RT Journal
A1 Crothers TD
T1 THe plea for alcohol.
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1899
FD March 4
VO XXXII
IS 9
SP 499
OP 499
DO 10.1001/jama.1899.02450360049008
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1899.02450360049008
AB Hartford, Conn., Feb. 23, 1899.To the Editor: 
    —In the Journal of February 11, Dr. D. E. Mattison has in a very courteous way expressed his opinion on the value of alcohol and referred to the decreasing number of persons who suffer keenly when asked to give up theories long held as facts. Some physicians, like theologians, dread the arrival of new facts and new truths, which necessitate change or readjustment. To them it is dangerous to reopen an old subject for new evidence. It is more pleasant to believe that the final truths have been reached and the last word said. Fortunately doubts, denials, and pleas for present theories are neither obstructive nor destructive, but stimulating to new inquiries; at the same time they are literal protests against old theories and welcomes for new truths. Theories of alcohol and its physiologic and medicinal action are as ancient and numerous