A question worthy of serious consideration is: how are the sick to be strengthened and "supported" by drinks which athletes are warned to specially shun as weakening to the body? Either the sick are mistakenly advised, or the athletes are in error. Which seems the more likely?
Dr. Richardson says in Lectures on Alcohol:—
"I would earnestly impress that the systematic administration of alcohol for the purpose of giving and sustaining strength is an entire delusion."
In another place he says:—
"Never let this be forgotten in thinking of strong drink: that the drink is strong only to destroy; that it never by any possibility adds strength to those who drink it."
Sir William Gull, late physician to the Prince of Wales, said before a Select Committee of the House of Lords on Intemperance:—
"There is a great feeling in society that strong wine and other strong drinks give strength. A large number of people have fallen into that error, and fall into it every day."
Any unprejudiced person can readily see that experience and experiment unite in testifying that alcohol does not give strength, hence differs radically from most substances commonly classed as foods. Yet millions of dollars are spent annually by deluded people upon supposedly strength-giving drinks, and thousands of the sick are ignorantly, or carelessly, advised to take beer or wine to make them strong and to support them when solid food cannot be assimilated. Truly, "My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge."
