l writer on alcohol. His statements are weighty. This is his
testimony:--

"In larger doses, alcohol is absolutely injurious in the
treatment of acute fevers, especially in case of pneumonia,
typhus and erysipelas. They first of all injure the general
state of the patient, they cause delirium, or increase it if
already existing, and, secondly, they injure most seriously the
organs of digestion and interfere with proper nourishment; thus
they have a weakening effect, instead of preventing weakness,
which they are usually supposed to do. In case no alcohol is
used, the convalescence is much more rapid. In no case has the
benefit of treatment with alcohol been established. According to
the view of the most eminent pharmacologists, the stimulating
effect of alcohol consists simply in a local irritation of the
mucous membrane of the stomach, similar to that produced by a
mustard plaster."

The following selection from the excellent address of Dr. Harvey,
president of the Virginia State Medical Society, at a recent meeting, is
a most timely caution:--

"Our prisons, asylums and homes are filled with the victims of
the careless and indiscriminate use by the medical profession of
those twin demons, alcohol and opium, which, save tuberculosis,
are doing more to debase and destroy the human race than all the
other diseases together. I most earnestly beseech you, young
men, who are just starting out in life, to stay your hand in the
use of these agents in your own persons, and in your daily work,
and to beware of the seductive needle, and the cup that
inebriates. Make it an invariable rule, never to prescribe
alcohol, nor one of the solinaceus or narcotic drugs, if you can
possibly avoid it. The use of alcohol and opium debases the
minds and morals of habitues, predisposes especially to Bright's
disease and insanity, and lays the foundation in the offspring
for the majority of the neuroses and degenerations of modern
civilized life. The physical fatigue of long working hours, loss
of sleep, mental strain, worry and hunger, invite the tired
physician, especially, to their seductive use. To totally
abstain from them is always business, and very often character,
and even life itself. I feel free to speak to you on this
subject very earnestly, my younger brothers, for, having
prescribed alcoh