Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/167

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ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE.
159

University, Baltimore, Md., now of Oxford University, England.

"Upon investigation I found 38 per cent, of our male tubercular patients were excessive users of alcohol, 56 per cent, moderate users. From my study of the cases I am led to believe that in a vast majority of these cases drink has been a large factor in producing the disease, by exposure, lowering of vitality, etc. I believe that alcohol has no place in the treatment of tuberculosis. Many patients are deceived by the false strength it gives them."—O. C. Willhite, M. D., Superintendent of Cook County Hospital for Consumptives, Dunning, Ill.

"In tuberculosis there is a state of over-stimulation of the circulatory system due to the toxins. The use of alcoholics simply makes the condition worse. It reduces resistance and makes the person more susceptible to the disease."—H. J. Blankmyer, M. D., Sanatorium Gabriels, in the Adirondacks, N. Y.

"The practice of taking alcoholics of any sort, and in any quantity, over a considerable length of time, is certain to produce more or less injury to a tubercular patient, and their use by tubercular people cannot be too strongly condemned."—H. S. Goodall, M. D., Lake Kushaqua, N. Y.

Most of these opinions were written for the author of this book in response to letters of inquiry. Are they not indicative of a day when the medical profession will lay aside alcoholic liquors in the treatment of all diseases? It is acknowledged that the past usage of giving whisky and cod-liver oil to consumptives was an error; some day, it may be not far distant, a larger acknowledgment may be made, and the medical use of alcoholic liquors will be entirely a thing of the past.

Rev. J. M. Buckley, D.D., editor of The Christian Advocate, was in early manhood considered an in-