ALCOHOL; 
 
 A DEFENCE OF FfS TF:MFEKATE USE. 
 
 -ttY- 
 
 c. Gordon Richardson. 
 
 Lecturrr on 'Chemistry in the Oxtario Veterinary 
 
 CoiI.KGK. 
 
 w rill AN 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 CoNsisTiN(; oi' Extracts erom the published works of 
 eminent physicians and others. 
 
 HUULlSHEl) HV 
 
 THE NATIONAL LIBERAL TEMFERANCK UNION. 
 
 Toronto, i8HS. 
 
ALCOHOL; 
 
 A DEFENCE OF ITS TEMPERATE USE. 
 
 — BY — 
 
 • C. GORDON RICHARDSON, 
 
 Lecturer on Chemistry in the Ontario Veterinary 
 
 College. 
 
 WITH AM 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Consisting of Extracts from the published works op 
 eminent physicians and others. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE NATIONAL LIBERAL TEMPERANCE UNION. 
 
 Toronto, 1888. 
 
OBJECTS 
 
 — OF THE- 
 
 Xfbetal XCemperance Xllnfon. 
 
 L—The objects of the Union shall be the defenceof individual liberty against 
 pndue state coercion, the protection of the rights of property against unjust 
 encroachments, the education of public opinion in the principles of just mod- 
 erate and reasonable legislation as opposed to arbitrary and oppressive measures 
 the practice of strict sobriety by the members and its encouragement in others' 
 the discouragement of the use of distilled liquors as beverages, the advocacy and 
 support of a license law discriminating between distilled and fermented liquors 
 and the securing of an effective system of inspection to prevent the adulteration 
 of all alcoholic drinks. 
 
 2.-It shall be the duty of the Union through its officers and members to 
 endeavour to induce sobriety amongst those with whom they come into contact 
 and to reclaim persons addicted to the excessive use of intoxicants, to enlist 
 licensed vendors of intoxicating liquors upon the side of temperance, to prevent 
 by all proper means the issue of licenses to any but respectable persons, and to 
 disseminate by literature and in other ways the true teachings orScriptureand 
 science on the subject of temperance. ^ ptureana 
 
 3-— The Union recognizes the duty or expediency, in many cases of total 
 abstinence, and a pU,dgeof total abstinence or any otL pledgTwhTh dels no 
 violate the principles of Christian temperance, shall be amongst the meanTu^ 
 in combating mtemperance. The declaration of adherence to the objects of t^ 
 Union shall constitute an obligation to practice sobriety 
 
 - -;.• .- > ,:.- •- . •.• .*>-.* ' , ■■ . . .1.. ■-■•,- .-.•J- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The tendency to sensual indulgence is so strong in many, the 
 evil effects of alcoholic intemperance so deplorable, and the pro- 
 bability is so great that some will make the knowledge that 
 alcoholic drinks are often beneficial an excuse for their own 
 excesses, that many who recognize in alcohol a good and merciful 
 gift of Heaven, may be inclined to question the expediency of 
 disseminating scientific testimony to its value. We cannot but 
 think, however, that a general recognition of the truth in regard to 
 alcohol will result in good, that the removal of errors which more 
 or less obscurr; the minds of intelligent people will permit of 
 more rational and effective methods of diminishing intemperance 
 than now prevail, and that in this respect, as in others, there can 
 be no essential antagonism between truth and goodness. ^ If the 
 desire for stimulants be a proper and natural instinct under many 
 conditions inseparable from the ordinary life of man, as our great- 
 est physiologists believe it to be, and not a sinful and depraved 
 appetite resulting from self-indulgence, it is foolish to attempt the 
 impossible task of eradicating it. Rather let us recogr"'.e the 
 value of the instinct, seek to bring it under the control of reason 
 and moral principle, and to remove, as Tar as may be, the con- 
 ditions which tend to make it too powerful. There is reason to 
 think that through a misapprehension of physiological facts, 
 coupled with a moral error of no slight significance, a warfare is 
 being carried on rather against alcohol than against intemperance. 
 
 While this misapprehension exists amongst citizens earnestly 
 desirous of reducing the sum of human evil, the danger is great of 
 final failure in the warfare against intemperance, and that what 
 measure of success may be attained in regard to this particular 
 aspect of wrong-doing, will be accompanied by evils which more 
 than counterbalance all the gbod effected. 
 
 There are weighty reasons why the public should hear some- 
 thing more than the excited exaggerations of the evils of alcohol 
 that are current. The other side, the benefit of alcohol, should 
 also be presented. A widely spread moral error has gradually 
 come to pervade society, an error having a most important influ- 
 
IT. 
 
 ence on con*, options as to the true essence of morality and the 
 methods and ends of moral government. The most obvious mani- 
 festation of this error is the teetotal system, which appears to 
 regard wine as essentially evil, or at least endorses the extraor- 
 dinary notion that men should despise and renounce a gift of 
 Heaven intended to conduce to their pleasure and benefit, because 
 some in following out the evil in their own natures choose to abuse 
 it and entail on themselves and others the suffering which is 
 naturally the result of wrong-doing. This doctrine, propagated by 
 enthusiastic adherents and of late, there is reason to think, by 
 many who find its advocacy to be a marketable commodity or a 
 means to notoriety and position, has led to a most undue deprecia- 
 tion in public eslTimate of the value of alcohol ; to the loss of many 
 lives, and, on the part of clergymen and others who might reason- 
 ably be expected to practice a little honest investigation, to 
 absurd and harmful exaggerations of the evils of drink. The 
 teetotal doctrine must have indeed become a strong delusion, when 
 prominent men are found to assert that one-third of the earnings 
 of the people is spent in liquor ; when symptoms and causes are 
 so confounded that most of the insanity and nearly all the pauper- 
 ism and crime are referred to strong drink. Because a large num- 
 ber of men, possessing so little moral principle and self-control 
 Ihat tlroy commit assaults and other petty offences against society 
 are also lacking in self-control in regard to the use of liquor, it is 
 frequently concluded that alcoholic intemperance must be, not the 
 symptom, but the cause, of their immoral condition ; though a 
 little reflection would lead to the opinion that it would be anoma- 
 lous if the majority of the criminals referred to did not, as the 
 outcome of their natures, resort to self-indulgence in alcohol. 
 
 Still more strange is it to find, despite repeated exi)osures of 
 the absurdity, the statement reiterated again and again that from 
 seven to ten thousand persons in the Dominion annually " sink 
 into drunkards' graves." As deaths from alcoholic excess are very 
 rare amongst women or persons under the age of twenty-one years, 
 and as the mortuary returns indicate that less than twenty-one 
 thousand men die annually from all causes, it seems remiarkable 
 that even thoughtless propagandism can repeat from pulpit and 
 platform a " stock " assertion of the prohibitionists which really 
 means that one man out of every two or three in the Dominion 
 dies from the effects of alcoholic intemperance. 
 
 Less easy of detection by the majority of intelligent men is 
 ,.he untruthfulness of the teetotal claim that the opinion of medical 
 authorities is all but unanimous in favor of universal total abstin- 
 ence. That this assertion should impress the public mind is not 
 surprising in view of the active and widespread agencies con- 
 stantly at work in disseminating it. A reference to the opinions of 
 acknowledged authorities, especially of those of the past ten or 
 fifteen years, will convince the reader that medical opinion, not- 
 withstanding the influence the moral errors of teetotalism have 
 
exercised for more than a generation, does not conflict with the 
 experience and observation of ages and the testimony of Holy Writ 
 that alcohol is a blessing to the human race. Wine, which 
 "cheereth the heart of man," it will be seen is acknowledged to 
 serve the no less important purpose of being a most convenient, and 
 often indispensable, agent in promoting his health amidst the many 
 depressing influences incidental to life. To imagine an ageat 
 which could so well fulfil these purposes without producing serious 
 mischief when used in excess may be left to the scientific knowledge 
 of prohibitionists, and to their powers of conceiving a wiser plan 
 than has been adopted in the construction of the universe. And 
 how to secure a proper subordmation of the love of pleasure to the 
 sense of duty without attaching to an agent, so capable of useful 
 services in cheering the heart amidst the many cares and worries 
 of life, the tendency to inflict severe penalties on those who, by 
 abusing it, attest themselves *' lovers of pleasure rather than lovers 
 of God," may be left to the overwise and somewhat materialistic 
 philosophy of teetotallism. 
 
 The doctrines of teetotallism have not only resulted in errors 
 calculated to injure the physical well-being of man, and to retard 
 the progress of temperance : their practical outcome has been the 
 establishment of a galling ecclesiastical and social tyranny, engen- 
 dering widespread hypocrisy and the deterioriation of politics. A 
 state tyranny has also been established which violates many of the 
 liberties which the English-speaking race has purchased by oft- 
 repeated and liberal sacrifice of patriotic blood. A law is in force 
 in many parts of the Dominion which brands as criminal a class 
 of citizens engaged in an occupation which neither the laws of God 
 nor the general conscience pronounces wrong. It subjects them 
 to confiscation of property, and to deprivation of the means of 
 livelihood for themselves and families, and to fine and imprison- 
 ment for the simple offence of selling that which the founder of 
 Christianity did not think it wrong to use. It puts a cruel strain 
 upon the domestic relationship which lies at the foundation of good 
 government, by making a wife a compellable witness against her 
 husband ; it forces upon the defendant the strong temptation to 
 commit perjury in order to secure t\imself from the penalties of 
 the llfiw, and even when he can honestly establish his innocence, 
 the Constitution of the Court is such that his testimony may be 
 rejected as untrustworthy against the evidence of hired informers. 
 It leaves the home open to inqujsitorial invasion at the mere 
 instance of a suspicious or revengeful zealot, and has led in a 
 number of instances to the fining of men simply for having liquor 
 in their houses for their personal use. The ordinary laws of 
 evidence are set aside by this tyrannical Act. It provides that it 
 shall not be necessary for any witness to depose as to the descrip- 
 tion of the liquor sold, or that any consideration was paid therefor, 
 or that it was sold to the witness' certain or personal knowledge ; 
 it leaves it to the option of a magistrate, usually chosen 
 
vl. 
 
 not for his impartiality or legal knowledfje, but because of 
 his extreme zeal in the cause of prohibition and his likeHhood 
 of convicting suspected offenders, to decide whether the case is • 
 sufficiently established to call foi the testimony of the accused, 
 whom, in default of his rebuttal of the often scanty evidence brought 
 against him, usually by hired informers, the magistrate is empowered 
 to convict without either trial by jury or the right of appeal on 
 matters of evidence. And, a? if this local option law were not 
 sufficiently unjust, the people of counties averse to it are com- 
 i>elled to bear a portion of the cost of enforcing the tyranriy 
 upon their fellow citizens. And strange though it may appear, the 
 pulpit often thunders out denunciations of woe on thoFe who fail to 
 support this iniquity. 
 
 But the length to which the teetotal tyranny goos does not end ■ 
 here. The teaching of views on the nature and use of alcoholat 
 variance with the general opinion of eminent physiologists — views ; 
 of a physician so extreme that he holds alcohol to be wholly 
 •' powerless for good" — is to be made compulsory in public '. 
 schools maintained by the taxes of many who utterly reject the 
 doctrines of teetotahsm, and unable to receive that extraordinary , 
 delusion — the •* unfermented wine " theory, believe that teetotal 
 teaching conflicts with the doctrine of the Gospel. Standing,^ 
 promotion and prizes are actually to depend in part upon the 
 answers given by the pupils being in accordance with tiie teetotal 
 view, and school boards refusing to submit to such teaching are . 
 threatened with forfeiture of their allowance of Government aid'. 
 "When our public schools are to be made so ostentatiously the 
 means of advancing the political and religious aims of zealots it is ■■ 
 surely time that patriotic men, lovers of liberty and justice, and. 
 intelligent believers in the Christian faith, should awake to the 
 dangers threatening our liberties. 
 
 Where will th.s tyranny end ? Total prohibition of the sale . 
 and even private use of alcoholic liquors is the goal short of which 
 it is the avowed purpose of the prohibitionist not to stop. TotaJ 
 prohibition with its attempts to debar the right of every citizen tp 
 use liquor in his own home, with its right of search in any house', 
 at any hour of the day or night, with its hosts of spies and infot'm* 
 ers instituting a general inqisition into every man's habits ; per- . 
 haps, as in the case of an American state, with its interdict on the . 
 sale of wine for sacramental purposes, and the restoration, in our 
 boasted age of advancement, of the old days of persecution for 
 conscience' sake ! 
 
 To plead that these iniquitous interferences with individual 
 liberty are required to suppress evil ; that the people who urge and . 
 support the tyranny are conscientious and believe they are serving . 
 God, is but to urge over again the pleas advanced in past ages in . 
 justification of measures of intolerance. Those who were, 
 instrumental in the enactment of laws for the imprisonment and 
 death of heretics, were many of them conscientious; the 
 
vu. 
 
 object they believed they were serving was the promotion ol true 
 religion and morality ; and it cannot be denied that they could cite 
 numerous instances where liberty of conscience was abused to the 
 detriment of the public morals and good government. And in 
 many instances these laws had the support of a majority of the 
 people. 
 
 The misrepresentation of the attitude of science in regard to 
 alcohol has done so much in aid of the growing tyranny that the 
 Literature Committee of the Liberal Temperance Union have 
 deemed it necessary to lay before the public, in convenient form a 
 little of the medical testimony on the other side of the question. 
 The subjoined work, which tney commend for careful considera- 
 tion, comprises a valuable essay by an able and careful expositor of 
 chemical science and a painstaking student of the alcohol contro- 
 versy, Mr. C. Gordon Richardson, and necessarily brief selections 
 from the writings of eminent medical men and scientists. The 
 theories advanced by these writers do not in every particular 
 coincide, but there is a significant degree of general agreement 
 as to the fact that alcohol is of much service to the world, and 
 generally conducive to the health and comfort of those who use 
 without abusing it. Sufficient, it is hoped, has also been presented 
 in this volume to warn against improper and excessive use, and to 
 indicate that in some instances total abstinence may be advan- 
 tageous. If the work presented prove to be of value in enlighten- 
 ing some at present misled by the physiological errors of prohibition- 
 ism, in enabling some to realize more clearly that Christianity and 
 Science are not at conflict, in inducing many to take a bold stand 
 for liberty and Christianity against the influences which, under the 
 guise of philanthropy, are tending to subvert both, and in helping 
 to recall public attention to truer methods of moral reform, the 
 compilation of this Avork will not have been in vain. 
 
 Thb Editor. 
 Toronto, January, 1888. 
 
 -i-^^^^aJW!?:?^^^ 
 
ALCOHOL; 
 
 .A DEFENCE OF ITS TEMPERATE USE. 
 
 C. GORDON RICHARDSON, 
 
 LicTURER OH Chemistry ik the Owtario Veterinary 
 College. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 STIMULATION AND STIMULI. 
 
