Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine

by Fritz Wilhelm Woll, Alfred Fournier, Martha M. Allen

ALCOHOL

A DANGEROUS AND UNNECESSARY MEDICINE

HOW AND WHY

What Medical Writers Say

BY

MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN

Superintendent of the Department of Medical Temperance for the
National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

Published by the
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL TEMPERANCE
of the
NATIONAL WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION
Marcellus, New York

Copyright, 1900.

CONTENTS.

Introduction	5
Preface to the Second Edition	7
CHAPTER I. History Of The Study Of Alcohol.
Discovery of distillation—First American investigator of effects of alcohol—Medical Declarations—Sir B. W. Richardson's researches—Scientific Temperance Instruction in American Schools—Committee of Fifty	9
CHAPTER II. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in Opposition to Alcohol as Medicine.
How the Opposition began—Memorial to International Medical Congress—Origin of Medical Temperance Department—Objects of the department—Public agitation against patent medicines originated by the department—Laws of Georgia, Alabama and Kansas on Medical prescription of alcohol	21
CHAPTER III. Alcohol as a Producer of Disease.
Alcohol a poison—Sudden deaths from brandy—Changes in liver, kidneys, heart, blood-vessels and nerves caused by alcohol—Beer and wine as harmful as the stronger drinks—Alcohol causes indigestion—Other diseases caused by alcohol—Deaths from alcoholism in Switzerland	28
CHAPTER IV. Temperance Hospitals.
The London Temperance Hospital—Methods of treatment—The Frances E. Willard Temperance Hospital, Chicago—“As a beverage” in the pledge—Address by Miss Frances E. Willard at opening of hospital—The Red Cross Hospital Clara Barton and non-alcoholic medication—Reports of treatment in Red Cross Hospital—Use of Alcohol declining in other hospitals	37
CHAPTER V. Effects of Alcohol Upon the Human Body.
The body composed of cells—Effect of alcohol on cells—Alcohol and Digestion—Effects on the blood—The heart—The liver—The kidneys—Incipient Bright’s disease recovered from by total abstinence—Retards oxidation and elimination of waste matters—Lengthens duration of sickness and increases mortality	58
CHAPTER VI. Alcohol as Medicine.
Medical use of alcohol a bulwark of the liquor traffic—Alcohol not a Food—Alcohol reduces temperature—Food principle of grains and fruits destroyed by fermentation—Alcohol not a Stimulant—Experiments proving this—Alcohol not a tonic—Professor Atwater on Alcohol as Food	96
CHAPTER VII. Alcohol in Pharmacy.
Strong tinctures rouse desire for drink in reformed inebriates—Glycerine and acetic acid to preserve drugs—Non-alcohol tinctures in use at London Temperance Hospital—Sale of liquor in drug-stores condemned by pharmacists	131
CHAPTER VIII. Diseases, and Their Treatment Without Alcohol.
Alcoholic Craving—Anæmia—Apoplexy—Boils and Carbuncle—Catarrh—Hay-Fever—Colds—Colic—Cholera Cholera Infantum—Consumption—Displacements—Debility—Diarrhœa—Dysentery—Dyspepsia—Fainting—Fits—Flatulence—Headache—Hemorrhage—Heart Disease—Heart Failure—Insomnia—La Grippe—Measles—Malaria—Neuralgia—Nausea—Pneumonia—Pain After Food—Snake-bite—Rheumatism—Spasms—Shock—Sudden Illness—Sunstroke—Typhoid Fever—Vomiting	140
CHAPTER IX. Alcohol and Nursing Mothers.
Beer not good for nursing mothers—Helpful diet—Opinions of medical men—Analysis of milk of a temperate woman—Of a drinking woman—Advice of Dr. James Edmunds, of the Lying-in Hospital, London—How to feed the baby—Case of a young mother who used beer—Nathan S.Davis on beer and gin	234
CHAPTER X. Comparative Death-Rates With and Without the Use of Alcohol.
