ALCOHOL. 2i; 



matter : ' I do not think that any of our medical officers 

 would seriously advocate the issue of alcohol as a measure 

 of health, but I believe that its habitual use during the 

 Rebellion was prohibited for reasons of discipline, while it 

 still might have been occasionally issued as if for health. 

 On the rare occasions when it might serve a good purpose, 

 as a temporary stimulant after a long and wet march, the 

 wagons would be in the rear, owing to the same conditions 

 that fatigued the men.' 



" While all this applies to prolonged effort of any kind, 

 and to conditions where other food can be obtained and 

 assimilated, it does not detract from the fact that alcohol 

 is a most helpful food and stimulant in emergencies, when 

 other food cannot be had, or when the body is temporarily 

 endangered from acute disease and the higher rate of 

 combustion in fever, or from failure to assimilate other 

 nourishment. 



" Captain Woodruff, assistant surgeon United States 

 army, says : ' Spirits can never be used in the army as a 

 regular issue ; the practice is thoroughly vicious, and was 

 virtually abandoned sixty years ago. On extraordinary 

 occasions of great fatigue they are allowable in modera- 

 tion. Under such temporary stimulation the men will 

 brace up and perform the necessary work of making earth- 

 works, etc., when without it they would be too exhausted 

 to do anything. Without such stimulation a man is not 

 worth much after he has made a forced march of forty 

 miles.' 



" The problem whether the world as a whole is better or 

 worse for the existence of alcohol, aside from all ethical 

 questions, and viewed merely from the scientific standpoint 

 of the influence of alcohol upon mortality, is difficult of 

 solution ; for to offset the numerous cases of fatal alcohol- 