 To reason clearly, as also to express ourselves intelligibly, it 
 is necessary to acquire the correct signification .of the terms we 
 eniploy. This is most important in the discussion of scientific 
 subjects, where the use of ambiguous phrases, or words of double 
 or doubtful meaning serves not only to retard the progress of 
 scientific thought, but also to the conception and dissemination 
 of false and vicious theories, and to the perpetuation of error. 
 
 This latter consequence is amply illustrated in Physiologfy by ■ 
 the careless use of the word stimuli, where the primary significa- 
 tion of the term has left a strong impression upon medical thought 
 long after the theories upon which the usage of the term wast 
 based, have been superseded and abandoned. Net indeed, that ' 
 the new theories were found more acceptable to the senior genera- 
 tion of medical men, or that the changes were anything but sloMf 
 and gradual, or that the present generation will be found free from 
 the peculiar bias of former theories. Sci>,ntists are not free from 
 that conservatism of thought which shrinks from acceptance of 
 new ideas which are found to clash strongly with the old. It is 
 true that the beclouding of modern ideas in the mists of former ■ 
 theories may in part be attributable to this reason and to the fact 
 that the vast majority of the medical men of to day have received 
 their tuitic > at the hands of professors impregnated with the/ 
 color of former theories. Much more, however, will it be found 
 due to the use of words or terms which, while yet applied tos 
 phenomena of which our conceptions have materially altered, have 
 not lost any of their original and primary signification. 
 
 The \/ord stimuli has an intimate connection with its Greek 
 derivative, auyfio^, a pricking or stabbing, implying also the ■ 
 distinct idea of injury inflicted, and it is in this sense invariably 
 that . the older writers used the term. Accordingly we find theic-.. 
 definition to have been " a goad," — anything which like the spur 
 in the side of a lazy horse elicits force while imparting none. Keep- 
 ing this definition in view we shall see how fitting was its use to 
 the ideas of the older schools, and how fruitful a source of error 
 it has become by careless usage under modern theories through 
 reason of its original significance. The better to understand: 
 the Doctrine of Stimulus at the present day, let us engage in a 
 brief retrospect of the theories which have preceded it. It is unn 
 necessary to refer here to the theories of Plato, since they were'- 
 practically resuscitated in those of Van Helmont and his follow* 
 
trs, the impress of whose thought may yet be found lingering 
 in the concepts of modern writers. 
 
 Van Helmont regarded the body as the abode of an Archaeus, 
 an immaterial spirit {tpuxyj) which presided over its functions ; 
 that this spirit was subdivisable, the several portions exercising 
 authority over the different members of the body. Perfect equili- 
 brium or consensus (Anstie) of these different portions of the 
 Archaeus was rega.ded by Van Helmont as constituting perfect 
 health, while disagreement was ill-health and disease. This 
 idea of a presiding vital spirit was no mere abstract one with Van 
 Helmont, an accomplished chemist, the discoverer of gaseous 
 bodies : he seems to have identified the Archaeus with one of these 
 subtle elements. The personal element entered largely into the 
 conception of Van Helmont ; accordingly we find the spirit, or 
 spirits, designated under the generic term of Archaeus was sup- 
 posititiously endowed with a capacity for rage, pleasure, or som- 
 nolency. It was also considered, although not so clearly, to be a 
 reservoir or generator of energy. We find also the conception of a 
 distinctive action of certain drugs, some being regarded as 
 having an exciting tendency, and others a soothing or subjective 
 action. Van Helmont speaks of " the subjective virtues of car- 
 thartic or purgative, the somniferous faculties of hypnotic or dor- 
 mitive, medicaments." •• These words," says Dr. Anstie, " fore- 
 shadow the doctrine of appropriate stimuli." 
 
 We readily perceive from the foregoing that the Helmontian 
 theory necessitated the assumption that energy was capable of 
 being generated, or created. This was not only recognized and 
 tacitly admitted by Van Helmont and his followers, but was held 
 til) very recently to be entirely in accordance with scientific facts 
 by philosophers of high attainments in physical science. It is 
 most important to recognize this fact, i.e., that the older schools 
 admitted or explicitly taught the generation of energy by the vital 
 spirit ; because i^ is upon this assumption that the whole of the 
 doctrine of stimulus was based. Disease then, with the followers 
 of Van Helmont, consisted either of a want of harmony among 
 the various members of the Archaeus, an indisposition on the part 
 •f one or more of the members to perform their allotted functions, 
 •r, in the case of fevers, the introduction of a foreign or toxic body 
 into the system threw the Archaeus into an •' enragement " who 
 immediately sent into the part affected a peculiar " ferment " which • 
 caused irritation of the tissues, calling the blood into them and' so 
 inducing inflammation. The rationale of the treatment pursued 
 in these different cases then can be easily understood. When, by 
 reason of lethargy in any of the different portions of the Archaeus 
 •r refusal to perform their allotted functions, that special part 
 of the system became diseased, it was necessary by the introduc- 
 tion of u>me " spur " or •' goad " (appropriate — stimuli ?) to arouse 
 the part into proper activity. When the whole of the vital spirit 
 (system) was diseased, recourse was had to the agents known as 
 
" general stimulants. ' When this introduction of stimulants was 
 carried beyond the point desired, viz., healthy or moderate activity, 
 the Archaeus '* goaded into fury " gave way to internal heat and 
 passion, causing fevers, tearing and destroying the tissues in its 
 eagerness to dispel the disturbing cause." Hence the signification 
 of the term " overstimulation." The personalty was still more 
 clearly shown in the case of fevers in the use of " somniferous 
 medicaments," and we can, at the present day, easily trace this 
 olden idea in the use of such significant terms, as " allaying the 
 nervous excitement," " nervous irritabili*;y." 
 
 We have seen that this doctrine of Van Helmont necessitated 
 the assumption that energy was capable of generation. In later 
 times some there were who perceived that this was not altogether 
 in harmony with physical theories, and amongst them was John 
 Brown, the author of what was known as the "Brunonian system," 
 in which he taught that the animal system was endowed at birth 
 with a certain amount of excitability (energy ?) the operation of 
 stimuli upon which, while calling forth energy, at the same time 
 exhausts the natural store. It can readily be perceived that while 
 this evades the difficulty of imagining energy as capable of being 
 generated, it in no other way differs from the original conception 
 of the Archaeus. 
 
 Dr. Anstie has shown that all the leaders of medical thou|;ht 
 from the time of Van Helmont till but a few years ago were im- 
 bued with Helmontian ideas. There were, of course, many 
 modifications and variations, the most important of which, that of 
 Brown's, we have already indicated, but they all without exception 
 contained the fundamental idea of the Archaeus, which, disguise it 
 as they would, still like King Charles' head, crept in. 
 
 The first to raise a protest against the soundness of the old 
 theories, was Professor Bennett, of Edinburgh. He showed that 
 so far from the phenomena known as " overstimulation " being a 
 continuance of healthy action to excess, the opposite is really the 
 case, since the results are essentially of a "low" kind. Instead 
 of making the part •* more alive " the immediate tendency is to 
 *' deaden " or " disintegrate." Professor Lister confirmed these 
 observations of Bennett's, and the remarkable discoveries of 
 Bernard and Brown-Sequard followed in the same direction. 
 The§e noted physiologists showed that lesions of the vaso-motor 
 nerves are followed in the parts controlled by the affected nerves 
 by phenomena in every way identical with those known as se- 
 quences to " overstimulation." 
 
 The importance of these facts in assisting the overthrow of the 
 Helmontian theories will be apparent upon a brief examination. 
 According to the old theories energy was a product of the " vital- 
 spirit," distributed to the diflerent muscles of the body by medium 
 of the nerves. If this were true then it follows that any interrup- 
 tion of communication between the source of energy and the vital- 
 spirit, or Archaeus {in some of the older writers the vital-spirit is 
 
seeningly confused with energy itself] should result in loss of 
 energy. In other words, if motion, energy, animal heat, and all 
 the general phenomena of life are attributable to anything, — vital- 
 spine, Archaeus, or what not — apart from the muscles themselves, 
 then any cutting off of communication between them and the 
 source of energy must result in practical "death" of the part 
 affected, loss of power, loss of sensation, incapacity for irrita- 
 bility, and a general sinking of the temperature. Now what 
 are the real facts ? Briefly these. On severing the sympa- 
 thetic nerve of the neck, an immediate elevation of tempera- 
 ture in that portion of the face and neck corresponding to the 
 nerve injured is observed. The skin is hot and flushed. The 
 arteries are flooded and beat with increased vigor. The eye 
 and ear become over-sensitive to pain, and the muscles are more 
 easily excited to contraction. All observed facts are antagonistic 
 to the old accepted theories. Again, energy in the animal body 
 was assumed to be a property peculiar to vital-force. Yet if 
 this were so, how are we to account for the contractile power 
 displayed by the muscles after death ? This [the rigor-mortis'' 
 does not set in until all trace of vitality has disappeared, and hav- 
 ing once set in does not relax till putrefaction destroys the struc- 
 ture itself. Again in certain nervous disorders, such for instance 
 as paralysis, when all power of voluntary contraction is destroyed, 
 the muscles still possess the power of contraction.- These consider- 
 ations will lead the thoughtful reader to the conclusion that the true 
 action of nerve force appears to be rather in the way of directing 
 and restraining the muscular energy than of exciting or supplying 
 it, and to this conclusion modern theorists are more and more 
 inclining every day. 
 
 What then are true stimulants ? And how are we to dis- 
 tinguish true stimulation ? An answer to these questions we shall 
 endeavour shortly to supply. In the meantime let us recognize ' 
 with Dr. Anstie that "It is most unphilosophical to speak as if 
 we still believed that a demon or demons resided in our stomach, 
 our nerves, or our ultimate cells whom we could propitiate with 
 cordials, sooth with anodynes, excite with stimulants, or inflame 
 into active wrath with irritants." 
 
 'i'^^i4WS?<%-<=' 
 
 -.\_ ' ^ ,• M ' . ,'y 
 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 ALCOHOL "NOT FOUND IN NATURE." 
 
 " The fact that it (alcohol) is not found among the varied compounds exist- 
 ing in animal and vegetable substance^ in their natural condition, is, of 
 itself, sufficient to exclude it from the list of necessary articles of food." 
 — Manual of Hygiene, Chap. XV,, Sec. 49. 
 
 The above quotation has been selected, not simply that it 
 embodies within it a very frequent assertion of teetotal writers and 
 speakers, but for the reason also, that it forms part of a text book 
 recently foisted into the Public Schools of Ontario as representing 
 the latest consensus of scientific opinion upon this question. 
 
 But what is meant by " not being found in nature ? " Are we 
 to understand by this purposely ambiguous language, that the 
 natural laws governing Biology and Botany are not concerned in 
 the production of alcohol ? That it is a mere mechanical produc- 
 tion sifnilar to a wagon or a plow ? Then the absurdity would surely 
 be apparent to the simplest intellect. If it is meant that alcohol is 
 the result of purely chemical action wherein those mysterious 
 organisms upon the border-land of life, the yeast-cells, have no 
 part or action other than that which black oxide of manganese 
 exerts in the production of oxygen from potassium chlorate, then 
 the statement merely reiterates the theory of Baron Liebig, which 
 has long since been superseded by the more tenable hypothesis of 
 Pasteur. 
 
 Or are we to understand, according to a more explicit assertion 
 once made to the writer by a Reverend Doctor of Theology, that 
 " though God made sugar, the devil mad^ alcohol ? " The state- 
 ment might possess a flavor of wit, but it certainly could not be 
 truthful. Yet how often assertions similar to the above are made, 
 either explicitly or impliedly in the vapid utterances of teetotal 
 writers and lecturers. 
 
 But if, ignoring the scientific vagueness of the term " natural 
 condition," we confine ourselves to the more explicit statement 
 that it is not found existing in either animal or vegetable bodies, 
 then I can have no hesitation in declaring the assertion to be 
 wholly false, and that the author of the above quoted paragraph 
 has been guilty, either of culpable ignorance of certain well estab- 
 lished scientific facts, or else of their deliberately dishonest sup- 
 pression. This may seem strong language to use, but in this 
 connection it mv^t not be forgotten that we refer to a work that 
 presumes to scientific accuracy, issued to the general public by the 
 authority of a minister of education. To what reason, other than 
 
6 
 
 that of deliberately suppressing all evidence which might tend to 
 weaken the pet theory of the prejudiced writer, can we assign the 
 careful ignoring of all admissions made by even such writers as 
 Dr. B. W. Richardson, or that the works and researches of Pasteur 
 and Chamberlain, M. Lechartier and M. Bellamy, Cagniard de 
 Latour, SchUtzenberger and Dumas, names famiHar in the 
 mouths of scientific men as " household words" have been over- 
 looked and not so much as referred to even. Is it possible that the 
 author was ignorant of the fact that the high reputation of M. 
 Pasteur has been built upon his masterly researches into the nature 
 and action of ferments anjd fermentation ? It may be, for this 
 work (Hygiene) presuming to scientific accuracy completely ignores 
 the researches and conclusions of the greatest living authority upon 
 the subject. 
 
 Fermentation, as shewn by these observers, is nothing more 
 or less than a physiological function of cell life in general in which 
 those unicellullar organisms such as the genus Saccharomyces, have 
 no other advantage over any other living cells in the production of 
 alcohol and carbon dioxide from glucose than of manifesting these 
 reactions in a more marked and intense degree.*** 
 
 All cells, vegetable or otherwise, possess this property of 
 decomposing or breaking up glucose into alcohol and carbon 
 dioxide, and it would therefore seem that in the ordinary process 
 of life where starch is first converted into sugar and afterwards 
 oxidized to carbon dioxide and water that alcohol must of necessity 
 be one of the intermediary products. In such a case alcohol 
 should be a concomitant of all vegetable life in a greater or less 
 degree, more marked in those plants and fruits where glucose is 
 largely formed. That such is really the case has been incontestibly 
 shewn by M. Pasteur and the observers already quoted; That 
 alcohol should only exist in small quantities in fruits, etc., is 
 nothing more than what might be expected from the fact, noted 
 by SchQtzenberger, that these same unicellular organisms possess 
 the property of burning alcohol to carbon dioxide and water under 
 certain conditions which obtain while the fruits, etc., remain on 
 the parent stem, or in contact with free oxygen. 
 
 Lengthy and careful experiments have incontestibly proved 
 this production of alcohol by fruit cells even in such large quanti- 
 ties as one per cent, of the total weight of the fruit, and under 
 circumstances which entirely precluded the action or presence of 
 any adventitious ferment. These cases have been where the fruit 
 has been carefully shielded from free oxygen and apart from the 
 parent stem. 
 
