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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmte en commenpant par la premldre page qui comporte une empreinte d'Impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernlire page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: ie symbols — ► signlfie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signlfie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, 11 est filmA A partir de i'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'Images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 4 S 6 I TUB PI <^/^r ANTI-BACCHUS: AN ESSAY ON THE EVILS CONNECTED WITH THE VSE Or INTOXICATING DRINKS. , l.\ THIS WOUK, THB cnAUACTEU OF THE WINES OF SCRIPTUIIE 18 SETTLED IN ACCOROANCH WITH THE INDUCTIOS OF SCIENCE AND THE FACTS OF UI8TORT. BY THE REV. U . PARSONS, OP STUOUD, CLOUCESTEHSUinE, ENGLAND. Aptffroi/ flip vcup. — Pindar. Utnis&imum vinum omnibus sacco viribus fractis. — Pliny. It is not tor kings to drink wine, nor princes stronf^ drink. — Solomon. i§3ii(S®5jj® (s.^m&.wjE^ F,m")s^n®ss. MONTREAL: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED DY CAMPBELL & BECKET, WATSON'S BUILDINGS, PLACE d'aAMES IULL. 1842. 9, 111 CONTENTS i I CHAPTER I. On th* Criinpn, Loss of Character, &c., connected with Drinking. — !. Mur- ders. 2. Dishonesty. 3. Prostitu- tion. 4. Sabbath-lirenking. .5. Inju- ries inflicted on Families. 6. Injuries to the Church by the Sins of Ministers, Members, Hopeful Converts, &c. In this Chapter, much of the evidence la drawn from the Parliamentary Report on Drunkenness CI'APTER II. On Diseases, Deaths, &c. from Drink- ing 1. The Testimonies of the most distinguished Medical Men. 2. Al- cohol a poison. 3. The Physiology of the Human Frame examined In con- nection with Drinking. 4. Effects of Intoxlualin? Drinks upnn the Sto- mach, Brain, and Nerves. 5. The many Diseases which may be traced to these Poisons. 6. Cases cited. 7. Testimonies of Coroners, &c. respect- ing Deaths from Drinking. 6. Signa- tures of distinguished Medical Men. 9. Longevity. 10. Synoptical Ta- ble of Diseases from Alcohol. 11. "Weekly Table of Mortality in London. CHAPTER IIL The Great Loss, Waste, Expenditure, &c., connected with Drinking. — 1. Vast sums spent In Intoxicating Li- quors. 2. Hospitals, Lunatic Asylums, Infirmaries, Dispensaries, Prisons, Courtsof Justice, Police, &c. 3. Pro- perty lost on land. 4. Property and Life lost at sea. 5. Property stolen. 6. Poor Rates, Time Misspent, Ex- pense of Medical Men, Drugs, &c. 7. Small quantity of manual labour required to produce these beverages. 8. Barley, Grain, Apples, Grapes, wasted, or rather converted into Poi- sons. 9. Lands unprofitably employed. 10. Labourers deceived and cheated by these drinks CHAPTER IV. On Fermentation, Alcoholic Drinks, Nutrition, &c. — 1. Sugar, or Saccha- rine Matter. 2. Requisites to Fer- mentation. 3. Vinous, Acetous, Pa- nary, and Patrefactive Fermentation. 27 50 4. Distillation. !>. Proportion of A l- cohiil In dilferent Intoxicating bever- ages. 6. Gin, Brandy, &c. 7. Al- cohol unknown to the Ancients. H. The natural strength of dllTerent Fer- mented Wines. 9. Malt Liquors. 10. Nutriment in Barley, Apples, F\ii*, &c. 11. Pigs fed on Apples. 12. Small degree of Nutriment in Wines. 13. Letters to Brother John quoted. 14. Inebriating I^iquors not needed for Food, for Tliirst, nor for Medicine. 15. Spontaneous Combustion. lt>. Adulteration of Beer, Wine, Porter, &c .08 CHAPTER V. History of Inebriating and of LTnfermcnted Drinks. — 1. Various kinds of Intoxi- cating SubstnnL-cs. 2. Obstructions to Fermentation in Hot Countries. 3. Boiling of Wines mentioned by Pliny, Columella, Mr. Buckingham, and others. 4. Drugs mixed with the Juice of the Grape, shown by Columel- la, Pliny, Homer, Lowth, &c. 5. Different kinds of Wine, innumerable, proved from Virgil, Pliny, Columella, &c. 6. Variousmeaningsof the word Wine. 7. Receipts for making Un- fiirmented Wine, from Columella and Pliny. 8. " VInum Lixlvum." — " Semper Dulce," " Aigleuces," &c. 9. Testimony of Aristotle concerning; Wines that would not Intoxicate ; of Polybius, Pliny, Horace, and Plutarch. 10. Dilution of Wines. 11. Grecian Wines. 12. Roman Wines; Opimian, Falernlan the only Wine that would burn. 13. Inertlculum, or Amethys- tos, Sober Wine; Cato's Family Wine, &c. 14. Pliny and Dr. Ure on fil- tering Wines, and thereby preventing Fermentation. 15. "Utilisslmum VI- num" of Pliny. IG. Plutarch on Winei that would not Intoxicate. 17. Theophrastus, Delphin Notes on Ho- race. 18. Unlntoxicating Wines the most popular. 19. Ancient idea of the term Drunkard, Triconglus. 20. On the term Wine, Port, Sherry, Ste. ; Gleucos, Hepsema, Sirieum, Passum, Defrutum, Sapa, Protropum, Mjistum, Stum, &c. 21. Wormwood Wine, Wine drunk by Noah, Lot, and Pha- raoh. 22. Grapes eaten; Chaldeans, ^MMMjMoai \r. CONTKNTS. A-yiiaiK, Pir^ians. 23. Wiiios of IliiiiiiT, Alrxniiilfr, ntid Aiiilrucyili-s, 21. Itiiiniiiis, Aiir'u'iit IW'iloiis. :>ri. Ti'-titiioiiics (il'tlic Aiicii'iits rcspi'i'liiii; llii- injurious t'll'icts of Iiituxicnlini; Wjiii'^; Aristfdii', I'liny, «'s|(i'(iiilly Pliilii-.luilii'us ClIAI'TKIl VI. Oil till' H( iititnciits of S(ri|iturp, ro- ^|>Pilini; Wines, &c. — Dilimnt Ilf- liit'w wonh tran>lati'(l Uy t!n> wuril AViu<.._yiiyin, "V»ii;L';" TimOi, " \i\v V inc ;" (:;»ianicr, " LJcil NViiii-;" ISIcscIc, " Mixi'd Wine;" Slifinai'iin, "Winn iin tlio lees." or Iirc.-.«'rvr(l WIno; S:il)a, •' astuiiclyiMtf \i iiie;" Sliacar, "Sti'oiitj IJrink," or ratlicr ii sweet UiinU. Asliislial), lla^tuis or jireserves. Uai^iiis uv dried Mtriic- tlve character; indeed, is ln'come the parent nt'most of the oriinci* which sMMiiirge lliu land. Some there are, no dmiht, who will Im startled at this rnnoluisiiin. They may say, " Man i» naturally depraved, and has been a murderer and a sensualist in ages proverbial for sobriety; and, therefore, if deprived of the impulse of this baneful spirit, he will still be the same." To this we reply, thnt, if naturally depraved and disposed to commit every crime, then, surely we need not add to his corrupt propen- sities the inspirations of alcohol. The strong man, it seems, is armed already and fully equipped for all the purposes of destruction, and therefore, we should imagine, that none but a demon would propose to make him worse. All will admit thnt, savage as the barbarian may be, intoxicating drinks will increase his rage n thousand-fold, and, on that account, ought to be withheld. But waving this argument, on which at present we will not enlarge, we beg to remind our readers that the state of society is changed. Among heathen nations, whether enlightened or ignorant, the standard of morals was aw- fully low. In most instances, their religion allowed, and the examples of their gods sanc- tioned, every s|>ecies of cruelty and depravity. The votaries of Venus could hardly be ex- pected to be chaste, nor the woi'shipers of Saturn, Jove, Mars, or Woden, to be humane or holy. The inspirations of alcohol were not needed to prompt these people to vice, or to arm them with unholy courage ; their religion taught them to be wicked, and inspi- rited them with energy for the committal of whatever was cruel and depraved. They called " evil good and good evil." By mur- ders, adulteries, dishonesty, and revenge, they did their gods service. People educated in those schools of paganism could set but little value upon human life, upon personal purity, and the rights of property. But things are changed. The laws of Christianity are " holy, just, and good." Among Christian nations the murdi>rer is a monster avoided by all ; sensuality and revenge are condemned and threatened with the severest visitations of Divine indignation Now, wo all know (he extensive intluencr of I'duitation. By its amazing power, the Hindoo, who is naturally so mild and gentle ns to dread to deprive the meanest animal of life, is perverted into a murilerer who feels ii {ileasiire in applying the torch to the pile, which is to consume his own mother to ashes. Indeed, what else is there which could have made such a vast diifercnce In the man- ners, customs, and habits of the nations of the earth, except the ditferent schools in which they have been trained ? Human souls are, for the most part, originally the same; cli- mate and food cannot satisfactorily account for the diversity of human character, for the Christian can breathe every atmosphere which man can breathe, and live on every kind of food by which life can be supported, and yet be a Christian. And, further, his principles can make Christians from men of every climate and of every mode of life. Education, therefore, forms the character of the man. Let us, then, bear this in mind, and duly consider thnt in Britain, imperfect as all our modes of training hnve hitherto been, certain religious principles current among us which are eminently humane, chaste, and holy, under whose sacred influ- ences our national character has been won- derfully improved. Heathenism sears the conscience, but Christianity both enlightens it and renders it tender. In savage lands, the inurderer buries his dagger in the breast of ii s brother without any compunction, nniin she saw him coming, lartled, and said, ** how poor gentleman ?" — n-ardly rnscal," said the e him the remains of a ', obtained for the oc* the whiskey, murdered was tried and hanged t rgotten that this young • have been one of the rs in the country, except uence of strong drink.* that one such Instimce ifficient to make every re he touched an Intox- Here we have a woman ; the advanced age of staring her in the face, monster, or, rather, n ave two sons taught by shed human blood, one ays on the gallows, and ler to be the prey of re- low the example set by er. Here, also, one hu- sdly, perhaps unprepared, t, and, in a little time, is e awful tribunal by the 1 were stained with his : is herel Human life, »ry Report, y. 229. Innn.tn Iceliiie, human iliarnctir, and hu- man Houl are Hucrirtced ! For aught we know, llie iracrdy, black as it apiiears, in not hall' seen on earth, the more itwl'ul and tre- Hienilous parts of the drainn may be nom- |il)-ted in perdition. Yet nil this may be traeed to the demoniaiial influence of intoxi- i-jiting drinks. Hardened as was the gray- headed old monster of a parent, and depraved n^ the son of Kuch a mother would prolmltiy lie, yet both required the inspirations of whis- key to quaiiry them for the deed. The murders of the three Kaneellys, in the county of Tipperary, was the etTect of intoxication. The assasHins only intended to frighten the olijectN of their vengeance ; but the ringleader of the transaction gave his associates a few glikNHes of whiskey, and maddened by the poison, nothing could satisfy them but blood.* The burning of the Sheas, in the same county, woM brought alHiut by ardent spirits. A young man of twenty, who was implicated in that horrid deed, being asked how he could take part in so base and cowardly a crime, replied, " I was made drunk, and by the aid of whis- key would not oidy commit such another crime, but twenty others lilISIIAN< '■• ANI» (HIMK. AKhdiiK lit n pulilio huuM ; an«l in priM'ccdiiiK lo till) lo(k-u|>, wiM ktruck by thi> |irlMiii«r Mith a HiNiile. Till* prliMMiiT MatcxcUHi*, tliut he wiM in u ntute of excMilve iutoxicJition." " Jiilin WIlllnmHon, a \vnt<:htnaii, waa ac- qiiitt<>d un the char|{e ofl(illln|{ John Shei^nan, on ths I Ith of Noveinb«!r. It iippvarpd the priaoner had intiTfered to i|ucli a drunken riot, ill which ShPKiian wait killed." " Peter Erkentley, rharged with having hiaiii Peter Oleave, on the I l:h February, at Winwirk. The parties hud been drinking together at a pultlic houve. They went out and fou|{ht three or four round* in the lane ; find then went into the field, and fought fourteen or fifteen round)* more, when the priHoner Mtruck the deceaiied a blow on the neck, which proved fatal." " Joseph Charnoc-k waa indirted for having killed John Whitehead, at Holtoii>le«moor«. It appean that at a wedding-party, celebrated nt a beer-dhiip, two of the party quarreled, and began to fi|iht. The prisoner, who was intoxicated. Interfered, and kicked the de- ceased violently, till he fell down and expired." " Edward Lowe, ehar|{ed with haviii); slain John Adamson, at Winwick, on the 1 9th of August last. It appeared that the prisoner nnd the deceased were drinking together at the lied Lion public house, Ashton. Both hud lli|uor, when a quarrel took place, and the deceased wns thrown against a wall, and his neck wus dislocated." " Thomas Hayes was indicted for killing and slaying Lawrence Robinson, at a beer- shop in Salford. A quarrel ensued, when the prisoner struck the deceased n blow on the right eye, of which he died. The prisoner acknowledged that he had got some drink." " Wlllinin Hill, charged with the murder of Betty Minshull, at Warrin)rton. The pri- soner had been drinking at the Leigh Arms till about midnight, of which place the de- ceased was the housekeeper." " John Davis, charged with the wilful murder of his wife. The prisoner came home, afler having had some drink, and quarreled with his wife, who also had been drinking. When she was attempting to make her escape out of the cellar, he pulled her down, and brutally abused her, so as to cause her death."* Here, in this short narrative, we have at one assize nine cases of murder tried, and each one originating in drinking ; and if one Lent Assize, in one pluce, presented so many murders, what must be the whole amount for England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, for the last year only ? — One's heart sickens at the tiiought. And if, instead of one year, we go Imck fur a century, and examine the Newgate Calendar, the criminal records of i>aih city and county in the British empire, and the inquests of coroners which have been taken during that period, what a mass of <'riine and cruelty, jierpetratrd under the ♦ L.iv«8Py'3 Moral Heformer, May IS38, influence of intoxicuting drink*, will Ite pre- ■eiited I It is highly prolHtlile that the num- ber of Engliihinen slain during the lute war, does not equal the amount of those that have perished during the lust century. In conse- quence of drinking. Such a scene Is sufficient to harrow up the feelings of the hardest heart, nnd make the most relentless and selrtih resolve never again to touch or taste liquors which have occasioned so many mur- ders, and in such awful forms. Few of i>», perhaps, have estimated the value of the life of Olio human being. He, '* who weighs th« mountains In a s«!al0, and the hills In a bal- ance," is the only Being that can tell Its worth; and, that ha considers It Inflnlteiy pre*;ious, Is evident from various facts. H« has hedged it about with the most solemn commands and threutenings ; fur its suste- nnnce ha hus compounded the air, the wuter, and the rich and manifold profusion of veg- etable and animal nutriment; for Its security and preservation, a thousand safety-valves, both within us and around us, have been provided by His paternal care. In our bo- soms, too, he has Implanted an intense attach- ment to life, stronger than any other natural feeling : " Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life." To feed and sustain our life the lungs, the blood-vessels, the heart, and the pulse, incessantly toil ; and like their Divine Creator, neither <* slum- ber nor sleep." To hold us In being, the laboratory of nature Is worked without the least intermission ; angels are our guards, " lest we dash our foot against a stone ;" and even the perfections of the Deity, are prof- fered as our shield. Divine justice, in one moment, heard the voice of Abel's blood, and doomed his murderer to be a fugitive and a vagabond — to be a monument of vengeancu himself; and, by the mark on his forehead to announce to all with whom he conversed, that sevenfold retribution awaited the monster who should Imitate his example. The holy oracles tell us that " murderers shall not inherit the kingdom of God." The omnipo- tence of Jehovah guards us ; his bounty feeds us; his pity heals our infirmities; his provi- dence holds our souls in life, and crowns our existence " with goodness, loviiig-kindness, and tender mercy. " What a favorite of Hea- ven, then, is man ; and what an inestimable treasure, in the mind of the Deity, is human life ! Yet this precious boon, of which sav- ages will not allow themselves to be robbed without a struggle, and which every aober man, educated in a Christian country, looks upon with awe, is treated as a thing of naught by those whom intoxicating drinks have inflamed, and bereft of feeling. Under the Impulse and inspiration of these homicidal poisons, myriads of the human family have been hurried, uncalled, and too often unpre- |>ared, to the bar of the Eternal. Human blood is us lightly esteemed as water, and poured upon the earth with as little reverence, Ml IIDKKH. It mity lt<* Miiil of iiiloxIciitiiiK ilriiik, (w it it Niiiil oi' SiitAii, thnt It " hiu lif^ii m iiiur- iliTer rroiii tliM lieKltinii));." ()ii« iniirdfr liiiH MMiiiMiiiiea «tru<'k tliu luhfr iNtrt of th*' c^tnimiiiiUy with liorror, friiiii liind'a eii hiiil n full und |Mr- ticular Mluti'ini'iit of tho ri-nl cuuae of th« dt.tth of eviTy child, wife, and parent of drunkard'*, every nt!vv«piij>er nilKht till nd- nmna with detnlla of the murdi'roua elfects of these p<-rnicioua iM'veragea. IntoxiiMiiing drink*, aa teHtifled by aeveral witnoMaea, before the llouxe of Coinmona, and by a thouwixl other n)eilical testimonies, pre- dlapoited UH fur the cholera, prepared amongst n« an asylum for that deatroying angel, and led him through the length and breadth of the land. Not, indeed, that aleohol aaka for the aid uf the cholera, the peatilence, or the plague. Thia giant peat, aa if independent of heaven, earth, and hell, can destroy alone — f^in, with a magic spell, to which even Satan himaelf never yet laid claim, poison the soundest frame, and, with morvellous ra« pidity inspire the soul, which before waa meek as a lamb, with every infernal passion, and render it callous to every feeling of humanity, purity, justice, and religion. For the truth of the foUowing narrative I have the most satisfactory evidence: — A most industrious and pious woman had the misfor- tune to be the wife of a notorious drunkard. He h'.d conatant work and good wages; but, notwithatantling, would get so much In arrear at the beer-shop, that his poor wife was some- times obliged to pay, out of her own small earnings, the debt that he had contracted for drink, in order that she might thus prevent their goods from being seized. A little beforit her death she had been confined, and, before having properly recovered, went one evening to bring him home from the public-house. Not being ready to accompany her, she waited some time for him In the cold and rain. The consequence was, she took a chill which cou« fined her again tu her bed ; intlunimatiun rapidly followed ; medical advice was needed, but the wretch that should have hurried to obtain It was drinking himself drunk at the public-house, and late In the evening camo home in a state of beastly intoxication ; and, heedless of the pangs and groans of his wife, crawled into her bed. During the night, the paroxysms of pain were such, that, in turning to obtain relief, she rolled out on the floor, and being unable to help herself, there she lay on the cold boards until the morning. He, all this time, was in bed; but, from the stupefaction occasioned by what he had tteeii drinking, remained dea/ to her cries. When the monster did awake, and discovered the scene, he procured meii:cal aid, but it was too late. In a short periuu '''« spirit of the unhappy sufferer was summoneu . « the bar of Heaven, to bear ivltness against the .'liaiii who, at the altar of God, had sworn to nourish and cherish her until death. T> e period of her death will not soon be forgotten. The heavens seemed on fire, the lightnings flashed, and the thunder rolled horrlftcally ; and the moment in which she breathed her 10 I II A INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. lost, wns marked hy one of the most vivid flashes of lightning the spectators ever lieheld. All nature testified against the cruelty, still I am not aware that one person that eve- ning understood the voice. Although the thunder re-echoed the cry of her blood, per- haps not a single individual that night de- nied himself the poison which had occasioned this suffering and death. A family of six or seven children was thus bereft of their only guide ; and but a little time rolhd away be- fore the pregnancy of her eldest unmarried daughter told the sad tale, that suffering and death are not the only evils attendant on drunkenness. In looking at this case, let us suppose that any husband, instead of shooting, or cutting the throat of a wife whom he was about to destroy, should have adopted the plan of de- priving her of life by a slow and highly-tor- turing process, so that, instead of slaying her at once, he had, by that refined cruelty which the savage Indians of America are said for- merly to have exercised, deprived her of one limb after another, until at last, af^r days of torture, his victim, un:vble to suffer any lon- ger, died under hia hand. What, we ask, would have been the horror and the indigna- tion of the country at hearing that such a crime had been committed in a Christian land? And if it had been discovered that the demon that impelled the guilty man to this deed could be expelled from among us, is there an energy which young or old could com- mand, but would have been employed for the purpose? Now, the fiend that affected all this misery and crime — that first robbed the husband and father of a human heart — that deprived him, or rather impelled him to de- prive himself, of a fond and pious wife, and his children of a kind and godly mother — the fiend that did all this was alcohol, concealed in the insidious draught of beer, or what is called, but falsely called, " a wholesome and nutritious beverage." We are sometimes told that poisonous gosea are in the atmosphere, and even in our food. Granted, they may be ; but nature's compounds, intended for the daily use of man, are none of them chargeable with prompting the human family to commit those outrages which, by all parties, are attributed to the use of intoxicating drinks. When we con- sider the ingenuity that has been employed in |>roducing these pernicious liquors, and the countless millions of ills that have sprung ^rom their influence, surely we shall cease to call them a " good creature of God." As well might we attribute to him the extraction of chlorine or prussio acid, and recommend their daily use, as impiously assert that he formed, or intended intoxicating drinks for the human constitution. Breathing the wholesome air never impels a man to murder his wife, or hate his chil- dren. Bread, and other nutritious liounties of Providence, are never chargeable with being the incentives to barbarity o'ld cruelty; nor can other poisons, generally speaking, be subjected to such an imputation. It is alcohol that, pre-eminently above other articles of diet, possesses power either slowly or rapidly to infect the body, stupify or madden the mind, and harden the heart. Other poisons, for the most part, do their work at once, and instantly destroy the unhappy victim that swallows them ; but intoxicating drinks often work slowly, and by degrees undermine both the hetdth and morals of their votary, and hardly ever allow him to die alone in his iniquity. Wives, children, neighbours, and friends are all involved in the wide- spreading eddy of the devouring element. The plague and the cholera were not half so contagious, nor even famine so petrifying to the human heart. " Even the sea-monsters," says the prophet, "draw out the breast; they give suck to their young ones; the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The t the ten- derest of mothers has spurned him from her breast, and the kindest of fathers driven him from his door, and few persons have charged either of them with injustice. We have mentioned these facts only tO' show that the crime of dishonesty is greater than may at first be supposed. And with this truth before us, let us consider that the coun- try contains its forty, or perhaps its hundred thousand thieves, and that the alehouse is their school, and strong drink the fiend that has inspired and corrupted most of them. Let us also reflect that, through the use of these liquors, thousands are animally educated and trained in dishonesty ; the number of dishon- est females is appalling, and the children of both sexes, from nine years old and upwards, that have been condemned as " incorrigible thieves," present a spectacle terrific in the extreme. To produce proofs on this subject, would be to quote nearly the whole of the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons. Every prison and house of correction in the country, testify to the magnitude of the evil, and agree in attributing its increase, in our highly civilized nation, to the prevalence of drinking. To have among us many thousands of thieves, our own coun- trymen, born on our soil, and that might, but for these venemous drinks, have been the strength and glory of the land, is a solemn fact which ought to make us inquire, whether liquors that have corrupted and destroyed so many valuable citizens, ought not to be ex- pelled from our dwellings ? yfe all have felt our blood chilled, as we have watched the progress of the cholera, and the multitudes it slew, and were all anxious and willing to make any sacrifice to drive the pest from the land. Now let us suppose that there was among us a drink which, instead of being an intoxicating beverage, might be term- ed a cholera liquor, and whose use continued that awful scourge among us, should we deem the man a patriot or a Christian who, after having looked at fifty or a hundred thousand of his countrymen, including some of his own children who had been slain by the poisonous bowl, would either continue to drink himself, or commend to his neighbour so deleterious a draught? Now, dishonesty is worse than the cholera, and has been ten thousand times more destructive. The former preys only upon ri PUOSTITUTION. 15 ri the body, but the latter upon tlie soul ; the former renders our frame a masts of disteaHe, but the latter makes our morals pestilential ; Hud yet the latter, as we have already seen, is, in nine cases out often, the effect of intox- icating habits. Every thief, and dishonest person, might have been a valuable member of society, and the state is not i a condition to sncriliue thousands of citizens witliout feel- ing the loss, much less can it afford to render them depraved, and expose itself to all the Avils that must be attendant upnn their crimes. AVe could not look on a hundred thousand slain without a bleeding heart, but those whom strong drinks have rendered dishonest or vicious, are worse than slain. These are dead whife they live ; intemperance is there- fore a far greater scourge, and a far more ex- pensive evit than the late tremendous war, which cost us so much treasure nnd blood. It "has cast down many mighty men wound- ed, many strong men have been slain by it." In speaking of drinking as originating dis- honesty, we must not forget the more refined shufflers and swindlers, who make use of this pernicious beverage, for the purpose of accom- plishing the most unrighteous transactions. The following well authenticated tale may be token as Kn example of what has been n<;ain and again practised in the commercial world. A gentlecian had offered a certain sum per pound, fM an article which his neighbour had to dispose of; the price was ohjected to, but the buyer was requested to sit down and take a glass of wine. After spending the after- noon in a great deal of apparent friendship and familiarity, they wer ; about to part with- out having come to an agreement, when. ju»t as the one had mounted bis bor>ie, the very hospitable h.ist insisted upon his having " a stirrup gloss" before he left. The glass was administered and taken, and the recipient percsii/ed, by its instantaneous effect upon his head and nrcvesj that it was a draught of no common potency ; and now, when the shuffler tho'jght that \\i- had succeeded in destroying the reation of his customer, he informed him that he should have the wool at the price hk! had offered. Fortunately the buyer, who was a very methodical man of business, had presence of mind enough left to *oke out his pocket-book, and make as good a memoran- duui as his hand, palsied by the poisonous glass, would pernyt. He left, but had a nar- row escape with his life while returning home; the liquor unfitted him to maintain his balance, and his horse threw him into a pond. In the course of time the wool was sent home, and #)!ntually the bill ; but now mark, the price charged was not that which had been agreed upon after the glass in ques- tion had been administered, but that which had been previously refused, and this sum would have been demanded and enforced, had it not been that the swindler was remind- ed of >the '* stirrup glass," and shown the rough memorandum which was mude at the time, and which, from the awkwardness of the scrawl, bore witness to his face the strength of the liquor he had dispensed, and the rob- bery which he intended that it should enable him to perpetrate. Now this is not a solitary case. How often have designing travellers invited trades- men to the inn, to take an evening glass, and then hove obtained orders for articles of an inferior quality, at an unjust price, and which were not really wanted by these de- luded men ! Often are little tradesmen in great distress to moke up the money for these foolish and injudicioiis purchases, and in consequence of not being able to dispose of a stork, which ought never to have en- tered their shops, have been brought to ruin. An examination into the various methods of refined swindling, practised in pot-houses and taverns, by the aid of strong drinks, would bring to light a system of knavery and dishonesty, not less heinous in the sight of God, injurious to human society, and dis- honourable to the characters of the guilty agents themselves, than the open plunder of the highwayman or the burglar. Indeed of the two thieves, let me have to do with him who boldly practises his dishonesty, rather than with the miscreant, who has not courage to become a highwayman, and who, instead ot presenting a pistol to my heart, and publicly demanding my life or my money, piesents, under the guise of friendship, the itViOxicating cup to my lips, that he may first rob me of my reason and prudence, nnd then of my money. Here again we cannov but remark on the value of chr.racter that is thus sacrificed. The money gained or lost by this shuffling is little, com- pared with the dishonesty tliat is cherished, and the integrity tl it is lost. Some have said, that an •* honest man is the n<>ble8t work of God," and if so, what language can sufficiently execrate that infa- mous poison, which qualifies and prompts thousands to dishonesty, and enables as many thousands moro to acco.nplish, unseen, their nefarious and dishonorable purposes ? We most again repent, that if the use of intoxi- cating liquors were abolished, the in<;entives, the sinews, the weapons of dishonesty would be destroyed, and with this incon- trovertible fact before uf, we ask all who profess to imitate that Saviour wlio laid down his life for our redemption, whether the rescuing of thousands of our fellow citi- zens and brethren firom degradation and misery, would not be cheaply purchased, if procured by our individually dashing from our lips a cup of poison, and resolving never to taste again. 3. Prostitution awfully prevails in con- sequence of drinking. It may be said that this crime has abounded in nations not pro. vcrbial for drunkenness. Granted, liut. still it must be admitted, that the force nf ex- ample and education on this 5uhj(Ct lia> 16 INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. rendered countries destitute of the light of the gospel distlDguished for chastity. And if BMch has been the result of mere pagan edu- cation, surely we have reason to expect quite as beneficial an effect from Christian tuition. But what, alas I is the fact! Why, that at a period when Christian schools and Chris* tian efforts of the most promising character are at work, thousands of our deluded coun- trywomen are seduced from the paths of virtue, and in their turn become the seducers of others. From the evidence on this sub- ject taken before the Committee of the House of Commons on drunkenness, there is reason to believe, that within a few years, the crime has much increased, and all the witnesses were agreed, that a very large proportion must be attributed to beer-houses and gin- shops, and the general increased consump- tion of intoxicating drinks. We need not here stay to prove what to every one must be evident, that these stim- ulating liquors inflame the passions, and pro* duce an utter recklessness of character. And this, be it observed, is not so much the case with him who is dead drunk, as with those who are partially excited, or thrown off their guard. Aristotle long ago argued, and argued justly, that he who is but partly inflamed with wine, is more injurious to so- ciety than he who is thoroughly drunk. " The sober man," he observes, " reasons correctly ; the man who is thoroughly in- toxicated does not reason at all ; but he who Is partially excited by liquor, endeavours to reason, but reasons badly, and therefore falls into mischief." Thousands of unhappy in- dividuals enter the gin-shop or ale-house, ^nd, after having drunk a portion, sometimes a very small quantity of the intoxicating Coison, come out again, not as they went in, ut with passions inflamed, their reason im- paired, their consciences seared, und their moral feeling destroyed ; and consequently, fu« just ready to be themselves seduced, or to become the seducers of others. Hundreds of unhappy females can date their ruin to the cause just mentioned, and my- riads of youth have, from the same influence, fallen into sin, have become a mass of living putrescence, and have been bnrne to the grave before they have scarcely arrived at maturity. The scene that the bare mention of these facts presents is one that makes our blood chill in our veins. One's heart sickens at thethought of so many promising youth, slain by sensu- ality and dissipation, and so many of the softer sex, that might have been the beauty and glory of the land, but who, directly or indi- rectly, from the use of these poisons, have been doomed tq infamy, or have become the pests of society. The value of woman as the *f help meet" for man, has perhaps been never f)s yet duly appreciated. In too many in- tit^nces, her invaluable powers to bless so- ciety have been blighted, rather than elicited mid m^iturcd. Were her ediication such as to call forth into exercise the fine pereeptioiw and sensibilities of her nature, and fully qualify her for that station to which she was destined by Providence, her worth would then be more clearly understood. But even in her present condition, degraded and humbled, as in too many instances it is, who oan duly estimate the importance of the affectionate sister, the filial daughter, the faithful wife, the tender mother, the kind mistress, the attentive servant, and the assiduous nurse ? Take away any of these, and what a wilderness our earth must be- come. If she tempted to the first act of trangression, she has shed rivers of tears la consequence of that offence, and notwith* standing all, has waited, and still waits, to be our solace and joy, amidst the toils and pains and vicissitudes of life. From her worth, then, let us try to calculate the loss that any nation must sustain, when only a fe«v of its daughters become unchaste and depraved. The ruin of but one female, and the consequences of that ruin, even the tongue of an angel would be inadequate to describe. What then must be the result of having thousands of females rendered the bane of society ?* In the evidence to which we have alluded so of%en, it was shown that drinking, in hundreds of families, has re- duced the bo3r8 to theft, and the girls to prostitution. These habits also have com- menced as early as the thirteenth or fotur- teenth years of age. One pot-house keeper was said to have prostituted his own daughter, for the purpose of increasing the attractions of his house. The official tables of popular tion for 1830 give a total of 18,600 illegiti- mate children for England and Wales. Were these unfortunate mothers, many of wliom are thus doomed to infamy and po- verty all their days, to tell us the truth, hun- dreds would testify, that intoxicating drinks led to their ruiu ; but, bad as it may be for the parent to be in disgrace, and ashamed to own her offspring, the evil is not here seen in a tithe of its enormity. Would we gain some idea of the curse, we must glance at those thousands of wretches whose minds and feelings are unsexed, and whose bodies are a mass of disease, and who, under the Influence of strong drink, like wolves or she- bears, prowl through our streets and by- paths, seeking for prey. Who that could huve looked upon Eve or Bachel, or the Virgin mother of our Lord, or on the many bright examples of female excellence that still grace society, would ever have imagined it possible for woman to fU^iO low ? But what grade of infamy is thei^, to which al« coholio drinks cannot level the children of Adam ? Murders, thefts, cruelty, sensuality, and proetituticn, are among its commonest and easiest achievements. Look at the holy Noah, who had escaped the corrupt influence « In London alone, it is i^d there are 80,000 o( tliesc degraded womeq. - \ I PROSTITUTION. ' - It \ of a world whose pollutions called for the deluge, lying tenuleat, and uncovered in his tent. And look also at the righteous Lot, whom Sodom could not seduce, enter- ing, without any fear or misgiving, the bed of incest; and then learn somewhaf of the worse than brutalizing influence of intoxica- tion. We may boldly aflirm that hell itself hath not a poison, and that the Prince of Darkness cannot mix a bowl, which can so speedily, and effectually change men or wo- men into incarnate demons, as the intoxica- ting cup. " Wine and strong wine," says Hosea, "take away the heart." This the devils know, this human history attests, and shall we any longer continue "to drink a cup" vront than that " of demons?" Verily it behooves us, not merely as Christians but as patriots and humane persons, to resolve never again to taste or recommend so dele- terious a drink. Prostitution, it should be further observed, is, in too many instances, the effect of what might be termed a very moderate portion of this mis-named " good creature of God ;" for the seducer would not like for his Tictim to drink too much ; and street-walkers know that much strong liquor would unfit them for their trade, and therefore use the cup more moderately than many professing Christians. And if the moderate use of al- cohol has promoted seduction, we know that women, who have been robbed of their char- acter, often become seducers in their turn, and direfully avenge the injury they have endured. These unhappy creatures are not unfrequently the handmaids of the alehouse and the dis- tillery. It was stated before the Committee of the House of Commons, that at a dinner party, composed chiefly of distillers, one of these very patriotic and chaste gentlemen gave as a toast, " Tlie distillers' best friends, the poor prostitutes of London." We should have said, that the very refined taste of this manufacturer of poison induced him to use a more vulgar epithet than the term prostitute. The toast awfully demonstrates how inti- mately drinking and the transgression of the laws of purity and chastity are connected to- gether, and therefore, in a most affecting manner, points out the duty of total absti- nence. For here we have a crime which de- grades beneath the brute creation the fairest and most interesting of the human family, and which enervates for life or brings to an untimely death the choicest youths of the day. As we shed the sympathising tear with the parent who is following to the grave his only child, whom tM| vice has slain, we cannot but exclaim, <' Died Abner as a fool dieth 1" Tet it must notie forgotten that the incentive and the cherisher of this abomination is not intoxication, but what thousands would call moderate drinking. We very well know that what is properly termed drunkenness would unfit these guilty partisans for their crimes. It requires but a qiodevate cup to rob the female of her modesty and self-government, and her seducer or accomplice, of his moral principle. ^loderation is a term of very in- definite signification. The quantity which one man professes to use without injury would render another senseless or mad. In« toxication begins as soon as the first draught is taken ; the liquor operates instantaneously through the nerves upon the brain, and com- mences its awful work of dethroning reason, inflaming the passions, and corrupting the heart. Scarcely has it been tasted but it be- gins to annihilate all that constituted the man, and to substitute, for the intellect and feeling which it has destroyed, the insin- uations and inspirations of a fiend. The murderer drinks moderately: he takes enough to inspirit him for the deed, but not so much as would cause his sight to fail, or his hand to falter. The thief, to fit himself for his work, drinks moderately. Without the recklessness and demoniacal courage that alcohol gives, he would be unable to rob bia neighbour, and to risk the consequences; and were he to drink too much, he would b« too stupid to find bis way to the house, or the property on which his heart is set. Ths female street-walker drinks moderately. Were she not to drink a little, she could not put on the brazen front which her pursuit demands ; and were she to drink too much, her guilty paramours, sensual as they are, would be disgusted. It was under the influence of a moderate cup that the youth was beguiled or inflamed to cast in his lot with the murderer, the thief, or " the stranger that flattereth with berlipe," and to commit crimes, for which the laws of his country, or the laws of God, the gallows, or disease, have mulcted him with death. We know that each of these violaters of the laws of God and man is in the habit of in- dulging in intoxication ; but then this is after their work is done, and their wages obtained. The gains of unrighteousness never spend well. The thief and the murderer, and often the prostitute, are much more uncomfortable when they are rich than when they are poor ; and as intoxication presents one of the readi- est issues for their money, they drink and ca- rouse until they have rid themselves of ac- quisitions which were a burden. Besides, the intoxicating bowl has the mysterious pow- er of drowning remorse, the sense of degra- dation, and the dread of punishment Un- der its influence human beings can commit crimes at which demons must blush ; and then can smile at infamy, death, and daoina* tion. Moderation inspires them to beconle-^ incarnate fiends, and intoxication makes them reckless of consequences, and preventa their repentance and return to virtue ? We would again ask, whether the moderate or immoderate use of bread, of animal food, or of the healthful atmosphere, would prompt or qualify persons of Christian education to the committal of these deeds ? K \. 18 INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. • i We bolflly nfRrin, thnt nmong all the pro- vMont that God has made fur our Hutiteiiaiice, and among all the poiiuins that the ingenuity «r man has extorted from those recewett in wliich the benevolence of nature had loclced them up, there is not an article of diet or of death, that can exert powers of corporeal, moral, spiritual, and eternal destruction, to each an extent as intoxicating drinks. Satan tempted and man fell ; but it remained for inebriating substances to consummate our de- gradation and the ravages of the curse, and to neutralize the means of our restoration. To the wine-press, the malt-house, the mash- tub, and the distillery, belong the pre-emi- nence of having annually spread more disease, prompted to more crime, and led to more ruin, temporal and eternal, than the desolation of war, pestilence, and famine, put together. And when the Judge of the universe shall give to each human being according " as his deeds shall be," tremendous must be the re- sponsibility of him who manufactured, sold, commended, or gave away a poison, wh Vh all Icnew had the stupendous power of slaying the body, corrupting the morals, and tit! fl- ing the soul. With such consequences, tem- poral and eternal, before us, is it too much t9 call upon every one, who loves God or loves man, to abstain ? 4. Sabhath-hreaking is, on a most exten- sive scale, promoted by the use of intoxica- ting drinks: this generally commences on the previous evening. Drunkards, ay, and many self-styled moderate drinkers, indulge in strong liquor on a Saturday evening to a mmch greater extent thart on any other day, with the exception of the Sabbath. In eon- sequence of this, many stay up till a late hour, and thereby unfit themselves for the Sabbath ; and by this infringement upon the bours of rest, they violate the Lord's day be- fore it is begun. The servant, who, by any practice ef his own pleasure, disables himself for the service of his master, is as guilty of an injury to his employer as he who actually robs him of his property. The Sabbath is peculiarly and especially the "Lord's-day;" idl its hours are his, and therefore he, who, by sitting up late on a Saturday evening, either at his counter, his books, or his glass, unfits himself tor devoting the Sunday to re- ligious exercises, is, to all intents and pur- poses a Sabbath-breaker. And further, we know that the over-excitement of our f^ame is attended with debility, which more than balances any previous pleasurable, but un- natural animation. Dr. Farre says, that " it is a law of our constitution that the circula- tion falls off in ft greater degree than it is forced." By placing our thumb upon the bulb of a thermometer, ne may raise it eight or ten degrees, as the case may be; but if we remove it, the mercury will sink to the point of temperature, at which it stood before. Not so on animal spirits: if we raise them ten degrees, they will sink, as soon as the unnatural stimulus is gone, twelve or fifteen. Now, the tradesman or mechanic who has been toiling at his books, or his anvil for six days, wants repose at the end of the week ; and what is so suitable to the body as " Kind nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep?" or what is calculated to soothe his mind as the doctrines, the consolations, the promises, and the prospects of Christianity ? He who has his body re-invigorated by refreshing sleep, and his mind nerved by the divine sen« timeitts of the Gospel, knows the sweet im- port of the word " Sabbath," or rest; but he who, after the toils of the week, dooms hU stomach, his nerves, his brain, and, conse- quently, his already-jaded body and mind, to the excitement of stimulating liquors, im- poses upon his constitution a task which it is ill able to bear, and which must eventually break it down. From this circumstance, chiefly, many feel so torpid and languid dur- ing the Sunday; and from dizziness, head- ache, and various species of debility, are mentally unfit to contemplate and digest the invigorating truths of the Gospel ; and thua rob their immortal spirits of that divine nutriment, which would strengthen them tn tndure the ills and frowns of the world, and the trials and duties of a Christian. Among the wicked, the Saturday evening's debauch is usually followed, if the means can any way be obtained, by an entire Sunday of drunkenness. In every city, town, and hamlet, the gin-shop or the ale-house is the common place of rendezvous on the Lord's day. It is probable that on a Sabbath-day, the worshippers of Bacchus in Britain alone far out-number the votaries that Greece or Rome could, at any time, reckon as the de- votees of that sensual deity. We meet on the Lord's day, and pray for the myriads that are perishing on the plains of pagan In- dia or China ; but what can Heaven think of the sincerity of our aspirations, when, by the use of intoxicating drinks, we are abetting and promoting S unday orgies and bacchanalia, at which India would blush, and China and Arabia be horrified ? The crimes committed on the Sabbath through drunkenness and moderate drinking, could not be recited in a brothel without producing a blush ; and the numbers that are directly or indirectly impli- cated in these offences, must far surpass any calculation that has hitherto been attempted. Let every Christian open his eyes to the Sabbath iniquities which, in his own vicinity, drinking promotes, and he must conclude that the offenders in the whd|^ country could be counted by millions rather than by thou- sands. A million Sabbath-breakers, all made Sabbath-breakers by drinking a poison, which alike wages war on the vitals of the body, and the noblest principles of the mind I Who can look at such a scene without horror? If the Sabbath is lost, what compensation can be made to the soul? Intoxicating drinks X U '-: .•\ SABBATH BHEAKIN'O. 19 rob vvlrn and children of fooil iind clothes, •nd every earthly comfort: but this In only • Hinall part of the iniquity ; they deprive them of the Sabbath, and therefore of the bliMM, which is as nn antepast of the Joyii of Paradise, and of the instruction that would conduct them thither. If the soul of one sinner is of more value than the whole material universe, then what is the value of that instruction without which the soul munt perish ; or of that Day, which Divine goodness has apportioned for our edification I " The Sabbath was made for man," and, amoni; the bounties of Heaven, it stands as one of its richest boons. Myri- ads of immortal spirits has it reclaimed from death, solaced under affliction, supported under toil, inittructed, puri6ed and conducted to heaven. For want of its blesMinKs millions have perished. The inhaoitants of the glory above, or the abyKs below, are the only per- sons that can duly appreciate the worth of the Sabbath. AVhat, then, can be more awful than the thought that this glorious day, which Jehovah himself has " blessed and hallowed," should be lost or profaned ? But to what an awful extent this is done, the police reports of all the great towns and cities in the country can testify. " Tnto fourteen of the most prominent gin- shops in the Metropolis there entered in one week no less than 142,463 men, 108,593 women, and 13,391 children; the women and children united nearly equalling the men, and surpassing them in the grossness and depravity of their demeanour. The total number of men, women, and children amounted to 249,438. This vast multitude entered 14 gin-shops. What, then, must be the number that enter all the various houses in the Metropolis in which intoxicating liquors are sold ? Now, it must be remem- bered, that a far greater number crowd into those haunts of dissipation on a Saturday evening and Sunday morning, than during any other period of the week. Were the last-mentioned multitude to be multiplied by 10, and divided by 7, you would then have upwards of 300,000 men, women, and chil- dren, in the Metropolis alone, that frequent gin or beer-shops on the Lord's-day. Doubt- less many of these enter more than once, so that this would considerably reduce the num- ber ; but against this reduction you may place the persons who, at their own houses, either wholly or partially intoxicate themselves on the Sabbath ; and therefore the amount of Sabbatb-breakers, who are made such by tippling, is terrifically large. From the hour of eight till nine on a Sunday morning, 300 persons have been observed to enter one gin- shop alone." Some of these " whited sepulchres," as Dr. Farre terms them, are open as early as four o'clock on the Sabbath morning; so that the work of poisoning the liodies and morals of the people is carried on both early ond late. Into only one of the many tea-gar- dens in London, 4,000 or 5,000 persons have been known to enter on a Sabbath ev*- ning ; and numbers of these continued drink- ing intoxicating drinks, in these haunts of vice, until midnight. Dr. Farre, in his evi- dence before the Sablmth Observance Com- mittee, gave It as his opinion, that the excite- ment produced by stimulating liquors on the Sunday is quite as injurious to the health, as it is to the morahi of the people. Were it necessary, we might turn from this great city to Bristol, Manchester, Livirpool, Leeds, &o., and from these descend to all the inferior towns and villages in Britain, Ireland, and Wales, and endeavour to calculate the crowds that throng to the temples of dissipation on the Lord's-day ; but such a process of inves- tigation is superfluous, as every one who re- quires information has only to inquire into the Sabbath-breaking of his own district, and then consider that every parish is equally, or perhaps more extensively, guilty ; and we are sure, if he is a Christian, his heart will recoil at the result of his calculations. The following words of Dr. Doyle, Ro- man Catholic Bishop of Kildare, in a letter to the secretary of the New Ross Temperance Society, deserves particular notice : " Rash swearing, profanation of the Lord's-day, blas- phemies without number; the poverty, the nakedness, the destitution, the ruin of fami- lies; the frauds, the thefts, the robberies; the seduction of innocence, the corruption of virtue ; the disobedience of children, the infi- delities of servants ; the discord, the disunion of those whom God hath united ; these, and many others which I do not name, are the effects of drinking and drunkenness, wbiclk I deplore." These are sentiments which, if printed in letters of blood, would convey but a very in- adequate idea of the misery and suffering which they suggest. We would recommend to every Protestant a careful perusal of the letter of the Catholic Dr. Doyle, which wa» read to the Committee of the House of Com- mons. If the " profanation of the Lord'a day," and other crimes connected with drink- ing, are such as to move the heart of one who is too often accused of being destitute of sym- pathy, then what ought to be the feelings of Protestants who profess to have purer fieel- ings and a purer creed ? The laws of the land are said by some to be sufficient to guard the Sabbath from being violated by drinking. But the farce that is here acted is probably without parallel. Happily the laws have lately undergone some change; but what have been the facts of the cose ? Why, the gin-shop has been thrown open at four o'clock in the morning, and the pot- house has dispensed its poisons at as enrly an hour ; and after men, women, and children, had, by hours of debauch, deprived themselves of reason and feeling, they were then turned out of the shrines of Satan that they might 80 INTRMPERANCE AND CRIME. (o to the houM of God. Tha cup of demons WM given them flrat, and after they had wi-ll drunk, thejr were to have offered them the mip of Mlvation. It was the opinion of iiev< cral very observant witneMes, that If the •le-houM is at all to be opened on the Sab- bath, it would be better to keep It open alxn during the hours of divine worahip. Per- ■om who have been drnwnlni; their reason with spirits, who have been inspiring them- selvet with gin, or rendering themielves stu- pid with porter or ale, are totally unfit for the worship of God. Their minds and feel- ings are much more in unison with the de- pravity and blasphemy of some filthy sty of a drunkery, than with the holy exerrises of Christian devotion, or even the peaceful duties of their own domestic hearths. It is rather marvellous, that our vaunted Christian laws should grant a dispensation from its injunc- tions chiefly to the dispensers of poisons. The grocer, who sells wholesome food ; the baker, who distributes the staff of life ; and the butcher, whose shop is hung with a highly nutritious article of diet, must all, after a certain hour on the Sabbath morning, refuse to accommodate a customer ; but Government has taken upon itself the awful reaponsibillty of legalizing the breach of the fourth commandment ; and, as if to perfect its guilt, does this in especial favor of those who sell the liquor which dethrones the rea- son, hardens the heart, and corrupts the mo- rals of the people ? The merchandise of the grocer, the baker, and the butcher, would produce none of these evils. Even gluttony, unaaaociated with drinking (though it is a question whether it can exist apart; the stomach must be bribed by intoxicating drinks, or it would scourge the epicure with nausea, until it had cured him of his sen- suality) — even gluttony, we say would lead to few, if any, of those vices which spring from strong drinks. The human cormorant, after he has fed himself to loathing, like the boa constrictor, seeks repose; and therefore neither murderers, thieves, nor prostitutes adopt gluttony as an auxiliary to their pur- poses. It is drink, intoxicating drink, that inspirits them for every vice, and enables them to sin without compunction ; and our wise and prudent and Christian legislators, while prohibiting people from procuring the staff of life, encourage the gin-palace and the pot-house to dispense their poisons on the Lord's-day, and thus ruin the morals and the "health of the population. All this is said to be done to increase the comforts of the poor. But it hardly requires the understanding of a child to perceive that more bread and less gin, more meat and leas beer, would vastly enlarge the happiness of the people, and do so without any danger to their morals. "With what propriety, then, is the grocery locked up, and the drunkery thrown open, on the Sabbath day ? We are no advocates for legislative enactments in matters of conscience, but here wo have laws, which, by legalizing tha sale of intoxicating drinks on the Sabbath, are actually sanction- ing, abetting, and encouraging the transgres- sion of a divine command, and, by allowing the distribution of these liquors, ore prompt- ing the people to trample upon every thing human and divine. If legislators have the right, we Implore them to show by " what authority they do these things;" but if they have the right to close some shops >". the Lord's-day and to open others, motives of humanity, apart from religion, might and ought to impel them to ciMe the doors of the gin-palaces and the tavern, and to open those of the grocer, the butcher, and the baker. If they must, in pampering the vices of the people, set at naught the laws of God, then let them legalize the sale of what Is whole- some, and prohibit the traffic in what is per- nicious. Let them not open the drunkery on the Sabbath, and license landlords to make men, women, and children demons, and thus curse the nation with a spirit more malignant than the legion which inhabited the man who dwelt among the tombs. It should be remembered that the priests of our day are not exorcists ; and if they were, we query whether God would allow their power to extend to a spirit which had been so wan- tonly introduced into the bodies and souls of the people. A very little consideration will show us, that the state is not the only party implicated in the aboundings of Sabbath-breaking which drinking occasions. Far is It from uncom- mon in pious, not to say impious families, for the best beer, or wine, to be handed round, and especially commended on the Sabbath ; and thus children and servants are taught by their parents and masters, to attach a very high value to intoxicating liquors on a Sunday, more than any other day. We are all, to a very great extent, the creatures of education. We come into the world without an idea in our heads; our esteem and disapprolration are, for the most part, communicated by others. The Kam- schatdale, the Indian, and Frenchman, if brought up together, would, in the main, have agreed in their national taste, although now, different kinds of training have made them so unlike one another, that some have ' doubted the identity of their origin. It is well known that the relish of the English for strong drinks is greater than that of any other people under Heaven, but this appetite is not natural. None except the children of drunkards are Iwrn with a thirst fur these poisons. The taste and the smell is at first repulsive, but after many a tempta- tion, perhaps a drenching, and many a com- mendation from our parents or guardians, our resistance gives way, and we drink them in the course of time with a zest, and it may be to our ruin. The youth that was hung yes- terday, was brought to the gallows by drink- Mf i X t ■^ t V t V d V h ■>■ g n •ADBATII'DRBAKINO. 'Jl i \ng. The flr»t drop of Intoxicating liquor he ever taate«l wiu given him by hin ploiia mother. He alwajra had n glana of the br«t beer given him on a Sunday an a treat ; and while he woa at home, hU futher'i caalc Icept him from the ale-houne. Hut he waa ap- prenticed at a distance, and willini( to keep up the family custom, and gratify the appetite hi* mother created, he goea to the tavern every Sunday to obtain Mmething as good aa what he uaed to have at home. There he falla III with bad company, money gets short, he robs his master, losea hia character, be- comes a vagabond, and at length commits the crime which has cost him his life, and broken the heart of his mother. Yonder wretched woman, who prowls about the streets In search of her prey, waa the other day an interesting little girl In the Sabbath school, th« joy alike of her teachers and parents ; but she always waa treated on Sundays, when she had learnt her catechism well, with a drop of good beer. Her seducer knew the power of the draught which her parents had so often so highly recommended ; he persuaded her to drink, accomplished his purpose, and doomed her to a life of infamy ; deserted by her friends, and frowned upon by nil, she hns left home, and now infests the town, and hastens to fill up the measure of her iniquity, and bring herself to the miser- able end and unwept grave of the prostitute. These representations are not fictitious nor solitary. Hundreds are wanderers from home, are transports in a foreign land never to return again, are the inmates of the work- house, or lunatic asylum, or are just entering a premature grave, in consequence of that appetite which sprung from early tuition, and which has grown out of moderate drinking. Youths, when they become their own mas- ters, having, in numberless instances, neither their parents' beer nor wine cellars, nor moderation, spend their Sabbaths in a tavern or pot-house. Nothing is more common, as the families of beer, wine, or spirit-drinkers grow up, than for as many to go to the temple of Bacchus, as to the sanctuary of Jehovah; and thus the idolatry of our Christian country is quite as heinous and debauched as the orgies of Greece or Rome. And what pros- pect have we that things will bo better, so long as godly parents and ministers recom- mend the Circean bowl ? You, as a Chris- tian, declare that poisons which rob men of their reason and health, are necessary for food, and are "the good creatures of God;" the drunkard cordially agrees with every word, and you drink in moderation, and he drinks himself drunk. He knew it was wrong to get drunk, but It greatly mitigated his remorse, to think that the cup which sunk him beneath a brut J had been recom- mended — perhaps, the first cup had been given him, by a person renowned for godli- ness. Only imagine bow things would have been altered, if, instead of commending the pernicious liquors, you had told him the plain truth — that theae drinka are polaons, — that they generate diaeaae, crime, and denth, — that they are the device of man, and not the work of God, — that they have destroyed myriads In the preaent world, and In the world to come, and that therefore you were determined never to taste again. What if you had added, that a million of your own countrymen and countrywomen had already abandoned them, and done so with Infinite advantage to their health, their comfort, their morals, and their souls. Had you thus, by precept, persuasion, and prac- tice, condemned the iiitoxlcatiiig bowl, ths drunkard would not have taken the draught again, with the feeling that men, eminent in the church, encouraged him to drink, or re- commended the liquor that threatened " to drown him in destruction and perdition." " It is good," salth the Apostle, " neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, is offended, or made weak." And he adds again, for the purpose of warning those who partook of meat offered to idols, and who could do so without injury to themselves, but neverthe- less, by their example, grieved others, made them stumble, offend, and become morally weak,—" Now," says he, " walkest thou not charitably," or according to love, the uni- versal love of the Gospel. " Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." Could there have been a more moving ap- peal ? Christ died for that brother ; he not merely gave up a morsel of meat, or a cup of wine, but he gave his blood for that bro- ther ; and. Christians ! can you lay claim to the spirit of Christ, if, for the pleasure, the momentary pleasure, of eating meat, or drink- ing what is admitted by all scientific men to be poison, and therefore unnecessary to a person in health, you continue to use those meats or drinks, which others cannot use with moderation, but are destroyed and ruined for ever by their influence ? Had the drink been nectar, had every plea- sure resulted from its use, and every incon- venience from its disuse, the Apostles would have dashed the cup from their lips, and pub» licly have pledged themselves neither " tu touch, taste nor handle" it again, if they had perceived that their liberty had led others into sin. " They walked charitably," Kara aynirtfv, in charity, nr according to the dictates of that love of which the Son of God, in shedding his blood for us, has given so illustrious an example. None of them lived to himself. In eatingand drinking they were guided by love to God, and love to man, and " whether they ate or drank, they did all to the glory of God." They felt that they were "debtors to all men, to the Jew and the Greek, the bond and the free," and that they owed men, not only the Gospel, but the ad- vantage of a good example, and of a life of :1 22 INTBMPERANCR AND (JRIMR. ' I 1 lore. Could they hart M«n munleni, thef\», uncliutity, and Siibbatli-bi'«akliiK on tha con- Mqueiicmi of wln«-drinkiiiK, and have known thnt their own um of thnt b.'v«d thnuMinda, would they have drunk nKnin ? AVe know tht-y would not. Thi>y knew that he who HetM uii exiiin|ili) which Inidit othi-n Into mIu, U a« K"llty "^ t'**' blood of hla brother, nn he who nf|;li-rtN to warn him, or by fuUe doctrine leads him Into ruin. " We inuit walk In love, a* Ciiri»t aUo hath loved U«." We niUHt not only lay down our cu|h, but even our Uvea, if iieceMtary, for the brethren. David lon|(ed for the water of the well of Bethli'hem, and yet when hiii three mighty men brou{{ht him a cup of it, he would not drink it; and why? The water was the •weetest he ever drank : it wim that of which he flmt drank : every sweet remembrance of youth and h(»me was associated with it, and yet he could not drink it now. The thought that three of UU friends mi;{hf have loKt their lives in procuring it, made him dread to touch It, he called It tlie " blood of these men," and he poured it out as a libation before the Lord. Here no one had been killed by the cup, only some one mi)(ht have been killed, and David could not drink even water, if it endangered the life of one of his subjects. Thin;(s are different with us; we have not the mere possibility of death, our drinks have already slain thousands, and therefore we ought to abstain : while we drink these drinks we are drinkers of blood ! Murders in every calender, thefts in every part of the country, prostitution with its attendant diseases and ruin, Sabbath-breaking with all its awful consequences in botii worlds, stare us in the face and tell us to abstain. The Sabbath, the day which Jehovah himself has blessed, and pronounced holy, is made one of the most unhallowed days of the seven. Better let men labour, than leave their own work- shops and enter the pot-house. The want of leisure on other days prevents many from running to excess ; but on the Sabbath we compel them to play, and we baptize them with the spirit of a fiend, which dethrones their reason and fits them for every vice. By using and commending these drinks, we encourage the violation of the Lord's-day, and the spread of sensuality. Is it any won- der that God is offended, that the Spirit is withheld, and that we teanh, and pray, and preach to so little advantage ? If the (thurch cannot part with a cup of poison for the good of others, is it any wonder if God re- fuse to impart the Holy Ghost? *' Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit," is his command. We should get our inspirations from Heaven, and not from the tap or the wine-bottle; for, although some drink with moderation, yet our example is an incentive to others who have not our control, and therefore are led into sin. Tell us not thnt the fnr.ti of God will counteract the evil, and that consequently w* may drink. There is no text that tells u* that divine influence will extract a poison which has been wantonly InirtHluced Into th« bmly. and which has the malignant power to infect the mind. We must not " tempt the Lord our God," or make unnecessary ex- periments up4m omnipotent power and gowl- ness. We must not "sin that grace may abound." " All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient." We must not give "an occasion of offence" to any; h« that causes but " one little one to offend," to stumble or fall into sin, " good had it been for that man, if a millstone had been tied round his neck, and he had been cast Into the sea." We call on ynu, then. Christian reader, before you taste these drinks again, to consider the awful violation of the Lord's- day, with its demoralizing consequences, and which you know is originated and connected with the use of these p'dsons. We shall here- after show the poisonous nature of these drinks, and shiill enter into their history, sa- cred and profane, and thereby prove that they are not intended for man ; but for the present, we will not use the argument for total abstinence derived from that source : we here urge the (;reat Christian duty of self- denial, and universal love, as a reason why all should abstain. 