214  Common  Sense  on  the  Alcohol  Question.  {AmiJXi897arm' 
concluded  a  course  of  lectures  in  the  Museum  of  Natural  History  on 
the  subject  of  the  good  and  bad  effects  of  alcohol. 
Mr.  Pellew  stated  without  reserve,  and  backed  up  his  statement 
by  citing  the  most  careful  observations  and  experiments  of  well- 
known  investigators,  that  "  there  was  no  doubt  that,  even  in  health, 
a  small  amount  of  alcohol,  if  given  in  divided  doses,  could  be 
burned  up  in  the  blood  and  serve  as  food,  without  producing  any 
injurious  effects."  We  are  quoting  from  the  Sun's  report  of  Mr. 
Pellew's  last  lecture.  He  went  on  to  say  that  in  diseased  condi- 
tions, where  nutrition  was  impaired,  alcohol  could  be  given  in 
greatly  increased  amounts  without  any  intoxicating  effect,  and  was 
then  of  enormous  value.  An  ounce  of  it,  he  said,  gave  as  much 
heat  as  seven  or  eight  ounces  of  beef,  and  that  without  having  to 
undergo  the  process  of  digestion  and  assimilation.  In  other  words, 
it  burned,  "  as  in  a  lamp,  without  wasting  the  wick." 
On  the  other  hand,  the  popular  notion  that  alcohol  will  keep  up 
the  heat  of  the  body  under  exposure  to  great  cold  was  declared  to 
be  a  mistake.  Alcohol,  said  Mr.  Pellew,  actually  reduced  the  tem- 
perature of  the  blood,  but  it  was  of  service  to  restore  equilibrium 
after  the  exposure  was  over.  The  lecturer  was  not  backward  in 
depicting  the  horrors  of  drunkenness,  to  which,  of  course,  no  rea- 
sonable man  can  shut  his  eyes.  He  spoke  of  the  dram-drinking 
habit  as  a  nervous  disease  rather  than  a  vice.  He  properly  insisted 
that,  in  health,  the  only  good  effects  of  alcohol,  "  except,  indeed,  its 
action  as  a  '  scavenger  of  mankind,'  "  came  from  its  moderate  use. 
.  To  show  the  astonishing  amount  of  intemperance  in  the  so-called 
temperance  doctrines  at  present  promulgated,  Mr.  Pellew  read  pas- 
sages from  the  books  on  "  physiology  "  to  which  the  law  now  re- 
quires the  teachers  and  pupils  in  the  public  schools  of  the  State  of 
New  York  to  devote  a  large  proportion  of  their  time.  He  pointed 
out  the  "  absurd  doctrines,  not  to  say  absolute  falsehoods,"  which 
in  many  cases  were  thus  crammed  into  the  children's  heads.  The 
Sun's  account  concludes  as  follows :  '*  In  his  opinion  it  is  confusing 
to  a  child  to  learn  that  it  is  a  sin  to  pick  a  pocket  and  to  drink  a 
glass  of  wine,  and  he  suggested  the  state  of  mind  of  a  Teutonic 
father  or  grandfather,  when  his  young  hopeful  would  read  to  him, 
from  his  school  books,  how  the  '  use  of  beer,  more  than  of  any 
other  liquid,  tends  to  make  the  drinker  selfish,  cruel  and  brutal.'  " 
