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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul cliche sont filmdes d partir de Tangle supdrieure gauche, de gauche i droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m^thode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mimif. ml S tV/u •' Intern God, 1 b . Drysi jiijjjpc jipu ^ Ik. wlk wftif. kiIIIk, .iiiftir. iillir mik )il'lliir, .ulllk .inftit. julik Af. .iiittiir.. jAr. .iifttr, jilllit. .A Ar, rfj STRONG DRINK; r ► pVz^/ ?■/ 2>, <7;2 :3i^ 1884. ■JfllF ^W ^MF^wp"- JilBw iiipni i«ll|it Jitigiit- ■Jiiiiji.i.ii- jfflijjjiii jiiigim- ■My^ ^,pc "^^^ '^ir^ jiHir "■A TIEiEl Te;mpe;rance;_Book ^tork. ■ TEMPERANCE WORKS. BY DR. B. W. RICHAllIXSON, F.R.S. ^^'''RSl?.f^^r^'i^'^^fl'^^^"^' "T^^ ^^tion of Alcohol on Body and Mmd,' ''Moderate Drinking," "The MedicJ doih,ir25'"^ ^^'"^'^'" ''"••' '''■ ^''^ Paper,loc?, The Temxjerance Lesson Book, 30c. TEMPERANCE SKETCHES AND STORIES. 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DRYSDALE & CO., 332 St. j£<,riaes Streot, 3VXonti-ofa (< )U STRONG DRINK; What it is, and what it does. 3ohol oil Medical er, ()0c ; his Re- by t. s. brown. I, giving "Intemperance is the voluntary extinction of reason/* — Channing, **0 God, that men shoiilil put an enemy in their moutlis to steal away their brains."— O/ZieZ^o. ttached, ^ledges, velopes, PurscH, lisiteH 11 EducR- )r Cnt- •Octl -♦--•" Htontual : Ci>' W. Drysdale & Co., Publishers, 232 St. James St. 1884. B7 PREFACE. To THE Business Men of Canada: — Though past eighty years of age, and with ex- cuse for indolence in complete loss of sight, I belong to the active class, mercantile and mechanic, whose united energies move the product of the world's in- dustries and make the interchanges ; and I think I cannot render a better service to the successoi-s of tliose with V -ri I commenced active life two-thirds of a century age, than by preparing this little book for publication. The appalling magnitude of evil consequent upon the common use of a now known poison in daily drink, and the earnestness of temperance reformers have during the past twenty years forced observa- tion, investigation, analysis and discoveries upon chemistry and science now spread through a multi- tude of speeches, reports, essays and volumes, ex- , hibiting as in a mirror the laws of life, and I have' endeavoured to compress what Joseph Hume would have called the " tottie (total) of the whole " to dimensions that a husiness-man may read with understanding of all he cares to know, without en- croaching too much on time and thought required for his own affairs which are always pressing. T. S. Brown.** Montreal, Jan., 1884. * Note. — Lest my commercial friends may suppose I have be- come learned, let me say that any one " read up " in temperance literature will observe that all contained in these pages, *' scien- tific" or "professional," ifl merely a transcript ("chemistry" excepted) of words and phrases from Brande, Ure, Richardson, Hargreaves, Lees, Thompson, Liebig, Carpenter, Playfair, Lalle- mand, Perrin, Duroy and other physiologists and chemists of such high repute and authority that no one contradicts them. It is all "endorsed paper " and may be oonsidered " gilt-edged." ole" to id with lOut en- required OWN.* I have be- emperance !8, *'8oien- hemistry " Lichardson, *air, Lalle- hemists of s them. It edged." STRONG DRINK; What it is, and What it Does. •:o:- fermentation. Fermentation is the spontaneous decomposition of the proximate principles of organic substances, under the joint influence of warmth » air and mois- ture, and the re-union of their elements forming new compounds. When certain vegetable substances are dissolved in water, or where the juice of certain fruits is pressed out and subjected in open air to a due tem- perature (between 65 '^ and 85 *^ F), they undergo a series of changes which terminate in the produc- tion of alcohol or spirit, that exists nowhere in nature, but is generated by this process. These changes constitute the phenomena of vin ous fermentation. All grain consumed by man, much of the fruit and many roots and plants contain saccharine matter or sugar, which in this process of fermentation is con- verted into alcohol and remains diffused throughout the mass of liquid. Alcohol — nowhere the product of nature — cannot pre-exist in sugar, but is the result of the combina- tion of other elements with sugar, during the pro- cess, when the sugar disappears and carbonic acid is more or loss evolved. Fermentation in its full acceptation is that putre- faction and decay through which organic substances are destroyed or disappear, to be separated into the various atoms of their primal formation, to be again converted into the same or other forms. The juice of the grape called " must," when ex- posed in open vessels to a temperature of about 70 ^ , becomes turbid '*r?d frothy, hence the word fermentation from the Latin ^^ferveOy I boil." After a time carbonic acid gas escapes into the air, scum collects upon the surface and a sediment is deposited. The liquid which had grown warm gradually cools and clears, loses its sweet taste and is changed into wine, containing throughout an admixture of alcohol from 2 to It p.c, according to the richness of the grape. If not arrested here by the hand of man, fermentation would go on till the wine became vinegar, the vinegar mould, finishing in complete putrefaction and disappearance. During the first process of fermentation, the car- bonic acid, scum and sediment being separated, there remains only water and alcohol, with some colouring and flavouring matter, contained in the original substance. This is called wine, if produced from grapes, or cider if from apples. Beer and ale brewing, through which alcohol is the pro- )nic acid at putrc- ibstances into the n, to be ms. vhen ex- of about lie word I." After ir, scum eposited. gradually changed xture of richness hand of B became complete the car- jparatcd, th some 1 in the )roduced cohoi is originated from the sugar of the malt, natural and produced, is only fermentation by an elaborate use of various artificial and mechanical appliances to eifoct the same end with uniformity and certainty of result and economy of material, essential in carrying out trades of great magnitude. The formation of Alcohol means the destruction of food. (See Note.) By an inexorable law of nature, there can be no nutrition in fermented liquora, because every alimentary principle has been annihilated through their process of manufac- ture. If food for animals is found in the grains and wash of breweries and distilleries, it is because it is so used before it has reached the final stage of de- composition, which would render it utterly value- less. Minute investigation has proved that in the best beer only one part in 1666 can be considered food, and that a person must drink 8 quarts of beer daily for twelve months to obtain the aliment con- tained in a 5 lb. loaf of bread, and that there is more real nutriment in as much flour as can be held on the point of a table knife than is contained in 8 quarts of beer. The value or character of wine as a nutriment Note. — When