What Is Ordinarily Understood By The Term Alcohol?

"Used in a general way, alcohol includes all alcoholic liquors, such as whisky, beer, wine, ale, gin, as well as chemically pure alcohol."

Is There Not Much Disagreement As To The Value Of Alcohol When Moderately Used, As To Whether It Is Reallv A Food Or Not?

"It has been demonstrated that the system will absorb a small amount of alcohol because it is not exhaled in the breath and cannot be found in the excretions. It is, therefore, fair to conclude that it is burned up in the system, just the same as fats and starches are."

"Then it would seem from this, Doctor, that if a small amount of alcohol is absorbed as food, it would not be injurious?7'

"But you forget that I have already explained that a healthy person has no need for stimulants, but that they are an injury instead of a benefit. This is especially true of alcohol."

Why Is It More True Of Alcohol Than Any Other Stimulant?

"Because it causes the tissues of the body to be changed, although it is claimed that some persons can use a small amount of alcohol without any discoverable change in the tissues of the system."

Then, If That Be True, It Must Explain The Constant Tendency Of Those Who Use Alcohol To Increase The Quantity?

"Yes; the stimulating effect is what is always sought, and as the change takes place in the tissues, it takes more and more to have the same effect that the small amount originally had."

If This Be True, It Is A Dangerous Thing To Use, Purely Upon Physiological Grounds?

"Yes, it is dangerous to make a practice of using any kind of alcoholic liquors, for the reasons explained."

What Is The Character Of The Changes Usually Made By The Continued Use Of Alcoholic Liquors?

"It changes the texture of the liver, blood vessels, kidneys and the digestive organs generally. It makes the individual much more susceptible to infectious diseases, especially typhoid fever and pneumonia."

Are There Any Other ILL Effects Resulting From The Use Of Alcoholic Liquors?

"Yes: all those cases described under arthritic tendencies resulting from uric acid in the blood, are unfavorably affected by all alcoholic liquors, or, more especially, malt liquors, that contain acids, as nearly all the malt liquors and wines do, so that persons having sick headache, rheumatism or kindred ailments, must not use liquors at all."

Doctor, Doesn't The Use Of Alcohol Lessen The Desire For Food?

"Yes. if a certain amount of alcoholic liquors is used up by the system, it corresponds or equals a considerable amount of heat-producing food: and as it contains no waste material, it would naturally have a tendency to produce constipation, which is a well-known fact."

Are These All The Objections To The Use Of Alcohol?

"Not all of them. There is still another. That is, that alcoholic liquors lower the temperature of the system."

I Thought It Produced Heat And People Drink Liquor In The Winter Time To Warm Them?

"In cold climates they know better. No alcoholic liquors dare be permitted in a northern lumber camp."

"But it makes a person feel warm."

"That is true. It brings the blood to the surface, and for that reason assists in the radiation of heat; or. in other words, it causes the blood to flow out in increased quantities, so that it can cool faster, and it has been demonstrated, hundreds of times, that one can stand much more cold without the use of liquor than with it."

"Then, if that be true, the use of liquor ought to reduce fevers."

"It is often given for that purpose with good results."

Then, From Your Point Of View, Alcohol Is A Medicine, And Has No Place As A Food?

"That is true; the habit of using liquors for the purpose of making one feel better results in untold harm. People ought to learn how to live so that they do not need liquor or coffee or any other stimulant to give them energy sufficient for their work."

What Is The Principal Effect Of Alcohol As A Medicine?

"It stimulates the nerves, the action of the heart, and increases the circulation. It is sometimes useful in diseases of the stomach as a stimulant and to prevent decay, but should never be used except by the advice of a competent physician."

Then, According To Your View, Alcohol Does Not Give Increased Strength, As Many People Suppose?

"No; it merely acts as a spur or as a whip would on a tired horse, and only draws on reserve force; and the more that is drawn on, the sooner it results in total incapacity for work.

"Probably the most important of all the uses of alcoholic liquors is in fevers. When, after prolonged illness, there may be danger of the heart's failure, liquors are useful in such conditions to stimulate the action of the heart."

Doctor, It Is A Common Belief That The Use Of Beer Decreases The Consumption Of Other Liquors?

"That is very doubtful. In the first place, it is difficult to get reliable statistics, because it is almost impossible to determine the number of people who drink liquor. It is a well-known fact that the total abstainers have increased more rapidly in recent years than ever before; and if this be taken into consideration it is more than probable that the liquor drinkers still drink as much or more distilled liquors than ever before, notwithstanding the enormous consumption of beer, at least the general use of malt liquors has increased, rather than decreased, drunkenness."

"Doctor, you have said nothing about the moral aspect of liquor drinking."

"Well, we are not dealing with moral questions, but we have already said that most people have neither the instinct of brutes nor sufficient reason to guide them, and are, therefore, very imperfectly organized."

When Can Liquors Be Drank With The Least Injury?

"At meal time; for some people, a small amount of liquor at meal time is less harmful than tea or coffee; but the man who drinks quantities of liquor of any kind whatsoever, on an empty stomach, so violently outrages his system that he needs something added to or taken from his brains."

Doctor, What Kind Of A Drink Is Soda Water?

"Soda Water Is Made By Simply Aerating Water With Common Carbonic Acid Gas."

How Is The Gas Made?

"By saturating marble dust with sulphuric acid, and the gas is collected in a tin-lined tank, and is drawn off, mixed with the water as drawn. The flavoring matter is supposed to be fruit syrups; but for the most part, they are made of essential oils."

Is The Drink Beneficial Or Injurious?

"There is not enough of any very active substance to have much effect, and it is usually considered an occasional glass of soda water does no harm, although if tanks are not properly lined, the soda water would be poisonous. It should not be drunk except on an empty stomach."

"Ginger ale is quite similar to soda water, only has considerable quantity of ginger. It is sometimes beneficial, but not a good drink for continual use."

"Root beers are usually fermented drinks; and while some people think them wholesome, it is difficult to understand how any fermented drink can be of any use to the system, although they have probably not sufficient amount of ferment to be of any particular injury, and certainly no benefit.