5. If we consider the injury that in variou* forms is inflicted upon families, we have another dreadful catalogue of crime presented to our view. The husband who has so- lemnly vowed at the altar of God, to nour- ish and cherish the woman to whom he gives his hand, if he neglect to fulfil his promise, is guilty of perjury. Yet nothing is more common, than for the lover of strong drinks to violate every sacred obligation that he en- tered into, in the presence of angels and men. The tears of deserted, starving, wretched, and dying women, whose misery must be at- tributed solely to the drinking habits of their husbands, flow in torrents in every part of the country. The men that are thus dead to every human feeling, and every religious bond, have been robbed of a heart by the in- toxicating cup. Once they loved their wives, but they were persuaded to drink, and the liquor that has captivated their taste, has alie- nated their affections from their own flesh, and thoir own homes. The Scriptures tell us, that men should " love their wives as their own flesh," or ra- ther " as Christ loved the church ;" but in- toxication prevents the possibility of comply- ing with such an injunction, and thus alike bids defiance to the laws of heaven, and the duties of humanity. Well has it been said, that "intoxicating drinks have visited the earth with a second curse," and on none has it alighted with such tremendous fury, as on the unhappy wives of tipplers. The history of these broken-hearted women, like Ezekiel's / 'a INJURIES TO rAMIUIES* 23 or ra- roll, la written within, with " iampntntiont, and we^plnif, and wo." Conip<>ll<*d, dajr aftt^r day, to toll for an infant fiimily, to MilmlNt un th*t connii^t nnd M*antlt*«t food, to hi-nr li*r cliiidri'ii cry for bread, witliout hnv- ini{ liny to ^i ' t>it>in, to hi> hfriMtlf and h«>r children rMhcd In rnt;^, with neither bed nor furniture to reposte on, or ^tvi- <-oinfort to the fiimlly; to have to endun- /ill ' >l», wiille the hiikhnnd ia KpendifU *n the nU-lnniHe whiit inlKht uiiik>- all of them imfortable, U to the mother n In >' r cup ofuftlirfiiin, ami to the father a nriinv ot no ordinary ina^iiifiMie. Hut thk Is not all Molhem thvin-«s, be as vile as one could suppose a fiend could wish ! consequently, it is altogether snperHu- ous to add to his nature the inspirations of the drunkard's cup, and thus finish his character as nn incarnate demon. He can commit murders, adiilteries, and thefts, if IcfV to himself, and with nnich more reck* lessneM when a moderate gloss or two have inflamed his passions. In countries in which paganism did the work of alcohol, and added every depraved stimulus to his nature, the inspiriting bowl was not needed to arm human beings for desperate acts of cruelty and iniquity; but in a country in which Christianity has awak- ened reason and cuns<;ience to their proper sphere in the soul, men find a difDculty in violating the most sacred ties of nature and religion, until they have first destroyed their moral sensibility by the benumbing Influence of the tankard or the bottle. Hence, as al- ready observed, in our own country crimes are committed at which heothens would blush. Olid these are perpetrated in the broad light of the gospel. Strange to say, but we have in our land the two extremes of moral- ity and immorality. We have the purest religion that ever shone upon man, and the blackest vices that ever darkened his char- acter ; and these existing the one in the presence of the other, and what is still more awful, the latter, in thousands of instances, neutralizing the instructions of the former. Now, whatever other agencies may be at work, we all know full well, that there is not a power which demons can command, which con so etTuctually resist and withstand the gospel, as the cup of the drunkard. Rome, in the lowest stote of (tagan degrada- tion and sensuality, could not bna.^t that her prisons were crowded with juvenile culprits, and that some of iter infant thieves merited, at the age of nine years, the epithet " incor- rigible," or that mothers were base enough to train their children for this guilty distinc- tion. It was reserved for Christian Britain to present to the god of thieves whole heca- \ a- INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. / i 1 tomba of youthful offenden, and to do thb in an age ruore renowned than any other for the multiplicity of schools, in which science and religion were brought down to the capacities of infants, and their blessings placed within the reach of the poorest cotter in the land. A nd to this scene of juyenile delinquency we have been brought by drinking. The superintend- ents of police, the jailors, the judges, and the chaplains of prisons, ay, and the teachers of Sunday Schools, are all unaninnous in attri- buting the increase of youthful criminality to the accursed influence of strong drinks. Thus, our intoxicating stimuli have opened a n«.w page in the history of crime. "We all knew the capacities of adult offenders for works of iniquity, but depraved humanity Itself stands aghast when the child of nine years is discovered to have surpassed the old- est criminals of ancient times in the crafty and precocious turpitude of his offences. This premature adroitness in iniquity. Christian, has been obtained from the influ- ence of that cup, which the Total Abstinence Society implores you to abandon 1 And is it too much to ask you, as a patriot and a pro- fessed follower of Him who died for our re- demption, to give up a beverage which has already begun to poison society at its fountain head ? If infants, trained in the drunkard's 8chool,learn to commi t crimes at which veteran culprits would blush, then what, think ye, will be the manhood and the maturity of this early ripeness in depravity ? Will not your own sons and daughters become more sinful, from associations which you will And it diffi- cult to prevent? These juvenile culprits will become a pest to society, and will be the decoys of those who have been subjected to better training. '* One sinner destroyeth much good," and the ingenuous heart of youth is especially open to the contaminations of vice, because less aware of its consequences, and less vigorous and firm to resist. Surely the scene of husbands practising cruelties towards their wives more heinous than murder; of mothers deserting their own offspring, or training them for every vice ; of children matured in infancy for debauch, sensuality, and dishonesty ; of the sighs and prayers of godly parents neutralized ; of the pious instruction of years in Christian fam- ilies or Sunday Schools, turned in one short day into a curse, and an instrument of cun- ning in depravity ; and more than this, the body prematurely doomed to disease and the grave, and perhaps the soul to perdition, ought to address us in language more awful than the thunder, and more thrilling than the groans of the lost, to abstain from a beverage which has been the occasion of such an amount of misery and ungodli ness. If we re- fuse to make a sacrifice, which, as shall here- after bS shown, could be done with such manifest advantage to our own health and happiness, the indignant Judge of all will explain to us, " When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes llrom you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood." 6. Under the head of crime occasioned by these drinks, we must not pass over the fact, that so many professors of religion and min- isters of the gospel, have fallen and lost their reputation in consequence of drinking. In these, more than in any other instances, we have an exemplification of the great danger of what is ambiguously called "moderate drinking." Many of these "who have erred through wine" and strong drink, we have good reason to believe were partakers of di- vine grace, and therefore had supernatural power to withstand temptation, and yet they have been betrayed. Nor is this to be won- dered at, if we consider the nature and insid- ious character of inebriating liquors. The liquid fire which exists in all of them produces thirst, and the inspiriting poison acts immediately upon the stomach, the nerves, and the brain, and through these upon the intellect; but as the stimulus is neither nutritive nor permanently strengthening to the body, nor morally or intellectually in- vigorating to the mind, the material part of our nature is exhausted by the excitement, and the soul is prompted to vigorous action without a moral motive as its source, or mental vigor as its guide ; nothing therefore is more easy than to fly again to the glass as a remedy for this unnatural thirst and debil- ity ; and under the unhallowed inspirations that are felt, to commit crimes at which the sober reason and conscience of the professor would have been shocked. Thousands have thus fallen before they have been aware; and when a crime has been once committed, nothing is more easy than its repetition, es. pecially if, as in this case, the spirit that betrayed us is deemed a necessary principle of stimulation to our frame. A thirst is created, which, like the daughter of the horse-leach, cries, " Give, give, and depres- sion is felt which nothing seems so likely to remove as the tankard or the wine-glass; increasing thirst, unnatural excitement fol- lowed by unnatural debility, lead to increased potations, and eventually, sometimes rapidly, the drinking habit is perfected, and the ruin of the Christian or of the minieter is com- pleted. Let our church books be examined, let the numbers expelled from communion be count- ed, and the cause of their fall be fairly told, and we shall find that nineteen out of twenty of every act of backsliding and apostacy may be traced, directly or indirectly, to drinking. Let us also look round our congregations, and enumerate those opening buds of promise^ which have been withered and blasted, and let us also inquire after the influence that destroyed our hopes, and the peace and re- spectability of the offenders, and we shall find that in ninety-nine cases out of a hun- dred, these besotting drinks have been the INJURIES TO THE CHURCH. m^ remote or proximate cause. I have seen the youthful professor, whose zeal, talent, respectability, and consistent piety, have pro- mised much to the church and the world, led on from moderate to immoderate draughts, in the end become a tippler, dismissed from the church, disowned by his friends, himself a nuisance to society, and his family in rags. O Zion 1 " thy precious sons, comparable to find gold, how are they, " through drinking, " esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter?" I have seen the generous tradesman, by whose zeal for the gospel, and at whose expense, too, the min- isters of religion have been introduced into a destitute village, and eventually a house erected for God, and a flourishing church formed, himself excluding himself from the church, by his love of strong drink. Would to God these instances were solitary I But, alas, they are not Almost every Church, and every minister, have to weep over spiritual hopes blasted, and Christianity outraged by these noxious drinks. Nor must we conceal the fact, that the ministers of religion have fallen a prey to these ac- cursed fluids. We have not the least doubt, if the falls of godly ministers were to be fol- lowed up to their origin, that it would be found that the excitement which led to their ruin, was obtained from the wine-cask or the beer-barrel. Men of first-rate talent, respec- tability, and apparent piety, men that could not ascend a pulpit without attracting crowds to hear the word, nor address an audience without the people's hanging on their lips, have had their ardor quenched, and their characters implicated, by these desolating liquors. The fine gold has become dim; the voice of the lute and the harp, which delighted all, is silenced ; the preacher that edified thousands is now dead while he iiveth ; the lips that fed many are not silent in death, but have i)een smitten dumb by alcohol ; the spirit that inspirited the churches, is doomed to the grave before the man is dead ; he who ought to l>e ofiiciating in the sacred vest- ments of the sanctuary, is doomed to wear the shroud of death before Nature has paid her last debt ; the father that taught him to drink has abandoned him, and the deacon that compelled him to take the glass that has been his destruction, has driven him from his door. We mny say of these sons of Zion, "Her Nazarites were purer than ^now, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire, but now they are not known in the streets." We must here also observe, that if but one member of the^hurch had backslidden, if but one angel of the church had fallen, or but one hopeful convert had been lost by the use of alcoholic drinks, the thought that only one had been betrayed and corrupted, ought to make us resolve to abstain. The consid- eration that what had destroyed one, might injure many, would, were not our heart« more than usually hard, prompt us to vow never to touch or tastu again. But we have not to tell of one, but of many, that have been ruined. The ministers, the hopeful minis- ters of the sanctuary, that have fallen are not a few. And as to members and young peo- ple of the highest promise, that have been lost to the church through drinking, these might be counted by thousands. Here we would not exaggerate, but would call on the ministers and oflicers of the churches to re- cord the facts of drunkenness that have come under their own notice, and we query whether they will ever be able to put the intoxicating cup to their lips again. Should any one ask how it is that the gospel and the grace of God have not pre- vented this backsliding and apostacy? we reply, that the office of the Fpirit of God is to eradicate sin from the soul, and not to extract alcohol from the nerves or the brain. We never wondered how it was that the grace of the gospel did not extract arsenic or prussic acid from the frame. In such casee we have concluded that if any person waa presumptuous enoug]i to take these poisons, the King of Heaven was righteous in leaving him to perish. Were a man wantonly to feed upon provisions which produced an un- naturtd thirst, we should not charge the gos- pe? with impotency because it did not neu- tralize the effects of his diet. And if a man will drink what produces thirst, what creates an unholy excitement, what debilitates his frame, shatters his nerves, makes him sleep unde. the Word, or stupifies the mind, ought wo to charge Jehovah the Spirit with want of energy because he refuses to al)stract from the body a poison that should never have been taken ? Far more in accordance with the divine principles of moral government is it, to warn off the danger, and if the warn * ing be not heeded, to allow the evil to grow to a magnitude that shall prove that God is true, and in the end constrain offenders vol- untarily to repudiate their own folly. " The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." " Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone." The church has too long been indifferent to the voice of revelation concerning drunk- enness, and equally heedless of its malignant influence upon the righteous and the wicked ; the evil has therefore grown to a head. Millions have been ruined in both worlds by the use of these liquors. A book of lamen- tations, quite as affecting as that which the Spirit of God dictated to the weeping pro- phet, might be composed respecting the crimes and miseries occasioned by drinking. Bri- tain at this moment could furnish materials for such a mournful theme far more ample than what the sword and the famine pre- sented to Jeremiah. Were our " heads waters and our eyes fountains of tears, and were we to weep day and night," such 26 INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. r i i' expressions of sorrow would convey but an imperfect idea of the wide-spreading desola- tion. Tears, liowever, are unavailing in sucli a case ; more tlian tears are tlierefore aslced. By total alistinence we can stay ttie plague wliich our l)oasted temperance and modera- tion have spread. Could the sympathetic prophet have been told tliat, by abandoning the use of a cup of poison, he might restore his much-loved ZIon to her pristine beauty, and her ruined sons and daughters to happiness and honor, would he have hesitated or staid a moment to con- sult a vitiated taste or unnatural appetite? Kather, had he ever been so besotted as to use such a beverage, the cup in one moment would have been dashed from his lips, and most solemnly would he have vowed never to be misled again. Let us go and do like- wise, "that our sons," instead of being ruin- ed, "may be as plants grown up in their youth ; and our daughters," instead of being the prey of the seducer, " may be as corner- stones polished after the similitude of a palace." The following calculation ought not to be unheeded. There are in our country at least 8000 voluntary churches, and upwards of 11,000 established churches, making in all about 20,000. Now let us suppose that each church has had to dismiss one member for drinkicg, and has already been deprived of two members that would have come to the sacrament but for the influence of liquor. 'This calculation is below the mark, because if some churches have lost none, others have lost twenty or thirty, as their church books can testify ; but we have taken the average low enough, and what is the affecting truth ? Why, that 20,000 members have been ex- pelled from communion, and 40,000 kept from communion, by these accursed poisons, making a total of 60,000 individuals, of whose services the church has heen thus wantonly deprived ? These, divided into congregations of 500 each, would constitute 120 churches. What could we think of the papists, if they had power and came to England and levelled with the ground one hundred and twenty sacred edifices, and burnt sixty thousand pro- testants? But here we have what is worse. Persecutors " can only destroy the body, and after that they have nothing that they can do;" but alcohol, in the insidious form of beer, porter, wine, gin, &c. " can destroy both body and soul in hell," and yet we ourselves kindle this fire that desolates so many church- es and ruins so many souls ! The persecu. tor, the Vandal, the Goth, the Turk, or the Saracen, is no longer needed to devastate Christendom; we have what is worse than all these in our own houses, and what has an- nually proved a thousand times more bane- ful. The days of Nero are returned ; Dio- clasian depredations are acted over again ; the bloody days of other times are come back ; and the fires of Smithfield rekindled ; and protestant ministers plead the cause of the fiend, and actually lodge in their houses the demon that thus "scatters fire-brands and death" in the sanctuary of God? For so long as we continue to use intoxicating drinks, we practically recommend the spirit which has already destroyed millions, and, unless driven from the land, will yet destroy mil- lions more ! Every one who has attended hut a very ' little to the progress of the gospel in the South Sea Islands, must have noticed how much the labors of the missionaries have been impeded, and what havoc has been made of the churches, by the introduction of these de- testable poisons. We all know what a scourge they proved to Pomare. The chief thing that rendered the religion of that mo- arch questionable, was his taste for strong drinks. In the Sandwich Islands, drinking is the chief antagonist that missionaries have to contend with. The Rev. Mr. Stewart, chaplain to the American navy, in the nar- rative of his visit to the South Seas, has given us some awful details of the effects of these liquors both on the islanders and the British seamen that occasionally landed among them> The Rev. Mr. Williams, in his last publi- cation, has confirmed the same statements. That laborious missionary, having been ab- sent for some time from his people at Raiatea, found, on his return, that "spirits had been introduced and stills set up." He tells us, that out of his flourishing and numeroua church and congregation, "not a hundred had escaped the contamination of these li- quors ; they all appeared maddened with in- fatuation." "I could hardly believe," he says, "they were the same people among whom I had lived so long, and of whom I had thought so highly." Do we wonder that with such a scene before him, he calls alco- holic drinks " Poisons of the body and of the soul?" He informs us that " the gigan- tic chief, Tamatea, who was six feet eleven inches high, was, before conversion, much addicted to drunkenness, and when drunk, if disturbed, became desperate; would seize a club, spear, or any other weapon, rush out of the house and wreak his vengeance upon friend or fue, man, woman, or child, whom he might happen to meet. Several persons had fallen victims to the ferocity which the juice of the knva-root produced." After conversion to Christianity, this emi- nent chief " made a vow of total abstinence, and kept it until death." How many a professor of Christianity, who cannot allow his liberty to drink what poisons himself and others to be infripged upon, the example of Tamatea must condemn 1 This unsophisticated chief knew that to vow to abstain from what threatened to ruin himself and thousands more, instead of subjecting himself to slavery, was an act of the holiest emancipation and liberty. ^ - ' ,-i- I -4- INTEMPERANCE AND DISEASE. 27 much itf, who t poisons ipon, the 1 This "it To say that we will not pledge ourselves to abstain from wines and strong drinks, be- cause the pledge would enslave us, is to de- monstrate that we are slaves already, and voluntarily submitting to the tyranny of a taste for liquors, wliich have done more to desolate the church than Nero or Dioclesian. When the parliament of Tahiti consulted the queen respecting the admission of intoxica- ting drinks, she said, "Let the principles contained in the New Testament be the foundation of all your proceedings ;" and immediately they enacted a law against trad- ing with any vessel that brought ardent spirits. The inhabitants of those islands, in many of which total abstinence had of necessity been practised, Mr. Williams tells us, are " in stature and intellect the finest upon earth." The engravings we have seen of them exhibit an athletic form, and proportion of limb of such perfection, that in their presence, the beer and gin drinkers of Britain appear pig- mies and skeletons, or mere blotted masses of deformity. And their intellectual pro- ceedings demonstrate that we are far behind them in mental acumen and moral sensibility. These discerning Christians passed an act for national total ai>stinence, and did so be- cause they saw that the principles of the New Testament demanded such a measure. It was not so much any isolated text, as the principles of the Book generally that guided their determination. They saw that love to God and man is the grand principle of the Book ; and that this love enjoins us to do nothing, to eat nothing, to drink nothing, which would prove the means, directly or indirectly, of making a brother " stumble, offend, become weak," or fall into sin. This love forbids us from "destroying by our meat or drink him for whom Christ died." These simple-hearted islanders saw all this, and resolved on total abstinence. They did not allow a metaphor, borrowed from the use of wine, the commendation of a medi- cinal draught, or the miraculous production of an innocent beverage, to beguile them firora " walking charitably," or according to the dictates of universal "love." They showed a maturity of critical and spiritual judgment in allowing "the principles" of the gospel to explain the metaphor, the medi- cine, and the miracle, instead of arraying the metaphor, the medicine, and the miracle against the principles of the gospel. Intoxicating drinks were about to desolate their churches, to cover the island with crime, to corrupt and besot the rising gene- ration, to take them back to heathenism ; and they nobly resolved to drive the abomi- nation from their land. They did not wax presumptuous enough to argue that if they introduced to their frames a poison which would infest their bodies and infect their minds, the grace of God would work a daily miracle to satisfy their vitiated taste, and would therefore abstract the pestilent spirit from their brains and their bones. No! these Christians believed that we are not to "do evil that good may come," and that we are prohibited from "tempting the Lord our God;" and thus making " the principles of the New Testament the foundation of their proceedings, they determined totally to ab- stain from so deleterious a drug. And when we look at the scourge which intoxicating drinks have inflicted on the British churches, and which, a thousand fold greater, they still threaten to inflict, can we do better than follow their example ? CHAPTER II. INTEMFEBAMCE AND DISEASE. On this topic it may be ncceiiiary to ob- serve, that the inebriating principle in all in- toxicating drinks is spirits of wine, or alco- hol, and that alcohol is a poison. Whether ardent spirits, wine, beer, porter, or cider be drunk, what ist called the strength of these liquors, and for which alone they are drunk, is allowed by all medical men, chemists, and physiologists, to be an acrid poison. Dr. Dods, in his examination be- fore the Committee of the House of Com- mons, stated, that " Writers on medical jurisprudence rank alcohol among narcotico- acrid poisons;" and he adds, that "small quantities, if repeated, always prove more or less injurious," and that " the morbid ap- pearances seen after death, occasioned by ar- dent spirits, exactly agree with those which result from poisoning, caused by any other substance ranked in the same class. Sir Astley Cooper has declared, " No person has a greater hostility to dram-drinking than myself, insomuch that I never suffer any ar- dent spirits in my house, thinking them evil spirits; and if the poor could witness the white livers, the dropsies, the shattered ner- vous systems which I have seen, as the con- sequences of drinking, they would be aware that spirits and poisons are synonymous terms." A testimony, similar in sentiment, was signed by nearly five hundred medical men of the first respecta) ility, in Edinburgh, Ber- wick-upon-Tweed, Bradford, Brighton, Chel- tenham, Derby, Dublin, Gloucester, Kil- marnock, Leeds, Leith, Lincoln, Manchester, Nottingham, Worcester. York, &c. Dr. Mussey says, " That alcohol is a poison to our organization, and tends to pervert our moral feelings, is evident from observation." And he adds, " What is poison ? It is that substance, in whatever form it may be, which, when applied to a living surface, whether ex- ternal or internal, disconcerts life's healthy movements. It is altogether distinct from substances which are in their nature nutri- tious. It is not capable of being converted into food, and of becoming part of the living organs. We all know that proper food is 28 INTEMPERANCE AND DISEASE. i i wrought Into our bodies. The action of aniin^ life occasions a constant waste, and new matter has to l>e talien in, which, after digestion, is carried into the blood, and there changed," and assimilated so as to supply all the waste of the frame. " But poison is in- capable of this. It may, indeed, be mixed with nutritious substances," as arsenic for rats, " but if it goes into the blood, it is thrown off as soon as the system can accom- plish its deliverance, unless nature has been too far enfeebled by the influence of the poison. Such a poison is alcohol ; such, in all its forms, mix it with what you may. It is never digested and converted into nourishment." The same is true of it as of arsenic and corrosive sublimate. Dr. Dods, to whom we just now referr- ed, in his evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, gave the following physiological explanation of the effects of this poison upon the human constitution: "Alcohol coagulates the albuminous and gelatinous parts of the structure, and corru- gates the solid parts, as the muscles, &g. Its effect on the blood-vessels seems to be two-fold — increased excitement and contrac- tion in the diameter of the vessels; this tends to produce enlargement in some parts of the blood-vessels, or effusion, should their coats give way at any part of their course. Diseased deposits are frequently formed where a branch is given off, or in some wider portions of the blood-vessMs, which give rise to most painful symptoms, such as are common in gout or rheumatism. In- creased excitement, also, from the use of stimuli, maintained for a given time, dimin- ishes, in proportion, the healthy functions of the organs, and leads slowly, though cer- tainly, to alterations both in structure and function : in this way we may account for diseased livers, diseased kidneys, diseased hearts, and symptoms which indicate these in the effusions of serum, which occur in different regions of the body, and is called dropsy, water in the chest, and general an- asarca. "Very striking effects also are produced upon the nervous system, as is manifested in the imperfect muscular contractions visi- ble in n state of intoxication, in tremors, pal- sies, and other maladies, which not unfre- quently afflict the victim of intemperance. Emaciation and debility, which are very common characteristics of those ^iven to ha- bits of spirit drinking, proceed from the con- stitution being robbed of its proper supply of nourishmefit, while at the same time it is compelled to carry on increased action, and increase the process of absorption beyond that of nutrition ; besides, the glands through which the absorbent vessels pass, being kept under constant irritation,, become enlarged, hardened, and variously altered in their structure, till at last they cease to carry on the functions to which they are destined, and the fluids which they used to transmit, be- come effused in the surrounding parts. "The diseased deposits which occur at the heart and along the blood-vessels seem to be produced by the efforts of the minute vessels, which supply these organs, to resist the injury that might result to larger blood- vessels from their increased action, produced by the presence of ardent stimuli ; in other words, a given amount of blood, with a given force, and in a given time, circulates through a set of tubes, contractile and ex- pansible up to a certain point; these tubes are of a certain length and diameter, and, in their healthy condition, are capable of afford- ing passage to the blood, according to the usual rate and quantity ; but when their di- ameter is diminished through the influence of spirits, and when the frequency and force of the circulation is, from the same cause, considerably increased, the vessels become strained at some part of their course, and the vital energies instantly attempting to prevent or repair the injury, throw out fluids, which become coagulated, and remain as mechanical obstacles to the proper discharge of future functions. Many lamentable speci- mens of morbid deposits are furnished by habits of intemperance, and many " weari- some days and restless nights" become the purchase of such thoughtless indulgences. On the same principle might we explain en- largement of the heart, of the aorta, and other parts of the arteries, apoplexy, coma or lethargy, and the like; always taking into the account the influence of vital action, and a combination of other causes, aiding or re- sisting the various results. It were easy to extend my remarks on this part of the sub- ject to a much greater length, but enough has been said to convince those who will yield to facts, of the injurious effects of ardent spirits, when used, even moderately for any length of time. " If the thoughtless consumers, or zealous advocates of strong stimuli, would accompany us to a few post mortem examinations of in- dividuals who have persevered in such habits, or were called to witness, like us, the suffer- ings they previously endured, they would feel horrified at their own folly and igno- rance, and, if they were wise, would never touch the bowl again. But, whatever men may think, and however they may act, still, it is true, that the use of ardent spirit, now so prevalent, is one of the greatest evils that ever has befallen the human race. It is a second curse, which seems destined com- pletely to destroy every blossom of beauty and virtue, which the first left blanched and drooping here and there upon the face of the earth." We have given this passage, because it contains a physiological explanation of the baneful effects of intoxicating dritiks upon our constitution, furnished by a gentleman of accurate observation, and who, in his TESTIMONY OF MEDICAL MEN. 29 n ecause it on of the nks upon entleniRn >. in his medical capacity, has repeatedly seen most nifeuting illustrations of the facts he has stated. These words of Doctor R. G. Dods ought to be printed in letters of K<>Id, and hung up in the moiit prominent place of every room of moderate as well as of immoderate drinkers. But before making any remarks on this af- fecting exhibition of the evil influence of alco- hol, we will give a few quotations from the evidence of Dr. Farre. On the Committee handing to this eminent physician the paper which contains the testi- mony of nearly tive hundred distinguished medical men, to which we just now alluded, after reading the words, " By the following certificates it will be seen that ardent spirit is ascertained by medical science to be in a strict sense a poison, and that the use of it as an article of diet, especially among the poorer classes, is the direct cause of an incalculable and appalling amount of disease and death," the Doctor said, " It is strictly so in regard to the destruction of life. Undoubtedly that is the fact; it destroys the gastro-hepatic system, producing a variety of liver diseases, as inflammation, especially the chronic hepa- titis, what Baillie termed the small white tubercle of the liver ; also cancerous afl^ections, as the large fungus of the liver, and com- pletely obliterates the fine structure of that organ. With respect to the stomach and intestines, it destroys the villous surface of their lining membrane, so that death is inevi- table. The very root of the absorbent system Is destroyed. But great as the destruction is upon the gastro-hepatic system, I have seen again and again the patient fall from the rend- ing of the brain by the excessive forcing of the circulation, before the disorganization of the liver had gone to the point of producing dropsy, which is the usual precursor of death." Speaking of the post mortem examination of the body of a drinker, he says, " He died of sanguineous apoplexy. Hisli ver was gibbous at the extremity, completely rounded, white within, and its peculiar structure very much obliterated. The artery of the dura mater, or outer membrane of the brain, was blood- shot. He died of injury of the brain from alcohol." He also stated, " That cases of disorganization from the abuse of fermented liquor, with every other variety of disorder, and also demoralization of mind, resulting from the same cause, had frequently come before him as a consulting physician." He asserted, that by demoralizing the mind, it led " to pauperism, riots, murders, suicide." He says, that "diluted spirit destroys as effectu- ally, although more slowly than the undiluted, and therefore, that the addition of water does not make any change in the property of dis- tilled spirit." Again, " Alcohol destroys the lacteal absorbent surface, and the lymphatic absorbents take up the more, and the man begins to waste, in such a case, immediately." He adds, that " spirits destroy life by the de- structior of the balance of circulation, by ex- citement, and 8ub8eque.^t collapse, or the dis- organization resulting on the reaction there- from." He aflSrms, that " -holera was more fatal to drunkards than to others," and also that " fewer recovered under treatment by the difl'usible stimulants of alcohol and opium, than by a milder and more discreet treatment." He mentions an instance of post mortem ex- amination of a person who died from mania, produced by alcohol, in which he says, *' the brain, to use a strong expression, may be said to have sweated blood, and the case decided a disputed point in anatomy, whether or no the dura mater, or living membrane of the skull, and the investing membrane of the brain, consisted of two layers, for in this instance the blood was effused between these two lay- ers and formed a distinct lamina of blood be- tween them, marking the extreme point to which the circulation was forced." As con- firmatory of his statements, the Doctor in- stanced the case of a "woman who died of jaundice and disorganized liver from drinking a quart of malt liquor daily while living a se- dentary life;" and of "a farmer, of a most vigorous constitution, who was blind, and injured in othiT important functions, at the age of forty-two, in consequence of ale-drink- ing." All medical men seem to be agreed on the sentiment which Doctor Dods advanced in another place, that " diseases of the brain, of the liver, of the heart and blood-vessels, of the kidneys, of the stomach, of the pancreas, of the bladder, of the skin ; that apoplexy, insanity, mental delusions, delirium tremens and spontaneous combustion, all spring from the use of alcoholic drinks." " Mental dejec- tion, morbid irritability, ungovernable pas- sion, frightful delusions, confirmed insanity, aneurism, and the perpetration of the foulest crimes, as duelling, murder, suicide," &c., the same physician attributes to strong drinks as their origin. Children also are said to be stunted in their growth, and often unhealthy al! their days, or perhaps sent to their grave in infancy in consequence of the diseased constitution which they have inherited from drinking parents, or from having alcohol, in some form or other, early administered to them. In cases of disease, also, it is allowed by all parties, that the profoundest skill of the physician is often entirely counteracted by the folly of nurses and others, who most in- discreetly administer these stimulants to the sick. The reader by this time must be satiated, or we could multiply medical opinions and testimonies to almost any extent, and all agreeing in the statement, that all the diseases which we have mentioned, and a great many more, are produced and cherished by the use of these intoxicating beverages. The examples already given, show us that alcohol, whether diluted or not, is a poison, and that belonging to the class, diffugibla stimuli, it circulates through the whole frame. Mr. Higginhotbam, .. a experienced surgeoo IXTEMPKRANCB AND DISXASB. i in Nottingham, Infurms ai tliat, " unchanged in ita property, It passea through the brain, ]uni(ii, heart, liver, and every organ of the body, through every muscle and lioiie ; every part of the Mystem U witshed with it, and no part wants it." Dr. Beaumont has shown from his experiments on the btomnrh of St. Martin, that all the fluids that enter the sto- mach are immediately absorbed. It seems thiit the stomach is only capable of di<;esting what is bolid, and therufure it always dismisses every fluid before it can commence the important liiltor of dijfestion. When milk was taken. Dr. Beaumont found, on lucking into St. Martin's stomach, that it was immediately changed into curd, the solid parts were detained and digested, while the whey, or liquid part, was instantly absorbed by the venous capillaries which open upon the surface of the stomach that tlu'y may carry away the fluids, and thus remove them from an organ where they are not wanted, and in which they would injure di;rpstion. It is now a Wfll kimwn fact, that the gas- tric juice is the only fluid employed in digest- ing our food. This is produced by nature in A pure state, and in the exact quantity needed to chyme the food. To dilute this most mar- vellous fluid, would be to injure it, and there- fore the liquids, whatever may be the kind we may drink with our meals, must be re- moved nut of the way, before digestion can go on. Hence alcohol, which is thinner and lighter than water, is at once taken up by the venous absorbent capillaries and circulated through our frame.* It has been found in the blood and the brain, and has, in such circumstancos, actually ignited on li^;ht being applied to it. If conveyed into the stomach in connection with any nutritious matter, as in the case of beer or wine, in which we shall hereafter show there is a very small portion of nutriment indeed, the s^uhstantial part is Itift in the stomach, while the a](;ohol is cir- culated throuuh the frame. But as it is an acrid, fiery poison, it irritates and stiniulat's the whole system. In an instant it atlec:s the nerves, and thrnuoh them the brain; it moves tile Iieart and pulse with an unnatural rapidity, and communicates its fire to the very extremities of our bodies. Who has not felt his head in one moment aflVcted by a mere tatite, yea, by the smell of a small quan- tity of wine, or his feet warmed in an instant by a glass of gin ! Now we have in these instances examples or proofs that this pestilenti.nl drug paces through the length and bread h of our con- Blitutiun, It leaves no part ot the body un- visited, unstimulated, or utiinjured. We may apply to it the words of Shakspeare — " The leprous distilment, whose eflFect Holds iuvh enmity with the blond of mnn. That, swift as quicksilver, it rouraea through The natiirnl ffHtea and nlleya of the body. And, with acriirsed poison, it doth infect The thin and wholesome blond." * Dr. Combe on Digestion, &c., 78, 79. We have good evidence that it leaves no part, which it visits, as sound as it found it. We may tell the reader who has not heard of the circumstances, that St. Martin, to whona we have before alluded, was a young Cana- dian, w ho was shot across the stomach. The ball took off a portion of one of his ribs, apart of his liver, and left an orifice which never closed. Dr. Beaumont, who was attached to the army as surgeon, undertook to cure him. The wound healed, but the hole in his stomach remained, so that it was necessary to bind on it a little pad to prevent his food from coming nut. After the cure he went home and married. But Dr. Beaumont, considering that such an opportunity for in- vestigating the mysterious process of digestion might not again occur, sent for him, and kept him between two and three years under his roof. The result of his observations are most valuable ; so much so, that we cannot hut believe that Pruviden(;e intended the event for the good of the human family. Now, among the expeiiments which Dr. Beaumont made, one was to discover the effects of fermented liqiiors on the organs of digestion, and he found that when St. Martin drank these, "the mucous membrane of the stomach was covered with inflammatory and ulcerous patches, the secretions were vitiated, and the gastric juice diminished in quantity, and of an unnatural viscidity, and yet he described himself as perfectly well, and com- plained of nothing. Two days subsequent to this, the inner membrane of the stomach was uimsutilly morbid, the inflammatory appear- ance more eiwtensive, the spots more livid than usual ; from the surface of some of them exuded small drops of grumous blood ; the ulcerous patches were larger and more nume- rous ; the mucous covering thicker than usual, and the gastric secretions much more vitiated. The gastric fluids extracted were mixed with a large proportion of thi(;k ropy mucous, and a considerable muco- purulent (lischarge,slight- ly tinged with blood, resembling discharges from the bowels in some cases of dysentery. Notwithstanding this diseased appearance of the stomach, no very essential aberration of its functions was manifested. St. Martin complained of no symptoms indioating any general derangement of the system, except an uneasy sensation and tenderness at the pit of the stomach, and some vertigo, with dim- ness and yellowness of vision on stooping down and rising up again." Dr. Beaumont fun her observed, tliat " The free use of ardent spirits, wine, bee" or any other intoxicating liquor, when <:i>iiii,,aed for some days, has invariably produced these changes." I have introduced these exps'riments and observations of the effects of fermented li- quors upon the stomach, for the purpose of showing that this insidious poison commenc- es its work of destruction as soon as it comes, in contact with the digestive organs. It does not wait until it has spread through ll ■t TESTIMONY OP MEDICAL MEN. 31 the frame, but it aetually nttacks the very fint member it toucliea. The mouth am) palate dismiu it immediately. It would probably cure ti)e worst of sots of his pro- pensity, if you could fix a plu.; in hU thront, and doom him to kce^i liis mouth full of gin and wntur, or strong betr for n whole day. It is a query, whfther l>is tongue, 8ubjerted to twelve hours' action of alcohol upon its surfm-e, would have any skin on it at nii;ht. But the tongue is far less liable to hurt from such a source th:in the inner coats of the stomach and tlie blood-vessels. These delicate organs are. therefore, peculiarly susceptible of injury from tills "acrid poison." The stomach, which is one of the most important laboratories of our frame, is in- jured as soon as tliis vile spirit enters it. It becomes, as actual observation has now de- monstrated, " iuHamed and uici-rnted." The gastric juice is greatly lessened and vitiated, and in a short time mixed with a large pro- portion of tliick, ropy mucous, and a con- siderable muco -purulent discharge, slightly tinged with blood, resemliling tlie discharge from the bowels in some cases of dysentery." And will any one say that the gastric juice is bettered l)y being thus mixed witli the corrupt discharge of ulcers ? or that the BtomHch can perform its functions better when it is " inflamed and ulcerated" than when it is sound and liealthy ? Were we to apply to our hands, and feet, and tongues, a poison which would blister and ulcerate them, should we be able to work better, talk better, or move about with more pleasure ? What madness, then, to subjet^t so delicate an organ as tlie stomach to these incon- veniences! But it must not be forgotten that it is in tlie stomach, and by the help of the gastric juice that the food undergoes that vita] change which fits it for nutrition. If what we eat is not digested, it cannot nourish us. Now, Dr. Beaumont found that you could not mix the gastric juice even with distilled water, which is allowed to be one of the purest diluents in nature, without in- juring its properties, and staying digestion. He put a piece of meat into a ]»hial of pure gastric juice, and another piece into some that was diluted ; both were subjected to the same heat, but the meat in the phial that contained the undiluted juice was digested best and soonest. ' And if it could not be improved by so simple a substance as dis- tilled water, much less could it be improved by mixture with such a poison as alcohol, wliich both ulcerates the stomach, and bar- dens the food whioii is taken. Alohoi is an antiseptic; we put bnrlies infr it to preserve theui from decay. Can anything, then, be more absurd than to sa- turate our food with an antiseptic that it may dissolve the better? Should we com- mend the wisdom of the potter who should first harden the clay, that he miirht render it more plastic? And yet we are guilty of greater folly in swallowing n drink which renders the food harder, and more difficult of digestion, and boast of doing so for the pur- pose of increasing its digestibleness! Fer« inented liquor, in>ti>Rd of improving the gas- tric juice, uirates the stomach, and event- ually corrupts this marvellous solvent with purulent matter, and instead of increasing its quantity, actually lessens it, and at the same time covers the lining of the stomach with sorfs anil ulcers; and are these things good for digestion? Let us put them together, and look at them again, or rather let us prescribe the following remedy for dyspepsy. 1. Food rendered indigt-siible by an luitiseptic pniscm. 2. The gnstric juice diminislied to a less quantity than the digestion of the food posi- tively demands. 3. The same juice diluted with the pus that has exuded from an ulcer. 4. A stomach covered with sores and in- flrimmatory wounds, produced l>y the fii-ry irritations of an acrid poison I The physician who should prescribe such a remedy for the dyspeptic would be deemed more fit for St. Luke's than a dispensary; and yet this is the panacea, the heal-all, that every medical adviser recommends, wlio directs his patients or ills friends to drink fermented or distilled liquors for indigestion or any other disease! We should scarcely pour salt into a fountain in order that the stream might be sweet, nor would a chemist render his retorts and jars fusible or corrosive that his gases might be the purer; yet this is wliat we do in drink- ing ali-ohtdic drinks. We pour a poison into the blood which corrupts and inflames it, and we do so to make it pure ! We ulcer- ate the stomach to render it more capable of its functions I And <■ hat is the result of all this? Why that indi testion is become a na- tional disease. The atliletic hu^iiandinan, whose frame, in former years, was braced with nerves of iron, and who laughed at the weakling who talked of being nervous, now, from drinking ale and cider, trembles like an aspen leaf; and this sturdy rustic, who, in till' days of our fathers, never felt that he had a stomach, now goes to the druggist for car- bonate of soda, or keeps in his bed-room a box of antibilious bills 1 The medical witnesses before the House of Commons agreed in stating that indigestion among the labouring classes is altogether a new disease, and all equally agreed in at- tributing it to strong drinks. On hearing a youth complaining of being nervous, nn old woman, the other day, exclaimed, *' Nervousl nervous! People had no nerves when I was young!" They had wliat was better. They had nerves in a healthy state, and therefore th.'y were never reminded by diseased tre- mors, that tiiey had any nerves at all. Sa- vages, that have none of our stimulants, have scarcely lAsre than one diseaee among them» INTEMPEnANCR AND DtSEAtE. and that diseaae is death — not audden, or from apoplexy — but from the nhait of the warrior, or the gradual decay of nature, un- lem famine may have intervened. Our strong and wholesome ales and ciders, as they are called, our potent wines and cor- dials, as they are puffed, instead of bracing, have shnlcen the nerves of the nation, and made us tremble at a shadow. Some, perhaps, have it in their power to gratify a vitiated taste more than others, and by stimulating their frames till, to use the ■trong language of Dr. Fnrre, their " brains rend," may feel little of nervousness, and consequently have a short life and a merry one, and rush into eternity uncalled for, and before they have " accomplished as an hire- ling their day." Some may have a particu- larly robust frame, so that it may have taken them sixty or seventy years to brealc up their constitutions ; but these are exceptions, and their number is gradually decreasing, and we are getting weaker and weaker as a people. Indigestion is born with us, and the in- fant that hangs at his mother's breast pines day and night under the pangs of dyspepsy, while the nutritious stream that nature has provided for its sustenance, poisoned with the alcohol that his mother drinks, feeds the disease, and condemns him to a life of suffer- ing. The ploughman, who breathes the purest air of heaven, and the delicate lady, who cannot inhale a volume of the whole- some atmosphere without a cold, heave sigh for sigh over their shattered nerves and dis- ordered digestive organs. Warriors and lawyers, ministers, senators, and huntsmen, all suffer from bile, indigestion, and a swim- ming in the head. The lords and ladies of creation have changed the lovely rouge of nature for the sallow tinges of jiiundice, bile, or disorganized liver. Every newspaper has its long advertisements of aiUibilious quack- ery, and the pill-box is berome an essential part of the furniture of the toiint and dressing case. Morison, and a thousind other quacks, have reaped princely fortunes in catering for stomachs and nerves which alcoholic drinks have ulcerated or shattered. " Doctors," as Abernethy said, " have multiplied beyond all precedent, and diseases have kept pace with them." Never were there such a host of physicians, nor of maladies which they feel incompetent to cure. These diseases are not in the pure atmos- phere of heaven, are not in the wholesome farina of wheat, the starch of potatoes, or the fibre and gelantine of animal food. These painful affections belong not essentially to the frame which God has given us. They are not natural, but acquired, and acquired from the use of alcohol more than from any other source. We drink a poison, innoculate our- selves with disease, and then impiously ex- claim, " That it has pleased God to give us a diseased constitution 1" That it has pleased him to associate poison and pain together Is a wise provision, to deter us from infecting our bodies and shortening our lives ; but that it has pleased him arbitrarily, and without any fault of ours, to scourge us with indi- gestion, nervousness, apoplexy, and aneurism, is a reflection on his goodness that falls little short of blasphemy. ** He doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of mvsn." What can be more impious than to manufacture a deleterious spirit ; to destroy millions' worth of nutritous food ; to drink a pestiferous bowl and send the poison through our veins; and then charge a God of love with arbitrarily dooming us to disease and a premature tombl Dr. Dods tells us, in the passage already quoted, that "alcohol coagulates the albumi- nous and gelatinous parts of our structure, and corrugates the solid parts, as the muscles," &c. Surely nature never intended that we should thus curd the juices of our frame, or contract and wrinkle the muscles which God intended for the vigorous and pleasurable movements of our bodies 1 Under the in- creased excitement of alcohol, the same physiologist informs us that " the circulation is quickened," and the " diameter of the ves- sels, through which the blood has to flow, is diminished." More work is demanded at the very time that the capacity of these won- derful tubes for their labour is decreased. In the wiseeconomy of nature, " a given amount of blood, with a given force, in a given time," and through pipes of a given and proper " diameter" is to be circulated ; by drinking intoxicating drinks, we increase the quantity of fluid which we have changed into fiery contaminated blood, we increase the force that propels it, we shorten the time in which it is to be done — and at the same moment, decrease the diameter of the tubes through which it is to pass — and is it any wonder that blood vessels burst, sometimes on the brain, and cause instant death ; sometimes in the lungs, and afflict for life that mysterious purifier of the blood ? Is it wonderful that f)y the bursting of over-worked, over-heated, and poisoned vessels, *• diseased deposits" should be formed which may ulcerate the lungs, ossify the heart, produce cancers and calculi of various descriptions and kinds ? Bleeding at the nose, hsemorrhoidal and other diseased fluxes and swellings occur from the same cause. As alcohol, especially, seeks the heart, the seat of life, and propels it with a deadly velocity, and seeks the brain, the seat of thought, intelligence, and moral judgment, and, by loading the blood vessels of that delicate organ, encumbers the head, is it to be wondered at that palpitation of the heart ensues, or that the mind is too con- fused to think, or that the eye becomes dim, the ears deaf, and the tongue clammy ? Per- sons that drink stimulating liquors have a swimming in their heads, a dimness before their vision, a ringing in their ears, a nervous sense of obstructifm in the organs of spee.-h, a sMpposed ball rising up in their throats, TESTIMONY OF THE AUTHOR. ■nd a palttied ahake of thfi hand, nnd tottering of the limbs. And nothing could be more naturnl than that it ■hould be so. The brain, whence nil the nerven of the frame beautifully and delicately ramify in ten thousand difTererit directions, is put under a confuHed and unhealthy excitement, and therefore all the messengera which it sends forth, to accompliHh volition, to collect infor- mation, or bring home intelligence, are in- jured, weakened, and doomed to be partakers of the confusion of the head. Hence, vision is misty from the intoxi(;ation of the nerve of the eye — the heurins; is diseased from the unnatural action of the nerves of the ear — and the tongue, the throat, the hands, the feet, are all equally disturbed in the perform- ance of their duty. Unnatural sounds are heard, unnatural sights are seen, unearthly voices are uttered, and the whole man is more like a puppet danced by wires than a being who has nerves, brain, and a human soul associated with these, to regulate his movements, and guide him in the interpreta- tion of his sensations. It must not be supposed that what has just been described are the feelings of the intemperate alone, they are the associates of moderate drinking in ten thousand instances. What is more common than to meet with men of athletic form and bulk superannuated before they are fifty ; unable to read, write, or cast accounts, because of a dizziness in the head ; unable to think, speak, or act, because of their nervous affections ? These gentle- men, though six feet high, like sentimental girls, have a supposed hysterical ball in the throat, and must liave a smelling bottle, or a perfumed snuff-box, to keep them from faint- ing; must wash in eau-de-cologne to keep lip their spirits, or must carry camphorated or other lozenges in their pockets, to prevent their swooning in company. These all know that the bottle would be an instantaneous re- viver ; but then they have learnt by experi- ence that excitement from such a source would only, after the fumes of the spirit had evaporated, or 'rather, perhaps, intoxicated every nerve, muscle, and blood-vessel of their body, render them more dyspeptic, bilious, and tottering. What a wonder that they do not allow Nature to finish their education in dietetics. She has taught them that partial abstinence from these drinks is good, and if they would hut listen to her suggestions, she would show them that total abstinence would be their effectual cure. It will soon be seen that what are laughed at as the vagaries of tee-totallers are, after all, the benevolent dic- tates of our constitution, and that Nature has preached total abstinence from the days of Adam. By headaches, by indigestion, by trembling nerves, palpitating hearts, erysipe- latous and dropsical limbs ; by bile, hemorr- hage,^ consumption, asthma, and hepatic affections, she has long been calling upon men to abstain from these poisonous potations. The writer of this essay always, >n using these drinks, observed the rules of moderation ; but nevertheless, was doomed for years to a miserable exi^^tenre from this cause alone. My nervous feelings were such that I have often risen up to walk, to see if my limbs would iiove; and repeatedly have spoken aloud . tcertnin if my speech was not alto« gether gone. A constant mist floated before my eyes; sounds rung In my ears; an unna- tural weight, or sensation of weight, oppressed my head, and made it painful to stoop; a knock at the door shook my whole frame, and family prayer was repeatedly postponed from inability and want of voice to pass through the duty. Flatulency, to a degree that seemed to threaten all the functions of life was my daily companion, and has often compelled me to rise up by ni^ht and exert myself most vigorously to remove the undesi- rable tightness across the chest which it occa- sioned. Biliousness rendered almost every kind of food nauseating. The greater part of the wholesome and nutritious " good crea- tures of God" were placed under the ban of my diseased stomach, whose liealthy powers were destroyed by this accursed creature of man. My heart used to beat so loud after retiring to bed, that for some time I could get no sleep. My rest was never refreshing, because a diseased stomach and stimulated brain and nerves tortured me with dreams, sometimes the most horrific that can be ima- gined ; besides what is most vulgarly termed the cramp and nightmare, which arose from the action of alcohol on my nerves and mus- cles, used frequently todisturbmy rest. Con- stipation, which sometimes seemed to bid defiance to the strongest medicine, made me wretched from day to day. Frequently have I expected every minute to faint, especially when in company. The feeling that I should instantly fall down dead haunted me every- where. I used, when from home, always to take a card in my'pocket lest I should drop dead in the street, and my friends might not hear of me. In reading the word of God, or the Church service, I was compelled to select short chapters, and the length of the thanks- giving used to shake my whole frame. Such are a few of the evils I endured. Physicians told me my disease was clerical, and I must give up study, drink weak brandy- and-water, or a glass of wine per day. Hav- ing drunk more wine and brandy than usual during the cholera, I providentially discovered that spirits disagreed with me, and gave them up entirely. My nerves got better, and my health altogether improved. Still I took a little home-brewed beer daily, and occasionally a little wine, and dear enough had I to pay for the indulgence. The argu- ments of James Teare, four years ago, induced me to try " total abstinence," and all my complaints almost instantly fled. I am never troubled with bile ; I never need medi- 94 INTEMPERANCE AND DISEASE. ■-ll eine. I hardly know that I have either a hend, •tomavh, or nerve*, because thejr never pain me. I can eat whatever comei to hand without fvar of bile or indiKextinn. I nan ■leep eoundly, and am nirrly troubled with dreams. I can rend and study fur dnyw together without pain or injury. Indeed mental exerclHe eeems to be advnntngeous. I can preach four times on the Sabhnth, and often without the leaMt fiiti^ue. Hut, for total abstinence, I am sure that I must now have been on the superannuated lint of min- isters; while, from aduptini; that principle, my life is pleasurable and my labours refresh- ing. I used to feel such fntij^ue on Monday as to be unfit for anythini;; but now I can rise at four or Ave o'cioclc on Monday morn- ing, and commence the closet study without the least inconvenience. I have mentioned my own case, because I have reason to believe that, in my former feelings, I had a thousand brother dyHpeptics among studious and professional men, whu could enter into all the feelings that I have described, and who might obtain a cure by following the principle I have adopted. Nothing can be more absurd than for a man, whose employment or profession calls for mental exercise and excitement, to drink intoxicating or any stimulating drinks. Surely commercial calculations and enter- prises, preparing for the bar, the pulpit, or the senate, are excitements enough, without •timulating the head with a material spirit. I know, from a good many experiments, that a glass of wine, in the fatigue it pro- duces, is quite equal to an extra sermon. The old mode of passing the Sunday stti., enough to shatter a brain and nerves of iron. 1. The excitement and mental activity in preparing for the pulpit, which greatly ex- ercised the brain. 2. The labour of going through the service, which, whether plea- sant or painful, still agitated the brain. 3. "When service was over, a glass of wine, which immediately went to the head. 4. Dinner, and another glass of beer or wine, ■till going to the nerves. 5. Afternoon ser- vice, all mental and exciting to the brain. 6. Tea or coffee, all highly stimulating, and operating immediately upon the nerves and brain. 7. Preparations for evening service still agitating the head. 8. Reading, prayer, and sermon, each a mental effort, and krep- ing the head excited. 9. After service, a glass of wine, which inflamed the already jaded-head 10. Supper, attended with some alcoholic drink to digest the whole and give sleep I And to all this may be added a stomach, rendered by these intoxicating pota- tions, unfit for the work of digestion, and while the brain and nerves were suffering from exhaustion, dyspepsy prevented the food from being changed into the nutritious aliment that nature demanded. Thus the body was doomed to extraordi- nary labor and exha \$tion, and was at the same time robbed of the support which well, digested food would have furnished. Could anything be more absurd than such a mods of pr paired, the waste of the body was not sup< plied by nutrition, and, instead thereof, was intlampd with a poison. Is it any wonder that miiiUtcrs, commercial men, senators, and others, often become paralytic, or are disabled by dyspeptic and nervous affections ? I will leave others to judj{e whether my present mode of life is or is not most likely to conduce to health. Let us t.ike the Sabbath. 1. Rise at half, past five, and, before leaving home, take a small portion of food, and then a gentle walk into the country. 2. Short service, prayer meeting or preaching for about an hour. 3. Qentle walk home, by which the blood is drawn from the head to the feet, and the brain is rexted and fitted for the next service. Breakfast, if ru'cessary, is also now finished, which, by wiii&^ng a tendency of the blood to the stomach, equally rests the brain, and keeps up a healthful circulation. 4. The ten o'clock service, easy to the head and nerves, because each have been enjoying re- pose. 5. After service, the brain, instead of being excited by alcohol, allowed to rest. 6. Diimer of nutritious food, but nothing alcoholic taken, either to render the food in. digestible, ulcerate the stomach, or agitate the her»d. 7. Afternoon or evening service, for which the body, re-invigorated with food, and the brain with rest, are amply prepared, and the labor itself becomes rather refreshing and bracing than otherwise. Lastly, The services ended, a light supper, if any : nothing stimulating, or intoxicating drunh, the bruin and nerves are allowed to rest or simply cheered by conversation, until balmy sleep grants her refreshing hours of repose. We have merely placed these two modes of living in juxta-position, that the reader, whether a physiologist or not, may judge whicli of the two he deems most conducive to health and bodily comfort. Surely, it hardly need the c<»nsiderati(>n of a child to perceive that great corporeal or mental exercise cannot require the addition of a poisonous stimulant to add to the fatigue of the frame. Bodily exercise, whether with the hands or feet, is excitement ; mental exercise, whether in the college, the senate-house, the laboratory, the study, or counting-house, is excitement, and makes a great demand upon the nerves and the brain. What need, then, in either of these cases, to add the debilitating impulses of strong drinks? Let the digestive organs be kept healthy, and, in most instances, they will be, if this poison is kept out of the stomach ; let nutritious food be taken, and then, the gastric juice and i II TKtTIMOKY THI 4UTH0ft. 96 the otbir fluid*, empliiyrd In prpparlng lii« food for iu ofllne im an aliment, will rtrnd through thfl whole frnine ii Huid which will gently fxclte without pxhnu!«lion, and will ■upply the RonKtant wnxte ol'the HyMtem. But alciiholii; drinlcM, na Dr. Muiuey hiis remarked, " r-nnnot be dl|;e!tt«d." The utiimiich, a* Dr. Beaumont oltserved in the ciiMe of St. Martin, dnex not di){ent water, miiuli lexs nnn it di^ext alcohol, which in llt;hter and lettH RubMtnntial than water. TtMeiMni that whut- erer li(|iiid enteni the Btnmanh, U Mtraltied or filtered through the venous cnpilliiries ; the ■olid parts are left behind for !••«• degree of fatigue." Anu M tliin, iw^ every physiologist nui<*t admit. '• p^rft^otly Natural. As we have said before, lalior ii e.«citen)eiit— study is excitement. Many a mechanic has to use hi.t head and liis hands at the same time, and therefore is hourly under the im- pulses of a double excitement ; and will any medical man, who knows his business, say that a third excitement is neeiled to prevent fatigue ? The man that would say so has yet to study the physioloi^y, ay, and pathol- oKy, of his profes>ion, and is a mtTe certifl- cated qiiacl<, in whoe. Under its inHuence she has been roliburl of all the softness, deli- cacy, and moduKty of her nature. Uy it she has been cliatiKed into a virago, scold, ty- rant, and impassioned demon. In many in- stances it has made her affectedly sentimen- tal, or worse than brutally hard-hearted, or a capricious, dissatisfieil dexput, whom no one could please. Her brain and nerves, and consequently her intellectual and bodily energies have been impaired and ruined by it. It haa introduced to her frame every de- scription of disease, and contaminated her mind with every vice. Such have been its effects in ten thousand cases on the fairest part of creation. We could scarcely pardon the miscreant who would wantonly pour upon the " rose of Sharon" or " the lily of the valley" n li- quid that would wither its beauties and de- stroy its sweetness. Yet woman, the love- liest and fairest flower upon earth, is daily being blanched, contaminated, or destroyed, by this deleterious liquor. If we blush not at the thought that strong athletic men should be changed by alcohol into trembling effemi- nate women, yet let us not push the bowl further round and change women into a vixen, a weeping sentimentalist, an impas- sioned fury, or u torpid and insipid dyspep- tic. No one can rationally and seriously contemplate the effects uf even moderate drinking upon female health and character, without feeling the mo^t imperative motive to abstain. By the ancient Roman laws it was death for a woman to drink wine. Both Pliny and Polybius attest this fact. The punishment may have been severe, but the prohibition was natural. God never in- tended her delicate system to be inspirited by alcohol. And the rude Roman knew that if she drunk these poisons, she would become "dead while she lived," and there- fore, by execution, he doomed her at once to the grave, lest her morals, contaminated with wine, should render her manners more pestiferous to society than the most pestilent putrescent carcase. We have dwelt thus largely on the effects of alt!uholic drinks on the nervea, brain, and whole constitution of moderate drinkers, be- cause, OS all drinkers were flrat moderate, and aa all diseosea muot have been incipient, we believe it will be admitted by all who have examined the auliject, that "the temperance and m«>deration" of which many boust ao loudly, are the cauHe of a very great propor- tion of the diseases that now prey upon th« people. We are not about to deny that there are other causes of disease. Want of clean- liness, want of exercise, of proper clothing, of wholesome air, of a nutritious variety of food, all tend to disease. Over-exertion by undue labor of body or mind, improper ex- posure to sudden changes of temperature, and epicurean and sensual indulgences, oil hr>va their appropriated and aisociated maludiea and scourges. But still among all these sources of di:iease, alcohol stands pre-eminent as a destroyer. Few men would iiuve argued that because there W'>re other causes of death and disease, therefor^ Jenner ought to have left the small-pox to sweep away its millions annually. Alter we have done our utmost for human health and longevity, still there will remain ample materials for pain and mortality. Even the misanthrope need not feur thut if alcoholic drinks are abandoned, tliere will be but little suffering left fur his malignity to caruusa upon. And he whose morbid charity leads him to dread lest the curse which God has pronounced should be frustrated, may dry up his tears, because it is not our intention to interfere with any divine arrangement. To the sentence, "dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return," we bow with submission ; but we cannot admit that because God hits doomed us to die, therefore man haa a right to invent a poisonous drink which shall short- en and embitter the period of our reprieve. Dr. Dod, and he spoke from observation, declared, that " inebriating liquors have visit- ed the earth with a second curse," which seems destined to destroy every blossom of beauty and virtue which the first left blanched and drooping here and there upon the face of the earth. Tliis second curse, be it remem- bered, is from man ; and we ask, what right he has to undertake to curse himself or others with a poison ? " Vengeance is mine," saith God, " I will repay." We are not to avenge ourselves upon our enemies ; what right then have we to administer poisons to our innocent children and friends ? Deep at the great day, will be the responsibility uf him that first mixed the intoxicating bowl; but blacker still will be his guilt, who, in the very presence of the myriads that it hud slain, still com- mended and pushed round tha deadly goblet. If we have a grain of feeling and humanity left, we must perceive that enough have al- ready been slain by drinking. It is only to open our eyes to perceive that there are scourges enough to human frailty without our calling forth that poisonous spirit, " that f miiu^mtitmm/mm MADNIM. 37 presence ill ci>na- y goblet, uinanity have al- only to ere are hout our " that itlnff* Ilk* • MTpent and bitea like an ■(!• der." Now It !