the value of corn is as at present 60c. per bushel, the value of the grain for feeding cattle after it has undergone the partial process of fermentation, which extracts the spirit, is 10c. per bushel, or one-sixth. Thus by cash estimate in every 100 bushels used in diiStilling, the value of 17 remains as food, but 83 are destroyed. n I ; \m 8 fares no bettor when analyzed. If a pint of beer or 18 oz. be put into a retort and, subjected to a gentle heat, a little loss than an ounce of alcohol will be driven off. By increasing the heat, about 15 oz. of water may be evaporated, leaving at the bottom of the retort about one ounce of black gummy extract of hops and barley that no one would take as food. This is not guess-work, but positive demonstration, that a man in taking a pint of beer swallows about 15 oz. water, less than 1 oz. alcohol and 1 oz. mud. With wine the alcohol would be the same, the water the same, and the mud no better. -:o: DISTILLATION. Distillation, which creates nothing, but separates into their distinct elements different substances combined in any liquid compound, is simply a pro- cess of evaporation and condensation, exemplified in tlie rising of vapor from the earth during the day> to cool in the air and show itself at night in the form of water or dew, or the steam from an}' heated fluid cooling again and liquefying upon a cool surface placed above it. But this was unnoticed or unapplied for any prac- tical purpose until put to use by an Arabian of beer or ) a gentle )l will be ; 15 oz. ot bottom of ly extract 3 as food, nstration, >W8 about . oz. mud. the water 9 Chemist* in Spain, during what is termed the Moorish occupation, about seven hundred yeare I ago. Up to that time from the days of Noah wine had been regarded as a special liquor distinct from all othera. Bacchui?, the presumed introducer of the grape into Europe, was deified by the Greeks as the inventor of wine, and worshipped as such throughout the days of Grecian mythology. Poets, Greek and Eoman, and their followers had extolled this nectar of the gods as something divine, till the discovery of the Chemist Albucasis proved to the world that this trauscendart liquid was nothing but alcohol and water, two ingredients which any one could combine in any way he pleased with any other ingredients to make any beverage agreeable and enticing to the human palate. separates | abstances ^ y a pro- iplifiedin the day, the form ated fluid 1 surface iny prac- Arabian =it=NoTX. — The long life of popular error is exemplified in the continued impression that the Arabs, immediately after the con- quest of the first Caliphs, became suddenly learned and scientific, when a moment's reflection tells us that these conquests covered many or most of the then known seats of learning, and that while the rabble accepted the simple formula, "One God and one Pro- phet," to join the armies for plunder, the educated accepted it for safety, and all nationalities were merged into the "Arabian," who, receiving new lights from the East, transmitted them to the West. The Syrians, Egyptians and other Northern Africans, who ha<^ invaded Spain with the Arub chiefs, were called Moors be- cause they crossed from Morocco. Order reigned in Spain und«^r the sword, and Eastern civiliza- tion revived the Roman civilization, that had for centuries been trodden down by barbarians from the North. 10 ^ We might be astonished at the stupidity and ignorance of mankind in so plain a matter, for hundreds of years before the discovery of distilla- tion, wore it not surpassed by the more inexplicable ignorance that has continued down to our own day. The new process remained a hidden mystery in Spain, as something supernatural that created an elixir of life, to supersede or change all thing* known in medicine. The new fluid being then ob- tained from wine only was called "Spirit of Wine," which name has been continued for all "alcohol,'* a term that came into use in the 1*7 th century, after it had been produced from grain by the Genoese, who kept secret the method of manufacture and made a profitable trade in the sale. It was used in drink as early as the 13th century under the name of " aqua vita;^'' and is frequently mentioned by Shakespeare in his day, about which time the cultivation of the sugar-cane in the West Indies, led to the distillation of rum and increased the use of spirits in Europe. In France, brandy was distilled from wine at an early date. Gin from grain, in Holland, many years after. In Northern Euiope distillation cam© later still. New England rum was first distilled, from molasses at Boston in 1720. Our present deluge of whiskey from the West commenced in Western Pennsylvania in 1*7*79. The little vials of the " Elixir of Life " have 11 ►idity and latter, for >f distilla- explicablo r own day. lystery in jreated an all things ^ then ob- ofWine," alcohol," a ury, after I Genoese, cture and h century lequently out which the West increased ine at an id, many Lion came distilled present lenced in fe" have grown in seven centuries into a torrent of death; The whole understanding of the production of the alcohol of drink is this: — Wherever two fluids of different weights and boiling-points are combined together and exposed to heat the more sensitive will evaporate first. Water boils at a temperature of 212®; alcohol at 172*^; consequently if the whole be exposed to heat not much exceeding 1*J2 9 the alcohol, whatever may be its proportion in the entire quantity, will fly off' into vapor into a con- denser that cools and passes it off as liquid, while the water remains undisturbed. By this simple process any liquor, containing nothing but alcohol and water, may be separated into the two distinct elements, or if there be other elements in the same composition, they may be separated from both, or by fractional distillation the liquid may be broken up into its distinct ele- ments, whatever their number or proportion. Thus by the simple use of the retort and the alembic, the exact constituents of any liquid can be determined positively and exactly, and what we drink be made as visible as what we wear. The American high-wines of commerce are whis* key, from which the water is so far separated as to leave nearly pure alcohol, from which by further rectification a pure colorless and tasteless spirit is produced, ready, when drugged and diluted, for the manufacture of any drink that trade may demand, 12 whatever its name or supposed origin. The knowledge of distillation was one of those great truths which are revealed from time to time for the benefit of man when required by the neces- sities of other developments. The discovery of dis- tillation from wine, which puts into body or form or sets free from watery surroundings an agent of greatest potency, soon led to progressive discoveries of transcendant value, which cannot be over-estim- ated, to chemistry and mankind, in its aggressive power to convert substances, in themselves of small importance or dormant, to purposes of the greatest utility in manufactures, ai'ts and medicine. ■:o:- ALCOHOL. There are many alcohols, and many more to be discovered. Those best known are a» group of