 But vegetable cells are not alone in possessing the capacity 
 for producing alcohol from glucose ; animal cells also possess this 
 peculiar property, as also the capacity for reducing the alcohol so 
 formed t^ water and carbon dioxide. 
 '■,' In reference to the assertion that "alcohol is not fbund in 
 
 . fFern tation. SchUtzenberger Int. Science Series. /i ? . u'^ ii 
 
animal bodies in natural condition," Dr. Richardson admits that it 
 ntost decidedly is found, and that, not only in the natural condition, 
 whatever that may mean, but in all conditions, and that not 
 only is the human body found to contain it at all times and in all 
 seasons, but worse still, not even the body uf a confirmed tee- 
 totaller is found free from the " accursed thing." In his Cantor Lec- 
 tures, 1874-5, Dr. Richardson says that " In plain words Dr. Du- 
 pre's discovery suggests that no man can be in strict scientific 
 sense, a non-alcoholic, inasmuch as, will he n'ill he, he brews in his 
 own economy, ' a wee drap.' It is an innocent brew certainly; but 
 it is brewed, and the most ardent abstainer must excuse it. ' Argal, 
 he that is not guilty of his own death shorteneth not his own life.' 
 The fault, if it be one, rests with nature, who, according to our 
 poor estimates, is no more faultless than the rest of her sex." 
 
 From the Doctor's innocent reflections upon this " innocent 
 brew " may we not infer that the teetotaller having maliciously 
 ignored the lessons of reason. Science herself had taken him in 
 hand, and showing his "corporation" to be a natural brewhouse, pro- 
 claims him the butt and ridicule of all sensible people ? 
 
 But Dr. Richardson is not alone in admitting the truth of our 
 condition, t.«., that alcohol is the result of a perfectly natural ptp- 
 cess. Dr. Norman Kerr, another " great authority," (vide, all tee- 
 total writings), states that " fermentation is a natural process," and 
 to teach those of our opponents who habitually play tast-and-loose 
 with words the right meaning of certain terms, adds that "all 
 wine, whether fermented or unfermented, is an artificial produc- 
 tion." We can accept this definition as being in accordance with 
 scientific and ordinary usage, and it has the merit of clearness. 
 The bread we daily eat is an artificial production, obtained by the 
 aid of natural laws, yet how absurd would it be to say that the 
 starch to which it owes its nutritive qualities is an unnatural pro- 
 duct. We recognize the fact that starch exists as such in different 
 grains and plants, and it is only by the most lengthy and tedious 
 of processes that we separate and prepare it for table use. When 
 so prepared we call it, and rightly, an artificial product. It has 
 been shewn that alcohol exists as such in vegetable and perhaps in 
 most animal organisms in more or less quantity, that it is an in- 
 termediary product in the phenomena of life and a concomitant of 
 certain cellular energy. But while alcohol per se is found like 
 starch vyidely distributed in nature it is only by lengthy processes, 
 very much more simple, however, and uncomplicated than is the 
 manufacture of bread, that it is prepared for our domestic uses in 
 the form of wine, beer, etc. 
 
 Lunatics are said to reason logically from false premises. 
 What would be thought of the assertion that because bread is an 
 artificial product it should therefore be flung aside as not neces- 
 sary to the sustenance of life ? And what must be thought of the 
 theory of those who, for precisely the same reason, would reject the 
 use of wine or beer ? 
 
CHAPTER 111. 
 
 ALCOHOL AS A FOOD. 
 
 No part of the alcohol controversy has excited greater interest 
 or elicited more discussion than has the question of the food value 
 of alcohol. The assertion that alcohol is not a food — a very favor- 
 ite one with teetotallers — rests upon an old hypothesis of Baron 
 Liebig. The great chemist divided the ingesta into two great 
 classes : the nitrogenous and the non-nitrogenous. The former he 
 termed the " plastic elements of nutrition " and considered them 
 true foods in regard to their being tissue-forming or " histogenetic" 
 material. The latter he termed the " elements of respiration " or 
 as they are now termed "calorifacients," whose only function was, 
 according to Liebig, the production of animal heat. That this 
 classification was unsound was soon shown, as in many cases 
 Aue histogenetic material can be utilized for the production of 
 heat. 
 
 The doctrine that only those principles which contained the 
 elefnent nitrogen could be considered true foods was based upon 
 the assumption, by Liebig, that all muscular action involved the 
 destruction of muscular tissue. For instance when a wei^^ht is 
 lifted by the hand a certain amount of the muscular tissue is dis- 
 integrated or destroyed to supply the force expended in the effort. 
 Now, since all the bodily tissues other than adipose are, according 
 to Liebig, built up of principles containing nitrogen, any loss or 
 disintegration of tissue must be replaced by principles containing 
 this necessary element, and as alcohol contains no nitrogen Liebig 
 could not consider it as possessing any alimentary value. 
 
 This doctrine was generally accepted, and for some few years 
 was held to be in accordance with scientific facts. Such was the 
 high standing of its author that, though not based upon any 
 experimental data, it formed the standard by which the nutritive 
 value of any food was judged. Gradually, however, experimental 
 enquiry has demonstrated its error, and it is now completely 
 rejected. .\nd for this reason. If muscular action is consistent 
 with, or involves the destruction of muscular tissue, then the pro- 
 duct of destruction or • decomposition of such tissue must of 
 necessity be eliminated ftx>m the body, and the amount of such 
 elimination should bear a direct proportion to the amount of energy 
 expended. The principal channel by which decomposed nitro- 
 genous matter is eliminated from the system is the kidneys, through 
 which it escapes in the form of urea. Now although, as we have 
 already stated, there were no ex jerimental or analytic data, Liebig 
 
and his followers were wont to assert that the amount of urea 
 eliminated increased in direct proportion to the amount of energy 
 expended. It is imnecessary here to detail at length the numerous 
 experiments conducted at various times in different countries and 
 by the most eminent scientists, to decide this important question, 
 since they may be readily found in all physiological works, especi- 
 ally those of Fick and Wislicenus, Parkes and Wollowicz. Suffice it 
 to say, that the experiments all went to prove in the most decided 
 and conclusive manner that so far from increi "ng in proportion 
 to the energy expended, the amount of urea was in many cases 
 diminished. They amply proved that muscular-tissue disinte- 
 gration could not possibly be the source of muscular power. 
 
 We must therefore look elsewhere than to the nitrogenous 
 material as the source of muscular energy. But Liebig had divi- 
 ded the ingesta into two classes as we have seen, the nitrogenous 
 and the non-nitrogenous. If the former cannot be regarded as the 
 true source of energy then it must of necessity reside in the latter. 
 But how ? The doctrine of the " correlation of the physical forces" 
 enunciated by Grove some few months after the publication hy 
 Liebig of his "animal chemistry," had prepared the minds of physi- 
 ologists for the question. This doctrine maintains that all forces 
 are capable of reciprocal production, or in more simple words, 
 heat, light, sound, motion, electricity and magnetism are inter- 
 changeable, that either may produce one or all of them, and that 
 none could originate except from some preceding force or forces. 
 Associated with the " correlation of the physical forces" was the 
 doctrine of the " conservation of energy " which implies that the 
 quantity of energy is as indestructible as matter, and that, however 
 variously it may be transformed in all the manifold changes of the 
 universe, it cannot be created or annihilated, decreased or increas- 
 ed. This doctrine clears the way for a thorough understanding of 
 what constitutes food. By vegetable processes the sun's energy is 
 rendered latent in the carbon compounds formed, and this potential 
 energy is re-converted into actual energy when they undergo oxi- 
 dation or combustion in the animal economy. This should be ap- 
 parent to all in these days of electric lighting. Coal is of vegetable 
 origin nourished in the rays of light and heat which left the sun- 
 many ages ago. We see it today shovelled into the boiler of 
 the engine and by its oxidation yield up the energy stored up so* 
 long amongst its molecules ; the heat is then converted by means 
 of the engine into rotatory motion, this latter is then conveyed by 
 means of shafting, etc., to the dynamo where this .common mo- 
 tion is converted into magnetism and electricity, and this again 
 conveyed by means of wires to the lamps which illuminate many of 
 our public streets to be there converted into light and heat and: 
 sometimes sound. 
 
 In what way then does this modify our conception regarding^ 
 the nature of true foods ? Simply that we must consider as true 
 foods all principles which undergo metamorphosis in the system^ 
 
10 
 
 building up the body, or by oxidation yielding the necessary energy 
 for muscular and vital phenomena. Alcohol in Liebig's time was 
 understood to undergo oxidation in the system to carbon-dioxide, 
 dioxide and water, but as we have seen, not containing any nitro- 
 gen was not classed as a nutriment. " Alcohol," says Liebig, 
 "stands second only to the fats as a respiratory material." The 
 presence of nitrogen being no longer a test of its food value, alcohol 
 at once assumes a high rank among those foods capable of 
 evolving energy by combustion, and this, not only by reason of its 
 lending itself readily to oxidation but for its easy assimilability, 
 not taxing in any degree the digestive powers. 
 
 A reaction from this view, which was generally accepted by 
 chemists upon the overthrow of Liebig's theory, was started by the 
 announcement by three French chemists that they had found alco- 
 hol in an unchanged state in the secretions of the body. This 
 question of eUmination of alcohol will be treated at length in a 
 succeeding chapter, for the importance of this fact, if true, can 
 readily be perceived. If alcohol escapes from the body in an un- 
 changed state and in any quantity (the words of the French ob- 
 servers were " en totallite et en nature"), then according to even 
 recent definitions alcohol could not be classed as a food capable 
 of yielding energy. Suffice it to state now, that these views of the 
 French chemists have been proved to be entirely erroneous, and 
 that the fact that alcohol does really undergo consumption in the 
 body is sufficiently well established as a scientific postulate. 
 
 There are some writers with more ingenuity than erudition or 
 even perhaps honesty, who, while yet admitting that alcohol is not 
 in ordinary doses eUminated unchanged, (such as Dr. B. W. 
 Richardson) try to show that alcohol cannot even be regarded 
 as yielding energy since " the temperature of the body is lowered 
 rather than elevated after the ingestion of a dose." Such an as- 
 sertion betrays a lamentable ignorance of the meaning of the doc- 
 trine of the correlation of the physical forces and of even the simplest 
 chemical facts. It is by no means necessary that latent energy 
 should first be converted into heat that any of the other forms of 
 force may be produced, and even were this the case, although it is 
 absurdly false to anyone even slightly acquainted with physics, it by 
 no means follows that the body should be raised in temperature by 
 the large evolution of heat yielded by alcohol during oxidation. 
 That quantities of alcohol capable of yielding very great amounts 
 may be oxidised in the system without raising the temperature one 
 degree above the normal may sound paradoxical to those un- 
 accustomed to questions in molecular physics, but it can be readily 
 seen upon a moment's consideration that such is not only possible 
 but very probable. 
 
 In an ordinary locomotive, in a few hours, is burnt a quantity 
 of coal yielding an amount of heat, which, if used for heating purposes 
 would be sufficient to completely fuse the metal of which the 
 machine is made ; but the fact is that the engine, as a whole, never 
 
11 
 
 rises in temperature much, if at all, above that necessary for the 
 production af the working pressure. What then become., of the 
 vast quantities of heat generated by the combustion of all this 
 coal ? It is converted, as fast as generated, into the mechanical 
 motion which hurries the train to its destination. For every pound 
 carried over every yard of space a certain definite fixed quantity 
 of heal disappears, and for every degree of temperature manifested 
 in the metal of the locomotive just so much energy is diverted from 
 application to direct motion. The engine then serves but to direct 
 the energy evolved by oxidation into the desired channels. Just 
 so with the body : in the animal engine the muscles, nerves, limbs, 
 etc., serve to direct the energy evolved during the combustion of 
 the carbonaceous food into muscular and nervous force, only suffi- 
 cient heat being diverted from the various ends as is neces- 
 sary to keep up the animal heat, and no more. But it by no 
 means follows, as before stated, that heat is an intermediate form 
 between latent and actual energy : unlike the crude mechanical 
 devices of man, that intricate apparatus we call the body, beyond 
 doubt converts the latent directly into the form of the actual force 
 desired, thereby saving much loss by ' iction in clumsy interme- 
 diary appliances. 
 
 Admittirij; al! these facts, there are yet some who say : " if 
 alcohol is then capable of yielding energy by oxidation and the 
 nitrogenous matenul is only necessary for the repair of tissue 
 degeneration, then people ought to be able to wholly live, or at 
 leaf^t very nearly so, upon an almost exclusively alcohol diet." 
 Just so. It would not be difficult, since it has already been done, 
 to furnish overwhelming proof that persons not only can, but have 
 lived for days, and months, even years, upon an almost exclusively 
 alcoholic diet ; of course these last are exceptions. What doctor 
 is there, who, if his practice has been at all extensive, cannot recall 
 cases where patient» iia/e existed for long periods upon brandy 
 with a supply of other food inadequate in itself to the needs of the 
 body ? All persons could not live in such a way ; much less 
 carry out all the proper functions of vital existence. No single 
 alimentary radical known is capable in itself of properly sup- 
 porting the evolution embraced in the proper carrying out of the 
 ends of living, and just as the ends aimed at are complicated 
 and heterogenous, so will the food supplied to the body need 
 to be varied and heterogenous. It must not be forgotten also that 
 the ^preparation of food for its assimilation by the body diverts a 
 very largvj quantity of energy. If then we would preserve as much 
 energy as a certain amount of food ingested will evolve, in order to 
 apply it to the production of higher forms of force, we must (having, 
 of course, due regard to other physiological relations of digestion), 
 cut down the amount diverted in the preparation or digestion of such. 
 We can do this by taking pre-digested food. Here comes in 
 the valuable nature of alcohol. It is a pre-digested food. Of course 
 we are at once met with the suggestion that we should use milk. 
 
M 
 
 (vide B. W. Ri'-hardson's text book on "Temperance.") In the 
 first place, we answer that milk is not a single alimentary radical, 
 but a combination of principles, as may be readily proved 
 by allowing it to stand, when some of the ingredients immediately 
 separate out ; end in the second place, although milk, unlike any 
 other food we are acquainted with, contains all elements necessary 
 to nutrition it is by no means a pre-digested one, as those subject 
 to certain forms of indigestion can testify. Again, let a number of 
 persons for even a short period attempt to perform their ordinary 
 avocations upon milk solely, and many of them will discover that 
 e/en this " ideal food " is totally inadequate to supply the needs 
 oi the average adult, while if we are to believe Sir Henry Thomp- 
 son, who has much more claim to the term scientist than has Dr. 
 B. W. Richardson, who is ridiculed or ignored by great physiolo- 
 gists, we must accept his assertion that milk is fcr adults a super- 
 fluous and mostly mischievous article of diet: So far as the writer 
 is concerned he could bear testimony to the fact that for himself at 
 any rate milk taken in draughts during or at meals is the cause of a 
 most distressing form of dyspepsia, but there are some to whom a 
 glass of milk at the meals fills a want which no other substance 
 can so well supply. Just as there are many to whom a glass 
 of sherry or madeira fills a need which no drugs in the Pharma- 
 copoea could fulfil, or a still larger number to whom a glass of 
 ale with their dinner constitutes the difference between perfect 
 digestion together with pleasurable performance of their necessary 
 labours, and imperfect digestion with impaired powers of nutrition 
 resulting in languor, dullness, and inaptitude for the cares and 
 difficulties of business. 
 
