delusions about

DRINKING

So much has been said and pub-
lished about the effects of drink-
ing that the editors of The Woman
undertook to sift the truth from the

rumors. In order to get the facts,
some often-heard statements on bev-
erages were submitted to a nation-
ally prominent physician. Here are
his comments.

1.	Beer is an aid to digestion.

It isn’t. Scientists have found that
beer is hard on the large intestine.
Gin is also irritating to the intestinal
tract, due to the volatile oils it con-
tains. (Oddly enough, so is orange
juice, particularly if it has been stand-
ing for some time.) Beer has a mild
hypnotic quality, due to the hops
used in making it.

2.	Wine has a tonic value.

Very little. Wine has a small
amount of food value. It is more ir-
ritating than highballs to the mucous
membranes of the average person. If
a person is suffering from kidney dis-
orders or digestive trouble, physicians
nearly always play safe by ordering
the patient to refrain from alcoholic
beverages, but there is no definite sci-
entific proof that wine is directly
harmful.

3.	If you suffer from colitis, 1
stomach ulcers or other digestive
disturbances, your system can ac-
commodate highballs—that is, al-
cohol plus carbonated water—
more easily than beer.

True. The amount of carbonated
drink in a highball tends to do away
with adverse effects of the alcohol
in the drink. Carbonated drinks may
be given a patient following surgery, w
when he can’t keep anything else
down. In a highball, there is usually
so small a proportion of alcohol in
proportion to the amount of charged * ,
water that the resultant damage is
apt to be less than when beer or wine
is taken.

4.	Men can handle alcoholic
beverages better than women,
can consume more with less ef-
fect.

No, the results are the same for '
both sexes, but there is a variation
in persons. What is poison for one
will have little effect on another.
The reason for this is not clear, but
habit and fatigue probably enter into «
the picture. Drinking apparently has
a peculiar effect on the nervous sys-
tem and is unfavorable to judgment .
and watchfulness. It relaxes the mon- *■
itor that inhibits—and this is equally
true of men and women.

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