six, alike in the elements of their composition, but differing slightly in the proportions. The first containing 1 atomic part of carbon to 4 atoms of hydrogen and 1 of oxygen, and proceeding in an ascending scale to 6 atoms carbon, with 14 atoms hydrogen, each being in combination with 1 atomic I part of oxygen. The first, Methylic or Wood Spirit, (sp. gr. 814 ; boiling point, 140 ^ F.), is a product of the distilla- tion of wood, discovered about 70 years ago, and 13 >f those to time b neces- y of dis- 3r form Lgent of coveries jr-estim- gressive of small greatest e to be of six, on, but he first toms of s in an atoms . atomic :r. 814; distilla- iro, and for its comparative cheapness is used in arts and manufactures and in burning fluids. What is pre- pared for manufactures may be used in drink, and the "horrid stuff" may be a reaay resource for people anxious to get drunk where nothing else is to be had, of which thirsty travellers have found abundant evidence both in the State of Maine and our North- West. The second, Ethylic Alcohol, (sp. gr. 792 j boil- ing point, 1*72 ® ), is a product of fermentation and an educt of distillation. It is the Bacchus of modern worship, or more graphically speaking the Juggernaut, for it only excites the ardor of its fol- lowers to crush them. Leaving the other four to the chemists, this, the active principle of all intoxi- cating drinks, is, like the othera, the only known intoxicant that affects all animals alike. Its ordin- ary sp. gi\ is 830, and much labor is saved by not extracting water beyond this point. It is precisely the same combination whether mixed with the humblest or the most potent of drinks, whether beer, wine, (in its endless varieties), gin, whiskey, rum, brandy, or absinthe. However combined and disguised it is in one and all of them, a certain per- centage varying from 4 to nearly 100 p.c, of a liquor accurately weighed and measured, and known to contain 2 parts carbon, 6 parts hydrogen, and 1 part oxygen, which the drinker must swal- low, whatever the trade name of the compound, and Jl 14 innocent or deadly in accordance with the quantiiy irrespective of the surroundings in which it is taken. The name of wine or beer as nutrition is a sad delusion. That a compound of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen cannot, when diffused in such combina- tion, be food for life and a support to strength is as plain and positive to the physiologist as that there is no food property in a powdered brick-bat. But the world had not awakened to the fact until proclaimed a few years ago, by a certificate signed by hundreds of names, highest in the medical pro- fession, and it continues to overlook another fact, namely that a poison is defined to be anything that taken into the body of a living animal causes decay or destruction of its organism and consequent death, and demonstration proves fully that this is the character of Alcohol. Like cantharides and its class it is an irritant, like opium and its class it be- comes a sedative, thus combining like strychnine and its class all the properties of all poisons. Were it argued against this that it reqifires a spoonful to kill a child or threo-half-pints to kill a man, the reply is, that if bulk be an objection, there would be no acknowledged poison, except what comes from the sting of a bee or the tooth of a serpent. Solomon said truly of wine "It biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." About forty years ago a German chemist dis- !! I 15 cevered that pure alcohol aoted upon hy dry chlor- ine gas, and purified by sulphuric acid and lime, produced, by the addition of water, a solid, re- sembling coarse salt, known as chloral hydrate, which is a poison so potent that less than one-fourth of an ounce, which may be condensed from the 12 oz. of alcohol in a bottle of brandy, is sufficient to kill a man. Who can to-day limit the increased knowledge of the effects of alcohol upon weak humanity to which this discovery, but of yesterday, may lead ? The woi'd alcohol should be a terror to mankind. Existing nowhere in nature, it emerges into life by the destruction of all that gave it birth, and, seizing upon the human race, continues a despoiler and muiHlerer to the end. The beneficent gifts to mankind in the discovery of alcohol was an all-potent agent to disintegrate and dissolve gums, resins or essential oils and other substances unassailable by water, and produce certain acids before unknown. It does what water cannot do. It separates what water holds together, and the very qualities that make it a right arm to the chemist, by its all-powerful action upon inor- ganic substances, are its condemnation for agencies in the living body, where it is brought into contact with the fluids and semi-solids that compose the inner structure and sustain the life of man. 16 PHYSIOLOGY. Man, the most perfect of all i<^echanism8, so fear- fully and wonderfully made, so strong in its entirety that it can perform all things, and so weak in its parts that a slight derangement of one may impede the work of all, consists as a sti'ucture of solid, liquid and gaseous substances, so intimately united as to be only separable by artificial means. All solid particles are penetrated by liquid and these contain gaseous in solution. The liquids of the human body constitute about four-fifths of its entire weight, and exist in various forms of chemical solution, pervading every part. All the components of the body may be reduced to fifteen elementary constituents, which are com- mon to all organisms, such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and eleven others. These com- pose the tissues that enter into the formation of the bones, nerves and cartileges, and their divisions, minute and Innumerable, make up the whole frame- work of man. Ail action tends to the destruction, disintegration or using up of these tissues, which are renewed for strength and usefulness by the office of nutrition. All elements possessed of tne affinities that effect this nutrition are food, all that do not possess them are for this purpose useless, and all that contain disturbing elements are hurtflil. Heat or warmth 17 J, 80 fear- \ entirety ik in its 7 impede of solid, 7 united ns. All id these e about various part. reduced ■e com- •xygen, » com- of the '^isions, frame- ration ed for rition. effect them ►ntain trmth iL a primal condition of animal life, for which food is the fuel and sustainer. The blood, composed of nearly four-fifths water, in which float corpuscles, visible by the microscope, and from which is derived the materials of life and growth, is renewed by the food taken into the stomach, and circulated through ail parts of the body, partly by the impulsion of a central engine, the heart, in regular pulsations, and partly by a power residing in the capillaries or minute blood vessels. The vessels, through which blood is forced from the heart, called arteries, is at first a large tube or trunk that branches off like a tree into twigs, thus dividing into smaller tubes, till so minute as only to be seen by the aid of the microscope. They spread throughout every part of the body, and dis- charge by the "capillaries" into the veins, through which the blood returns to the heart by the opposite movement, that is from the branches to and through a trunk, thus completing what is called the circula- tion of the blood, which cannot bo inteiTUpted or impeded without disorganization or stoppage of life. The blood in the body of a man is in weight about 30 lbs., or about 3 gallons, which circulates through the body by about 100,000 beats of the hearts in 24 hours. The average quantity is about 10 lbs. a minute, or 600 lbs. an hour, or 14,400 lbs. in 24 houra. 