 To all such, and they are very numerous, alcoholic beverages 
 — preferably in the form of well fermented natural wine — are a 
 necessit}^ or at least an advantageous article of diet, supplying as 
 they do in small bulk a palatable, predigested, easily assimilable 
 food. 
 
 -^-^^^s^V^^^^^ 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ELIMINATION OF ALCOHOL. 
 
 " The vital organism obviously treats alcohol as an intruder and irritated by 
 its presence, is roused to an abnormal state of activity until the last atoms 
 of the offending article are cast out of the temple which it pollutes. The 
 body then resumes its ordinary functions, subject to the reaction of 
 wasted energy." — A teetotal journal. 
 
 We stated in our last chapter that a reaction from the general 
 concensus of scientific opinion, that alcohol was a food as much as 
 any of the starches or fats, was caused by the announcement by 
 M. M. Lallemi.nd, Perrin and Duroy, that they had discovered the 
 elimination of alcohol from the body in an unchanged condition. 
 Had these observers been men jealous for the honor of science they 
 would have refrained from making any quantitative deduction from 
 experiments purely qualitative in their character. They did not 
 hesitate, however, to declare that they had found that alcohol is 
 eliminated from the body "«h totalite et en nature." The statement 
 was eagerly received by prejudiced persons and given great pub- 
 licity for certain easily conceived reasons, but it was immediately 
 objected to by scientists on the grounds that it was defective in 
 many respects ; first, the want of precision caused by the unknown 
 delicacy of the test used ; second, that the doses given were always 
 intoxicating ; third, that it was manifestly absurd to base quantita- 
 tive reasoning upon qualitative experiments. 
 
 The labour involved in a settlement of the question by direct 
 experiment was great, but soon after M. Edmund Baudot* 
 placed on record a series of carefully conducted experiments which 
 m themselves are sufficic-ij^ to completely overthrow the assertions 
 of the earlier observers. M. Baudot first notes that if M. M. Lalle- 
 mand, Perrin and Duroy were correct, a sensible result should be 
 obtained on an examination of the secretions by means of the hy- 
 drometer. He then proves that the results in every case under 
 examination were completely negative. He then examined the 
 delicacy of the chromic acid test, the test made use of by the 
 French chemists, found it capable of revealing the presence of so 
 extremely minute a quantity as 0.155 of a grain to nearly a quart 
 of urine. We may here note that the principal channel of elim- 
 ination of alcohol, according to these French chemists, was the kid- 
 neys. Now as Dr. Anstie h?' ' ""i that the probable maximum 
 quantity of urine passed d 'enty-four hours immediately 
 
 * [Union Medicale, Sep. et Mo.. 1803.] 
 
14 
 
 following an e^en strongly diuretic dose of alcohol is not much 
 more than two quarts, the full absurdity of asserting that because 
 a reaction had been obtained by means of a reagent capable of 
 being affected by about one-third of a grain of alcohol in two quarts 
 of urine, therefore, the whole of the alcohol, even though it were 
 many ounces, as in every instance it was, was totally eliminated, 
 becomes fully apparent even to the unscientific reader. 
 
 But the matter was not suffered to rest solely upon the evi- 
 deence adduced by M. Baudot, soundly scientific though it was. 
 Dr. Anstie whose whole life it may be said has been devoted to the 
 study of "Stimulant Narcotics" directed attention to a lengthy 
 series of experiments conducted by himself which amply sustains 
 those of M. Baudot. He also shews the extreme delicacy of the 
 chromic acid test. Dr. Parkes, by no means an observer preju- 
 diced in the cause of alcohol, in conjunction with Count Wollowicz 
 points out that they have obtained the chromic acid reaction with 
 the condensed perspiration from the arm of a man who had taken 
 no alcohol for twenty-six days previously. Dr. Dupr6 agrees with 
 Anstie and Thudichum in England, and Schulinus and Baudot on 
 the continent, in believing that the chief quantity of alcohol inges- 
 ed is destroyed in the system. In agreement with Parkes and 
 Wollowicz, Dr. Dupr6 found that after six weeks abstinence from 
 alcohol, and even in the case of a teetotaller, a substance was eli- 
 minated in the urine, which gave all the reactions used in the 
 detection of alcohol. "It passes over with the first portion of the 
 distillate," says Dr. Dupr6. "It yields acetic acid on oxidation, 
 gives the emerald-green reaction with chromic acid and yields iodo- 
 form : " he further adds that this had been previously noticed by 
 M. Lieben. Shortly after the publication of these experiments of 
 Dupr6's, an article appeared in the Practitioner (July, 1874) from the 
 pen of Dr. Anstie detailing a number of experiments conducted 
 with a view of settling the question raised as to the possible accu- 
 mulation of alcohol in the body. In an experiment mentioned 
 therein, brandy was administered to a dog to the extent of one 
 ounce daily for ten days, after which and almost immediately fol- 
 lowing the ingestion of the last dose of alcohol, the dog was des- 
 troyed, and the alcohol contained in the whole of the stomach and 
 body was collected and estimated. The total quantity of alcohol 
 eliminated from the body during the ten days, together with that 
 recovered from the body after death, amounted to only one fourth 
 the quantity administered in the dose of brandy given to the dog 
 just previous to its death. " These experiments," says Dr. Anstie, 
 " furnish us with a final and conclusive demonstration of the cor- 
 rectness of P Dupr6's arguments against the possibility of mater- 
 ial accumulu,tjn of alcohol in the body." To the justness of these 
 conclusions the most recent writers upon " Food " and "Dietetics " 
 such as Dr. Pavy and Dr. Milner Fothergill, bear ample testimony ; 
 nay more, even the high priest and chief apostle of teetotalism and 
 universal milk. Dr. B. W. Richardson, is obliged, from sheer force 
 
IS 
 
 of facts, to yield a reluctant acquiescence in the verdict of 
 science, which has completely overthrown the false assertion of the 
 French chemists. In his Cantor Lectures he admits the fact that 
 alcohol is decomposed in the body ; and not only this, but that it 
 ma" be, and is undoubtedly manufactured in the body. Is it not 
 dehciously ludicrous to note the innocent pomposity of Sir Orr.cle 
 who presumes to quarrel with nature, " who " he says, "according 
 to our poor estimates is no more faultless than the rest of her sex. 
 
 -^^^i^^^fi^T^k^- 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALCOHOL "A POISON." 
 
 A favorite assertion on teetotal platforms is the statement that 
 alcohol is a deadly poison. Never will the writer forget the 
 unctuous satisfaction with which a certain lady lecturer enunciated 
 in his hearing that '• alcohol is an acrid-narcotic poison," or the 
 sigh of admiring horror with which the statement was received. 
 Were such persons content with the simple statement as given 
 above, no particular harm would be done, nor would scientific 
 truth be greatly wrenched from a straight Img. But we must take 
 exception, and that strongly, to the logic which asserts that 
 " because alcohol is poisonous in excessive quantities, it must of 
 necessity be injurious in small doses." It would fare ill with 
 humanity were this logic sound, since it can readily be shewn that 
 there is nothing in the nature of an ahmentary principle which is 
 not injurious when taken in excessive quantities. We have only 
 to apply the reasoning to other things in everyday use to realize 
 the absurdity of the contention. Salt, an article indispensable to 
 the sustenance of life, is, when taken in excess, a virulent poison. 
 Orfila mentions several cases of death by its agency. Vinegar, 
 mustard, pepper, tea, coffee, all contain principles which, taken in 
 excess, are poisonous, and if the above logic were sound their use 
 would, even in moderation, be highly reprehensible. There are a 
 few who recognize this fact and are honest and consistent enough 
 to follow the logic to its natural end, and who not only abstain 
 from the greater number of the articles mentioned themselves but 
 endeavor to get others to abstain also. Some physicians there are 
 also, who lend a support to their absurd fancies. Not only have 
 vegetarian societies been formed but an anti-salt association, while 
 some fer/ years ago the endeavor was made in New York to found 
 a medfcal hospital whose prime tenet was abstention from salt, and 
 a worV was published by a physician of some local standing entitled 
 "Salt' the Forbidden Fruit," in which it was endeavored to be 
 shown that all the ills to which flesh is heir to were to be attributed 
 to the use of this " most pernicious drug." 
 
 To meet this by the objection that " these things do not cause 
 a man to beat his wife, illtreat his children, and generally to ruin 
 his home " is to put forward a statement which is not only silly, 
 but false. The connection between a heavy meal of fat pork, green 
 tea, indigestion, dyspepsia and ill-temper may not be so apparent 
 to those unacquainted with well known physiological facts as the 
 connection between drunkenness and brutality, but the connection 
 
 ,1, 
 
17 
 
 is there nevertheless. Even Sir Henry Thompson, with all his 
 teetotal leanings, recognises this fact, and plainly warns us against 
 injudicious eating and excess in all kinds of food, and states that 
 errors in overeating produce more physical evil than excess in 
 drinking, and that he is not sure but the same remark will apply to 
 moral evil also. Homes can be broken up by other means than 
 excess in alcoholic drinks. Evil passions are aroused as easily 
 by errors in over eating as by over drinking, and were more 
 moderation practised in regard to the former, we would doubtless 
 suffer much less from another evil, which drink reformers are too 
 apt to overlook, and which teetotalism is not designed to amelior- 
 ate or cure, at least to judge from the experience of Mohammedan 
 countries. 
 
 To base any reason for abstinence from alcoholics upon the 
 fact of their being termed " stimulant-narcotics " is equally absurd. 
 Who has not noticed the stimulating effect of a moderate meal 
 taken when hungry, and the disposition to sleep experienced upon 
 taking an inordinately heavy one, and if the tendency to sleep be 
 indulged in, the possibility of rising with a bilious headache. 
 These latter are the narcotic effects of an excessive quantity of 
 ordinary food. So that we learn that the difference between stimu- 
 lation and narcotism is one of. quantity only. " All foods " says 
 Dr. Anstie " are 'stimulant-narcotics.' " This double action, so to 
 speak, is generally recognised, not only in the case of our common 
 foods, but also in those special foods which are more often 
 administered with medicinal intent. Again, common food is oftsn 
 administered as a medicine. No more grateful, nor, when it can 
 be properly assimilated, more powerful stimulant can be adminis- 
 tered in certain cases than a good bowl of warm soup. So we see 
 that the term " poison " and " food " are simply relative ones, 
 referring to quantities only, and are applicable to all substances 
 used by man in the support or sustenance of vital functions. 
 
 ^^>'?>$5WS?^^ 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ACTION ON DIGESTION. 
 
 Alcohol, or alcoholic beverages, properly used, aid digestion. 
 This fact, attested by the accumulated experiences of past 
 generations, and the daily experience of countless thousands of 
 temperate drinkers of the present, and universally admitted by 
 physiologists so as to have become a postulate almost, in the 
 science of dietetics, has been questioned by teetotallers. It 
 has been said, by these latter, that the corrugating effect of strong 
 spirits, placed upon the back of the hand for instance, has its 
 counterpart upon the coats of the stomach when alcoholics are 
 ingested into the body. To say that the blistering effects of mus- 
 tard, similarly applied, has its exact counterpart upon the mucous 
 ' membrane of the stomach, when mustard is swallowed with our 
 food, would be the height of absurdity, yet this is a parallel case. 
 " But," say our objectors, " that cannot be : we only take mustard 
 in such quantities that while helping digestion it can be digested 
 itself." Exactly: temperate people take alcohol in such quantities 
 that while aiding digestion the system can assimilate it. Temperate 
 people are not in the habit of taking inordinate quantities of 
 alcoholic drinks, nor of taking undiluted spirits in the form of 
 drams, nor of even taking alcohol per se, a substance, let it be 
 noted, not generally found outside of manufactories or chemists' 
 laboratories. 
 
 The local tendency of undiluted alcohol on the living tissues is 
 to impair and finally destroy their vitality by the abstraction of 
 water. They become blanched and corrugated, but with alcoholic 
 liquids taken well diluted, in forms containing not more than 19 per 
 cent, of alcohol, we find the flow of saliva increased. The capillaries 
 of the stomach dilate, its glands at once secrete copiously, its move- 
 ments are more vigorous, •' bringing about," says Lauder Brunton, 
 " a more thorough and rapid admixture of the contents of the 
 stomach with the digestive juices, and facilitating the expulsion of 
 gases." This is beneficial, but when alcohol is taken in an un- 
 diluted form or in too great quantity — such a quantity as would 
 narcotize instead of stimulate — the whole aspect is altered, and 
 the secietions are checked. The mucous membrane becomes pale 
 and corrugated, while slimy mucus replaces the liealthy gastric 
 juice ; appetite is lost, and nausea and vomiting possibly super- 
 vene. 
 
 But what lesson do these facts teach us ? Not that alcohol 
 properly taken acts injuriously upon the system. Far from it ; but 
 
19 
 
 that there is a quantity and strength in these liquors beyond which 
 it would be injurious to pass, just as in the case of tea, coffee, 
 mustard or vinegar. Indeed a much stronger case can be made 
 out against the use of tea as an ordinary beverage, than can be 
 made against the ordinary alcoholic table beverages. It is 
 claimed, in this connection, that alcohol precipitates pepsine. So 
 it does, when in a strong and undiluted form, but not when the 
 quantity of spirit falls below lo or i2 per cent. Even were that 
 so, the pepsine would not be destroyed, for the moment the contents 
 of the stomach were diluted the pepsine would at once be re-dis- 
 solved with all its digestive powers unimpaired. But it is different 
 whten we come to deal with the effect of tea upon digestion. 
 One of the most insoluble of compounds known to the chemist is 
 that formed by the union of tannic acid and albumen - known 
 commonly as "leather." Of all substances it is the least digestible. 
 Tea contains a large quantity of this powerful acid; poorer 
 qualities, indeed, possessing scarcely any other active principle 
 than this. If the tea taken into the stomach be properly diluted 
 and of good quahty, little harm will result beyond retardation of 
 digestion, which in psrsons of strong digestion may be often ad- 
 vantageous. But when strong tea is used the effect on digestion is 
 very injurious. Its tannic acid, being then in strong solution, will 
 combine with the albuminoid constituents of the food that are 
 present in the stomach and precipitate them in a very indigestible 
 form. It will even combine chemically with the albuminous 
 elements of the mucous membrane, thus hindering the secretion 
 of gastric juice and bringing digestion almost to a standstill. And 
 even when the mucous membrane has resumed its functions the 
 presence of the now indigestible combination of tannic acid 'with 
 the albummoids will act* like a foreign body and worry and irritate 
 the mucous membrane and cause a feeling of pain, or at least un- 
 easiness, with eructations and marked flatulence, thus disorganizing 
 its functions and giving rise, says a well known physiologist, in 
 Chambers' Encyclopoedia, " to a distressing form 6f dyspepsia, 
 which too often impels the sufferer to take refuge in ardent spirits." 
 A lady lecturer lately enlightened our darkened intellects with 
 picturesque delineations of a human stomach alcoholized ; might 
 we not offset this by an exhibition of that same useful article in 
 the human economy, tanned by the excessive use of that, which, 
 with ignorant lack of discrimination as to quality and quantity, 
 is often called " good, wholesome tea." 
 
