Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1891 — TEMPERANCE COLUMN. [ARTICLE]

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

MEDICAL USE or ALCOHOL. The best medical authorities fa tbs world are now on record asagalastthe use of alcohol for the treatment of dis* eases. The Popular Science Monthly for November reprints from the London Lancet a valuable paper read before the -Esculapian Medical Society of England on * ‘The Use of Alcohol in Medicine,” by A. G. Bartley, M. D., M. R. C. S. The writer’s opinion is against the use of stimulants, and a long list of cases are recited to substantiate his argument As. surgeon in a battery of artillery in the-Punjab, the writer had a number of cases of delirium tremens in his hands, all o' which were successfully treated without the use of stimulants. Of other cases the writer says: “There were many cases of acute chest disease In the cold weather. On admission to hospital, they had plainly one thing in common with those suffering from alcohol: they were exhausted from sheer want of food. It was the first and main point of my treatment that this should be met by prompt feeding, most generally by repeated cupfuls of ar* rowroot and milk. I gave nitre or other neutral alkaline salt, and morphine for a hacking cough. The tongue began to clean at once and the temperature to fall, and the haggard and worn patient got refreshing sleep and began to convalesce. In fact, the cases ran parallel with the former ailments I have mentioned, and I soon ceased to employ with them any form of alcohol.