18 ft This force, in mechanical computation, is equal] to lifting 115 tons one foot per hour. The entire human structure contains 70 p. c. of | water; the blood contains V9 p.c. ; the brain 80 p.c, and the muscles average about 75 p.c. The pulsa- tions of the heart in a full-grown healthy man average about 73 per minute, and every increase or decrease of the usual rate indicates derangement or something unnatural. The natural heat of man is 98*=* F., easily ascertained by placing a thermo- meter under the tongue, and any considerable dis- turbance which would make it to rise or fall many degrees from this natural standard will put life in jeopardy. It is nearly alike in all men, in all cli- mates, and at all seasons. The steam-engine is a ponderous combination of legs and arms, joints, connections and valves, made to perform the work of many men. Heat applied to water produces steam, which carried through an artery or pipe to the heart or cylinder, drives the force that moves the machine. Bad or unsuitable iuel, or bad elements in the water or lubricating oil, would, by corrosion, soot, ashes or cinders, impede or stop the movements, or by friction so weaken some part as to destroy the whole. In like manner when certain unfit elements are taken into that storehouse of the body, called the stomach, they pass into the blood as a vagabond^ uniting with nothing there, but repelled by all till i is equal! ro p.c. of I in 80 p.c, 'he pulsa- thy man increase mgement it of man . thermo- rable dis- all many it life in n all cli- aation of es, made ' applied 'ough an ives the isuitable iting oil, impede weaken mts are iled the 2:abond^ all till 19 shased away by nature's police; like lightning massing through a workshop, they leave no trace except in some destruction, damage or dross. The human machine, like the mechanical, re- quires an engineer, competent to procure and apply all that is requisite for maintaining healthy action, and the most competent must be the owner. " Know thyself," said the Grecian sage, referring to the intellect. ** Know thyself," says the physio- logist, in all things that concern the body in its material existence. " Know well thyself .... The only study of mankind ia man/' says the poet. The nerves, so quickly agitated by any abnormal excitement or derangement, are a ramification of delicate cords, tubes and cells passing throughout the system in straight lines or interwoven, and serve to conduct impressions from the external world to the nervous centres, or to transmit voli- tions from these centres to the structure subject to their control, and especially to the muscular sys- tem. If these be thrown into commotion by a cup of strong tea, wL.it must result from alcohol, one of the most powerful of irritants. The animal body is the only machine that lubri- cates itself, so that itn component parts may run smoothly, noiselessly and painlessly. Men do not apply aqua-fortis to watch movements. When the 20 pure oil of nature is vitiated by alcohol, or the minute blood channels are obstructed, then comes corroding, stiffness and friction, in cramps and rheu- matism, that, after tormenting a man for life, descend to his innocent progeny. Horace Walpole said that it was too bad that he should bear the ex- cruciating pains of gout and other infirmities be- cause his fathei had taken pleasure in the excess of drink that occasioned them. Still more horrible, millions of women, guiltless of irregularities, endure lives of torment in bodily infirmities, sometimes ending in death m early girl- hood, and sometimes extending over protracted years, caused by the irregularities of their parent- age fulfilling the Divine decree which carries the sins of the fathers down to the third and fourth generation. -:o:- CHEMISTRY. All bodies known to us, whether animal, vege- table or mineral, have been studied by chemists, and shown to be either elements, such as iron, gold, sulphur and charcoal, or compounds of two or more elements, a name by which they distinguish such bodies as cannot be shown to be compound. Water, flint, marble and sugar are examples of* compounds, and, like all others, are made up of 1, or the en comes And rheu- for life, Walpole I' the ex- it! es be- )xces8 of guiltless 1 bodily )tracted parent- 'ies the fourth vege- mists, ?oId, more such es of ip of 21 certain invariable and definite proportions of different elements into which they can be re- solved, and which can be made directly or in- directly to re-unite and form these compound bodies. Thus the chemist can separate water into- two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, flint into oxygen and silicon, marble into oxygen, carbon and a metal named calcium, and sugar into oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. The first three of these compounds^ he can reproduce from their elements by processes well known to him, while growing plants gel car- bon, hydrogen and oxygc. from air and water and convert it by other chemical processes into sugar, starch and other matter, some of which the chem* ist has been able to make in his laboratory. The studies of the chemist, while they have es- tablished the elementary nature of many bodies, have shown many others to be compound, and we now know more than sixty substances believed to be elements, of which however the greater number are rare, and seem to play but a subordinate paru in the world. Four of these elements make up the chief part of all vegetable and animal form, constitute also the air we breathe and the water we^ drink. Of these hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are colorless, invisible gases, hydrogen being tho lightest known, about 1300 times lighter than com- mon air. Oxygen is about 700 times lighter than water, and when united with one-eighth its weight of hydrogen forms water. 