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
"The cocaine habit may be cultivated as easily as the alcohol
habit, and the two forms of disease, alcoholism and cocainism,
are by no means rare. The great factor in each of them is the
loss of will power, and when that is accomplished the descent to
complete moral and physical ruin is quite easy.
"A pure and simple life, in accord with the laws of health and
hygiene, is the panacea both for the maintenance, and the
restoration of health, and that is what we should strive to aim
at, rather than having recourse to drugs that are not only
ineffective, but positively dangerous."--_United Temperance
Gazette._
In Dr. Milner Fothergill's _Practioners' Hand-book of Treatment_, fourth
edition, the following statement is made:--
"Coca wine, and other medicated wines are largely sold to people
who are considered, and consider themselves, to be total
abstainers. It is not uncommon to hear the mother of a family
say, 'I never allow my girls to touch stimulants of any kind,
but I give them each a glass of coca wine at 11 in the morning,
and again at bedtime.' Originally coca wine was made from coca
leaves, but it is now commonly a solution of the alkaloid, in a
sweet and strongly alcoholic wine. This is really the gist of
the whole matter; coca wine is largely consumed by people who
fondly believe themselves to be total abstainers, and who are
active enough in denouncing those who take a little wine, or a
glass of beer at their meals. The sooner their delusion is
dispelled the better for themselves, and for the unfortunate
children over whom they exercise supervision."
Another physician tells of seeing a distinguished ecclesiastical
dignitary, a sworn foe of alcohol and its congeners, giving his young
child a generous daily allowance of one of these wines.
The user of coca wines runs a double risk--an alcohol craving may be
revived, or created; and, at the same time, cocainism may be set up, and
nothing but physical, mental and moral ruin follow.
The _British Medical Journal_ of January 23rd, 1897, says:--
"There can be no doubt that in many parts of the world cocaine
inebriety is largely on the increase. The greatest number of
victims is to be found among society women, and among women who
have adopted literature as a profession; and there is no doubt
that a considerable proportion of chronic cocainists have fallen
under the dominion of the drug from a desire to stimulate their
powers of imagination. Others have acquired that habit quite
innocently from taking coca wines. The symptoms experienced by
the victims of the cocaine habit are illusions of sight and
hearing, neuromuscular irritability, and localized anaesthesia.
After a time insomnia supervenes, and the patient displays a
curious hesitancy, and an inability to arrive at a decision on
even the most trivial subjects."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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