• the opinion of nil Ml«ntll1a mrd- teal men, that aluohol de«troyH nnd iiijurf« by •tlmulotiiiK. Dr. Farre Mya, that alcoholic drink* kill by " d«iitruyliiK th« balance of cir- culation, by excitementior lubaequent col lapse, or the dlM>rf(aiiiMtion rcaulting on the re-au- tlon therHlrom." And nKain," In violent death from aluohol, the patient die* nimply from the apoplexy of excitt-ment and the collapite of exhaustion." He aliMi adds, " The law of over Htimulatlon is this, that the circulation falls off In a greater proportion than it Is forced, then comes the collapse, or the de- pressed feeling, from the abstraction of alcohol, and then the desire for renewing the dose ; but the further law of stimulants is, that the dcHM must be incrfosed to produce the doNired excitement, and thus a fatal habit is eNtublitih- ml, by which structures, essential to life, are disorganized." Thrae remarks have a re- sponse in the feelings not only of drunkards, but of those who boast of being temperate. Elevation and depression, or, to use the doc- tor's words, " Excitement and collapse," is the law of their existence. Now they are in high glee, their brain, nerves, muscles and blood-vessels being stimulated by the poison ; and now, that the spirit, after inflicting in- Jurieo that years may not repair, has escaped, or perhaps hisidioustly departed from the brain to some lurking place in the system, the col- lapse is felt, and ennui, depression, exhaustion, or melancholy, make a clamorous demand for more of the drink of death. Thus there is no regularity In the movements of the various organs. The balance of circulation is destroy- ed, and as this occurs every time that alcohol, in any form, is taken, disease must inevitably ensue. In those cases in which the poison is taken at the rate of a glass or two per day, it may, especially in strong constitutions, take ■ome time to mature the malady which in the end will be fatal ; still the foe, " steady to his purpose," keeps the end in view, and what terminated In dropsy, consumption, or ossificati(;n of the heart, commenced in a solitary glass of wine or porter. Ad things have a beginning, and often the most tremendous consequences have re- sulted from a cause, deemed at first too in- significant to be noticed. Such especially is the case in drinking. It was only a glass, a social glass, or a medicinal glass, that was first given and received ; this produced a pleasurable excitement, gratified the taste, and created a thirst for more. The hilarity experienced was followed with depression, which seemed imperatively to ask for a fur- ther supply of the poison. By little and little the fatal habit is established, by which *' structures, essential to life, are disorganiz- ed," " blood-vessels burst," " diseased depos- its" are formed, which become the nucleus of various fatal disorders, or congestion, in- flammation and effusion may originate drop- elee and other moat patnAtl and dattruetlvt affections. It ought to lie repeclolly noticed that thia pentllent prii , generally seeks for on asy- lum where it may practice its deadlieat deeds 111 some iinportiint and vital organ of the body. It s«imetlincs makes the brain more particularly the seat of its venom, and victim of its cruelties. At another time. It hidaa itself in the inmost recess of the heart, or coils around it like a serpent ; now It fixes upon the lungs; now upon the kidneys i upon the liver, the bladder, the pancreas, the intestines, or the skin. It bus dimmed, blunted and destroyed all the senses ; it haa smitten all the nerves; it has loosened all the muscles, and palsied all the limbs. It can reduce the bcnly to a skeleton, or cause it to bloat and swell until it expires of cor- pulency. It can agitate the heart until It throlw and bursts, or it can reduce pulsation imtil It becomes almost impalpable. It can distract the head until the brain " aweaU blood," and horrified reason flies away and leaves the man a maniac or a madman. It can render him Insensibie to pain, or k can doom him to years of excruciating torture and morbid sensibilty. It can paint hia cheeka with the deepest bloom, or throw over them the hue of the sepulchre. It can almost give him wings to tly, or render him a mere log. At iU commaiHl his eyes brighten with joy, wax red with madnehs, or become dim with debility and despair. But we might multiply antithesis almost without end, and show that man, unil' r the influence of strong drinks, has verified them all. Not only hlu body has suffered, but his mind and his morals exhibit evils still more malignant and deadly, and yet every one of them could be traced to the same pernicious origin. Of the latter, we have given sufficient examples already; and for the existence of the former we might ap- peal to every hospital and medical man in the country ; and, indeed, to all who have opened their eyes to the effects of strong drinks on the different persons that have come under their notice. By the testimony of all the medical prac- titioners that were examined before the House of Commons, it was admitted that nearly all the disease in the army and the navy, the greater part of the mortality of our country- men in foreign lands, that " nine out often" of all persons that enter our hospitals, owe their disorders and complaints to drinking intoxicating liquors. The evidence from all the lunatic asylums also proves that full one- half are deprived of their reason, and become insane, idiotic, or mad from the same cause. Audi f to the one- hat f that have become derai ig- ed from immoderate drinking, be added those whose stomachs, nerves, and brains, have been injured from what is called moderation, we have no doubt it would be found that " ninety-nine" out of a hundred go to those asylums solely from the use of these poisons. 38 INTEMPERANCE AND DISEASE. I never heard of a person who totally abstain- ed, goin|{ mad, and I firmly believe, that when total abstinence shall become general, every madhouse may be closed. I never knew a person become insane who was not in the habit of taking a portion of alcohol daily. But if such are the frightful effects of al- cohol in producing disease, its influence in hastening death is still mnre awful. One witness before the House of Commons, stated that the coal-whippers, and others, in Lon- don, who are beer- drinkers, "die like rotten sheep." An officer of high respectiibility, states, that in the West Indies, four hundred and fifty out of one thousand of his men died in four months from drinking rum. In America, it was computed that 40,000 persons died annually from drinking. Dr. Gordon, of the London Hospital, stated that, from accurate observations on his own pa- tients, he knew that seventy-five cases of disease out of every hundred, could be traced to drinking. lie also declared that most of the bodies of moderate drinkers which, when at Edinburgh, he had opened, were found diseased in the liver, and that these symp- toms appeared also in the bodies of temperate people which he had examined in the West Indies. He more than once says, " that the bodies whose livers be had found di- seased, were those of moral and religious peo- ple." This same witness observed, that "the mortality among the coal-whippers, who are brought to the London Hospital, is frightful." He also adds, that the moment these beer-drinkers "are attacked with any acute disease, they are unable to bear de- pletion, and die directly." John Henry Gell, Esq., coroner for Westminster, gives the following statement of inquisitions of deaths from drunkenness, which had come under his own notice, from July, 1833, to July, 1634, in Westminster alone: — " 1833 — July 27. James Phillips, aged 40, accidentally drowned. Had been drink- ing. August 5. Elizabeth Martin, aged 64, accidentally burnt; was drunk when her clothes caught fire. August 19. Ailnn AUingham, aged 72, accidental, by a fall ; he was drunk at the time. August 96. Alexander Macpherson, aged 45 ; accidental, by a fall ; then drunk. August 30. John Jacob Scmid, aged 32; died from having cut his throat when his mind was excited by excessive drinking. Sept. 13. George Bathurst, aged 33 ; found drowned. He had £400 left to him, whet he took to drinking; and, at times, when under the influence of liquor, was mnd. Sept. 30. Mary Steers, aged 55 ; found drowned ; had been drinking. Oet. 1 1 . James Horam, aged 45 ; acci- dental, by a fall when he was intoxicated. Nov. 11. William Wiliiams, aged 65; apoplexy ; had been drinking the night be- fore ; was subject to fits from drinking. Nov. 29. Susan Steward, aged 33 ; died from excessive drinking. She was in mid- dling good circumstances. Nov. 30. Henry Higgens, aged 48; apo- plexy, brought on by excessive drinking. Dec. 17. John Dunn, aged 37; apo- plexy; had been drunk daily. Dec. 28. Eliza Briganshaw, aged 20 ; found drowned ; was upon the town ; when in liquor had said that she would drown or poison herself. 1834 Jan. 25. Richard Hurles Ponti- fex, aged 40 ; lunacy, hanged ; frequently came home late at night, intoxicated. April. 3. John Kearnes, aged 30, brick- layer's labourer ; visittition of God ; been a great drinker at times ; was drunk the night liefore the morning of his death. April. 23. William Duggind, aged 40 ; died from excessive drinking ; was a man in good circumstances. May 21. Edward Rowley, aged 22 ; ac- cidentally drowned; he had been drinking all day ; went into the water, could swim, but sank without a struggle. June 12. Robert Blair, aged 39 ; lunacy, poisoned ; his wife had left him in conse- quence of his drunken habits ; he had been drinking before he poisoned himself. June 25. James Brittlebank, natural death ; wa^ drunk, and had been fighting ; erysipelas had ensued. June 25. Thomas Sims, aged 55; lu- nacy, cut his throat; great drunkard, was in- toxicated before he committed the act. June 26. William Keith, aged 35; ac- cidentally dniwned ; could swim ; had been drinking previously to going to bathe ; was a drunkard. June 27. John Branch, aged 35 ; lu« nacy, cut his throat ; had been a drinker ; smelt of rum vhen wounded. July 9. William Emerson, aged 29 ; by rupture of a blood-vessel ; had been a great drinker, and attributed his illness to it. July 12. Margaret Thompson, aged 24 ; lunacy, hanged; had drunk so that it was considered to have injured her mind " Christian reader, before you proceed any further, let me entreat you to read again this black catalogue of disease, ciime, and death. Look at woman, in her twentieth or twenty- fourth year, drowned, a lunatic, or hanged by her own hand, and remember, that these females were once as pure as that infant daughter, that now clings to your bosom, and on whom you smile with so much affection. They, too, must have been at one time mode- rate drinkers, perhaps their parents taught them to drink, and commended to them the liquor that ruined them. The liquid that was their destruction has just as much power to poison that infant, which you now so doat- ingly admire, and the catalogue shows that ? Uii_ ■) -J TESTIMONY OF CORONERS. 39 55; lu. , was in> I- respftctability In circumstances is no protec- tion against tiiis accursed bane. Loolc again, also, at tile otiier sex, some in early youth, lunatics, — lifting ttie razor to their awn throats, — hung I>y their own hands, — plung- ing into the river and sinlcing lilce lead, as if the water refused to support a drunlcard, their " brains rent" of apoplexy, — their blood- vessels bursting, — their wounds erysipelatous and stinking of alcohol, — maddened by drinic, administering to themitelves a stronger poisun than alcohol, — or, bereft of reason, shattering their bodies by accidental, but fatal falls, or walking heedlessly into the devouring dood. We beseech you to weigh these facts in all their bearings on time and eternity. Here, in the inquests of one coroner in the brief space of one short year, you have twenty-four of your own brethren and sis- ters, lost to society, sacrificed by their own hands, and ushered into eternity uncalled for and unprepared. We should send a fleet round the world, if so many citizens had been destroyed by a foreign foe, and yet we en- courage and commend the domestic demon whose ravages infinitely surpass those of any foreign enemy. Christians, can you tell the worth of these lives and souls ? Would you for the wealth of both Indies stand in their fitead at the bar of God? Would it not cause your heart to burst, if you thought that the end of your sou or daughter would be like theirs? These, remember, were once " moderate drinkers," total abstinence would have saved them all from degradsition, disease, lunacy, poison, and death. It vas the beer, or the spirit that sparkles so brilliantly in your glass, and even bewitches you, that fascinated them and allured them to ruin. Look at it again. Let your cup, like Joseph's, for once divine, and it will tell that the very cordial, — (alas I it can go to the heart, per- haps it has gone to your heart already,) — the very cordial you so highly commend, can ruin you and your family in both worlds. O that God would give a tongue and an empha- sis to ti.e prediction, such as should constrain you to vow that " your tongue shall cleave to your mouth, and your right hand forget her cunning," before you will touch or taste again ! The examples just given are from the note- book of one coroner, and exhibit the records of one short year. What if we had the in- quests of all the coroners of the country for the last twenty years, what may we suppose would be the character of the catalogue ? Our hearts sicken at the thought of the disease, the debauchery, the Buffering, the cruelty, the madness, the suicide, the murders, and miserable deaths that would be presented. We need not the cup of the diviner, the past history of drunkenness, all of which originat- ed in " moderation," is sufficient to show us the future, except that, as the love of strong drinks is increasing by the increased facilities of gratifying so vitiated a taste, tliesc is rea- son to believe, unless the plngue be stayed, that the crimes, and diseases, and infatuiition of our children will unfold a scene, black and destructive beyond any previous precedent. The following testimony from IMr. Wakley, Member of Parliament for Finsbury, and Coroner for Middlesex, is submitted to the serious consideration of the humane reader. " At an inquest held June, 1830, on a person who had died from the effects of intemperance, Mr. Wakley, Coroner, made the following remarks; — * I think intoxication likely to be the cause of one half the inquests thst arc held.' Mr. Bell, the clerk of the inquests, observed, * that the proportion of deaths so occasioned, were supposed to be three out of five.' ' Then,' snid Mr. Wakley, * there are annually 1,500 inquests in the Western Di- vision of Middlesex, and, according to that ratio, nine hundred of the deaths are produced by hard drinking. I am surprised that the Lei;islature, which is so justly particular about chemists and druggists vending poison, is not equally so with venders of gin.' " On another occasion, not very long aft'»r, the same gentleman observed, " I have lately seen so much of the evil effects of gin-drink- ing, that I am inclined to become a tee-totaller. Gin may be thought the best friend I have ; it causes me to hold annually one thousand inquests more than I s>)ould otherwise hold. But beside these, I have reason to believe that from ten thousand to fifteen thousand persons in this metropolis die annually from the effects of gin-drinking, upon whom no inquests are held. Since I have been coroner, I have seen so many murders by poison, by drowning, by hanging, by cutting the throat, in consequence of drinking ardent spirits, that I am astonished the Legislature does not interfere. I am confident that they will, before long, be obliged to interfere with re- spect to thosale of liquors containing alcohol. The gin-seller should be made as responsible as the chemist and druggist. And I think it is right the publicans should know that even now they are, to a certain extent, responsible in the eye of the law. If a publican allows a man to stand at his bar, and serves him with several glasses of liquor, and sees him drink until he gets intoxicated ; and if that man should afterwards die, and a surgeon should depose that his death was accelerated by the liquor so drunk, then would the publican be liable to be punished for having aided in bring- ing about that death." These remarks appeared in most of the public papers of the time, and they are the more valuable, because JSIr. Wakley, not long before he became coroner, in his place in the House of Commons, spoke rather sneeringly of the teetotallers : the observations made above were, therefore, extorted from him by the scenes which, in his capacity as coro^ ner, he had witnessed. What man, after reading these statements, can either vend or give awny any "liquor containing alcohol?" il 40 INTEMPERANCE AND DISEASE. i d\ To do ao, must betray an obtuseness of feeling little creditable to our patriotism or Christi- anity. An army of 15,000 fellow-subjects dead on the field of battle would fill ust with horror, yet, according to Mr. Waliley. fifteei thousand citizens of London are annually slain in the most brutal manner by alcoholic drink. Either let us hasten to stay this car- nage, or, for consistency's salce, let us re- nounce the name of Christians. If medical men, at least those who have ■cientifically studied the physiology of disease, would only favor us with the result of their anatomical and pathological observations, the reports of coroners, black and horrific as they appear, would sink into insignificance. These gentlemen know full well that by far the majority of the diseases which have come under their notice have been caused by the use of alcoholic drinks. We have not the number of physicians and surgeons in the country, much less can we get at a list of their patients for the last ten years; but had we both before us, and, at the same time, sufficient knowledge to trace diseases to their direct or indirect causes, we might then have some idea of the ills occasioned by moderate, as well as by immoderate, drinking. We should then perceive that millions of persons have doomed themselves to pains and anguish for life, and have hurried themselves to a premature grave, by the u«e of these stimu- lants. We would invite professional men themselves, before they recommend these poi- sons again, to review their anatomical and surgical observations. Ancient augurs used to consult the liver and the intestines of birds, that they might benefit their countrymen; in the diseased brains, kidneys, hearts, livers, blood-vessels, stomachs, and limbs, of the bodies they hav<' opened or dissected, practitioners of our day have a fund of real, not delusive, information, which might benefit the people to an incalcu- lable degree. To their honor it may be told that five thousand medical men in America have come forward and given their testimony against alcoholic drinks. In doing so, they have acted as became disinterested patriots And Christians. By recommending spirits, wine, beer, and cider, they all know that they might multiply patients and wealth a thousand fold. But they also know, that he who enriches himself by increasing, encouraging, or even neglecting the maladies of others, differs little from the beast, or the vulture which fattens upon carrion ; and, therefore, they have made declarations which ennoble their chai-acter, while, at the same time, they must limit their practice and their gains. Several gentlemen of equal integrity and honor, have already, boldly and honestly, in our own country, pronounced their veto against these pernicious drinks. Mr. Higginbothadi, an eminent surgeon, in Nottingham, in a letter, dated Scarboro,' Aug. 1836, says to his friend, who was trou- bled with an affection of the throat, — " I want you to give a fair and full trial of total abstinence from all stimulating liquors, and also from tobacco, in every furm. I am fully persuaded that many chronic diseases aro brought on and continued by their use. I consider I shall do more in curing disease and preventing disease in one year by prescribing total abstinence, than I could do in the ordi- nary course of an extensive practice of one hundred years. I have already seen diseases cured by total abstinence that would not have been cured by any other means. If all stimu- lating drinks and tobacco were banished from the earth, it would be a real blessing to soci- ety, and in a few weeks they would never be missed, not even as a medicine. No one," he adds, *' can for one moment doubt that al- cohol, which is the basis of all intoxicating drinks, can pass through parts of the body in a state of irritation or inflammation, but the parts must be further injured, and I have no doubt that thousands fall into a premature grave by the temporary relief trom exhaustion it gives when laboring under these affections." This gentleman, it should be remarked, has practised total abstinence himself for thirty years. At a meeting held in Dublin last month (Nov. 1837), in the presence of 1,200 per- sons, in the Rotunda, Dr. Orpen, a distin- guished physician, said, " It is my conviction that those who belong to such a society as this (meaning the Temperance Society), will seldom have occasion for medical men. The diseases of your children will be diminished by adopting the principles of this society, and the public health immeasurably improved. In fact, every year adds to my conviction that if the public would act with common sense, and relinquish those drinking habits which have so long domineered over society, they would enjoy such a portion of health as would starve almost all the physicians. That is my simple statement, contrary to my own personal interest and advantage. It costs you nothing — receive it, and you shall find your- self both healthier and richer than you have hitherto been." A medical man from Bradford, Mr. Beau- mont, stated, at a Total Abstinence public meeting, held in Birmingham, about a month ago, that "he hod asked a board of medical practitioners their opinion of total abstinence. Only one opposed the principle, and that from motives that reflected little credit on his character. The chairman of the board said, that ' he wondered that Mr. Beaumont should so strenuously advocate a practice which he knew must so deeply injure the business of their profession.' " A surgeon, a friend of mine, who is a teetotaller, and recommends to- tal abstinence to his patients, stated, the other day, that, " if his patients followed his advice, he should lose a hundred and fifty pounds a-year in his practice immediately." He re- sides in a small town. I have tinder my eye 4 f thront,— •• I trial of total liquors, and I am fully diseases are heir use. I I disease and f prescribing in the ordi- ctice of one teen diseases aid not have If all stimu- nished from Hng to soci- uld never be No one," >ubt that al- intoxicating the body in on, but the i I have no premature exhaustion affections." larked, has ' for thirty last month 1,200 per- I, a distin- convictioo society as jiety), will r>en. The diminished >ciety, and improved. 'unviction common ng habits er society, ~ health as ms. That my own costs you ind your- you have ifr. Beau- ce public t a month medical >stinence. and that dit on his inrd said, nt should vhich he siness of Friend of fiends to- he other s advice, pounds He re- ' my eye TE6TIM0NT OF DR. JEFFREYS. 41 i a most distressing case of dyspepsy and re- puted spinal affection, which other surgeons and physicians had treated in vain, but which this gentleman, w' hout any aid from alcohol, relieved in a few lys, and in a short period effectually cured. To these testimonies I might add the names of many eminent medi- cal men in America. Charles A. Lee, M. D., of New York ; Benjamin Silliman, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Chemistry in Yale College, New Haven ; Dr. Oliver, Professor of Theory and Practice in Dartmouth Col- lege, and many others, give it as their opinion that stimulating drinks are unnecessary to the human frame ; that they originate the most painful and distressing diseases, and con- duct to premature death. The following most valuable testimony against the use of these drinks was addressed to Messrs. Meredith and Howard, Secretaries to the New British and Foreign Temperance Society, and is copied from the Third Report, page 19. The gentleman who sent it is Ju- lius Jeffreys, Esq., an eminent medical prac- titioner, now resident in Loudon, but who has passed many years in India. He is the inventor of the celebrated respirator. " Obntlbmbn,— In forwarding you a docnment which I hope will prove of much value to the cause of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, it may be well that I should briefly relate the course through which I was led to procure it. " Extensive opportunities of observing the hnbits of life of various classes, and of different races, amongst the inhabitants of Hindostan, during a residence of many years in the East, brought bemre me abundant evidence, that in using '~io alcoholic drink, they are exempted, in a r!>marKitble manner, from the more complicated forms of disease — their diseases being chiefly those incidental to that dele- terious climate — while, when willing, they can habituate themselves to efforts of labor of a sur- f rising kind. Upon my return to England, in 1836, had here also opportunities of a similar descrip- tion, the nature of^ray pursuits causing me tn oce much of the working[-classes, and to acquire a knowledge of their habits. The contrast was very striking, and equally painful. With bodily frames, by nature, incomparably more robust than those of the debilitating climates of the East, 1 found my fellow-countrymen, with few exceptions, under- mining their constitutions, or more rapidly destroy- ing themselves, by drink. The fitct became forced on my conviction by evidence on every hand, that to persist longer in proposing to our people mo- deration in the use of alcoholic drinks, was, in effect, to mock them. Moderation in the use of these drinks is, in fact, inapplicable to the case of the great bulk of the people of England. For a nation in our state, the Scnptures have provided a more strict and certein courscand have pronounced, in language abundantly clear, that total abstinence — * the cutting off the right hand, and the plucking out of the right eye'— is the only step which can be accepted in the first instance, or blessed as reme- dial ; ami we appeal to the wonderful success of societies founded upon this principle, against oppo- sition, scorn, and neglect, on all sides, as unanswer- able evidence of Divine support. " The Jews of old were not involved in drunken habits, like our nation ; but, in respect to them, the Scriptures are silent as to any recommendation of the habitual use of the smallest portions of these stimulants ; nay, they do honour to those who ha- bitually abstained from them; while the occasional use of them, only, is ever suggested in the Scrip- tures, and that, for the most part, medicinally — which thoroughly accords with physiological truth, which Scripture is ever found to do with all true st-ience. But our rude ancestors, alike ignorant of srriptnral and of physiological truth, imbibed, as an incentive to war, a craving after tlie daily use of intoxicating drinks, and a strong prejudice In ftiror of the constant use of them, as necessary for im- parting strength. This preiudice has kept its ground, almost unopposed, till of late. " Some ymn ago, a strong opinion Against the use of distilled spirits was rewlily subscribed to by many hundred gentlemen of tne medical profns- sion, including all its leading members ; but very little benefit resulted from it. Strong fermented liquors, the belly-gods of Englishmen, were not assailed ; and they who committed excesses upon these, forming the bulk of our countrymen, were little likely to adhere even to their resolutions against distilled spirits, though supported by the highest medical authority. ^' The notion, that the habitual use of wine or beer is needful for Englishmen, though an idle pre- judice of ignorant times, is still almost universal beyond the field of temperance operations. Now, this prejudice, though it were not founded in error, would, nevertheless, to England as it is, be in effect destructive ; for the bulk of our people need only an excuse for the use of stimulants at all, to ren- der certain their abu*r of them — abuse so dreadful and so general, as to threaten with destruction the very framework of society— aa to be the cause of nearly all the crimes against the law, and nearly all the poverty in the land ; rendering almost abor- tive, the numerous efforts for the Christian educa- tion of the people. They, therefore, who, opposed to the principle of abstaining from intoxicating li- quors, would recommend to this nation a moderate use of them, however excellent their intentions may be, are, in effect, mockers of their country- men, and triflers with their country's calamities. " It has appeared to me, therefore, that the first Slid most needful measure was to draw up a docu- ment setting these prejudices in their true light, as the ofi'spriiig of early and ignorant times, and as having no foundation in physiological truth, and to procure the assent to it of the leading members of my profession, and, subsequently, of as many others of its learned practitioners as would favour it with their signatures. Such a document appears below, with the signatures attached, up to this date. To each of the parties it was sent, enclosed in the fol- lowing letter, in print, commending to their atten- tion the important object which it was to serve. I have now tne pleasure of presenting the document to the New British and Foreign 1 emperance So- ciety, for publication in its journals, and to be em- ployed at the Temperance meetings throughout the country. I have the honour to be, "Gentlemen, " Your obedient and very faithful servant, "Julius JBrpasTS. " London, May llth, 1839." The letter and document referre3 to abrivc, are printed in the Third Report of the New British and Foreign Temperance Society, a work that ought to be in every house. The letter appealed alike to the reason, 'ihe scien- tific knowledge, and humanity of medical men, and then invited them to sign the docu« ment, which expressed that total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks was not only safe, but highly beneficial to all, but especially to those who have habitually to pursue very laborious employments. The following distinguished medical men added their signatures : — Batty, Edward, Esq., M.R.C.S., Lecturer on Midwifery, at the Medical School, Royal Institution, Liverpool. Baylis, C. O. Esq., Surgeon to the South Dispensary, Liverpool. Beaumont, Thomas, Esq., M.R.C.3., Brad- ford. Berry, Samnel, Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Town Infirmary, Birmingham. Birkbeck, George, M.D. Blundcll, James, M.D. m SIGNATURES OF MEDICAL MEN. ^- Brodie, Sir Benjamin C, Baronet, F.R.9., Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen, Surgeon to St. George's Hospital, Brookes, Benjamin, Esq., M.R.C.S., Sur- geon to the British Lying-in Hospital. Burrows, John, Esq., Liverpool. Chambers, W. F., M. D.,F.R.3. , Physician to the Queen, and the Queen Dowager, and to St. George's Hospital. Ciiavasse, Thomas, Esq., M.R.C.S., St. George's Hospital, Birmingham. Chowue, W. D., M.D., Lecturer on Mid- wifery and Physician to Charing Cross Hospital. Churton, Joseph, M.R.C.S., Liverpool. Clark, Sir James, Biironet, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to the Queen and the Queen's Household, &c. Clutterbuck, J. B., Esq. Conquest, J. T., M.D., Physician to the City of London Lying-in Hospital. Cooper, Bransby, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., Lecturer on Anatomy, and Surgeon to Guy's Hospital. Cooper, George L., Esq., M.R.C.S. Dalrimple, J., Esq., M.R.C.S., Lecturer on Surgery at Sydenham College. Davis, Thomas, M.D., Lecturer on Medi- cine, and Physician to the London Hos- pital. Davies, John Birt, M.D., Liverpool. Davis, David D., M.D., Physician to the Duchess of Kent, and Professor of Obste- tric Medicine in University College. Davis, , Esq. Eyre, Sir James, M.D. Ferguson, Robert, M.D., Physician to the Westminster Lying-in Hospital. Fowke, Frederick, Esq., M.R.C.S. Frampton, Algeron, M.D., Physician to the London Hospital. Gill, William, Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Nartbern Hospital, Liverpool. Godfrey, J. J., Esq., M.R.C.S., Liverpool. Grant, Klein, M.D., Professor of Thera- peutis In the North London School of Medicine. Granville, A. B.,M.D.,F.R.S., Physician Accoucheur to the VVestminster Gerieral Dispensary. Green, Thomas, Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Town Infirmary, Birmingham. Great Rex, Charles Butler, Esq., Liverpool. Hall, Marshal, M.D., F.R.S.L. and E., Lecturer on Medicine at the Sydenham College, and Consulting Physician to the Westminster Generttl Dispensary. Hay, Alexander, Esq., Surgeon to the South Dispensary, Liverpool. Hope, I., F.R.S., Lecturer on Medicine at Aldersgate Street School, and Assitttant Physician to St. George's Hospital. Howship, John, Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital. Hughes, John, M.D., Liverpool. Jeffreys, Julius, E»:q,, M.R.C.S. Julius, G. C, M.D. ^,^.„, '•>." Julius, G. C.,jun., M.D. Key, C. Aston, Esq., M.R.C.S.. Lecturer on Surgery, and Surgeon to Guy's Hos- pital. Knight, Arnold James, M.D., Sheffield. Ledsam, J. J., Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Eye Infirmary, Birmingham. Lee, Robert, M.D., F.R.S., Lecturer on Midwifery, at Kinnerton Street Medical School, and Physician to Itying-In-Hos- pital. Lewis, William, Esq., Manchester. Long, David M., Esq., Surgeon to the South Dispensary, Liverpool. Lynn, W. B., Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Westminster Hospital. Macilwain, George, Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Finsbury Dispensary. Mackenzie, J. D., M.D., Physician to the Liverpool Infirmary Lock Hospital. Macrorie, D., M.D., Physician to the Fever Hospital, Liverpool. Manifold, , Esq., M.R.C.S., Liverpool. Matterson, William, Esq., M.R.C.S., York. Matterson, William, jun., Esq., M.R.C.S., York. Mayo, Herbert, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. Merriman, Samuel, M.D., Physician Ac- coucheur to the Westminster General Dis- pensary. Middlemore, Richard, Esq., M.R.C.S., Sur- geon to the Eye Infirmary, Birmingham. Morgan, John, Esq., M.R.C.S., Lecturer on Surgery, and Surgeon to Guy's Hospital. Morley, George, Esq., M.R.C.S., Lecturer to the Leeds' School of Medicine. Nelson, John Barrit, A. B., M.D., F.C.P.S., &G., Birmingham. Nightingale, Robert S., Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Eastern Dispensary, Liver- pool. Parkin, John, Esq., M.R.C.S. Partridge, Richard, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy at King's College, and Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital. Pinchin, R. L., Esq., M.R.C.S. Quain, Richard, M.R.C.S., Professor of Anatomy at the London University, and Surgeon to the North Loudon Hospital. Reid, James, M.D. Roots, H. S., M.D., Physician to St. Thomas' Hospital. Roupell, G. L., M.D., Lecturer on Materia Medica, and Physician to St. Bartholo- mew's Hospital. J Scott, John, M.D. ''--> '■':::!' ■!:: ' ':: Stanley, Edward, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy, and Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Teale, T. P., Esq., M.R.C.S., F.L.S., Sur- geon to the Leeds General Infirmary. 7Jeale, Joseph, Esq., M.R.C.S., Leeds. Thomson, Anthony Dodd, M.D., F.L.S., Lecturer on Materia Medica, and Physician to the London University. Thomson, Henry U., M.D. , , > s SUDDEN DEATHS. 43 3t. Thomas' Travers, Benjamin, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.8., Surgeon Extraordinary to tlie Queen, and Surgeon and Lecturer on Surgery to St. Thomas' Hospital. Ure, Andrew, M.D., F.R.S. lire, Alexander, M.D., Lecturerof Chemistry at the North London School of Medicine. Vaux, George, M.D., Birmingham. Walker, , M.D. With such testimonies then before us, and knowing that thousands more might be add- ed ; for every city, town, village, and hamlet, has its living victims whom alcohol has smit- ten ; surely it behooves us to pause before we again use or commend so deadly a poison. Our bodies are not our own, but belong to our Creator, and therefore we have no right to subject them to disease, and render them unfit for the duties of life. We have seen, from the most disinterested and scientific tes- timonies of accredited medical physiologists, that disease on the one hand, is produced by these stimulntingdrinks, and thnthealth on the other hand, is promoted, and often restored, by abstaining from them. What right then, have we wantonly, in the face of evidence, which every day's observation corroborates, to drink a beverage which has been, and still continues to be, the cause of so much misery, crime, and mortality? Perhaps your constitution at present is good, and therefore, as yet, you can drink without perceiving much injury to your sys- tem. Still you must not forget the case of St. Martin ; he, after drinking, complained of nothing, except " an uneasy sensation and tenderness at the pit of the stomach, and some ▼ertigo, with dimness and yellowness of vision on stooping down and rising up again," and yet, at the same time, his stomach was ulcer- ated, the gastric juice lessened and corrupted, and thus the foundation was being laid for chronic indigestion, and numerous other di- seases. The injury to yourself and others may be so much the greater from the present iron constitution that enables you to swallow poison with, as you imagine, little or no in- convenience. Dr. Farre speaks of a hoary- headed drinker, who was the president of a drinking.club, who had buried three genera- tions of associates, and who for the example he set in drinking, and the ruin he brought upon others, was termed by the publicans, " The Devil's Decoy." Tsaiah says, " Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink." Such may be able for years to indulge in this poison without perceiving its consequences upon their own frame, but " wo unto them I" the example they set may be the destruction of hundreds. Your child, your neighbour, or friend may not be possessed of your consti- tution, or self-control, and therefore, what seems to inspirit you, may poison his frame and ruin his morals. Hardy as may l>e our frame, and however impregnable to disease our syitem may appear to be, yet there is vigor enough in the virus of alcoholic drinks to undermine our health, and bring us to an untimely end *, mnd when we enter the world of spirits and perceive how many our " mighti- ness to drink stf ong drink " may have tempted and ruined, our bodily strength, instead of being a matter of congratulation, will be our condemnation. The Rev. Mr. Scoresby. when detailing before Parliament, deaths from drunkenness, mentions, " That in Liverpool, in 1829, h« had ascertained thirty-one cases of deaths from drinking, out of which, fourteen were those of females. Of these one had fallen into a tub of hot water, and was scalded to death ; a female, from fighting when drunk, received a blow of which she died — another woman was burnt to doath ; another female, when tipsy, jumped out of a window and was killed ; another woman, when drunk, hung herself; one man, by stealth, got at a puncheon of rum, and, l)y su(;king the liquid fire through a reed, brought on almost instant death ; another cut his throat ; and another hung himself, from drinking. One died of a rapid disease brought on by tippling. Two boatmen, in a drunken quarrel, fell over- board, and were drowned. One man, under a depression that followed a fit of drunken- ness, cut his throat; and another, from the same cause, hanged himself. One person, from being drunk, fell so heavily down a short flight of steps that he was killed im- mediately. Another died suddenly at the public-house, where he had been drinking. A woman, returning from a revel, drunk, died in the night ; and another wretched fe- male, when drunk, fell into a cellar, and was killed on the spot. One child was killed by its mother, who was staggering drunk, fall- ing upon it ; and another was overlaid and killed by its parents, who were both dead drunk." Here, Christian reader, you have cruelty, crime, and carnage, to loathing. Tou have heard of Juggernaut and Moloch, and have deplored the unhappy victims which have been sacrificed to these idols ; but you must remember, that neither Moloch in Israel, nor Juggernaut in India, ever destroyed so cruelly and brutally, or so many annually, as: are now destroyed by the beer, wine, and spirits of your country; and yet, you, as a moderate drinker, by using and commend- ing these poisons, are actually dragging along in triumph the car of the British Apollyon, and, as you smile over your glass, are kind- ling the pile of Tophet. Taking the deaths from drunkenness in Liverpool fur one year as an average, the Rev. Mr. Scoresby con- cluded that the persons who die accidentally in the United Kingdom from the same cause, must amount to " six thousand four hundred" persons aimually I We query whether Juggernaut or Moloch could ever boast of receiving sixty or seventy hecatombs of human victims in any single 44 INTEMPERANCE AND DI6EA6E. i year. The Drutdt, the South Sea Islanden, and even the cannibals of ancient or modem times, could never vaunt of such reckleasneas of human blood as Christian Britain displays at the present tl.me. Tet all these lives that have been destroyed, and souls that have perished, were duly prepared fur future immolrtion by moderate drinkinjr and mod- erate drinkers. Their parents and Chris- tian friends gave them the first glass, and commended the poison which captivated their taste, destroyed their self-control, and doomed them to untimely deaths and to premature judgment. Is it a wonder that, in our day, considering the means employed, conversions ore comparatively rare, and that we preach and pray almost in vain? Surely the la- ther of mercies must be indignant, and the Holy Spirit grieved, at seeing so many im- mortals rendered in body a mass of disease, and in mind, a mass of moral corruption, by the wanton use of a poison, which before our eyes is seen to destroy so many thousands. In the evidence of Professor Edgar, it is said, that " in the county Down, one young man presented a list of twenty-two persons of his own acquaintance, and within five miles of his residence, all of whom had per- ished miserably from drunkenness. Another young man in the county Antrim, presented a list of twenty-seven persons within the circuit of a few miles, all of whom had, within his own recollection, come to an untimRly end, directly or indirectly, from drinking. A gentleman who lived within six miles of the same young man, made out a list of forty- seven persons, in a district within two miles of his residence, all of whom were known to have cut short their days by drinking. Withia two miles of Portadown, and in three months, thirteen individuals perished miserably from drunkenness ; three of them were drunk in the same house at night, and were found dead in the same bed next morn- ing !" The Professor added, that he could furnish many illustrations of the murderous influence of these drinks, "some even worse than those given above." Dr. Cheyne showed that in the West and East Indies, the mor- tality among the troops in 1827 amounted to one in every sixteen, and that the chief cause of these deaths was drinking. In many instances, the profanity and im- piety that drinking induces, is truly horrible. In a company of gentlemen who had indulged hi a long debauch, one of their number re- clined on his chair and died : it being observ- ed, after some time, " that he looked very grim and cadaverous," one of the party re- plied, " that it was no wonder, for he had been with his Maker for two hours, and that he knew this to l>e the case, only he did not like to spoil the mirth of the company" by making it known. This occurred a little later than the middle of last century in Dumbar- tonshire, and will show us that death, crime, and impiety, as the companions of drinking, are not of yesterday's growth, but have re- veiled in carnage and iniquity for years, and during that time destroyed millions. John Dunlop, Esq., who gave the above statement, declared that " many hundred thousands of British subjects every year die of drink directly, or predispose themselves by it to mortal disease." " Thus," he says, " .'t was understood by all ranks in Scotland, that drinking led to predisposition to cholera, and also that contact with tlie disease which was highly dangerous ; and instances m*^;' * be advanced of men, women, and children sitting upon a cholera coffin, with a corpse inside, drinking themselves speechless." Perhaps, reader, you tell me that there ia poison in bread, and poison in the atmos- phere ; but did you ever know breathing the wholesome air which God has compounded, or eating the wholesome food which he has created, produce such impiety and madness ? This occurred, remember, in moral Scotland, since 1830. and among a people better ac- quainted with the gospel than any nation upon the earth. Yet you perceive that alco- hol, which, if a moderate drinker, you recom- mend, can deprive these people of reason, conscience, morality, and even human feel- ing : beasts that want " discourse of reason" would act with less indecency than did these educated people in the examples stated above. Nor will facts allow you to conclude that these examples are rare : enter the country pot-house, the tavern, the traveller's room, the London clubs, or tea-gardens — enter them oti the Sabbath-day, and listen to the filthy jests, the profane oaths, the impious scoffs at everything sacred, virtuous, and awful, and you will soon learn, that the instances given above are not solitary. And what is more awful still, you need not go out of your own vicinity to get a sight of these " whited sepul- chres" or "hells;" and if you will visit them, you may find there the children that the other day wept under your instruction in the Sabbath-school ; and perhaps, the son and the daughter, that were once the joy of your house, to whom you first gave the pobonous cup, and whose taste is increased to such a degree, that they will now drink and die^ and break your heart. James Upton, Esq., of Throgmorton Street, in his Report in 1817, says, " The magnitude and enormity of the evil (drinking) is such, that I am really at a loss where to begin and where to end. The vital interests, both of nations and individuals, are involved in it, no less so the domestic and public peace, and general safety. The evil is far more exten- sive than can be conceived by common minds, or superficial observers ; its operation, I had almost said, is felt more or less in almost every family ; I witnessed, when a student in Edinburgh in 1784, its fatal consequences in the Infirmary, by an enlargement of the liver, to an extent almost unprecedented in this country. Many very excellent men have DUTY OF THE PEOPLE. 45 but hare re- f for years, 'ed millions, e the ubove my hundred ery year die B tbemselTea IS," he says, I in Scotland, in to cholera, lisease which tances m'^' * and children fvith a corpse Dchless." that there is ti the atmos- breathing the compounded, vhich he has nd madness ? )ral Scotland, lie better ac- I any nation live that alco- r, you recom* le of reason, human feel- se of reason" han did these I stated above, conclude that • the country reller'a room, I — enter them to the filthy Mous scoffs at d awful, and stances given irhat is more of your own whited sepul- 9U will visit children that nstruction in I, the son and joy of your he poisonous iA to such a and die, and lorton Street, le magnitude ng) is such, to begin and ests, both of irolved in it, ic peace, and more exten- mon minds, ation, I had in almost a student sonsequencea ment of the icedented in !Dt men have become subjects of incurable stomach com- plaints, and wasted away, in middle life, where there has been counting-house appli- cation ; persons, too, who would have been shocked to be considered otherwise than sober men, seeint; they only took one or two glasses a day. Travellers again, go much further, and generally die of brandied stomiiohs ; in these stomauhR, there is not the lea^it power of either taking or keeping nourishment. The next degree is diseaHed liver, vtith de- ranged functions of stomach and brain, dropsy, arterial ossiflcAtioiis, mental derangement, paralysis, serous apoplexy, and death. In this incurable state of things, all social, paren- tal, filial, and religious feeling are completely destroyed, and 'every possible immorality la let loose to occupy their place. Such is the dreadful vacuum and craving sensation of stomach (all our moderate drinkers feel a sinking in the stomach) which drinking pro- duces, that I have no doubt, in order to quiet it, a man will and has sacrificed everything dear to man. This is not all ; this mode of life excites artificial, sensual, and unchaste appetite, and you have an ufi'spring possessing only half natural life. A vast number of women have been taught to drink, in the middle and higher classes, by taking indis- criminately quack medicines containing alco- hol, hot seeds, and essential oils, such as Rhymer's tincture for gout in the stomach. Solomon's Balm of Gilead," &c. This gen- tleman, who has been in exf:ensive practice as a medical man, in and about the metropolis for thirty years, further states, that '* this evil leads to Sabbath-breaking, thieving, mur- ders, and cruelties of every description ;" he adds, " that madness is a frequent consequence of the excessive use of spirits, and that in those cases where any hereditary tendency or predisposition to this malady exists, it is easy to conceive how the powerful stimulants of fermented drinks will be both likely to call it into action, and to aggravate its symptoms." After reading such testimonies and extracts, we may use the expressive words of Profes- sor Edgar : " From all correspondents, whe- ther officers of excise, magistrates or clergy- men, there comes a most affecting cry of dis- tress. Benevolence groans in every heart over the wide-spread ruin, and the eyes <»f the benevolent of every denomination are at present turned with intense anxiety to the British Legislature." How far the Legislature may be able to stay the widely spieading 8(;ourge, is a question that may be difficult to solve ; something, doubtless, our senators might do, but as the evil is one of domestic custom and arrange- ment, the reformation must begin at home. Laws simply viewed as legislative enactments are not very powerful, and severe penalties in enforcing them, have in numberless instan- ces aggravated the evil, when the tastes and passions of the people have been adverse to obedience. Even the laws of Heaven are not obeyed, so long as the disposition of man is adverse to tiiem, and hence the necessity of regeneration to change the moral taste and inclination of him who becomes the servant of God. Our legislators may make what laws they please, but the nation must be cured of its love of strong drinks before those laws will be heeded. As long as the parent, the friend, the minister, the Christian, the senator, calls fur his ale, wine, or spirits, and drinks him- self and commends the poisons to others, the laws of Qoil and man must be set at defiance. These destructive liquors deprive men of rea- son and self-control ; debilitate the frame, and produce an insatiable appetite for more stimu- lus ; infiame all the sensual appetites of our nature, and arm them with a giant's impetu- osity, ruin men's health and circumstances, and render them reckless and desperate, so that they " neither fear God nor regard man ; and on a people thus bereft of health, intel- lect, moral feeling, and self government, lawa are powerless, and legislative enactments against drunkenness mere waste paper. A nd why trouble our senators ? They have already enough to do. Why raise and cherish a de- mon at our own fire-side, and then call upon Parliament to destroy the fiend ? Would it be wise for every family in the country to send for the eggs of the cockatrice, or the cubs of the tigress, to hatch and feed and cherish these destroyers until they bit and poisoned and devoured our children, friends, and most valuable citizens, and then, after filling the land with reptiles and beasts of prey, to call upon the Queen and her Parliament to sweep them away? Why introduce the monster* at all ? To send for a plague worse than the cholera, and then call upon the Lords and Commons to drive it out of the land, is not acting like rational beings or Christians ! Yet this is what we are doing, so long as we con- tinue these drinks in any form in our houses. We teach our children to drink a liquor which poisons their bodies, their minds, and their morals ; and then are astonished that government does not check, that religion does not control, and that God does not subdue the aboundings of vice. In obedience to the solicitations of this infatuating spirit, we throw ourselves, or hurl our children from the pin- nacle of the temple, and wonder that God does not send his angels to prevent any inju- ry ; too inconsiderate to refiect that it is said, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." We are not to swallow poison ourselves nor administer the same to others, and then ex- pert a miracle from Heaven to extract the virus, or turn it into blessing. Just as rational would it be to use and commend the use of arsenic or hemlock, and expect the senate to control or dilute and change tht;se poisons, as to drink alcohol in any tbrm or state, and call upon the government to save us from being destroyed. Let the reformation begin at home ; let n» 1 46 INTGM(>ERANCE AND DISEASE. I flweep "this leaven of malice and wicked- ness" from our houses; let us neither drinl<, nor recommend others to drink so pestilent n liquor ; let us brand it with the deepest exe- cration, and whether in the barrel, the pipe, or the puncheon, let us write in the larKt'Mt characters, the word POISON upon it, that our children may take warninj^, and then tlic evil will be banished, and we shall be a saved and a happy people. We shall then no Ion- ger look for legislators to tvork miracles, nor presumptuously expect God to interfere to remove a scourge which a depraved taste and heart have prompted us to introduce. We shall presently show that neither wines nor ales are necessary to man, and shall fairly confute the delusive interpretations that have been put upon the wines mentioned in Reve- lation ; and we shall also expose the great deception respecting the nutritious qualities of ales, beer and porter; but were we not capable of doing this, stiil the evils already detailed, as the natural results of drinking, ought to constrain us to enter into a vow of total abstinence. Were wine nectar, were the n»'triment of beer ambrosial, or as capable of giving im- mortality to our bodies as the tree of life in the garden of Eden, still, if partaking of either would become an occasion of sin to ourselves or others, we ought to abstain. Paul said, " He could wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren after the flesh." Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the salva- tion of men ; martyrs gave up life, and all that was dear to life, rather than encourage or patronize any one sin of their time ; — but what claim can we lay to their spirit, their society, or their glory, if we refuse to part with a poison which has swept its millions from the face of the earth ? Medical au- thorities, magistrates, police reports, and ecclesiastical calculations have demonstrated that every species of disease is originated, that crimes at which humanity blushes are perpetrated, that the church to a most awful extent, is robbed of its members, and that death in every horrid and painful form is promoted by these accursed poisons ; and if these facts are not sufficient to enkindle feel- ings of indignation toward such a pest, and prompt us to penitence and abstinence, there is reason to fear that we " would not repent, though one rose from the dead." When speaking of the crimes that are com- mitted through drunkenness, in order to meet the objection, that iniquity has abounded among people not addicted to drinking, we showed that the moral and intellectual char- acter of our day is different from that of any of those nations. Among them, education and religion were on the side of immorality ; the people were trained to be vicious, and their very godliness was the extreme of criminality ; they therefore did nut need the poison of a stimulating liquor to destroy their reason, sear their consciences, or harden their hearts. •' Their mind» and conspiences were defiled." But among us things are different. Our schools and our religion are calculated to make the people humane and moral, and would do so were it not for the intluence of alcoholic drinks. In attributing so much disease to inebri- ating liquors when but moderately used, per- haps we may be reminded that diseases havo prevailed among those nations whose circum- stances of necessity restrained them from al- cohol. We grant all thix : but still we must say, that as our facilities for moral and intel- lectual culture are more numerous, so the means of preserving health are also much greater than those of any ancient nation. Our habits are more cleanly, our country is better drained, our cities and towns have their common sewers, the diet of the people is more nutritious, clothing is more comfort- able, our houses blotter ventilated, and oppor- tunities of recreation and exercise more num- erous than those of any previous period, and we ought therefore to be the healthiest people upon earth. We grant that in all the departments men- tioned above, very much remains to be done, ay, and would instantly be done but for the talent and property that is annually wasted on inebriating poisons ; but still, after making every deduction, the advantages in favour of health infinitely surpass those of former times ; and yet, with all these blessings, we are getting the weakest and sickliest people alive. Strong men are become — not women ; women, though the weaker vessels, would blush at our effeminacy — but trembling spectres of bloated and inflammatory autom- atons, borrowing their spirit and courage, not from any native nerve, intellect, or moral principle, but from the inspirations of a poison. The day-labourer now must get his vigour, not as in ancient days, or as na- ture would dictate, from nutritious food, but from a spirit which all men agree has in it no aliment whatever. For the ploughman, re- member, drinks his beer not for the nourish- mant it contains, but for the sake of the stim- ulating poison. Even he has philosophy enough about him to know that he eats bread for nutrition and drinks beer for its spirit. The finer it is, and consequently the less of solid matter it contains, and the lighter it weighs — for its weight decreases just in pro- portion as its strength increases — the more he esteems it. The carpenter has not strength to saw a plank or drive a nail until he has borrowed courage from the tankard. Eating is likely to be superseded, human stomachs and digestive organs are being supplanted ; and, indeed, from being poisoned with alcohol, are getting so troublesome that could they be parted with, many would dismiss them from their bodies and throw them to the worms before their time. Drink, drink is every- thing. Every one tells us he has a diseased stomach, and cannot live without drink. LONGEVITY. 47 From the prince to the peiuuut, the great mutiny against wholesome t'uod \re In that country the folloning iiittances of longevity : — MO pertoni had rearhed from .. ., 100 to I on IW 110 — HA IW) 110 — HO lal HI — 125 3 136 — 130 A •■ 131 — 140 I 14S 8 1ft!) — IM 1 IfiO 1 165 Herodotus tells us that the average life of the Macroblans was 1 20 years, and that they never drank anything stronger than milk. I knew one man who was 104 yearn old, and was a very lively, brisk old man. Speaking of bis wife, he said to me, " She is but a girl to rae, for she is only 70, and, therefore, more than 30 years younger than I am." Ano- ther man in the same town, Drvonport, was upwards of 100. I have at present in my church an old man, Richard Poulston, who is upwards of 100. He joined the church after he was 96. At that time he often at- tended divine worship four times of a Sab- bath, walked several miles, and ascended two very steep hills, that he might enjoy the preaching of the gospel. I mention these facts to show that our life it not of necessity confined to " three-score years and ten." Indeed, no one can have ▼isited sick beds, and have witnessed how long, beyond all expectation, the vital spark has lingered about its clay tenement, without perceiving that, in many instances disease has had a hard struggle before it could dislodge the soul from its earthly dwelling. We have all seen what a tedious and painful amount of suiTerings individuals of delicate constitu- tiont can endure, before their spirits can be induced to depart to their long home. While, therefore, we allow that the thread of life is brittle, and can be snapped asunder by a very slight accident, yet we must also grant, that in the ordinary course of things, the period of our dissolution may be deferred to a very distant period. Let mankind be proper]; fed and clothed ; let them inhale the healthful atniosphere, and have plenty of ex- ercise; let their houiifs be well ventilated, their persons be kept clean, and their minds be usefully and cheerfully employed, and such men as Old Parr will no longer be prodigies of longevity. Now, every man who drinks alcoholic drinks must of nece».siity cut short his days. He may live to be eighty, but he would have lived longer but for these poisons. " He that ■hall die at a hundred years old, shall die a boy," says Isaiah, intimating, that at such an age, instead of the vigor of the frame being decayed, it will not have arrived at maturity ; BO that instead of the shrivelled and wrinkled members which we now sometimes see at fifty, it shall n»i be an uncommon sight to have men as old as Moses, whose ** eyes have not waxed dim, and whose natural strength has not abated." Nothing would he mora likely to hasten so glorious a period than the banishment of alcohol from the world. We should then, probably, have but one disease among us, a..d that would be death : not death at the age of thirty or forty years, but men would come to their graves ** in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." We know that some are ready to exclaim, that they do not wish to live so long. Per- haps nut ; and yet few are willing t:> go when their end comes. Even the Christian fees the physician at no common cost, to ward oif the last enemy. " All the days of our ap- pointed time should we wait until our change come," fnr it is not improbable that the eve- ning of the longest day of life will tind us with our work but half done, and therefore very ill-prepared for our final account. But if life is, after all, a despicable boon of Provi- dence, and if it is desirable that it should be shortened by poison, then wisdom would suggest that the shortest and speediest bane would be the best. It will not at all lessen the crime of suicide in the sight of God, that we administer to ourselves the deleterious drug by drops, and especially riot, as in so doing, we embittered by disease the few fleet- ing hours we allotted to ourselves, and he- came not merely useless, but positively inju- rious, to others. Our moderate drinking may have destroyed many. A very short life, and one entirely barren ofany good deed, may be redundant of fruits that shall embitter the whole of a long eternity. We are none of us isolated characters. We cannot sever the bond that unites us to the whole human family, and therefore we eat not to ourselves, nor drink to ourselves ; we live not to ourselves, nor to ourselves do we die. We are altogether the Lord's, and are consequently bound to present to him our body, and to take care that we do not, by indulgence, render that body a mass of disease. The lame and the maimed among the Jews were neither received as a sin-ofTering or peace-offering. We owe to the Lord the longest and the best life we can live, and are under a solemn obligation to see that our vi- gor is not diminished, nor our days shortened by poison, in whatever form administered. And we owe to him our souls, and therefore must watch lest we be " overcome with sur- feiting and drunkenness," and thus unfit our spirit for the high and holy duties of our heavenly vocation. The following is a synoptical view of the classes, order, and genera of diseases, which may be induced by alcoholic drinks : — Class I. Pyrexiee ; febrile diseases. Order I. F»»hre8 ; fevers. r........ 1 S Febricula, feverish affections. Ctenera 1. | Ebrieto, ebriety. Order J I. Phlegmasise, luflamroations. BYSOPTT^ VL TABLH 49 Gen. Gen. ' 1, Gut RoMr«M, red pimplei on the note, itnrl aninHtimPR tho whole hea. S, OphthHliniit. >li»i>nii)>, rneumoiiiii.inriammiitioii ortheluiiffi. G«ll. ^ n, Canlitiit, inlliiminntioii of the hpnrt. 7, flnittritln, liiflnmiTiiitionorthPiitniniirh. R, llcpHlitin, inttninnmtion of the liver. 'J, Nejihiitiit, iiiHnniiniitlon of the kldiieya. 1,10, PodiiKra, f(oiit. Oritrr III. Kxnnthemntn, Rnshea. II. Erynlpelnii, St. Anthony's Are. Orilfr If. Ilemorrhnfcinp, Fluxes of Blood. ( lU. Kplstnxis, nilnt. (13. Ilcomoptyiiis, spitting of blood. Oriter l', Prolluvia, ratnrrh, &r. Gen. M, Dysenteria, bowel complaints. Class U. Neurones, Nervous Diseases, Order I. Comnta, Loss of Sensation, Thought, and Voluntary Ai-tioii, ( 15, Apoplexiii, apoplexy, tifi, Paralysis. Order II. Adynamfn', Fainting. (17, Dyspepsia, indlj/cation. \18, Hyporliondria, low uplrits. Order III, Spasmi, Spasms. '19, Convulaio, convulsions. 'in, Fpilepsia, fits. r.n J *'• Palpltatio, palpitation of the heart. '""■ ] 22, Pyrosis, water brash. 23, Cholera. .24, Diabetes. Order IV. Vesnniie, Insanity. ^25, Melancholia, melancholy. "!. Mania, madness. ', Amentia, idiotcy. (.28, Delirium tremens, fearful madness. Cmss III. Cachexia, Bad habit of body. Order I. Marcores, Wasting disease. Gen. Gen. Gen. Gen. (29, Tabes, Consumption. Gen. L30, Atrophia, no nourishment from food. Orrfer //. IntumescentiiB, Swellings. Anasarca, dropsy. Hydrothorax, dropsy in the chest. Ascitis, dropsy in the abdomen. Order III. Impetigines, Cutaneous diseases. ('34, Srrophiila. Gen. < 38, Scorbutus, scurvy. 136, Icterus, jnundicu. Class IV. Locales, Local diseases. Order I. Oysorexio*, Diseased appetite. G»n i ''^> Poiyd'psia. constant thirst. \ 38, Anorexia, loathing of food. Order II, Dyalises. /39, VulnuB, wounds. 40, Contusio, bruises. {39, 40, 41, 42, Dislocatirt, dislocations. Fractura, fractures. I have copied this table from Dr. Beau- mont's Essay on Alcohol, and, for the sake of the English reader, have added an inter- pretation of the technical terms employed. Here we have forty-two diseases, some of t}iem most malignant ones, traced to alcoholic drinks as their origin. The following Table of Mortality, fur the week ending January 18, 1840, copied from " The Times" of January 25, 1840, will show the reader how many persons in London ' alone, in one week, died of the diseases Just mentioned; and probably were brought to their end prematurely, through the mode, Ue w immoderate lue of alcobulic drinks. Small Pox 3 Measles 20 Scarlatina 51 Hooping cough 81 Croup A Thruhh 4 Dinrrhn^n A Dyitentcry 1 Iiilliienza 3 Typhus 27 Erysipelas 3 SyphilJH i Epidemic, Endemic, and contagious disenses 144 Diseases of the Urain, Nerves, and Sen> ses 159 Disenwes of the lungs and other organs of respiration 373 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 30 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other organs of digestion 51 Diseases of the Kidneys 3 Child-bed diseases, &c 7 Diseases of the Joints, Bones, and Mus- cles 8 Diseases of the Skin 2 Diseases of uncertain seat 103 Old Age, or Natural decay 91 Deaths by violence, privation, or intem- perance 26 Total Deaths from all causes.... 997 The reader should observe that there is not a death mentioned above but may have been hastened by alcoholic drinks ; and most of them may have originated from the use of these destructive liquors. What is remark- able is, that only 91 died of old age; only 244 lived beyond the age of 60; 753 died before they arrived at that period ; 392 deaths occurred between and 15, and 361 between 15 and 60. Here then are only 91 deaths occurring from age or natural causes; the remainder, amounting to 906, are all from tmnatural causes; and, with few exceptions, might have been prevented. From this aw- ful example of unnecessary mortality, the " cry of blood" ascends to the throne of Divine justice; and against none is it so loud aa against those who drink, sell, or recommend alcoholic liquors. To these it may emphati- cally be said, " Your hands are full of blood ;" nor will God, when "he makes inquisition for blood," forget their recklessness. In confirmation of these remarks, it is only necessary to observe the character of the di- seases just enumerated. For example, small pox is an intinmrnatory disease, and in the majority of cases is rendered fatal by these heating drinks; measles often prove fatal from the inflammatory liquors administered. The same may be said of scarletina. Hoop- ing cough is frequently rendered incurable by alcohol. Croup, both originating and proving destructive from susceptibility to cold, occa- sioned by the samf cause. Diarrhoea, dysen- tery, cholera, typhus, influenza, and erysipe- 60 INTEMPERANCE AND WARTK. I las, In a mBjority of num, ooca»lon death (torn the inJudlciouH use of alcoholic driiiki; and, in too many iiiiitancKa, the patient, by Immoderate or even moderate drinking, hiu made himaelf obnoxloui to theee dl«ea»«M. Of ■yphilie It may be said, that were unholy puMlons no lonifer exniti-l by alcohol, chriit- tity would prevail; and, an a coniie<|uence, thie horrid disteutie whicli hrliiKH ho many to • premature grave, be biiniithed from the land. Epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseasea are, in nir ? canes out often, both propagatetl and rendered mortal by strong drinlcs. Di- seases of the brain, nerves, senses, lungs, and other organs of respiration ; of the heart and blood-vessels ; of the stomach, liver, and other organs of digestion ; of the kidneys, joints, bones, muscles, and skin, may, in most in- stances, be traced to alcohol, and are, in quite as many- cases, rendered fatal by the use of this liquor. Thousands of women in their confinement are brought to the grave, by the cold, the inflammation, the unnatural excite- ment and collapse connected with the drink- ing of these Intoxicating poisons. Deaths by violence are generally the result of drink- ing; and premature old age an invariable consequence. Every medical man who un- derstands the physiology and pathology of his profession, must subscribe to these senti- ments, and, as the friend of his species, ought to encourage the efforts made to abolish these destructive beverages. CHAPTER III. INTEHPEBANCE AND WASTE. We have already seen that crime, disease, and death are, to a most an ful extent, tlie effects of drinking ; in this chapter it will be shown, that the waste and expenditure that can be legitimately traced to this baneful practice, are truly appalling. Probably there are but few sins which are not expensive. It gene- rally costs a man a great deal more to be wick- ed and sensual than to be godly and liberal ; and drunkenness, and even what some call moderate drinking, may be very easily shown to be one of the most expensive of vices. We have every reason to believe, that upwards of one hundred millions sterling are squan- dered annually by this destructive passion. I have in my possession several calculations which would confirm this opinion, but I have copied the following from the late publication of T. Beaumont, Esq., Surgeon, in his essay CD alcoholic drinks. 