22 iiii I Nitrogen, or azote, is somewhat lighter than oxy- j;cn, and when simply mixed with this in the pro- jortion of four volumes to one gives the air we li'i'eathe. It is the oxygen in the air which enables iit to support animal life and combustion. The burning of wood and coal is the combination of the elements of these bodies with the oxygen of tho atmosphere. Anthracite coke and charcoal are nearly pure carbon, (a term signifying a combusti- ble base, of which the diamond is the purest form,) and yield, when united with oxygen, carbonic acid gas, a small portion of which is always found in tho air, and is essential to the food of plants. Sugar, starch, wood and fats consist of carbon vith the exception of bones and shells, which con- sist chi'jfly of compounds of lime with oxyds of car- bon a^id phosphorus. Tho function of plants is to lant8 and animals are furnished with organs by \vhich they are placed n relation with the external ^world. They are therefore spoken of as organisms, 23 an oxy- ho pro- air we enables i nation rgen of ;oaI are nbusli- form,) c acid I in the 3arbon flesh, a con- 3 four •ogon, Qents, imals, con- 'f car- is to V ater sntof Both 8 by Jrnal and the substances which make up their tissue ar^ generally designated as organic, as contra-distin- guished from mineral bodies. The foregoing has been kindly written for me by a friend standing in the foremost ranks of science^ and shows wh''^ and how the chemist knows with precision what elements are and what the result of their combinations, which, though dark to the avei*^ age reader, are as plain to him as anything material in common use that can be seen and handled^ weighed or measured, and consequently when the chemist speaks of the qualities or effects of any combination of elements, he speaks with positive knowledge and with unerring principles for hi» guides. It may be here observed that the chemist cannot discern or say before-hand why alcohol may not be as fit for the human body as sugar or fat, which consist of the same elements, because the relations^ of any or all of these substances to the animal or- ganism are established by physiological and not by purely chemical considerations. •:o:- FOOD. Proper footl must contain organic matter in a form capable of being assimilated by the digestiva organs, and must include all the elements of th©^ 24 body, combined with nothing deleterious or poi- sonoas. The waste by time and its activities, or wear and tear of tissue, a term applied to the various textures of which the organs of the body are composed, in- volving the destruction of life in individual atoms, and the necessity of maintaining the temperature of the body, all require the constant introduction of fresh organic matter to supply this waste, and the natural sensations of hunger and thirst tell us when «olid or liquid food is required. Any drink that provokes unnatural thirst, or craving for more, must be dreaded. A sailor said, *• water must be the true drink, because nothing tastes so good when we are thirsty and nothing so bad when we are not." All substances susceptible of digestion and assimi- lation may come under the denomination of food, but the proximate principles of organic bodies, on whicli their nutritive powers depend, are compara- tively few. Hence, though the articles of food for the support of animal life are infinitely varied in form, their sustaining power in the support of strength and life may be referred to certain sub- «tance8 capable of being separated and identified, weighed and valued, by chemical analysis, making ^s plain and positive what is and what is not food as that sawdust is not sugar. Experiment, that test of truth, tells the chemist Hllljl 25 or poi- 0ar and )xtures ed, in- atoms, Jrature Hon of ad the 5 when k that more, ust be when ^e are ssimi- food, 38, on ipara- k1 for ed in rt of sub" :ifiod, iking food )mist that one passes through the body undigested and the other does not, and analysis of their composition tells him that the inexorable law of nature forbida that it should be otherwise. Milk, the most important of all foods, though secreted by an animal, partakes also of the nature of vegetable food, and presents a perfect analogy to- that combination of vegetable and animal matter most congenial for nutriti6n, and consequently as nature's production, especially for the young, wha cannot choose for themselves, may be adopted as a ' food standaixi. Its composition is 88 parts water in 100, and 12 solid parts in proper proportions of caseine or cheese, a fatty substance or butter, sugar of milk and salts. In estimating the proportion of liquid to solid in food, we must always remember that what we call solid may often contain sufficient liquid for its digestion. When alcohol, which is neither food nor fuel, m intruded into a stomach, prepared for the reception of food that maintains the tissues, and also furnisher the fuel that keeps up the natural warmth, like a useless vagabond seeking companionship amon^^ workers, there is an excitement, causing increased action of the heart and capillaries that pushes anci draws blood more rapidly to the extremities and creates a feeling of warmth, but in reality this \» only a throwing off of heat existing in the centrea 26 to that conductor of feeling, the skin, or from where it is greateSv to where it is least, like the stirring of coals in the etnbers, which creates sensible heat while destroying its source. This may raise the temperature of the body from J^ to IJ*^ above na- tural standaixi, which rapidly subsides to 1 ® or 2 ® below, if the intrusion of more alcohol continues the expansion. If whiskey produced EiJstainod internal warmth, ^we should not pick up frozen drunkards during the winter in our streets. When a man is found frozen to death with an empty whiskey bottle in his poc- ket, we may hold that natural heat might have en- >abled him to reach a place of safety had he poured the liquid into the snow instead of into his stomach. The end of food is the generation of force. Alco- hol, being neither food nor fuel, can create no force. It only stimulates action, which is not strength, but the expenditure of strength. When taken to in- <5rease the energy of the tired, it adds no force, but only draws out and uses up what remains in the organism; like the lash on the tired horse, it ex- cites immediate action at the cost of greater after prostration. A man, with capital safely invested and living upon the interest, has a happy provision for life, but if not content with the interest he draws upon the capital, poverty must ensue. Food provides a 27 1 where jtirring le heat lise the ove na- or2o lues the rarmth, ing the I frozen lis poc- 9.ve en- poured to his ' Alco- force, rth, but to i li- ce, but in the it ex- V after living )r life, s upon vides a necessary store of strength for labor, forcing ai» expenditure by alcohol is plainly using up capital and interest. The bankrupt in purse may rise- again, but the bankrupt in body is down forever. What nature has given us for food contains water, salt, .Iburaen, caseine and fibrine, in which nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus are in combina^ tion. That which does nothing to build up, but only" weakens or destroys that which is built, must be a scourge. We have existed from the beginning in a sea or knowledge non-observant or indifferent to its won- ders, till in our own immediate time, when, after more than a century and a half teaching of modem chemistry, there is an illumination that wakens us^ to all the realities. Some years ago I asked a Jesuit missionary on Lake Superior what a party of his wild Indians would see if he brought them to Montreal. His quick reply was " nothing but the meat market.'^ In the struggle for existence we have, like the In- dians, been occupied with the necessities of imme- diate concernment, to be seized upon as presented without further enquiry; but daylight has come and we see, not only things but the composition and necessities of things, and the reason why they cannot be otherwise than what they are, and isk sinning against Nature sin against knowledge* . 