Address before the Philadelphia County Medical Society : delivered January 30, 1861 / by Isaac Remington ... at the close of his official term as president ; published by order of the Society.

  • Remington, Isaac, 1804-1862.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address before the Philadelphia County Medical Society : delivered January 30, 1861 / by Isaac Remington ... at the close of his official term as president ; published by order of the Society. 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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    tenuation of wrong; and thus by directing your attention to the correction of existing evils and abuses, to endeavor to elevate the standard of our profession in virtue, knowledge and usefulness. Charles Lamb, the Essayist, gives us his sad experience in the following pathetic language:— The waters have gone over me. But out of the black depths could I be heard, I would cry out to all those who have set a foot in the perilous flood. Could the youth to whom the flavor of the first wine is delicious as the opening scenes of life, or the entering upon some newly discovered paradise, look into my desolation and be made to understand what a dreary thing it is, when he shall feel himself going down a precipice with open eyes and a passive will; to see his destruction, and have no power to stop it, and yet feel it all the way emanatiDg from himself; to see all godliness emptied out of him, and yet not be able to forget a time when it was other- wise ; to bear about the piteous spectacle of his own ruin ; could he see my fevered eye, feverish with the last night's drinking, and feverishly looking for to-night's repetition of the folly; could he but feel the body of the death out of which I cry hourly with feebler outcry to be delivered, it were enough to make him dash the sparkling beverage to the earth, in all the pride of its mantling temptation. Fermented drinks when received into the stomach produce effects far less injurious than those of the alcoholic class. They first ex- hilarate, stimulate and exalt the physical and mental powers, and may even augment the appetite and impart tone to the digestive function; but when carried to excess and too long indulged in, invariably stupefy, brutalize, narcotize and destroy life. The passion for indulgence in intoxicating drinks when once acquired, by habit becomes irresistible, though at first offensive and revolting to the taste, and the poor inebriate given up to his own insatiate cravings, is doomed to a life of endless misery, degra- dation and woe. Alcohol is a poison of intense activity, and kills in large doses rapidly, in smaller doses more gradually, but none the less surely. It produces fatty degenerations of the liver and other organs; cirrhosis, diseases of the brain, apoplexy, delirium tremens, epilepsy, insanity, fatuity ; diseases of the lungs, heart, and arteries; of the stomach and bowels; kidneys and skin; gout and rheuma- tism ; dropsies, palsies, scrofula, premature decay, to which black