32,823,034 bushels of malt, brewed by public brew- ers and licensed victuallers, taken at 12 ffallona to the bushel, and at 23. per gallon £39,387,628 Deduct for malt liquor exported 225,641 39,161,987 6,223,592 bdshels of malt brewed by pri- vate families, cost of malt at 7s. m. per bushel 2,333,847 Hops one pound per bushel.at Is. per lb. 311,176 Interest upon capital, wear and tear of private brewing utensils, &c 1 ,050,230 Total for malt liquor.. 42,857,240 0,420,342, imperial gallons of wiuo at 22*. 6r, I'erry, hiiinn inuile wlnfa l,AUO,l)a() 20,A2H,8N» Impnrlnl gallons of ■pirlti to cost the contumer 17,250,000 Police, Inlln, and proiecutionn, &r. Ste... 3,000,000 Lomtoflahor, (tnknnby Mr. iluckingliam atSU millions), sny 35,000,000 Allowed for medicinal purposes, &c 105,357.240 . 6,357,240 Annual cost.. ..£IOO,'H)0,fH)0 " In these fermented liquors, there will be 63,780,0!).') gallons of spirit)*, and in the dis- tilled splriU, 29,628,889 gallons of alcohol, making a total of 93,308,984 gallons intoxi- cating spirit, and showing an excess of alco- hol in fermented, above distilled liquors to the amount of 34,25 1,200 gallons," and there- fore the inconsintency of medical men and others who disclaim against ardent spirits and yet encourage the peo[tle to drink those fer- mented drinks, In which they often take double the quantity that they would if they drank only gin or brandy and water. I could give the reader several other reticula- tions, but it is a query whether as yet, it is possible for us to arrive at the exact truth on this subject ; but the following observations will show the reader that " one hundred mil- lions" sterling is rather below than above the sum which is annually spent and wasted on these detestable poisons. We ought to consider the number of per- sons who drink malt liquors, and the number of gallons drunk by each person in the course of a year, before we shall be able to arrive at the truth respecting the consumption of fer- mented drinks, and when we reflect that these boverages are now in almost every family, and that beer-shops to retail them have multiplied beyond any former precedent, we shall be warranted in concluding, that the quantity drunk, very tar exceeds our present calculation. There is the following number ot brewers in the country. Brewers of strong beer not exceeding 20 bris. 8,894 Exceeding 20 and not exceeding 50 barrels 7,804 " 60 " 100 " 10,294 100 " 1000 •' 19,430 " 1000 and upwards 1,668 Brewers of table beer JO Retail Brewers under Act 5. Geo. IV., c. 64 21 Total brewers.... 48,211 When it is considered that nearly half of these brew to the amount of 1,000 gallons and upwards, the quantity of beer which they prepare for public consumption must be im- mense. The following is the latest Parliamentary returns of the retailers of beer. Sellers ofstrong beer only, not being brewers 994 Beer retailers, whose premises are rated un- der £20 per annum 39,765 At £20, or upwards 15,427 Retailers of beer, cider, and perry to be drunk on the premises, or not to be drunk on the premises 39,1 03 Retailers of cider and perry only 10,608 Total 98,898 These calculations were taken from Parli- amentary papers for 1836; the same docu- rORT OF DniNKINO. $1 mi^iiU for 1M.19 glre nn Inrrfoiw of hr«wer« 279, and nn lncreM« of Milter* oftheaa (Iriiiku, 7,470. II«ra thffn we linvn iipwnril* of 48,000 brewera of b«fr, and ni>nrl]r 100,000 rftnilem of thcM dfmornllzinK drlnkt ; mid if wn could add to thrat*, the number of {MTitona thnt brew nt home for their own u< palaces of London, vast sums are spent; it is a well attested fact, thnt on one of these buildings not less than £6000 was expended, in preparing it for this infamous traffic. The Parliamentary returns for the year ending January 5th, 1639, furnish the following table of manufacturers, dealers, and retailers of spirit. Distillers and Rectiflers lia Dealers in spiritH not belnir Retailers 2,0m Retailers whose premises are under £10 lAJOl Ditto, — at £10 and under 20 19,518 Ditto, — 20 — 25 3,lfi6 Ditto, — 2S — 30 l,99B Ditto, — 30—40 3,644 Ditto, -- 40 — 50 2,3.^2 Ditto, — 50 and upwards.. 4,H26 Total 54,341 Tt is probable that the rent and taxes of the premises of these manufacturers, dealers and retailers, amount to at least £2,000,000 annually, and the rent and taxes of the prem- ises of the brewers and beer sellers, would amount to an equal sum. It is generally allowed that an immense manufacture, and adulteration of wine takes place ; the quantity of wine imported, the still greater quantity vended, and the price at which a great deal is sold, fully demonstrate this fact. There are 21,590 persons licensed to sell wine. I once saw in London, a paper containing the death-bed agonies of a wine merchant, whose deporting spirit was hor- rified to the utmost, at the thought of meet- ing in another world, the souls of the persons whom he knew that he had murdered, by the poisonous adulteration of wine. A full exposure of the poisons thus em- ployed may be found in the prize essay, Bac' ehut. There in reason to believe, that cider and home made wines nre t'oimuuied to a ninrli grenter extent, than is generally supposed ; and also, that adulteration Increnses the quan- tity of beer nnd porter, very greatly beyond the amount of parliamentary returns.. It is not at all improlmble, thnt full one third more of these ditferrnt drinks it consumed, than la accounted for to the ,(uvernment. It «hould he remnrked, that the manufac- turers and retnilerN of these drinks pny enor- mous rents, nnd generally live nt a most ex- trnvngnnt rnte, showing that they have a vast trnde, nnd vast proKts ; all of which is paid for by the fooii"!: piin^hasers of these bevera- ges. We nir.y therefore justly cnnclude, thnt the calruV'.iio.'i given above, tails very far below what is really wasted on these puisnna. Bakers, butchers, &c., would soon be bank- rupts if they imitated the extravng.tnce of publicans. Our hospitals, lunntic asylums, infirmnrles, and various other dUpensnries for the sick, cost us upwards of two millions a year; nnd these nre chietly used nnd occupied by those whom moderate or excessive drinking hnve doomed to accidents, diseases or insanity. We ought, considering our means of phyNicJtl and u'.oral health, to be the strongest, nnd most religious people upon enrth ; and should be so, but fur these alcoholic poisons. In reporting the number of persons mad or di- seased through drinking, medical men gene- rally refer exclusively to those who were no- toriously addicted to drinking ; but such a reference cannot include a tithe of the truth, disease and disorganization, in many instnn- cea originnting in moderate drinking, and by this practice rendered hereditary, ought to be talien into account, and were this done, we should see thnt the doors of these hospi- tals and asylums are kept open chiefly by the drinkers of alcoholic drinks. County and town prisons, hulks, trans- ports, courts of justice, criminal prosecutions, houses of correction, magistrates, police es- tablishments, sessions, litigations and actions connected with drinking, fees to lawyers and barristers, constables, &c., together with the fines paid, and time lost in prisons, and houses of correction, cause an expenditure and waste to the amount of six or seven mil- lions. The justice department of govern- ment costs upwards of a million annually, and the preventive service half a million more ; and yet these sums nre not a quarter of what is paid fur trials, police fines, &c., by the country. Now from all jmrts of the United Kingdom, from all judges, magis- trates, jailors, police reports, and chaplains to prisons, we have but one testimony, which is, that drinking is the cause of nine-tenths of the crime, quarrels, misdemeanours, and actions that octtur. The property lost both by sea and land, in consequence of the aboundings of this vice, is truly astounding. How many houses 52 INTEMPERANC£ AND WASTE. h ' \ . have been burnt down, through the carelesM- neaa of pemonit wholly, or partially intoxi- cated I It was under the inspirations of ■trong drink, that the incendiary first con- ceived the idea of burning his neighbour's property ; and it was in an ale-house, or gin-shop, that, by a moderate portion of al- cohol, he primed himself for the discharge of HO malignartt a purpowe. What a large amount of valuable goods also is every day injured, spoiled, or lost, through the stupid, careless, and reckless conduct of tipplers. In these cases, the employer suffers 8ever»]y, and the careless offender is often heavily mulcted, so that both master and servants are losers to a great extent. What quantities of valuable property are also stolen and wasted, by those who are addicted to drinking ? There are in our country thousands of thieves who live by plunder, and yet tl'<;re is scarcely one of these who is not a drunkard. Several witnesses before the House of Commons, referred to the amount of pro- perty lost every year at sea, through the baneful influence of intoxicating drinks. We find frr.m Parliamentory documents, that in the short period of six years, " not less than 2,687 ships and vessels were stranded or wrecked; and 218 were lost, or missing; making the total of nearly three thousand vessels which were greatly injured, or entirely destroyed in that short period. In one hun- dred and thirty of these ships, the whole crew perished, and the number «»f persons who were drowned amounted to three thou- sand four hundred and fourteen." Here then we have ships of great value, and cargoes more valuable than the ships, nil sent to the bottom of the sea ; and, what is stilt more distressing, here are three thou- sand four hundred and fourteen souls launch- ed into eternity, many of them, we fear, but ill prepared for their final account ! the loss, viewed under this aspect, is incalculable 1 In one instance, when the shipwreck of a large packet seemed to all appear.-ince inevi- table, the sailors got tired of working at the pumps, and the shout went forth, as is aw- fully the case in such instances, " To the spirit-room," the purport of which was, that those persons, seeing death inevitable, wish- ed to die drunk, and for a few moments to drown their sorrow. A post-captain who was on board, knowing what would be the certain result, took his stand at the door of the spirit-room with a pistol in each hand, and declared in the most solemn manner that he would shoot the first man who attempted to force it; finding it impossible to indulge in their drunkenness, the men returned to the pumps, and, by the blessing of God, the vessel was broutcht in safe, and all the persons on board providentially saved." A gallant young British ofBcer, who had received the command of an American prize, soon after the capturing ship had departed, was accosted by the American master who had been left on board, and desired to give up his sword and the command of the veaael. The young officer prepared to resist; the American said, " Sir, your case is hopeleu, you roust surrender, your men are all drunk below." The officer, however, did resist, and was shot dead ; his men had all been drenched with rum and laudanum. A merchant ship was dri^ en on shore at St. Maloes; when the people boarded her they found all her sails set, ever the top* gallant sails at the mast head, anl all the people drunk on board, except a little boy who was at the helm : the boy said, that the master had died at sea, and as soon as the breath was nut of bis body, the crew hoisted up a cask of wine or spirit, with which they got drunk till the vessel came on shore at St. Maloes. The St. George, 98 guns, was lost through drinking. The Edgar and the Ajax from the same cause. Spirits being on board was the cause of the loss of the Kent, the Roth- say Castle with 100 souls on board, the Lady of the Lake, the Hibernia, and many others that might be named, were lost through these pernicious drinks. On imard " the St. George, there were 550 men, and nearly all perished ; the boatswain's yeomen with some other men, had got drunk in the boatswain's store-room, and set fire to the ship." *• The Ajax, 74 guns, was burnt at the mouth of the Dar- danelles, in 1806, by the drunkenness of the purser's steward ; there were 350 people drowned." Here we see, as in all other in- stances, madness, presumption, misery, de- struction, and death, the constant attendants of alcoholic drinks. The otses we have mentioned are not soli- tary ; every oceati, sea and river, every port and harbor, every shipowner and merchant, whose trade is in the mighty waters, can tell long and mournful tales of ruin and death, vvhich can be traced solely and entirely to these devastating and destructive drinks. The bottom of tlie sea has lieen rendered a dark and gloomy chnrnel house, in which the dust of myriads of our countrymen is reposing, and awaiting the summons of tiie archangel's trumpet, and in that awful day, when the sea shall give up its dead, how many, alas! shall we see arise from their watery grave, who, thoU!;h unprepared fur another world, hurried themselves into the presence of their Judge, in consequence of the corrupting in- fluence of inebriating liquor I Christian, shall this scourge destroy furever ! Patriots, shall a spirit more tremendous than the bil- lows or the tempests, be commissioned by you to overwhelm and devour the costliest trea- sure, and the bravest hearts of your country ? Totul abstinence would clear the seas of this wor.>t less than six shillings in the pound came into the po(;ket of the mechanic. What a great diiference there is between fuurpence in the pound and six shillings in the pound ! The former dividend is only one eighteenth of the latter 1 But even this calculation will appear to fall very far short of the truth ; if we consider (he vast amount of manual labor necessary tu prepare the raw material before it can be made into garments, &c. by the mechanics and others. And thus, were our money dilFerently spent; were it withdrawn from poisons, and laid out on what is nourishing . nd useful, the trade and happiness of the lation would receive an increase to the amount ofseventeen-eighteenths, or upwarUsof ninety per cent. The day is fast coming when it %vill be seen by all, that what is unjust or wicked or corrupting is, at the same time, impolitic to an equal degree. The Hum which the revenue receives from the duties on these destructive and deiiiornlizing liquors is little, compared with what it would obtain from the taxes arising from otiier articles that would imme- diately be consumed, were drunkenness and the use of inebriating liquors immediately abolished. The farmer too would perceive that if there was a less demand for barley and apples, there would be a triple demand for corn, meat, hides, and indeed everything that his farm can produce. And even the brewer, and the inn-keeper, the gin-seller, and the maltster, would soon find a more honourable and useful channel fur their capi- tal, and if they did not get so much, what they obtained would spend better. There is a fatality attends the money which has been won from the sale or manufacture of alcoholic drinks. In few, if any instances, does it spend well. It often never reaches the se- cond generation, and rarely gets into the hands of the fourth. The ire of heaven seems to rest on what destroyed the health and corrupted the morals of the people. The ptiysiological, domestic, and moral history of brewers, spirit-sellers, and pot- house-keepers, is one of the gloomiest pages that we can turn over. The Tenders of these drinks have had before their eyes the des- tructive effects of their traffic, and therefore ought, from principles of humanity, to have been the first to declare for total abstinence. They might have made a momentary sacri- fice, but God would have amply compensated their philanthropy. The increase of national prosperity in every department that would have been the consequence, would not have passed them by without a blessing. From what has been advanced, we have therefore seen that the morals, the health, and the prosperity of the country, are deeply injured by the use of stimiiiating liquors, and that intelligence, morality, heolth and prosperity must be the happy effect of their abandonment, and therefore that total abstinence is the best policy. In speaking of the waste and loss occasioned by alcoholic drinks, we must not pass over the enormous quantity of barley consumed in brewing and distillation. Forty millions of bushels of barley are, some years, in a great measure destroyed by being converted into malt, and afterwards into a liquid poison. We all know that wheat, or potatoes, or peas, or onions, are not so good after they have be- gun to sprout and grow. We consider it a great calamity when, in a wet season, the corn has grown before it could be housed. We know that in such cases a great part of the nutrition is destroyed, and that what remains is scarcely wholesome. We cry out in language of deep execration against the miller, or the baker, that buys up grown wheat and converts it into bread. We should not think of making soup of peas after they have sprouted ; and we all knovtr how insipid potatoes and onions become aft Hr they have begun to shoot. We are fully Citnvinced that in all these examples a considerable portion of the substance of the seed or root is gone. In fact, it is this substance which produced and fed the sprout. Why then adopt this very plan with barley? The reader probably may know, that the firtt process of malting is to make the grain ("prouf, and in doing this the maltster exactly imitates what would take place at the proper season of the year were the barley thrown into the ground. Barley, in the degree of nourishment it contains, is next to wheat. Sir Humphry Davy ascertained that 1000 parts barley contained 920 parts that are nutritious, or that twenty-three parts out of twenty-five are substantial food ; so that in barley there are only eight parts out of a hundred but what will afford sustenance to man. A medical man at Munich had a num- ber of persons under his care to feed, and he found, from some considerable experience, that soup made out of pearl barley, split peas, and potatoes, which, when it had boiled about three hours, he poured upon some bread cut small, yielded one of the most satisfying, wholesome, and nutritious diets, he could 1 i I I 1 I M INTEMPERANCE AND WASTE. ► i product. He aacertuliied that nineteen ounces of thin soup afforded sufficient nourishment for a fuU-grovf n person. There was no ani- mal food or fat in it, he only added to it a little salt and a little vinegar. I have made a meal on this preparation, and therefore knovr that this statement which may be found in the London Encyclopedia, under the ar- tide " food," is perfectly correct. I mention this fact, because, in the case just narrated, the gentleman found that no other substance was a substitute for tlie barley ; he tried flour, rice, and other things, but the soup was never found to be so nutritious and strengthening. The fact, therefore, shows the very great nutrient properties of the grain. Proust, who made a great many experi- ments upon barley, declares that be found in it " a peculiar proximate principle," which, from the Latin name of the grain, he has called "hordein." He describes it as "a yellow, woody powder, granular to the touch, and resembling sawdust in appearance. It was insoluble in water, whether boiling or cold." This hordein is, no doubt, the peculiar nutrient principle of which the gentleman at Munich spoke so liii;hly, and which rendered Ills Bavarian soup so very satisfying. But the reader will observe that, in converting the barley into malt, this hordein, of which there are fifty-five parts out of a hundred in the grain in its natural state, is reduced to twelve parts in the hundred, i>o that forty- three parts are actually gone : the sui;ar and the gum of the barley are increased, but then those are nothing like ko nutritious a* the hordein ; and it is well known also, tlint the starch which is increaised in the malt, tltou^h not equal to the quantity of hordein that is lost, is not soluble, and, therefore, is not found in the beer. This most substaniial part of the malt is left in the grains, and given to the pigs, or found in the bottom of the cask after the beer has been drawn off, and, in most instances, thrown away. It is allowed b)^ brewers, on all hands, that six pounds of barley will make a gallon of good ale. in these six pounds you have ninety-six ounces, and in these you have full eighty-eight parts of solid nourishment; but, gentle reader, you will do well to observe, that in your gallon of beer you have not ten ounces of nourisliment. So that in manufac- turing beer you actually lose very nearly eiglity parts out of eighty-eight, and all that you obtain in the place of it is upwards of three ounces of spirits of wi.'.e, or uluoholic pitison, and which constitutes the strength nf the liquor. ^Vhat would you think of the man who should buy ninety-six ounces of wheat, and by making it grow, drying it, pouring hot water upon it, giving a part to the pigs, and throwing a part down the gutter, itbould waste upwards of eighty ounces, and should leave himself and family only ten ounce8? What if be did this for the purpose pf iy;etting about four ounces of poison which will Injure his health, destroy his reason, and corrupt his heart? Would you say that God sent the grain to be thus wasted, or would you call the poison, which the ingenuity of this prodii'al had extracted, " a good creaturs of God?" Much has been said of waste and extrava- gance, but we know of no instance or example that will bear any parallel with the prodigality that is practised in converting tmrley into malt, and malt into beer. Cleopatra is said to have dissolved a precious gem iik her glass, and to have drunk it at a banquet, as a proof of the little value she could afford to set upon what was costly ; but gems are less valuable than the food which God has created for the sua. tenance of life, and therefore he who destroys the precious grain of the earth destroys what is more valuable than pearls, and hi:i crimin- ality is not a little enhanced, that he does this for the purpose of producing a poison. Should any one doubt what has just been stated, let him weigh a jiint of beer and a pint of water, and he will then find that a pint of beer weighs lighter than a pint of water, showing tliat it is not a very 8ubstantial Itever- age, although so much grain has been squan- dered and spoiled to produce it. Let him apply a heat to his pint of beer, and at 170 degrees the spirit will begin to go oif in the form of a fiery vapor. At 212 degrees his beer will boil, and then steam will begin to depart; if he will continue the builing long enough, every particle of the water will be evaporHted in the form of steam, and the pptvder which will remain, and which is all the nutriment of the liquor, will wei;>h about an ounce. If he had condensed and weighed the spirit that escaped, he would have found it to have weii^lied, if the beer was strong, upwards of half an ounce. If he will con- dense the steam and weigh that, he will have fourteen ounces of water, iinil, us stilted al- ready, there will be left somewhere about an ounce of food. If he will taste this pow- der and examine it, he will hesitate about admitting it to his stomach. With the farina of wheat, or of barley, it is not fit to be com- pared. It has been grown, roasted, scalded, boiled, embittered, fermented, and drenched with water and alcohol, till it seems neither fit for the land nor the dunghill, much less for a human stomach. Such then is the waste and the wickedness of getting beer out of barley. If we examined distillation we sliould find the matter still worse ; for in pro- ducing spirit, no nourishment whatever is lefl in the liquor, and therefore all the good- ness of the barley is wasted er converted into an undiluted poison. In the manufacture of cider we arc equally guilty of waste and extravagance. The apple is a nutritious fruit. It is particularly suited to our climate, and is intended to be to us, what the grape is to other lands, and would we attend to its culture more, the grapes of Palestine cuul*I hardly compete witl) }. ) BEER NOT NUTRITIOUS. srr it. Tha Appln can sustuin Iiuman life, and honeM can prrfurm a great degree of work and labor when fed by it. Sheep an \ cows can be fed and fatted with It. A neighbour of mine fatted a fine pig on applos and barley- meal, and the flesh obtained from this kind of feed was most delicious. Itthrired much better upon apples and meal than it would upon potatoes and uieal, and not half the quantity of men! was used. Here, 'ihen, we have the two substances, ba.'lhy nnd apples, usually employed and wasted to produce a desolating spirit, converged into wholesome aniiuHl food. In pri>ductng cider, we have a wholesome and nutritious fruit converted into poison. If the reader doubts this state- ment, he has only to serve a pint of cider as i we have directed him to treat a pint of beer, and collect first the i>pirit, then the water, and, when both water and spirits are evnpo- rated, to w^lgh the portion of ''ust or powder that will be left behinu. Here he wili find that the nutritious portion is small iiuleud, not perhaps more than a quarter of .an ounce. The remarks ma>!» concerni ng apples might, in some degree, be applied to the manufacture of wine from grapes, except, as we vhAX pro- sentiy show, that the ancients unde.'stood the way of preservipg 'he graj,e without a'.'.owing it to ferment, and therefore retained its nu- tritious qualities. In Scripture, "to eat the fruitof t!ie virie,"as well ns to drink its juice, " is a comiiain expression," showing that the grape, both when ripe and when dried, was, with the Easterns, a common ni'tidc of food. We are not denying that the jtiiue was expressed, and in some cases allowed to fer- ment ; we are merely asserting that it was an article of iood, and that fermentation changed it into a poison. If the render will take the trouble to analyze his wines, whether home-made or foreign, he will find alcohol, water, and an extract of a color, quality, and quantity that will convince him of the folly and prodigality of wasting the fruits of the eortli by changing them into alcoholic poisons. All the medical testimonies we have given prove that the ardent spirit obtained from malt, apples, or grapes, "holds a natural enmity with the blood of man," and therefore we are better without it. As for the fourteen ounces of water which will be found in every pint of beer, cider, or wine, we can obtain it much purer from the pump than from the beer-barrel, and the nutriment in either can bear no comparison with a mouthful of com- mon wheaten bread. To what purpose then do we waste forty millions of bushels of barley, and devote 1 ,048,000 acres of land to the production of grain and hops, all of which might be em- ployed in a more useful, benevident, and profitable inanner? The laud, if let to the poor, would be suflScient to relieve the pa- rishes from the burden of almost every pauper. The produce would make two or three mil- lions of persons happy, and these poor people would pay as good rent for the land as isi now given by the wealthier farmer, while by spade husbandry, which their capital, alias leisure, enables them to employ, they would obtain a much more abundant crop. We complain of crime, disease and pauperism, and yet to produce all three together, we sacrifice forty ^illious of bushels of grain, and worse la allcw to lie 'allow one million and forty-eight thousand acres ef excellent land. Tae hni God has given us, he bos watered it from i.is clouds, and warmed it with his sun, but ne\er did he intend that we should use his ground and clouds and sun to corrupt, starve, and destroy, any portion of the human family. From what has just been advanced, we perceive what a deception and fraud is prac- tised upon the laboring man, by his beinjj; taught to I'Mieve that beer is a highly nour- ifhing beverage, and essentia' '.n his strength and labor. 1 ue spirit warms and stimulates him just as a spur ar whip may quicken tha movements of a wearied horse, but neither the spirit in the one case, nor the whip iiT the other, itnparvs any real substantial strength : indeed both must be in the end the ciui^e of incrrnseil debility. A hard-working man wnnts notiiing r.o increase his circulation, his labor keep» his heart and pulse in a healthy tone, and bis blood naturally flows at a rate most conducive to vigor and longevity. AH that he needs to repair the waste of his sys. tern, is good nourishing food. Why then cheat him with spirit instead of giving him bread? How dreadfully also he is robbed, by paying the enormous sum he does for tha small and coarse portion of food that is in his pint of beer, porter, or cider. In the pint of liquor which costs him twopence, he has perhaps one nuni:e of most indigestible food. To get a pound of it, he must pay two shillings and eightpence, must drink nearly two gallons of water, and swallow, perhaps, little less than a pound of acrid poison. Surely Divine providence never intended that nutrition should be obtained at such a roundabout, dangerous, and expensive a rate as this. What if bread or meat were sold at the price of two and eightpence a pound, a famine must immediately ensue, and yet this is the price that brewer and landlord charge for their self-styled nutritiouj drinks, which they impregnate with poison into the bargain. Strange to say, also, these persons are monopolizing the trade of the country, and paralyzing our manufacturing and me- chanical industry. If men pay at the ratu of two and eightpence a pound for nourish.^ ment, is it any wonder that trade should be bad, and the drunkard's family should have sc^ircely any clothes or other necessaries of life? If money is spent on these poisons, it cannot be a matter of surpriiie that the fami- lies of moderate drinkers are often but scantily provided fur, and, for want of labor, plunged into the deepest distress? Surely among all 58 PSRMBNTATIOK. I I' i 1 '\. II l! our teachlnjj, we ought to gWa « few leamns on nutriment, and thus enlighten the public on this highly important subject, that men may no longer be the dupes of the ignorant or the designing, and *' spend their money for that which is not bread, and their labor for that which satisfieth not" We should consider it a dire calamity if upwards of a million of acres of the best land in the country were on a sudden deluged, or by any other scourge rendered uuproductire ; but in growing barley fur malt, the ground which God has blessed has its productive energies employed to produce disease, crime, and, alas 1 in many instances, perdition. The miasmata that arise from the pestilential re- gions of Sierra Leone, are not near so destruc- tive to mankind as the fields in Britain which are cultivated for the purpose of producing grain to be converted into alcohol. Were all the acres thus employed to be immediately inundated, or .converted into the most un- healthy marshes, the loss to the country would not be equni to what it is at present doomed to suffer from the abominable misuse of so many millions of bushels valuable grain. Were thirty-six millions of bushels of wholesome grain to be thrown annually into the sea, how deeply we should deplore the loss ; but in forty millions of bushels of barley we hnve at least thirty-six millions of bushels of wholesome farinaceous food, and yet the whole of this, by being converted into puison, is worse than wasted for the vile spirit, which the depraved taste and perverted ingenuity of man extracts from it, stalks through the land with all the powers of a destroying an- gel, and carries disease, misery, desolation, and death, into every house that it enters. Forty millions of bushels of malt, at 8s. per bushel, are worth £16,000,000; and, supposing bread to be eightpence the quartern loaf, sixteen millions sterling would purchase three thousand eight hundred and forty mil- lions of quartern loaves, and consequently would supply upwards of two millions of per- sons with two pounds of bread per day for a whole year. What epithet could fitly desig- nate the wretch who would recklessly throw into the bottom of the sea a sura of money, or a quantity of bread sufficient to feed two mil- lions of poor people for a whole year? But if, instead of doing so, he actually converted it into a poison, which could alike produce disease of body and demoralization of charac- ter, and then commended and distributed the venomous substance — the term demon would be deemed an appellation far too gentle for such a man ; and yet this is what we are all doing so long as we manufacture, dispense, or commend alcoholic drinks. We not merely waste what would actually feed two millions of people for a whole year, but we convert the wholesome grain into a destructive spirit, which poisons and destroys many millions ; and thus, instead of feeding two millions, we poison perhaps not less than twenty. This chapter then, haa shown from incon- trovertible evidence, that by manufacturing and using intoxicating drinks, we are chang- ing the bounties of providence into poisons ; we are wasting shipping, and other property and capital to an unparalleled degree ; we are robbing the laborer of employment and the poor of bread, in the most reckless and un- precedented manner : and besides all this, we are, by these abiiminable liquors, wasting hu- man life, corrupting the morals of our chil- dren and neighbors, and, what is worse still, we are drowning many in perdition. Not merely intemperance, but moderation, Is equally active in this work of desolation, and, therefore, to the patriot and the Christian only one course can remain, and that course is Total Abstinence. " CHAPTEB IV. FERMENTATION. Sugar, or saccharine matter, is allowed by ail scientific men to be the base of alcoholic drinks. The terms sugar, taecharvm, and saccharine, are all derived from the Hebrew sacar or shacar, or from the Arabic thaccaron or sHccaron. When we come to speak of the wines of Scripture, we shall show that lav shacar, which is generally rendered " strong drink," in the Bible, is palm or date wine. *' This liquor," says Dr. Shaw, *• has a more luscious sweetness than honey." The Arabs used the word saccaron, for date wine, by way of eminence, because of its sweetness, and also for saccharine substati. ces generally. Diuscorides, about 35 b. c, says, "There is a kind of honey called saC' charon, which is found in India and Arabia Felix." Atrian, in his Periplus of the Red Sea, mentions it as on article of commerce, and terms it vuKxap, sacchar. The Romans used the word sacoharum for honey found in reeds, canes. Sec. We need not add that the English term sugar is the same word as the Hebrew and Arabic sAacar, the Greek drinkeni m pi'r- ■one who are betide themselves. Weighed in the even balances of the sanctuary, the tee-totaller, who rejects the brandied wines of modern times, and which have scarcely the least resemblance to the wines of scripture, would be found to be quite as good a christian as he who rejects the oil and the water of which the Holy Spirit has spoken in terms of such high commendation. The strongest wines of hot countries, if they hn^ any, could have in them but a ve^y «maU portion of alcohol, and could not have been brandied, because distillation was thr.n unknown ; but we have seen that port aud sherry are mixed with this fiery poison — until very fre- quently they are full one-fourth spirit, and therefore are five, six, or seven times stronger than any of the drinks of antiquity could have lieen ; and, supposing it were our duty K drink the latter, will any man say thpt we are under an obligation to partake Ji the for- mer? We will presently prove tliat there is not a single text of Scripture vhich ever invites us to taste of intoxicating liquors ; but could one be produced, still It would not fol- low that, if the Word of God recommends us to drink poison at the rate of three or four per cent., therefore we ought to take it at the increased ratio of twenty or twenty-five per cent. One Is almost ready to conclude that a little of the stupefaction of alcohol must have been felt, before any person would have reasoned that an Invitation to drink weak wine would put us under an obligation to become bibbers of those which are highly adulterated with a strong and acrid poison. We have said that sugar is the base of alcohol. This saccharine matter Is generally (bund in the grape, though not always in the same degree ; in malt it is produced by the process of malting; and because saccharine matter is deficient in our own native fruits, in making wine from them we add a large proportion of sugar. It should be borne in mind that sugar holds the third or lowest rank among nutrient vegetable substances, and can bear no com- parison with the farina of wheat, the hordein of barley, or the starch of potatoes. Majendie fed a dog on sugar ; it did very well for a few days, but In a short time it became weak and diseased, and, in less than three weeks, died in a most pitiable condition. No laboring man would be able to pursue his daily calling, were you to allow him no other aliment than sugar. Now the design of malting is to change the very nutritive hordein of barley Into sugar ; that is, to convert a highly nu- trient grain into a substance not one-tenth so nourishing ; and then the object of brewing is to change this sugar into a poison. But thb is not all. In the production of alcohol the sugar is decomposed, and the carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen which constitute its elements, undergo a new chemical combina- tion. Carbon and oxygtn to the amount of forty-eight per cent, unite to form carbonic acid, and In that form are wasted ; while fijiy-two per cent, combine in the form of alcohol or poison. Thus the sugar, which is less nutritive than barley, is after all wotted at the rate of 50 per cent, for the purpose of producing a poisonous stimulant. Here, then, we have human ingenuity ex- erted in the work of destroying the Iwuntlet of Providence to a most frightful degree, and this, too, is done in a country in which thou- sands have not bread enough to satisfy the cravings of nature. Hordein, a most nutri- tive species of farina, is to a great extent changed into a saccharine substance contain- ing not one-tenth the same amount of aliment The frost n^alts our potatoes, and renders them r~ote saccharine, but are they improved ? TK.3 sugar Into which a portion of the barley has been changed, is by the brewer dissolved and converted into two poisons ; the one in the form of carbonic acid Is allowed to escape, and the other, in the form of alcohol, is retained to be drunk, and destroy men's rea- son, morals, health, and prospects in both worlds; and then, as if to perfect this wicked- ness and presumption, we are gravely told that these poisons are " the good creatures of God?" Much has been said by some concerning the quantity of gum or mucilage which malt contains beyond barley, and which is jaid to be held in the beer in a state of solution. But unfortunately for this theory, the tetu timony of Dr. Paris, a zealous advocate fo* the use of beer, completely overturns it. His words are, " Hops constitute the most valuable ingredient in malt liquors. Independent of the flavor and tonic virtue which they com- municate, they precipitate, by means of their astringent principle, the vegetable mucilage, and thus remove from the beer the active principle of fermentation." The gum or tnucilage, therefore, instead of being held in solution and admitted to the stomach as an article of nutrition, according to the high authority of Dr. Paris, is " precipitated" to the bottom of the cask, and in most instances thrown away. God placed in the barley it its natural state gum to the amount of four per cent ; ofRuious man changes this arrange- ment of Providence, and, by malting, increases the gum from 4 to 15 per cent., and then in his prodigality " precipitates" nearly the whole of this mucilage, and afterwards In most cases washes it down the common sewer. It is also sometimes stated that the quan- tity of starch in malt is greater than in bar- ley. This is granted ; but still It has been shown that the drinker of beer is not bene- fited by this circumstance ; for, in the first place, what is gained in starch is lost In hor- dein, which is an exceedingly nutritive ele- ment of barley. In the gruin you have starch 32, hordein 55, total 87. In malt starch A€, hordein 12, total 68. So that the barley bop, i^ '■'M I II M rCRMBNTATION. sftcr nil, an ■dvantaf* aver th« malt to the •mount of 19 per cent. Then, in the second place, iiippwiiinK that malting antually In- creased the nutritive propertieH of the barley, yet he who drinks beer will not be benetited by the change ; for it is admitted by all, that •tarch U one of the most insoluble of bodies, ■nd therefore >' not dihsolved in the wort, but is partly left in the grains, and partly precipitated to the bottom of the cable, and eventually thrown away along with the gum or mu4!ilaKe which the hopH precipitated. According to Sir Humphry Davy, barley contains ninety-two per cent. n(iuri>hment ; but according to the best aiiiilyhis beer doew not contain six per cent., a plain proof that there is but Utile starch, gluten, ^uin, or mucilage in the molt liquor lor which the poor man pays so dearly, and to manufacture which, good wholesome grain has been wasted to the amount of eighty-Nix per cent. And what Is worse, all this prodigality is prac(i>»'d for the purpose of proliiring a spirit which all scientific chemists and medical men have branded as an acrid poison. We utter our bitterest execrations against the wretch who odulterates bread ; yet in the manufacture of beer, wholesome grain is to a fearful extent wasted, and what is allowed to remain is either mixed with a poison, or converted into a most deleterious spirit. The public fountain is poisoned, for by means of brewing, water, one of the choitrest gifts of God, is rendered intoxicating and pernicious to men's health and murals; and then athousand allurements ■re adopted for the purpose of inducing all ranks among us to come and drink this des- tnictive beverage. I have not in my possession an analysis which will show the quantity of mucilage, gluten, sugar, &c. contained in apples, pears, dates, or grapes, in their original Htate, or in the juice of these fruits previous to fermenta- tion, but there is no doulit that, in the man- ufacture of fermented liquors from these fruits, there is as great a waste and destruction of their nutritive properties, as that which takes place in the process of malting and brewing. The Americans have found that cows, sheep, or pigs, can be fatted on apples at a cheaper rate than on any other material, and that it is far more profitable to convert these fruits into animal fond than to grind them, and ferment the Juice into cider. One gen- tleman, whose orchard used to produce cider to the value of 300 dollars per year, on adopt- ing the principle of total abstinence, resolved to employ his apples in fatting pigs, and his profits doubled ; for, instead of three hundred dollars which his cider used to be worth, his pork produced six hundred. The following demonstration of the nutritive qualities of apples has appeared in most of the public prints, and may be fully relied on. •• On Thursday, Dec. 27, 1837, the mem- bers of the Ebley Mechanics' Institute dined at tb« Ebley Coffee House* in the Borough of Stroud, In the County of Olotter, mnt partook of a pig which bad been fed upon applet. The owner, Thomas Neale, a mem- ber of the Stroud Total Abstinence 8o«;iety, had read in a Temperance publication that, in America, pigs had been fatted on apples, and resolved to try the experiment, and com- menced on the loth of October: the pig was then so poor, that every rib could be counted. For the first fortnight, he gave it nothing but apples and grains, and it improved amaiingly ; after that period, he substituted bean-meal for the grains, and the irtcrease of flesh was still greater. On the 10th of October, when the experiment began, the pig was computed, by the best judges, to weigh about fourscore pounds ; and eight weeks after, when it was killed, it was upwards of nine score, so that it increased in fiesh at the rate of morn than lOllis. per week. During the period of fatting, it consumed four sacks of apples and two bush- els and a half of bean-meal. The apples and the meal cost £l (is., and for this sum nearly five score of pork was obtained. The applet were boiled ; but as they iieetled no washiiig, and were cooked as soon as the water boiled, much less fuel and labor was required than would have lieen necessary in dressing pota- toes. The flesh when roasted was of the finest flavor, and all who partook of it declared that they never had tasted its equal." This experiment proves most unequivocally the highly nutritive properties of apples, and consequently the waste of God's bounties of which those are guilty who convert them into cider. What if Thomas Neale had ground the apples and made them into cider, and given it to the pig for wash, instead of the animal becoming fat, it would have decreased to a perfect skeleton. And why delude the laborer by giving him cider for food, or for wages? The quantity of nourishment in a pint of cider is not worth mentioning; the alcohol It contains is poisonous, and the water might be obtained in a much purer state from the pump or the spring. At the dinner men- tioned above, the writer of this Essay was present. Indeed the report which appeared in the pulilic newspapers was furnished by hU pen. Thomas Neale was for many yearn one of my hearers. We have seen from the declarations of Scripture that grapes in the East were con- sidered an article of food. In Palestine and Assyria, the people were in the hab>t of " eating tlie fruit of the vine." Raisins or dried grapes are often spoken of as artitiles of food. Highiy nutritious food is not needed in very hot countries, and human life could he sustained by figs, grapes, or dates ; but who would think of feeding a man on modern port or sherry ? The following quotation from Johnson's " Letters to Brother John, on Life, Health, and Disease," will place this matter in a strong light. The author asks, " Are stimulants — by which I mean ardent spirits, wioes, and =^«3 1 i SPIRIT A POISON. >f 01»tter, ami been fed upon I Neale, a mem- Inpnce Society, tuUication that, 'utted un apple*, iinent, and coin> ter : the pig wm ould b« counted, re it nothing but lived amazingly; ed lifaiwmeul tor »r flesh wiM ttlll tober, wlien the a» computed, by about foursvora fr, when it was 16 Bcore, 80 tliut te (if morn than period of tatting, ies nnd two butth- The apples and ' this sum nearly ed. The applet Hied no washiog, the water boiled, as required than n dressing pota- sted was of the oiikof it declared ts equal." iMt unequivocally ies of apples, and lod's bounties of ti convert them STenle had ground into cider, and instead of the Id have de(rrea8ed why delude tho er for food, or f nourishment in mentioning; the us, and the water purer st.ite from the dinner men- this Essay wns which appeared as furnished by IS for many years declarations of i East were con- In Palestine e in the hab>t of le." BniBins or n of ai articles of od is not needed uman life could or dates ; but I man on modern from Johnson's on Life, Health, natter in a strong Lre stimulants — fits, wioea, and ■trvng «le»--are stimulants necessary ? Are they pernicious? Or, are they neither one nor the other? I aMert that they are, in •very instance, as articles of diet, pernicious; and as medicines wholly unnecessary : since we possess drugs that will answer the same intentions, in, at li'ant, an equal degrei>*. Uut it is only as articles of diet that we have hers to consider them. " Wines, spirit, and ale, are a!' alike, as it regards the fact of tlieir beinx stimulants ; they only ditfer S4>mewhat in kind and de){rre. I shall speak for the present only of wine, for the sake of convenience. But whatever I shall say of wine, is to be riin>>idered as equally true of the others ; and if what I have taught you in my preceding letters be true, what I shall now say of stimulants must be true also. " If wine he productive of good, what is the nature and kind of good it produces? Does it nourihh the body ? We know that it does not; for the life of any animal can- not be supported by it. Uenidcs, if you have understood what I have said of the nature, manner, and mechanism of nutrition, you will see at once from the very mode in wiiich the body U nnuriohed, that whatever is capable of nourishing, muot be susceptible of conversion into the solid matter of tlie body itself. Out tluids taken into the stomach are not capable of being transmuted into solids, but pass off by the kidneys, as every body knows. " If, indeed, the fluid drink contains solid matters s>i>pended in it, then these solid mat- ters ran be assimilated to the solid body, and BO are capable of nourishing it; as in the Instance of broths, barley-water, &c. &c. ; but the fluids in whidi these solid particles are suxpended, must pass out of the body by the kidneys. "If then it be said that, although wine is incapable of nourishing the body wholly and by itself (done, it may yet contain some nour- ishment, it is clear that this nourishment must depend upon whatever solid particles are suspended in it. Now if you evaporate a glass of wine on a shallow plate, whatever solid matter it contains will be left dry upon the plate ; and this will be found to be about as much as may be laid upon the extreme point of a penknife blade ; and a portion — by no means all, but a portion of this solid matter, I will readily concede, is capable of nourishing the body — a portion which is equal to one-third of the tiour contained in a single grain of wheat. " But still, I am entitled to ask, what good you propose to yourself by drinking wine ? Because if you really drink it for the sake of nutriment it affords you, then, I say, why not eat a grain of wheat, instead of drinking a glass of wine ; from which grain of wheat you would derive just thrice as much nourishment as you would from a glass of wine ? Why go this expensive, and as it were roundabout way, In order to obtain •« minute a portion of nutritious matter, which you might so much more readily obtain by other means ? "Wine, therefore, possesses no power to nourish the body ; or at least in so niimite a degree as to make it, as an article of nourish- ment, wholly unworthy of iioiire. " Well, then, doe^ it streii;(tlien the body? — Let us see. I have proved to you, in my f'oriiier letters, that heuldt and sireni(th de- pend upon a hiuh degree of contractility ; and liave proved, also, that a hit(h degree of con- tractility can only exist when the body U rapidly and well nourislied. Whatever, therefore, is ra|iable of strengthening th«f b(Hly, must do so by increasing the contrac- tility of its fibre ; and whatever is capable of heightening contractility, must do so by « rigorous and rapid nutrition of the body. But we have seen that wine possesses scarcely any nutritions virtues at all. How then can it strengthen the body? It cannot: — It ii manifestly, demunstr.aively, and glaringly impossible. But to nouriali and strengthen it, are the only two good things which any kind of diet is capable of contributing to the liody. I have Just proved th.it wine possesse* no power to etiVct eitlier of tliein ; it follows, therefore, as a direct necessity, that it is pro- ductive of no good at all. "Is wine certainly pernicious? I have already proved it is unnecessary : — and it has ever been universally held, by medical philosophers, that whatever is unnecessary ii detrimental. The simple fact then, that wins is unnecessary, is a sufficient proof that it it injurious. Nor is the truth of this medical maxim at all wonderful. The tiiiest hair, introduced among the machinery of a watch, is sufficient to derange its movements. And when one considers the exquisite delicacy of those properties on which life and health so manifestly depend, — I mean, contractility and sensibility, as well as that of the whole nervous system ; one cannot certainly feel surprised that anything brought in contact with them, which is not strictly proper to them, should disorder the nicety of their delicate functions. You will admit, at once, that the practice of drinking is followed by a high degree of morbid sennibiiity — witnesa the nervous and tremulous anxiety of the debauchee in the morning following a de- bauch. But I have long since shown you that increased sensibility and rigorous con- tractility are inctiuiputible, and that whatever augments sensibility, must have the effect of lowering contractility. If wine, therefore, heightens sensibility it must diminish con- tractility ; and thus by impairing that pro- perty, impairs the health and strength which depend upon that property. " Again, what is a poison ? Is it not any substance which, when taken into the system, has the effect of disordering some one or more of the actiona which make up the tuna id Ill ill! "' Hi 1 1 ' ' ' ! .4 64 rERMBNTATION. of lift, and which, If taken lu luaelant qunn- tlty, win dtwtrny lift iUtlf ? This la the trot dtflnition of poiaon. la It not alao tht atrlctly true definition of ardwnt apirit ? Spirit hna tht tifect of dlaorderlng tht nervoua ayatem to to great a denree, at to produce Intoxlcn- tlon ; exciting the brain, aometimea to mad- neat, alwayt to folly, and quicituiiing the pulae in an extrnnrdlnnry manner. It not thit to disorder the functinna of life ? It la the effect of pruMJo acid to lownr the nervoua tyatem below the natural atandard. It la tht effect of ardent tpirit, firat to excite the ner- vous tyatem above, and tlien to depreaa it be- low, the natural standard also. Buth of theae effects are poiitonous — both will destroy life If carried far enough : neither will destroy life, if not carried far enough. Pruasic acid, therefore, and ardent apirits, are equally poiaonoua; though neither will destroy life alone, unless taken in sufAcient quantity. But would you willingly continue to iwallow prussio acid daily, merely because you ad- mired Itt deliciout flavor ; comforting your- aelf tht while, by taying that it could do you DO harm, because you did not take it in auf- ficient quantity to destroy life ? And above all, would you thut take it, knowing it to be unnecetsary? But if you be impenetrable to argument, you dare not deny the result of direct experiment. ' Mr. Brodie found, that by the administration of a large dose of ar- dent tpirit to a rabbit, the pupils of itt eyet became dilated, its extremitiet convulsed, and the respiration laborious ; and that this latter function was giadually performed at longer and longer intervals, and at length it entirely ceased. Two minutet after the ap- parent death of the animal, he opened the chest and found the heart acting with moder- ate force and frequency ;' now mark what followt, 'circulating dark colored blood. The tame phenomena retulted from the in- jection of two dropt of the esteutial oil of bit- ter almond, the acting principle of which is prussic acid, diffused in half an ounce of wa- ter, into the bowels of a cat.' Here then we have a direct and irrefragable proof that ar- dent spirit is not only a poison, but a poison of the same nature as prussic acid, producing the same effects, and killing by the same means, viz., by paralyzing tlie muscles of respiration, and so preventing the change of the black venous blood into vermilion, or vital blood. " A great deal of mischief has arisen from the misapplication of the term ' strength,' to the intoxicating power of ' strong drinks,' as they are called. Potions are said to be * strong,' and thence may have arisen the silly notion that they possess the power of .strengthening the body. People seem to tuppoie that by swallowing 'strong drinks' they swallow strength ; as though strength were some tangible sulratance which can be chewed, swallowed, and assimilated, like a potato. We say that onions have a ' strong smell i' and wt might at well axptct to dt> rivt strength from smelling onions, at to do so from drinking fluids which have a stronger flavor. And this of itself is another proof of their mischievous tendency, for whatever af- fects us strongly cannot b« ' chip in porridge ;' and If it be not good and necessary, it must, of necessity, be not only simply injurious, but very much so. — ' I have drunk a gallon of beer daily for the laMt thirty years,' once boasted a certain hostler, ' and I never waa better in health than I am at thit moment.' The next day a At of apoplexy laid him dead in the ditch."—" Letttrt to Brothar John," pp. 250-262. I have given thia long quotation from the above highly acientiflo work, written in • moat popular style. In it the physiology of " Life, health and disease," Is delineated io a manner level to the capacity of a child, and with a degree of vivacity and interest far surpassing that of many a bewitching novel. I have quoted the sentiments above the mora readily, as the writer doet not appear to have had, when he composed his valuable scientific volume, the least idea of the exist- ence of such an institution as the Total Ab- stinence Society, I have also transcribed them, because it is the opinion of thousands, that although ardent spirit is injurious, yet that wine, beer, cider, &o., are actually good and nutritious ; but here we have the testi- mony of an eminent scientific medical prac- titioner, that they are pernicious, even when taken in small quantities. And what he haa said concerning wines, lie wishes to be un- derstood to an equal extent concerning beer and all fermented liquors. In the Chelten- ham Free Piese Newspaper for March, 1638, in the list of deaths, a Mr. 's disease it mentioned, and it is added, that this is tht sixth deatli of persons belonging to Stroud- wuter Brewery, within the last few months. All these men drunk strong beer; all be- came very corpulent, and all died before their time. What a confirmation of the truth of the sentiments quoted above ; and could wt add to them the history of all demised beer- drinkers through the country, what an awful catalogue of mortality might be presented i A careful review of the sentiments already advanced will lead us to the ondusion, that intoxicating drinks are far tram being ne- cessary either as articles of food, drink, or medicine. 1. They are not necessary as articles of food. Tlae design of eating is to supply the waste that is continually occurring to our bodies. By perspiration, respiration, labour, exercise, &c., our bodies are continually de- caying. It is calculated that we all have a new body in the space of seven years. Tht Psalmist says, " "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." A sentiment which is aa physiologically correct, as it is poetically beautiful. Our " youth" and " strength" art literally renewed, or new made. I lately II ACTION or Till ABtORDBNII. 65 uip«et to d«> int, as to do ive m ttruiiKtr ithcr proof of whatever sf- iiiporridKe;' nry, it mutt, ly injurloua, iiiik • nllon ' yean, once I never waa lie moment.' aid liim dead othar John," Ion firom th« written in • hyaioiogy of ieiineated io Fa child, and interest far ching novel. >ve the mora It appear to hia valuable if the exiai- e Total Ab. tranacribed f thousanda, ijurioua, yet ctually good ve the teati- tediual prao- , even when what he has s to be un- ierning beer he Chelten- :arch, 1638, 'a disease ia thia ia the to Stroud- aw months, all be- before their he truth of d could we nised beer- at an awful resented I nta already lusion, that being ne> , drink, or articles of supply the ing to our on, labour, nually de- all have a ears. The lewed like liicb is a« poetically ■ength" are . I lately saw the bone which had been taken from the leg of a young lady. She had, while at school, jumped from a form, and injured the tibia bone of her leg, and it began to decay. Her futher, who was a auriceon, removed it, and, what is moat nstoniahing, a new bone Immediately l)i>){un to grow in its strad, and actually supplied the place of the one taken away, so thnt she was able to walk with but little difficulty. I had the pleasure of ex- amining the bone and seeing the young lady walking about. A mure striking proof than this of the powers of nature to reproduce our bodies could not be brought forward, nor could anything more evidently show the wise and benevolent laws that regulate our being. To keep a machine or a musical inittrument In constant repair, nothing could answer the purpose so well as that it should be renewed daily. Yet this is what is actually done for the preservation of our bodies in health and vigor. I cannot put this matter in a stronger light than by giving another quotation from " Letters to Brother John." *' There is arising from every point of your body a countless number of little vessels, which are at this moment, and every moment of your life, actively eni;aged in the pleasant task of eating you up. They may be com- pared to a swarming host of long, delicate, and slender leeches, attached by innumerable mouths, to every point In your fabric, and having their bodiesgradually and progressively united together, until they all terminate in one tail ; which tail perforates the side of one of the large veins at the bottom of the neck at the left side ; so that whatever is taken in at their mouths is all emptied, by the other extremity, into that vein, where it becomes mixed with the blood contained in that vein. " Now, my dear John, fur a moment turn your eyes inward, contemplate these greedy little cormorants, complacently, if you can — observe their activity— remark their unwearied assiduity — behidd the dogged perseverance, the unerring certainty, the beautiful precision, with which tiiey are devouring you. See I mouthful after mouthful la going — going. They never tire nor are they satisfied ' fnr every atom which each mouth sucks up, ■; will easily see that the entire body would speedily be devoured, and carried away into the blood, if there were no contrivance to build the body aa fast as these little vessels eat it down and carry it off. These vessels which I have just introduced to your notice are the Absorbents." To supply the constant decomposition of our bodies, which in the passage just quoted, Is so well described, Is the design of eating. Our food is digested, cunvrrtKii Into blood, and circulated to every point, lioth external and internal, of our frame, and by this meant we are nourished and our strength is renewed. AnimnI ftiod, wholesome breod, nutrltloua vegetnules and fruits, when properly digested, amply and suitably supply the waste and alisorptiiin of the body. The gantric Juice is produced in exact proportion to the wanta of the system. In a labouring man the expen- diture and exhaustion is much greater than in one who is inactive, and it is a well-known fact that in the stomach of the former there Is a larger quantity of gastric Juice ready to digest or cliyino a greater quantity of food : and for this reason, the recluse. If he eat aa much as the plowman, must suffer from in- digestion, because his stomach finds it difflcull to digest more than his absorption actually requires. It must also be observed that nothing but "solid tibstances" can be digested. The stomach cannot digest water or any other liquid, and therefor*. <»nnotturn it into blood. Dr. Beaumont found, in the case of St. Martin, that liquids, a« soon as they entered the sto« mach, were oVsiorbed by the venous capillary tubes which are spread over thnt organ, and consequent . carried r of thu body by the kidneys. Milk was I, "xiediately coagulated, the whey absorbe^V % n. the curd digested; soups, Ity these litt - fubes were filtered, the solid par'', regained fur digev^ Cn, and the liquid or v^u-v taken into the .eina. The same is ' le ca.- with beer, cider, and wine. The water which they contain, and the spK'.t, or strength, which is lighter than water, mu taken up by the absorbents, and the very, very small portion of solid matter which ia left, is, if not too hard for such a process, subjected *o digestion. I have seen the filthy matter wliich remained after evaporating a glass of good port wine, and sure I am, that there are few persons, however fond of drink- ing, but would be disgusted at the thought of having to masticate and digest what more re- sembled cinders or ashes than food. The ex- tract from a pint of good home-brewed beer, waa quite aa uninviting. What then, wa ask, is there in a pint of ale or porter to sa- tisfy the wanta of a hard-working man ? In a pint of water there are sixteen ounces, in a pint of beer or porter fourteen ounces of water, nearly an ounce of alcohol, and part of an ounce of the extract of barley ; the wa- ter and the alcohol go immediately into the veins, and while the alcohol poisons the wa- ter, if not needed, unnecessarily dilutes the blood, overcharges the vessels, and loads the kldneya and Madder; while there remaina less than an ounce of indigestible extract of malt in the stomach to be digested. Is it any wonder that all beer drinkers feel a con- stant pain and sinking in their stomach, and that they are always craving for more drink ? But it may be said that a man who drinlts a pint ot good ale finda himself imiuediately 'I 1 i m ! i ri ! 66 FERMENTATION. tb« stronger and the better. Of eourae he does, because the liquid 6re that he has drunk has stimulated him ; but then stimulation and nutrition are two v«ry different things. There are a hundred things that may produce ex- citement, but are at the same time the very opposite to nourishment. The very excite- ment causes a greater degree of waste, greater absorption and exhaustion. A hungry faint- ing woman, who sees her child full into the flames, will instantly feel herself strong as a lion fur its rescue. Here is excitement, here is stimulation. But dreadful is the ab- sorption that is going on to accomplish all this, and dreadful will be the fatigue that she will feel from exhaustion when the excitement has subsided. She can tell that stimulus is not nutrition, her pallid face shows that the reverse is the fact, and that excitement is exhausting. The case of the laborer is much the same, only, that instead of being moved by the anxiety and fondness of a mother, he is Impelled by an ounce of alcohol. But he is excited too much, and the exhaustion of such a man must be far greater than that of the tee-totaller, who partakes of a nourishing meal, and subjects bis body to no other fatigue than that wliich arises from his steady labor. He who labors hard, and drinks alcoholic drinks, has to do double work. There Is the outward exercise of the anvil, the saw, or pick-axe, and the inward excitement of the spirit he has drunk, and which most unnatu- rally moves and impels his brain, stomach, and every vessel, nerve, and muscle of his frame. Have you never noticed hay-makers and others, how anxiously, after having drunk a little, they look for the return of the bottle. It is the exhaustion wiiich drink and labour together have produced, that compels them to hmg and beg for more stimulus. I have seen the orator, under the double ex- citement of alcohol and an impassioned theme, when he has concluded his speech, almost ready to die. I have seen the tradesman, under the double stimuliis of wine or ale and business, ready to drop. I have seen the student, exhausted by alcohol and study, sink into the grave. The world that we inhabit, in its joys and sorrows — in its pains and pleasures — in its beauties, sublimities mid miseries — in its bodily exercises and mental toils — and in the prospects presented to the righteous and the wicked, has excitement enough to exhaust the strongest energies, without flying to the bottle or the tankard for a double portion of fatigue. " Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof." By the food therefore that nourishes, and not by the li- quor that stimulates and exhausts our bodily vigor, we must be sustained and fitted for the duties and fatigues of life. But it is not merely by cheating us into the belief that we are nourished, when we are only stlmulateti, that alcoholic drinks iujure us; their bad effects upon the frame generally, but especially upon the stomach, have already been seen in the ulcerated organs of St. Martin; and the following passage from Johnson's Letters, to which we just now referred, will exhibit to us the same truth In a very striking light. Speaking, p. 137, of the " pyloric valve," he says, " let us sup- pose that there is floating in the chyme a particle of food which had not as yet been sufficiently a«'ted upon by the gastric juice: I will tell you what happens. As 8«ion as the pyloric valve feels the presence of the smooth and bland chyme, it instantly opens and allows it to pass, but no sooner does the particle of food that has not yet been reduced to chyme attempt to follow, than the valve instantly closes the aperture, and refuses its permission ; this particle of food muH there- fore return to the upper part of the stomach, to Ije again submitted to the agency of the gastric juice, before it con be permitted to escape from tlie stomach into the bowels. Is not this a beautiful exemplification of the importance of the sensibility of our organs? and said I not truly, when I called it ' our guardian angel ?' For what is the sensibility of the pyloric valve by which it is enabled to distinguish between perfect and imperfect chyme ? — what is it, I say, but a watchman, a sentinel, posted at the entrance into the bowels, in order to watch over our safety; to see that nothing be allowed to enter that is likely to disturb or irritate them ; to take care that nothing injurious; nothing offen- sive ; nothing, in fact, which may be in any way hostile to their safety; nothing, which has no business there, be permitted to trespass within the sacred precincts of organs so im> portant to the health and welfare of the whole being, of which they form so vital a part. " SVhat mischief, therefore, do those per- sons inflict upon themselves; what a wide door for the admission of all sorts of evil do those perscms throw open, who, perpetually stimulating the pyloric valve by the unnatu- ral stimuli of ardent spirit and highly-seasoned sauces, enfeeble, wear out, and eventually destroy its sensibility, so that whatever the caprice of the palate throws into the stomach, is tumbled, right or wrong, assimilated or not assimilated, good, bad, and indifferent, alto- gether, without let or hindrance, into the bowels 1 for the sentry-box is deserted — the watchman is dead." Is it any wonder that beer-drinkers, wine and spiri t drinkers, sometimes die of stoppages, inflammation of the bowels, and various other internal complaints? Sometimes we see the strong man, as he seems to be, to-day in his field, to-morrow in his coffin, and the next day he must be buried, because that flushed and bloated body of his is a mass of putres- cence I An inquiry into the cholera, in con- nection with the effects of beer and wines upon the digestive and other organs, would prove how greatly ardent stimuli predisposed US for that scourge, I may be told that beer BBER AND PORTCR DRINKERS. 