Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why: What Medical Writers SayAllen, Martha Meir
Science
Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why: What Medical Writers Say
Allen, Martha Meir
Alcohol -- Physiological effect; Temperance
"In my specialty, the treatment of pulmonary diseases, I rarely
prescribe alcohol in any form, and in the sanitaria with which I
have been connected it is the exception where alcohol in any
form is prescribed. I have advised against its use where such
has been the custom, believing that as a rule alcoholic liquors
do more harm than good in the treatment of this disease."--PROF.
VINCENT Y. BOWDITCH, M. D., Harvard Medical School, Boston.
"From personal experience in handling pulmonary tuberculosis,
not only at the Nordrach Ranch Sanitorium, for the past five
years, but in an active practice of thirteen years, I am more
than convinced that whisky and liquor, in any form, are
absolutely poisonous to the consumptive.
"Whenever we admit a patient to the Nordrach Ranch Sanitorium,
we ascertain whether the individual is an alcoholic or not; and
we invariably find that such an individual is lacking in
vitality enough to combat the disease. They may look fat and
strong, pulmonary tuberculosis usually makes quick work of them.
"It is also a noticeable fact, proven by various statistics,
that a very large percentage of alcoholics become tubercular;
and if we ever stamp out tuberculosis, we will also have to
stamp out intemperance.
"Trying to cure consumption with whisky is like trying to put
out a fire with kerosene. This is very easy to understand when
we stop to consider the nature of this disease. In the first
place, we have a very rapid heart's action, dating from the very
earliest manifestations of the disease. The pulse is often in
excess of 100, even in incipient cases, and if the stimulation
of alcohol is added, we have what might be called a 'runaway
heart'; and if there is one thing needed in the long combat
against tuberculosis, it is a good heart."--JOHN E. WHITE, M.
D., Medical Director Nordrach Ranch Sanitorium, Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
"You ask me my opinion as to the use of whisky in the treatment
of consumption. In reply permit me to say that I regard its use
in this disease as most universally pernicious."--PROF. CHARLES
G. STOCKTON, M. D., Buffalo Medical College, Buffalo, N. Y.
"It was formerly thought that alcohol was in some way
antagonistic to tuberculous disease, but the observations of
late years indicate clearly that the reverse is the case, and
that chronic drinkers are more liable to both acute and
pulmonary tuberculosis. It is probably altogether a question of
altered tissue soil, the alcohol lowering the vitality and
enabling the bacilli more readily to develop and grow."--DR.
OSLER, formerly Professor of Medicine in Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Md., now of Oxford University, England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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