Martha Meir Allen
Martha Meir Allen (March 31, 1854 – 1926) was a Canadian temperance activist and writer.
Biography
Allen was born at Owen Sound.[1] She married Rev. James E. Allen in June, 1880 and they moved to New York in 1885. She became active in the temperance movement.[1] In 1889, Allen was appointed Superintendent of the Department of Non-Alcoholic Medication for the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union.[2] In 1906, she became Superintendent of the Department of Medical Temperance.[2]
Allen campaigned against the medical use of alcoholic liquors and against soft drinks containing drugs.[3] To determine alcohol content Allen took samples of proprietary remedies to the Massachusetts State Board of Health for analysis.[4] The chemists found that the preparations contained from 5 to 40 percent alcohol. She presented the results in 1887 at a convention in Buffalo, New York.[4] Allen published the results in an article, "The Danger and Harmfulness of Patent Medicines" in the Christian Advocate which revealed the presence of alcohol in patent medicines.[2][4] She campaigned against the use of whisky in the treatment of tuberculosis.[2] Allen attempted to persuade the Massachusetts Medical Association to denounce the use of alcohol and narcotics.[4]
As Superintendent of the Department of Medical Temperance she was involved in a national program that exposed dangerous patent medicines and liquid foods.[4] The department aimed to convince medical authorities to discontinue prescribing alcohol. The national department sent 25,000 leaflets to local and state unions outlining their objectives.[4] Allen reported that non-alcoholic medicine was "growing in favor" and new members were specializing in activism. The department was responsible for generating a large amount of pure drink and temperance literature.[4]
Allen represented the United States at the Twelfth International Congress on Alcoholism held in London in 1909.[1][2] She authored Alcohol a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, in 1900.[1] A new issue was published in 1910 and copies were placed in medical libraries across Canada and the United States.[2] A review in the Journal of the American Medical Association commented that it is "worthy of respectful consideration by physicians, though all may not accept fully its conclusions".[5] It has been described as the first book that provided evidence against fraudulent patent medicine testimonials.[4]
Selected publications
- Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine (1900)
References
- ^ a b c d Hoolihan, Christopher. (2008). An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform, Volume 3. University of Rochester Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-58046-284-6
- ^ a b c d e f Cherrington, Ernest Hurst. (1925). Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem, Volume 1. American Issue Publishing Company. pp. 145–146
- ^ Who's Who Among North American Authors, Volume 1. Golden Syndicate Publishing Company, 1921. p. 5
- ^ a b c d e f g h Goodwin, Lorine Swainston. (1999). The Pure Food, Drink, and Drug Crusaders, 1879-1914. McFarland. pp. 123–125. ISBN 978-0-7864-2742-0
- ^ "Alcohol a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine". JAMA. 55 (6): 523. 1910. doi:10.1001/jama.1910.04330060075035.
External links
- Works by Martha Meir Allen at Project Gutenberg
- v
- t
- e
- Bangladesh
- Canada
- Finland
- Iceland
- India
- Iran
- Russia / Soviet Union
- United States
- 18th Amendment (U.S. Constitution)
- 21st Amendment (U.S. Constitution)
- American Mafia
- American Temperance Society
- Anti-Saloon League
- Association Against the Prohibition Amendment
- Bathtub gin
- Blaine Act
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
- Bureau of Prohibition
- Cullen–Harrison Act
- Dry county
- Islam
- Jazz Age
- Local option
- Medicinal Liquor Prescriptions Act of 1933
- Molly Pitcher Club
- Moonshine
- Neo-prohibitionism
- Roaring Twenties
- Rum-running
- Rum Patrol
- Rum row
- Speakeasy
- Swedish prohibition referendum, 1922
- Teetotalism
- Temperance movement
- Temperance (Scotland) Act 1913
- United Kingdom Alliance
- Volstead Act
- Voluntary Committee of Lawyers
- Webb–Kenyon Act
- Wickersham Commission
- Willis–Campbell Act
- Woman's Christian Temperance Union
- Martha Meir Allen
- Harry J. Anslinger
- Lyman Beecher
- Al Capone
- Mickey Duffy
- Waxey Gordon
- Texas Guinan
- Frank Hamer
- J. Edgar Hoover
- Clinton N. Howard
- Bumpy Johnson
- Enoch L. Johnson
- Norman Kerr
- Meyer Lansky
- Frederic Richard Lees
- Lucky Luciano
- Sam Maceo
- Owney Madden
- Joseph Malins
- William McCoy
- Bugs Moran
- Carrie Nation
- Eliot Ness
- Roy Olmstead
- The LaMontages brothers
- Lanzetta Brothers
- The Purple Gang
- George Remus
- Arnold Rothstein
- Howard Hyde Russell
- Dutch Schultz
- Eliza Thompson
- William Harvey Thompson
- Andrew Volstead
- Wayne Wheeler
- Frances Willard
- Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith
- National Prohibition Party (UK)
- Prohibition Party (USA)
- Scottish Prohibition Party
- Prohibition (2011 documentary miniseries)