28 WHAT LIQUORS ARE. Brandy, rum, gin and whiskey are called ** spirits," and their commercial *' proof" is 50 p.c, that is half alcohol and half water. Brandy, if reality agreed with presumption, would be a pure white liquor of pleasant flavor, dis- tilled from wine in the district of Cognac, Dept. of Oharente, in France, but usually colored before Bale. The wines of that district are mostly con- Terted into brandy, and all imported from it has Ijeen deemed a real and pure article, but, even in days of honesty, the annual production of 6000 butts somehow became 15,000 butts of the best brandy before exportation, and now, from the bad- ness or deficiency of the grape crop, the demand is met by distillation of corn-spirit, flavored with wine or wine refuse, to such an extent among all the manufacturers, and with so close an imitation, that in supplying an order from America the agent in J'rance would not know exactly what he shipped. Coarse brandy is also distilled wherever wine is made, usually for home consumption. In Eussia it 18 distilled from potatoes, and the excise upon it is one of the largest items of revenue. In Great Bri- tain and America it is largely manufactured from 29 re called is 50 p.c, sumption, iavor, dis- Dept. of ed before >stly con- nn it has even in of 6000 the best L the bad- lemand is with wine ? all the tion, that agent in ihippcd. • wine is Russia it ipon it is reat Bri- red from high-wines and water, so nicely flavored as to de- ceive many so-called judges. Rum is an ardent spirit, obtained by distillation from the fermented skimmings of sugar-boiling, the drainings of the sugar-pots and hogsheads or molas- ses, the washings of bottles and other vessels, toge- ther with sufficient cane-juice or wort, prepared by washing the crude cane, to give it necessary flavor. Up to about a half-century ago, being very cheap and easily procured, it was a common drink of peo- ple in the Atlantic States and Canada, and so much deemed a necessity that, when in 1790 the new settlera on the Niagara frontier were starving for bread. Government sent them up by the trouble- some navigation of those times 100 barrels of rum. In this Province the consumption was gi^eat, and eveiy puncheon purchased from the importer usually became two before reaching the consumer. Gin is understood to bo a grain-spirit, distilled from rye and juniper berries in Holland, their being nearly 200 distilleries in Schiedam alone. " British Gin " 50 years ago was a vile compound, with the odor and taste of spirits of turpentine, but by " modern improvements," in the use of oils of al- monds, cassia, nutmeg, lemon, juniper, coriander and carraway, essences of orris-root and caixiamoms, orange flower water, sugar, etc., it has become a favorite beverage of the multitude. Whiskey is the grain-spirit, that is, all dii'ect die- 30 tillation from fermented grain, of which, in Ame- rica, fourth-fifths is Indian corn.* (See Note.) To reduce bulk and weight, distillation may be con- tinued until it becomes nearly alcohol, known as high-wines, death to the man who should drink three halfpints, but reducible by water to any strength required. " Old Eye" may be any whiskey over a year old, slightly colored and flavored, and ** Bourbon" may be nothing else. All these distilled liquors may be further distilled and rectified to produce a pure, colorless and tasteless alcohol for purposes in medi- * Note. — American whiskey is made of four-fifths Indian corn and one-fifth a mixture of rye, malt and oats, in about the pro- portion of 4-6, 3-8 and 1-8 for the rye, malt and oats to make the other fifth ; that is, in 100 lbs., there are 80 lbs. Indian coroi 10 lbs. rye, 7^ malt, and 2 3 oats. The proof gallon, or taxable gallon, in the United States is 50 p.c. alcohol and 60 p.c. water. This is called proof 100. The common whiskey of trade is distilled up to any point be- tween this 100 and 191 proof, and is put on the market as alcohol at 188 proof, or, if Bourbon or rye whiskey, at about 101 proof. In the United States, high-wine is the raw whiskey run at about 150 to 160 proof, or, as it is often called, 50 to 60 over proof. Until late years (within 15 years) all common whiskey distilleries made high-wines, and dealers, called rectifiers, made these high-wines into alcohol by e, second distillation, and into spirits by rectification through powdered charcoal and then another distillation. Now all this is done in the distilleries, and the tax is paid on the finished product. There are four gallons of whiskey extracted from a bushel of coin, the bushel weighing 56 lbs. Some now claim to get 18 qts, from a bushel. 31 in Ame- ee Note.) ly be con- known as uld drink >r to any year old, on" may I's may be e a pure, J in medi- Indian corn ut the pro- to make the an ooro, 10 States is 50 00. y point be- t as alcohol 101 proof. cey run at to 60 over )n whiskey fiers, made 1, and into and then illeries, and r gallons of weighing 56 cine, in the arts, and in the imitation of intoxicants of every name. Beer, ales and porters are fermented liquors, pro- duced through the process termed brewing. Grain, usually barley, soaked in water till it germinates and then dried in a kiln, which evolves the saccha- rine principle, is called malt, this, combined with water, hops and yeast, becomes "wort," and sub- jected to heat, with some changes of temperature, it ferments, and in the end a clear liquid is drawn off. This is the plain story, but there are mys- teries, some contingency may interfere to spoil the browing, or there may be trouble after it gets into the casks, which may require artificial remedies, that are found in three poisons, cocculus-indicus, strychnine and opium, and many drugs and condi- ments not in themselves hurtful. All fermented drinks are liable to sickness, and at times require medicine. Primitive wine was the naturally fermented juice of the grape, and such it continues in the poorer descriptions, consumed in wine-producing countries, where the wine of the peasant and poor farmer, who are compelled to sell their fruit, is a mere washing from skins and stems. If the lower descriptions of wine are consumed in their natural state, because no mixture can make them cheaper, the highest descriptions in France are preserved nearly in their natural state, because any mixture would destroy 32 the qualities that make them saleable at the high- est prices ; but the great bulk of grape-juice, sub- jected to the competition of trade, becomes a manu- factured article to suit various markets at prices to suit consumers. There are hundreds of vai'ieties of grapes, all affected by variety of season, and the excellence of the juice for wine may depend, not so much upon the precise species of grape, as upon some peculiar- ity in soil or exposure to the sun. Thus there are, in the wine countries, vineyards here and there of small extent, renowned for the real or fancied quality of their grapes. For the highest description of wine they are hand-picked when a