67 and porter drlnVtra preMnt to ua a stout and corpulent frame. We grant that some of them do, hut this is not the cose with all. I know more sallow-faced, pale, thin, sickly- looking drinkers of beer, than corpulent tip- plers. These have their stomachs, liver, and blood poisoned with alcohol and the other trash found in malt liq'ior. I have seen the thin, sallow face of the moderate beer-drinker become almost instantly ruddy with health on the adoption of total abstinence. But the red-complexioned drinkers of beer and wine are not always so healthy as they appear to be. It is a common saying, " that the fat of such men is not good." The beer and porter drinkers of London are the worst subjects that enter the hospital. A ^ood mediral authority has told us that they "die like rottc-n sheep." They cannot scratch their fingers but it is death. In hundreds of in- stances inflammation and speedy dissolution are the consequences of a slight bruise of the hand. From a slight cut, at which a child would have smiled, I have seen the stout athletic beer-drinker, in less t.iiin a wet-k, laid in the grave. In Bartholomew's hospital, surgeons dread to have to cure porter-drinkers. Corpulency is nut health ; it is rather a di- sease. Fat is nothing more than a deposit of the supprfiuities or the system. Its increase never adds to a man's strength. He could perform his labor better without it, and would feel none of that dread which now unnerves him at the thought of a fever or any other disease being epidemical. He is of a full habit, and can neither bear much fatigue nor much disease. The fact is, his corpulency has unfitted him for tlie present wurlil, and there- fore he is hurried out of it before his time. Look, too, at the palsied liand and trem- bling steps of the young man whom alcohol has made old ! Hark at his difficult breathing and sepulchral cough 1 Lungs that might have braved the hyperborean cold, or the scurchiiig torrid heat, require the protection of better apparatus than nature has provided, to allow them to breathe the temperate air of Britain with impunity. " The beer-houses have been my death," gasped a young man of five-and- twenty, who was dying the other day, and whom I visited in his last moments. The alcohol of the beer had, in connection with midnight damps, ulcerated his lungs, and he died of a galloping consumption. Ilis neigh- bour of the same age, and often bis pot-house companion, in a few weeks made the same confession, and followed him to the grave ; and thousands since that have followed in the same train. Well have our vendors of strong drinks selected for their signs most of the lusus naturiB and monsters of creation. Their poisons disorganize the human frame, make monsters of men, and prey upon their vitals. Were the beasts of prey that are now chained in our menageries and zoological gardens to be let loose, they would not com- nlt tuch depredations at aro at this moment being perpetrated by the red, black, and whit* lions, bears, griffins, &c. of the publi(»n>. Tell us not, then, that malt liquor, or wine, or spirit is needed by the laboring man, the tradesman, or the scholar ; these all want nourishment, not stimuli ; their vocations ara stimulating and exhausting enough, and let them be fed with bread and other nutritious aliment, but do not poison, exhaust, and de- ceive them with intoxicating drinks. Instead of giving the laboring man poison, give him money. What a shame to make him pay so enormously for the half-ounce or ounce, of bread ; or the worth of his beer or cider in food that is in his cup; let him have tha money, and he will buy food and clothing, will be a stronger man himself, and will return, in the goods he purchases, all the money he receives to the fanner and manu- facturer, and incalculably promote the com- mercial health and prosperity of the country. 2. Intoxicating drinks are not necessary as a beverage to quench thirst. Any onii who will try the experiment may, by tha applioiition of heat and a condenser, evtdve the alcohol from his beer, cider, or wine, and then set fire to it ; and as the flame is burning, we ask him to reflect whether so fiery a poi- son is likely to quench thirst or to benefit the delicate tissues of the body through which it is to circulate ? The very nature of the drink is to produce heat; every person who has drunk these liquors has experienced the ex- citement and warmth which they occ&sion^ but heat and excitement are both conducive to perspiration, absorption, exhaustion, and consequently thirst. It is generally allowed that combustion is the result of the violent action of bodies and gases upon each other. The heat of our bodies may, in a great degree, be the effect of circulation. When the cir- culation is stopped, the limb is cold : the chill of death is suspended action or circuliUinn. By circulating the blood through our feet or hands with increased activity we warm them. Increased exertion miikes us perspire ; in- creases, therefore, the al>sorption of our frame, and consequently produces thirst. Only think, then, of the madness of giving a burning stimulating liquor to a laboring man, or indeed to any one, to quench his thirst ! You pour into hie frame a fiery liquid to qunnch his thirst 1 You increase the excitement, the circulation, the absr)rption» the perspiration, and consequent exhaustion of the body ; and do this, you say, to quench thirst! I Why not, in the plenitude of such wisdom, pour oil upon your fire when yoi> wish tit extinguish it ? or naphtha, turpentine, and pitch, upon the child whose clothes have JMst ignited ? The latter, remember, would be just as prudent as the former. The cases are perfectly parallel : in the one tiiere is too much fire, and to extinguish it you add more f and in the other there is too much warmth and exhaustion, and to diminish it you ad- minister a liquid stimulating fire I In hot If 68 VERMENTATION. ! i dimotM the mortality among our troopt and officers ha* been attributed to ardent spirits, and correctly so. The heat of the country Is exhausting; the fatigues of military duty are exhausting ; and, if to this you add an exhausting, stimulating liquid poison, you Increase the labor of the system beyond what it can bear, and the man dies before his time. It was not the climate that killed him, man Is made to live in all climates ; it was not labor that killed him, labor is conducive to health ; it was ardent spirit that exhausted and slew him. You gave him rations of rum, and the liquid fire kindled fevers and Inflam- mations; or, by unnatural absorption, con- sumed the resources of his body, and brought on emaciation, collapse and death. The heat and labors of the hHy-iield, of the smithy, the foundry, or the sugar-house, are exhausting and tend to thirst ; but who, to prevent this, or to cure it, would add to heat, and thirst, and fatigue, the excitement and exhaustion of a burning stimulating liquor ? Every man who drinks beer, wine, or spi- rits, knows that they increase heat and thirst. Often does the tippler call for water to quench the burning heat and thirst that strong drink has kindled. On the other hand, our harvest men, our smiths, sugar-bakers, sawyers, car- penters, and others who have adopted total abstinence, complain less of thirst and fatigue than formerly. These men having, in time past, felt the exhaustion of drinking, and having now, in their own experience, an increase of vigor, possess a proof which baffles contradiction, that total abstinence has the sanction of nature. Those, too, who labor in damps, as bricklayers, brickmakers, and others, find that they are now less liable to «old. Intoxicating drinks used to spread over their frame an uiinatnral heat, and this was followed by an unnatural degree of cold, which, connected with the chilling damps of their labor, brought on chills, rheumatism, nnd various other diseases which, by total abstinence, they now entirely escape. Experience shows that neither in warm temperatures nor in cold ones, are strong drinks necessary. Captain Ross, in the fro- zen regions, found that his men enjoyed bet- ter health and suffered less from iVost without these liquors than with them. The writer has travelled in the midst of frost and snow, and drunk brandy and water until he was himself nearly frozen : he has travelled In the same kind of weather, nd drunk nothing but water, and been comfortably warim The brandy increased circulation and pro- duced heat for a short time ; but then Dr. Farre's law of the forcing system was regu- larly observed ; after every glass of spirits, " the circulntion fell off in a greater degree than it was forced," and much more intense cold was felt as the consequence. Mr. Hos- kins, in his late visit to the Pyramids, found, by his own experience, nnd that of others, that the water of the Nile was, in that hot country, the most refreshing and Invigorating beverage. And he states that spirit drinkers very soon became incapable of enduring the climate. This is perfectly natural. If tha absorption Is great, and the perspiration pro- fuse, nothing can better supply this waste than the simplest beverage ; and that beve- rage Is water. To drink alcoholic drinks at such a time would be to increase the evil which drinking Is Intended to remove. Nothing can be more fallacious than the opinions that generally prevail respecting drinking. We are probably become the most drinking people upon the face of the earth, and thus are continually overloading our sys- tem with some fluid or other, and by this means producing disease. Many persons drink from habit, and not from thirst. From this cause, some who have become tee-totallers have, on giving up their beer and wine, be- gun to drench themselves with water, or tea and coffee, and then have said that total ah' stinence did not agree with them. But why thus overload the system >.':th fluids which nature never demanded by the gentle whis< per of thirst? Abernethy has recommended us not to drink until three hours after dinner. Dr. Beaumont found that the stomach can- not digest food except at a hundred degrees of temperature. He found also that a gill of cold water lowered the heat of St. Martin's stomach twenty degrees, and consequently delayed digestion until its accustomed heat was recovered. The writer has found all his sensations of indigestion return from foolishly drinking cold water at his meals, and which was not demanded by thirst. And why be always drinking ? There is a great deal of moisture in all we eat Animal food Is per- haps full one-half water. Bread contains in it water, for we do not like It when It is en- tirely dry. Potatoes are quite three-fourths water, and other vegetables are charged with a great or even greater amount. Many complaints are no doubt the conse- quence of diluting the blood with so much li- quid, and especially so when these drinks are charged with spirit. If drink is wanting, the veins will convey the intelligence to the stomach, and the stomach to the brain, and we shall feel thirsty ; but if not thirsty, why keep loading our bodies with liquor ? The gastric juice, as Dr. Beaumont discovered, la unfitted for its work by being diluted with even the simplest liquid, much more, then, must it be injured wlien that liquid is charged with poison. The animals are in many re- spects wiser than we are. When left to themselves they all eat and drink like phl- loRophers. God sends the sluggard to the ant, the inconsiderate to the crane and the swallow, and he rebuked Balaam by an ass. We might learn from the same source a few usrful lessons in dietetics, and especially In drinking. They drink when they are thirsty, and would we go and do likewise, we might save ourselves many a pain. Nirture aiwoya V SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 69 canrlet in ber hnnd a rod, and if we will drink what is not wanted, she will most cer- tainly make us smart for onr folly. Alcoholic drinks, then, are not necessary to quench our thirst, and indeed rather in- crease than diminish it, and unnecessary potations of even the simplest liquids rather injure than benefit our health and vigor. 2. These dr^iikx .we not needed as medi- cines. In thb c'Otation already given from Mr. Higginbotbam, it was stated that if al- cohol was instantly abolished " as a medicine it would not be missed." A surgeon of con- siderable practice, and who is a grent enemy to total abstinence, speaking the other day of the value of spirits as a medicine, I asked him "If there was no other medicine that would supply its place ?" " Yes," he replied, "ammonia would do as well." "Then," said I, " Why do you use spirits?" " Mere- ly," he answered, " because they are always at hand." Such is the testimony of an ene- my. Dr. Evans, at a temperance meeting, at Gloucester, declared, " That there was no medicine which so soon rendered a disease intractable as spirits, and none require to be administered with so much care." I once knew a healthy woman seized with English cholera ; a physician attended her, success- fully treated tbe disease, and in a fevr days pronounced her out of danger. He had been successful in curing numbers of the same malady, and th^.efore knew nil the symptoms of convalescence. The next day when he called he found her dying. " What have you given this woman ?" " Nothing sir," respon- ded the nurse. "You may," said he, " re- fuse to tell me what you have given her, but ■omething has been administered." " Only a little home-made wine," was then tbe an- swer. The woman, the mother of a young family, died the next day : the physician, %vho w.ts a very feeling man, told me he could not refrain from tears, and he said to the nurse, " Remember," exclaimed he, " had you applied a pistol to that woman's head, and blown out her brains, you would not more effectually have deprived her of life." In this case the alcohol brought on inflam- mation of the bowels, which baffled the power of medicine to suhdue, and thus the church was deprived of a member, and a young fam- ily of a mother. Hundreds of thousands of others have been swept from the world by the same cause. If there is the least inflam- mation in the body, alcohol aggravates it; if there is the least wound, this vile spirit seeks it and poisons it. By drinking spirits for a cold, the lun|;s, already tender, are of- ten poisoned and ulcerated beyond recovery ; and hence the frequency of consumption in our country. All disease may be said to be remedial in its design. In most instances it arises from an effort of nature to dismiss from the system something that is injurious, and it is only when it has gone too far for the rest of the fabric to render assistance, or is aggravated by our own folly or that of others^ that it becomes fatal. We may be told, that if alcohol is a poison, poisons are used in med' icine. But, it may be replied, that a healthy man does not want medicine, and further, that in cases of sickness, poison is generally administered to produce disease rather thati to cure it. There is in the system an affec- tion which the physician cannot reach, and knowing that by producing disease in some other part, he can perhaps draw it to that part, he n'iministers a poison or applies a blister. 1 hat is, he produces a disease which he can cure, in order to attract or dislodgff one which otherwise he cannot cure. But it would be just as reasonable for a healthy man to be always applying to his body a blis- ter, as for him to be daily drinking a spirit which he says is medicine, and which will worse than blister his stomach and the pyloric valve. If it be objected that persons in sickness often feel almost instantaneous relief from spirits, we reply, that it is granted by all that spirits are exciting ; that they go to the head and animate the mind, but at the very time that they excite and divert the feelings, they feed the disease. They may go to the head and nerves, and stimulate them, and at the same moment flee to the seat of the malady, and often render it incurable. " Art thou in health, my brother?" said the insidious Joab, and at the same moment stabbed hia victim in the fifth rib. Besides, in most (;ase!>, rest is necessary for the suffering pa' tient; why then produce unnatural degree of exhaustion and absorption ? If you would not send him to his labor, why stimulate every nerve and organ in his body ? If perspira' tion is requisite, there are sudorifics much more healthy than alcohol, and which might be administered with much less danger. When we consider the fiery nature of alcw* faol, and the heat it produces when circulating through the body, the accounts we have heard of spontaneous animal combustion are far from incredible. Donovan relates seven in- stances of this description of ignition, and M. Julia de Fontenclle has lately read a paper totbe Academy of Sciences, at Paris, in which he relates ^/\ < .1 '--■ / W FERMKNTATIOK. burnt, but the feathm, clothes, and covering; were safe. Nothing pxcept the body exhibited strong trnces of fire." Most of the exanip1liiig vessel in the month of November, 1808. which lunded at Aberforth, having several barrels of rum on board, vvhirli they maiiiiged to get on shore without dis- covery, and took them to an old house in the Tillage which they had previously taken for the purpose. When all was right, they began, as they termed it. to enjoy themselves, and to partake plenteously of their hooty. This man, who' had been noted fur the quantity be could take, now took consideriibly more than he had been accustomed to. He became so exceedingly intoxi(!;iied, and lay in this state for such a length of time, that his com- panions beciime alarmed, and sent for a sur- geon to Cardiiran ; he being from home, my- self and the other apprentice attended f«ir him. After ascertaining the beverage he had been taking, the best antidote we could think of was oil ; this we agreed to administer ; I officiating, and the other bedding the cnfidle, it being late in the evening. As soon as the candle came in cotitact with the vapour from his body, to our great surprise, it caught Kre, commencing about the face, and extendintj! throughout the whole surface of the hotly burning with a blue flame. We, being greatly agitated, thinking we had set him on fire, thought it best to depart, first having thrown a pail of water over him to extinguish it. This only added fuel to the fire, it burning with great severity. On our return we related the circumstance to our master, who could scarcely credit it. The next morning, he ami myself went to see this unfortunate victim. On our arrival, we found only part of the being we went to sue ; for all the parts, ex- cepting the head, legs, and part of the arms, were consumed. The ashes which remained were black and greasy, and the room in which it lay had a peculiarly oifensive smell. The shirt, which was of flannel, was not burnt, but charred. We ordered the remaining parts to be put into a shell. Two days after- ward, from curiosity, we again went to see if the remainder was burnt, but found it as before. There was no inquest. His com- panions, as well its those people who heard it, being at that time superstitious, and knowing Iiim to be a very wicked man, reported that the devil had come; set him alight and sent him, alive, to the shades below, for liia wicked- There is nothing incredible in these narra- tions. When we consider the fiery nature of alcohol, the increased circulation it pro« duces, and that the body of the unhappy vic- tim is drenched and saturated with tliis in- Hammntory spirit, it is not wonderful that the gas proceeding from such a combustible mass should ignite. We know that phos- phoreted hydrogen and other substanttes will spiMitaneou>ly t^ike fire, and we cannot tell, as there is phosphorous in the body, but this may be so acted upon as to produce sponta- neous combustion, or even the increased cir- culation in a body so infiaimnable may occa- sion ignition. With the philosophy of the thing, however, we have little to do; the facts are incoiitestible, th>it a number of per- sons, addicted toardent spirits, have been burnt to death, and the tire in several cases has been spontaneous. Its peculiar (;haracter has also been manifest from the fact that, iti many instances, the clothes and bed furniture have not been burnt. Like the Greek lire, also, it appears that water increases its intensity. " A man in London once drank a pint of gin ; he soon fell into a state of insen»ibility, and died in the street. On internal exam- ination, there was founii in his stomach a fiuid which had the smell of gin, and a like quantity was found in his brain ; on a fire bein;; applied both ignited. A strong case of this kind occurred at Edinburgh, and another in America. A young phy>ician, in the state of Maine, applied his lancet to the vein of a confirmed drunkard, who had juit come out of a fit of ititoxication. The blood ex- haled a strong o(estion. This being the case, then, the drinker of lieer, rider, or wine, is just as much a drinker of spirits and wa- ter, as be who uoes to the gin or brandy bot- tle direct. There is »;h diluted is not changed in its nnture and character as a poi- son. The beer and wine drinker, therefore, often swallows as much alcoholic poison a day as he who orinks spirits. It is true it is diluted, and therefore operates on his frame less rapidly, but, though slow, it is just as sure a poison in the end as when taken unmixed. The best home-made beer, cider or wine, hits therefore just as much poison in it as it hasalcohol; CDiiseqiiHutly the phrase, "whole- some home-brewed bcpr," is an absurdity. You cannot make alcoliol wholesome ; dilute it or mix it witli whatever extract you will, it is still a po!s'-n, and the whole design and result of brewiisij; is to produce a phment in a penny loaf than in a galloii of the hcX beer. And yet tlie penny loaf only costs a penny, while, in some c.-vsis, the gallon nt° beer cn>ts twenty -four pence or two shillings; and what is Worse mIII, the penny worth of fond in the beer is not merely (;oarse barley bread spr)ilt, but is actually mixed with perhaps four ounces of an acrid poison I I have known good workmen that would spend three or four shillings, .ind the whole :if one day in a week on this detestable iiqunr. Tlireo ehillings a week, six shillings, nine, twelve, twenty shillings a week, are snm.ii-nes tlius wast Five, ten, twenty, tifty pounds a year uie, iu tbouttaudit of iiistauoes, spent on these liquors, by persons wbose families are in the greatest straits, and perhaps starving for food and cluthing. And yet professors of religion encourage this waste, and "cast out as evil" tlie names of those who would expose the delusiini, and destroy the iniqui- tous practice of drinking. " These things ought not to be." If inebriating liquors, manufactured at home, are nevertlieless poisonous, then what must be the character of those which have been adulterated ? Ilespecting porter. Dr. Lardner informs us, that " it is absolutely frightful to contemplate the list of poi^ons and drugs with which it has been ' doctored.' Opium, henbane, cncxilus indicus, and Bohe- mian rosemary, wbi(;h is said to produce a quick and rnving intoxication, supplied the pliice of alcohol. Aloes, quassia, gentian, sweet-scented flag, wormwood, horehound, and bitter oranges, supplied the place of hops. Liquorice, treacle, and mucilage of tlax-seed, stood tor attenuated malt li'juor. Capsi(;um, ginger, and cinnamon, or nither cassia-buds, affiirded to the exhausted drink the pungency of carbonic acid. Burnt fltf itself is a n'lison, liere we have it saturated or suppl nit( (1 by tin? mo.-t deleterious drugs. From I'arlia.nentary IJi turns we find that souii- years the duty paid to Govermnent for M ux- Vomica wa6 £631 4 2 if M U' \ -'■. 7f FERMENTATION. ! I Bxtmct of Nux- Vomica £4 7 5 CoculUB Indirui .069 19 S Grains of Panuiige 3191 2 2 The reader wWl ulso observe, that the con< «umption of these articles, which are chiefly employed in manufacturin); beer and porter, has of late years increased rather than dimin- ished. Nux- Vomica, for example, which is a horrid poison, paid in 1830, £191 duty, hat in IB33, it paid £517 i5s. ; Coculus Indicus paid in 1829, £l39 15s., but in 1833, £569 19a. dd. ; thus the instruments of disorganization, demoralization, and death, were never more used than at present. Increased appetite and demand afford those who prey upon the health and morals of the people such an ample opportunity to indulge their nefarious and deadly practices. Wines and spirits, we linow, are adulter- ated to a greater extent than beer. We have already mentioned the horrid death of the wine seller, who was smitten with insufferable remorse, at the thought of the many that he had murdered by his devices in adulterating wine. I heard a medical man very lately recommend port wine to a sick lady, and he told me that he did so because the arsenic in the wine would be useful in her complaint; however, he did not cure her by the poison, though I am happy to say, that in her case, total abstinence has affected a perfect cure, and therefore succeeded in a disease in which all the doctors failed. A respectable individ- ual states, that " in the Isle of Sheppy many persons are employed in picking up copperas stones from the sea-beach, which being taken to a maikufactory, copperas is extracted, and then shipped to Oporto, to be sold to the vine- dressers and wine merchants, and by them is mixed with the port wine, to give it its peculiar astringent quality. We have testimonies the most unquestion- able, that modern wines are manufactured and adulterated to an awful extent. " The Vintners' and Licensed Victuallers' Guide" will furnish any one who will consult it with the most shocking directions on this subject. One of the most poisonous ingr'*dients which these adulterators use is lead ; this appears to have been .'ather an old practice : in the year 1696, several persons in the Duchy of Wirtemberg were poisoned, in consequence of drinking wine adulterated with ceruse, or white lead. A disease called the " lead colic" raged in Poitou in the sixteenth cen- tury, for upwards of sixty years, and is now well known to have been occasioned by the abominable adulteration of wine with lead. Towards the end of the I7th century nearly every individual of three regiments in Ja- maica was afflicted with colic, ariying from the lead that was mixed with the ruin. The adulteration of cider with lead has before now produced the leutl colic in England t » an wwful extent. It seems that lead has the peculiar power of correcting acescence. In France, and imptclally in Paris, larger quantities of bour wine, sold for the purpose of making vinegar, have been converted into wine again b^ means of litharge, or a species of red lead. Brandy is often rendered pale by the same destructive ingredient. Geneva has been known to prove fatal, in consequence of its admixture with " sugar of lead." In 1811, all the passengers of the Highflyer coach, who dined and drank wine at Newcastle on January 17th, were taken ill with extreme sickness, and one gentleman who had taken more wine than the rest, was brought almost to the grave ; and a Mr. Bland of Newark, who drank some negus, which was made from this very wine, was taken ill soon after, and actually died before medical aid arrived ; and on the inquest being held the jury return- ed a verdict of " Died by Poison." The '• Vintners' Guide" contains direc- tions for clearing cloudy or muddy wines, and sugar of lead is one of the ingredients recommended; lead, in its worst form, has been found in champagne ; and persons have died, or become paralytic, from drinking white wine, which had been poisoned with lead. It is well known that sugar of lead, ceruse, or white lead, litharge, or a species of red lead are mixed with acids or sharp tas.ed wines to remove tlieir acidity. The following recipe for making and doctcring wines may be found in " Wine Guides." For Port— take of good cider 4 gallons, of the juice of red beet 3 quarts, brandy 2 quarts, logwood 4 ounces, rhatany root bruised ^ a pound ; flrst infuse the logwood and rhatany root in brandy, and a gallon of cider, for one week, then strain off the liquor, and mix the other ingredients ; keep it in a cask for a month, when it will be fit for use. A chemical analysis of a bottle of port has produced the following results : — spirits of wine 3 ounces, cider 14 ounces, sugar IJ ounce, alum 2 scruples, tartaric; acid I scru- ple, strong decoction of logwood 4 ounces. If a butt of sherry is too high in color, take a quart of warm sheep or lamb's Idnod, mix it with the wine, and when thoroughly fine draw it off, when you will find the wine as pale as necessary. To color Claret — Take as many as you please of damascenes, or black sloes, and stew them with some dark colored wine, and as much sugar as will make it into a sirup. This will color cither claret or port. Frenchmen have been known to purchase large quantities of Herefordshire cider, and manufacture it into fine sparkling champagne. Bitter almonds are used to give a nutty flavor to wine ; — sweet briar, orris-root, clary, cherry laurel water, and elder flow- ers, form the bouquet of highly flavored wines ; alum renders meagre wine bright ; — brazil wood, cake of pressed elder berries, and bilberries, render pail faint colored port of a deep purple ; oak saw dust, and busks of filberts, give additional astringency to unripe red wine^; — t)ie crust of port wines, which is [•( i ANCIENT WINES. 73 riar, orris-root, •upponed to be an unquestionable evidence of B)(e, is often produced Ity n saturated solution of cream of tartar, colored with brazil wood or cociiineal. The followint; table of the exports of wine from Oporto to the Channel Islands, and of imports from the Channel Islands to London may give the reader some idea of the ex- tent to which the manufacture of wine is carried : Pipet.* Pipt!i.\ 1826 38 293 1827 99 99 1828 73 75 1829 _ ,.. 90 1830 _ 147 1831 _ 143 1832 — 3G8 1833 — 8G2 According to the Custom-House books of Oporto, for the year 1812, 135 pipes and 20 hogsheads were shipped for Guernsey : in the same year there were landed at the Lon- don Docks, 2,545 pipes and 162 hogsheads, from that Ittland, reported to be port wine. If the reader should require more facts upon this subject, he may find an abundance in Bacchus, on the adulteration of wines ; and as he reads them, he must blush for those Christians who dare insinuate that the deadly wines of modern times are the same as those referred to in the Sacred Volume. " The wine that cheereth the heart of man," that our Lord made at the marriage of Cana, or that he used at the first sacrament, could not have been ch.irged with 24 per cent, of alcohol, because distilled spirits was then unknown : nor can we believe that it was made out of cider, logwood or lead ; and the wines being different, the art;ument from Scripture can have no weight with any reflecting mind. Thus on whatever aspect or side we look at this question, we see the reasonableness, propriety, ailvantage, and duty of total ab- stinence. The nourishment of malt liquor is a delusion ; numbers of medical men have spt their faces ai^ainst its use. I know a physician, who, with strange inconsistency re- commends weak brandy and water, but who, most unequivocally condemns beer and cider. Brewers liardly ever drink even their own good ales. Several spirit merchants tremble to drink their own gin, and many wine sel- lers know that there is death in their wines. In the evidence before the House of Com- mons, it was stated that medical men have, in several cases, destroyed and ruined their patients by recommending them to drink spirits. Let the world then awake from the lethargy into which it has been thrown, by these infatuating and maddening drinks ; let science, let religion do their duty ; then the accursed spell will be broken, and man shall be as prosperous, as happy, as enlightened and moral, as the high privileges and bles- sings he can command declare that he ought to be. * Exported from Oporto to the Channel Islands, t Imported in the same year from the Channel Is- lands to London. Some persons who have adopted total ab- stinence, have immediately begun to rat a great deal more than they did formerly, to make up for the beer and wine that they have abandoned, and in a short time have become ill, and thus have said, tliat total obstinence did not agree with them. And of course it did not under these circumstances, because they exchanged drinking for gluttony, and soon began to sulTer from plethora or indi- gestion. Now it is found from much obser- vation, that u tee-totaller can live on less food than a moderate drinker. He suffers less from absorption and exhaustion, what he eats is better digested, and therefore his system does not demand so much nutriment ; and if he eats more because he drinks less, he will suffer in some way or other ; those who by drunkenness have lost all appetite for food will, on becoming tee-totallers, have a good appetite return in a short time ; but those who feel the cravings which moderate drink- ing occasions will, on practising total absti- nence, find that they can do with less food than formerly. CHAPTER V. ANCIENT WINES. Before we enter on the history of inebria- ting liquors, it may be proper to mention a few of those substances which either possess an intoxicating quality, or have been rendered so by fermentation. Milk, the most nutritious of all beverages, — and which contains in itself both food and drink, and therefore, without exception, the most perfect of all liquors, — milk, by some nations, has been converted into an inebria- ting beverage. The Tarters and Calmucks distil mares' or cows' milk, and obtain about six ounces of strong spirit from twenty-one pounds of milk ! They are almost as wise and economical as we are in making beer from barley. Most persons are aware of the extent to which opium is used among the Turks, and the listless idleness and sensuality that it produces. The Koran forbids them the use of wine, and, as a substitute, they have re- course to opium. This pestiferous drug has been imported into China in very large quan- tities, and so extensive has been its use, and so demoralizing its influence on the Chinese, that the government of that country has taken alarm, and refuses to trade with us in tea, unless we cease to import into their country this baneful narcotic. It is a lamentable fact, that some of our own countrymen and fair countrywomen have adopted the use of this poison. Poor Coleridge deeply bewailed his folly in using so pernicious a drug. " The dreams of an opium-eater" appear not to have been fabulous. Paralysis, lowness of spirits, alienation of mind, convulsions, mad- ness, apoplexy, and death, are among the natural effects of the use of this poison. le was stated to the committee of the House of 74 ANCIENT WINES. t ! Commont, that In some parts of the north of England beer>drlnking hns brought on the vile practice of eating opium. Some of the poor women are In the habit of taking it ▼ery largely. In the book of Genesis we twice read of "myrrh:" in each place the Hebrew word is oib. Lot. The Arnbac term for the same gum is ledum, or ladanum, whence we have also the Greek \ijcov and \riSavov, the Latin ladanun, and the En- glish laudanum. All these words are evi- dently derived from the same root, and rffer to the same subittaiice. Wine mingled with myrrh was nifered to our Lord at liirt passion ; but he would not drink it. This was n stupefying drnuglit— wine mixed with opium, or Hmw preparation of t^iat dru;;, resembling laudanum, wns administered to criminals for the purpose of Icssenini; their sense of piiin. And we shall presently have ocrnsion to show that ancient eastern wines owed their chief intoxicating quality to stupefying and poisonous ingredients. The plant called wild hemp is used as an inebrient in some parts of the east. The people manufacture its leaves into a bail which they cnll " bang," and which they swallow. It produces tranquillity of mind, makes them laugh and sing involuntarily, and, like opium, it is said to stimulate courage and excite sen- sual propen)>it!es. It seems that the common flax plant possesses similar properties, and we know that flaxseed is used to give u greater intoxicating power to beer. In some of the South Sea Islands they make an intoxic4«ting liquor from a root called " kava," a spei-ies of pepper. The mode of preparing it >s filthy in the extreme. The servants are employed to chew it, and spit it, when well chewed, into a bowl, and after enough is prepared, water is poured upon it to make it of a sufficient strength ; after being well mixed and strained, about a quarter of a pint is drunk. It is disagreeable to the taste, produces stupefaction, and in time re- duces those who drink it to skeletons. Filthy as this liquor appears, could the English tip- pler tell ail that has been put into his beer, wine, gin, &c., to make them sufliciently po- tent, he would be little disposed to revile the beastly taste of the South Sea Islanders, or to pique himself on his own more reflned appetite. In Java and Savu the natives make wine, which they call " tuac," from the fan-p»lm. On cutting the buds a juice exudes, 8om<9 of which is partly converted into sugar, and partly into wine, by fermentation. This li- 4|uor, in its unfermented state, is the common /drink of the natives. In some parts of India wine is prepared from the liquor in cocoa-nuts. In Persia they make wine from peaches ; which \n also done in South America. A saccharine juice capable of fermentation is also obtained by •rounding the sugar^maple tree. The American lodiana make wjne from iking ; it was the palm juice, and • kind of ale from Indian, corn. The yellow flower, rhododendron, a natira of Siberia, infused in hot water, produces a liquor which makes those that drink it out« rageous. Tea, especially green tea, made very strong, and taken in large quantities, produces a spe- cies of intifxication. The Chinese poets dwell upon the praises of this beverage. In China, also, spirit is distilled from millet, and like- wise from ricH : from the latter they also make lieer, into which they infuse the seeds of the thorn-apple to make it narcotic. The Turks also use the seeds of the thurn-npple as an inebrient; and sometimes heighten the ex- hilarating powers of coffee by the addition of opium. The protoxide of nitrogen, when inhaled into the lungs, produces a species of inebria- tion, though of n very innocent character. The vapor of alcohol has been known to in- toxicate. A young man whom I knew lately returned from London in a state of mental aberration ; he became worse and worse, and at length died raving mud. He was a very pious man, atid bore an e.xnellent character, but was employed in one of the London vvine- vaults, and tlie mere fumes of the alcohol roblted him of his reason and of his life. He was never addicted to dr vnpor of the tvines tliat slew him The effects of the smoke of tobacco, and also of the excitation from snulT, are well known. Young smokers generally, on com- mencing the filthy habit of smoking, become partially intoxicated. From these historical facts, it is evident tiiat various other sultstances besides alcohol possess an intoxicating quality. The degree of poison they contain, tlie quantity of stim- ulus or excitement which they are capable of producing, and the peculiar and various man- ner in which they uffeet the body and the mind of man, may be very different indeed; still if they priiduce uiniaturul excitement, depression, or stupefaction — if tliey elevate the mind with joy for which no rational cause can be assigned — if they inflame the passions and madden the intellect — and if, while they exhilarate, they poison the body — then may they justly be termed intoxicating. Were I to drink but one cup of strong ten on going to bed, I should not close my eyes for the whole night. I believe a few cups would drive me mad. A small quantity of either tea or coffee would render me nervous and de'>.'essed in the extreme. There is no doubt that the hysterical and epileptic affections which are so painfully felt by many of the fair sex, should be attributed solely to the quantity of strong tea which they are in the habit of drinking. Our grandmothers, who drank neither of these stimulating beverages, were far stronger and healthier than the men of the present generation. That will doubt- less be a happy period, both for the health of I- : INTOXICATING SUBITANCE8. 76 la from Indian inrlron, a natiTe ter, produces a at drink it out- idn very strong, produnfN n »p«- iiese poetH dwell ire. In Chiiin, lillet, and iilce- r they alao make :he Heeds of tha ic. The Turks iirn-npple as an si^hten the ex- the addition of , when inhaled !ci(>8 of iiiebria- icent character. I known to in- m I knew lately state of mental and wiirste, and He was a very illetit character, e London wine- of the alcohol ofhisilife. He in^ ; it was the him. of tobacco, and ^nuiT, are well eriklly, on com- (lokiiig, become it is evident besides alcohol The degree lantity of stim- are capable of d various man- biKJy and the tferent indeed; al excitement, f tliey elevate rational cause ne the pns>ions 1 if, while they dy — then may »ting. Were I g tea on going y eyes for the vv cups would intity of either nervous and ere is no doubt ptic atfections y many of the solely to the hey are in the dmothers, who ting beverages, than the men lat will douljt- r the health of tha body and the vigor of the mind, when stimulants of all deccriptions are banished, and their place i>hall be supplied liy healthful exercise and rational mental discipline. One of the great evils of the fall is idleness. Peo- ple want excitement, liut are too idle to rise in the morning betimes, to wall{, to labor, or to thiiilc, and, as a substitute for natural exertion, fly to tea, coffee, opium, or alcohol. The elTects of these Htimulunts are very dif ferent, but still in each v.a%e the excitement is artiiicial. and arises neillier from the proper circulation ot'lieaUhy aud nutrient blood, nor from the rational and moral elevation of the soul. The •* opium" of the Turks, the " bang" of the ea>t, the " kiiva" of the South Seas, the " rhododendron" of Siberia, the "tuac" of Java, the tea, cnifee, tobacco, and snutf of En);land, and alcohol of every country where it exists, produce various deseriptions of ele- vation, unnHturai action, or hlupetaction ; but in each case the excited beini; more re- sembles nn automaton or a t;alv;in!zi-d lifeless body than an individual moved by a natural, rational, or moral principle of action. From these facts also, and the essentials to fermentation stated in the last chapter, it is evident tliat wines have not always owed their intoxicatini; power to alcohol or vinous fermentation. In all hot countries there nre three things whicli obstruct, if not altogether prevent vinous fermeiitation, and which must at all events have rendered it iiiipos>ible in ancient times to have produced >itrong alco- holic wines; these are the quantity of sugar in the grape or otiier fruits, the heat of the country, and the non-existence of alcohol or ardent spirit in its pure or unmixed state. 1. The great quantity of suijar in the fruits of those countries. We all know that even ill En^^land a warm summer wil! greatly in- crease the saccharine qualities of grapes and other fruits ; and we attribute the superior sweetness of foreign fruits to the high tem- perature of the countries in whi<;h they grow. Hence we produce artiticial heat in hot-houses. If we place ajar of common flour in an oven to bake, it liecomes sweet. Now all these facts show that bent, in most cases, is essen- tial to the existence of a large quantity of saccharine matter. We also just now showed that an excess of su<;ar in the grape is unfavonmble to the production of a strong alcoholic drink. It is impossilile to olitaiii strong alcoholic cider out of very sweet ap- ples, and for the same reasini it is impossilile to olitain strong wines from very sweet fjrapes. But tiie grapes of Pale>iine, Asia Minor, Egypt, &c., were exceedieigly sweet. If in Fraihie, where the saccliarine qualities of the grape are most favouralde to perfect fermentation, the wines, when unmixed with alcohol are weak ; if the strongest wine that the pure juice of the grape yields, does not contain more than eight per cent, of spirit, then bow weak the wines must have been in those dimatea whose high temperature gave to the fruits an exoesa of saccharine matter ; and consequently the nines of Pulea|pie and other hot climates, if allowed to ferment previous to the invention of stills and distilla- tion, must have had in tliem a very small portion of alcohol, and for want of mora spirit would immediately have turned sour. 2. The heat of eastern countries must have lieen very injurimis to the vinous fer- mentation of tiniir very sact^harine, and con- sequently, weak vines. We are told on the be.st scientific autliority, that at a tempera- ture of 75 dei^rees. the acetous fermentation of such liquors will commence. In England we have often witnessed the eil'ects of u lesa degree of heat than is here mentioned in turning beer and cider sour and which has arisen solely from the increase of tempera- ture producing the acetous fermentation. I have known a cellar of the (inest beer, and (rasks of the most beautiful cider, become al- most as acid as vinegar in consequence of a little increase of heat. On this account it is that we prefer brewing in sprint; or autumn — that we keep our fermented drinks in cel- lars — and carefully rej>ulate the temperature iiy the thermometer. N«tw the beer and ci- der of En;;laiid are for stronger than the fer- mented wines of hot countries could be. How difficult, then, must it have been, in very warm climates, to have prevented the acetous fmnentation of liquors that con- tained in them so small a portion of alcohol; and e.'pecially so, seeing they had no pure spirit to add to them, nor but little of our scientitic knowledge or arts, to direct them in regulating the heat, or in constructing suitable repositories for these liquors. None of i;en almost or entirely destitute of spirit; and if they become sour, they were equally weait, becau.se the acetous fer- mentatiiiii does not produce alcoliol. In some vinegar, before it is di.^till•■d, there may be one per (!eiit. of ^pirit, lint this arises from the imperfect pr')cess of the transition of the liquor into an acid. In such cases the whole of the alcohol has not been oxygenized. Thu» the sweetness of the fruits and of the juices, together with the high temperature of the climate, must have been fatal to the existeacv of strong alcoholic wioea. JV/iiJ I )■ i: . .'^ m Id ANClKNT WINKS. ! I Dr. Shnw'a teNtimonx reiippctliiK Pnlin wine — the Mtknr, or HtroriK drink of Scrip- ture— contninii an hi8tori<%-il fact which ox- Bctly ncuorda wilh tlm obNcrvntionN ofNnience. " Thin liquor," Hayit he, •' whi("h has a inor« luNciou!! aweetncHN than hoiipy, \n of thH con- ■idtence «»' a thin sirH|», but quickly ftrows tart and ropy. ' His furtlicr oltservutlon, that a Hpirit called " nraky," could lit* dis- till«d from it, In in exact nccordan(!fi with the fact that a ttniall portion of wpirit can Im> olt- tained from vincsar l»y diKtIllation ; but n«* distillinit wan unknown in ancient day^, tlii!* poiiHHi was not obtained from tart or ropy wines ; and thereforn it liecame an important object in those climates to pruvent fermenta- tion. If their wines fermented they were for the most pari lost; for. if tart and ropy, they were unpalatable, and as they knew not how to obtain spirit from ttiem by distillation, the juice of the grape was as completely spoiled 08 our beer or cider would lie, if manufactured in n hot summer and kept in very warm rooms. 3. We have seen that distillation was not practised until the 9th century, nor did ardent spirit come into general use until the latter part of the Kith, consequently there was, previous to this period, no alcohol to mix with wines, and (jive them a potency which they did not naturally possess. In modern times you may make a sweet wInn as strong as you please by the addition of brandy, as you may make frin and water as sweet as you please by the addition of su}|;ar ; but before the discovery of spirits of wine, all fermented liquors must have contained in them only as much alcohol as there was of the sui;ar con- verted into that poison, and therefore, if the wines were sweet, the vinous fermentation, if It had taken place at all, must have been very imperfect; and if thoy were sour, their acidity proved that the acetous fermentaticm had neutralized the vinous, which had pre- viously taken place. In each instance these artiiicial beverages must have been far from potent, and in most cases were entirely des- titute of alcohol. These sbitements, which are borne out by the most credible scisntific authorities and experiments, may account for the ancient mode of manufacturing wine. In Greece, Rome, and Palestine it was customary to boil down their wines into a kind of sirup. Mr. Buckingham tells us th.it the " wines in Helbon" and " wine of Lebanon" mentioned In Scripture, and which exist in the Ilnly Land at this very day. are boiled wines, and consequently are thick, sweet, and siriipy. Cd in the form r part remains therefore, you acid, for tliat ise the alcohol for that will [uor boils ; and ;r, fur that w ill and the small lot be a Kirup, orougbly dried, iUgar, and pro- or charcoal, or t^ubstaiice. I grape before it r have obtained uiiful aromatic d with water, . The thick- pended on the length of timit that It boiled or the evsporatlon that had taken place. Hut I never rould con- dens* a fermented wine. In some coites, the liquor has become so sour as to defy my power to sweeten it ; but, in every case, the spirit has Arat escaped, then tlie water or steam, and the reniduiim from n pint of wine has been very small indeed, and -'ery unlike a sirup. Let any wine drinker attempt to initpissatft his port, sherry, or claret, and he will labor in vain. You cannot, by builing, thicken or produce a sirup from any in«Miern fermented wines, and hence you have a proof equal to any demonstration of Euclid, that if the ancient wines were thick and sweet, they were not fermented. And as they Vr-eriJ Ignorant of di>>tillation, they had no pure alcohol to put into their wines; if, therefore, their think, sweet wines were Inebriating, they were made so by drugs, but were not stupefying from spirit obtained by fermenta- tion, and consequently altogether unlike our modern intoxicating beverages. 4. We know that at the heat of 1 70 degrees, and therefore long before boiling, alcohol be- gins to depart : if, then, the wines had under- gone the vinous fermentation, still all the alcohol would have been boiled out of thum in the process of decoction. Hence science allows us to conclude that, in hot countries, boiled wines could not contain alcohol. I have said in "hot countries," because in those climates the fruits in their natural state are too sweet for perfect vinous fermentation; but in colder countries, in whose fruits there may be a deficiency of sugar and an excess of water, boiling the Juice of the grape may evaporate the redundant water, and leave the juice sufficiently saccharine for the production of alcohol. But the effect of decoction which, to a certain extent, would be favorable to fermentation In a cold climate, would be fatal to It in such warm countries as Palestine, Syria, Egypt, or even Greece, in which the Juice, previous to boiling, would contain an excess of saccharine matter. But while these observations and argu- ments demonstrate that the wines of Palestine were not alcoholic, or were for the most part destitute of the spirits of wine, it is not intend- ed to affirm that they were all destitute of an intoxicating principle. We have already shown that other substances, besides alcohol, possess inebriating and stupefying or madden- ing properties. In the Sacred Volume we have several allusions to such medicinal or deleterious drugs. In P^alm Ix. 3, we read of the " wine of astonishment or giddiness." In Psalm Ixxv. 8, it is said that the wine in the cup of Jehovah was "red and full of mixture." Ixaiah, in chapter 11. 17, 22, men- tions the "cup of trembling or giddiness." Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk, speak of the same drugged liquor. In Proverbs xxiii. 30, we read of those who go to " seek mixed wine." The wine mentioned, Prov. xxxi. 4—7, was a soporific drink ; kings and prin- r «s wera prohibited from touching It, lest thay should " forget the law," while it was to \m given to those that were of a heavy heart, that they ini;;ht " drink and remember their mlnery no more." The wine mixed with myrrh, gall, or a iipecies of laudanum, offered to our Lord, was intended to produ(!e stupn* faction, and therefore he would not drink. Hence we learn that the strong wines of the ancients were mixed or drugi{e«l to render them inebriating, and tothese mixtures, rather than to alcohol, thoy owed their intoxicating powers. We learn from Homer, Columella, Pliny, and others, that the ingredients used were very various, and sometime* very potent. Homer is allowed by all to have been very correct in his description of the countries, manners, and customs of the Greeks. He lived nearly one thousand years before Christ/ and seeing the customs of those ages were almost permanent, his descriptions extend back to a very remote antiquity. Among other things this poet very frequently men- tions the very potent drugs that were mixed with wines, In the Odyss. lib. Iv. 220, he tella us that Il'len prepared for Telemachus and his companions a beverage, whi(;h was highly stupefactivH and soothing to the mind. To produce these qualities, he says, thatshe threw into the " wine delirious drugs, which were— . "St^vtrdtc T axoKov Tf, kukuv tmXtiOov aTrapruir, grief-assuaging, rage-allaying, and the obli- vious antld(.>te for every description of mis* fortune." He adds, that the person " who drunk the bowl that she had mingled, from morn to eve, would not shed a single tear, although hi» father and mother utterly per- ished, or he saw his brother, or his own dar- ling son, slain before his eyes." He further tells us, that " Helen had acquired the know- ledge of these poisonous drugs from Egypt." The following translation of this passage by Pope, though free, is fully borne out by the original :— . " Meanwhile, with genial joy, to warm the soul. Bright Helen mixed a inirth-ii)rful iiigredlKiiU, vuch M ipicpfl, myrrh, mniidra^orn, opiatca, nnd othrr atrong drnga. Such were the exhiln- rntlrig or rathur atupffylni; ln|i(rt>dleiita which Helen mixi*d In the bowl together with the wine for ht*r gue«tR, oppreaaHil with grief, tn miae their spirita, the compohilion of which •he had lenrned in Egypt. Such wita the ■piced wine and Juice uf the pumegranntca mentioned Cant. vili. 2. Thus the druiii-n who drank It iMcame awini ' In iie Iliad, the ./ine that Hector's moth' f ndviaed him to drink, but which tlie hero refused, wi, sweet aa honey, and yet produced " lethargy and forgetful- neas ;" a plain proof that It was not fermented, but druggerl. Every cliemiat knotva that the reasoning here employed it in exact ucror- dnnce with the facta of modern science. Tliera can be no doubt that the wines drunk by Noah nnd Lot were drugged, aa we ahail hereafter allow. Tlie following recipe for dnigging sapn and defrutum, from the 20tli chapter of the 12th Book of Columella, " De Ke Ruatlca," will give the reader an idea of the ancient custom of manufacturing wine. After having given directions to boil ninety amphorna of Must, or nliout 720 gallona, down to the third part, or to thirty amphorns, he says, *• Tu-n demum medicamina adjicito, quie aunt aut Pquida, aut reNlnosn, id eat picU liquidie nemeturc», cum earn diligenter ante aqua mariiin decoota perliieria, de(!em sextarioa, Item resin» tere- blnthaB seaquiilliram. Hwi! cum adjiciea, plum- beum peragitaltis, ne aduraiitur, cum deiiido ad tertiaa subsederit coctura, subtrahe ignem, et plumbeum subinde agitalils, ut defrutum, et medicamina coeant, delude cum videbltur mediocritur calere defrutum, reliqua aromata contusa et (Tebrata paulatim in!f adding various :f he will consult iny, and others, ts more common t medicaments to Buckingham, in 168," In the Athe- 19 added to their itida, sea water, issia, gums, pep- [ormwood, milk, imonda." TheM infredUnU he ■ppenn to bave quoted ttom AthenaMUs, PluUrch, &o. Pliny In the Itith chapter of Hook XIV, uy», "That there were wines made from millet, dutea, and the loluM-tree; from <)»(», beanii, peam, all »orti» of iipitleM, pomeKranateit, rurnel*, niedlurH.norb-anplei.niulbfrrleH, pine- apple*, the leaven, berries, and twl^s of myr- tles; from rue, nxparatfus, savory, or>(iuiy, BUtberwood, parhlt-y seed, wild mint, turnips, pennyroyal, wild thyme, horebound, mjuIIN, flowers and leaves of roses, Gallic and wild imrd. Spiced and aromatic wines, made from a composition of spices, from myrrh, Celtic Hard, and bitumen. Columus, bulrush, 8y- ilac nard, baltiam, Jerusalem or lady's rose, rassia, ciiiiiumon, palm, ttum-benjnmln, pep. per and honey, pom water, ilecompane. citron, walwort, wormwood, hyssop, hellebore, scnm- mony, wild sage, gentian, wild fi)t. dittany, wild carrot, heal-all. garden Wag, riea bune, thyme, mandrake, Ithacomel, pitch, cedar, cypress, laurel, pine, juniper, turpentine, mas- tic, olivella, ground pine, and gniund oak," were all added, in ditferent proportions, to the Juice of the grape, for the purpose of ren- dering It medicinal, stupefying, or aromatic. Numerous as are the ingredients just men- tioned, 1 believe that they might be double from the writings of Pliny ulone. Now we know that the Romans biirrowed most of their srU from the Greeks, and the Greeks from Asia Minor, Tyre, Palestine, and Egypt, so that there is reason to believe that none of these modes of manufacturing or drugging wine were inventions of the age in which Pliny, or Cato, or other writers on this sub- ject, lived. These practices had probobly been handed down from father to son, from the days of the deluge. Indeed the Greek and Roman writers on these suljects often refer to the ancient or foreign authorities whence they derived theirknowledge and information, aiargo, the Carthaginian, is a great favorite with them all. From what has been said, the reoder may be prepared for the conclusion, that the wines of the ancients were very different from ours, and that the taste and appetite of the tipplers of antiquity were far from being similar to the drinking mania of the moderns ; and these opinions, which he may have formed, will be fully borne out by the testimony of an- cient writers. The wines of the Greeks and Romans not only differed from ours, but also from each other. Pliny, Lib. xiv, cop. 22, says, thot human ingenuity had produced "one hundred and ninety-five different kinds of wine, and that if the species of these genera were esti- mated, they would amount to almost double that number." Virgil, after having enume- rated various descriptions of wine, cuts short the subject by saying, " Sed neque quam multie species, nee nomina quie tint , . Est Dumerut ; neque eniin numero comprehendere refert. Ruem qui toire v«llt. I.IWrl T»l1t ■iquorii Idem U.nr« iiiiniii miiltir jouliyro tiiihrntur sr«u« : Aut ulii nsriKllH vi„l.-Mtlnr lixlillt Kiiru* nsriif Nu«i«i quut loali viiiiint »d Uttoru tluetiit." Oeor., lib. 11. Here we are told that It was ImposslbU to number the various species of wine tlien In use, and that to attempt It woulil be as hopeless a task as to endeavor to tell the sands of the Lyblan coast, which the west wind agitates, or the waves of the Ionian sea, which are rolled to the shore; and after making every allowance for the licence to exaggerate which we grant the port, we must still cm- dude that the various kinds of wines of his day were described aiitl ct>niputed with diflfi- culty. The temperature of the country in which the grape was ripened ; the nature of the vine w hlch was planted ; tiie soil in which it grew, whether marshy, sandy or dry ; the awpect of the heaven towards which it looked j Its position, whether on a hill, in a dale, or among other trees ; the supports to which it was trained, whether a pole, a tree, a woll, or u rock ; the mode also of manufacturing the wine, and which must have voried in different farms and countries ; the drugs, •• medicamenU," or condiments with which It wos mixed ; and the vessi-ls and place in which it was kept ;— must all have given an Incalculable variety to the taste, character, and potency of the liquor. The reader of Coto, Columella, Pliny, and others, will find that the modes of maimfacturing and prescrv- ing w ine were exceedingly varied ; and should he wish to have such wines as were drunk In the time of our Lord, he has only to adopt the recipes which are still left in plentiful abundance in their writings. And we cer- tainly think thot it is the bounden duty of those who tell us that the Scriptures recom- mend wine, to produce some of the wines of Scripture. If St. Poul commends wine, it behoves us to inquire which of all the hun- dreds of varieties that then existed, was tht drink of which the holy opostle opproved. The- wines of that day and of the present, have nothing in common with each other except the name : and to soy thot because the npo>tle recommended to a sick friend one of the medicinal wines of that period, therefore, he intended to intimate that all persons, whether healthy or sickly, should drink all the trash which human caprice, cupidity, or passion might denominate " wine,"or "strong drink," is not only to reason without argu^ ment or thought, but also to intimate that the great apostle of the Gentiles recommended the most deadly drinks. To say that be recommended all the wines of that age, is to charge him with approving of liquors deeply impregnated with hellebore, opium, ossafwtl- da, and other nauseous and poisonous drugs ; and if he did not, and as a follower of Christ could not, bestow l^s praise or approbatioo upon all; then what did he commend? We have here not only to do with the medical odvlce, but aho \vith the medicine. Tha I I*; i '11 ml B ,'i I !* ipi! I i io ANCIENT WINES. advice, to take a "Itttle medicine," is not eiiougii, but we want tlie prescription also ; or else, when the draughts are so numerous and at the same time no variouit in their qua- lities, our ignorance may put its hand upon the wrong phial, and swallow hemlock and death as our panacea. The generality of persons allow themselves to be misled by the word ** wine," taking it for granted that that term has always had the •ame signification, and always referred to the same description of intoxicating liquor. But nothing can be more fallacious than this sort of reasoning. We have seen from the wines mentioned by Pliny and Virgil, that the drinks which bore that designation were as diflPerent to each other as it is possible for two beverages to be, and yet all were called "wines:" and it is only for the reader to consult Horace, Cato, Columella, Plutarch, Athceneus, or the Word of God, to ptrceive the delusion which those labor under who imagine that the word " wine" always means a drink resembling modern port, sherry, or champagne. Some of the ancient wines were sweet and some were bitter ; some were fer- me.ited, and some were not ; some were thick as sirup, and some were more liquid ; some were drugged, and some were the pure must or juice of the grape ; some were medicinal, and some were highly poisonous ; and yet all were denominated " wi.ies." Pliuy, Columella, Cato, &c.,give us recipes for making almost every variety of wine then in use ; such as wine from horehound, wine from wormwood, hyssop, suthernwood, and myrtles, &c. &c. Myrtle wine appears to have been a great favorite. Wine from squills also was much recommended. Hellebore wine, in spite of its poisonous nature, was highly esteemedbypoets, orators, and others. " Dan- da est ellehoii multo maxima pars,"&c., says Horace. Oxymel and hydromcl, both of which were compositions of must and honey, were in repute. Mustum Lixivum must have been a luscious drink ; the following is a recipe for making it: — "Take from your lake mustum lixivum, that is, the juice which drops into the lake before the grape has been trodden ; the fruit from which it is made should be gathered on a dry day from a vine trained to other trees (arbustivo gcnere). Throw into four gallons of this must ten pounds of the best honey, H>id after it has been well mixed pour it into a stone jar, and immediately plaster the vessel with gypsum, and order it to be placed in the store-room. After thirty-one days it will be necessary to open the jar, to strain the must and pour it Into another vessel, closed hermetically, and tiien place it in an oven " Col., lib, 12, cap. 41. Tills compound <>f honey and the juice of the grape was culh d " lixivum vinum" and yet could not be a termented drink. It is said by Gessenius t^at ti.e honey sent by Jacob BM a present to Joseph was " wine boiled down to tJiB consistency of sirup," The Hebrew word rendered honey, is wai, debash, or diba. The Arabs at this day apply the word Dipse, to the juice or honey of the palm ; to which also they give the name saccharon, a term of the same origin as the shakar, "strong or sweet drink" of Scripture, and the English word sugar. It is probable that the present of Jacob very much resembled the mustum lixivum mentioned above. The Latin lexi- cons agree in calling this liquor vinum or wine. The following mode for making "sweet wine" will afford the reader an idea of the ancient way of preserving the juice of the grape from fermentation. " De vino duici fa- cierido." Gatiier the grapes, and expose them for three days to the sun ; on the fourth, at n.H-day, tread them; take the mustum lixi- vum, that is the juice which flows into the lake before you use the press, and whea it has settled add one ounce of pounded iris, strain the wine from its foeces and pour it into a vessel. This wine will be sweet, firm, or durable, and healthful to the body." Col., lib. 12, cap. 27. Again, from the same author and book, cap. 29 : " Quemdamodum tnustum semper dulce tanquam recens peimaneat." " That your must may always be as sweet as when it is n^ w, thus proceed : — Before you apply the press to the fruit, take the newest must from the lake, put it into a new amphora, bung it up, and cover it very carefully with pitch, lest any water should enter ; then im- merse it in a cistern or pond of pure cold water, and allow no part of the amphora to remain above the surface. After forty days take it out and it will remain sweet for a year." Every one must see that the last-mentioned wine could not be a fermented liquor ; for, in the first place, the air, which Chaptal says is essential to the vinous fermentation of the grape-juice, was excluded ; and, in the second place, it was put into cold water to keep it below the degree of heat at which fermenta- tion begins; and, thirdly, it was thus pre- served as " sweet and fretsh" as when it was taken from the lake, and therefore the sugar of the must was not converted into alcohol. But, to place this matter beyond the shadow of a doubt, we have the following important testimonies. Pliny, lib. 14, cap 9, speaking of sweet wines, an ong many others, mentions one which was called " aigleuces," a term which means " always sweet," and adds, " Id evenit cura," " That wine is produced by care." He says that, in making it, " mergunt eam protinus in aqua cados donee bruma transeat et consuetudo fiat algendi ;" " they plunge the casks, immediately after they are filled from the lake, into water, until winter has passed away, and the wine has acquired the habit of being cold." Here the reader will observe how nearly the mode recommended by Columella agrees with the custom stated riw«i j ( /./ SWEET WINES. 61 ebtwh, or dlba. e word Dipae, Im; to which ron, a term of r, ••strong or 1 the English at the present d the mustum ne Latin lexi- uor vinum or aking •'sweet an idea of the e juice of the >e vino dulci fa- id expose them the fourth, at B mustum lixU flows into the I, and when it ' pounded iris, !s and pour it be sweet, firm, 1 body." Col., hor and book, nustum semper teat." *' That sweet as when fore you apply le newest must new amphora, carefully with inter ; then im- d of pure cold he amphora to fter forty days tin sweet for a last several proofs that there was a beverage in common use, made from the fruit of the grape, but which was not inebriating. For, 1. Ro- man females were allowed to drink it, and yet they were not allowed intoxicating liquors. 2. It was a sweet wine, and there- fore the sugar had not been converted into alcohol. 3. It was drunk to quench thirst ; but fermented and stupefying wines, then as well as now, created rather than repelled thirst. 4. It resembled the wine of Crete, which is known to have beeen a sweet wine. This passage also shows that, in those days, intoxicating drinks were not used as a bev- erage for allaying thirst. The Greeks and Romans in thost3 ages had more philoso- phy than to drink liquid tire, for the purpose of freeing themselves from thirst ; they might occasionally drink stupefying draughts, but they did this for their own caprice or plea- sure, not to satisfy the wants of nature. The " Pascuin vinum," to which Polybius here alludes, was made from the passa uva, the dried grape or raisins. Both Pliny and Columella have left recipes for making it. I have unfermented wine in my possession which is now sixteen months old, which I have made according to the recipe of Colu- mella, a recipe written about the time our Lord lived in Judea. It may be thought that if these wines were sweet and sirupy, they were very unfit to quench thirst ; but it must be remembered that in those days it was very discreditable to drink undiluted wine,or even to take half wine and half water. Homer speaks of t - Ma- ronean wine, as diluted with twenty parts wa- ter. Pliny says that, in his time, when men were greater tipplers, it was mixed with eight parts ; •' one part wine, and five parts water was the most common and favorite mixture."* In these drinks, the wines could merely have given a little of their taste to the water. How much such wine must have differed from modern port or sherry 1 they were in- spissated by boiling, and when diluted in wa- ter, formed a pleasant beverage. Still the taste of the people of that age must have dif- fered greatly from that of our own day ; for what modern wine-hibber would think of di- luting even the strongest port with five parts water ? Ti<8 fact stated by Polybius, that Roman women were prohibited from inebriating wine, is fully borne out by the testimony of Pliny ; the latter writer says, •• in the days of Romulus a Roman slew his wife with a club for drinking wine, and was absolved from the charge of murder ;" and afterwards that " a Roman matron, for opening the drawers in which the keys of the wine store were, was starved to death by her own family." These punishments were severe, but the pru- dent Romans seemed to foresee the scourge that wine-bibbing mothers or females would become to their country : and rather than let their females degrade the.iiselves and their offspring by drinking, doomed them to death, deeming the latter the lighter of the two evils. We have already seen the curse that drunken women can inflict upon the country ; and were we faithfully to enumerate all the fatal consequences of what is called a moderate use of wine and strong drink, it could be demon- strated that if intoxication hath slain its thou- sands, the moderation of Christian females hath slain its ten thousands. It may seem strange to our vitiated taste, that any other people should ever have existed that preferred wines destitute of spirit or strength ; and yet we find that this was the case, both in Greece and Rome, and with the generality of p^t'sons in other ancient nations All writers seem to agree that the Greek wines were lusciously sweet. Mr. Bucking'* ham says that " the wine of Cyprus is, at this day, sweet and as thi' k as oil, and in conse-. quence of this will keep very well in the shade." The Chiarn wine was highly esteemed, but was a sweet wine ; for Horace speaks of mixing it with Falernian, to sweeten the bitterness of the latter. Lesbian was aUo very sweet, and is said to have been destitute of any intoxicating power. " Hie innncentis pocula Lesbii UiireR aub umbra ; nee Semeliiis Ciiin Mnrte uoufiindet Thyoneus Fnelia." • See notes on Boyd's Boiall edition of Potter's Greek Antiquaries ; aUo " Ancient Wines" in the Athenaeum. 