Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease.

  • Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885.
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tallow candles melted and fell over with the heat, and fresh hands from the country fainted away; and where gin was taken at seven o'clock in the morning to get the strength up for the day's work, and re- peated three or four times in the subse- quent ten hours. And then look at the consequences upon the health of the men, whose average age is not above thirty-two years, owing to the large mortality from consumption; whilst, at fifty, they are considered as superannuated. W e have here an example that speaks strongly for itselt. And applying this result to other cases, we think it will be admitted that when the tolerance of such nuisances as exist in the dwellings and workshops of our labouring population depends upon the use ot ier- mented liquors, it is nothing else than an unmixed evil. We might have added much upon other topics connected with the therapeutic use of alcohol; hut our limited space compels us to leave it with only one observation. The whole medical art is based upon ex- perience; and the value of any remedy can only be fairly tested by the omission of it in some of the cases in which it has been reputed to be most successful. Nothing can be stronger than the reputation which alco- holic stimulants have acquired, as aflordmg efficient aid in the maintenance ot the bodily strength under circumstances cal- culated to exhaust it; and yet the most unimpeachable testimony has shown the fallacy cf this opinion, and has put uni- versal experience' quite in the wrong, bo it has sometimes happened that medical men have assured staunch teetotalers that they would die unless they adniitted alco- hol into their system as a medicine ; but the patients, being obstinate, did neither, thus falsifying the prediction in a very un- expected measure, and proving tha e experience of doctors is not more infallible tiian that of the public. We should gladly, also, have discussed the question, whether the sudden and complete disuse, or the slow and gradual aiminution, of the allowance of fermented liquors, in cases where intemperate habits nre to be reformed, is the least injurious to I'e constitution. But this, too we must dismiss with tho brief observation that considering the large ^er of habitua drunkards who have adopted *f '^^ course, tho number of cases of dcliuum i remens that have occurred in consoquence has been marvellously small. If the moral strength could be relied on to adopt the more gradual method, we should consider it as safer on the whole; but in those who have been subjected to the degrading in- fluence of frequent intoxication, and have acquired that craving for liquor which must be regarded as constituting a diseased condition, every taste of the forbidden gratification occasions a fresh conflict with the better nature, to which it is most dan- gerous to subj ect it, and the shortest method is generally the safest. We now recommend this important subject to the beat attention of our readers. We speak as unto wise men; and we ask for nothing but a candid and dispassionate hearing. ADDENDUM. Since the above was written, an instance has been related to us by the very best authority (an officer of the regiment), strongly confirmatory of the observations made at p. 15, and proving that our Eng- lish soldiers in India not only do not suffer from, but are absolutely benefited by, total abstinence from ardent spirits during marches. In the early part of the present year the 84th regiment marched by wings from Madras to Secunderabad, a distance of between four and five hundred miles. They were forty-seven days on the road, and during this time the men were, prac- tically speaking, teetotalers. Previous to leaving Madras, subscriptions made among the men, and a coffee establishment was organized. Every morning, when the tents were struck, a pint of hot coffee and a biscuit were ready for each man, instead of the daily morning dram, which soldiers on the march in India almost invariably take. Half way on the day s march the regiment halted, and another pmt of coffee wis ready for any man who ^'>shedjt The regimental canteen was opened only .at ten and twelve o'clock for a .f time hut the men did not frequent it; and the daily consumption of arrack for one wing was only two'gallons and a few dram per diem, instead of twenty-seven gallon*. which was the daily g:'^™-^'.T^^^e The commanding officer fM^ed ^« niost judicious precautions to F^v^n 'l^e men from obtaining arrack in on the route, and his ^'^ertions were ef fectivoly seconded by tho zca-lous co-opora- t'o of the other officers, and by the admira- ble conduct of the majority ol the men, who were fully persuaded of the noxious m-