Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/433

Rh common in Germany the land of beer-drinking and proves incontestably that the habit of drinking even such a mild alcoholic beverage as lager-beer is one that is undesirable and unwise."—From Alcohol and the Human Body," by Sir Fictor Horsley, M. D., London.

"Nothing is more erroneous from the physician's stand-point, than to think of diminishing the destructive effects of alcoholism by substituting beer for other alcoholic drinks, or that the victims of drink are found only in those countries where whisky helps the people of a low grade of culture to forget their poverty and misery."—, Breslau, Germany.

"The result of extolling beer as the mightiest enemy of whisky and brandy has been that the consumption of the distilled liquors has changed very little, while to these liquors has been added beer, the use of which has led to a great and still increasing beer alcoholism. * * *

"The beer drinker who is not at all a drunkard in the popular sense, is very frequently the victim of chronic inflammation of the kidneys. * * * An enlarged and fatty condition of the liver, marked by a dull pain in the region of the organ, often follows from the habitual use of beer. The death-rate from liver diseases among brewers of beer in England is more than double that in all other occupations. * * * Beer-drinkers have a marked tendency to enlargement of the stomach, and to chronic diarrhoea. Beer causes also inflammation of the nerves. This is often announced by 'rheumatic' pains in the legs. * * * Beer alcoholism, as well as alcoholism in general, lowers the resistance of the body to all diseases by injuring most of the organs. And herein lies the chief danger in the general widespread use of beer. The drinker is especially open to attacks of infectious disease. * * * The brutalizing effect of beer-alcoholism is shown most clearly by the fact that in Germany crimes of personal violence, particularly dangerous bodily injuries, occur most frequently in Bavaria where there