't ' t. i 82 ANCIENT WINES. In another ode, Horace tellsi hia friend Macsenas that be might drink " a hundred glassea" of this " Innocent Lesbian," without any danger to his head or senses. In the Delphin edition of Horace we are told that *' Lesbian wine could injure no one ; that, as it would neither affect the head nor inflame the passions, there was no fear that those who Jrank it would become quarrelsome." It is added, that "there is no wine sweeter to drink than Lesbian ; that it was like nectar, and more resembled ambrosia than wine; that it was perfectly harmless, and would not produce intoxication." We might dwell upon the wines of Corey ra, Crete, Cnidos, Rhodes; upon the Thasian, Clazomenian, Phaanian, Mendean, &c., all of which are mentioned by ancient writers as deliciously sweet. The Corinthian seems to have been a wine of a different character ; for Alexis, in Athenseus, says that it " was actual torture to drink it." The Pramnian is spoken of by Aristophanes as abominably harsh ; hence we may see why most of these beverages were diluted to so great an extent with water; they were of themselvesso sweet, or so bitter by drugs, that it would have been difficult to drink them without dilution. All these wines seem to have been boiled, and concentrated into a sirup, or embittered by drugs ; it is therefore cerbiin that they con- tained little or no alcohol. The Roman wines also were very different from ours ; the celebrated " wines of the Opimian vintage were thick, bitter, viscid, sirups of little value, except for the renown attached to their great age." Pliny says, that they were "as thick as honey." This wine is said by some to have been kept until it was a hundred and Hfty years old. Faler- nian wine appears to have been in high repute : it was called by the poet " vinum amarum," ' ■ bitter wine."* Pliny says that " Falernian was the only wine of his day from which a flame could be kindled ; " solo vinorum flam- ma accenditur,"f a striking proof that the other Roman wines were not charged with alcohol. Elder wine, in our day, is among the weakest of home-made wines, and yet how easy h is to set it on fire ; our stronger British and foreign wines will burn most freely ; but the only wine among the Romans that would burn was the Falernian ; yet they had, according to Pliny, three hundred and ninety different species of wine, or, according to Virgil, wines without number. Here then we have the most remarkable evidence that the Latin wines were not alcoholic, or at least contained so little spirit, that only one out of three hundred and ninety would emit a flame; this wine also was "bitter," and, according to Horace, was mixed with the sweet wine of Chios, to render it palatable, but which at the same time, lessened its potency. Allmnian wine, Pliny says, was *Se« Juvenal. f Lib. 14, cup. 4. priedulces* "very awett or luscious," and therefore must have been weak in proportion, unless mixed with intoxicating drugs; yet to this very wine the third rankf was assigned among the Latin wines. The same author tells us that there was a Spanish wine of bis day called " inerticulam," justius sobriam, "viribus innoxiam, siquidem temulentiam sola non facit;"jl "a wine which would not intoxicate," "iners," without spirit, more properly termed " sober wine," " harmless," and which of itself would not inebriate. " Columella, lib. 3. cap. 2, says that the Greeks called it Amethyston," from " a, not," and " niBvffiQ, intoxication," " a wine which would not intoxicate ;" he also adds that it was "a good wine," " harmless," and called " iners," because it would not affect the nerves, but at the same time it was not deficient in flavor. The following is Cato's recipe for making " vinum familise," or " family wine, which might be used through th« winter." " Put eighty gallons of must into a vessel, and six- teen gallons of sharp vinegar ; pour into the vessel at the same time sixteen gallons of sapa (wine boiled down to one-third), and four hundred gallons of pure water ; let these be well mixed lor five days successively ; to these ingredients add eight gallons of old sea-water ; put the cover on the vessel, and close it up firmly for ten days. This wine will keep until the solstice of the following year, and if any of it remain after that period it will be very Bold and very beautiful. "§ Every reader who has the least knowledge of fermentation must be aware that this could not be a strong alcoholic wine. The quantity of water added to the must, or unfermented juice of the grape, actually amounted to five times more than the latter ; and, if we add to this the vinegar and the " sea- water, we must perceive that from such materials a potent intoxicating drink never could have been produced ; yet this was a family drink." Pliny and Yarro mention a wine called " murrina," " a wine not mixed with myrrh, but a very sweet aromatic drink, much ap> prcved of by Roman ladies, and conceded to them because it would not inebriate." " Dul- cis nee inebriaiis," are the words of Yarro. Pliny particularly notices that it was called "wine,"|| and yet it would not intoxicate; a plain proof that they had wines which wer^ not poisoned with alcohol. As an additional proof that the taste of the ancients very greatly differed from our modern appetite for strong drinks, we are told, on the best authority, that, in former times, they adopted means to deprive their wines of all strength or spirit. It seems that these philosophical men considered that drunken- ness, by robbing them of their reason and senses, deprived them both of the pleasures of drinking and of social intercourse ; and •Lib. 14. oHp. 4 tl'J. $ Cato de re ruatica. t lb. Ub. 14, cap. 5. Pliny, Ub. 11, cap. 13. UVFERMENTED THE BEST. 8S scloui," and a proportion, drugs; yet was assigned same author 1 wine of bis ius sobriam, temulentiam ;h would not spirit, more •' harmless," ot inebriate, at the Greeks a, not," and wine which adds that it ;," and called ict the nerves, ; deficient in e for making wine, which ter." " Put ssel, and tsix- )our into the n gallons of e-third), and > water ; let successively ; allons 01 old e vessel, and This wine the following er that period beautiful."§ it knowledge hat this could The quantity unfirmented imountbd to and, if we *' sea- water, materials a could have mily drink." wine called with myrrh, k, mucli ap> conceded to ate." "Dul- Is of Varro. it was called intoxicate; which werd e taste of the our modern are told, on rnaer times, their wines ns that these at ilrunken- rcason and he pleasures course ; and ib, 14, CHp. ?, W, rap. 13. therefore, that they might enjoy the gust of their wine and the feast of reason at the same time, they endeavoured by various means to abstract from their liquors either the spirit that had been produced, or the material that would have produced it. The following quo- tations on this subject will be conclusive. " Ut plus Capiamus sacco franguntur vir- es ; et alia irritamenta excogitantur ; ac bi- bendi causa etiam venena conficiuntur. Aliis cicutam praesumentibua, aut bibere mors co- gat ; aliis pumicis farinam ; et quw referendo pudet docere."* *' That we may be able to drink a greater quantity of wine, we break or deprive it of all its strength or spirit, by the filter, and various incentives to thirst are invented ; and even poisons are chewed for the sake of drinking. Some take hemlock before they go to their cups, or death (a deadly poison) may compel them to drink ; others swallow powdered pumice-stone, and such things as we bhish to mention." In the same, chapter, whence these words are quoted, he enumerates varinus arts which were resorted to for the purpose of enablini; wine-bibbers to drink an immense quantity of liquor. Still it is evident, from all that he says, that intox- ication was not the end fit which tipplers aimed by their large potations. What they were anxious to perform was to drink gallon after gnllim without lieing drunk ; and therefore, instead of procuring strong wines, the wine- merchants had to use various arts to break or destroy the strength of these beverages. Both Greek and Hebrew lexicographers are agreed that the verb nDtf shacar, in Hebrew, and ^iQiuo in Greek, in their primary signi- fication, mean "to be full," " s.itisfied," or " saturated," rather than to be drunk; and these interpretations exactly accord with the drinking habits of former ages ; a drunkart^ in those peri'^ds did not generally mean a man whose reason was lost by drinking, but one who drenched himself with liquor. But we have other quotations to establish this fact. " Utilissimum vinum omnibus sacco viri- bus fractis.."f The most useful wine is that which has all its strength broken or destroyed by the filter. The same author says, " inve- t<>rari vina saccisque castrari," and again, " Minus infestat nervos quod vetustate dul- cescit." "Winei which become sweet by age are less injurious to the nerves." " Wines were rendered old, and deprived of all their vigor, by filtering." In order that they might be sweetened by age, they placed them in ovens or other warm places ; by which means they concentrated the su!(ar to a greater extent, and consequently increased the sweetness of the wine. There is reason to believe that wines which became sweet by age, were such as had not previously fer- mented. Plutarch, in his Sympos, says, " Wine is rendered old or feeble in strength when it is frequently filtered ; this percolation makes it more pleasant to the palate ; the •Pliny, lib. 14, cap. 88. f lb. lib. 23, cap I. strength of the wine is thus taken away without any injury to its pleasing flavor. The strength or spirit being thus withdrawn or excluded, the wine neither inflames the head nor infests the mind and the passions, but is much more pleasant to drink. Doubt- less defoeeation takes away the spirit of po- tency that torments the head of the drinker ; and, this being removed, the wine is reduced to a state both mild, salubrious, and whole- some." These words, it should be remem- bered, are those of a writer on conviviality: and who, moat prolmbly, often mixed with the drinkers of his day, and yet he affirms that wines destitute of any strength or spirit were most esteemed ; were indeed most valued, because they would not make a man drunk, or a fool. It seems that the filtering, mentioned in the passages quoted abctve, was generally performed before the wine was allowed to ferment. Chemistry informs us that gluten is as essential to fermentation as sugar ; henct! we always use yenst, whi(!h is gluten, in fermenting malt liquor; in the juice of the grape, or apples, when not too sweet, gluten exists in a natural slate. Hut gluten is a most insoluble body, and therefore the frequent filtering of tiie must would deprive it of this principle so essential to fermentation. On the words of Horace, " Liques vina." Car., lib. I, ode 11, the Delphin notes con- tain the following explanation : — " Be careful to prepare for yourself wine percolated and defalcated by the filter, and thus rendered sweet and more in accordance to nature and a female taste. Certainly the ancients strained and defnecated their must through the filter repeatedly before they could have fermented ; ami by this process, taking away the foeces that nourish and increase the strength of the wine, they rendered them more liquid, weaker, lighter, and sweeter, and more ple.isant to drink." Theophrastus called such wine as bad been "castratum," deprived of all its strength, " iiOikov," "moral wine." Indeed all these ancient writers, when speaking of the removal of tha "vim, vi, vires," — the potency, or fermen- table power, of tlieir wine — use thb word* "eunuchum,"" castratum," "effasmiaatum," "fructum," &c.', and therefore show how completely they wished to deprive these liquors of everything that could intoxicate. In confirmatiim of what has already been said, I think it important to add, in this place, a few quotations from Dr. Ure's Dictionary of the Arts, &c., and from which the reader will perceive the effect wliit'h either boiling or filtering the juice of the grape would have in preventing fermentation. Dr. Ure ob- serves, " The circumstances which promote and are necessary to the vinous fermentation are the following : — 1. The pressure of a proper quantity of ac- tive yeast, and its proper distribution through the worts. If in the course of fermentation •J hi 84 ANCIENT WINES. m the yeast Bubsides to the bottom : the intes- tine motions cease entireiy, but they may be excited anew by stirring up the ingredients, or " rousing the tun" as the brewers say. *• 2. A certain degree of warmth which should not be less than 51 deg. Fahrenheit, nor more than 86 ; the temperature from 68 to 77 being the most propitious for the com- mencement and progress of fermentation. When other circumstances arc the same, the rapidity of the fermentation is proportional to the temperature within certain limits, so that, by lowerin;; it, the auti(m may be mo- derated at pleasure. " 3. The ferment.ition proceeds the better and the more equally the greater the mass of fermenting liquor, probably on account of the iiniformly high temperature, as well as the uniform distribution of the active partiides of the yeast, by the greater energy of the in- testine movements. " 4. The saccharine solution must be suf- ficiently diluted with water ; when too much concentrated, it will not ferment ; hence very sweet musts furnish wines containing very much undecomposed sugar. For a complete fermeiitive action, one part sugar should be 'dissolved in ten parts water." He further remarks, respecting the circum- Htances that may modify or entirely prevent fermentation, — " Fermentation may be tempered or stop- ped — " 1. By those means whi(!h render the yeast inoperative, particularly by the oils that contain sulphur, as oil of mustard ; as also by the sulphurous and sulphuric acids. The operation of sulphurous acid in obstruc- ting the fermentation of must consists partly, no doubt, in its absorbing oxygen, whereby the elimination of the yeasty particles is pre- vented. The sulphurous acid, moreover, acts more powerfully upon fermenting liquors that contain tartar, as grape-juice, than sulphuric acid. This acid decomposes the tartaric salts ; combining with their bases, sets the vegetable acids free, which does not Interfere with the fermentation, but the sulphurous acid operates directly upon the yeast." " 2. By the separation of the yeast, either by the filter or by subsidence. " 3, By lowering the temperature to 45 deg. Fahrenheit. If the fermenting mass be- come clear at this temperature, and be drawn off from the subsided yeast, it will not fer- ment again, th.ugh it should be heated to the proper pitch." — See Dr. Ure's Dictiona- ry, article, " Fermentation." From these laws of fermentation, we per- ceive the correctness of the observations of Pliny, and others, which are given above. •' The juice was frequently filtered before it could have fermented." The words of Pliny also are very expressive. He says that, "Om- nibus sacoo veribus fractis," " all the power of the wine was broken by the filter." His other words are, " Saeco Afragsmus vires ;" " et saccis castrari." " The vires, literally, tViR strength ), the fermentive powers of the juice, are broken by the filter ;" '• the wines are castrated by filters." It is very striking that ancient practice and observation should, in this particular, so exactly accord with mo> dern experiment and science, and that both history and chemistry should so entirely agree in proving, that the popular wines of antiquity were not fermented. In this particular, the taste of the drunkard, the opinion of the phy- sician, and the declaration of Scripture, ex- actly harmonized. The drunkard, or hard drinker, sought a wine of which be might qnaflf large quantities without losing his sen- ses or his reason, and therefore demanded a beverage whose fermentive powers had been broken by the filter. The physician declared that the " most useful wine, or the best wine, was that which had all its strength broken by the filter." And God, in bis promises to Israel, announces that at the gospel feast there shall be " wines well refined," or rather *• well filtered." On scarcely any other subject could evidence, collected from such independent and unconnected witnesses, be adduced. The drunkard, the medical physiologist, and the oracles of God, combine to prove that the most pnpular beverages of old were not fer- mented or alcoholic, and therefore altogether different from modern port or sherry. And what renders this argument the more conclu- sive is, that the chemical experiments of our own day demonstrate the scientific character of the means employed in the days of Pliny and of Isaiah to render wines perfectly inno- cuous. In the facts given above, respecting fer- mentation, it is worthy of remark, that Dr. Ure affirms that, if «' the sugar in the juice be concentrated," fermentation will not take place; now, both by placing their wines in fumaria or ovens, and by boiling them down, the wine-manufiictnrers of former days con- centrated the saccharine matter of grape-juice, and rendered it unfermentable. By filtering, they abstracted the yeast ; by ovens or boiling they concentrated the sugar, and therefore rendered fermentation absolutely impossible. Some further facts shall now oe given to illustrate these observations. We often read that, in former times, it was customary to give their wines a prema- ture age. To accomplish this they useil ovens and " fumaria ;" ihe latter was a room filled with smoke. Many highly este«;med those wiii^s wMch hi>.d a smoky taste, so that, while the heat of the fnmarium, by concen- trating the sugar, sweetened the wine, the smoke that it contained was supposed to ■:;.- prove their flavor. If these wines bsid fer- mented, the heat of the fumaria, or ov?ns, would have caused all the alcohol to escape, and thus the means adopted to increase the age of their wines decreased their strength and rendered them harmless A very small ORIGIN OF THB WORD WINE. 85 lus tIcm ;" , literally, rers of the • the wines ry striking ion should, (1 with mo- 1 that both tircly agree »f antiquity ticular, the of the phy- ripture, ex- rtl, or hard 1 lie might ing his sen- lemanded a ■s had been ian declared e best wine, igth broken promises to ;1 feast there ather " well uliject could independent luced. The ist, and the ve that the ere not fer- •e altogether (Try. And nore coiiclu- nents of our ic character »ys of Pliny rfectly inno- ipecting fer- that Dr. the juice be not take ir wines in them down, days con- grape-juice, 13 y filtering, ns or boiling therefore impossible. (> given to id ler times, It les a prema- V used ovens roDm filled N!med thos" -lie, so that, l)y concen- le wine, thr, losed to '.::.- lies had fer- or ovsns, il to escape, increase the leir strength very small portion of alcohol indeed would remain in any fermented drink hy the time it has been exposed to the heat of an oven or fumarium, and subjected, toties, " again and again," to the process of filtering. In those countries, the juice of the grape, under the most favour- able circiriistances, would have produced but a very weak wine by fermentation ; how destitute of spirit then must it have been after it had been literally baked and filtered so often. There is reason to believe that their process of filtering was tedious, so that even fermented wines, which were 'toties," re- peatedly exposed to the air, must have lost all their potency. We do not like to leave the bung out of a cask, the cork out of a bottle, or the stopper out of a decanter, for any length of time, because we know that, in such cases, the wine would lose its strength ; the custom of frequently filtering the wines of antiquity, which at the most could have in them only a few degrees of spirit, must therefore have left but a very small portion of alcohol in the popular beverages of the olden times. And this loss would not be regretted by those tipplers who wished to drink a Iftrge quantity without being intoxicated ; nnv would the absence of the alcohol be missed in the wines, which were more valued for their aromatic and artificial flavor than for their strength. That the ancients delighted in drinking largely without becoming drunk, is evident from what has already been said. What else can Pliny mean when he soys, "That we may be able t(( drink more wine, we de- prive it of all its strength by the filter, and invent other incentives to thirst?" After having mentioned several of these " irrita- menta," he says, in the same chapter, that " the glory of the Tricongius was much re- nowned. This practice crmsisted in lirinking three gallons of wine under the following circumstances: the speech was not io falter, nor was the stomach to be liiihtened by vomiting, or in any other way ; after he had Ir.ink it, he was to be able to pcvfonn the juties of the morning watch. A large quan- tity Wits to be drunk at one draught, and a large quantity at several smaller draughts, without stopp'ng to take breath between ; the drinker was not to expectorate once, nor was a single drop of wine to be left, or wasted on the Hoor." Tiberius is reported to have been a spectator of this miracle, (as they termed it.) when he was an old man. Cicero's son is said to have attempted this feat, that he might avenge his father's death, by taking fr;im Mark Anto the honor of being the greatest; drinker the empire. The Em- peror Maximius couid drink six gallons without inebriety. Alexander is known to fcave lieen drinking for two days and two MMgh.^ successively; he fhrn ailed for the eup of Hercules, which held bix bottles, and was in the act of emptying it a second time, when the angel of death arrt^ted him. He was rather drenched with liquor, than drunk in the modern acceptation of the word. These facts show, that to drink an im- mense quantity without being intoxicated, rather than to take liquor for the sake of in- ebriation, was the custom of the people of old, and therefore it was as much an object of desire with them to obtain a weak wine, " omnibus sacco viribus fractis," ♦' with all its strength taken away by the filter," as it is with the moderns to procure drinks highly intoxicating. Consequently the wines were diflTerent, and in many instances, the end sought by drinking the very reverse to ours. In the word of God we read of persons who rose early and stayed late at their cups, men " mighty to drink wir e, and persons of strength to mingle strong drink." In these and similar passages we have allusions to the ancient mode of taking immense quantities of wine, and therefore the drinkers, in many instances, were rather drenched with liquor than really intoxicated. It is not improbable that the term " drunk," which evidently re- fers to the large quantity taken, owes its ori- ginal signification to a similar custom. " To be drunk," and "to be intoxicated," were not always the same, nor, indeed, could be so, at a time when the liquid in use rontained scarcely any spirit or alcohol. What has been stated above must be suffi- cient to satisfy any candid mind that the tastes and habits of the ancients respecting drinks were very different from those of our own day. Not only were their wines weaker than ours, but beverages destitute of all strength were deemed the best, and therefore nothing can be more fallacious than to con- clude that the term " wine" has always de- signated a drink containing a large per cen- tage of alcohol. In 1638 port, with twenty- four per cent, of spirit, may be deemed the best wine, but in the days of Pliny, who was contemporary with the apostle Paul, " utillis- ..imurn vinum," " the most useful wine," was that which was deprived of all spirit, and tiie topers of that day used as many arts to render their wines weak as tipplers of our time do to make them strong. The Hebrew word i" rendered wine is supposed to be the origin of the Greek oivo(, the Latin vinum, Italian and Spanish vino, French vin, Celtic or Welsh gwin, Cim'uiic uin, Gothic wein, old German uuin, Daniiih vien, Dutch wun, and English wine. This term is derived from the root nr " to press or squeeze ;" no word, therefore, could better designate the simple juice of the grape ; for, whether fermented or not, it was nevertheless a liquid which had originally been expressed from the fruit. Hence we see that the terms )" of the Hebrews, the oivof of the Greeks, the vin'-jm of the Romans, and nine of the English, are generic, and in each language are used as the name of a liquor that has been obtained from the vine- It may have been fermented or forbidden to ferment; it M 1- (,'■; \ ^■ 1 86 ANCIENT WINES. may contain twenty-tix per cent, of alcohol, or no spirit whatever ; it may be mode by boiling away the water from the must, by adding water to it, or by drugging it with aromatics or poisons; it may be sweet, acid. or hitter — but still, in each case, it is wine, and is so denominated In Hebrew, Greelt, Latin, and English. Pliny says that In Cato's time the word *' temetum," " ine- briety," was applied to wine ; " Hoc turn nomen vino erat, unde et temulentia appellata," a plain proof that the word " vinwn" or " wine," did not always ex- press " temetum," or an intoxicating drink. Indeed we know that in our day the term, when used alone, conveys to us no very definite idea ; for it may mean port, or ma- deira, or sherry, or hock, or elder, or palm wine; I. may stand for a weak wine or a very spirituous one ; It may mean the strong wines of England, the wealc wines of France, or the drugged, boiled, and unfermented wines of the ancients. Hence we use the words port wine, sherry wine, malmsey wine, currant wine, elder wine, &c. &c. The reader must not be surprised that the term should thus admit of more than one signiBcation, because he must know that there is scarcely a word in the English tongue but has more than one acceptation. The word ♦' post," the Latin " ratio," and thousands of terms that might be mentioned, have more than one signification, and in these t^.ies the context, or the adjective appended, 5'^ allowed to settle the meaning. If a man pei .^everingly maintained that post, or ratio, or Aoyoc, never had but one application, we should conclude he was mad, and leave off arguing with him ; yet he who asserts that " wine" always refers to the samo kind of liquor, is guilty of an equal degree of folly, and bids defiance to history, science, his own mother- tongue, and even his own taste and observa- tion. But if wine does not always mean the same kind of Jrink, it follows that we are under no obligation to use those that may be recommended in Scripture, because the com- mendari'tn can only extend to the kind of llquo' ('ecommended, and cannot, by any of the [lerversions of sophistry, be made to in- ci-,ide all and every sort of poisonous wine vfhich the vice or cupidity of man may in- vent or manufacture. In accordance witi these arguments we find among the Greeks and Latins var> >us appellations given to wine. rXtvKoQ, is mustum, vinum, et succis dul- cis;" "must, wine, and a sweet juice." Sui- das calls it, to airoaraXayna rrfg (TTa(l>u\ris TTQiv vaTi](t9i], •' the wine that dropped from the grape befrtre it was trodden." Mr. Buck- ingham says tha', this wine In Smyrna is called ♦' the dropping jf the wine-press," and •' vir- gin wine," and adds from having tasted it, that It was most delicious. Hesychius tells us that yXiVKOQ is yXtv^iq, oivoq, i-\\it)fia, a Bweet juice, wine, and soddeu wine. r\«vKt; is said to be " genus vini quod Latine dfcltar, pauum ;" "a kind of wine which the Latins call passum." These are the wines whidi Aristotle tells us " would not intoxicate," and which, on that account, Pclyblus says, were conceded to Roman females. Still it must be remembered, that they are called wines. E^ptjfia wa<* the name which the Greeks applied to boiled wine ; the term is derived from t^iaat, to boil. Dioscoridea calls It, " sapa genus vini," "sapa, a kind of wine." In making it, two-thirds of the juice were evaporated: this wine, therefore, could not be fermented. l>onovan says, " must or grape-juice, unless as liquid as water, will not ferment : and if wine, after evaporation, leaves any residuum sweet and agreeable Ut the taste, it is proof that a ny degree of fer- mentation to which it had been suhjecttsd, must have been very trivial. Besides, it is an opinion maintained by respectable author- ities that boiling any sweet vegetable juice has a tendency to lessen its susceptibility of fermentatior., Newmfin says, " It is obser- vable that, when sweet juices are boiled down to a thick consistence, they not only do not ferment in that state, but are not easily brought into fermentation when Jiluted with as much water as they h cess; the silence of scripture respecting the guilt of Noah in this transaction ; the know- ledge which Ham had of his father's degra- dation ; and the heavy curse that lighted on him and bis posterity, intimate that the sin of the father was involuntary, and that the son was the chief agent in the transaction, and that drugged rather than alcoholic wine was prepared by his Iniquitous son, who pro- bably hud learnt to do so from antediluvian sensualists. Of the drugging of wine, I have adduced plenty of proofs already. The wine which Lot drank was probably of the came description. We have already shown that the myrrli which Jacob sent Into Egypt was the gum called ledum, orladanum, by the Arabs, and was therefore exceedingly stupefying; and we know tliat the bad wo- men of London carry laudanum about with them, and add it to the liquors drunk by their victims, for the purpose of duping them the more easily ; and there is not a doubt but the daughters of Lot administered to their father a drink both stimulating and stupefactive. Their having lived in Sodom may have made them well acquainted with such impious arts: and, unless the wine had Ijeen drugged, we know that Lot would not have drunk enough of the common fermented juice of the grape to have robbed him so completely of all sense of decency, morality, and religion. Indeed, it is certain that the fermented wines of that climate, if such really existed, could not have produced the effects attributed to the draught given to the patriarch ; but, admit that the liquor was mixed with opium, or something of the kind, and the whole matter is plain, and tlie perfect ignorance of Lot, respecting what he had done, easily accounted for : while it is also se«n that the patriarch sinned involuntarily ; and this furnisiies a reason why the scriptures have not censured him, as they did David for his sin. Besides, would the righteous Lot, unless completely stupefied by some drug far more potent than alcohol, have gone a second time to the bed of incest ? We find that in the time of Joseph, Pha- raoh's drink was the pure juice of the grape squeezed by the butler into the king's cup, and drunk immediately. A writer against total abstinence has said that Pharooh drunk this wine in consequence of " his fondness for home production," but that '• wine was imported into Egypt from Greece and Phe- nicla." To establish the latter position, He- rodotus, lib. ill. 6, is quoted. But the pas- sage referred to does not at all aid the cause it is advanced to promote. For, 1. Herodo- tus says that " Twice a year Kipajios, an earthen vessel of wim, was conveyed into 1» WINES OP THE GREEKS. 69 ; and Ham, (uor in que«- h« purpose of ptoiis parent, nented grape- piety of Noah, drink to ex- respecting the n ; the know- Father's dfgra- hnt lighted on e that the tin , and that the le transaction, alcoholic wine I eon, whopro- n antediluvian of wine, I have idy. : was probably e have already Jacob sent into m, orladanum, )re exceedingly tit the bad wo- uin about with s drunk by their uping them the a doubt but the d to their father nd Htupefactive. may have made ich impious art»: en drugged, we e drunk enough ice of the grape etely of all sense ligion. Indeed, ed wines of that could not have to the draught admit that the or something matter is plain, Lot, respecting accounted for : patriarch sinned lUhes a reason censured him. Besides, would pletely stupefied it than alcohol, e bed of Incest ? f Joseph, Pha- ce of the grape the king's cup, writer against Pharaoh drunk his fondness lat '• wine waa eece and Phe- ir position, He- But the paa- |l aid the cause or, 1. Herodo- r Ktpaiiog, an conveyed Into Egypt from Greece, and also from Pheiii- cia.' The expressions prove that the quan-- tlty was very small. 2. Herodotus mentions this traffic as taking place in the time of Cambyses ; and therefore the writer con- cludes that whole cargoes of wine were Im- ported 1200 years before, in the days of Pharaoh ! ! This is asserted with as much positlveness as could have been the case had the pleader possessed the tables of imports into Egypt In the time of Joseph. The ar- gument is as valid as the following. Eng- land, in 1836, imported tea to the value of j£4,332,535 ; therefore England, twelve hun- dred years ago. Imported tea to the same amount I 1 Who does not see the cogency of such reasoning? 3. If at that time wine was imported, though it Is a query whether Greece had then any wine to Import, still we must Inquire, What wine? And till this question is answered, the argument Is worth nothing. If It came from Palestlxe or Greece, the wine was a thick boiled sirup, and destitute of a particle of alcohol, and bore not the least similitude to modern port or sherry. The same Herodotus says, that the Egyptian priests were allowed to drink " oivog a^iriXnwg" "wine from the vine," which Bishop Lowth says means a wine similar to that drunk by Pharaoh, and was unfermented ; for It was " only the fresh juice pressed from the grapi , and was called oipoc aftiTiXivoQ." Herod, ill. 6 ; Lowth on Isaiah, chap. v. The Egyptians had vines, "for God smote their vines," &c. But Sandys asserts, " Throughout tliis coun- try there are no wines ; " and Hasselquist tells us, " The vine is cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes: not for wine." Herodotus states that Egyptians " used a wine made of barley." 13ut Pannonians, Illyricans, and Germans, seem, in latter times, to have used the same sort of drink. Modern travellers tell us "that an insipid drink, made from barley. Is stl'.l in use In Egypt." Pococke's description of this liquor is as follows : — " The most vulgar people make a sort of beer of barley, without being malted; and they put something in It to make It Intoxicate. It Is thick and sour, and will not keep longer than three or four days." We have reason to believe that the ancient Chaldees did not use Intoxicating drinks. Abraham came from Chaldea ; and yet we do not find that wine was used in his family. When he sent Hagar away, he put a bottle of water upon her shoulder, which he would hardly have done If wine had been the com- mon beverage. Abraham's servant, also, asked of Rebekah nothing better than water ; nor did she ofl^er anything more potent. When the Chaldeans obtained power and wealth, and the Babylonian empire was ex- tended, drunkenness prevailed ; and Cyrus took the city in consequence of the king, the army, and the people being drenched in liquor. The tcc-totalism of their forefathers would have saved them from Cyrus. The AssyrianB during the age of their con- quests, were not wine-bibbers ; for their mon- arch promised to the Israelites that they shouUl "eat the fruit of the vine, and drink water from their own cisterns." These peo- ple became fond of drink in after times ; they sunk into sensuality and eifemiuacy, and Nineveh fell to rise no more. The Medes, according to Xenophon, were addicted to drinking ; but the Persians, until the reign of Cambyses, appear to have been abstinent: and Cyrus, the water-drinker, with an army of water-drinkers, took Baby- lon at a time when its inhabitants were im* mersed in liquor. After Cyrus, his son be- came a drunkard : the nation degenerated, and eventually fell. As early as the time of Homer, wine was in use among the Greeks ; but that it was not the common beverage of the people we learn from the following passage in the Iliad, lib. vi. 258. It Is there called "pXo/^ta oivov, wine sweet as honey :" and Hector's mother, finding him fatigued, advises him to pour out a libation of this wine to the gods, and then to drink of It himself. The hero replies, " Venerable mother, bring me not the sweet wine, lost thou enervate my limbs, and I for- get to be courageous and valiant." Here we have three facts : — Ist, That the wine was as sweet as honey, and therefore was not charged Avith alcohol. 2dly, That It was drugged, or It would not have produced for- getfulness. Of this drugging we have spoken already. 3dly, That it was not in general use. For, if it had been drunk in common as a beverage, producing all the wonderful effects attributed to strong drinks in our day. Hector would not have rejected it as a liquor which Would destroy both the strength of the body and the courage and energy of the mind. And if Hector dreaded lest wine should make him a coward, we may be sure that he did not administer It to his troops. That wine was used by the ancients on festal occasions, and In libations to the gods, we do not deny ; but that it was deemed enervating, rather than invigorating, and was not the common drink of the people, is placed beyond the shadow of a doubt. Both Homer and Virgil often describe the people by the river whose water they drank. The Trojans, at the foot of Mount Ida, " drank of the deep river Ae- sepus." And we are told of those who " drank of the Fabails and the Tiber." As late as the time of Alexander, we find that totul abstinence was recommended by physicians, even to that sensual monarch. Pliny says, lib. xiv. cap. 6, " that Andro- cydes, who was a physician,' sapientia clarus,' distinguished for wisdom," writing to Alex- ander and desiring to restrain him from in> temperance, said, "Remember, O king, that when you arc about to drink wine you are going to drink the blood of the earth, cicula homini venenum est, cicuta vinum. Hemlock is poison to man, and wine is hemlock." Solomon too says, "It blteth like a serpent, '.f R| il 90 ANCIENT WINES. «nd ■tingeth like an adder." He also recom- menda total abetiiirnce to kingi. " It li not for kinffR, () Lemuel ; it la not for kings to drink wine, nor princes strong drink." Hod Alexander tnknn the advire of Androcydes, nr followed the abstinence of Hector, he might long have enjoyed the fruits of his labors: but he drank wine, killed himself, and destroy- ed his empire. We have seen that the wines of those days were weak, and yet even then total abstinence was recommended by physi- cians. Xenophon has given us a fact which proves that Greek wines were not strong: He says that when in Anatola "the wine froze in their vessels ;" a plain proof that they were not charged with alcohol, because alco- hol will not freeze. These wines, then, were sweet, would freeze, were drunk diluted with eight times their quantity of water, and yet, even then, among the ancient Greeks, total abstinence was recommended. Homer says, "the gods did not drink wine," and adds, " therefore they are immortal ; a plain proof that, in the estimation of the poet, wine drink- ing and mortality were associated togetiier, and that total aWinence, immortality, and glory, were intimately connected. We have already seen that the ancient Romans did not drink wine. Gibbon observes, "that in the age of Homer the vine grew wild in Sicily and the neighbouring shores, but no wine was made from it." Pliny asserts that wine was not used bv the ancient inha- bitants of Italy. He says that " Romulus poured out milk, and not wine, as a libation to the gilds;" and that it was necessary to make laws to compel the husbandmen to cul- tivate the vine. Even in the days of Pliny milk was offered to the gods as commemora- tive of the custom of their fathers. AVe know tliat wiine was a'lcrwards popular in Rome, and, although tiiose drinks were very differ- ent from ours, the people drank of them large- ly ; and Rome followed Babylon, Persia, and Greece, in the road ta destruction. Where are the Rnsnans now? And who does not know that drinking and sensuality hurried them to ruin? Besides wine, the Romans had a liquor made from barley. Among the ancient Britons, mead, a drink made from honey, was esteemed a great lux- ury ; but we know not at wh.tt age it began to be manufactured. Intoxicatic>g liquors were not in general use in the time of Boadi- cea, 'or in an eloquent speech to brer warriors, A. D. 61, she says, "To us every herb and root is food, every juice is our oil, and every stream of water our wine." Wine was mr.de in Britain about A. d. 280 ; and, at one time, vineyards began to spread so fast that the farmers bitterly complained that the ground, which ought to bear corn, was thus wasted. French wines, from the reign of Henry III., appear to have gradually abolished our Eng- lish vineyards. Ale, or barley wine, was introduced about the fifth century, but at that time it was very costly. A I'nsk of spiced al#, measuring only nine pa^nis, wa<« void for £7 lOs., and a eatit of the sa<:, slug- gishness of body." 2. " AifOt], Illness." 3. " AfpoavvT), rashness oi .ituntion." 4. " YTrvof, drowsiness or sleep. He adds, •• Wine unnerves the vigor of the body, makes the limbs inactive, produces sluggish- ness, and by its force, compels us to be over- whelmed with sleep ; that it relaxes or un- bridles the energy, rovovci tones or intentions of the mind, and is the cause of forgetful ness, rashness, or folly. On the other hand, the limbs of those who totally abstain are nimble and active, their senses more acute, clear and discriminating; their minds more sharp- sighted and perspicuous, either to review the past or contemplate and provide for the fu- ture ; therefore it is universally agreed that the use of wine, as an article of diet or sus- tenance, is most injurious to all persons ; that It fetters the mind, blunts the senses, burdens the body, and indeed leaves not a faculty of the soul or body free and untouched, but becomes an impediment and fetter to every power we possess. And, as it is of the ut- most importance that we should engage in divine ordinances with energy and freedom, and as a sin against God is much more hei- nous than a sin against man, the injury which wine inflicts on us when we enter on sacred duties is proportinnably great ; consequently it was most properly ordained that total ab- stinence should be observed by the priests who ministered at the altar of Jehovah, that they might be able to distinguish between things sacred and profane, things pure and impure, thinks lawful and unlawful." Philo- Jud., lib. ii. De Monorchia. Doubtless the wine here referred to was mixed with various opiates. The reader will observe that, in the latter clause of this quotation. Lev. x. 10, is allu- ded to, and contains the very reason which God assigned why Aaron and his sons should drink neither wine nor strong drink. The whole passage also sbowa that bodily weak- ness, mental imbecility, irresolution, folly, rashness, sluggishness, and Irreverence of God and divine things, were In those days the effects of drinking these drugged wines. If Pliny, Aristotle, or Philo, had visited our modern madhr uses, hospitals, and dissecting- rooms ; had t'ley attended Mr. Huckingham's Committee on a. runkenness, or been acquain- ted with the modern analyses of intoxicating liquors, or been trained in the school of tee- totaliiim, they could not have spoken more decidedly conoerning the evils arising from the use of ini^briating drinks. I have in these pages pla(;ed before the reader the sentiments of the ancients respec- ting wines and other liquors of that charac- ter. I have given a brief view of the various substances that have been used as inebrients ; have referred to most of the nations that adopted them ; and have proved both the ex- istence of unfermented wines, and those that may have been charged with any intoxi- cating principle were repeatedly Altered, or carefully fumed and baked, for the sole pur- pose of depriving them of all strength or spi- rit. The philosophy of the time of Pliny, Plutarch, and Horace, taught that wines which unnerved the body, inflamed the pas- sions, idiotized the mind, and led to crime and disease, were better avoided than drunk, because, instead of increasing, they destroyed the pleasure of conviviality and social inter- course ; and, therefore, that they might drink the more, and drink without injury, they drank wines that would not Intoxicate. The practices and examples of antiquity have frequently been arrayed against the doctrine of total abstinence ; but a fair and candid examination of history has shown that the wines of the ancients, the drinking cus- toms of the ancients, the taste and appetite of the ancients, and even their drunkenness, were of a character altogether different, and, in many cases, the very opposite to ours. Both Pliny and Plutarch, and others, prove that the most popular, mos^ useful, and wholesome wine, was that which was de- prived of all strength or spirit ; in a word, was a wine which one who practices total abstinence would rarely hesitate to drink. If the authority of antiquity is pleaded, we certainly have a right to demand that our opponents should first produce some of the wines of antiquity ; until they do the latter, all reference to the former is worse than ab- surd. Perhaps there never was a subject which opposed a vitiated tast", that has been assailed with so much ignorance, prejudice, and irrationality, as total abstinence. Men, without the least knowledge of the history of the vine, without a grain of scientific infor- mation respecting fermentation, and as igno- rant as the bottles from which they borrow their logic of the drink and drinking cus- toms of antiquity, come forward to prove that modern por' sherry, Burton, porter, and strong beer, are just the same sort of liquors ■I^J •ti ■i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 11.25 l^y|8 125 150 ^^ 1^ 1^ m •u ... I 2.2 u I. ^ 2.0 1.4 I m Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 87?.4503 \ iV SJ \\ [v ;\ 92 WINES OF SCRIPTURE. that Pharaoh drank anil that Aaron mingled with his Bacrificea. Tfie simple reason of all this is, that, because they love these mo«lern poisons themselves, therefore all men of all ages must of necessity have loved them, even before these liquids could have had an exis- tence. The ari{ument put into the form of a ayliogism, stands thus: — If I, A. B., love wines highly lirandied, then all men of ail ages must have lilced them too. I, A. B., do love wines hii;hly brandied ! Therefore, ali men of all Ji^es were fond of wines highly brnndicd ! ! Ay, were fond of them, and actually drarilc them, before nny brandy, or pure alcohol, or any sucli brandifd wines, were produced or manufactured, or had any exi:>tence 1 ! CHAPTER Vr. ■WINES OF SCRIPTUnE. It has generally been customary for tho^e who possess the Scriptures, but who do not understand their contents or desi^jn, to iirray the sacred volume against whatever may oppose their prejudices. The authority of the law was marshalfd by the Jews, against the Gospel of the Son of God. Scripture and the fathers of the cluirch were quoted as a proof that Columbus was a heretic and an in- fidel, for suggesting that there was aimther continent ; and a clergyman actually pub- lished a sermon to show that Jenner, for en- deavoring to checlt the ravages of the small- pox, was the beast of th.i Apocalypse. In our day, the authority of the word of God is pleaded as a sanction for the use of one of the most desolating of all poisons. '* I must have a new Bible," said a good man the otiier day, " before I can adopt the princi- ple of total abstinence." It therefore be- hooves us to inquire whether or not the book of Ilevelation encourages the dirnking of modern spirituous liquors, wine, beer, cider, &c. A very little examination of the Scrip- ture, in connection with what has been said already on ancient wines, will be sufficient to satisfy evi'ry candid mind. In entering on tills subject, we will first examine the words or phrases which are uound. Those who adopt total abetinonce are willing that the context, that nistorr, and woll-attested facta should settle the meaning of the word yayin, or wine ; bi< t wine-bibbers go to their bottles and pb'ates for an interpretation. Which of these interpreters is most likely to arrive at the truth, we leave the candid and ingenuous to say, but we query whether the divination of the wine-cask or beer-barrel will, in this particular, be the best guide. 2. un'n, Tinish, supposed to come from the root un or IVKI, " head, chief, or beginning," may refer to the head or berry of the grape, or to the first or chief juice that begins to flow from the fruit ; it is, therefore, promis- cuously rendered in the English version by the terms "wine," or " new wine." In Isa- iah Ixv. 8, it alludes to the juice in the swol- len or ripe fruit before it was exprrssed. " When the new wine is yet in the cluster, one raith. Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it" The wine in the cluster was unfermen- ted, and then there was a blessing in it. No one who has carefully examined the effects of inebriating wines will say that there is a blessing in them, unless a diseased stomach, a shattered frame, an injured intellect, in- flamed passions, and a premature death, for which, in most cases, the unhappy victim is unprepared, can be termed blessings. The word tirosh is several times :n Scripture asso- ciated with corn. Isaac mentions '* corn and tirosh" — " com and new wine." The king of Assyria spoke of com and tirosh ; and in Psalm It., David, alluding to the joy of the wicked at the growth of their com and the fertility of their vines, says that their corn and their wine, or tirosh, increased. Here he must refer to the growth of the grape, because he speaks of its '* inrreasing," and the wine does not increase after it is manu- factured; in this passage, therefore, as in Isaiah Ixv, tirosh, or new wine, is used for the grape or fruit of the vine, before it had been gathered, and even before it was ripe. In the same sense the word appears to have been used by the king of Assyria ; for, in the same speech in which be speaks of a land of corn and wine, or tirosh, he tells the people to "eat every one of his vine, and every one of his fig-tree, and drink ye every one of the waters of his own cistern." Here the people were to eat of the vine and to drink water. Hasselquist says, "the vine is cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes, not for wine." And the king of Assyria promises the people corn and tiroab, or grapes, as articles of AmmI. In Hoaea ii. 22, it is said, " the earth shall bear the com and the wine, or tirosh ;" a passage which alludes to the grape as it hung on the vine and required moisture from the earth, that it might grow and arrive at maturity. la chapter iv. 11, it is classed with wine, and certainly may mean clusters of grapes eaten with the wine which the sensualists there mentioned were drinking at their luxurious feasts.* In Joel ii. 24, and Prov. Iii. 10, tirosh is represented as the fresh juice which burst from the wine-press, and which, there- fore, had not fermented : and its fermentation afterwards depended solely upon the will of the husbandman: though the heat of the country threatened it with the acetous fer- mentation if it fermented at all ; or, on the other hand, the sweetness of the grape, and the thickening of the juice by boiling it down, must have been fatal to the production of an alcoholic drink. If it was really made na inebriating liquor, it was probably adulter- ated with drugs. 3. -inn, Chamer, is translated in Psalms Ixxv. 8, and Isaiah xxvii. 2, by the word "red," and Deut. xxxii. 14, by the term " pure," it is also used for " slime, clay, mor- tar, and bitumen," and for anything " thick or slimy." In Deut. xxxii. it means the "pure, thick, or red" blood of the grape. It is no tautology to call the blood of the grape red or purple, because the juice of that fruit was sometimes white and sometimes black or dark. The arterial blood of our bodies is red, but the venous is called " black blood." In Isaiah we read of a " vineyard of ^nn, red wine," evidently alluding to the color of the grape. " Thou didst drink the blood of the grape, red, pure, or thick." Red was considered the best juice: pure, that which was unfermented and unmixed ; thick, that which had been boiled or spissated ; or ra- ther, that the juice was very thick, saccha- rine, or sirupy. The text, therefore, meana thou didst drink the purest, the sweetest, and the richest blood or juice of the grape. Thia word being used with the expressiona " crsSjrOT — dam-anabim, the blood of the grape," affords very strong evidence that the liquor drank was not fermented ; for a fer- mented liquor can never with any propriety be called the pure blood of the grape. Were you by some chemiuil process to decompose human blood, to dismiss two-thirds of one of its constituent parts, and one-third of another, and then combine the remaining in- gredients afresh, you would never call thia new product pure human blood ; yet this is exactly what takes place in manufacturing alcoholic wines. Suppose three atoms of sugar to consist of three atoms of hydrogen, three of carbon, and three of oxygen ; then, in forming spirits of wine, the sugar is * To say " wine and wine take away the heart" would be tautology- 'I I J ■I M 94 WINES OF SCRIPTURE. tiflcompmed ; one-third of the carbon and two- thirds of the oxygen combine and form cur- bonic acid ; whiie the remaining hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen unite, and become alco- hol or puiiion ; and can this new compound be called <* the pure blood of the grape ?" The pure juice whio|i God formed, accord- ing to the dictates of his own infliiite love and wisdom, i», by the busy caprice of man, analyzed, and formed into two dreadful poi- sons; the one is dismissed to the air, and the other retained for the human stomach ; —and will this meddling mortal call his new production a good creature of God ? or say that he has improved a wholesome juice by changing it Into two deleterious poisons? or dare assert that alcohol is the pure blood of the grape? In Isaiah xxvii. the term chamer is evidently used as an adjective. " A vineyard of red" supposes a re;! some- thing, and here must mean red or purple grapes, rather tlian red wine. We would scarcely say a vineyard of alcohol, or alco- holic wine I Besides, God says that he will keep and water this vineyard of purple grapes —proving that the term here rather referred to the vine than to a fermented liquor. The wine in the Lord's cup is said to be chamer, " red or purple," but this expression, apart from the context, cannot prove that it was fer- mented. Again : If chamer means a thick wine, it must either refer to a thick saccha- rine juice or to a boiled wine, which in cither case would be fatal to fermentation ; because the juice of the grape will not ferment if it is too saccharine, nor unless it is as liquid as water. That inebriating dru^s might be mixed with chamer, or red wine, none will deny : still few will assert that a vineyard of purple grapes means a cellar of wine poisoned with opium, or that God would call such a liquor the " pure blood of the grape." There is therefore nothing in the word chamer, viewed by itself, that necessarily intimates an intoxici'tiiig drink. 4. 1D0, Mesek, means mixed wine, or a "mixture," and was intoxicating or not ac- cordinfT to the character of the grape, the mode of manufacturing the wine, and tlie drugs or spices with which it was mixed. When used in Scripture, the context, or some other approved canon of interpretation, muKt settle its meaning. When Wisdom is said to have " mingled her wine," we may be sure that she did not compound a liquor that would rob men either of their health or their wisdom. The spiced wine mentioned in Cant. viil. 2, is not called mesek. 5. D*Dy, Asis, comes from DDV, to tread. It therefore sometimes means the juice which has been trodden out of the grape ; but tliis fact does not prove that it was a fermented liquor, because fermentation is subsequent to treading; and from what has already been ■aid, we have seen that it was possible, and far from uncommon, to preserve the juice after it had been trodden out, from fermenta- tion. In whatever '/aasage it is used, let the context and scope uf the writer settle the meaning. In Caut. v'.ii. 2, it is translated by the word juice, and is applied to the juice of the pomegranate, and which alto is there said to have been manufactured into a spiced wine ; so that wine, in that instance, is not the juice of the grape, but of the pomegranate. 6. D".OU', Siiemarim, is derived from sha- mar, to preserve, and the word literally means •'preserves." It sometimes refers to lees or dregs, but this cannot be its meaning in Isaiah xxvi. 6. There it signiftes preserved wine, or preserves ; for no one can suppose that God would promise to make to all people a feast of " refined lees," or " refined dregs." Indeed the idea of its being lees or dregs is contradicted by the assertion that it was well defiBcated or filtered. How this pre- serve was made, or in what manner the wine was preserved, we cannot say. The juice may have been kept in the same manner as Columella directs, or it may have been boiled down to a sirup as we find was the case with most wines in Palestine. Its being " well refined or filtered," seems exactly to corres- pond with the words of Pliny. " Utilissi- mum vinum omnibus sacco viribus fractis — the very best wine is that which has had all its strength brokni by the filter. It is wor- thy of remark, that the word ppt, zacac, used by the prophet, and rendered '* well refined," is the same word as the Latin " saccus," a filter. In Hebrew, zacc means to refine or filter, and in Latin, sacco has the very same signi- fication ; and it is not a little remarkable that both the Roman naturalist and the Jewish prophet should have used the very same word to express the manner in which the very best wine was produced. Pliny says, " The best wine is that which has had all its strength broken by the filter;" and Isaiah tells us, " In this mountain will the Lord God make unto all people a feast of fat things full of marrow, of preserved wines well refined or well filtered." Plutarch asserts that the mc. * esteemed wines, and esteemed because they would not intoxicate, were those which had been well refined or filtered ; and Columella also directs that the filter should be usod in making sweet or unfermented wines. Ho- race also says, are wise, you There is also reason to believe that those wines which were not drugged were deemed the most wholesome. Pliny's words are, " Saluberrimum cui nihil in musto additum est — The most wholesome wine is that which has nothing added to the must." I need not tell the reader who has paid any attention to the character of alcoholic wines, or the phy- siology of the human frame, that the words utilissimum and saluberrimum, which Pliny has applied to those wines which were un- mixed with any deleterious matter, and which would not intoxicate, are used in exact '* Sapias, liques vina — You clear or filter your wine." I s« w tmcordan observati tion be i he conde them wir mum and wholeson Thougl and show an intoxic we have the lees w taphorical, Huppose tl from whic parable of ard, and epiritunl us under worldly the sword wear a sv that God V ual food, a ought to di The promii not commai and the pi wine, can drinking a in the pret 7. KnD, S " to drink *' to turn ro drink whici swallowed i thoroughly i ments as tn largely, reel us that the they did exi persons reel, this effect, Sava is neve 8. naif, SI tisfy, to plea feet satisfact the term ori| delightful ei We have bcl car, the Ara the Latin 8a( English sugs original root meaning; fc the primitive and palm w« before it bec( were called * it (Tuxap, a Dioscoridcs i Phoenicians : their sacuhar fine and su; also nonveye« the verb. Ii did eat and ( SAVA — 5HACAR. 95 npMordance with the dictates ofiiuieiicrry. Modern tipplers may have nnither mind, heart nor soui, ex- cept wliitt (hey get from the wine bottle, but I cannot think that Joseph and his brethren were thus destitute of human feelings. The idea conveyed here i.s that of sweetness, satis- faction, or pleasure which they realized in the mutual exchange of affection. Shacar often refers to wages, and how *' sweet" to the la- borer afler toiling hard is the hire or reward which he receives. Leah said, " God has given roe my hire or wages, and she called his name, Is-scrcAar, or wages." Again, no- thing so perfectly satisfies or cloys, as sugar, honey or " sweets," and hence the iden of perfect satiety, or of being drenched as it were ; and accordingly shar^tr sometimes means to be completely filled with liquor or to be drunk : and exactly accords with a very common significaMon of the word "/it^uui," in Greek, which often means to be filled with drink or anything else, rather than to be drunk or poisoned with liquor. All lexico- graphers allow that to be filled, satiated, or drenched, is a common acceptation of " sha- car, and jUfWvw." I have made these remarks to show that our translators had no warrant for renderiug the word "shacar," in every text where it refers to liquors, by the terms " strong drink." Had they used the words "sweet drink," they would have approached much nearer to the truth ; for there is not the shadow of a doubt that shacar meant a sweet, luscious, satisfying liquor. Theodoret and Chrysos- tom, both Syrians, and therefore good wit- nesses, assert that shacar was "pnlm wine," and Dr. Shaw says, that " this liquor is of a more luscious sweetness than honey." The Arabs still call " palm wine," and palm juice, saccharon, and also apply to it the name dispse, dipse, or dibs, terms of the same origin as the Hebrew VZI, dabesh or dibs, which i« rendered honey in the Scripture, and is tho name of the honey, or rather sweet grape, or palm juice, which Jacob sent as a present to Joseph. Honey was no rarity in Egypt, but this sweet juice being far more delicious than honey, was doubtless a luxury, and therefore esteemed a costly present. It is worthy of remark, that dates, whence palm wine is made, are called by the Arabs, " Dabash, honey or sweet fruit" That aa- char in Scripture, was sweet, is evident from the contrast expressed in Isaiah xxiv. 9, I 1' II 96 WINE8 UP SCRIPTURE. !' 'i " Strong drink ■ball become bitter ;" mther " eweet drinit ehall become bitter ;" Lowth translates the verse, " The pnim wine shall be bitter ;" and partiphriues it, " All enjoy- ment shall cease, the sweetest wine shall be- come bl'ter;" the contrast between shucar, "sweet,' and the term "bitter," is here placed In striking opposition. That shacar or strong drink, meanH wine, is demonstrated from a comparison of Exod. xxix. 40, with Num. xxviii. 7. AVhen the ordinance was instituted, God commanded " thiit the fourth part of A bin of wine should be the drink oilering ; but this yayin or wine is called in Num. xxviii. 7, shacar, "sweet drink" or palm wine ; and surely the former text must be allowed to settle tlie meaniuK of the latter. As the palm tree abounded in Palestine, there is no doubt but shacar, sweet or piilm wine, was just as common as the juice of the grape : and the fact that it was undruicKPd nhacar, or ■weet wine, demonstrates that it was not a fermented alcoholic drink. Every chemint knows that a sweet wine, or shncnr, in th4»se da3rB, could not be a stroni; alcoholic beverage. That it is improper to call palm wine " strong drink," is evident from the analysis of wines given by Mr. Beaumont in his essay on Al- cohol. It is there placed as the lowest or weakest of all wines ; for while elder wine contains 9 per cent, of alcohol, port 23 per cent., and even ale 8 per cent, palm wine oontains only four per cent, of spirit. According to the modern acceptation of the word " strong," as applied to wines, palm wine or shacar, ought to be called " weak drink ;" and yet we have reason to believe that palm wine in modern times is much ■tronger than it was in the days of Moses. And this sentiment is cnntirmed by the fact of its being so remarkably sweet, that the term "dibs, or honey," was applied to it. If grape-juice, which is exceedingly sweet, can> not produce a strong liquor because of an exoeas of saccharine matter ; if sweet wines cannot be strong A'om their own fermentation, because the sugar is not decomposed and con- verted into spirit; then the luscious sweet- ness of palm wine affords a demonstration that it could not have been " a strong drink :" a " sweet drink" it was, but this very fact proves that it was not alcoholic. Its " lus- cious sweetness" also atfords a reason why, if it fermented, it became acid. With no propriety, therefore, can the shacar of the days of Moses be called " strong drink," in the modem acceptation of the term. Having thus shown the character of what is called "strong drink" in the word of God; and having proved that it was palm wine, and exceedingly weak ; we may conclude by say- ing, that if the Scriptures any where com- manded us to drink shacar, still it must be remembered that it la shacar or palm wine, which is commended to us; and therefore our opponents must bring us pahn wine such as waa used in the days of Moses, befor" they attempt to enforce the command. To say that because sweet palm wine was used aa • drink offering in the time of Aaron, therefore we ought to drink all the trash which is man- ufactured out of malt at the present eriod, Is to reason without an argument. How ridi- culous the reasoning would appear if plaoed in the fiiilowing form : — If Aaron used sweet and weak palm wine for a drink-offering, then all the good Chris- tians ought to drink brewers' strong beer, embittered with hops : Atu^n did use a sweet and weak palm wine for a drink-offering: therefore ail good Chriittians ought to drink brewers' strong beer, embittered with hops 1 1 In milking the preceding remarks, I do not deny tliut shautr might be rendered in- ebriating by the addition of drugs ; or that thosa who sought inebriation, hesitated to pro> duca such a mixture ; and wines thus drug- ged may constitute the aicera of which Jerome speaks ; but still I must maintain, that when shacar is u^d in Scripture, we are to under- stand a weak sweet palm wine, unless the context shall intimate the reverse ; and, in such cases as the latter, if the drink is spoken of as intoxicating, it is, at the same time, placed under the anathema of Holy Writ. I have shown in a former quotation that the wines of Homer were " utXirjSta, sweet aa lioney," and yet were rendered very stupeftic- tive by drugs ; still though inebriating, they were not alcoholic, and therefore bore no resemblance to modern port, sherry, or bee''. 9. nv^tTK, Ashlshah, is by our translators rendered "flagons of wine;" but without any reason from the context The word ap- pears to be derived from vnt, ash, fire. Po- oock says the term means " cakes of dried grapes." Gesenius tells us that it means " a cake, or hardened sirup, made of grapes." Parkhurst explains it, " Some confectionary were prepared by fire." The Vulgate calls it " Simiiam frixam oleo," " fine flour fried with oil." In 2d Sam. vi. 19, David is said to have given the people bread and flesh, and " a flagon ;" (of wine). The word wine is added by our translators: in the original, nothing but the term " ashishah" is used, and which the Septuagint renders by the words, " Xayavov airo rtjyavow," " a pancake ;" and in I Chron. xvi. 3, where the same fact is recorded, they have translated ashishah by " afiopiTtiv" " a sweet cake." In Hosea iii. I , the marginal reading " for flagons of wine,'" is " flagons of grapes ;" the word grapes, not wine, is in the Hebrew : but here the Se;>- tuagint uses the words, " irinfiara fitra ara^iSoc" "sweetmeats with raisins." Doubt- less the word in Cant ii. 5, has the same signi- fication, and refers to a confection which was to i>e eaten with apples. We learn from the Scripture that presents of dried figs, and of dried grapes or raisins, were common,and were evidently placed among the general articles of diet In 1 Sam. xxv. 18, Abigail is said to have presented to David a hundred o'lusters ABRAHAM, NOAH AND LOT. 97 id. To Mjr raa uaed aaa 9n, thi^nsfore hich in man- «ent eriod, How ridi- !ar U' plaiwd k palm wine I (food Chri»- Htroiig b««r, d UHe a sweet Ink-offering : ;lit to drinic with liopa 1 1 inarloi, I do rendered in- 11^ ; or that litated to pro- 8 thus drug- rhich Jerome n, that when ire to under- e, uiiletw the ne ; and, in inic is spolcen > same time, • Holy Writ, ktton that the ha, sweet as /-ery stuptfiic- iriating, they lore liore no erry, or bw. ir translators but without The word ap- ih, fire. Po- lices of dried it means " a of grapes." confectionary Vulgate calls le flour fried David is said tnd flesh, and word wine is the original, is used, and y the words, pancake ;" the same fact ashishah by In Hosea ill. ons of wine," >d grapes, not ere the Se|>- fifiara fitra ins." Dou'at- samesigni- >n which was arn from the figs, and of aon,and were fieral aiticles bigail is said idred o'lusters of rahins (or dried grapes), and two hundred cakes of figs." In chap. xxx. II, it is re- corded that David and liis men gave to the young Egyptian whom they found in a state of exhaustion, " bread, and he did eat ; water, and he did driitk ; and they gave him a piece of a cake of tign, and clusters of raisins, and his spirit came again into him." These philosophers thought that nourlMhing food and pure water, and the genuine fruit of the vine and fig-tree, were excellent things for one who was exhausted ; and we leave phy- siologists to suy whetlier alcoholic poiHons would have done him more good. We will only add, that, in this case, the medicine an- swered remarkably well. It is here especiully worthy of notice, that they supplied him with water, not wine, to drink-B-and they gave ((im the fruit of the vine, or raisins to eat. Ziba, 2 Sam. xvi. 1, brought to David " one hundred bunches of raisins, or dried grapes, a hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine." The single bottle of wine, it will be seen, bears no pro- portion to the food ; and David, it is said, put it aside as a medicine, " for such as be faint in the wilderness to drink." We read also of eating of the vine, a plain proof that tliey did not convert all their grapes into wine. These remarks prove that athishah does not mean flagons of fermented wines, but rather alludes to a confectionary, of whit^h perhaps, grapes or raisins formed a part ; and it was some luxury of this kind that David gave to his people at the time when he removed the ark. Instead of making them all drunk with flagons of wine, he gave them bread and flesh, and some nourishing and palatable ac<;ompa- nlment; perhaps not unlike our English plum-pudding or plum-cake, which, as every one knows, is mode partly of raisins or dried grapes. From these critical observations, it is evi- dent, that the different terms in the Hebrew- Bible, which, in our translation, are rendered by the word wine, afford no countenance to the use of strong alcoholic liquors ; but to place this matter beyond the shadow of a doubt, I will look at those texts which are ■aid to be fiivorable to the use of wine. Melchizedek brought bread and wine to Abraham ; but what if he did ? This fact does not put us under an obligation to drink liquors which are demoralizing our country- men by thousands, and then sending them to a premature grave, and to an awful eternity, for which they are unprepared. Besides, as it is now placed beyond all doubt that there were two kinds of wine, the one, under cer- tain circumstances, most useful and whole- some, and the other deleterious and deadly, were we not prejudiced by the love of these poisons, we should conclude that so eminent a person aa Melchizodek offered to Abraham an innocuous wine ; and if such an example imposed on us any duty, it could only be a duty to drink such wines as the priest of the Most High Ood gave to the weary Abraham. We must settle what kind of wine it was, and get some of it, liefiMre we can enforce the duty U* drink it. We have already noticed the charaeter of the wine drunk by Noah and Lot, and can hardly suppose that any man, iiowever vile, would recommend us to use a iieverage which sunk both these patriarchs, while under its influence, below the beasts that peristh. We might as well commend the cup of Circe at once, as recommend such a liquor. But for tlie awful love of strong liquors, which now so fatally prevails in our country, the explana- tion wliich I Itave given of the drunkenness of Noah and Lot would be hailed as a rational interpretation, which entirely frees each of these pious men from the least voluntary participation in the crime o( intemperane called " the blood of the grape ;" but Judah's clothes were to be stained with this unfermented juice, as, indeed, the garments of all who would be engaged in the vintage, or the manufacture of m WISES OP SCRIPTURE. wine; but then it depentletl upon the will of (he buibnndman whether or not the blood that died bin garmenta should become an inebriating liquor ; and it' he allowed it to do 80, it no longer remained the blood of the grape, because fermentation, of necewHity, would decompose it, dismiss nearly one-half, in the form of carbonic ucid, and combine the remainder into another poison. We also full well know th.it alcoholic wines by stimulating the nerves, injure the sight, and also de.ilroy the teetli ; and further, that there are few persons who drink alcohol, whose stomach will digest milk. Alcohol may lirighten the eyes for a while, but the collapse or depression that follows this unna- tural excitement, destroys their native luttre. Dr. Fnrre says, "It is a law of our nature, that the circulation falls off in a greater degree than it is forced." To be the suliject, as all drinkers of intoxicating liquors are, of excite- ment and depression ; to have sparkling eyes for an hour or two, and then dim eyes for as many more, is a state of existence which the Holy Ghost would never applaud. The in- telligent eyes of Judah ; his white teeth, and his capacity to digest milk, are incontestibie proofs that the wine which such a person drank was not fermented. Our lovers of strong drink would do well to pause, and duly weigh the facts of science and history, before they convert the patriarchs into drunkards, exhibiting eyes inflamed and maddened with wine, and borrowing oil their strength and spirit from inebriating poisons. Here, alas I again we must observe, that modern drinkers, reckless of their own health, and of the effects of their own drinking upon others, show equal recklessness towards the charac- ters of holy men of old, and actually attempt to draw them into the awful vortex into which they have voluntarily thrown themselves. In the book of Judges, chap. ix. 13, we read the words, " wine that cheereth the heart of God and man." This passage is often quoted as opposed to total abstinence. But intoxicating drinks produce only tempo- rary excitement, and then leave their victim, though only a moderate drinker, to depres- sion of spirits ; and therefore, can hardly be said, "to cheer the heart." It is often the case, that intoxicating wines produce irasci- bility, anger, malice, and almost every vile passion. Now all these dispositions are the very reverse of the Scriptural idea of cheer or cheerfulness. God's being " cheerei*," or pleased with wine, cannot mean that he drank it, but that he viewed with pleasure and ap- probation, the libations which the people of- fered as a token of worship ; and further, that as a father, he was pleased with what afforded permanent strength and joy to his creatures. But to say that the deity is de- lighted to view that unnatural, unmeaning, irrational, senseless, pernicious cheer, which alcoholic poisons produce, is little better than blasphemy. God, as a God of love, cannot be cheered or pleased with that drink which wages war with the very vitals of the human frame, which poisons the mind and the morals, wliich is one of the greatest obstacles in the way of Ills gospel, inflicts a "second curse" on the church and the world, and drowns thousands in perdition. That Lucifer is cheered or de- lighted at the effects of such a wine is un- questionable, for it has done more than any- thing else to people the abyss in tvhich be reigns ; but to say that He who shed his own blood to save men from perdition, is pleased with that which proves a greater antagonist to his gospel than any other with which it has been opposed, is to cast the deepest reflec- tion on the benevolence of the Saviour. WhatI A God of mer.;y cheered with murders, thefts, prostitution, and vice of every form ! cheered with hospitals, gaols, dungeons, exe- cutions, grave-yards, and the pangs of the lost! Far be it from us to attribute so horrid a cha- racter to the gracious and merciful Iluler of the universe ! Yet if he is pleased with the cause, he must also be pleased with the effeet. We have already proved that alcoholic wines, taken even in small quantities, or drunk mo- derately, are pernicious; and this one fact affords a demonstration that they cannot be " cheering" or pleasing to the heart of Jeho- vah ; when, tlierefore, in the text liefore us, wine is said to "cheer the heart of God," such a declaration proves that the beverage commended, was neither alcoholic, nor intox- icating. Now, OS God was " cheered" with it, without drinking it, why might not man be cheered without drinking too ? The word here rendered wine is " Tirosh,*' which, as we have shown, very generally refers to the fruit of the vine on the tree, and often to the grapes before they are ripe. These, as they grew and ripened, cheered the heart of the husbandman, by promising a full reward to his labors. The fact that it cheered the heart of man, affords additional evidence that it was not a pernicious drink resembling modern port or sherry : nothing can be more absurd than to suppose, that whatever "cheers or rejoices the heart," must be poisoned with alcohol. The Hebrew word nnvf, samach, rendered " cheer" in this passage, is generally used to signify " gladness or joy ;" nov7 every one knows that to a hungry man's heart, bread will impart joy ; to the heart of a thirsty man, water will impart a high degree of joy ; to an intellectual and social being, congenial so- ciety will communicate the choicest joy or " cheer." Hence, in Scripture, " both bread and water" are said to " comfort and cheer the heart." " Eat thy bread with joy, (or nnv, cheer), and drink thy wine with a good heart," are the words of Solomon, showing that bread could " cheer" the heart, and that the man might have a " good or merry" heart before he began drinking. The same idea is expressed Zech. chap. ix. 17, "corn shall WINE THAT CHBERBTU TUB HEART. 