p. 714 | THE EFFECTS OF BEER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 18, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 45.

THE EFFECTS OF BEER.

FOR some years a decided inclination has been apparent all over the country to give up the use of whisky and other strong alcohols, using as a substitute beer 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 alcohol which it conceals. These theories are without confirmation in the observation 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 deceptive. Fatty deposits, diminished circulation, conditions of congestion and perversion of functional activities, local inflammations of both liver and 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 a shock to the body or mind, will commonly provoke acute disease, ending fatally.

Compared with inebriates who use different kinds 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 kind of inebriety, closely allied to criminal insanity. The most dangerous class of ruffians in large cities are beer drinkers.

It is asserted by competent authority that the evils of heredity are more positive in this 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.

In bitters we have a drink which can never become general; but its chief danger will be in strengthening the disordered cravings, which latter develop a positive disease. Public sentiment and legislation should comprehend that all forms of alcohol are more or less dangerous when used steadily; and all persons who use them in this way should come under sanitary and legislative control.—Quarterly Journal of Inebriety.