Temperance prize essays / By Drs. Mussey and Lindsly.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance prize essays / By Drs. Mussey and Lindsly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    eas a FS te ee Bi Ra iy ee oT ee INT te ae ee? ee fe lane ote ad ts r 80 CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM a @ agent and keeper of the Penitentiary at Auburn, Auburn Priss N. Y. declared, that during sev dah on years’ residence in that institution, he had never known an individual whose health had not been benefited by the total abstraction of spirit and every other stimulant drink and nar- cotic from his diet. This testimony is very im- portant, inasmuch as a large proportion of the whole number of convicts when admitted to that establishment are drinkers of alcoholic liquors, from tippling to beastly drunkenness. ‘These drinkers,’ said Mr. P. are generally very uneasy and nervous, and sometimes greatly distressed for ten or fifteen days after being put upon water as their exclusive beverage ; but after that period they have a good appetite, increase in flesh, and become healthy.’ A considerable number are annually received and discharged; the average number remaining in the penitentiary, was six hundred. 1 med never seen so large a congrega- tion of men so healthy looking as these convicts, when they came into. the chapel on Sabbath morning to hear a sermon from their chaplain. Some of these men were sixty years old when ad- mitted, and were confirmed drunkards. The evidence furnished by all our state prisons, where similar discipline is practised, is of the same cha- racter. A wealthy farmer in Sullivan county, New Hampshire, had been in the habit of drinking spirit for a number of years, and during the hay- ing season he often used it freely. With more than ordinary activity of mind and a vigorous bodily constitution, he attained the age of seven-