99 nnot be cheered hich wages war I human frame, ie moralii, which a in the way of 1 curse" on the rowns thouiande is cheered or de- I B wine is un- more than any- rss in which be rbo shed his own ition, is pleated eater antagonist r with which It le deepesit reflec- tf the Saviour, id with murders, of every form! , dungeons, exe- pangs of the lost! Bi> horrid a cba- iiiful Kuler of the i with the cause, the eifeet. We ilcoholic wines, !s, or drunic mo- id this one fact they cannot be e heart of Jcho- ) text before us, heart of Ood," lat the beverage holic, nor intox- "cheered" with might not man :oo I* Tlie word mA," which, as ly refers to the and often to the These, as they he heart of the full reward to heart of man, It it was not a nodern port or absurd than to ers or rejoices with alcohol. ach, rendered lerally used to ov? every one 8 heart, bread a thirsty man, |ree of joy; to , congenial so- jhoicest joy or " both bread 'ort and cheer with joy, (or e with a good on, showing eart, and that merry" heart same idea is "corn shall make the young men cheerful," yet neither bread nor water is alcoholic; how preposte- rous then to conclude, tliat because the word cheer or Jny is used in this verse, in connec- tion with wine, therefore the wine mentioned must have been intoxicating or poisonous ! Such an argument rests on the assumption, that for a beverage to be " cheering," it must contain in it n stimulating poison ; this is to build on a t'oundntion of snnd, with a witness I That which gives permanent strength to the body, and thus supplies real healthful cheer to the animal spirits, must be nutritious and wholesome. " Comfort thine heart with a morsel of brealesome wine," the nxE oivfrs to hiram. 101 the niyt of le thirat of be want uf uld be pro- ifl heart •( llty. OIt« tint of mo* I twenty or tnd will hU itrenicth in- " Wilt he ''ould not a e of unfer- times more al ? Erery nan phyelo- ttUe. Ill a ays, that in thful or re- le. and that isfqiienoe of heat of the while those re generally istion. , " wine that the heart of t they were DW Ood the knowledge, ' would not ented pernU oittoned and 1 the morals, the heart of fledge of the Is benevolent ould equally irhat is bane- intoxicating ore the wine was not aa I may be lal character was a prin- IWhen £lba t, he put it the wilder- long or sweet Uh." Here, licinal qua- lay not the |maketh glad lion to the frequently ^hen Christ |>er and joy" itease is gen- Iver thanked lot the text medicinal [recommend lily drench Ishould also time, " the I wine," the "utilisslmum et saluberrlmum vinum," was on the authority of medical men themselven, that which had not frrmei d, and to which nothing had lN*en addrd to the Juice. View thU text, tlivri-rure, in whatt^ver light wr may, It nifordii nn countenance whHteTcr to thn uae of inoiliTii wlnP!«, bf>pr, or cidrr. Ill Driit. xiv. '2ii, w«> rrad, " Thou innycnt bettdW the money for tvhnti'ver thy kouI dc- iiireth, for nxoii, fur (>hi't>p, lor tviiip, nr strong ilrink,"iS(c. Ilnviiig nlreiuly e );|iliiiii«>(l the tni'unini; of »linciir, nnil shown that it chipfly r»'lVrii to pnlm wini», which wns « "nwt-ct luN<-iou« wine," and ihiTi-fore nit wi-nk us it WAK nwcpt ; having aluo provi'd that the wiiiPH of Palpsiine wercKWeet, boiled, and coiiM*qu('iitly free from alcohol ; and haviiiK Nhown from Nehemiah that **«wect winen" were u^rd at Jfwiith feHiivals; this pa«8age can afford no evidpiice that total ab- stinence is contrary to the law of Mohcs; that poisonous alcoholic wines were uoed at the PAKWver, or ou^ht to be drunk in our day. Suppo«ing that any lover of wine could show thut what was here left perfectly op- tional to the Jewish people, Is now become a rigid law binding all good Christians to drink wines, whatever may be the conse- quence ; still, even then it could only com- mand us to drink such wines and sweet drinks as were in use in the days of Mo- sea. You must not only bring us the com- mand, but produce the liquor also, or else the injunction would he null and void. But in this direction there is nothing binding up- on us, nor can the lea>tt evidence be produced that the drinks mentioned were Intoxicating. The wine mentioned in 2 Chron. ii. 10, which Solomon agreed to give to Hiram, King of Tyre, has sometimes been brought forward as a reason why we ought to drink poisonous wines and brewer's beer. The ar- gument stands thus: Solomon gave Hiram "twenty thousand baths of wine;" there- fore Christians ought to drink port, sherry, and brewer's beer, &c. 1 1 But unfortu- nately, Solomon gave Hiram twenty thou- sand bnths of oil : just as much oil as he did wine, and therefore if we are to do all that Solomon did, we are bound to take as much oil as we do wine ! Further, as this argument is based upon the hypothesis that we are to do everything that Solomon did, it would naturally follow that we ought to worship as many idols as he did ! It is wor- thy of remark, that the account of this bar- gain, recorded in the Book of Kings, omits to mention the wine as a part of the food for Hiram's household ; may we not therefore conclude, that the wheat and the barley were fur Hiram's household, and that the oil and the wine were intended fur the market of Tyre ? Ezekii 1 mentions the wine of Helbnn or Damascus as one of the important articles of the trade of Tyre, and we have before shown that this wine was even brought from Tyre to England. But be that as it may, the fort that Solomon gave Hiram 30,000 baths of the sweet wines, or acid wines of Palestine, can never miggest that we ought to drink liquors which are destroying the health and mnrnU of the country. KccIph. ix. 7. "Drink thy wine with a merry heart." in naid to conntpnnnre the use of Intoxli'dling Ii(|unr8. But here the sub- ject to he |irnvi-il is asuumeil. Not a particle uf evidence can he iidduceil to show that this wine wan an iiu-hriating l|f|uor. If it was the "wine of Leimnon" it hud been boiled, and unlcfiH it wuh drut(ged could not iiitoxl- cute; and we will not iiiKUlt the Holy Spirit by InitiriuntiiiK thut he commanded the people to drink liquors adulterated with poison*. If it was the " wine of Hellion," then It was 8%veet, and therefore was not strong. If it was sour wine, such as Cuto made, and which was in use in the time of llouz and of our Lord, then the acetous fermentation had taken place, and destroyed the hpirit of the wine. ^Vhichever of these drinks was re- commended, we are sure that it bore no re- semblance to modern port or sherry, or ale or porter, and therefore cannot sanction the use of such liquids. It should be observed that, in the verso above, we have the words, " Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry (Hebrew, with a good) heart," show- ing that the bread rather than the wine was the source of " Joy." The word rendertd "joy," ulfo, Is the term nrzv, which in Judges is translated " wine that cheereth the heart of God and man," and in Psalm civ., " wine that mnketh glad the heart of man." I can hardly believe that the Holy Spirit, who well knows the character of Intoxicating liquors, would ever recommend any individual to drink alcoholic poisons with a " good heart ;" this would be to encourage the use of a beve- rage which has caused, and is still causing, an unparalleled amount of disease, misery, crime and death. Besides, as they were to drink with " a good heart," it intimates that they were to have the " good heart" before they began to drink, and therefore did not get this good heart out of the wine bottle. The man who will tell us that modern port or sherry will produce a good heart, deserves not to be reasoned with. I have heard the words, "Give strong drink unto him that is weary," &c. advanced as a reason for the daily use of our modern dele- terious drinks ; but unfortunately for this argument, the text quoted recommends total abstinence to men in health, and proposes to confine the use of wine and sweet drink to those who are diseased. " It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor princes sweet drink. Give sweet drink to him who is ready to fuint, perish, or die, and wine to him whose life is embittered by affliction ; let him drink and forget his bit- terness, and remember his affliction no more." Here the medicinal qualities of wine are re- ferred to ; and further their use is prohibited ■{J : III 102 WINKS OP 8CRIPTi;ni:. ft' 1 f'l In ktiiK* nnd writer, liiHti-ud ul' UKMitloiiliiK nine bad n'connnendi'd rhu- barb and bad Maid, "(iivn rhulmrb to tliu dliwaMi'd iind alllicted : would tli« wini>-bib- IwrN of our day bav« atm-rti'd that thx text Intlinatt'd that all prmont In bi>alth iMi){bt to tako dally potntloim of tlni-tur« of rbubarb? Yet tliiit would liAve bcrii juHt hh reaHonabli> IM to conclndi' that, becanxH winit and HWert drink an? pndiiliitcd from all but tbn diHeaxed, tbcndbri' it ix tin; duty of every ono to Unn them. It may be objected, that tlwuu winew wrrn Htupefactivo, be<;ausiu they produced for- ({L'tfulneim. Urantod; utill, an tliey wen* *' sweet," they were not alcoholit; ; and I have before iihown from Homer that whien mi){ht be ai " sweet as hinn^y," and yet when " tem- pered with druKM," posxcNs amazing power to Hfrii|M>rtiiiii on an it !• aliuiti niarriiii;!' ut' ('aim \vnh'ttKiit dues not mean liitoxli-nlion in the iriHlern con- veiitioiiiil ncreptntliin of the word. The people at the iiiiirriiii(n of Cana, were drunk wilJiiMit being iiiliixirated ; and JiHieph'it hretlireii were "(/''»*"'•"'. miTry with lilm," lili'riilly "drunk with Itini," and yrt tliey were not polsulird with alcohol, nur uluprlled with drill;* I'liul's recomtnendalion of wine for the disea>ed ^tolllIll'll ut 'I'lmolliy, Is ainioht in every one'n nioiiili as atfurding iin irrefrat(iiblft i/''^iinient why men, who have no dlKeaoe at ■ill, ulionld drink iilcoholli' liquors daily. The case hrre is a iiiedinil one, and ihereCore can niViird no rule to regulate the ciuidiict of pernoiiN in lieiilth. What if e|isoiii sails had then liecn ill exist.-nce, and the npo>lle had directed Titnolhy to take a dose now and then? I think the very tender consci''iicei» of our modern lovers of strong drink would not have liceii pained, alllioii'.;li science and history has .iiinoiinced that total ab^tinenct from that medicine was niucli the best thing for persons in health. If because remedies for the sick are mentioned in Scripture, therefore persons who re not sick are placed under a sacred obiigatinn to u-n' them daily, then oiiclit we not merely to adopt the winu recommended to Timothy, but all the other remedies prescribed in Holy Writ. As n plaster of li;;s was commended to ilezeklah, we onijht every one of us to wear the same external application ; and as, in exact accor- dance with the ancient medical advice of CeNus. St. .Tames recommends tlie sick to bo anointed with oil, then ou;;Iit we every day of our lives to rub our bodies with that In- gredient, and instead of adopting the doctrine of "extreme unction," we surely oii'^ht to teach and enforce the great duty of "daily unction," as a (practice enjoined in Scripture, because James din 'ted this remedy for the siirk ! Indeed, oil is very frequently spoken of in the IVible in the highest terms, and certainly placed im n par with wine ; and yet I do not find any persons whose c(Uisciences are alllicted because they do not make a greater use of oil, or who consider that they are bound to employ it, although their doing so should destroy thousands annually. But those who plead the apostle's commen- dation to Timothy, would do well to consider what wine it was which St. Paul prescribed. There then existed in the Roman empire, tIirou<;h which Timothy had to travel, hun- dreds of different sorts of wine, and the cha- racter of very many of them the very oppo- site to each other — will our opponents tell us which of these it was that Timothy was to drink? Aristotle, Pliny, Columella, Philo, and others, some of them contempo- rary with St. Paul, affirm that many of the wines of that day produced " head-aches, dropsy, madness, dysentery, and stomach complaints:" — did the Holy Spirit recom- mend these ? The same writers tell us that y (li 104 WINES OF SCRIPTURE. i! :l wines destitute ofail strength were exceeding- ly wholesome and useful to the body, " salu* bre corpori :" — did he recommend these? Pliny and Columella give us various redpes for making medicinal wines, and some ofthese are particularly commended for a diseased Btomach, "ad imbecillem stomachum," and for Kcneral debility. Such was myrtle wine, ■quill wine, &c. : — were these prescribed? Surely the apostle did not recommend to " his own spiritual son, whom he tenderly Icved in the gospel," those wines which would in- crease the complaint in his stomach and his general debility. It could not be port, or sherry, or beer, or cider, that he prescribed, because these did not then exist ; and if they had, as they would have produced as many ulcers on the weak stomach of Timothy in the A. D. 50, as they did on the healthy sto- mach of St. Martin in 1826, they could not have been commended by the Holy Ghost. What a bad cauiie that must be, which requires for its support that we should convert the holy apostle into an empyric who poisoned his patient by prescribing for hii diseased sto- mach a liquor that increased Ms maladies ! Is it not more rational to conclude that it was an innocent or a medicinal wine which Timothy was directed to use. 'Tis true, the wine is not named, because the common sense of the patient in this case, would induce him to take as a medicine, medicinal wine. "The wine put into new bottles," is spoken of as an illustration, and therefore contains no commendation of any wine what- ever. You might as well say, that because we are to take the helmet of salvation, and the breast-plate of righteousness, therefore every real Christian ought to dress himself in ancient armour, as to argue that because our Lord borrows an illustration of his dis- course from wines, therefore .we all ought to drink alcoholic drinks. But independent of the incoherence of this absurd argument, it can be shown that the reference in the text is to an unfermented wine. If the wine had already fermented, then it would not have fermented again to such a degree as to have burst the vessels: if it had been intended to allow it to ferment, the mouth of the vessel would not have been closed, the carbonic acid would have been permitted to escape, and "Dnsequently would not have burst an old buttle. No man who wished his beer to work wouli] bung up the cask ; and no person who wished wine to ferment would be so fool- ish as to tie up the mouth of the bottle. Fer- mentation, if contined, would burst the strong- est cask, but if left open for the carbonic acid to escape, an old vessel would not be endan- gered. The art required was, to keep the new wine from fermenting, not to keep the bottleb from bursting. The new bottle was not stronger than an old one ; probably not quite so strong ; besides, fermentation. Job tells us, would burst "new bottles." The difference between the new bottles and the old consisted not in the relative proportion of their strength, but arose solely from the fact that the new bottles had in them no fermentable matter. The wine would naturally soak into a skin bottle, and when it was poured ont, the oxy- gen of the atmosphere would render the inner coat of the skin fermentable, and new wine put into such a bottle would certainly ferment and burst the vessel. Mr. Beardsall, of Man- chester, who has succeeded in making unfer- mented wine, happened to put some into old ginger-beer jars, but, to his astonishment, the bottles began to burst, and, on examining them, he found that they had not been washed clean ; some yeast, used in making the gin- ger-beer, remained on the inside of the bottle, and this caused the wine to ferment. So the old skin liottle was fermentable, and therefore would cause the new wine to work. The new wine in the new jars of Mr. Beardsall kept very well, but that in the old jars fer- mented and was lost. A new bottle or skin also would be less porous than an old one, and therefore more effectually exclude the air ; the oxygen of the atmosphere is essential to the vinous fermentation of grape juice ; if excluded, the wine cannot ferment, and a new skin would more effectually shut it out than an old one. Further, wool and hair are bad conductors of heat. Hay, hair, or wool, are the best things to preserve ice in, if we wish to keep it from melting. Tho wool and hair of new skins would be more perfect non-conductors of heat than of old ones, just as a new garment is a better non- conductor than an old one ; and in this respect a new skin vrua preferable to an old one to prevent fermentatiou. This exposition ex- actly accords with the design of the illustra- tion. The duties which the Pharisees wished to impose upon the disciples were like new wine ; and the hearts of the disciples were like old bottles, which have in them fermen- table matter, and are ill adapted to resist and exclude heat and air ; our Lord, therefore, very wisely objects to the admission of new wine into such imperfect vessels. Contrary to nature, these spiritual bottles would get pure and unfermcntable in time, and then be aide to contain new wine, and preserve it without fermenting. We must not then forget that our Lord alludes to bottles that would entirely preserve the wine from fer- menting, rather than to those which could bear the fermentation of wine without break- ing. I have seen the strongest bottles shat- tered by the vinous fermentation of small- beer ; I have known the strongest casks burst by the fermentation of cider in conse- quence of its having been bunged up before the liquor had done working ; and a new skin bottle would have been rent by the fer- mentation of new wine. The vessel they required was not one that could bear fermen- tation without breaking, but one which i /.' OLD AND NEW WINE. 10.5 Id conHisted >{r strength, lat the new ible matter, into a skin nt, the oxy- er the inner 1 new wine inly ferment lall, of Man- tlcint; unfer- me into old ishment, the examining been washed ing the gin- >f the bottle, ;nt. So the nd therefore work. The r. Beardsall old jam fer- ottle or ekin an old one, exclude the 'e is essential tpe juice ; if nent, and a y shut it out ol and hair lay, hair, or serve ice in, elting. Tho [lid be more than of old better uon- n this respect n old one to position ex- the illustra- 9S wished to ■e like new scipks were i«m fermen- to resist and d, therefitre, iion of new Contrary would get and then be preserve it not then bottles that le from fer- which could thout break- iottl<*8 shat- m of small- ingest casks in conse- d up before and a new by the fer- vessel they war fermen- one which would effectually preserve the wines from fermenting; and, therefor.', the text alludes to the custom of preserving wines from fer- mentation, which both Pliny and Columella inform us was common at that very period when the Saviour uttered these words. It is worthy of observation ihat our Lord epeaks of new skins as adapted to preserve wine fromxworking, and Columella, in giv- ing the recipe for making unfermented wine, especially directs that it should be put into new amphoras, and to n nder them more proof against the air, orders them to be plas- tered with pitch, lime, or gypsum. I have noticed that when preserves have I'ndergone the acetous fermentation, it has always been in consequence of the porous character of the pots in which they were put, or the admis- sion of air through the covering. Need I say how exactly this interpretation agrees with the idea which our Lord's discmirse is intended to convey. That religion, ur those principles, which are weak, are easily agit.i- ted and put into a state of spiritual fermen- tation ; they are fermentable, and readily penetrated and agitated by every wind of doctrine ; but those which are firm, strong, and mature, are like new, pure, im|,nrous bottles, and therefore preserve the heart from needless agitation. I just now hinted at a passage in the book of Job, which alludes to the custom of preserv- ing wines from fermentation : " Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles." Job xxxii. 19. This text shows that wine, in a statft of fermentation, would burst even " new bottles." In such a case, all the care necessary to prevent fermentation had not been taken. Perhaps the bottle wus not quite full, or may not have been closed im- mediately, or may have been put into a very warm place, or the juice may not have been properly filtered ; and, in either case, the ad- mission of heat and air would have set the wine to work. But it is evident that the de- sign was to keep the liquor from fermenting. Else why close the bottle? All the wine asked fur was a vent for the carbonic acid ; it was, therefore, only to untie the bottle, and all would have been saved. Besides, if they had wished to have a fermented wine, they would not have closed the vessel untfl the working was over ; but, in their anxiety to keep the liquor from working, they often risked their bottles, and sometimes even " new bottles" were rent. This fact most iin<^uestionably proves that there was a cus- tom, both in the days of Job and of Christ, of endeavouring to preserve the juice of the grape from fermentation, and our Lord's re- marks show that the attempt was generally successful, while the words of Eliliu inti- mate that it sometimes failed. They were driven to this custom by the character of their fruits, and the heat of the climate. The fruits were so sweet that only a weak wine could be produced by fermentation, and the heat of the country soon caused these weak v/ines to become sour and ropy, and therefore great efforts were made to pre- vent fermentation altogether. Besides, ther>t is reason to believe, that the people relished the pure sweet juice of the grape, and there- fore were anxious to preserve it as near as possible in its native pi rity. In connection with the preceding words, our Lori said, " No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better." This passage is said to favor the idea of fermented wines, but in what way it is difficult to see. The words might be read " no drinker" of old wine im- mediately desireth new, &c., and may simply allude to taste. The drinker, or he who has a taste for old wines, does not prefer new; and the same is true of the drinker of the new wine, he does not prefer what is old. We have among us different tastes : one man pre- fers new beer, and another prefers old, and of course the tastes of such persons are opposed to each other. But the words may be further explained. Old wines among the Romans signified weak wines, very thick wines, wines that had not fermented and would not ferment. Pliny says that the opimian wine, which was the oldest wine, was " as thick .;s honey :" it was therefore a sirup rather than what we should call wine, and was as weak as it was thick ; for the same naturalist tells us that out of all their multitudes of wine, " the Falernian was the only one that would burn." He adds, "Levissimum est quod celerrime inveteratur, minus infestat nervos quod vetustnte dulcescit." " The lightest wine is that which becomes old the soonest, and that which sweetens by age is less inju- rious to the nerves." Yet these aged or feeble vtines, these light and sweet wines, were much sought after; not for their strength, but for their weakness. Various arts were employed to give their wines a premature old age. They pLiced them in fumaria and ovens for this purpose, that they might be inspissa- ted and sweetened by the heat and smoke. " Inveterari vina succisque castrari ;" " Wines were rendered old or feeble and sweet, and completely deprived of all their strength by the filter." A. sweet weak wine was therefore the "old wine" most sought after, so that we have no reason to conclude that because a wine was old, therefore it was a strong alcoholic drink. It is a query whether ii» the time of Christ such a wine would have found a single taste which it would have suited. The unfermented wine which I have made has gvcatly improved by age. The longer it has been kept, the richer and finer its flavor has become, and therefore has most fully illustrated the truth of this passage. But our Lord, we are told, drank wine at the Passover, and was called "a wine>bibber," and he did not deny the charge. In answer to the latter remark, it may b« /^ 106 WINES OP SCRIPTURE. I '' aaid, that he was called a glutton at the same time. Was the charge of gluttony true? Who will dare assert that it was ? Yet he did not deny it ; and why ? His enemies, and every one else, knew that it was false ; and if the gluttony was falM, why not the wine-bibbing? It should be observed that the word rendered " wine-bibber," simply means a " wine-drinker ;" yet in this pas- sage, a wine-drinker and a glutton are placed on a par, pluinly showing that in those days it was a disgrace for a man to be an habitual drinker of wine, and consequently that water, and not wine, was the general drink of the people. To say that, because the Jews falsely accused ;ur Lord of being an habitual wine-drinker, tnerefore we ou^ht to drink alcoholic puisons, is the same as to say, that because they falsely accused him of " glut- tony," therefore every Christian ought to be an epicure or gourmand ! As for the wine drunk at the Passover, we have the best proof that it was not fermented. The word ynn, Chomets, in Hebrew, signi- fies " leaven," " vinegar," and every kind of fermentation. It refers alike to the panary, the vinous, and the acetous fermentation, and where it stands for an evil doer, desig- nated " vir corruptus," or a co Tupt man. stands for the putrefactive fernoentation. Now, the Jews at the Passover were com- manded to have tio leaven in their houses ; and they, from that day to this, understood the term to refer just as much to fermentel liquors as to fermented bread, and therefore at the Passover were exceedingly careful that no fermented wines should be among them. Mr. Herschell, a converted Jew, in a work recently published, states that "the word chomets has a wider signification than that which is generally attaclied to " leaven," by which it is rendered in the English Bible, and applies to the fermentation of corn in any form, to beer, and to all fermented li- quors. "While, therefore, there are four days in the Passover week on which business may be done, being, as it were, half-holidays, a distiller or brewer must suspend his business during the whole Passover. And I must do my brethren the justice to say, that they do not attempt to evade the strictness of the com- mand, " to put away all leaven," by any in- genious shift, but fulfil it to the very letter. I know an instance of a person in trade who had several casks of spirits sent him, which arrived during the Passover. Had they come a few days sooner, they would have been lodged in some place apart from his house until the feast was over ; but du- ring its continuance, he did not think it right to meddle with them, and therefore had the spirit poured into the street. It is said, that not long since, a Jew on the continent staved in several casks of wine that were on his pre- mises, and which he had not been able to dis- pose of previous to the Passover. At the pre- sent day, the Jews are especially careful in preparing their wine for the Passover, and make it by pouring water upon dried grapes or raisins, much in the same manner that Columella prescribes for making the wine which the Romans called " Passum," and which Polybius says, females were allowed to drink, because it would not intoxicate, and was used to quench thirst. It may be said, if the Jews had any unfermented wines among them, they might have used them without having any fermented liquor on their premises, or violating the divine command, to "put all leaven or ferment out of their hoHses." True. But then it must he ob- served, that the fear, lest any of their wines should have undergone any kind of fermen- tation, the vinous, acetous, or putrefactive, induced them to manufacture a new drink from the " passa uva," or dried grape, which they were assured could not be subject to any kind of fermentation. It is, therefore, certain, that our blessed Lord did not use fermented alcoholic liquor at the first sacrament. It is in allusion to the wine made from raisins, and which was much inferior to the pure juice of the grape, that our Lord says, " I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until I drink it new in my heavenly father's kingdom." As though he had said. Now we drink " passum," wine made by pouring water upon dried grapes; then we shall drink virgin wine, the blood of the grapes of paradise, the nectar of ?:e sons of Aaron totally to abstain; and erery one who will candidly examine this subject, must perceive that there are just as good reasons why the worshipers of God should avoid the inebriating poisons of our day, as could be assigned for the prohibition Imposed upon Aaron. It may here be objected, that as the Jews were allowed the use of wine at some of their feasts, it is evident that the Supreme did not expect all his worshipers to abstain. To this we reply, that there were two sorts of wine and sweet drinks : the one, unfermented and innocuous ; the other, drugged and inebriating. When, therefore, wine was permitted, the Jews knew, from the benevolent character of the Deity, who gave the permission, that the drink allowed, was " the pure blood of the grape ;" and when wine or sweet drink was prohibited, they also knew, from the purity, and pity, and kindness of their divine Legis- lator, that the beverage was that which was inebriating. Having but one sort of wine among us, and that generally highly intoxi- cating, — the weakest, probably, being far more intoxicating than the strongest among the Jews, — we find It difficult to reconcile a com- mand not to drink wine, with the permission to use wine and sweet drink. But let our cin^umstances b« changed ; let there be two kinds of wine in the land, aa there were in Palestine and Rome ; and let it be well understood that the one is innoc- uous, and the other highly injurious to men's minds, health, and morals, then should we have no difficulty in reconciling the prohibi' tion from drinking wine with the permission to use it. Under such conditions, the ob- tusest intellect would thus reason : " A God of love, out of pure love to us his creatures, allows us to use the wine which is harmless, and prohibits us from drinking that which would be pernicious." Every advocate of total abstinence will now say, " Get me some of the nutrient ' innocent' wine of Pales- tine or Rome, and I will drink it ; but from the inebriating trash which the Jews or Ital- ians drugged, or the Portuguese or English ferment, or adulterate with alcohol, I totally abstain :" and in this noble resolution he acts, in accordance with the will of God, aa unfolded in the physiology of our bodies, and the commands and cautions of the same be- nevolent Legislator, revealed to us in the holy Scriptures. The Nazarites, or persons who separated themselves to the Lord by a vow, were en- joined to observe total abstinence. It wai said, " He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, nor vinegar of strong drink ; neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes." We have before observed, that in warm countries, the vinous fermentation would generally be followed by the acetous : and here we have not only wine and strong drink spoken of, but also " the vinegar of wine and the vinegar of shacar, or palm wine," agreeing exactly with what science and observation suggest and affirm respecting the fermentation of sweet drinks in a warm climate, or in warni weather. The prohibition of the Nazarite appears to have extended to every liqnor of the grape, whether fermented or not ; and the reason of this may have been, lest by any means the one should be mistaken for the other ; and, being inadvertently overcharged with liquor, he might break his vow. Know ing the sanctity of such an individual, some of the impious drunkards of the day might have attempted to deceive him; and there- fore, that he might be perfectly secure, God commanded him to abstain from the fruit of the vine altogether. Philo tells as, that " fitrgetfulness and rashness, or folly," were two of the great evils that arose from drink- ing wine. How important, then, was it, that he, who was separated to God by a so- lenm vow, should be laid under such restric- tions as were most calculated to prevent hb falling away. We see, therefore, that the total abstinence of the Nazarite was intimately connected vl I n no WINBt or ICRIPTURK. \k with hit being " holy unto the Lurd." Nuw, uiii I the Cbrialiaii (lispeiiiiatioii, which is intended, more than any other, to be a dis- pensation of Iioliness, surely believers ought especiaily to alMtain from every thing that may endanger their piety and purity : and when we consider how many professors of religion are annuoliy lost to the church, in eonsequnnce of the use of inebriating drinlcs, we cannot sufficientiy estimate the advantage to Christian purity that would follow the universal adoption of totul abstinence. It was particularly commanded, that nei- ther Samson nor his mother should "drink wine or strong drinlc :" and we have reason to believe that the injunction was neither ar- bitrary, nor intended for tlie instruction of that generation only. Gud works by means ; and, in performing a miracle, rarely acts contrary to bis own natural laws. Now, we are told by some medical physiologists — in- deed, it was asserted by some of the medi- cal men examined before the Committee of the House of Commons — that the use of al- coholic drinks by piirents is often attended with the most disastrous consequences to their children ; and that the offspring of these, wine, beer, or spirit-bibbers, are born in a state of disease. We also know that the use of these liquors, even in moderation, must debHitate the frames of persons of all ranks and ages. If, then, Samson or his mother had drunk these poisons, a twofold miracle would have been necessary : first, the deleterious effect of alcohol must have been cured ; and, secondly, the remarkable strength for which he was renowned, imparted ; and therefore, that the Spirit of God might have a healthy body on which to display his power, the an- gel directed that the mother should drink " neither wine nor strong drink," and tiiat the son should be "a Nazarite from the day of his birth to the day of his death," and, consequently, never use any kind of intoxica- ting liquor. " All Scripture, given by in- spiration of God, is profitable for our instruc- tion ;" and therefore the injunction given to the mother of Samson was intended to in- struct future ages, and to point out, what science and history have since demonstrated, that debility of body would be the result of either parents or children drinking inebria- ting drinks, or indulging in luxury. While then, the laws of the Nazarite associated to- tal abstinence and purity together, the re- markable strength of Samson taught that health, bodily vigor, and entire abstinence from inebriating poisons were most intin^.ate- ly connected. The experiment of totil ab- stinence, in this countvy and in America, has most fully confirmed these truths. Thou- sandii who were sickly and weak as long as they drank intoxicating liquors, by abandon- ing them, have become strong and liealthy ; and thousands that before, through the cor- rupting Influence oft sde strong drinks, were the pesta of society, have, alnec they bav* given up the poisonous bowl, become reapeot- able and moral, and have sought that grace which has made them spiritual Nazar- ites. Not a few, also, who before were ren- dered inert and uselera by the corporeal and mental poison of alcrhol, since they have left off touching or tasting this pernicious bane, have been re-coi:«ecrated to God, and are now eminently active uui useful Christians. The writer of " Tee- total ism weighed in the balances and found wanting," has felt himself so sorely pressed with the example of Samson, that he has denied the inspiration of the angel — (doubtless the Redeemer him- self, in the form of an angel,) who directed Samson's mother to abstain, and who com- manded that her son should be " a Nazaritn from his bir'i:h to his death." He says, "I conjecture no one will be sufficiently bold to claim inspiration for the tee-totalism of Sam- son." It was the Lord Jesus himself that commanded Samson's mother to practise total abstinenre. His words are most emphatic: " Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink," We cer^ tainly u) by Schleusner, is, "nbHtlneo omnis potuB inebriantU usu — I abstain from the use of all intoxicating drinks." It is rather re* markable that the interpretation of the lexi- cographer should contain the very words of the tee-total pledge. In Philo, these terms are repeatedly used, and there Is scarcely an Instance in which they do not express total abstineuoe. The existence of such a word, OS expresdive of vigilance and watchfulness, shows tliat the ancients associated tlie use of wine, and mental slumber and Idleness to- gether; and, in the very structure of this word, enjoined entire abstinence on those who would be vigilant, watchful, and able both to attend to their duties, and compete with their enemies. How many who have become an easy prey to Satan and sin, might have stood, if they had attended to the primitive advice contained in the word vtiipart, " be vigilant," or rather, " do not drink, for your adversary goeth abjut as a roaring lion 1" and who so likely to b»> come a prey as those who are in the habit uf using intoxicating drinks ? " Wine and new wine take away the heart," says Hosea ; and Again, " The princes have made him (the king) sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hunds with the scorners." Habakkuk Adds, "He transgresseth also by wine; he is a proud man — who eniargeth his desire as hell." Here we are told that wine takes away the heart, produces sickness, induces scorn, transgression, and insatiable desire ; so that the nine-drinker becomes heartlt>s8, diseased, a mocker at religion, a transgressor of God's commands, and burns with an unquenchable thirst, and the most ungovernable lusts and passions. What a picture of the effects of intoxicating drinks! Yet all this depravity of conduct might have been avoided i)y total abstinence; for the Holy Spirit himseli^ in the texts quoted, has attributed these evils solely to drinking. What force such exam- ples give to the command, "Be sober, vii^art, Do not drink!" O ne of the most awful pictures of the effects of drinking is given us by Isaiah : — " Woe unto them that rise up early, that they may follow strong drink, and continue until night, till wine inflame them ! And the harp, and the viol, and the tabret, and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts : but they regard not the work of the I^ord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore, my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and the multitude are dried up with thirst; therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure ; and ^beir glory, an4 their mi|ltiti)de, and their pomp, and lie that rejoiceth, shall descend into it."— Isa. V. 11—14. Here we have, at one view, an epitoin* of the dreadful consequences of drinking. God and his works and dispensations an; dis< regarded, and spiritual Ignorance is the result. God's wor-ihip Is neglected; the people art* enslaved, degraded, famished, and parched with thirst: th« most honorable and respec- table are brought to ruin ; and, in consequence of the aboundings of disease and crime, the grave is enlarged, and " hell opens her mouih without measure." Need we stay to remark how closely the description of the prophet answers to the effects of drinking in our own country ? Here, in a land of Bibles and re- ligious ordinances, the ale-house and the gin- shop have been, on a Sabbath day, on an average, better attended than the house of God. Drunkards, and the children ofdrunk- ards, and even of many moderate drinkers, are Ignorant as Hottentots, thousands of fami- lies are dally lieing starved, famished, and ruined, our grave yards are enlarged, and the grave constantly kept open, and the abyss beneath is being hourly peopled with impeni- tent drinkers. Sixty thousand drunkards in our own country die annually; many die drunk, and all die prematurely in consequence of drinking. Every ten minutes, therefore, the gate of death is opened to admit some poor : ictim of strong drink to the bar of God to receive sentence from that Judge who has said, " The drunkard shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven." As we do not bury by night, but only through about eight hours of the diiy, the grave is opened every three minutes to admit the mortal remains of some poor wretch who has been slain by strong drinks. And If to the list of drunkards we add those who are poisoned and destroyed by moderate drinking, and others who perish by murder, starvation, grief, and other evils resulting from inebriating liquors, we may safely affirm that during the common burial hours, the grave is every minute kept open in conse- quence of moderate and immoderate drinking. We may, therefore, justly use the words of the prophet and say, " the grave hath enlarged herself, and hell hath opened her mouth without measure." Is it any wonder that a God of love commands us not to " look upon wine ;" that he prohibited it from his Naza- rites and priests; that he never gave it to his prophets, nor placed it before those whom he miraculously supplied with food, or, in other words, fed ut his table ? When Christ changed the water into wine, it was produced as a luxury, and not as an article of diet. In other cases, when God bos miraculously fed the multitude, he, in no instance, produ- ced wine. In the dietetic rules prescribed to the Nazarites, to the priests, to the wife of Mannah, and her son Samson, and to John the Baptist, he particularly enjoined total ab- stinence ; and strange would it have been if, as a God of love and mercy, he had recom* // 80NU OF ISRAEL. iis meiideil a poison wliluh «ii1)ir);es the grnvo, nfid p«o|ile8 the bultuink'sM pit. The only cane ill which hn prodiicHd wine wim at ii festival, and tve know, from his charnoter, that till;* wine was hnrmlcNiit. The only v.a»n in which he commended it to an individual was aa a medicine, and duubtlcHS the wine wan medicinal ; In other instances we fird him, both by hist example and command, enjoining um to ab^itain. A careful examination of the Scriptures will hhow not merely that fermented or in- ebriating drinks are condemned by the word of God, but also, that unfermented wines, for many ages, were not in general use. In by far the greater number of places in Holy Writ in which drinking is referred to, water is the beverage. The drink of Abraham ap- pears to have been water, for when he sent Hagar and Ishmael away, he gave them " a bottle of water." The Angel that appeared to Hagar when in distress, showed her a well of water. Abraham's servant when in Syria, asked of Rebekah duthing but water. The great God, as shown already, gave the Israel- ites in the wilderness nothing but water. Here are upwards of a million people provi- sioned for forty years by the immediate super- intendence of the Creator of the world ; he, and he alone, ordered and regulated their diet, and yet, during all this time, he rigidly confined them to water ; nor do we find that they once murmured, or asked for wine. " They asked for flesh, for leeks, and for gar- lic," but never for wine. At Rephidim and other places, the whole congregation thirsted for water, and murmured for water, but not R word did they utter fur " wine and strung drink ;" a clear demonstration this, that wine at that time was not a common beverage ; else these murmurers had never been silent about the hardship of being confined to water, Gideon's three hundred valiant soldiers were drinkers of water. Both Samson and his mother were commanded of God to drink nothing but water. King Saul had a cruse of water at his bolster in the cave. And if the monarch drank water, we may be sure that his army drank nothing better. David and his men drank water ; for they had nothing but water to give the fainting Egyp- tian. And when Ziba brought him a bottle of wine, he put it by " for the sick." Even at the feast of the drunken Nabal, water ap- pears to have been the chief beverage of the majority of the people. " Shall I take," said the churl, *' my bread and water, and the flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give them unto men that I know not whence they be?" Here it is evident that, at the joyful season of sheep-shearing, nothing but water was pro- vided for the greater part of the guests. It is truQ he and his favorites drank something stronger at his table ; but the next morning bis wine had left him so nervous, that a threat from David the water-drinker frightened him to death. Nabul, the fool, as his name imports, may be taken as a very flilr sample of wine drinking and its I'tft-ctH. Abit;Hil, in her valuable presents to David, brought him no wine. What an omission this uiUMt have been if wine was the common drink. Thu old prophet that came to Jeroboam was com- manded " to eat no bread and drink no water in Bethel," a plain proof that water was the common drink ; and the old prophet that deceived him and brought him back, gave him nothing but water. Elijah was for tt long period supplied with food by the ravens, and had nothing to drink but the water of the brook ; antl when he came to Zidon, he asked of the widow woman no other drink than water. The angel that broug!it him the food that was to carry him to Iforeb, gave him nothing to drink but a crusn of water. Obudiah fed a hundred of the Lord's prophets on bread and water. The king of Israel set bread and water before the army of the Syrians, and it is said, tliat "he set great provision before them." The king of Assyria promised to the Jews if they would submit to him, that they should " eat every man of his own vine, and of his own fig-tree, and drink the waters of his own cistern." Here the fruit of the vine was to be eaten, and the people were to drink water. The traveller in Job went to the brook for water. In Isaiah we read of "the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water." The same prophet says, " bread shall be given and water shall be sure." This is the pro- vision that God engages to make for his peo- ple, but he does not promise them wine, he only pledges his word that for drink they shall have water. Then " with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation," is another gracious declaration of the same in- spired penman, and which receives a beauti- ful illustrati(m from Numb. xxi. 16 — 18. " And firom thence they went to Beer : that is, the well, whereof the Lord spake unto Moses. Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song : Spring up, O well ! sing ye unto it. The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver." Here we find these people as delighted and joyful round a well of water as the sons of dissipation could be over their cups, and in- deed more so : the joy here was rational, it was not followed by depression, nor was the drink that produced it poisonous either to their bodies or their minds. These same Israelites, when asking leave to pass through Edora and other countries, asked for no better drink than water, and proposed to purchase it. Surely if they had been as fond of strong drink as the moderns, we shou?i have heard something about their liuying wine rather than water, and of course if wines had abounded or been a common drink, the Edomites would have been able to furnish them with an am- ple supply. We have shown before that God prescribed 114 WATER. ■ % \ ' '• to th« Nasarltn, to Aaron nnd hit Mm, and to John the Baptist, total and entire ab«tl> nence fVom all inebriating drinlcis and we hare reason to believe that tiie common he> vernKe of the Son of God waa water. Hit disciples went in to the nitjr to buy food, not to buy wine, and the Redeemer, not antici- pating such a beverage, asked the Samnrltan to give him water from Jacob's well. When bis followers also returned, they prayed him, ■ayini;, " Master, eat," not •' Maiiter, drinit." The accusation that he was a " wine-bibl>er," VTM OS great a libel as that he was a glutton ; there is not the shadow of a doubt but that he generally dranic water. These quotations are sufficient on this head, and fully prove that water was the common beverage of the people. There is every rea- aoii to believe, that even their best wines and most harmless wines, were only used occa- aionally at festivals, or as medicines. At any rate, if we will only weigh water-drinklng and wine-drinking, as recorded in the Scrip- ture, in an even balance, we must perceive that water-drinking very greatly preponder- ates, and has the especial sanction of the di- vine command and divine example. He provided diet for a million of people for forty years ; he brought them food and water by miracle, but never allowed them one drop of wine. We are rather surprised that those who are so strenuous for the use of alcoholic drinks, because, as they say, they are com- mended in Scripture, do not stay to consider that God speaks in his Word, in the highest terms, of water; if, therefore, tee-totallers are committing a great sin in avoiding wine and brewers' beer, then wine-drinkers are Binning to a greater degree in rejecting water, because the Word of God speaks more highly of water than it does of wine. But I shall conclude this chapter. From a careful examination of the Word of God, we find that in no single instance, can it be proved that it has mentioned intoxi- cating drinks with approbation ; and conse- quently those who use alcoholic poisons are left without the least sanction from that un- erring guide. Far from commending such drinks as inebriate, it tells us that they " bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder;" total abstinence is therefore in exact accord- ance with the letter and the spirit of the word of God. And when, independent of other reasons, we duly consider the great obligation of self- denial for the good of others, wbich the gospel •njoins, even to the laying down of life itself, should it benefit either friend or foe, the duty of total abstinence is placed beyond the sha- dow of a doubt ; by drinking what is intoxi- cating we encourage others to do the same, and thus our example may lead them astray, and be their rnin. " Destroy not him by thy meat for whom Christ died," is the Apostle's exhortation ; and to enforce it he mentions his own determination ; " Whera- fiire If meat make my brother to offend, t will eat no flesh while the world sUndeth, lest I make my brother to offend." In another place he says, " Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs ;" which evidently prohibits us from seeking the senseless excite* ment of inebriating liquors ; and commands us to olttain the quickening influence of the Holy Ghost. ItiNpirpd by his grace, we shall not want the vile mirth of the drunkard, but shall have the melody of divine love in our hearts, and the praises of God on our tongues. CHAPTER VII. WATER. XoTwiTHSTANniNG the great stress that we lay upon alcoholic beverages, it is a well at- tested fact, that a very great proportion of the world has, for the most ancient times, been In the habit of drinking nothing stronger than water. We have seen that the Bible, which is the oldest record in the world, most fully corroborates this sentiment. That wines were used at festivals, in sacred libations, and also as medicines, none can deny; but then it is equally clear that they were almost, if not entirely, confined to these uses. We have also, from an appeal to history and science, proved that many of the drinks, which in former times were denominated wines, were as free from anything like alcohol as the purest water. In the last chapter I showed that Abraham, Samson, Saul, David, Elijah, John the Baptist, the Prophets, the Priests, and the Nazarites, drank water. The fact, tiiat the Israelites, during the whole time that their diet was under the immediate direction of Jehovah, were supplied with this simple beverage alone, speaks volumes. Were any of us to live with an individual for forty years, and during that period were he to have the sole care of providing us with food and drink, and, although it was Just as easy for him to give us wine as water, yet, if, not* withstanding the large quantity of wine he possessed, he for the whole period kept out of our sight everything alcoholic or intoxicat- ing, and confined us solely to water, I think we should naturally conclude, that he ap- proved of total abstinence. And further, if the person that acted thus was a friend, in whose judgment we could place the highest confidence, and whose sincere regard for us admitted not the least shadow of a doubt, we should very rationally consider that water was better for us than any other liquid ; for was it not so, our friend would provide for us a more wholesome drink. Further, were we in a state of entire destitution, and the same kind- hearted, and very judicious friend compas- sionated our wants, and sent some of his mes- sengers, or some of his most honorable atten- dants to us, with a daily portion of food and . \ UIITORICAL TKSTIMONY. 115 >raham, lin the ' ind the hat the \t their tion of simple ■ ire any r forty he to h food a easy if, not- ine be pt out »xicat- thinic ie ap- her, if c nd, in lighest ■ >, for us bt, we a er was was it more •'.. ' in a I ' ' • kind. inpas. t- ■-■, mes- = ■■ ■ Atten- 1 and drink, and still directed that our only here* rage thould be water, we should bare the Im- pression dnrpeiied that he tborouKhly appro- ved of total abstinence. And a|{aiu, were b«, knowing the close nonnectlou there Is between diet, natural strength, and moral character, and anxious that we should excel in each, under these convictions, to direct that we should avoid all luxurious liviii|;, and never taste " wine or strong drink ;" we should cer- tainly believe, that the principle of total ab- stinence was one which he considered to be intimately connected with our bodily vigor, mental energy, and the sanctity of our cha- racters. And what if thin same personage, on one solitary occasion ut a festival, liud produced wine, or, on another, had recommended a little as a medicine, to one whose storaHch was dlteased ; yet, as in neither of these in- stances, it hud been supplied as an article of diet, we should not allow these isolated cases to remove from us the impression that he was favorable to total abstinence, on nil ordinary seasons of taking food, and for all persons in the enjoyment of health. If to the circumstances mentioned above, it might be added, that althou;;h a million of persons, noted for their disposition to be dis- satisfied and to murmur, had been thu-t fed on the principle of total abstinence, for forty years, yet not a single word of disapprobation had escaped their lips, I think we should say that the people were tee-totallers. And if, fifteen hundred years after the last-mentioned event occurred, we find the descendants of these very people fed by five thousand at a time, and that the individual who feasts them, does so for the purpose of raising his charac- ter in their estimation, and yet at the feast gives them nothing but water to drink ; and the multitude, though not the most contented and best behaved in the world, are so well pleased, that numbers of them follow him becauM " they did eat of the loaves and were filled," we should certainly conclude that the thousands fed were as rigid tee-totallers as the being who fed them. Now I need not add, that the cases thus supposed are the identical facts recorded in Scripture, and that they fully demonstrate that the God of Heaven approves of total abstinence. I have referred to these examples of Holy writ again, for the purpose of putting them in as j.tong a light as possible; and further, that we may be able to show that these absti- nent habits were in exact accordance with tiiose of other ancient countries. We have seen that the king of Egypt drank the juice squeezed out of the grape into his cup; and that the Israelites, who lived in Egypt for so long a time, when recounting the luxuries they enjoyed in the land of Goshen, never mentioned wine, but were perfectly satisfied with water, as their constant and daily beverage. And if Herodotus men- tions that an earthen vessel of wine was brought from Greece and Phosnicia, twice a year into Egypt In the days of Cambyaes; the phraMology shows, that the quantity Im- ported was very small, and was curried thither only "twice • year." In the sama narrative, he also atates, that these earthen vessels were filled with water, and sent to arid places for the people to drink, so " that you would not see there one vessel filled with wine, f 1/ KiQafiioi' oivqlop aflidftifi Kiifitvoy ovK tan iSiaOai," Book iii. 6. The barley wine, of which the same historian speaks, was a vi-ry poor insipid liquor, and yet, aa the wine vessels were filled with water fur the people to drink, even that article- was not a common buvvrage. It is therefore certain, that as late as the time of Cambyses, wina was not in general use ; at that period th« people generally drank water. In the same chapter of Herodotus that we have just quoted, we have an account of the Ethiopians, termed " Macrobinns," because of their longevity. These people, he tells us, were remarkable *' for their beauty, and the large proportion of their body, in each of which they surpassed other men." In the uge of Cambyses " they lived to a hundred and twenty years old, and some to a lunger fteriod ; yet they feasted upon roasted fiesh and used milk for their drink." These people were the neighbours of the Egyptians, and must have been well acquainted with their mode of living, and probably would have been influenced by them if they had been drinkers of wine. This testimony of the father of history is valuable, because it shows that these Etitiopians, who abstained from alcoholic, or intoxicatnig drinks, were tall, strong, handsome, and so noted for their longevity as to be called " Macrobiamt." From a passage already quoted from Ha> mer, we learn tliat Hector, who was con- temporary with Samson, considered wine aa " enervating," and therefore refused to drink any, although pressed to do so by his mo- ther ; and if Hector did not drink wine, we may rest assured that the hero did not ad- minister it to his troops. Pliny assures us that the ancient Romans had not wine to drink, but that water or milk was their beverage ; and we know that both poets and historians dwell on those olden times of total abstinence as the golden age of Italy. We find Virgil describing the ancient inhabitants of that country by the river whose waters supplied them with drink. Homer uses the snme phraseology respecting some of the Greeks. We have shown that the Chaldeans were originally water-drinkers, for we find Abra- ham, who was a native of Ur, of the Chal- dees, using no other beverage ; and when he sent Hagar and Isbmael away, gave them, not a bottle of wine, but a " bottle of water." This he certainly would not have done if wine had been the liquor in common use. The history of Cyrus shows that the an- cient monarchs of Persia did not use wiue; 116 WATBIl. P i . ■ml If the kln{ii prartlMil total alMtlnencii, wn niny b« nurit that thti |N>nplA tlltl not mm a morn rimtl/ tirink thnn their loYerfigim. C«mby«<>* l>«ram« fond nf vrlrir, but ■till wn Irarn i'rnm II<'nt-<. Knd tliey drank intoxicatiiiK drliikn, they woulil huvc been eitlier tiiln, bilioiia, k.'iIIow, nei'vims, c eUe bloated, piniple-rnced t/eiiiijH — uiialili from natural di'liility, to fiillil tb^ ^\'n»t tuoral oblij^ationM of their vovi Thoxe South Sea 1^1. i i rs, who driiil< notiilni; Htron^er than water, moiiM, we ore atsured by eye-wltnesxes, be fine luodi-U lor a Mtatuary. It h aNo itaid tliat thone amorit; tliein wlio drink inebrlatlni; li(|tiorN, beoniiie mere dkeletonit. Captain Uohn, Cnptain I'ar- ry, and the Rev. Mr. Scorexby, have nhown that in the frozen re){ion!(, the healtli of the men >ra!i preserved by their alratalning from ail intoxicating drinks. Tim same fact i* attested by otlier witneHMes who have visited tlie cold climates of the nortii. Dr. Farre, in his evidence before the House of Commons, mentions the case of a gentleman who was taken as a prisoner to Algiers, and doomed to work, diained to another prisoner, from four In the morning until four in the after- noon, under the burning sun of Africa, and allowed nothing to eat but black bread — bread made of black whiat and the vegetable locust, and nothing to drink but water I This per- eon declared to Dr. Farre, that " during the whole time, notwithstanding tlie heat of tlie climate, and the hardness of his labor, he enjoyed perfect health, and had not a day's Illness; when this same individual returned to British fare, he had to consult a physician," It has long been known that thieves and others who have come to our prisons in a state of disease, have soon begun to enjoy excellent health, arising from their being prohibited the use of strong drinkii, and con- tined to water as a beverage. Mr. Mempriss, author of Scriptural Charts, &c., states, that " when he was purser on board a convict ship, they took out to Rotany Bay nearly 300 females in one vessel. These convicts were allowed no other bevera^jd than water, whilst the crew had their regular allowance of grog. On landing at Fidney, all the con- victs were in perfect health, and no case of serious illness, nor <>ny death, had occurred amongst their during the entire voyage, w hich occupied Ti-.arly seven months. Of the crew, some di'.d on the passage, and of the remain- der, icveral were reported sick on landing." This is an important testimony in favor of total abstinence, because the individuals on whom the experiment was made had lived very irregular lives before, and, during these seven months must have been exposed to a very great variety of climate. As one reads this narrative, he cannot help reflecting, that most of these three hundred degraded females might have been saved from infamy, if their parents, guardians and employers, had early intlilled Into their miiidi the principle* of total abMtinence. i'erhnpa there are no p<{ learnt wisiioin from their aflllction or medical treatiiii'nt, (.'a>sar, itpeaking of tlie Rucvi, says that " they were by far the greatest and most powerful ill war of all the nations of Ger- many," and adds, " They live for the most part, on milk and animal food. Wine they do not admit at all to be imported among them, because they believe that by it, men are enervated, made etFeminate, and incapa- ble of enduring labor." How exactly the Judgment of these Suevi accords with tlie facts of history ! The anclvnt nations were powerful in proportion as they were abstinent, and became etTeminate in proportion as they indulged in inebriating liquors. Babylon and Nineveli might have been saved by tee-totaU ism ; it was drunkenness that corrupted them, and made them an easy prey to their enemies. The Persian tec-totaliers took Babylon, in consequence of the citizens being worse than beastly drunk. The Tower of Belus, in its present dilapidated state, aeems to have been preserved until now, as a fearful tomb or monument of that drunken city. We might call it the " Drunkard's Memorial" The Persians, in their turn, adopted the vices of those they had conquered, and then became the easy prey of their enemies. Drunkenness shivered the vast empire which Alexander commanded, and called his own. Rome conquered the world by the valor of her abstinent heroes ; but luxury and intemper- ance paralyzed the energies of her citizens, reduced her to a btatc of dependency on the abstinent barbarian hordes that dwelt on her frontiers, and, at length, made her the easy prey of these courageous tee-totallers. The history of the Saracens and Turks, affords another illustration of the same truth. The luxurious Saracens of Bagdad trembled in the presence of the abstinent Turkn, yielded to their power ; and, in tlieir turn, the Turks, inebriated with opium instead of wine, are passively waiting to be swept away from the face of the earth. And unless we, as a nation, awake from the de- basing vice of intemperance, we, in some future age, shall add another awful example to warn empires and individuals against the use of intoxicating drinks. We now have history, science, and every sort of information, to in- duce us to be wise in time ; and should we be sufficiently prudent to dash from our lipe the poisonous bowl, and sweep the accursed w. i m 118 ▼^ATEB. IfKven or ferment from our honws nnd from the land, vre then ahnll be safe and hnppy : but if deaf to every admonition of God and man. we still continue, by our *' moderation," as we style it, to manufacture drunkards out of ourr sons, dau|^liters, relations, friends and neij^hbours, th«n, as we look at the ruins of Nineveh or Babel, we may read our own doom, future degradation, arid ruin. In a speech delivered at the public meeting of the New British and Foreign Temperance Society, in Exeter Hall, London, May 16th, 1838. Assaad Yokoob Kayat, n native Syrian, Btnted that, in attemptini; the CDnversion of the Mohammediins, the greatest diflSonlty arose from the qnestirm beini; asked him, '• Do not Christians drink strong liquors and gtt drunk?" The Mohammedans said to blm, «• God has given the English the faith they profess : their paradise is in this world ; they will have wine only in this world, and then they will perish. Wine is their pleasure and their paradise. But Mohammedans have not the wine of drunkenness in this world, and they shall have the wine of true pleasure tn the eternal world. A Mohammedan doc- tor being asked. What was the most disgusting sight to his eyes? replied, 'The most dis- gusting sight to me Is a drunken person.' " We often think that the conversion of Mo- hammedans Is almost a forlorn hope ; hut we ought to remember that our habitsof drinking, which to these abstinent people are so horri- bly disgusting, present an almost insurmoun- table barrier in the way of thnir receiving the Christian faith. In how many ways. alas I may it be said, that In drinking wine we are drinking our brother's blood. The individual just quoted remarked, that " he had lately visited Mount Lebanon : there he found the people as large as giants, and very strong and active ; they lived almost entirely on dates, and drank only water, and there were many among them 100, and 1 10 years of age.'' It was wittily observed by this Syrian, that the term " Gin," In the Arable language, means the " Devil." And the facts he advanced provt-d that If we were under the Inspirations of Satan himself, we could not more effectually perform his work than we do, when we drink gin or other al- coholic liquors. By using these drinks, we prejudice foreigners against Christianity ; we shorten human life, and we ruin men's souls ; and I need not add that these are the works of the devil, and the works of gin. Not Lu- cifer is more potent to destroy than gin, and other alcoholic liquors. To the facts already advanced, to show that men are better, stronger, live longer, and are more active and more moral, if they ab- stain from alcoholic liquors, I may add the testimonies of the thousands who have now for several years made trial of the principle. Indeed, without appealing to these, we might learn from the families of drunkards, and from drunkards themselves, that these liquors are far from being necessary. Notwithstand- ing the ardor with which men contend for nutritious properties of th' t drinks, yet it Is well known that (he drunkard generally makes tee-totallers of his wife and his chil- dren, and keeps them, at the same time, on the scantiest and coarsest provislim ; and yet, who enjoys the best health ? — the tippler, or his abstinent family ? Alter all their priva- tions and hardships, the poor half-starved wife and children are in much better health and habit of body than the guzzling husband, bloated witli ale, or poisoned with gin. The extravagance of the drunkard also dooma him, for a great portion of the week, to live hard, work hard, and drink water ; and he is compelled to own that he never is so fit for labor as when he is a tee-totaller. Our principle, therefore, is .:;;ood, " our enemies themselves being judges." •■ But we have other witnesses. The follow- ing is the testimony of harvest-laborers in Bedfordshire. We, the unJersifrneiJ, do testify tliat we hnrvpRted this ycur for Mr. W. R. Partridifp, of l^eeifrave, in the parish of r.iiton, Bedfor^^s^lire, and acted upon the principle of total abstinence from all intoxicatinff drink ; and we feel miirh pleasure in statin? that we have done our work with much less fatigue, less thirst, and enjoyed better health than we did in harvests before, when we drank ale. We used, this harvest, tea, coffee, and toast- water for our drink." (Signed) William Groom, Luton. Rich. Tbavle, lluuf^hfoa Regis. David Teavlb, do. du. Sept. 9, 1837. The following is the declaration of soma stone-masons, at Millbank: — " We not only approve the principle of total abstinence, but have ourselves adopted the prac- tice ; since which, we not only feel better in health, nnd improved in circumstances, but we can work better, and feel less fatigue in its performance, at the same time that our general habits and moral characters are essentially improved." (Si(jned} William Tortoisbshbll, William Blower, Thomas Kino. Sept. 17, 1837. We have another statement, more numer- ously signed. " We, the undersigned operative smiths and cut- lers, members of the New British and Foreign Temperance Society, having acted upon the prin- ciple of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks, wilhiigly state, that since we have done so, we have found ourselves much more capable of performing our work, with less fatigue, with our healths im- proved, and our domestic comforts greatly in- creased," This declanition was signed In London by three coach-spring makers, ivvo coach-spring m.akers' hammermen, one tyresmith, two coiich-smiths, one smith and farrier, one engineer's hammerman, five blacksmiths, one scale-beam maker, and two cutlers. These men varied from the age of eighteen to sixty : and some of them had adopted and practised total abstinence for nearly two years. From Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Preston, the Ironworks of North Wales and Scotland,, we could obtain similar statements. From ministers of the gospel, medical men, females nursing their children ; I • r> )^ // TESTIMONY OF PHYSICIANS. 