little over-ripe, and cared for in many ways to produce a wine, classified at various prices ac- coixiing to its presumed merit, to be pur chased only by the most opulent. Lower grades are produced from inferior grapes on the same stems. The Grand Duke Constantino about 20 years ago pur- chased in Bordeaux three casks of Sauterne of the vintage of 1846 at $25 per gallon, and three casks discovered afterwards sold at auction at $50 per gallon. Port, the old favorite of Englishmen, has been so long medicated between the vineyard in Portugal "and the dinner table, that they would not use the real article if they got it. Sherry, manufactui'ed by a long process fror; the promiscous grapes of a 33 e high- ce, sub- i manu- rices to pes, all ence of h. upon Bculiar- leyards for the •"or the -picked yways Lces ac- 3d only oduced The ;o pur- of the casks 50 per )een so >rtugal se the red by IS of a large district in Spain, is the farthest removed from natural wine of all the high-priced. The wine-trade of France is a matter-of-fact busi- ness. The '* crop," a few years ago, equalled in value the cotton crop of the United States, and science makes the most of it. A few small vineyards have great names Since the Revolution, vast areas, not particularly suited to their growth, have been planted with vines, and a large portion of the grape-juice from the fruit is manufactured to resemble in supposed quality and in name the product of renowned vineyai*ds. In France these names, except with some very fine wines, ftre little more than "trade-marks," while abroad they are assumed to be realities. Bad seasons and the ravages of an insect have of late years greatly diminished the *' wine^crop;" in one of the years not a single grape fit for wine was found in the Champagne countiy, which though sad for the cultivator, has been rather gladdening to science and commerce, for coarse wines from Italy, Spain and California are now imported, to be made ovev and re-shipped as the most delicious of France. Thus wine, which popular error has assumed tt) be a positive liquor like rum, is any beverage, not spirits, that is a composition of varities so endless that no pei*son knows what he is drinking when taking it, beyond the sensation of excitement pro- 34 duced by the alcohol it contains. " Spurious'* wines are only to be condemned for being coarse, vulgar and wretched imitations of good imitations. In the cookery of wine, as in all cookery, there are good cooks and bad cooks. A study of the liquor question ends with the comforting assurance that, though all the grape- vines and sugar-cane of the world disappeared, so long as the Indian corn crop of the West continues to provide for the alcohol, water remains abundant and chemicals are at hand, there will be no falling off in the supply of strong drink of every name and variety.* (See Note.) The good woman who gives her weakly child a glass of port wine to do it good, should know that she has simply administered a quantity of alcohol and water, differing little from the brandy and water that is killing her husband. The medical profession has a terrible load of offence to cast for its past practices and must claim * Note. — There is a gallon of alcohol in a gallon and an eighth of laudanum, two gallons brandy, four gallons strong wine and eight gallons light wine, or 16 gallons beer. What may be called a fair drink of spirits, and rather strong for weak stomachs, is a wine-glass of brandy in a tumbler of water, which, in measure- ment, is equivalent to one ounce alcohol to seven of water; the same quantity is imbibed in taking two glasses of strong wine, four glasses light wine or four tumblers of beer, but the intoxi- cating effects may differ in various liquors or in different indi- yiduali. Champagne, though a light wine, is very intoxicating. .»» the 80 35 forgiveness on the plea of weak humanity. People are continually sending for the physician when really there is little the matter with them. He must do something, liquors are always at hand, they produce exhilaration or rousing up of faculty, and patients like them.* (See Note.) The consumer usually finds spirits diluted by water, which increases the profit, and wines strengthened by alcohol, which improves their at- traction. Port and Sherry are apt to contain 25 p.c, and strong Spanish wines may exceed chis proportion. If it be asked how alcohol, which is only water with a little carbon added, can be so dangerous, the reply is that elements perfectly innocent in one combiliation are entirely changed by a combination ilightly different. Laudanum is only .alcohol with a tenth part of opium added, lye is only w«iterwitb a little potash added.f (See Note.) *NoTK. — The relative alcoholic strength or percentage of differ- ent liquors are thus given by Brande, and may be kept in mind by people when taking a drink : — Brandy, 63 p.c; Rum, 63 p.c; Gin, 61 p.c; Whiskey, 64 p.c; Beer, 6 p.c; Porte, 4 p.c; Ale, 8 p.c; Cider, 7 p.c; Port, 23 p.c; Sherry, 19 p.c- Maderia, 23 p.c; Marsala, 26 p.c; Sautorne, 14 p.c; Bordeau:., 10-16 p.c; llhine Wines, 7-14 p.cj Champagne, 11-13 p.c ; Tokay, 10 p.c.j Burgundy, 11-16 p.c f Note. — The British gallon is a measure that will contain exact- ly 10 lbs. water, or 160 ozs. A gallon of brandy will contain 64 ozs. of alcohol, a gallon of alcohol weighing 8 lbs. A gallon of IS 36 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE BODY. The laws of the human organism are fixed, deter- mined and inexorable, except in certain modifica- tions. No man ever was or ever will be precisely the same being five minutes after he has swallowed even an ounce of alcohol as he was five minutf^s before. The first effect is the cheat of an apparent increase in warmth, which is only the result of a more rapid radiation of heat from the centres to the extremities, causing a flush on the cheek or a fever- ed state of the body or extremities. The tongue is aroused to increased utterances, an augmented ac- tion in the muscles, especially of the face and arms ensues. If the influence be continued, the alcohol acts upon the spinal cord. The control of some of the muscles is lost, felt first in the lower limbs, aa seen by the staggering, uncertain steps. Reason now gives way, and the animal instincts assume the strong wine, 32 ozs. alcohol ; of light wine, 16 ozs.; of beer, 8 ozs. A common table tumbler contains 8 ozs.; a wine-glass 2 ozs., an ounce being two large tablespoonsful. A wine-glass would con- sequently contain of alcohol in brandy, 1 oz.; in strong wine, ^ oz.; light wine, j; oz.; beer, 4 oz.; these measurements, though not fractionally exact, are near enough for common calculation to show what quantity of alcohol is taken in each and every drink, and be it remembered that the damage of drink is in the strength of the draught, and not In the quantity. Absinthe is mr>re damag- ing than beer, because a wine-glass of the one contains the alcohol in 5 tumblerg of the other. 