Sameiningin - 01.04.1927, Síða 22

n6
II.
TEMPERjANCE and education.
By Miss GuSrun Bildfell.
I have taken for my topic in connection with this discussion, two
words, — “Temperance” and “Education.”—
It is not my intention to deal with the question of the damaging'
action of alcohol on the tissues of the body. It is an established fact
that aleohol acts on the living cells in such a way as to cause de-
terioration of physical, mental and moral fitness.
Until lately alcohol has been regarded as a stimulant — a means
of heightenirig one’s power and increasing endurance.—Now I wish
to call your attention to a very intportant fact which has recently been
established—alcohol is not a stimulant but a narcotic drug.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war the British Government
set up a central control board, to handle the liquor issue, in face of
the grave crisis facing the nation,—
This board appointed an advisory committee consisting of scien-
tific men, each at the head of his own department of investigation:
physicians, physiologists, experts in the study of mental disorders,
chemists and experts of drug action.
Their work was “to consider the conditions affecting the physio-
logical action of alcohol and more particularly the effects on health
and industrial efficiency produced . by the consumption of various
alcoholic strengths.” Dealing with alcohol as a narcotic drug, the
report is as follows:—
“A further conclusion of capital importance which emerges with
equal clearness is, that the action of alcohol on the nervous system is
essentially sedative and is not a true stimulant. —• The popular belief
in the stimulating properties of aleohol as regards nervous and other
functions seems to be of purely subjective origin—and a mere illusion
—it is in main, if not wholly, an effect of the narcotic influence of
the drug, for as we have seen it dulls the drinker’s perception of the
unpleasant condition in himself and his surroundings and may make
him feel better, more efficient and stronger than he really is.”
By education, speaking generally, we mean the effort of the in-
dividual to become as complete a person, intellectually, physically,
morally and spiritually as his capacity will allow.
Accepting the finding of the British commission, we realize that
an individual who indulges in intoxicants can never rise to his high-
est possible .standards, for a narcotic deadens sensitiveness and dulls
first of all the most delicate adjustments of parts of the body.—
So alcohol hinders a man who wishes to become educated.—But
there is a more far reaching effect.—
An educated man assumes or is given miore responsibility than a
similar man with less education. If, however, his faculties are