 In this connection it would be well to refer to an experiment 
 rather popular with ignorant audiences, and although exposed over 
 and over again, will no doubt be repeated whenever and wherever 
 church pulpits on a Sunday evening are offered for the desecration. 
 Brandy — the strongest — is added to an egg, and when the albumen 
 is coagulated and precipitated it is held up as an example of the 
 action of all alcoholic beverages. But temperate people are not 
 in the habit of taking liquor in the form of strong drams. Again, the 
 
20 
 
 lecturer is either too ignorant or else wilfully dishonest, or at the- 
 same time he would inform his audience that the cup of strong tea 
 with which, no doubt, some of his lady hearers had just regaled them- 
 selves, would have precisely the same effect, or what is niore im- 
 portant still, have pointed out the well known physiological fact 
 that the normal gastric juice of the stomach effects the same 
 change : it coagulates the albumen prior to digesting tt. 
 
 There may be individudl cases, however, where the doctrine 
 that alcohol favors digestion will seem to be negatived, but a care- 
 ful examination of such cases will generally disclose the reason of 
 the apparent inconsistency. There are some, chiefly amongst the 
 sedentary classes, who find all forms of beer, even perfectly nianu- 
 factured beer, totally incompatible with their systems. This is not 
 to be attributed, by any means, to the effect of the alcoholic in- 
 gredient, but often to the effect of the hops on the liver. In 
 these cases it will sometimes be found that gobd spirits, properly 
 diluted with four or five times the quantity of water, and takem 
 after, not before meals, will not only be well tolerated by thfr 
 system, but materially aid the digestive powers. It will generally, 
 however, be best to use instead of the spirit an equivalent amount 
 of a good wine. There are, it is true, a certain number of per- 
 sons in this category who complain that wine lies " cold " upon their 
 stomachs. These ^w, it is to be feared, have inured their palates 
 to the flavor of strong and ardent spirits or else they have been 
 unfortunate in their choice of a wine. A claret or full-bodied, 
 generous Burgundy ought to replace in almost all, if not in every 
 case, the dietetic allowance of spirits. The writer is acquainted 
 with several cases where a glass or two of Chablis has replaced, 
 with marked advantageous results, an equivalent quantity of 
 spirits, and this was the more to be noticed inasmuch as in some 
 of the cases the persons were aged and in the habit of taking 
 spirits for years previously. 
 
 For the literary man, delicate women or anaemic children with 
 weak digestive powers and capricious appetites there is nothing so 
 exceedingly well adapted for general use as are the ordinary light, 
 dry wines of Bordeaux. We do not here refer to the thin, sour 
 wines procurable in France under the generic term of vin ordinaire, 
 (though even these are to most people wholesome and beneficial), 
 but to the dry-flavored natural wines of the Rhine and Bordeaux. 
 Were our own light native wines, many of which compare favor- 
 ably with the clarets of Europe, to replace the vile stuff which is 
 vended, especially in the country districts, under the name of tea 
 and coffee, they would be found to conduce greatly to the general 
 health of the community. We do not refer in this connec- 
 tion to those sugared wines generally sold in taverns under 
 the term native wines (doctored it may be with added spirit), 
 but to the naturally fermented juice of the grape without addition 
 of extraneous sugar or spirit. It may be objected that the wines 
 •eferred to are not procurable in Canada. This may have been 
 
21 
 
 the case but it is so no longer. The writer has had no difficulty 
 in procuring a very good native wine of exceptional purity and fair 
 flavor, and at a price within the reach of all who can buy tea. 
 These wines, diluted with an equal quantity of water, form a most 
 grateful and wholesome beverage either for summer or winter use. 
 A giving up of the use of pastry at one or two of the daily 
 meals, the relegation of tea to the tea-tAh\e, and the substitution, 
 in many instances, of light well fermented claret in its stead at 
 the principal meal, would, we are assured, do more to banish the 
 doctor for the majority of American and Canadian households 
 than all else besides. Much less, at any rate, would be heard of 
 those intricate nervous disorders of women and children on this 
 continent wliich test the patience and skill of our best physicians. 
 Much less, also, of that chronic American complaint, but little 
 known in the wine districts of Europe, dyspepsia. 
 
 -^-^^^sft**?^*^ 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE HEART. 
 
 " The heart of an adult man makes, as we have seen, 7357 strokes per min- 
 ute. This number multiplied by sixty for the hour, and again by 
 twenty-four hours for the entire day, would give nearly 106,000 as the 
 number of strokes per day. There is, however, a reduction of strokes 
 produced by assuming a recumbent position and by sleep, so that for sim- 
 plicity's sake we may take off the 6,000 strokes, and speaking generally 
 may put the average at 100,000 in the entire day. With each of these 
 strokes the two ventricles of the heart, as they contract, lift up into their 
 respective vessels three ounces of blood each, that is to say, six ounces 
 witn the combined stroke, or 600,000 in the twenty-four hours. The 
 equivalent of work rendered by this simple calculation would be 116 
 foot-tons ; and if we estimate the increase of work induced by alcohol we 
 shall find that four ounces of spirit increases it one-eighth part ; six 
 ounces, one-sixth part, and eight ounces, one-fourth part." — Dr. B. W. 
 Richardson, in Cantor Lecturei. 
 
 One is puzzled upon reading the above, whether to laugh at 
 its pompous explicitness, or sigh for the ignorance of common 
 physiological facts displayed in the inferences which the author 
 immediately proceeds to draw. Divested of all appendages of 
 pseudo-scientific jargon the reasoning amounts to this : Alcohol 
 accelerates the action of the heart. The heart's action equals so 
 much expenditure of force. Ergo, any increase of the heart's 
 action beyond normal proves the injurious action of alcohol ! 
 
 Do you indulge in football ? You are unwise. Are you not 
 aware that football, even when indulged in to only a nroderate 
 extent, greatly accelerates the heart-beats ? And if entered into 
 with anything like vim, will send your heart thumping against 
 your ribs as though it would force an outlet through them ? 
 Please not to speak to me of that feeling of general •• well- 
 being." That is but the result of the increased blood pressure on 
 the base of the brain. Tell me not of the exhilarating effects of 
 the quickened circulation. Think of the consequences implied in 
 the increased oxidation, the enormously increased metamorphism, 
 and destruction of tissue, and the wear-and-tear of your unfortunate 
 heart. Think of the great expenditure of force or energy implied 
 in those many beats beyond the normal. Calculate the foot-pounds 
 expended in this way during one minute, multiply the minute by 
 the hour, the hour by the day, this by the week, then struck aghast 
 by the hideous length of figures, foreswear football forever. 
 
 Football accelerates the action of the heart. The heart's 
 action equals so much expenditure of force. Ergo, secundum 
 Benjamin W. Richardson — increase of heart's action proves the 
 injurious effects of football. , x .; 
 
 <--•' 
 
1 
 
 The ardent disciples who absorb the heart-action argument of 
 the worthy doctor should regard walking as a perilous exercise, 
 seriously detrimental to longevity, and should inaulge in it no more 
 than the necessity of earning a bare livelihood absolutely demands, 
 and when not obliged to walk or stand should lie down ra'her than 
 sit, for the nearer the approach to a perpendicular position the 
 more ominously do the extra heart-beats give warning that the 
 heart is being overtaxed, and is wearing out, and the vital energies 
 are becoming exhausted. 
 
 The absurdity of such reasoning must surely be apparent to 
 the intelligent reader. Yet this is embodied as science in a text 
 book on alcohol published for use in the public schools. But there 
 are other serious defects in the paragraph which heads this section 
 of our work than the deductions based upon the mere increase of 
 the heart's action. One is the quantity of alcohol used. Now no 
 one can for a moment countenance drunkenness in any form or 
 degree. It would be absurd to attempt to defend the intemperate 
 use of liquor from a scientific standpoint. The physiological evils 
 of intemperance are admitted by all. In the question whether we 
 shall rigidly abstain from alcohol in any form or not, we must 
 argue upon the grounds of moral expediency in each case, the 
 moral right to temperately use, and the nature of the physiological 
 effects of moderate indulgence. In any work purporting to deal 
 with the scientific aspect of the question any consideration of the 
 two former grounds would be apart altogether from the subject. 
 We thus find our ground limited to a discussion of the physiologi- 
 cal effects of moderation. This has been foreseen by the teetotal- 
 lers for many years, and in consequence they have turned their 
 guns upon the temperate drinker. It must surely be apparent to 
 the unbiased reader that to do so logically and' honestly they should 
 confine their attention strictly to the effects of moderation. To 
 say that because alcohol is injurious when used in excessive and 
 intoxicating quantities, it is therefore hurtful when taken in 
 moderate quantities, is to assert that which is both absurd and 
 untruthful. To wilfully confound the effects of tntemperance with 
 those of temperance is wicked. Yet this is continually being done 
 by the advocates of teetotalism, and not the least sinnej in this 
 respect is Dr. B. W. Richardson. 
 
 In the paragraph immediatel) following the one we have 
 quoted at length. Dr. Richardson proceeds to tell us •' what we 
 may call a moderate amount of alcohol, say two'ounces by volume, 
 in the form of wine, or beer, or spirits." Now, what the doctor is 
 pleased here to term a " moderate amount " is that which modern 
 science has shown to be the average limit beyond which it would be 
 generally best not to pass. This represents a pint and a half of 
 claret, or about two pints of beer per diem. In passing, I might 
 point out an error which occurs amongst others in this same para- 
 graph : were it not that Dr. Richardson is referred to ad nauseum 
 as a scientist by those whose geese are usually swans, the error 
 
 3 ..; ' ■ 
 
24 
 
 might be overlooked. The Doctor says that strong ale contains 
 fourteen per cent, of alcohol. The fact is that Scotch ale contains 
 but eight per cent., and this is the strongest known in America, 
 while ordinary strong stock ale rarely contains more than seven ; 
 yet the Doctor has little hesitation in doubling this figure. 
 
 Now, for the sake of argument, let us admit the evil effect of 
 greatly increased heart action, and keeping in view the fact that 
 we are only fighting the fallacy that presumes to assert that 
 moderate drinkmg is generally injurious, we demand the effect of 
 moderate quantities. This docs not suit, however, the fancy of 
 our worthy scientist, who ingeniously proceeds to double, then 
 treble, and finally, in mathematical agony to quadruple a quantity 
 which, to commence with, we know borders upon a narcc'^*'- and 
 intoxicating dose. It is true that immediately following upon the 
 Doctor's definition of a •' moderate amount " there occurs this 
 important admission : " When we reach the two ounces, a dis- 
 tinct physiological effect follows, leading on to the first stage of 
 excitement with which we are now conversant. The reception of 
 the spirit arrested at this point, there need be no important mis- 
 chief done to the organism" — but this serves only to show more 
 clearly the dishonesty of attempting to confound the effects of 
 intoxicating doses with the effects of moderate indulgence. In 
 this short sentence the Doctor innocently gives his whole case 
 away. 
 
 " The penis which environ 
 The man who meddles with rold iron " 
 
 are as nothing compared with the pitfalls prepared by science for 
 those who use her language but lack her acquaintance. Mark the 
 significance of the admissions, for there are several, contained in 
 the paragraph. *' When we reach the two ounces," in other words» 
 when we reach the average safe limit " a distinct physiological 
 effect follows." We here see that this effect did not exist, accord- 
 ing to the Doctor's own words, prior to reaching the safe limit, 
 " leading to the first stage of excitement with which we are now 
 conversant." Astonishing, all this only leading up to the ** first 
 stage of excitement.'' " The reception of spirit arrested at this 
 
 ?oint, there need be no important mischief done to the organism 1" 
 'his looks, from a teetotal point of view, very much like what 
 Lord Randolph Churchill has expressively called " chucking up 
 the sponge," does jt not ? It is rather curious also that the author 
 of the chapter on alcohol in the •• Manual of Hygiene " while 
 extensively quoting from Dr. Richardson, should overlook such 
 remarkable passages as these. ^^ 
 
 But what does science really teach in reference to the action 
 of alcohol on the heart ? A reference to a few of her recognized 
 mouthpieces will I think enlighten the impartial student that the 
 opinion of science may be summed up as follows : — That taken in 
 moderation there is no more action upon the heart than what 
 might and does follow the ingestion of ordinary food, or moderate 
 
indulgence in healthy exercise : that the average safe limit is 
 two ounces, beyond which narcotism may set in, and increase with 
 the increasing quantities of alcohol taken : that until such limit is 
 reached there is not gen ■orally any injurious effect whatever. Why 
 then, it may be asked, if scientific men are of such an opinion, hav* 
 I dealt largely in this chapter with the opinions of Dr. Richai _ 
 son? One reason may be that Dr. Richardson, being the acknowl- 
 edged head of the medical teetotallers, it is well to show that he is 
 not even personally consistent in his statements and deductions. 
 Again, it may be my humor to use the Doctor's utterances and 
 opinions against himself and his followers, much as it was Samp- 
 son's humor when he slew a multitude with the jaw-bone of an ass. 
 
 -^^^i^^^i^fi^^f^ 
 
CHAPTER VIIl. 
 
 FERMENTED VERSUS DISTILLED LIQUORS. 
 
 It is a common error to suppose that because alcohol is a con- 
 stituent in both fermented and distilled liquors, that therefore the 
 effects in the animal economy of both kinds of liquors are similar in 
 their character, but differing in degree. It is by no means certain, 
 however, that the alcohol of fermented liquors is in the same 
 chemical condition as that existing in distilled liquors. There are 
 many reasons which lead the chemist to believe that a chemical 
 combination exists between the alcohol of fermented liquors and 
 the trarious ethers and other substances with which it is brought 
 into intimate connection. Loose this combination may be, and 
 readily broken up by heat, but certain chemical reasons, not to 
 mention physiological facts, tend to substantiate such an idea. 
 Distilled spiritr. are almost entirely alcohol plus water ; while wines 
 and beer are alcohol plus water, plus ethers, plus nitrogenous 
 matter, plus important salts, which greatly modify the effects of 
 alcohol alone upon the sy *em. " It would be a gross error," says 
 one of our most recent authorities on the subject, " to conclude 
 that a given quantity of wine is equivalent to an equal quantity of 
 water containing a like percentage of alcohol." 
 
