Mistakes Concerning Alcohol.
ALCOHOL, whether given in the form of beer, wine, or whisky, has, in every case, the same destructive tendency. I am well aware that some physicians claim a power for alcohol which it does not possess. They prescribe it as a restorative, and assert that in wasting diseases it is useful in arresting or preventing waste of tissue; neither of which effects I am positive it possesses, and for these purposes it is futile to prescribe it. I am quite sure that in a state of health there is not a single organ or tissue of the body that derives any benefit from its use; and quite as positive that it is a most destructive agent to every organ and tissue of the body either in a state of health or disease. Most mistaken ideas have long been entertained of the efficiency of alcohol in many diseases of the system, and its general effects upon the human body; but actual experiments have convinced several of the ablest and most profound thinkers in the medical profession that it has always, and15in every form, proved itself to be the most pernicious agent that was ever employed mechanically or otherwise. Being, therefore, satisfied that its use in a state of health is never necessary, and in a state of disease it is most injurious, I have for years past abolished its use in the asylum—Dr. Dickson.