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
At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association held in
Atlanta, Georgia, in 1896, Dr. G. B. Garber, of Dunkirk, Ind., read a
paper upon "Alcohol in Typhoid Fever" from which a few points are here
taken:--
"The fact that the mortality from typhoid fever seems to be
gradually lowering is no doubt due in great measure to the
non-use of alcohol in the treatment of the disease. Hardly a
week passes that some of our journals do not report a series of
cases treated without the aid of alcohol in any form. I used
alcohol in the treatment of the disease until two years ago,
when I became alarmed at the mortality; so I changed my plan,
and in 1894 I treated thirty-seven well marked cases of varying
degrees of intensity. I had two fatal cases, and in both of them
I had used alcohol. In 1895 I treated thirty cases of about the
same type, with no death. I only used alcohol in one of them,
and it caused me more trouble than any of the others. As this
case was in the family of a saloon-keeper, I could not control
the matter, as they would give it during my absence. On my
return I would find the face flushed, the temperature high, the
pulse rapid and the patient nervous. By close inquiry I would
find that some of the family had given 'just a little good
whisky' which had been in the house for twenty years.
"In closing, I wish to state that I am well convinced that in
the treatment of typhoid fever our patients will do better and
stand a greater chance of recovery, if we abstain entirely from
the use of alcohol in the treatment of the disease."
Prof. J. Burney Yeo, of London, in a paper read before the International
Medical Congress held at Rome, Italy, said:--
"In order to maintain the intestinal antisepsis which forms an
essential part of this method of treatment, I insist on the
necessity of scrupulous attention and caution in feeding
patients suffering from enteric fever, great danger arising from
a failure to note the extremely limited digestive and absorptive
capacity exhibited by such patients.
"In conclusion, the use of alcoholic stimulants, and the common
employment of depressing antipyretic agents, must be condemned."
In a report of the treatment of typhoid fever by seventy-two physicians
of Connecticut, thirty-eight declared that they did not use alcohol in
any stage of this disease. The remainder used it sparingly in the last
stages, and only two considered it valuable from the beginning of the
disease.
In a discussion of typhoid fever by a medical society meeting in
Rochester, N. Y., recently, sixty physicians being present, only three
spoke in favor of using alcohol in this disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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