 The nearer we get to absolute alcohol (a substance only found 
 in the laboratory of the scientific chemist ) the greater becomes 
 the danger of taking a narcotic dose by reason of its relatively 
 smaller bulk. The danger also -is incurred of injuring the delicate 
 tissues and membranes of the digestive organs by the abstraction 
 from them of water, by the concentrated alcohol. The former of 
 these dangers is very considerably reduced in the case of fermented 
 beverages ; the latter, almost, if not entirely, removed. An in- 
 structive illustration of the difference in the effects produced by 
 concentrated and diluted doses is seen in Bardeleben's experiment 
 upon a dog. In this experiment it was found that forty-five grains 
 of common salt, introduced at once into the stomach through an 
 opening, occasioned a secretion of mucus, followed by vomitings ; 
 whereas, five times that amount of salt in solution produced neither 
 of these effects. The explanation is simple. In one case the salt 
 in order to pass into solution was forced to abstract from the 
 tissues with which it came in contact the necessary amount of 
 water. In the second case solution having been previously effected, 
 the demand for water being supplied, the salt was practically inert. 
 
 Alcohol is the active principle of fei-rented liquors as theine is 
 
^27 
 
 of tea, acetic acid of vinegar, or piperine of pepper. To use it as an 
 ordinary beverage in the place of the primary fermented liquors, is 
 as physiologically wrong as would be the substitution of theine for 
 the common tea beverage, acetic acid in place of vinegar, or the oil 
 of njustard for the ordinary condiment. Nature has placed a limit 
 upon the strength of fermented liquors. This limit is 
 practically placed at fourteen to fifteen per cent, of alcohol 
 by weight. The moment alcohol is present in these proportions the 
 yeast cells cease their activity, so that although much more matter 
 capable of being broken up into carbon dioxide and alcohol may be 
 present, further fermentation ceases to be practicable, indeed the 
 addition of extraneous spirit beyond this fixed percentage results 
 not only in checking thei*- vitality, but in their utter destruction. 
 
 The only possible way then to obtain a liquid containing a 
 high percentage of alcohol is by methods wholly foreign to and 
 apart from the phenomena of fermentation. In the case of spirits 
 this is attained by evaporating off the water at low temperature, or 
 separation of the alcohol itself by distillation. When the active 
 prmciples are separated thus from their primary natural com- 
 pounds, they are removed from the category of ordinary foods or 
 condiments and enter the province of medicine. For dietetic pur- 
 poses in some cases distilled liquors are beyond doubt most valu- 
 able, but their use here approximates closely to that of medicines 
 and inwnany such cases it would be well to obtain the advice of the 
 physician, although when the individual is intelligent and fairly 
 observant of himself " he is," says Dr. Bernays, " a better judge of 
 what T.grees with him than any physician can be." 
 
 Much of the harm which occurs from the abuse of alcoholics 
 arises from the use of spirits as a beverage. The testimony in sup- 
 port of this view is so overwhelming in its character and quantity 
 that it is amazing to see the conclusion so much as questioned. 
 It is not a question of individuality here, but a question of whole 
 races or nations. On the one hand we have the sobriety of the 
 wine districts of France, Spain, Italy, and the Rhine. On the other 
 hand, the spirit-drinking portions of north-eastern Germany, the 
 manufacturing departments of north-eastern France, and certain 
 cantons of Switzerland. In a most exhaustive scientific report 
 recently published by the Federal Government of Switzerland, with 
 statistics gathered and facts collected from all parts of the world, 
 one of the chief factors in the promotion of intemperance was 
 shewn to be the compaiative dearness of wine and the impurity 
 and relative cheapness of ardent spirits. The cheapness of wine 
 then becomes not a prolific source of drunkenness, but, as noted by 
 Adam Smith in his " Wealth of Nations," an aid to sobriety. 
 Candid and careful observation will shew that in those parts of 
 Europe where intemperance is rife, especially in the vicinity of 
 manufacturing towns, there wine will be found much too expen- 
 sive for general beverage purposes, while on the other hand ardent 
 spirits often of the vilest description will be found in cheap pro- 
 fusion. 
 
28 
 
 In a lengthy report on alcoholism, issued last July by Drs. 
 Tourelot, Devoisins, Lailler, and Paul Charon, this fact is amply 
 illustrated. They shew that in the Departments of the Seine-In- 
 f6rieure, the Somme, and Rouen, wine is almost unprocurable ; at 
 least it is quite beyond the reach of the majority, while cheap 
 spirits made from grain flow in abundance. A curious fact signifi- 
 cant to imbibers of brandy was also brought out in their report, 
 which was that more spurious brandy is consumed in the three de- 
 partments named than the total quantity of genuine eau-de-vie 
 manufactured in all France. 
 
 But there is no need to go beyond the borders of our own Pro- 
 vince for a refutation of the silly idea that the milder beverages 
 invariably lead to a craving for stronger ones. There was a time, 
 not so very long ago, when whiskey was the only procurable stimu- 
 ant. To-day the beverage most in demand, is beer, and even this 
 has of late been giving place to lager, and no doubt would have • 
 done so to much greater extent than it has were it not for the fool- 
 ish policy that drives out by criminal enactments the bulky liquids 
 to make way for the concentrated. In many of the rural districts 
 whiskey may, it is true, even in those places not cursed by prohi- 
 bition, be found the prevailing drink, but examination soon dis- 
 closes the fact that this is directly attributable to remoteness from 
 brewing centres and the consequent diffim'ty of procuring supplies. 
 
 In view of these facts it behooves sober, intelligent men to 
 pause and reflect on the consequences attendant upon checking a 
 natural tendency towards the use of milder drinks. Rightly or 
 wrongly, it matters not which in. this connection, the demand for 
 stimulants is implanted in the systems of the vast majority of the 
 community. Are we practical men ? Let us ecogiJze this fact, 
 and instead of vainly buffeting against nature in an attempt to 
 muzzle a natural tendency, aid its course ;n the direction of what 
 tends to temperate habits. 
 
 Although lengthy reference to the capabilities of Ontario as a 
 wine producing country would be out of place in this connection, 
 even did our space perinit, still the fact is worthy of note, that 
 authorities upon the subject have pointed out, time and again, that 
 Ontario, especially the soutljern counties, should rank by virtue of 
 its climate second to no country as a wine producer. It is a fact 
 worth pondering upon. We have here a great help to the true so- 
 lution of the question of intemperance. Shall we accept it, or 
 with blind fatuity turn to smuggled spirits, opium, and de- 
 bauchery ? 
 
 -^>'^^^V5:><^ 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SOME GENERAL ERRORS OF TEETOTALLERS. 
 
 That the demand for stimulant-narcotics is merely the result 
 of anacquired habit, for which there is no valid assignable reason 
 other than that which might exist in a diseased or vicious appetite, 
 may be sufficiently probable to minds prejudiced by teetotallism, 
 but will hardly prove a satisfactory explanation of what to all in- 
 telligent observers is an exhibition of a universal craving. "It is 
 idle to urge," says Dr. Anstie, '• that the subject of a carefully pre- 
 pared experiment can be made to live in apparent health without 
 the use of those substances vulgarly called ' narcotics ' if the 
 practical fact be that nations cannot and never have been able to 
 do without them." 
 
 There is absolutely no period of history — there is absolutely 
 no nation upon earth — in which indisputable evidence of their use 
 may not be found. Von Bibra puts the matter roughly but 
 plainly : " Coffee leaves are taken, in the form of infusion, by two 
 millions of the world'i^ inhabitants. Paraguay tea is taken by ten 
 millions. Coca by as many. Chicory, either pure or mixed with 
 coffee, by forty. Cacao by fifty. Haschish is eaten and smoked 
 by three hundred millions. Opium by four hundred millions. 
 Chinese tea is drunk by five hundred millions. Finally, all known 
 nations of the world are addicted to the use of tobacco, either by 
 smokfrg, chewing, or snuffing." Professor Johnson also shows 
 that there is no considerable tract of the earth's surface without 
 some special indigenous plant of which the natives readily avail 
 themselves, not merely for medicinal purposes but for everyday 
 use as a stimulant-narcotic. 
 
 Are we to believe that nature has here laid a pitfall for her 
 children by the general planting of a false instinct ? Impossible. 
 Nature, a beneficent parent, points the way : Science, her hand- 
 maid, follows with the reason ; nor is the reason in the case of 
 stimulants far to seek. The ordinary life of man, and this is par- 
 ticularly true in the case of the higher races, is wholly comprised 
 in highly complex and heterogenous actions, and highly compli- 
 cated and heterogenous food — food requiring little expenditure of 
 energy for assimilation, is requisite for its perfect mainti^^nance. 
 Doubtless, in the full possession of animal health, with the diges- 
 tive and mental powers unimpaired, and witn no special demand 
 on the vital energies, stimulants, in the ordinary sense of the term, 
 would be superfluous. But what might this mean ? No dishes of 
 daintily cooked food ; no pepper, mustard, vinegar, sauce, beer. 
 
80 
 
 wine, tea, coffee, or the thousand and one stimulants to appetite and 
 digestion we regard in the present, and rightly, as real necessities. 
 But the idea is absurd. How many physicians are there who can 
 point out one such case in their whole practice ? Such cases of 
 ideal health are indeed rare. 
 
 Then as to the assertion of a " reaction " following the taking 
 of a dose of alcohol, and that a renewal and increase in the quan- 
 tity becomes a necessity. There is no more '• reaction " following 
 the ingestion of a proper quantity than follows the full and com- 
 plete digestion of an ordinary meal. What has been termed the 
 " reaction " has been proved by Dr. Anstie to be the direct effects 
 of a " narcotic " quantity. As to the necessity of increasing the 
 dose, this would be serious were there any foundation for the as- 
 sertion, but Dr. Anstie has also shown that it is only those who 
 have habituated themselves to the '• narcotic " effects of excessive 
 quantities who are obliged to increase the quantity. Do we not see 
 every day a man enter a tavern for the purpose of quenching a natur- 
 al thirst, or to relieve the feeling of fatigue consequent on a hard 
 day's work. To such, the first glass of beer is most grateful, and 
 he turns away, the natural appetite satisfied ; but he meets a 
 friend, and, in accordance with the much abused habit of treating, 
 is asked to have a second glass. He refuses, the other presses, until 
 at last, not to offend a friend (?), he offends his palate and stomach 
 by wriggling down the second or third glass. This disinclination 
 often amounting to actual disgust, is the revolt, the " red danger- 
 flag " of nature. This experience sometimes does not end with 
 only the '• second " or "third " glass, but may be prolonged, and 
 not on one day only, or two, but for weeks— aye, months and years, 
 it may be — until tired nature gives way, and the wretched man 
 awakes to find that there is no lonjer a '• danger-signal " dis- 
 played, but unnatural appetite created, which growo by what it 
 feeds on. 
 
 If there were any truth in the dogma that moderation neces- 
 sarily becomes excess, how are we to accoant for the habitual tem- 
 perance of the Spanish or Italian peasant ? Here the habit of 
 partaking of the ordinary wines of the country as part and parcel 
 of their daily food has been transmitted down from father to son 
 for several generations. Surely if such a tendency is to be feared 
 in the father it will manifest itself more strongly in the child ? The 
 idea is merely a bug-a-boo existing simply in the minds of many 
 who have not had sufficient time or opportunity to investigate the 
 question for themselves, or raised by designing persons for achiev- 
 ing certain ends. Lewes puts the thing very neatly in his 
 •• Physiology of Common Life :" " Men drink one or two cups of 
 tea or coffee at breakfast with unvarying regularity for a whole Ufe- 
 time, but who ever felt the necessity of gradually increasing the 
 amount to three, four, or five cups ? Yet we know what a stimu- 
 lant tea is ; we know that treble the amount of our daily consump- 
 tion would soon produce paralysis. Why are we not irresistibly 
 led to this fatal excess ?" 
 
81 
 
 Lately an attempt has been made to wrest insurance statistics 
 to the cause and support of teetotallism. Within a few years a 
 new " temperance " insurance company, at the head of which 
 were men of prominence in public life and in prohibitionist circles, 
 issued a prospectus giving a table of life expectations of *' total 
 abstainers" and "moderate drinkers." The table at once im- 
 pressed many insurers, and was made to do excellent service by 
 the agents of the company, the difference in the life expectations of 
 the two classes seemed so enormous. The same table, in the same 
 form, has also been made use of extensively in prohibitionist liter- 
 ature, and the figures given are correctly taken from the original 
 source — a physician's calculations of many years ago. The differ- 
 ence between the original and the copy is simply in the substitu- 
 tion of the words " total abstainers " and '• moderate drinkers " 
 for the words " temperate persons " and " intemperate persons," 
 which appear in the original at the heads of the columns of life ex- 
 pectations. It is unnecessary to ascribe dishonesty of intention 
 to the promoters of the company. It is more charitable, and prob- 
 ably more correct, to impute the mistake to a careless acceptance 
 of a garbled statistical estimate, but nevertheless there is much 
 significance in the fact that leading minds of the teetotal world can 
 so readily receive error because it bolsters up a pet theory. 
 
 The real facts are that we have yet no reliable evidence, nor 
 are we likely to possess sufficient data from the statistics published 
 by insurance companies upon which to base a scientific opinion 
 either one way or the other. What little we do possess, however, 
 lep.ns to the side of temperance rather than to that of abstinence. 
 Apart altogether from the inferences drawn on a superficial glance 
 by persons imacquainted with all the facts connected with life as- 
 surance, from the mortality returns of new companies compared 
 with old companies which have attained their maximum death 
 rates, there are facts which seriously invalidate the claims put for- 
 ward by teetotal advocates in regard to the alleged greater 
 longevity of total abstainers. Not one of the so called " temper- 
 ance " companies can compare in small percentage of thejdeath 
 claims to total risks with the leading insurance companies of this 
 continent, none of which discriminate in favour of total abstainers 
 as against moderate drinkers, and the vast body of whose policy- 
 holders belong to the latter class. Tables and diagrams have been 
 constructed on the basis of ignoring very important facts, and by 
 making selected and unfair comparisons in favour of total absti- 
 nence. To compare a class drawn very largely from men whose mode 
 of living is simple in other very important respects than their drink- 
 ing habits, with a classembracing many men ot sedentary habits, often 
 given to late hours, dinners, and not merely abnormal habits of life, 
 as well as abnormal undertakings and enterprise not usually found 
 in total abstainers, would be manifestly unfair, and especially since 
 agents, in their anxiety to obtain policies, secure the admission, 
 against the intentions of all insurance companies, of men whose 
 
82 
 
 •• moderate " drinking is in reality excess, and even of men who 
 are unmistakeably intemperate. Even were moderation very 
 much better than total abstinence in conducing to longevity 
 there are other things connected with the present status of the 
 two classes which might completely obscure the fact in insurance 
 statistics, especially when it is considered whence the small totally 
 abstaining class of the few temperance insurance companies of 
 England are drawn, and the large classes from whence are drawn 
 the vast numbers of those insured in the great insurance com- 
 panies. 
 
