into our ports. Health authorities of the different cities and towns throughout the Union have power to remove anything that endangers public health. Let us by all means close the saloons for three months.