LIQUOR DRINKING IN HEALTH AND DISEASE.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE UPON THE PROGRESS MADE IN MEDICAL SCIENCE
IN FAVOR OF TEMPERANCE DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 1, 1902--A. W.
GUTRIDGE, CHAIRMAN. READ AT THE THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION
OF THE CATHOLIC TOTAL ABSTINENCE UNION OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ST.
PAUL, AND ORDERED PUBLISHED BY THE CONVENTION.
In order to understand what progress has been made during the year,
it is necessary to note the condition of affairs at the commencement of
the period.
Long before this committee began work the leading physicians of
every enlightened country, the men to whom the entire profession looks
for guidance, had declared against the use of alcohol both in health and
in disease.
IS ALCOHOL A DRINK!
One reason why all the greatest physicians believed it harmful was
because it had been found that alcohol was not a drink. The most abundant
substance found in the human body, is water. About 130 pounds of
the weight of a 160-pound person is water, "Quite enough if rightly
arranged to drown him." Man has been irreverently described as "about
30 pounds of solids set up in 13 gallons of water." So it is quite natural
for us to hunger for water; "death by thirst is more rapid and distressing
than by starvation." "It is through the medium of the water contained
in the animal body that all its vital functions are carried on."
Dr.
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