THE BEER DELUSION

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 28, 1906

THE BEER DELUSION.

THE great brewery interests of the country are the most persistent advocates of the army canteen. And the plea of those who cater to these interests is that beer is a "light drink," and supplies to the soldiers a healthful, or at least a comparatively innocent, beverage as a substitute for the stronger liquors obtained in the outside drinking-places. But this plea is all a delusion. The Toledo Blade gives the testimony of several physicians who speak from experience on this point.

One says: "Beer kills quicker than any other liquor. My attention was first called to its insidious effects when I began examining for life insurance. I passed as unusually good risks five Germans—young business men—who seemed in the best of health, and to have superb constitutions. In a few years I was amazed to see the whole five drop off, one after another, with mild and what ought to have been easily-curable diseases. On comparing my experience with that of other physicians I found they were all having similar luck with confirmed beer-drinkers, and my practise since has heaped confirmation on confirmation."

Another physician of wide experience says: "Among the dreadful results of beer-drinking are lockjaw and erysipelas, and the beer-drinker seems incapable of recovering from mild disorders and injuries not usually regarded of a grave character. Pneumonia, pleurisy, fevers, etc., seem to have a first mortgage on him, which they foreclose remorselessly at an early opportunity."

A further testimony is that "adulterants are not the worst feature in the composition of beer; it is the beer itself. It stupefies the intellect, because it is a narcotic, and cumulative in its effect."

Again we are told that "beer-drinkers are absolutely the most dangerous class of subjects a surgeon can have to operate upon. Insignificant scratches are liable to develop a long train of dangerous troubles."

Dr. T. D. Carothers, in a "Total Abstinence Leaflet" published in Chicago, says:

A remarkable revelation of the most serious injuries occurring in beer-drinkers has come to light in the neighborhood of Manchester, England, in the past two years. As far back as 1884 attention was called to the numerous cases of alcoholic paralysis in this vicinity. A few years after, a noted expert described similar cases which seemed to be very numerous in that section. From that time on these peculiar cases have been increased, until last year an examination was made, and it was found that in the neighborhood of Manchester and the mill districts about, alcoholic paralysis was almost an epidemic. Three hundred cases were noticed at Manchester, and nearly five per cent. of all the cases seen in the hospitals in this region, and extending to Liverpool, and even to London, showed this kind of palsy. A careful inquiry revealed the fact that nearly all these victims were beer-drinkers. An analysis of the beer showed the presence of arsenic in sufficient quantity to account for this peculiar palsy. Experts visited breweries and obtained specimens of beer, finding arsenic in nearly every instance. More careful examination showed that sulphuric acid entered into the manufacture of glucose used in the beer. This acid was made from iron pyrites, and contained quantities of arsenic. It was used on account of its cheapness, and in large quantities by many of the leading brewers.