Temperance essays, and selections from different authors / collected and edited by Edward C. Delavan. Also a treatise on tobacco / by John H. Cocke.

  • Delavan, Edward C. (Edward Cornelius), 1793-1871.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance essays, and selections from different authors / collected and edited by Edward C. Delavan. Also a treatise on tobacco / by John H. Cocke. 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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    TO THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. Officers and Soldiers: I have been requested to prepare an appeal to the Army of the United States, officers and privates, in favor of Temperance. I have been assured the motive would be appreciated. Permit me to express to you my astonishment and wonder at what has taken place since the first gun was fired in this terrible war. Your antagonists have been as fearless and as brave as you are; but the great and remarkable fact is, that you, to the number of about a million of men, have given up voluntarily your domestic pursuits, your homes, relatives and friends, to yield your lives, if need be, on the battle field, for your country's sake Words cannot do justice to the sub- limity of this wonderful fact. The historian will record it to your never ending fame. I am well aware how delicate a point it is, for an individual to advise as to the personal habits of even his own brother. This difficulty may be surmounted by your considering me your Physician on Alcohol, as well as your brother in the bonds of our common humanity. I can assure you, I have studied for about thirty-five years the effect of Alcohol on the human system, and my experience and advice may benefit some of you. Let me commence by rssuring you, that even in pure intoxicating wine, beer, cider, as well as all kinds of distilled spirit, Alcohol is the substance for which all these various liquors are desired and drunk. Let us see what Alcohol is. VYe will begin by acknowledging it to be a good creature of God, for certain purposes; but never good for pour- ing down one's throat as a beverage, any more than burning coals are good to be taken into your hands. It is classed by medical and scien- tific men of the highest grade, as a poison, and if prescribed as a med- icine, should be prescribed with as much care as any other poison. But is is a most dangerous remedy at any rate, and millions of drunk- ards have been made by the unguarded prescription of alcohol by their physicians. Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, in his great work on medical jurisprudence, remarks: that alcohol, whether found in rum, brandy or wine, is a poison, is conceded on all hands. European, as well as numerous American physicians and chemists, fully support Dr. Beck. Bev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College—yet living—an abstainer of half a