Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says, "The capacity of the alcohols for impairment of functions and the initiation and promotion of organic lesions in vital parts is unsurpassed by any record in the whole range of medicine. The profession has accepted the facts so indisputable that they are no longer subject to debate. Changes in the stomach and liver, kidneys and lungs, blood vessels down to the smallest capillaries, and blood down to the smallest red and white blood discs; problems with secretion; fibroid and fatty degeneration in almost every organ; loss of muscle strength; and effects on both nervous systems that are so deep that they are often toxic. These symptoms are not exclusive to individuals who are considered intemperate.
Professor Youmans says: "It is evident that, so far from being the conservator of health, alcohol is an active and powerful cause of disease, interfering, as it does, with the respiration, the circulation, and the nutrition; now, is any other result possible?"
According to Dr. F.R. Lees, "that alcohol should aid in the fattening process in some situations and cause fatty degeneration of the blood in drinkers is a matter of course, since, on the one hand, we have an agent that retains waste by decreasing the nutritive and excretory functions and, on the other hand, a direct poisoner of the vesicles of the vital stream."
Dr. Henry Monroe says: "There is no kind of tissue, whether healthy or morbid, that may not undergo fatty degeneration, and there is no organic disease so troublesome to the medical man or so difficult to cure." If we use a microscope to examine a very fine section of muscle from a healthy person, we observe that the muscle is firm, elastic, and bright red, composed of parallel fibers with beautiful crossings or striae. However, if we compare this to the muscle of a man who leads an idle, sedentary life and indulges in intoxicating drinks, we immediately detect a pale, flabby, inelastic, oily appearance. More than any other agent we are familiar with, alcoholic narcotization seems to trigger these unique tissue conditions. Dr. Chambers states that this disease causes three-quarters of the chronic illnesses that medical professionals treat. The eminent French analytical chemist, Lecanu, discovered as much as one hundred and seventeen parts of fat in one thousand parts of a drunkard's blood, with the highest estimate of the quantity in health being eight and one-quarter parts, compared to the ordinary quantity of two or three parts. This means that the drunkard's blood contains forty times more fat than the ordinary quantity.
Dr. Hammond, who has written in partial defense of alcohol as a food power, states: "When I say that it, of all other causes, is most prolific in exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves, I make a statement that my own experience shows to be correct."
Another eminent physician says of alcohol: "It substitutes suppuration for growth. It accelerates the aging process and is, in essence, the master of degeneration.
Dr. Monroe asserts that alcohol, whether consumed in small quantities or heavily diluted, such as in beer, gradually causes the stomach to lose its tone and becomes dependent on artificial stimuli. Atony, or a lack of tone in the stomach, gradually worsens, leading to incurable health disorders. If you consume an alcoholic drink on a daily basis, it often causes the heart to hypertrophy or enlarge. Indeed, it is distressing to observe the large number of individuals suffering from heart disease, primarily due to their consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Dr. T.K. Chambers, physician to the Prince of Wales, says: "Alcohol is really the most ungenerous diet there is. Alcohol depletes the blood, leading to the dreadful degeneration of muscle fiber; it exacerbates heart disease by accelerating the heartbeat, creating capillary congestion and irregular circulation, and consequently inducing mechanical dilatation.
Sir Henry Thompson, a distinguished surgeon, says: "Don't take your daily wine under any pretext of its doing you good. Embrace it as a luxury that comes with a price, whether it's low for some or high for others, but it's always a cost. In most cases, the price is a loss of health, mental power, calmness of temper, or judgment.
Dr. Charles Jewett says, "The late Prof. Parks of England, in his great work on hygiene, effectively got rid of the long-held and widely held belief that alcohol is a useful preventative measure when there is bad weather, bad water, and other conditions not good for health. An unfortunate experiment with the substance in the Union army, on the banks of the Chickahominy, in the year 1863, proved beyond a reasonable doubt that, instead of protecting the human constitution against the influence of agencies not good for health, its use makes them stronger." The medical history of the British army in India teaches the same lesson."
But why present further testimony? Is not the evidence complete? We need not present a single additional argument in favor of complete abstinence from alcoholic drinks to the man who values good health and would not lay the foundation for disease and suffering in his later years. He will eschew them as poison.
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