 The general mortuary statistics again serve to still further 
 discredit the statements of the teetotallers. It is claimed by them 
 that the reason of the alleged much better returns in death rates of 
 the total abstainers over those of the moderationists are due to 
 their immunity from special diseases which are most prevalent 
 amongst the intemperate classes. It is admitted on all sides that the 
 diseases which are apt to be engendered or accelerated are in the 
 main cirrhosis, gastritis, hepatitis, ulcer of stomach, diabetes, 
 nephria (Bright's disease), and nephtritis f inflammation of kidneysV 
 On the other hand the use of alcohol is commended by all 
 medical authorities of repute in cases of zymotic diseases, phthisis, 
 many kinds of heart disease, and bronchitis. In these latter 
 alcohol is of incalculable benefit. Now to prevent cavil or carp- 
 ing let us place all deaths in the former class to the debit of alco- 
 holism, although it is by no means admitted by the higher medical 
 authorities that alcohol is an important predisposing cause of kid- 
 ney or liver complaints. We will find upon even a cursory glance 
 at the mortuary returns that the whole number of deaths in the 
 former section bear but a very small proportion to the number of 
 deaths due to the latter class of diseases. Where the former num- 
 ber their hundreds the latter rank their tens of thousands. In other 
 words, where alcohol might have been guilty of causing or hasten- 
 ing the deaths of hundreds, those cases where the same agent would 
 have been of service in preserving life carried off their thousands. 
 
 It is said that alcohol is a potent factor in the increase of in- 
 sanity. This is in the majority of cases a confounding of cause and 
 effect. Drunkenness is usually a symptom, not a cause. There are a 
 greater number of religio-maniacs confined in asylums than dipso- 
 maniacs. It is absurd to say drink brought these last to such a 
 condition. If the writer were equally silly with those who reason 
 thus in regard to drink he would say : " What a terrible thing re- 
 ligion is. See how it has destroyed the minds of these unfor- 
 tunates." 
 
 Errors in eating are as likely to end in insanity as 
 are errors in drinking. The effects of the former are too obscure, 
 although as great, for other than the medical practitioner to ob- 
 serve. But the effects of overdrinking are apparent to all. If the 
 temptation to excess is greater in the case of alcohol than in ordi- 
 nary foods, it must not be lost sight of that the plainness of the 
 warning is also much greater. * 
 
88 
 
 Business troubles, by deranging the digestive organs, form a 
 prolific cause of mania. So, also, improper, poor, or badly cooked 
 food contributes in no small degree to swell the number of inmates 
 in our asylums. So generally is this fact recognized that the chief 
 portion of the physician's care is now directed to the patient's 
 dietary. So far from alcoholic beverages largely predisposing their 
 users to insanity, the very reverse is most probably the case. In 
 the case of the overtaxed business man, unable to spare energy 
 requisite to digest sufficient food to meet the heavy drain on his 
 powers, alcohol would here, by aiding the digestion of some solid 
 nutriment, if not by its own ready assimilability, yield the force 
 necessary to relieve the strain and prevent what might otherwise 
 become the complete prostration and overthrow of body and mind. 
 Is it not pitiful to reflect upon the numbers who but for a foolish, 
 nay, wicked prejudice might have been saved from lunacy and 
 untimely death by the moderate use of one of the most wholesome 
 and safe of all stimulants, light bitter ale ? 
 
 The history of the medical testimony in favour of teetotallism 
 is interesting. Forty years ago the teetotallers got up a manifesto 
 signed by two thousand of the medical men in Great Britain, 
 recommending total abstinence from all alcoholic liquors, as tending 
 to greatly benefit the general health. Great amusement was cre- 
 ated by the discovery, shortly after its issue, that the majority of 
 its signatories had signed, at or about the same time, a document 
 setting forth the peculiar merits of one of the Burton ales, and 
 strongly recommending its general adoption by the public as a 
 good and highly beneficial beverage. Not many years ago the tee- 
 totallers got up another document : remembering the history of the 
 earlier one they were more cautious in wording it. There was 
 nothing in it of total abstinence. It stated that many persons held 
 greatly exaggerated notions as to the value of alcohol as an article 
 of diet. It also inculcated great moderation in prescribing it for 
 medicinal purposes. Sir G. Burrows, then President of the Royal 
 College of Physicians, was the first to whom it was submitted for 
 signature. He not only signed it, but was led into permitting his 
 name to be used in obtaining other signatories. Armed with the 
 card of Sir George Burrows, and taking care to call on consulting 
 physicians at the busiest hour of the day when their offices 
 were thronged, they succeeded in obtaining a number of 
 other signatories, many of whom, however, afterwards stated 
 that they had signed without inspection, trusting that what came 
 from the president of the college would be all right. It fell into 
 the hands of a well-known Metropolitan surgeon, who not only re- 
 fused to sign, but sent a letter of remonstrance to Sir George Bur- 
 rows, to the effect that he " did not see how it is possible ' im- 
 mensely ' to exaggerate the value of alcohol as an article of diet. 
 I believe it to be one which is simply indispensable for the whole 
 of that large class of persons who, while they are subject to large 
 expenditure of nervous force, are unable to digest more than a very 
 
84 
 
 moderate quantity of the dietetic equivalents of alcohol, in the var- 
 ious forms of fat and sugar. lam, myself, among the most mode- 
 rate of drinkers, and on three separate occasions have endeavoured 
 to become a total abstainer. Each time my health gave way in the 
 attempt, which now for some years past I iiave not ventured to re- 
 peat ; and my experience as a practitioner has taught me that 
 many others are in a similar case." 
 
 After a lapse often days the President replied that the sug- 
 gestions for alteration came too late for acceptance, as the docu- 
 ment had passed through the hands of one hundred and fifty per- 
 sons. He concluded with the following paragraph, which certainly 
 concedes everything contended : " / entirely agree with yon in the 
 opinion you express about alcohol as an article of diet. I think to a 
 large class of persons * * "= it is indispensable, and I know 
 many remarkable cases in confirmation of your own experience of the 
 attempt to abstain wholly from alcohol.'' 
 
 One of the most ingenious of shuffles by which teetotallers seek 
 to evade the natural consequences of their false position is the inven- 
 tion of the " unfermented " wine theory. The chemist can hardly 
 have patience to treat such an absurdity seriously. We have seen 
 in a former chapter that fermentation is a natural process which in the 
 case of wine, is brought about by those minute unicellular organisms, 
 which form the bloom upon the ripe grape. Crack but the skin 
 ever so slightly and mingling at once through the grape juice these 
 cells immediately set up fermentation, which in warm climates be- 
 comes active in one or two hours. Only the most difficult efforts 
 can stay this process, and only complicated processes can preserve 
 the juice for any length of time. These processes are essentially mod- 
 ern, being due to the researches and labours of M. Pasteur. Yet with 
 the coolness born of ignorance one Reverend Doctor has no hesi- 
 tation in suggesting that the method of preventing fermentation, 
 termed in honor of its discoverer Pasteurization, was in common 
 use in Judea in our Saviour's time. It is a curious fact, is it not, 
 that while wine-wafs, ■^me-lees , wine presses and all the peculiar- 
 ities of fermentation is familiar language in the Scriptures, no 
 mention or even hint is given of what a contributor to one of our 
 papers has wittily termed the " Great Grape Syrup Industry " ? It 
 is curious, is it not, that absolutely no mention should be made of 
 glass bottles with ground glass stoppers, or, as suggested recently 
 by a young lady of brilliant intellect, self sealing jars and cane 
 sugar ? But the thing is childish. 
 
 Some of the methods of preparing the so-called •' unfer- 
 mented " wines, are revealed by chemical analysis. In the ma- 
 jority of instances poor, thin clarets are subjected to distil- 
 lation to get rid of the alcohol, sugar is added to sweeten 
 and thicken, and elderberry to restore the colour partially de- 
 stroyed by boiling. In others, the juice is boiled with sugar to a 
 syrup, and salicylic acid added to prevent fermentation. In not a 
 few instances which fell under the writer's own observation, cider, 
 
 / if 
 
86 
 
 sweetened and coloured, has been sold under the name of unfer- 
 mented wine, and these samples contained a notable quantity of 
 alcohol. These instances will give a fair idea of the sophisticated 
 abominations that are sought to be forced upon the public under 
 the cloak of religion and philanthropy. 
 
 It is not uncommon to hear clerical and lay agitators proclaim 
 as a matter of convincing testimony " that the medical profession 
 of this and that city has almost unanimously condemned the use 
 of alcoholic beverages." Whatever value this counting of noses 
 may have it would be well to critically examine these alleged con- 
 demnations. They are generally I iinded upon replies to circulars 
 addressed by teetotal associations to the local medical profession, 
 and cont'iining questions put in a form calculated to mislead the 
 general public. Ot course, most of the physicians who accept the 
 teetotal creed reply, but the vast majority of physicians, including 
 most of the ablest medical men, treat the circular with indifference, 
 or even contempt. The replies are grouped, noses are counted, 
 and the statement published which at once is distorted into an 
 endorsation of general total abstinence by the medical profession 
 of the city, when the truth is that only the small minority, and 
 many of these of little account in the profession, have approved 
 of the teetotal position. 
 
 The experiments of Drs. Smith and Parkes are often glibly 
 quoted — without, however, giving details— by teetotallers, as favor- 
 ing their extreme views — (the official organ of a powerful church 
 had the temerity to quote Moleschott as an authority for teetotal- 
 ism). Although both these doctors were strongly prejudiced 
 against the use of alcohol when they started their experiments, 
 their scientific honor forced them to record the fact that their most 
 careful investigation failed to discover the slightest harm resulting 
 from the ingestion of moderate quantities of alcohol, while harm 
 invariably resulted from excessive or improper use. Some of the 
 physiological deductions from his experiments, given by Dr. Smith 
 are indeed, extremely fallacious, inasmuch as they are based upon 
 results following excessive doses, such, for instance, as twelve 
 ounces of brandy, — an extremely poisonous and narcotic dose for 
 the aveiage man — but these do not invalidate the fact made known 
 by his experiments — that no harm whatever resulted from modera- 
 tion. The result of Dr. Parkes' labors during the Ashantee cam- 
 paign indicated the fact that alcohol given in large doses, or during, 
 or immediately preceding the performance of duty was injurious, but 
 when moderate doses were given after the labors of the day were 
 ended, no harm resulted, but decided benefit was invariably 
 obtained, and that in the comparison between total abstainers, 
 those who abused or improperly used alcohol, and those who tem- 
 perately indulged at the close of the day, the result was decidedly 
 in favor of the last. 
 
 That a moderate quantity of alcohol, preferably in the form of 
 beer, is not only without capacity for Inrm in those accustomed to 
 
86 
 
 athletic Oi outdoor exercise, but is positively beneficial, is not only 
 predicated by physiologists, but amply attested by the dietaries of 
 the Oxford and Cambridge boat crews. These dietaries embody 
 the results of half a century of the highest scientific observation 
 and experiment. The fact that two pints of beer form part of the 
 daily dietary of two of the finest bodies of athletes in the world is 
 sufficient answer to the stupid outcries of prohibition zealots that 
 beer is injurious. 
 
 Some of the other errors to which brief reference may here be 
 made are the persistent quoting of Generals Wolseley and Gordon^ 
 and Mr. Gladstone and others as total abstainers. In England an 
 Archdeacon actually quotes Edward Hanlan as a bright and 
 shining example of teetotalism. The Graces, and other noted 
 athletes have also been improperly pressed into the service of the 
 teetotal cause. In regard to Weston, who certainly accomplished 
 remarkable feats in pedestrianism, much error prevails. He 
 accomplished the last portion of his famous hundred mile walk on 
 small quantities of brandy and champagne administered in oft 
 repeated doses. Nearly every one of his notable feats has been 
 exceeded by other non-abstaining athletes, and his greatest record^ 
 5,000 miles in 100 days, resting on Sundays, a task accomplished 
 on water, has been surpassed by that of Fitzgerald, who accom- 
 plished 5,306 miles in 100 days and on beer. 
 
 In the training and performances of athletes much of course 
 depends upon the individual condition of the athlete and the pre- 
 cise conditions which are to be secured, but there is no doubt that 
 beer is found under many circumstances to be practically indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 The experience of polar expeditions has also been misrepre- 
 sented. Whatever the reason why caution should be exercised in 
 regard to the use of alcohol during exposure to great cold, the fact 
 remains that alcohol in small quantities is referred to by Greeley 
 in connection with the last polar expedition as exceedingly useful. 
 
 A common mistake of advocates of general total abstinence 
 is the assumption that alcoholic beverages are intoxicating in pro- 
 portion to the quantity of alcohol they contain. For example, it 
 is concluded that of a beer containing three per cent. oU alcohol 
 only twice as much must be taken as of beer of six per cent, 
 alcoholic strength in order to produce the same effects. This is 
 far from the truth. The rate of absorption from the stomach into 
 the blood differs greatly with the degree of dilution of the alcohol ; 
 and the quantity in the blood at one time is also affected by 
 the rate of oxidation or elimination of the alcohol in the circula- 
 tion. Intoxication depends chiefly upon the quantity of alcohol 
 in the circulation at one time, not the quantity in the stomach. 
 Hence the fact that with a very large proportion of mankind it is 
 practically impossible to become intoxicated with lager, however 
 great the quantity consumed. The evils induced by excess in 
 lager are generally of a different nature and arise from a different 
 cause. 
 
87 
 
 The partial explanation just given will enable the reader to 
 perceive why many imagine that alcohol has first a stimulating and 
 then a narcotic action, that the latter is "overstimulation," and that 
 the depressing effects incident to narcotisim are in lesser degree 
 the sequel of moderate use. It is the quantity of alcohol in the 
 circulation at one time, not the quantity taken into the stomach 
 which chiefly governs the difference m conditions. The taking of 
 a decidedly narcotic quantity of alcohol into the stomach is fol- 
 lowed first, by stimulation, then as the quantity which has passed 
 from the stomach into the blood increases to a certain quantity, 
 narcotism commences. Where only a stimulating quantity of 
 alcohol has been taken no trace of narcotic effects appear, nor is 
 there manifested even in slight degree the so-called " re-action " — 
 confounded with the depressent effects of narcotism — which in 
 cause and phenomena is wholly unlike stimulation. 
 
 In regard to the heredity of drunkenness much misconception 
 also prevails. Unquestionably there are many cases where a pre- 
 disposition to intemperance is transmitted from a drunken parent 
 to a child. But it might be of service to some to suggest that 
 intemperance, whether in eating, drinking, work, or many other 
 things in which excess is committed, may bring about a debilitated 
 physical and mental condition which, through the mysterious 
 action of the law of heredity, may leave offspring predisposed, 
 through inherited weak or irritable systems, to drunkenness. Is it 
 improbable that as strong a tendency to alcoholic intemperance 
 may be transmitted from teetotal parents guilty of excesses in eat- 
 ing and otherwise as from drunken ancestors ? 
 
 The facts attested by the universal experience of observant men 
 in all ages establish the conclusion that alcoholic beverages are 
 commonly beneficial, while injurious in excess or under certain cir- 
 cumstances. In these respects alcohol is not at all an exception 
 to the general rule. Nature emphatically endorses temperance in 
 all things, and punishes intemperance. The fault, where harm 
 is done, is generally a moral one on the part of the individual. A 
 moral use of alcohol, as of other gifts of heaven, brings its own 
 reward ; an immoral use its own punishment. 
 
