Extracts from Dr. Benjamin Rush's Inquiry into the effects of ardent spirits upon the human body and mind.

  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813.
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extracts from Dr. Benjamin Rush's Inquiry into the effects of ardent spirits upon the human body and mind. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    inhabitants of cities?—Behold their houses stripped gradually of their furniture, and pawned, or sold by •a constable, to pay tavern debts! See their names upon record in the dockets of every court, and whole pages of newspapers filled witii advertise- ments of their estates for public sale ! Arc they in- habitants of country places? Behold their houses with shattered windows,—their barns with leaky roofs,—their gardens overrun with weeds,—their iields with broken fences, their hogs without yokes, —their sheep without wool,—their cattle and horses without fat,—and their children filthy, and half clad, without manners, principles, and morals! This pic- ture of agricultural wretchedness is seldom of long duration. The farms and property thus neglected, and depreciated, are seized and sold for the benefit of a group of creditors. The children that were born with the prospect of inheriting them, arc bound out to service in the neighbourhood; while their parents, the unworthy authors of their misfortunes, ramble into new and distant settlements, alternately led on their way by the hand of charity, or a little casual labour. Thus we see poverty and misery, crimes and in- famy, disease and death, are all the natural and usual consequences of the intemperate use of ardent spirits. I shall now take notice of the occasions and cir- cumstances which are supposed to render the use of ardent spirits necessary, and endeavour to shew that the arguments in favour of their use in such cases are founded in error, and that in each of them, ar- dent spirits, instead of affording strength to the body, increase the evils they are intended to relieve. 1. They arc said to he necessary in very cold wea- ther. This is far from being true; for the temporary warmth they produce, is always succeeded by a greater disposition in the body to be affected by cold*