31 mastery. The cowaixi becomes more craven, or is possessed for the moment by an unequal courage, the bully more pugnacious, the daring more reck- less, and the cruel more brutal. Man is reduced to the condition of a brute. At last comes utter pros- tration, and the mad revel ends in insensibility. I The poison, at first irritant, is now sedative. All organic action is stopped except the breathing, the action of the heart and circulation of the blood, all of which being involuntary are, happily for him, beyond the control of his will. The intrusion of alcohol had paralyzed the out- posts of the nerves, and the force drawn into the nerve centres had driven the machinery of life too rapidly. The natural action of the heart became rapid, unsteady and violent beats, causing the blood to surge with increased force. In all this there has been stimulation without nourishment J no power beyond the moment con- ferred on brain or muscle. Excitement that maiportions, •ning till )n at any converse ing from thought, chant or him, in I and in ly to act ntinuous :ion and plicated, 8 of the 51 MONEY VALUE OF MEN. Nothing upon earth is so valuable as man, yet we omit this value or money estimate in our statistics of public wealth, and overlook the loss sustained in his destruction. We would shoot a scoundrel who prowled about seeking to put poison into the drink of valuable animals, while we license and protect " good citizens " who sell poisonous drink to our young men, and when some nabob invites them to be poisoned at his dinner-table or at some celebra- tion, we are obsequious in our thanks. A great writer says that the first consideration of a young man when entering upon life on his own account is to be a good animal. Is it not strange that we seek to improve the bodily stamina of all races of animals except the human race. To the individual as to the State, health is wealth. When men were merchandise they had a chattel value far above that of cattle. Prisoners were the best part of the booty in ancient warfare. Wealthy Eomans grew more wealthy by buying and selling them. The inhabitants of Constantinople were a great booty to the Turks in 1453, and we have known the price of slaves in our day. I have seen a slave sold at auction as high as $1,*700 in Florida. Francesco Moreno told me in Pensacola that he had refused $2,500 for a negro in charge of his cattle, 52 and that money could not buy him. My cousin, Col. Wentworth Higginson, wrote me that a sergeant in his colored regiment during the war had been valued at a price far higher than this when a slave. The 18,000 children who died last year in the Dominion, under one year, cost a great deal during their short existence, and to alcohol from the breasts of their mothers, or administered in medicines, much of the loss must be attributed. The mortality up to the age of 21 is very great. All the money spent in the feeding, clothing and schooling by parents for children up to this age is enormous. Every death is the same as so much capital thrown away. Every measure that diminishes the death-rate is a cash gain. There are in the Dominion 1,000,000 males between the ages of 16 and 51, who would not be at all complimented if we valued their labor or services at an average of less than $1.00 per \ working-day, or $300 per year, which would repre- sent a capital of $5,000 at 6 p.c, making the value of the whole 5,000,000,000 of dollars. This is the out- side figure, but when people substract all they please for the death-rate and all contingencies, the abso- lute money value of a million of men exceeds oixiin- ary comprehension. At the soldier's pay of six- pence per day or thereabouts, the capital would be nearly one billion dollars, or one-fourth of the Na- tional Debt of Great Britain. 53 y cousin, that a the war han this ir in the al during le breasts edicines, aortal ity 9 money oling by lormous. I thrown eath-rate ,000,000 o would eir labor 1.00 per Id repre- le value i the out- jy please he abso- dsoixiin- ' of six- ould be the Na- if, as established by proxi mates of Insurance Companies, the death-rate of this million would be from ten to fifteen for every thousand, or a total of 10,000 to 15,000, and allowing the deaths of ab- Btainers and non-abstainers from liquors to stand at a heavy percentage, supposing them all to be insur- able lives, the excess of deaths attributable to strong^ drink would represent a loss in the outside estimate of many millions. The estimate here given at random may bo reduced to much exactness by any- one who would enter upon the calculation. We are straining at every point to bring immi- grants into the Dominion, and particularly want young men as highest in point of value to swell the productions of the country and not to enrich liquor- hellers. In the old wars between England and Franco on this continent, while it cost each country £100 for every soldier sent out, the other side could kill him at the cost of a ball cartridge after he got here. The experiment of importing young men for the benefit of liquor-sellers might be measured by the same scale. Never in the history of the world was the value of men in a commercial sense so great a* it is now. The wealth of a country is not in its houses and lands, but in its people and the strength of its people; and the strength of the people ia not in their numbers, but in their health and the num- ber of hours of sustained labor that they can con* w M ■ii! 54 ia-ibute for public good, which the use of alcohol «adly diminishes. Di\ Clarke, one of the physicians to the Queen, stated, in a recent lecture, that TO pei*sons out of •every 100 in a London Hospital under his charge had been addicted to the use of alcohol. The re- turns of the Registrar-General of England and Wales enumerates as causes of death nearly fifty "which are attributable to the same cause, and until we have reports more definite than we now have, it may be safe to assume that out of 16,000 deaths of men annually in the Dominion, more than 4,000 may be attributed to diseases produced by alcohol, .and the additional loss of capital in loss of hours, if it could be summed up, would be very many mil- lions of dollars annually. Should there be hereafter a condition of society when the relations between virtue and vice are less •cordial, and the toleration of shams less fashionable than in our boasted 19th century, men may wonder how onr liquor slaughter could be permitted, and if i^minded that the moral and delicate of enlightened Home thronged the amphitheatres to witness fellow- -creatures torn to pieces by wild beasts or slain in enjoyed, bo follovf^ i ion?" Is conqu jst lip, with not what times or « Lrth's sur- as under nor. hilt a 3ration of w does to I century, he life of beneficent "^^^^ S^' IIIPII fiiil Uii u DEPOT. I DOMINION ALLIANCE, QUEBEC BRANCH, 103 MANSFIELD STREET, MONTREA (under the management of MRS. THOMAS CiAI,ES). J All kinds of Temperance Literature constantly o hand. General depository for Temperance Tracts, Band of Hope and Juvenile Temperance Society supplies, (fee, (fee. Depot for Pledge Books, Pledge Cards and Litera ture of the V/oman's Christian Temperance Union, of the Province of Quebec. Stationery, School Supplies and Sniallware Zways in Stock. lip- IPOIt O-A-T-A^XiOa-CTE- 4NCE, MONTREAI OMAS GAI,ES). •oiistantly o|| empcrance A'enilo les. Ls and Litersj smperance lebee. \Sniallware ICTE.