proclaimed it’s passage “a greater achieve-
ment than any of his military victories.”
Instead of lessening the demand for
whisky, however, it had just the opposite
effect. Bootlegging increased. This is not,
surprising, since alcohol creates a craving
for alcohol, and the milder alcoholic bever-
ages pave the way for the stronger.
One writer declared that from his own
knowledge he could “declare that the beer
shops had made many who were previously
sober and industrious, now drunkards, and
many mothers had also become tipplers.”
The English press, which had favored
the bill, changed its attitude and wrote
against 1t.
The London (/lobe said: “The injury done
by the Beer Act to the peace and order of
the rural neighborhood, not to mention
domestic happiness, industry, and econ-
omy, has been proved by witnesses from
every class of society to have exceeded the
evils of any single act of internal adminis-
tration passed within the memory of man.”
The Liverpool Mail said: “A more per-
niclous concession to popular opinion and
=o prejudicial to public morals in the rural
districts, in villages, hamlets, and road-
sides of England never was made hy the
biind senators of a bad government in the
worst times.”
Magistrate G. IF. Drury, Esq. said:
“The beer bill has done more to brutalize
the nglish laborer and take him from his
family and fireside to the worst associa-
tions than almost anv measure that could
have been devised. It has furnished vie-
tims for the jails, the hulks, and the gal-
lows, and has frightfully extended the evils
of pauperism and moral debasement.”
A committee for the Lower House of
Convocation of the Province of Canter-
bury, reported: “This measure, though
imtroduced in 1830 for the avowed purpose
of repressing intemperance by counter-
acting the temptations to excessive drink-
mg of ardent spirits afforded in public
houses, has been abundantly proved, not
only to have failed of its benevolent pur-
pose, but to have served throughout the
country to multiply and intensify the very
evils 1t was intended to remove.”
®
The London Times, in 1871, in speaking
of the free beer shop bill, said:
“The idea entertained at that time was
that free trade in beer would gradually
wean men {rom the temptations of the
regular tavern, would promote the con-
sumption of a wholesome national bever-
age 1 place of ardent spirits, would break
down the monopoly of the old license
houses, and impart, in short, a better
character to the whole trade. . The
results of this experiment did not confirm
the expectations of its promoters. The sale
of beer was increased, but the sale of
spirituous liquors was not diminished.”
Germany as well as England had a sad
experience with beer. In speaking of the
use of beer by the students of Germany,
Professor Sinz of the University of Bonn
1942
MARCH,
sald: “The flooding of the stomach and
brain with beer, so prevalent among our
students, I regard as a national evil,
whether considered {rom the hygienic,
economic, or intellectual point of view.”
In speaking of its moral effects, Dr. A.
Forel of the University of Zurich, said:
“One only needs to study in Germany the
“beer jokes,” beer conversation, and beer
literature. Among the academic youth of
Germany the drinking of beer has truly
killed the ideals, and the ethics, and has
produced an incredible vulgarity.”
Dr. Edward Hartman said: “Although
of all nations, Germany has the greatest
capacity for culture, the general culture of
its higher classes is undergoing frightful
retrogression, because of the beer con-
sumption of its students.”
Beer was responsible for Germany's de-
feat-—-evidently this was recognized hy the
Kaiser. He said that, in the next great
war, the nation that consumes the least
alcohol will win. Germany saw the neces-
sity of a reform. The Associated Press
said: © Berton, March 3, 1939. The Nazi
leadership today called on German vouth
to assume a new ‘national duty’—abstin-
ence from alcohol and tobacco.”
Adolf Hitler, in appealing to the vouth
of Germany to abstain from the use of al-
coholic beverages, said: “Alcohol is an
enemy to mankind. It has destroyed so
many valuable men, especially among our
own people; it makes them unfit for the
nation, to such an extent that, within a
century, their number is many times
higher than that of those who have lost
their lives within the same period on all
the battlefields.” — Herr Adolf Hitler,
Jrom report of an address by Dr. H. Polzer,
at the International Congress on Alcoholism,
at London, July-August, 1934.
Dr. S. H. Burgen, a practicing physician
for thirty-five years, employed as an ex-
aminer of applicants for life insurance, and
a practicing physician in Toledo, Ohio, for
twenty-eight years, has the following to
say about the harmful effects of beer:
“I think beer kills quicker than any
other liquor. My attention was first called
to its insidious effects when I began ex-
amining for life insurance. 1 passed as
unusually good risks five Germans—young
business men—who seemed in the best
health, and to have superb constitutions.
In a few years I was amazed to see the
whole five drop off, one after another, with
what ought to have been mild and easily
curable diseases. On comparing my ex-
perience with that of other physicians, I
found they were all having similar luck
with confirmed beer drinkers, and my
practice since has heaped confirmation on
confirmation.” —“ Civic Bulletin,” official
organ of the Civic League, New York,
J (1 1 { EH 25 P) I , 2) "
Robert IE. Corradini, executive secretary
of the Alcohol Information Commission,
says: “The really dangerous man today is
not the one who uses alcohol immoderately,
but the moderate drinker who is only
slightly under the influence of alcohol. He
15 quite capable of starting and operating
a machine, certainly an automobile, but
mn an emergency he may miscalculate the
speed of an approaching car, or the distance
between himself and a pedestrian. Tt is a
well-known fact that one of the first
(Continued on page 18)
Nicotinic Acid
What relation, if any, does nicotinic acid
sustain to the nicotine of tobacco? Is it made
from tobacco? J. I. S.
Nicotine found in tobacco is a violent
poison, so great that heavy smokers, be-
tween the ages of thirty and fifty, die at
twice the rate of nonsmokers, which is a
big price to pay for a bad breath.
Nicotinic acid on the other hand is
classed with the vitamins as a very im-
portant food accessory, from lack of which
pellagra and other deficiency conditions
may result. It is built chemically on a
similar partial arrangement of atoms in
the molecule, but it is made synthetically
and not from tobacco. It possibly could
by certain chemical processes be made
from tobacco, but the process would be ex-
pensive and is not practical. The only use
for tobacco seems to be to kill aphides on
plants and lice on dogs; for which purposes
it has no equal.
The DOCTOR REPLIES to HEALTH DUERIES...
Medical and hygienic information of value lo the general reader is given here by
Owen S. Parrett, M. D. Inquirers may address the doctor in care of this magazine.
Dizziness
I am troubled, at times, with dizzy spells
that are quite severe. I am forty-two. Is tt
probably caused by high blood pressure?
R. AM. A.
Dizziness is such a common symptom of
so many conditions that one cannot be
certain as to the exact cause without elimi-
nating several possibilities. However, any
woman at or near the menopause may
suffer from dizziness, due mainly to nerv-
ousness as a complication of the meno-
pause. The sensory organ of equilibrium
1s mainly located in the inner ear and de-
rangements of this structure may cause
dizziness. Cerebral arteriosclerosis is a
common cause In those advanced in years.
High blood pressure is less often a cause,
unless accompanied by hardening of arter-
ies of the brain. In these patients it is
difficult to eradicate this annoying symp-
tom due to the fact that the basic cause
1s general and progressive.
Page FIFTEEN