Intemperance and tight lacing considered in relation to the laws of life.

  • Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Intemperance and tight lacing considered in relation to the laws of life. 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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    of friends one minute, and the bitterest of enemies the next, producing that irregularity which we have already shown to constitute vice. Philoprogenitiveness, or parental attachment, is also located in the lower portion of the hind head, and hence the balf-intoxicated father will foolishly fondle his hoy, talking to him all sorts of nonsense, to be followed up by a cruel beating, thus destroying even-handed govern- ment, and spoiling the lad. Liquor excites conversation, because Lan- guage is in the lowest part of the forehead ; but as the reasoning organs, which manufacture ideas, are in the upper portion of the forehead, and therefore not only not stimulated but actually weakend by it, the drinker talks, talks, talks all the time, but says nothing. *He talks words only, not ideas. How foolish, how destitute of sense and reason, of thought and refinement, is the conversation not only of drunkards, but of those who stimulate themselves only moderately ! Witness bar- room conversation. A Byron, half intoxicated, may indeed write his Don Juan, and like productions,—may compose poetry mostly addressed to the passions of men : but no one in this state ever wrote a Paradise Lost, a Thompson’s Seasons, a Locke on the human Understanding, Brown’s Mental Philosophy, or Parker on religion. A Pit, a Fox, a Sheridan, not to name cases in our own country, maybe eloquent when partially intoxicated, yet theireloquencewillbe characterized by sarcasm, severe invective, denunciation, declamation, hyperbole, narration, and a remarkable flow of words, &c., rather than by argument, or profundity, or clear deduction, from first principles, nor will it be freighted with rich ideas. But before alcohol can pi-oduce eloquence, a quality far inferior to reasoning power, the individual requires a peculiarity of temperament and phrenological developments not found in one man in millions ; while it wfill destroy the power of all the other organs. Again : over-excitement produces that confusion which prevents the advantageous exercise of one’s powers ; and alcoholic drinks by sur- charglng both the muscles and brain with excitement, prevent the even, equable, harmonious and advantageous expenditure of that strength, both mental and physical, which is thus unnaturally called forth. Virtue, vice and intellect depend more upon what we eat and drink, than upon almost any other cause. A depraved appetite inflames and diseases the stomach ; this corrupts and inflames the blood, which, by fevering and exciting the body, thereby stimulates the animal pro- pensities and weakens the moral and reasoning powers. This is par- ticularly true of alcoholic drinks. These drinks are sometimes taken to drown trouble, but we see that they are particularly calculated to augment it, except that of a guilty conscience, which they do indeed drown.* Having clearly shown that alcoholic drinks produce vice by stimula- ting our merely animal, and weakening our higher, nobler powers, we reverse the principle, and observe that they cause vice and misery, sec- ondly, by paralizing these organs. These drinks produce vice, first, by inflaming Amativeness, and producing licentiousness, and secondly, by deadening connubial and parental love, thus unfitting him for discharg- ing his obligations to his family, and leaving them a prey to the un- governed fury of his Combativeness and Destructiveness, besides de- stroying all the enjoyments growing out of the healthful exercise of the domestic feelings. Accordingly, the modevato drinker forsakes the vir- tuous and delightful fire-s de for the bar-room, while the drunkard in- humanly beats or murders his wife and children. The moderate drinker’s Combativeness and Destructiveness, are stim- ulated to fighting and revenge, while those of the drunkard are so dead- ened, that he will not and cannot take the part of his family, nor even of himself, so that a little boy may impose on him with impunity. He • They only drown it for a time. It rises again, and tortures more terribjy than ever.—J. B.