Permanent temperance documents, of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Permanent temperance documents, of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    520/540 (page 42)
    [556 tide of diet. Tlieir action upon the stomach, and viscera, is decidedly injurious; while their effect upon the system in gen- eral is most unfavorable, and of a nature which tends to under- mine all the powers, mental and corporeal.’ At this time the temperance reformation had not begun. The writer of this article, in this passage, had in view simply the ac- tion of a matter of diet upon the human system. The article evinced him to be master of his subject; practical as well as learned. His opinion was obviously formed with care; not a speculative suggestion, but the instruction of enlightened investi- gation. It taught me, that what I was daily using, and believed myself under necessity to continue to use, acted with decided in- jury upon the stomach and viscera, the very seat of health and life, and with baneful effect upon the mental powers, the impair- ing of which is justly ranked as the most dreadful and alarmimt of the evils of our present state. Such, however, was the ef- fect upon my mind of prejudice, arising from the habit I had contracted by medical advice, that for several years I remained under the conviction, that the use I made of spirituous liquor, was beneficial, indeed necessary, to my health. I supposed that this use was peculiarly suited to my constitution; that I needed it, and was not liable to the same detriment that would result to more robust frames and sanguine temperaments. But I was led into a course of inquiry, observation, and experiment; and at last, in the beginning of May 1827, 1 abandoned the use of spiritous liquor. During this time, I had made trial of porter, ale, and strong beer ; and I had been convinced, that these liquors were injurious to me. On abandoning the use of spirit uous liquor, in May 1827, as the received doctrine of the time was, that there must be some substitute, I used wine ; procuring the kind most approved by physicians, and the purest of that kind. I began with the daily use of two common wine glasses diluted with an equal quantity of water ; I diminished this to one wine glass, diluted in like manner; and in about four months, near the end of August 1827, I discontinued the use of wine ; confining myself, for drink, to w'ater, with the exception of the customary use of tea and coffee; and I have since entirely ab- stained from the use, either for medicine or beverage, of all in- toxicating liquor. When I commenced this course of total abstinence, August 1827, the temperance reformation had not reached us. My de- termination was the result of careful and long continued investi- gation. I had used intoxicating liquors, in the full persuasion, that this use was beneficial, indeed, indispensable to my enjoy- ment of health. It was only by diligently searching facts, and bringing them together, (facts which, without my attention being