Fewer deaths in smallpox hospitals without alcohol—200 cases of scarlet fever without alcohol—Non-alcoholic treatment of fevers with less than 5 per cent, death-rate—Report of cases in English and Scotch hospitals—340 cases of typhus—London Lancet articles on typhoid—Mercy Hospital, Chicago—Death-rates in pneumonia and typhoid in large hospitals—Sir B. W. Richardson’s report of practice	247
CHAPTER XI. Reasons Why Alcohol Is Dangerous as Medicine.
Researches of Abbott—Vital Resistance lowered by alcohol—Experiments upon Urinary Toxicity—Effect of alcohol upon the guardian-cells of the body—Dr. Sims Woodhead on immunity—Delearde’s experiments at the Pasteur Institute—Dr. A. Pearce Gould on alcohol and cancer—Delirium in illness caused by alcohol	262
CHAPTER XII. Why Doctors Still Prescribe Alcoholics.
Public often demand it—Lack of knowledge of true nature of alcohol—Alcohol given undeserved credit for recoveries—Use of alcohol results from custom—Education of the people in teachings of non-alcoholic physicians necessary—Prescription of alcohol a matter of routine—Two examples	291
CHAPTER XIII. Alcoholic Proprietary or “Patent” Medicines.
The Pure Food Law—The guarantee—Newspaper opposition to the law—Headache remedies—Fake testimonials—Dangers of soothing syrups and morphine cough syrups—Fraud orders issued by Post-Office Department—Internal Revenue Department and Patent Medicines—Proprietary “Foods” strongly alcoholic—Alcoholic Cod-Liver Oil preparations—Australia’s Royal Commission on Patent Medicines—Committee on Pharmacy analyses—Malt extracts—Coca Wines—Advertising, the strength of the Nostrum business—An effectual remedy	299
CHAPTER XIV. Drugging.
Drugs do not cure disease—Nature cures—Opinions of drug medication of prominent physicians—La grippe caused by drug taking—Coal-tar drugs—Quinine—Sir Frederick Treves on disuse of drugs—People demand drugs of physicians—Mothers make drug victims of their children—Habit-producing drugs—Causes of drug-taking—How to be well	335
CHAPTER XV. Testimonies of Physicians Against Alcoholic Medication.
No need for substitutes for alcohol—Alcohol hides symptoms of disease—Responsibility of physicians—Opinions of many teachers in medical colleges—Hot milk better than alcohol—Journal of the American Medical Association on researches of Abbott and Laitinen—Resolution against alcohol of West Virginia Medical Society—Dr. Knox Bond on Scarlet Fever—Metchinkoff on white blood-cells—Kassowitz describes his treatment of fevers—Sims Woodhead’s opinions—Opinions of German Physicians—Dr. Harvey blames medical profession for careless use of alcohol and opium—Use of Alcohol declining rapidly in medical practice	356
CHAPTER XVI. Recent Researches Upon Alcohol.
Experiments of Laitinen—Resistance of blood-cells to disease lowered by alcohol—International Congress on Alcoholism, London, 1909—Alcohol and Immunity—Effect of Alcohol Drinking on Human Off-spring—Researches of Kraepelin and Aschaffenberg—Economic losses by reduced work through beer and wine drinking—Researches of Dr. Reid Hunt—Mice given alcohol killed by small doses of poison—Difference in effect of alcohol and starch foods—Chittenden on food theory of alcohol—Researches of Dr. S. P. Beebe—Liver impaired by alcohol—Dr. Winfield S. Hall’s interpretation of the researches of Beebe and Hunt—Oxidation of alcohol by liver a protective action—Researches show that alcohol is a poison, not a food	392
CHAPTER XVII. Miscellaneous.
Alcohol Baths—Beverages for the Sick—Tobacco and the Eyesight—Advertised “Cures” for Drunkenness—How to quit drinking—Dr. T. D. Crother’s remedy for drink crave—Alcohol and Children—Alcohol Tested—Beer-Drinking Injurious to Health—Drug Drinks—Special Directions for Women—Total Abstinence and Life Insurance—Opinions of Life Insurance Companies on drinkers as risks	410