s to prescribe alcoholic beverages, absolute alcohol
only being permitted. Kansas has amended her law so that whisky
drug-stores are eliminated. If physicians prescribe alcohol the law
forbids charge for it. Alabama forbids the sale of liquor for everything
but the communion. The Internal Revenue Department has examined a large
number of "patent" medicines and has listed them as intoxicating
beverages. Two state medical societies and some county societies in 1908
passed resolutions to discourage the medical use of alcoholic liquors.
Two national societies of druggists and pharmacists in 1908 passed
resolutions against whiskey drug-stores.

These are some of the results of Medical Temperance agitation. Much more
may be expected in the next decade if the work is as faithfully and
fearlessly carried on as in the past.

This book contains much of the teachings of the department of Medical
Temperance. When these views are generally accepted the liquor-problem
will be well-nigh solved.

CHAPTER III.

ALCOHOL AS A PRODUCER OF DISEASE.

That alcohol is a poison is attested by all chemists and other
scientific men; taken undiluted it destroys the vitality of the tissues
of the body with which it comes in contact as readily as creosote, or
pure carbolic acid. The term _intoxicating_ applied to beverages
containing it refers to its poisonous nature, the word being derived
from the Greek _toxicon_, which signifies a _bow_ or an _arrow_; the
barbarians poisoned their arrows, hence, _toxicum_ in Latin was used to
signify poison; from this comes the English term _toxicology_, which is
the science treating of _poisons_. Druggists in selling proof spirits
usually label the bottle, "Poison." Apart from the testimony of science
in regard to its poisonous nature, it is commonly known that large doses
of brandy or whisky will speedily cause death, particularly in those
unaccustomed to their use. The newspapers frequently contain items
regarding the death of children who have had access to whisky, and drunk
freely of it. Cases are reported, too, of men, habituated to drink, who
after tossing off several glasses of brandy at the bar of a saloon have
suddenly dropped dead.

Dr. Mussey says:--

"A poison is that substance, in whatever form it may be, which,
when applied to a living surface, disconcerts and disturbs
life's healthy movements. It is altogether distinct from
substances which are in their nature nutr