f peace. And
not only so, but though it has been scientifically established that
alcohol lowers the vitality, a paternal Government, in the mud and
misery of the trenches in Flanders, provided for each soldier the
sustenance of rum, though from such a stimulus no benefit could accrue.
'Small doses of alcohol ... cause ... a distinct flushing of the skin
due to dilation of the cutaneous capillaries, the skin becoming first
warmer and the blood in the internal organs cooler than before the
alcohol was taken. After a time the skin temperature falls, but there
is no corresponding increase of temperature of the blood in the
internal organs. This means that the body has {141} lost heat by the
skin. The evaporating moisture of wet putties and stockings carries
away a further amount of heat, whilst the contracting wet materials
exerting pressure on the lower limbs, after a time tend to compress
vessels in the skin, and especially to interfere with the return of
venous blood and lymph to the larger veins and lymph channels. The
lowered temperature and the impaired nutrition due to this obstructed
circulation together are accountable for the "trench foot." ... A man
is not at his best, whether working or fighting against enemies or
diseases, if he is taking alcohol. Lord Roberts knew this, and His
Majesty the King, Admiral Jellicoe, and Lord Kitchener appreciate it.
How soon will the nation realise it?'[2]

The Government supplied the soldiers in the camp and in the trench with
the means of decreasing their fighting efficiency. To the 'tot of rum'
can be {142} traced a proportion of the cases of unstable nervous
equilibrium which the war has produced. Men who were total abstainers,
pledged Rechabites, and others were swept by a paternal Government into
the ranks of those who derive from alcohol a false exhilaration. 'The
national conscience,' writes Lieut.-Colonel Woodhead, 'has not yet been
thoroughly aroused to the importance of the issues at stake--that in
peace or in war intemperance is the link in the chain of our national
life which gives greatest evidence of weakness and most cause for
anxiety.' Against stupidity the gods themselves fight in vain. Though
every laboratory worker and every physiological chemist tells us, with
the cold precision of science, that alcohol is not a stimulant but a
depresser, that the elation it produces is simply that of a narcotic,
that it diminishes the energy and dulls the enthusia