119 ihstand- teiid for 8, yet i« generally hU chil- tlme, on and yet, ippler, or ir prlya- If-starred er health husband, in. The to dooma k, to live ; and he ■ ia 8(1 fit ier. Our r enemies 'he follow- [tborers in I'p harvpsted l^eexrave, in arted upon intoxicatini? statinff tliat 1p33 fatiKUP, than we did '. We used, ater for our ton. iton Begin. >. do. ion of Boma •iple of total :ed the prac- tter in health, ive can worlt rformance, at ta and moral I'OISESHBLL, BR, [lore numer- liths and out- and Foreign Ipon the prin- loating drinlts, \e 80, we have (of performing \r healths ira- greatly in- London by coach-spring tsmith, two Ifarrier, one lidacksmiths, |\vo cullers, of eighteen [adopted and Inearly two iManchester, of North btain similar the gospel, kir children ; frnm eonflrmpd drunkards, and those who had never been intoxicated ; from the sickly, and those who seemed to be strong, we have the same testimony, that they have adopted total abstinence with the greatest advantage to their health, vigor, comfort, and moral feeling. From the united voices of upwards of one million of tec-totiiUers in England, and from full a million voices in America, we have the same testimony, that study and mental exercise; that bodily labor, whether that of the sedentary mechanic, of the smith, or plowman, turn be performed with less fa- tigue and much more pleasure and comfort by the agent, if nothing intoxicating is drunk. In upwards of a thouxand vessels and ships trading from America to this country, total abstinence is practised. Hundreds of seamen, therefore, exposed to all the hardships of the deep, are p; rforming their labor with much less fatigue, and with infinite advantage to their health and morals, and to the safety of their cargoes. Thus, then, there is one voice in favor of total abstinence which comes from every nation, ancient or modern ; from him who tills the torrid plains, from him who dwells in the frosts of the North, and from liim that cultivates or labors in the temperate zones. The Nazarite, the priest, the prophet, the prince, the general, the soldier, the sailor, the reaper, and the mechanic, in all ages, in all climates, in all countries, have practised total abstinence with advantage. On the other hand, against the use of intoxicating drinks, the voice of science, medicine, phy- siology, and chemistry ; the voice of history, ancient and modern, and of philosophers, historians, and moralists of evt y age, is lifted np. From Revelation, God, who has spoken in all the diseases tl)at these liquors originate, has uttered the most solemn warnings against these drinks. He tells us that tliey have " enlarged the grave, and opened the mouth of hell without measure." And from our hospitals, lunatic asylums, jails, hulks, con- demned cells, and gallows, there is one deep groan, waxing deeper and deeper, and louder and louder, to move us to abstain. From the abodes of wretchedness and starvation, from the couches of ten thousands of the sick, ex- cruciated with every description of pain; from the murdered, the dying, and the im- penitent, perishing in his sins, there issues one appalling shriek, the most thrilling that ever reached the human ear, or pierced the human heart. Heaven, earth, and hell, cry aloud unto us, and command us to abstain. Those sentiments have been sufficiently illustrated by preceding testimonies and his- torical facts; but that nothing may lie wanting, the following decliirations may be of some value. Men the most renowned in science and medicine, have given their most une- quivocal and disinterested opinion in favor of the use of that simplest and purest of nil bev- «Tage8, water. Pliny lays, that " he considered it a great absurdity that mankind ahould bestow to much labor and expense in making artificially such a variety of liquors, when nature hat supplied to their hands a drink of so superior a quality as water. Every scholar remembers the first words in the first Olympian Ode of Pindar, " Apt- arov ittv vdon)," '* water is indeed the best thing. ' The words "living watrr," and "water of life," and " waters of salvation," are in- tended to express ancient opinions respecting the generni use of water, and hi!>li estimation in which it was held. " Spring up, O well ! sing ye unto it!" is one of the beautiful odea of Scripture, addressed by water-drinkers to this wholesome beverasie. The celebrated medical writer, Boerhaave, says, " If drink be required merely for allay- ing thirst or dryness, and diminii.hing the acrimony of the fluids, then is pure water the best drink for robust man. Plain food and water for drink render our bodies the most firm and strong." Dr. Hoffman, a Prussian physician of great note,considered water as a preventive for a great many diseases, as well as an absolute cure of them. " First, because pure water is agreealile to the different natures of all men. Secondly, that no remedy can more effec- tually secure health and prevent disease than water." lie adds, " That drinkers of pure watek- are more healthy and longer lived than drinkers of wines and malt liquors. It gives them a better appetite, and renders them plump and flrshy. Drinkers of water are more alert a. id active in body and mind than beer-bibbers." Speaking of mineral springs, he says, " The major part of their efficacy is beyond all dispute, owing to the quantity of pure elementary water which they con- tain." Zimmerman declares "that water is the most suitable drink for man, and does not chill the ardour of genius." He says, " that the sole drink of Demosthenes was water." Sir John Floyer says, " that water-drink- ers are temperate in their actions, prudent, and ingenious. They live safe from the diseases which affect the head, such as apo- plexies, palsies, pains, blindness, deafness, convulsions, and madn»ss ; water resists pu- trefaction and cools burning heat." Anoiher writer observes, " water-drinkers are more healthy and longer lived than others; in such the faculties of Imdy and mind are stronger : their teeth whiter and more per- fi'ct, and their sight less subject to failure. All drinks supply the wants of nature only by the quantity of elementary water which they contain. Dr. Gregory asserts, " The sole primitive and mail) natural drink is water, which, when pure, is suitable to all sick persons and all stomachs, however delicate. Pure spring water is the most wholesome drink, and the must grateful to those who are thirkiy, 120 WATER. whether sick or well : it quenches thirst, cools the body, dilutes and thereby obtunds the Acrimony, and in various ways strengthens the stomach. And those who cannot drink common well water, can drink it after it has been boiled nnd cooled, and all that needs changing is the temperature and not the liquor." Dr. Cheynesays, " Without any pcradven- ture, water was the primitive original beve- rage, and happy had it been for the race of man if other mixed and artificial liquors had never been invented. Water alone is suffi- cient and effectual for all the purposes of hu- man drinks." Dr. Sanders says, " Water-drinkers are, In general, longer livers, aiid^less subject to a decay of the faculties than those who use other liquids." " Cold water," adds another, " is the most proper beverage for man and for animals ; it cools and clears the blood ; it keeps the stom- ach, nerves, and head in order, and makes man tranquil, serene, and healthful." Dr. Hufeman, on the art of prolonging life, observes that " the best drink is water, a liquor commonly despised and deemed pre- judicial ; it is one of the greatest means of prolonging life." He mention'! a surgeon, " who was a miserable hypochondriac at the age of forty, but was afterwards cured by the use of water, and lived to be eighty, his last years being his most healthy." Dr. Mosely adds, •' I aver from my own knowledge and custom, as well as from that of others, that those who drink nothing but water, or make it their principal drink, are but little affected by climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue without inconvenience." •' Navigators from the northerji regions testify that the greater part of those who die under the severity of the cold are those who drink other drinks than water, while the water- drinkers survive. Dr. Beardley says, respecting the water- drinkers of Asia and the Himmalaya moun- tains, that " they are able to carry a burden of four hundred weight, and that one of them had more strength than three British soldiers." This latter fact was affirmed by a British officer. Dr. Mninwaring, in his " Method and Means of Enjoying Health," asserts that " water is the most wholesome drink, the most suitable for human nature, answering all tlie purposes of common drinks ; it is a drink that is a rule to itself, and requires little caution in the use of it, since none will he tempted to drink more of it than he needs. In the primitive ages of the world, water- drinkers were the longest livers by hundreds of years ; not so often sick or complaining ps we are." Dr. Keill, treating of the stomach in his ** Abridgment of the Anatomy of Human Bodies," says that " water seems the fittest to |)romotc the digestion of food ; ail spirit- uous liquors have a property by which they hurt, rather than help digestion ; those who by a long use thereof have lost their appe- tites, are hardly ever restored without drink- ing water." Dr. Pratt, in his " Treatise of Mineral Waters," shows it to be his judgment, that " if people would drink water, they would be free from many diseases, such as trem- blings, palsies, apoplexies, giddiness, pains in the head, gout, stone, dropsy, rheumatism, piles, and such like. Drinking water strengthens the stomach, causes an appetite, preserves the sight, makes the senses lively, and cleanses all the passages of the body, es- pecially those of the kidneys and bladder." Dr. Duncan, in his " Treatise on Hot Li- quors," says, " They had more health and strength who contented themselves with wa- ter ; that strong liquors raise the heat of the stomach to excess, whereas water keeps it in due temper ; that, by these drinks, the blood is inflamed, and hence arises fluxes, rheums, ill digestion, pains in the limbs, head-ache, dimness of sight, and, especially, hysteric vapors and ulcers." I have, in a former chapter, given the tes- timonies of several medical men against the use of alcoholic drinks, and, of course, if the use of these beverages is injurious, then it naturally follows that water, or drinks no str(mger than water, must be the most whole- some beverages for every individual. Many medical practitioners have given us the premises, but seem to be halting about com- ing to the conclusion. They allow that al- cohol is bad, but do not, as yet, assert that the utter abandonment of alcoholic drinks would be good. However, we have dis- tinguished and honourable exceptions. We have already mentioned Messrs. Higginbo- tham, Beaumont, Jeffreys, and others, and it is with pleasure that we quote the follow- ing testimony of the medical men of Lewes. " We, the undersigned, hereby declare that spirit- uous liquors do not contain nny nourisliment, and that the nutritious matter of malt liquors being combined with a larpre proportion of alcohol, those drinks cannot be taken to any extent without de- triment to health, and are not at all necessary to the labouring man who enjoys good health, and cancommanuasufflciency of wholesome solid food ; that the habitual use ot both spirits and malt liquors is a principal and frequent cause of disease, poverty, crime, and misery, and that abstinence from them woulti greatly contribute to promote the liealtli, good morals, and happiness of the community. (Signed) " Thomas BAiiKEn, M. D. Andrbvv J. DovLB, Surgeon. Thomas Hairb, M. D., Surgeon. Hbnry Moon, Surgeon. 0. Thickwood, Surgeon. Robert Coloatg, Surgeon." Mr. Higginbotham, at the late anniversary of the New British and Foreign Temperance Society, held in London, stated that he knew an old lady of ninety-seven years of age, by the name of Martha Bagshaw, who had suckled twenty-two children; she was a strong hale woman ; she told him that "she had never taken any thing stronger than water while suckling, or a little whey, \ > nR. FRANKLIN. bJl which they ; those who their appe- ithout drinlc- of Mineral dgment, that they would ich as trem- iiess, pains in rheumatism, tiking water an appetite, senses lively, the body, es- d bladder." le on Hot Li- e health and Ives with wa- le heat of the ter keeps it in riks, the blood ixes, rheums, )s, head-ache, ally, hysteric given the tes- n against the course, if the rious, then it or drinks no e most whole- idual. Many liven us the g about com- lUow that al- 'et, assert that loliolic drinks e have dis- [eptions. We s. Iligginbo- [l others, and :e the follow- len of Lewes. [lare that apirit- lurisliment, and V liquors being tf alcohol, those tit without de- lll necessary to |od health, and Dine solid food ; Lnd malt liquors isease, poverty, nee from them J>te the health, Immunity. ll. D. Surgeon. ., Surgeon. Icon. fgeon. {urgeon." ! anniversary [Temperance Ited that he I'en years of Igshaw, who In ; she was lid him that |ng stronger llittle whey, when she could get it." This same gentle- man said, that children often drop into the grave at an early ai^e and mothers die an un- timely death, in consequence of the use of al- coholic drinks during the time of nursing their offspring. It may here be observed, that Mr. Higginbotham is a surgeon with an extensive butiiness, and has practised total ab- stinence during the last thirty years that he has followed his profession. I now have my eye on an old man, upwards of seventy years of age, who, since he has adopted total abstitu'nce, has had an amazing increase of strength, and yet requires less food. He is a gardener, and works in his garden every day. He has been a beer-drinker for sixty years, and was become so weak as to be scarcely able to dig. He declares that he is now stronger than he has been for the List ten years. All who are acquainted with the life of Dr. Franklin are aware, that when he worked hard in Londcm as a printer, he practised to- tal abstinence, and that he defended himself against the attacks and ridicule of his shop- mates, by arguing that there was little or no nourishment in beer, and that the body is nourished and supported by food, and not by drink. I ad he followed the example of his fellow workmen, we should never have heard of his discoveries, or of his greatness. What a contrast to Dr. Franklin is poor Burns, or Savage, whose drinking propensi- ties placed them beyond the possibility of being promoted in Society. These remarks, on the bene6cial effects of water, are in exact accordance with the dis- coveries of modern science. A chemical analysis of the blood has proved that nine- tenths of it are water ; the only liquid, there- fore, required to dilute the blood, is water. The purer the water in the blood, the purer the blood will be. It is further worthy of remark, that atmospheric air is the agent which nature employs in purifying the blood. The black, dead, venous blood is brought to the lungs, and distributed over these organs of respiration ; while there, it is subjected to the air which we inhale every time we breathe ; the black carbon is absorbed an(* given out every time we expire or breathe out from our lungs, and the Mood, freed from this deadly ingredient, I .icomes red living blood, and is then sent int > the arteries to nourish the body. Now, it should be re- membered, that all liquids are taken up by the capillary tubes of the stomach, and at once circulated through all the blood-vessels of the body. Alcohol being lighter than water, goes immediately into all the veins and arteries of our frame, and there is not a point but it visits. With these facts before us, it is well to observe, that water contains in it full thirty per cent, of pure atmospheric air, the very agent, remember, that nature is every mo- ment employing to purify the blood. On the contrary, alcohol contains in it Rfty-twu per cent, of carbon, the very element which nature i^ every moment laboring to throw out of the blood. He, therefore, who drinks pure water, drinks that which must purify the blood; while he who drinks alcoholic plain of foul blood. It is allowed by all that oxygen is employed by nature to keep the blood pure ; and, there- fore, water must be the most wholesome drink ; for not only is there pure atmospheric air in water, but the components of water, are hydrogen and oxygen ; and hence we sea how adapted this primitive beverage is to preserve the blood in a living, vigorous, and liealthy state. Some persons may object, that they drink but a small portion of alcoholic drink, and, therefore, cannot be injured by it. But this remark arises from ignorance. One drop of alcohol would fill a tube, whose length and diameter are the eight of an inch. If you decrease the diameter of one-half, you must prolong the tube four times, if you wish it to contain the same amount of liquid. I need not say that this is a mathematical fact, and therefore no conjecture. Well, then, go on decreasing the diameter of the tube in question, and proportionably prolonging it until you get a capillary as small as the smallest blood vessel in the human body, the tube will be of an astonishing length, demon-> strating that one single drop of alcohol, when passed into the minute vessel of the human frame, will be sufficient to cover over nearly the whole surface of the body, and conse- quently as an inflammatory poison, capablo 122 WATEH. of deran$!ini; our health to a Tery great di*- grpe. What, then, muHt he the mischief •"ffrtcted by taking daily a wine glnss or more of this pernicious spirit? To tallc of mode- rntioii in the use of ah;ohoI is absurd ; the only moderation liere is al)8tinence, and the only suitable drink for man is water. But I will conclude these quotations of the sentiments of others, by giving the opinions of a few distinguished divines respecting the baneful effects of intoxicating drinks. nishop Hall, speaking of Noah's drunken- ness, says, ** When I look to the effect of this sin, I can but blush and wonder; lo, this sin is worse than sin : other sins move shame, hut hide it ; this displays it to the world. Adam had no sooner sinned but he saw and abhorred his own nakedness, seeking to hide it even with bushes. Noah had no sooner Mnned, but he discovers his nakedness, and has not so much rule of himself as to be ashamed. One hour's drunkenness betrays that which more than six hundred years' sobriety and modesty had concealed. He that gives himself to wine is not his own : what shall we think of this vice which robs a man of himself, and lays a beast in his room ?" " Drunkenness is the way to nil bestial affi'ctions and acts. Wine knows no difference either of persons or sins." Every one who has read Bislkop Berkeley's •• Minute Philosopher," must remember how keenly he satirizes drinking, in the apology for drunkenness, which he puts into the mouth of a sensualist. Peter Martyr, in his common places, says, '* The liver is inflamed by too much drink, the head acheth, the members are made weak and do tremble, the senses are corrupted, the natural heat is overcome by over much wine ; the stomach is annoyed with crudities and intolerable griefs, whilst it is stuffed and forced above measure: the whole l>ody is in a man- ner inflamed, and thirst is augmented." He gives the following translation of Prov. XX. I : — " Wine maketh a mocker, and strong drink n troublesome fellow ; whosoever erreth there- in shall never be wise." Of such that boasted that they could drink a great deal of wine, and yet be sober, he remarks, " T desire tliem to hearken unto Seneca, who saith, ' Let such men say that by drinking of poison they shall not die ; and by taking of poppies they shall not sleep ; and that by drinking of helle- borus they shall not cast forth and purge out whatsoever is in the inward parts.' " He adds, " that the discommodities of wine per- tain not only to our bodies and minds, but also to our substance and goods, friends, and neighbours ;" to prove which ke quotes Prov. xxi. 17: — "He tliat loveth wine and fat things waxeth not rich." He also gives, among otiiers, the following quotation from Plato: — " He who is overcome with wine is stirred up with madness, as well of the mind as of the body, and both draweth others and is drawn every wliere himself. A drunk- ard is like n man out of hU wit." Tie als«T tells us that we ought to be prepared to obey the apostle, who said, " It is good, neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, if it should turn to the offending of the weak brethren." The reader should remember that these words were written by one who was born a. d. 1500. Boston, in his " Body of Divinity, and Discourse upon the Sixth Commandment, — Thou shalt do no Murder," speaking of the many ways by which men may kill them- selves, observes, " Intemperance is a sin that makes quick work for the grave, has carried many thither before they have lived out half their days. It is the Devil's ra(;k, on which, while he has men, they will babble out every- tiiinsj, for 'quod in corde sobrii in ore ebril.' It destroys a man's health, wealth, and soul ; murders soul and body at once ; it leads to scuffles, scurrilous language, blows, nnclean- ness, makes their tongues rami>le, their heads giddy, bewitches them, and brings on them God's curse." Hunter, in his " Sacred Biography," speak- ing of the fruit of the vine, remarks, " Eaten from the tree or dried in the sun, the grann is simple and nutritious, like the stalk of corn ; pressed out and fermented, it acquires a tiery force, it warms the blood, it mounts to the brain, it lends reason captive, it over- powers every faculty, it triumphs over its lord. Alas I mu«t it be observed, that our very food and (cordials contain a poison through the Ignorance or excess of man ?" President Dwight, in his " System of Theoloify." on "the Sixth Commandment," when discoursing upon the several methods by which life is destroyed, observes, " Drunk- enness is nearly allied to suicide. It is an equally certain means of shortening life. What is appropriately cilled suicide is a sud- den or immediate termination of life ; drunk- enness brings it gradually to an end. The destruction in both cases is equally certain, and not materially different in the degree of turpitude." A mong the causes of drunken- ness he places " the example of others," " cus- tomary and regular moderate drinki ng at fixed periods," by whicli, he says, "an habitual attachment to strong drink is insensibly be- gun, strengthened, and confirmed." He enu- merates eleven evils arising from drinking. " It exhibits the subject of it in the light of extreme odiousncss and degradation ; — ex- poses him to many, and those often extreme, dangers ; — to many temptations and many sins; — it wastes property ; — destroys health ; — wastes reputation; — destroys reason; — destroys usefulness ; — ruins the family by the example that it sets tliem, by the waste of property, and neglect of their education, and sometimes by breaking their hearts; — it des- troys life and ruins the soul." Finally, the president pres'-rioes " total abstinence to all persons who have a peculiar relish for intox- icating drinks, and to those who have begun TESTIMONY OP UIVINE8. m In ; — ex- Lxtreme, id mniiy I liealth ; J»son ; — |y by the v'Bste «f |un, niid -it dea- lilly, the to all ■ Intox- le bRgun \ the habit of intoxication." " The reiiah for theiie liquorti Increases invnrial>)y with every Instance and degree of indul>$ence. T«i cher- ish it, therefiire, is to mal^e ourselve!4 drunk- ardii ; afid it is cherished most efficaciously by repeated drinkini;. No man will do tills who isnotafitirciindidatefor Bedlam. Every effort at gradual reformation will only cheat him wlio makes it ; hard as the case may be, he must break otT at once or be mined." Paley, in his " Moral and P<»litical Phi- losopliy," enumerates the mischiefs of drunk- enness, in " betraying most constitutions either to extravagances of anger or sins of lewdness ; dis4[ualifyin!eiii-i>, n faintness and oppression, circa pncuordia, which exceeds the ordinary patience of human nature to endure. As the liquor loses its stimulus, the dose must be increased, to rea(;h the same pitch of elevation or ease." ft is evident from another passage in the same chap- ter on drunkenness, that the Doctor would have approved of the "tee-total pley can study with more freedom, can stay longer at their books without injury, and preach more frequently with less fatigue. The writer of this Essay can say that he never •■njoyed his existence «tf forty years until he became n total abstainer. Notv, study is delii;htful, and preachinij, whlcli he often does four times on a Sul(l)atii, is rarely at- tended with toil or fatigue. The following is a letter to the Secretaries of the Bath Temperance Assix^iiitioii, by that venendde servant of Christ, the liuv. \Vil- Jiam Jiiy, of Bath. "My Dear Sir :— " Cirriimstiitice^f will |irevpnt my aoroptiriK' your iiivitntion to iitten yoiiri, Kenenilly a tee-totallcr, hut for the last six yoars, I Imvo bi'Pii oiin coiHtantly and ciiHrcU'. 'I'ii tliii fiiovv I am past 70) I asrriho, umler (ioil, llie ^Imv of licnltli, evennt>s9 of spirits, froslnipss of fcoliiijf, ease of application, and cotnparativo inexlmnstion by public labours, I now enjoy. The suhjpotof tee- lotalism I havo examined pbysirally, morally, and Christianly, and after all my readinfif. retlectiou, ob- servation, and experience. I have reaobed a very firm and powerful conviction. I believe that next to the fflorinua gospel, God could not bless the hu- man race so much as by the abolition of all intoxi- ratintf spirits. " As every man has some influence, and as we ouffhtto employ usefully all our talents, and as I have now been for nearly half a century en.leavour- ingto serve my ffeneraciim in this city, according to the will of God, I have no objection to your using this testimony in any way you please. I am willing that, both as a pledger aiul a subscriber, you should put down the name of, " My dear Sir, your'a truly, " W. Jay. " Percy Place, Bath, 24th Dec, 1S3!)." In a letter from America, written by E. C. Delavan, Esq. dated Feb. 8th, 1838, it is asserted, that in the State of New Yorkalt;ne, there are 2000 of the clergy of all denomina- tions who have eitlier signed the pledge, or are practising the principles of total absti- nence. Many of these, no doubt, are eminent divines, and yet all of them attest the impor- tance of our principles by reducing them to practice. And If in the State of New York nlone, there are so many who have adopted entire abstinence, the number in the whole of the United States must be very great in- deed. The following sentiments of Dr. Beecher, of America, may give us some idea of the holy intensity with which the subject is viewed and advocated in tliat interesting country. •'And now," says lie, "could my voice be extended through tlie land, to all orders and descriptions of men, I would cry nloud and spare not. To the watchmen upon Zion's walls, appointed to announce the approach of danger, and to say unto the wicked min, • Tiiou shalt surely die,' I would say, can we withhold the inHuence of our example in such nn emergency as this, and b« guiltless of our brother's blood? Are we not called upon to set examples of entire ab- stinence? How otherwise shall we be able to preach against intemperance, and reprove, rebuke, and exhort? Talk not of 'habit,' and of 'prudent use,' and 'n little fur the stomach's sake;' this is the way in which men become drunkards. Our security and our influence demand immediate nnd entire nbstinence. If nature would retwive n 8hu<:k by such n reformation, it proves that it has al- ready been too long delayed, and can safely be deferred ni* longer. To the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he hath purchased with his own blood, that he might redeem them from iniquity, and purify them to liim- self a peculiar people, I would say, l^eloved in the liord, the world hath need of your purified example; for who will make a stand against the encroachments of intemperance, if professors will not ? "Will you nut, then, abstain from the use of it entirely, nnd exile it from your fimilies? AVill you not watch over one another with keener vigilance, and lift up an earlier note of admonition, and draw tigiiter the bands of brotherly discipline, nnd with a more determined fidelity cut off those whom admonition cannot reclaim? Separate, brethren, between the precious and the vile, the living and the dead, and burn incense between them, that the plague may be stayed ? But I will quote no further. The testi- monies adduced in this chapter are sufficient to prove, that intoxicating drinks are not in the least needed for health, labor, strength, mental cheer, or longevity. AVe have seen that millions upon millions of the human family have been cheerful, healthy, robust, happy, and moral, without them ; and we have also seen that their moderate use has led to intemperance, and been the ruin of millions. Not a single people upon the face of the earth is there, or has ever been, to whom these poisons have been introduced, hut they liuve either destroyed them, or threatened them with destruction. We are, as a people, through the infatuation produced by these liquors, on the high road to ruin ; but God, in his mercy, has warned us in time, nnd t^^hoiild the voice of Total Absti- nence be heard, we may yet be a saved, a powerful, a prosperous, a moral, and a happy people. CHAPTER VIII. DUTY AND CONSEQUENT PUOSPECTS. After what h.as been said concerning the nature nnd effe(;ts of alcoholic drinks, the duty of every patriot and of every Christian to abstain, cannot be a matter <",f doubt or hesitation. We have prov." tS. i*, as articles of food, instead of being nutritious, they are poisonous ; and that, as medicines, they might immediately be dispensed with. We have seen that disease, crime, pauperism, and death, are their invariable attendants, and that their baneful influence neutralizes and counteracts a very large proportion of our efforts to enlighten and moralize the people. ENTIRE ABSTINENCE. 125 ind reproVf , of ' linbit," ittle for the y in wliloh lecurity and and entire «ive a shock hat it haii al- can safely be inches of our th purchased i^ht rcdfein them to liim- say, Heloved leed of your make a stand itPinperaiiCH, lu not, then, ly, and exiln )U not vvutch igilance, and onition, and •ly dWoipline, lelity cut off lot reclaim? precious and ud, and burn plague may The tnsti- are sufficient ks are not in b(tr, strength, Ve have seen if the human ilthy, robust, em ; and we irate use has the ruin of pon the face iver been, to ntroduced, id them, or In. We are, ion produced lad to ruin ; larncd us in otal Absti- fc a saved, a and a happy pSPECTS. Lcerning the ] drinks, the Christian [cf doubt or I*, as articles lis, they are Icines, they Iwith. We Iperism, and lidants, and Iralizes and lion of our Ithe people. Tt has been shown, thnt the stronccest, most bandsomc, athletic, and powerful of the nations, have been those who have drank nothing stronger than water. Never wos there a period when men had such facilities for obtaining strong drinks as are at present possessed, and yet among us (here are thou- sands who are never permitted to caste these inebriating liquors ; it is neither con- Bcienite nor principle, for we are not now speaking of the noble li.iiid of voluntary tee- totallers, but of those whose circumstanc-es compel them to abstain ; it is neither con- science, principle, nnr science, nor brotherly love, but want and poverty, or inability to procure these liijuors, that keeps such from drinking intoxicating bevcrnges, and still these very involuntary abstainers enjoy bet- ter health, and have more strength than their tippling neighbors. The most unques- tionable evidence has demonsttrated, that when they abstain from these drinks, our countrymen can brave any climate, breathe the air of almost every land, and endure the most arduous labors without any detriment. There is no doubt that the late expedition up the Niger owed its failure in a great mea- sure to the intoxicating drinks, which the unphilosopliical voyagers drank, as an anti- dote for fevers. As long as we continue to carry alcoholic drinks with us to Africa, India, or Jamaica, we shall export fevers and miasmata of every description from our own stills and wine vaults. Poisoned and heated by these liquid fires, many of our country- men expire almost as soon as they touch a foreign coast ; and at home, the case is little better, for here the plowman complains of indigestion ; the huntsman and the carpenter must carry about with them their box of anti-bilious pills ; large-bodied men tremble like criminals, and must have gin, a smelling huttle, or Eau de Cologne, to keep them from fainting. Our tradesmen, mechanics, senators, and ministers of religion, are, al- most to a man, suffering from nervousness, or some other complaint which alcohol has engendered ; and our wives and daughters, smitten by this pest, are often unfitted for the common duties of domestic life, or drop into the grave in the very flower of their age. In a moral and religious aspect, the affair is too dark for us to look upon. The book that told all the crimes of drinking, would be too vile to read. Since I have been writing this Essay, I have been doomed, in consequence of having arrived in a town by the mail early in the morning, to pass two hours, from four until six, in the kitchen of a respectable inn. The proprietor was there all the time, being up betimes to attend to his many customers, whom the early coaches brought to bis house. He seemed a respectable man, and, had you met him in the street, would have passed for a gentleman. Some of the coachmen that lodged tbere, and took their early breakfast before starting, would, on tbe box, have passed for polite respectable men. But the inn-kitchen was liberty-hall ; here, there was no restraint ; and what I heard that morning, during two short hours, must not be repeated. Here were the proprietor, coachmen, guards, horsekeepcrs, porters, &c., all blended together, and the blasphemy, the filthy conversation and obscenity that formed the whole burden of their conversation, would not have been exceeded in a pandae- monium. This was the kitchen of a res- pectable Inn, and in the morning between the hours of four and six, and conseqiu>nt]y beforf their passions were but little, if nt ail, excited by drink ; let any one then imagine what must be the language, the thoughts, the passions, and the deeds, that form the character of the thousands of gin-shops, ale- houses and taverns, that infest our country. Talk of pagan India ; talk of Tyre or Sidon, of Sodom or Gomorrah ; these were all chaste and holy compared with the drunkerles of our day. And yet these alehouses, &c., are said to be essential to the comfort of the peo- ple ! and Christian people, by drinking, com- mending and dispensing home-brewed beer, wine, and spirits, arc directly or Indirectly contributing their influence and drinking example to keep open these hells. Sure I am that, as stated above, the book that repeat- eth but a thousandth part of what passes daily, and especially on the sacred Sabbath, in these alehouses and taverns, could not be read. The waste of health, life, talent, intellect, time, character, property, and comfort cannot be told. Drunkenness and moderate drinking present to us the blackest catalogue that ever polluted the light ; and if we have any purity thnt crime can disgust, or any pity that mis- ery can move, then ought we to use all our energies to stay this widely-spreading deso- lation. Now as long as Intoxicating drinks are in use, all kinds of iniquity will abound. A fiery stimulating poison is the only quality in these liquors that obtains for them the favor of the public; and so long as they are drunk, the stimulus they give will be followed by depression, the heat they impart will be fol- lowed with thirst, and these two sensations, like " tl)e two daughters of the horse leech," will constantly be crying, "give, give." In every instance, intemperance is the child of that indefinite, undefinable monster, moderate drinking. When we drink these destructive beverages, though it bo ever so moderately, we partake of a poison which can do us no good, which in the end may inflict on us an immensity of harm; and at the same time encourage others to use a bowl which, to them, may he death in both worlds. Our first d'lty, then, is abstinence. We are responsible tu God for our example. We may by our " meat or drink destroy him for whom Christ died." At.d we may rest assured that when God maketb Inquuitlon for blood, t: H 7 « \ v]H, 1 1 ^ 126 DUTY AND CONftBQUBNT PHOtPBCTS. h« will nol hold that man guiltleu whoM example waa the ruin of a nnifrhbour or bro- ther. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, caused larael to sin ; and heavy indeed was the punishment that followed him and his house. The impression has lon^; been deep on my own mind, that one reason why the Holy Spirit is not poured out upon us is, that our needless and reckless itidul)(ence in these liquors has grieved and offended that Divine Comforter. The money wasted on these drinks brands us with the rrime of sacrilege ; our spending it unnecessarily shows that we can spare it ; and if we can spare it, we ought to bestow it on the missionary treasury for the conversion of the world, and thus make " to ourselves friends out of the unrighteous Mammon, who, when we die, may receive us into everlasting habitations." Thus, to spend on a vitiated taste what would supply our perishing brethren with the means of sal- vation, is to render us guilty of their blood. Tf we " warn not the wicked man, or send not to warn him, when we have it in our power to do so, his blood will be required at our hands." But we not only destroy by withholding the Gospel, but our example in using a poison, beguiles others to death. We walk on the verge of a precipice ; others that have not our nerve, follow us to the same summit, and are dashed to atoms, and yet, instead of receding, we continue to regale ourselves with all the sang froid of a Cain, who said, •• Am I my brother's keeper ?" Surely it is time to amend our ways, and abstain from the fatal cup. Were the juice nectar, or the fruit of paradise, yet if its use is the occasion of crime, misery, and death to others, it would be our duty, botli as pa- triots, philanthropists, and Christians, to spurn with the deepest dismay, so disastrous a bowl. And imperative as this duty, viewed under such an aspect, appears, its obligation is increased a thousand fold, when it is re- membered, that the drink in question, so far from being ambrosia, is a most deleterious poison. SVherever there is alcohol, it may be said that " there is death in the pot ;" and while we sip it ourselves and commend the cup to others, we are, in many instances, guilty of murder and suicide ; we betray our friends with a kiss, and, at the same time, effectually shorten and terminate our own existence. But, besides abstaining ourselves, we must set our faces against the present drinking habits of society, which are associated with almost every engagement and relation in life, whether commercial or political, domestic or religious. Pot-house clubs, and the paying of wages at public'houses, bowling-greens at the drunkery, and other amusements intended to allure men to drink these accursed liquors, should have our most energetic opposition. We are not against rational exercise nor rational amusement, either for the poor or the rich ; but let it be exercise, and let ih« exercise be rational and innocent, that M may neither reflect on our intellect, nor les- sen our cheer by inflicting a sting on the con- science ; and therefore, let every amusement be far removed from the alehouse, let the poor also be encouraged to lay up fur sickness and old age, but let them not be mocked with the provision of the pot-house club. In how many instances, alas I have these falsely- named benefit societies proved the greatest bane and scourge. Thither the youth of much promise has gone to deposit a portion of his earnings for a time of need, but he has returned another man ; the publican's bowl has bewitched him, and the provident young man has died a reckless spendthrift, who before he himself sunk into the grave, broke the heart of her, whom he tenderly loved un- til the hour that the poison of the beer-shop changed the heart of the man into that of a monster. What a robbery, too, ia commit- ted upon the wages, and a greater still upon the character, of the labourer, by paying him at the public-house, and, indeed, by paying him on the Saturday night I Why send him to the drunkard's school to receive his wages ? Why tax him to the amount of a pot of beer before he is permitted to touch the fruit of his toil ? Why expose his mo- rals to the contaminated breath of the drunk- ery. The dead are there. Though whit- ened, still it is a sepulchre full of dead men's bones, haunted with the groans of broken- hearted, starving children and mothers, and execrated by the curses of the damned I Why send him where the harp, and the viol, and the tabret, and the pipe are played to be- guile the unwary, and to make the simple forget that the house is none other than the house of demons and the gate of hell. Surely, also, the workman ought to have his pay in time for the market, that his wife may lay it out to the best advantage, and that the week's stock being laid in, the husband and wife may escape the temptations of a Saturday evening's debauch. The practices also of drinking at baptisms, marriages, and funerals, shct, nor lea- oii the con- amusement ise, let the fur sicknaM nocked with club. Ill heae fnlnely- the greatevt B youth of t a portion , but he has li\an'» bowl ident young thrift, who [rave, broke ly loved un- e beer>8hop that of a ia commit* r ttill upoa paying him , by paying Why send 1 receive his mount of a ;ed to touch >»e his mo- fthedrunk- ough whit- ' dead men's of broken- lothers, and damned I nd the viol, layed to be- the simple T than the I. Surely, his pay in may lay it the week's and wife Saturday blaspheme humanity, atid blaspheme our Maker by such an intimation I And again we ask, must youthful love be inspired and cnnnecrnted, and connubial love cherished and kt'pt alive, by the fires of alco- hol ? The very suggestion of such a thought intimates that we are " without natural af- fection," and ought never to marry. The love, or the cheer, or joy, that must be drawn from the wine vessel, are unnatural, nrtiticial, inhuman, and neither fit for the bitsoms of human beings, bruten, nor demons. And can we expect that God will baptize the child with his Spirit whose parents are pol- luting themselves with strange fire ; or that those nuptials can be blessed, or that union be happy, which was stained with the foam- ings of the drunkard's bowl I Hiiitory and fact answer. No. Drinking at births, wed- ding!4, and baptisms, are among the fruitful sources of drunkenness in all our large towns ; and we all know the thousand miseries at> tendant upon this most desolating sin. T may be told that the Saviour wrought a miracle, that wine might not be wanting at the marriage of Cana. So he did. But I have before shown, from the character of the wines which in that country were called "good ;" and from the wisdom, love, and compassion which regulated every action of the Redeemer, that the wine was neither al- coholic nor inebriating. I would not, for the wealth of the Indies, insinuate that the Son of God produced a beverage which he knew would poison the stonr.ach, inflame the passions, and corrupt the morals of the guests. He wrought that miracle to show or "manifest forth his glory, that his disciples might be- lieve on him ;" but no one, except an infidel or a drunkard, would say, that his " glory was manifested," in produciug a drink which poisoned his friends ; and the knowledge that he did so, instead of awaking or confirming our faith in him, would be calculated to be- get unbelief. Let our drinks at weddings and baptisms, If we cannot be happy without them, be such as shall manifest the " glory of Christ," and such as shall neither reflect on our prudence and kindness, nor endanger our health and morals. And let us remember, that the sooner we obtain the custom of deriving our cheer from the proper exercise of human affections ; from benevolent. Intellectual, and moral sources, rather than from the merely animal and brutish gratifications of eating and drinking " meats and drinks," the sooner we shall prove that our minds and affections have arrived at maturity. The baneful custom of drinking at fune- rals must be abolished. At such a time, generally speaking, the " heart is soft" Most men, if sober, are serious, and disposed to reflection, at a funeral. The corpse, the shroud, the cofHn, and the grave, and the tolling bell, strike the tongue of the swearer and obscene talker dumb, paralyze the unchaste, clothe the face of the Jester with melancholy, and make the infidel tremble, and half forswear his belief in chance and anni- hilation ; but let the cup pass round a little, and how the scene changes I These very mourners, who came to mourn, and actually felt seriously a' 'norally for a while ; and felt, too, that it us good to have the fin^^r sensibilities of our nature C4illed into exer- cise ; that it was proper an another to the hriin, and luugh At the poor huffbenr Death ;' and yet the very drink, that excites that de- mon grin, and jest at the ruin of a temple which divine power built and sin demolished, is tinctured with a poison which, at the very moment that the scnrner laughs, is impreg- nating his vitals, polluting his soul, and hur- rying him to the pangs of the " second death." How dreadful, also, is the havoc which this accursed liquor commits upon the feelings of the bereaved ! Alcohol murders the infant at the breast, and the broken-hearted mother throws herself into the arms of the assassin to have her sorrows assuaged, and her heart comforted. He slays the youth that wt» the only stay of his father's house ; and the pa- rents, while shedding tears of blood for their loss, cling more closely than ever to the fiend that has blasted all their hopes, and written them "childless." How often have we seen the hoary-hended relative, or friend, that came to weep, and actually did weep and pray, and resolve to be a Christian, as long as the cup was kept from him — drink him- self drunk, and stagger home from the grave of the friend that he loved ; not, alas I more serious, but more hardened and brutish from the visitation. All the tears of sympathy have been dried up by this fiery stimulant; all the solemnities of the grave chased away ; and all the suitable exhortations of the min- ister neutralized, by the demoralizing influ- ence of that vile drink so copiously supplied at funerals. Volumes would not suffice to tell the mischiefs that arise from the practice of pushing round the venomous cup, on these solemn occasions ; but surely, as Chris- tians, we ought, by our total abstinence, and benevolent admonitions, to prevent death and the grave from being incentives to vice, im- morality, aud hardness of heart. We ought also to abolish the practice of rewarding men for their labor or their kind- ness, by promising them, or paying them with these pernicious drinks. What a shame to administer to the laborer a cup of poison instead of wages; or to reward the kind- hearted neighlNiur, who did us a service, with a stimulating draught which made him thirst for more, and sent him to the ale-house to perfect himself in drunkenness ! Give him r ^eiML 128 DUTY AND CONSEQUENT PROSPECTS. i..h 7 bread, glre hlir clothes, give him k book, or give him money, but enour, worth ten times tlie nmoiuit of the valno of llie l»per or nin whicli \h given, is wrunir, or inveiijli-d ont of tlie poor dupe for n paltry pot or i;l;iss of poison ; and yet tlie Mclt'-styiiid (Jlii'is«iiiui tliat does this, luis the impudence to tliaiik God tliat he in not n xliarper ! ** Tlie iiirn thus kept back," and for wliich a worthless demitrnHzin;; poi»ion was Hub>tituted, ."crictli, and its cry entereth into tlin ears of the Lord Goil of Sabaotli." J5y tiuch deeds, " treasure is heaped lo({eilier for tlie last days." The custom «»f toastinij every tliinij by dritdiin;; Hironu; driiiUs, must tie abandoned. Never, pi'rhaps, was there a more irrational and absurd practice. As thou!;h we could not express our loyalty to the Queen, our good wishes to the liisliops, cleriiy, and church, or our atti'clion to our friends or country, without swallowing a portion of poison I If there is any real connection between drink- in;r and loyalty, why not use an innocent bevera:;e? In thousands of instances, the love of drink, and not love to the ]Monarch, Is the origin of the toast, and those who are most noisy with their ** three times tiiree," are 8wallc»vving all their money, nil their morality, all their loyalty and patriotism at the same time. Some of these would curse God and the kiiiir for n pot of beer; and otiiers, ruined by driiikinir and toastin;;, are just ready for any thing that would mend their atfairs, and get them some drink. The most disloyal and disaffected of our countrymen are those who hove bej;fi;ared themselves by drinking. It is impossible to tell the crime and the misery which drinking of toasts has originated. Lewis the XIV. of France, is said to have foreseen the con- sequences, and to have prohibited the drinking of toasts. But if, after all, we must express our feelings of loyalty and affection in this manner, why not use a liquor that is perfectly harmless? The writer has been at several public dinners, and drunk all the toasts in water, and done so without any annoyance from others, and with the greatest advantage to his own liealth and enjoyment, both at the meeting, and after its excitement was over. Water drinking kept him from the evil of over excitement, and therefore was alike beneficial to health and to feeling. We ought not to tempt our friends by placing these drinks before them. You would not offer them digitalis or prussic acid, and why give them what is quite as much a poison, and may be more destructive ? Give your friend prussic acid, and he will die at once ; the suffering will be short, the tale soon told ; but give him alcohol, and you may cherish, or call forth, a taste, which will torment him with indigestion, nnn«rT« nnd paralyze his powers, excruciate him with gout, and bring him slowly to tlie grave ; but not. perhapn, until he has sacrillced his pro- perty, his character, his friends, and his soul ; and thus a murder will be perpetrated which the language of mortals wants words to de- scribe. If he must have strong «lrink, act like the sons of the prophets of old. Cry, "alasl" and tell him, tliure is '* death in tli« pot. Finally. We ought to substitute ari inno- cent lieverage for the fioison wliiuli is now MO generally used at the Lr)rd's talile. I have before Khotvii, that at the first sacrament, our Lord drank an unfermented wine : we there- fiire sin against his blessed example by the use of any other; nnd we place in the hands of the members of the church a beverage which may cherish or call forth a vitiated taste, injurious, nnd perliajis fatal to their piety. Not long ago, a reformed drunkard, and apparently a converted man, approached the Lord's table at a church whi(;h I could name ; he ate the bread, and drank the wine, but mark the result. The tiist*^ of a drunkard for alcohol is like that of the l^uod-hound for blood — n single sip makes him (hirst for more : so here; the wine tasted rt the sacred com- munion, revived the old pass'on, and he who seemed n Christian, \vas corrupted by the sacramental wine, went home, got drunk, and died u drunkard ! Surely wo ought not to change " the cup of tie Lord into the cup of devils." Viewed in whatev ir light they may be, the benefits ♦hat must follow the adoption of totiil abstinf i. ", are incalculable, I am per- suaded that very fe-.v persons are at all alive to the importance of tlie subject, or have any idea of the glorious prospects of happiness and prosperity, both to the world and the church, that must be consequent on the abandonment of the use of inel)riating drinkf>. And, in giving this opinion, it is not intended to intimate, as some affirm, t'lat ^tal absti- nence will be, in any sense whatever, a sub- stitute for the gospel or the grace of God. Let us suppose that every island in the Pacific was surrounded with a great wall, like that of China, tvhich prohibited every Christian from entering, and preaching the gospel ; and let us suppose, further, that a number of persons had banded themselves together for the purpose of persuading the people to throw down these walls, and remove such obstacles out of the way ; would any one sny that these pioneers were substituting their " wall-razing" for the gospel of Christ? Or let us imagine that, in our own country, there was a large, deep pit, and that hundreds of our countrymen were so infatuated that they throw every thing into this pit ; if you gave them money, instantly it was thrown into this pit ; if you gave them clothes, in- stead of clothing themselves with them, away all were thrown into the pit: if you gav* RESULTS OF TEMVERA> rg. i*rre nnd liin with *ave ; but his pro- hill Houl ; t«cl wliloh (lit to dfi' Iriiik, net 1.1. Cry, fith in tho B aii inno- :li is now '. I have itncrit, our we there- ill! by the the hniiils i bi'verngo a vitiated 1 to their rlruiiknrd, ipproached ;h I could * the wine, [I ilrunlf God. nd in the rent wall, ited every iching the ler, that a themselves lading the ind remove 'ould any ibstituting of Christ? country, hundreds lated that iit; if you thrown jlothes, in- lem, away you gav* / them Bibles nr gnnA book«, very soon the word of life would bn thrown Into the pit; In fact, the pit mania ha'tat !eni(tli proceeded so far, that they very frequently throw their wives and children, and even themtelves. Into the pit ; and in thii u)ann^r, tlioU' • of tfielr w xiliary to t ; we de«A gri'at rniiv religious trntli -, it is iutotii. d n<>i to ^ cede, but to make way for iithi^ ni m And certainly, if we can stay ili >ia|jU« which «le^triiys so many of the bun nicr, far from opposiii;;, we are niiliiig tlK- t-ausa of reli;(ioii. We never allirin that t,,fiil ati- stiiience will save any one; we as firmly believe as any tippler or moderate drinker in the (MMintry, that " there is nn name i;iven under heaven among men whereby we must be saved," but the name of Jesus; and, being fully assured of this fact, we are resolved as far as our power can extend, to remove from among men every hinderance that kee|»s them from Christ ; and wu certainly think, that in so doing, we are acting (juite as evnngeli- rnlly ns those who, by drinking intoxicating drinks, are encouraging others to use a liquor which stupefies tliein, renders them hard henrtctl, and keeps them from the Redeemer. Were total abstinence adopted, tlie health of our oountrymen would be greatly improved. Wc have seen what fine athletic people those are, and always have been, who drink nothing but water: and, on the contrary, what num- bers of diseases are originated or cherished by the consumption of alcoholic poisons, I need not repent tlicse now, having so fully treated of them in a former part of the essay. But there is not a doubt that when tliis prin- ciple is reduced to practice, our hospitals, in- stead of being crowded, will have but few inmates; and lunatic asylums will be rarely visited. Scrofula — in most instances the ef« feet of drinking — will be purged from the blood ; consumptions, asthmas, and dropsies will rarely occur ; fevers, influenzas, and inflammations will be rare; indigestion, bi- liiiiis nnd bowel complaints will be unusual; and men will be nervous in the athletic sense of the word ; and though it may require some years to purify us, as a nation, from the ills that alcoholic drinks have inflicted on our constitutions, yet human life will be gradually prolonged to its natural duration ; and, in- stead of dying in the flower of their days, men shall come to their " graves in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." Then shall that be repeated, which was said of man in that pristine period, when " Labor prepared His simple fare, and Temperance ruled liis bosrd." " Death, tlioiifrh denounced. Was yet a distnnt ill, by feeble arm '; " ' Of age, Ills sole support, led slowly on." As intemperance, more than any other vice, peoples our jails, let total abstinence be adopt- ed ; the sinews of drunkenness will be cut, and the chief incentives to dishonesty, pros- titution, and murder, be destroyed, and the consequence will be, that our prisons, which are now teeming with juvenile as well as other offenders, will stand forth, the memen- tos of crime of bygone years, rather than the monuments of existing iniquity. It is a well-known fact, that bankruptcits 180 DU-IV AKD CONSEQUENT PROSPECT!. •re, In inniit oa«M, the dire effect of Intern- |M*rAnne. A Keiitleman lately told me thnt out nf twenty-Me. .Ml bad debt* recorded on hit iKtnkn, elKhteeii, or twn-tlilrdM, hnd been riin> tranted by penonn who were addicted to drinking; and therefore had roblied their creditor!*, and iiiven the money to the wine merchant. Besides the property actually waited in these politons, trndetimen, beguiled by the excitement they produce, look at many an undertaking under the blind stimulus of what they call a mcMierate fsloiui, and specu- late, to the ruin of themselves, and those who were fmdish enough to trust them. Let ab- stinence be adopted, and the vices and extra- vagances which intemperance engendert or cherishes will be abandoned, men will live within their meauM ; will use their reason nnd foresight In trade ; and then the names of insolvents will rarely appear In the columns nfthe Gazette. There is not the shadow of a doubt but the greater part of the pauperism which now taxes the country is the effect of drinking. There are very few but might have provided for themselves, or would have been provided for by their relatives and friends, If the funds necessary for these purposes had not been spent in Intoxicating drinks. Should total abstinence prevail, natural affection and pro- vidence and foresight will be the characteristic of all classes : and then parents will not doom their children, nor children their parents, to the mercy of a poor-house or overseer. Men will no longer lie under the reproach of being less provident and prudent than the Insignifi- cant ant which they trample in the dust with ■o much disdain ; and thus an increased value will be given to property, and, at the same time, the comfort, happiness, and indepen- dence of all classes will be augmented. It can scarcely be requisite to mention the crime and corruption which intoxicating drinks occasion at every election. The de- signing aspirant to power, or office, or emo- lument, who has neither intellect, principle, knowledge, nor character to recommend him to a seat in Parliament; who, in fact, has no other qualification than that of a few pounds to waste on the rabble and drunken electors in beer; by distributing largely these demoralizing liquors, ousts the honest repre- sentative from his well-merited place, and rises to an eminence which enables him to vote away the money, blood, liberties, a^d morals of the people at pleasure. The h istory of electioneering drunkenness, and its causes and effects, would open one of the blackest pages in the exploits of corruption ; but only induce the people to abstain, and you almost instantly defeat the stratagems of whig, con- servative, or radical bribery. Every one knows how intimately drink- ing and prostitution — the brothel and the pot-house — are connected together. There is, perhaps, scarcely a holiday-seasqn through- nut the year but greatly adds to the lists of the victims of oeductlon. Probably there Is not a Sabbath evening passes by, without hundreds of the unwary of both sexes being begiiilfd to tlmsc deeds which terminate in ruin. How ill this coimtry, or indeed any country, can afford to have the Hower of its citizens worse than slain in the prime of their age ; yet the drinking habits of the day are subjecting us to this heavy sacrifice. Hut let the principles of total abstinence pre- vail, and then the gin-shiip, the ale-bouse, and the house of ill-fame, will be avoidfd at the same time. And it should bo remem- bered that, to accompliith tliis reformation, total abstinence is eHpecially needed ; be- cause It Is not drunkenness, but moderate drinking, that Infiames and arms the prosti- tute and the seducer. AVhnt an increase of trade, al»o, would immediately bo the result of abandoning these destructive liquors t There is not the least doulit ^>nt the .«um wasted upon thnse poisons, either directly or Indirectly, amounts to twice the value of our present export trade. And it is equally certain, that if our drinking habits were abolished, nearly the whole of this property would be employed and spent in the manu- factures, commerce, and agriculture of the country. Our trade would be more than doubled immediately. In fact, total absti- nence would produce an effect equal to the instant calling into existence of four or five such countries as the United States of Ameri- ca, nnd bringing to our market nn order from each of them equivalent in value to our present exports to the United States. We often alarm ourselves lest our arts and manufactures should be learnt by foreign nations, and our export trade should thus be ruined : but the adoption of total nhxtinence would, by increasing our home consumption, more than double the demand for what- ever useful articles our markets at present supply, and thus render us independent of foreign trade altogether. This assertion may appear startling to some ; but it is only for such to consider the immense waste and expenditure connected with drinking, to perceive that facts most fully substantiate this estimation. And when we contemplate the misery and vice, which, in numberless instances, are connected with poverty ; and the comfort, morality, and happiness, which must be the consequence of having full em- ployment for all the people, then the duty of total abstinence assumes, in the breast of every patriot, the character of a most impera- tive obligation. It is now generally admitted that the edu- cation of the people is a most desirable ol>- ject ; and schools are erected in most parts of the country ; still who is there that does not lament ovec the numbers of children who are kept from these charitable institu- tions ? And if we inquire into the cause of this, we shall in many, probably in most cases, find, that the intemperance, or ths I I I RESULTS or TEMPERANCE. 131 iMf there U by, without I •exf* b«>itif( ti>riiilnntt< in r iiiih'vil nnjT flower of ita the prime of )itt of thn Any nvy iiirriHce. bxtlnpiice pre- he iil<>-hoiiiie, be avoid)*!! at rl bo remem- refornmtlon, needed ; be- but rooderntfl ns the prodti- n iricronse of bo the result tive liquor* I but the .^u^a ler directly or the value of I it Is equally habits were this property In the manu- lulture ot' the e more than t, total abstl- equal to the f lour or five jtes ol'Amerl- ket an order t in value to ed States. IpHt our arts Irrit by foreign Ihould thust be nl aliitti pence ronsumption, d tor what- Its at present dependent of is assertion ut It is only e waste and rinkin^, to substantiate contemplate numberless overty ; and iness, which ng full em- the duty of e breast of ost impera- fiat the edu- leairable ob- most parts le that does lof children Ible institu- Ihe cause of ly in most [ice, or the " 1 moderate drinkinx, of the pArenti, is the •ole cHUse. The father, and NometlmeM the mother, are addicted to drlnkioK, and the eonsequenue is, that the children have not clothes to wear, and, therefore, iniitead of ht'iu^ sent to Hchoid, are brouKht up as bar- barians In a ChriNtiun country. But were total abstinence practised, then all the means re«|ui!iite fur the proper education of the ris- ing; KiMM'rution would inslanlly be furnished. \^ ere intoxicatiuK drinks abandoned, were th< ({i'l-thop and the ale>house closed, what MHibers, that now profane the holy Sabbath, would beitin to crowd the temples of the Most High I Man was made for asHociation ; and destroy his taste fur intoxlcatin|{ poisons, and then the tea-Karden and the vulvar throng who assemble there, not for tea, but for stroll); liquurs, will Ioohh their attrac- tions; and the intellectual, the rational, and inopiring truths of Chrixtianity, and the holy and animating worxbip of Jehovah, would allure thnuKaiids to the sanctuary. It is found already, that when men liegin to- tally to abstain, tliey almost immediately lead a new life, and reverence the worship of God. Nottingham, Liverpool, Hristol, Preston, and almost the whole of Nurth Wales, can bear witness to the truth of what It here stated. Do away with strong drinks, and with attendance at the alehouse, and you immediately will increase the num- ber of those who will throng to hear the gospel. Total abstinence has already added hun- dreds of members to our churches, and kept hundreds of members from disgracing them- selves by drinking, and yet these are only the beginnings of days of spiritual prosperity. God himself has already highly honored the society with his blessing: considering its limited means, and the opposition which God's church has brought against it, it is probable there is not another institution in the country which has been crowned with more signal success. In one small town, I lately saw it recorded, that fifty members had been added to the church, in consequence of the adoption of total abstinence. And is it not important that we should have a safeguard against the fall of our ministers and members? You say, that the grace of God will protect them ; but you have tried the grace of God, and it has not kept oil from falling ; and why? Doubt- less, because in usin% these liquors " you tempt the Lord God by your lusts." No- where is it promised that the grace of God shall abstract from the body a poison, which was presumptuously and unnecessarily drank. To persist in the daily use of inebriating drinks, and then to ask for the grace of God to keep U3 from falling, is " to ask and have not, because we ask amiss, that we may con- sume it on our lusts." I once heard a clergy- man, a notorious drunkard, preach from these words ■ " Mark the perfect, and behold the upright, fur the end of that man is peace ;" and a few weeks after, this very person, m if to give hi* people a demoimtralion of the contrast be'ween the end of the " perfmrt man," and that of a drunkard, hung himself I The very same parish, since that awful event, buried a promising young clergyman, who died in the tlower of hi* days, "as a fool dieth," killed by drinking. I know antHher Instance of a minister of a parish, whom the clerk has supported while rr;\dlng the burial service, otlierwise he would, from the infiuence of wine and spirits, have revled into the grave and stretched himself on the cofflii. I have my eye at this moment on three highly popular and zealou* dissenting minisiem, who are now ''dead while they live:" strong drink bus slain them. Adopt total abstinence, and these scandals to religion, to the church and disNent, will cease for ever. No more will the church have to wet-p over its ministers, nor pastors ovrr the hope of their fiocks, cut off by these debusing liquors. And wbnt shall we say of the domestic comfort which iiiu<«t flow from total absti- iieiict*? The husband, insti*ud of sturviiiK and ill-treuling his wife un■ . '^ H- ■ I i f \ . ■ »■ rf--, -.- •i\ ■■■»:. : \ i .,;:/.:„^.r* '*.*>' .K,^ r^^ % '-■!.\' / ■ . ■ -'# -■■:.%■ -:f- p jl^^~t^2^ 1 J