 -^^Siti***!:?^*^ 
 
\ 
 
 / 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 In the ignorant physiological errors associated with teetotal- 
 lism lie crystallized the erroneous theories of a past generation — 
 theories long since laid to rest in the scientific world. But error 
 dies hard, and so we find to-day in the sub-scientific world these 
 ghosts of earlier speculations invoked and re-habilitated and mar- 
 shalled to the front to do duty in support of a modern system of 
 ethical error so glaringly defective that it could not have been able 
 by itself to make much progress. 
 
 As we have seen in a previous chapter, the general acceptance 
 of Liebig's chemico-physiological doctrme was due, not so much to 
 the high rank in science of its author, as to the fact that it was 
 published at the juncture when the theories of former generations 
 were crumbling at their base, ere yet the foundations of the new 
 bulwarks of modern science had been laid. The doctrine that the 
 disorganization of highly organized matter liberated energy, to- 
 gether with the clear conception that that energy was present, al- 
 though latent, in the complex compounds themselves was an enor- 
 mous step in advance, and effectually pricked the fantastic bubbles 
 of his predecessors and the visionary ideas of an Archaeus and the 
 spontaneous generation of energy, as well as the ingenious, but 
 equally untenable, hypothesis of the Brunonian system. This doc- 
 trine, that the breaking up of complex bodies into more simple 
 forms hberated the energy latent in the bodies themselves, appeared 
 not only perfectly sound m Liebig's time, but is found upon exam- 
 ination to lie at the foundation of modern science. The separation 
 of animal energy from any relation to such animal power as is im- 
 plied in heat beclouded even his vision, and while yet within reach 
 of the grandest generalization of science since the time of Newton, 
 he failed to grasp the full force of his own proposition, and his cele- 
 brated distinction raised with such rare ingenuity between the car- 
 bon and nitrogenous compounds fell before the logic of experiments 
 and analysis. But Liebig was by no means inclined to sustain the 
 position that alcohol was of no service in the animal economy. On 
 the contrary, he placed a high value upon alcohol, ranking it only 
 second to fats as a respiratory material. 
 
 The first to apply the doctrine of the correlation of the physi- 
 cal forces to the explanation of vital phenomena was the late Dr. 
 W. B. Carpenter. According to this doctrine such compounds of 
 carbon and hydrogen as fat, sugar, starch and alcohol, are to be 
 considered force producers. But the experiments and conclusions 
 
 ■ > 
 
of the three French chemists seemed to undermine this view in the 
 case of alcohol. It was before the masterly experiments of M. M. 
 Baudot and Schulinus, and Drs. Anstie, Thudichum and Dupre 
 had completely refuted the Frenchmen's error that Dr. Carpenter 
 wrote his contributions to the alcohol controversy. These contribu- 
 tions contained views which were almost immediately refuted to 
 the satisfaction of the scientific world, and with the progress of in- 
 vestigation on the subj xt Dr. Carpenter very materially altered his 
 views, his prejudice giving way, so that during the later years of 
 his life he indulged daily in a moderate quantity of wine. 
 
 It was also many years before the experimentsof Messrs.Baudot 
 and Anstie that Prof E. L. Youmans wrote an article on intemper- 
 ance for a New York journal, which, at the solicitation of teetotal 
 societies, he embodied in a pamphlet against the use of alcohol. 
 But in a recent review of his life by his sister, which appeared in 
 the Popular Science Monthly, the fact is brought out that (like Dr. 
 Carpenter) his opinions underwent a change, and he therefore al- 
 lowed the book to pass out of print. 
 
 Yet we find the early and hasty opinion of these scientists em- 
 bodied in a text-book on Hygiene, issued by the Ontario Depart- 
 ment of Education mainly at the instigation of a small but organ- 
 ized and persistently active body of ignorant women, while their 
 change of view and the vast array of eminent medical authorities 
 of recent years in favour of the moderate use of alcoholic beverages 
 are entirely overlooked or carefully ignored. 
 
 It is true that for some time certain physiologists of repute 
 misled by the bold allegations of the French chemists, were more or 
 less inclined against the use of alcoholic beverages. This attitude, 
 however, was but temporary, and was maintained only till the full 
 force of the refutation of the Frenchmen's error became apparent 
 to the scientific world. But meanwhile mischief had been done. 
 The statement that alcohol possessed no alimentary value was 
 eagerly seized upon by prejudiced persons, and did much service 
 in the cause of co^npulsory absti'^ence, and by reason of its exten- 
 sive currency amongst unscientific a^d ill-informed people it still 
 continues to obscure in the public mind the real attitude of science 
 on the question. 
 
 To claim that medical opinion is by a vast preponderance at 
 the present day in favour of total abstinenr*: even as a general rule 
 for the community, may betoken skilful generalship in the cause of 
 teetotallism, but is nevertheless dishonest. Quite recently the 
 celebrated Dr. Bernays stated that " for every medical man of dis- 
 tinction who is in favour of total abstinence I would find twenty 
 mei? who would be against it." For the past twelve years, or, in 
 other words, since the completion of the researches so ably con- 
 ducted by Baudot, Schulinus, Thudichum, Dupre and Anstie, no 
 work of repute in the scientific world has been published in sup- 
 port of general tc*^al abstinence, but, on the contrary, medical au- 
 thorities, commencing with Pavy, Dupre, Thudichum, and Anstie, 
 
 4 
 
40 
 
 and later, Sir James Paget, Garod, Bernays, Bennett, Sir W. Rob- 
 erts, and Lauder Brunton, men of the highest standing in medical 
 and physiological science at the present day, have supported the 
 cause of temperance against general total abstinence, and recog- 
 nized in alcohol a decided blessing to the human race, A 
 coloring of the earlier tendency remains in some minds, but even 
 that is rapidly disappearing. 
 
 That the true opinions of medical science on this question 
 have not yet found their way into general public thought should 
 cause no surprise when we reflect on the extent, activity and 
 y methods of teetotal propagandism. A numerous press devoted 
 / to the cause of teetotallism and thriving on the "inflammation" 
 it seeks to foment, garbles the statements of medical men, represents 
 every warning against misuse of alcohol given by eminent phy- 
 sicians as a declaration in favour of general abstinence, returns to 
 and reiterates with singular pertinacity the views of teetotal phy- 
 sicians of a generation ago, cites the names and quotes the opin- 
 ions of every obscure doctor who ventilates his teetotal hobby in a 
 medical journal or local newspaper, or at a " temperance " tea- 
 meeting, and creates a wide notoriety for men who, were it not for 
 the pomposity of their declarations, would scarcely be known a hun- 
 dred miles from home. Newspapers, of late the followers rather than 
 the leaderr of popular opinions, fill their "temperance column'* 
 with every waif and stray of teetotal misrepresentation, gathered 
 " regardless " from teetotal sources, with a view to tickling the 
 fancy of large and active organizations whose financial and politi- 
 cal support is naturally a matter of more or less solicitude. 
 
 How little reliable are teetotal statements may be imagined when 
 we actually find Liebig and Moleschott, to say nothing of King 
 Chambers, and other high medical authorities, cited in prominent 
 religious and secular journals as opponents of the temperate use 
 of alcoholic drinks. 
 
 Nor should surprise be felt were even a large number of medi- 
 cal men of local standing to lean to the side of total abstinence. 
 Scientific progress but slowly affects some minds, and besides, as 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has truly said, " medicine, professedly 
 founded on observation, is as sensitive to outside influences, politi- 
 cal, religious, philosophical, imaginative, as is the barometer to 
 changes in atmospheric density." So the iteration of the dogmas 
 of teetotallism, incorporated as they are in a widespread creed, has 
 its reflex action in medical thought ; and sentiment, not science, too 
 often colors the physician's mind. What might be predicated as 
 the result of adding to the bias engendered in many men, though the 
 creed of a powerful religious denomination, by organizing teetotal 
 medical societies among students, with a view to further prejudic- 
 ing their opinions, at the outset of their medical careers, on a ques- 
 tion which, though demanding calm and impartial investigation, 
 has been so obscured by heated controversy that to quote Milner 
 Fothergill, " the pure, white light of trui tan scarcely be seen clear 
 
il 
 
 of the colored rays around it." An instance of the undignified 
 length to which men will go in support of a hobby was recently afford- 
 ed when a well-known city physician appeared before a medical so- 
 ciety to address it in favour of total abstinence, armed with " medi- 
 cal evidence " in the shape of short clippings from the local secular 
 press. _ 
 
 That a large number of medical men have not publicly pro- 
 tested against the misrepresentations of medical science and 
 medical opinion is no matter for wonder. It is a difficult thing 
 for the majority of practitioners to speak their mind freely upon 
 this subject, their practice and public ambitions largely depending 
 upon their standing in church and society. The emoluments of 
 their profession, the daily food for themselves and families are ever 
 present in their minds and too concrete to admit of any sacrifice in 
 the cause of abstract scientific truth. How many, also, are there 
 who satisfy thdir consciences when teetotal misstatements are 
 brought to their notice with the sophism : " These exaggerations 
 and misstatements are certainly very foolish and very much at var- 
 iance with the teaching of science, but their propagators are work- 
 ing in a cause which has an element of good in it, and it might 
 ' seem ' that we are opposing, not their errors, but their intentions, 
 and if they do not accomplish all the good they seek, at least they 
 may not succeed in doing any great harm." Against such sophis- 
 try we most earnestly protest. No permanent good has ever been 
 achieved by falsehood, nor can be ; harm always does and always 
 will ensue. 
 
 The time for silence is past. The influence of this false teach- 
 ing has already accomplished a vast amount of evil. It has lent a 
 weighty support to a moral error, which threatens not merely to 
 lead to much physical harm by the deprecation of the good to be 
 accomplished in very many instances by the temperate use of alco- 
 hol, but to grave injustice, to oppression, and to general demoral- 
 ization of the tone of public and private morality. 
 
 Would the world be better without alcohol ? No. To believe 
 otherwise would be to take no cognizance whatever of human 
 nature. It is not enough in this connection to plead that many men 
 ruin themselves by intemperance. There is not a single principle, 
 not one good gift of God, that is not by someone made the occas- 
 ion of sin. Not a few of these good gifts are the occasion of vast 
 evils. Beyond doubt the relations of the sexes have been provoca- 
 tive of more crime and misery than strong drink, Were there no 
 reason for the use of alcohol other than that properly used it affords 
 pleasure to humanity, that alone should make us reflect before 
 throwing it aside. Vhe cares of the world are too numerous, its 
 pleasures for the vast majority too limited to permit of rash or 
 heedless sacrifice. But apart from this there is overwhelming evi- 
 dence to prove that the temperate use of alcohol is not only condu- 
 cive but absolutely essential to the health and capacity for work of 
 countless thousands, and amongst these some of the best and most 
 
42 
 
 useful of the race. Are we then to abandon a source of much in-' 
 nocent pleasure, and in pursuit of an ignis fatuus inflict a positive 
 injury upon a large proportion of the community ? Are the beliefs 
 of millions of temperate reasonable people that alcohol is of service 
 to them to be disregarded in this discussion at the dicta of dogma- 
 tists and zealots ? Are the opinions of the vast majority of physi- 
 ologists to count for nothing in the question of temperance versus 
 forced abstinence ? Is Christianity itself to be eclipsed by a moral 
 error which in its nature and effects is simply appalling ? 
 
 To ignore facts is useless. The accumulated experience of 
 countless generations that alcohol is one of the choicest blessings 
 of heaven it would be most unscientific to ignore. That testimony, 
 reaching down from the early dawn of history and attested in the 
 customs of the most progressive people and the most useful of men, 
 constitutes as significant a fact as any in the realm of natural his- 
 tory. The dicta of a few theorists affected by a passing sentiment 
 cannot alter facts : they still remain, and physiology can only fol- 
 low with the imperfect interpretation. Here experience, scripture 
 and science are as one. 
 
 The evils that are associated with the use of alcohol may be 
 slightly lessened as the explanations of science obtain currency. 
 Appeals to reason, affection, morals, above all, to the motives of 
 Christianity, a^re to be chiefly relied upon. The remedy for drunk- 
 enness is a moral one. As Dr. Bernays says : '• The children in 
 our schools should be taught that the Kingdom of God is neither 
 in meats nor in drinks ; that temperance does not merely apply to 
 drink, and should proceed from right principles ; in fine, that tem 
 perance is better than abstinence, and that its influence is far 
 greater." To turn to prohibition is to seek to abolish the good in 
 order to extirpate the evil. It is, moreover, a weak and utterly 
 ineffective expedient to obtain the latter result. It is born of fear 
 — fear that man left to his own common sense and to spiritual aid 
 would succumb to the temptations surrounding him. But to fly 
 to weak human enactments as a protection against human weak- 
 ness is about as effectual as the attempt to lift oneself over a hedge 
 by one's own boot-straps. 
 
 Although we place our faith and hopes for any permanent 
 change for the better so far as morality is concerned, mainly on the 
 dissemination of sound Christian principle and the teaching of sci- 
 entific truths, there are secondary methods by which we believe 
 practical good can be accomplished. Legislation must not and 
 cannot successfully ignore human nature, and there is some hope 
 in it so far as it respects the truest instincts of that nature. En- 
 couragement by legislation and otherwise of the substitution of the 
 lighter fermented beverages for ardent spirits, the discountenancing 
 of the much abused habit of indiscriminate treating, and the sub- 
 stitution of the continental habit of table instead of bar in public 
 places, the passage of a special and stringent adulteration Act 
 with provision of the necessary machinery for its effectual en- 
 
48 
 
 forcement, would approve themselves to universal public opinion, 
 and we are assured would do much to mitigate the evils of intem- 
 perance occasioned largely by the use of spirits in the form of 
 drams, and aggravated, it is to be feared, by reckless and criminal 
 adulteration. But that such measures, however practicable and 
 feasible they may be, will be forthcoming while the attention of our 
 legislators continues to be forcibly directed to fighting the use, 
 rather than the abuse, of alcohol, is, perhaps, too much to expect. 
 
 -^-^^i^i^^st^^^ 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following extracts are taken from the articles published in the 
 Contemporary Review, and republished in pamphlet form, under 
 the title of " The Alcohol Question." The extracts smhody the 
 opinion of ten, of the principle contributors to the symposium. 
 
 DR R. BRUDENELL CARTER, M.D., RR.C.S. 
 
 — " If we come to enquire in what way this small dose (half a 
 wine glassful of brandy or whiskey) exerts a beneficial action, we are at 
 once met, on the part of many of the advocates of total abstinence, by 
 the assertion that alcohol is not a food. I have no inclination^ for a 
 controversy about words, but, if we may accept Johnson's definition of 
 food as ** anything which nourishes," I do not hesitate to say that the 
 advocates of total abstinence are mistaken. I have recorded a case in 
 which an old gentlemen took no other food for many months, and was 
 kept, not only alive, but in moderate strength and comfort, and with no 
 remarkable emaciation, upon alcoholic drinks alone. He liked 
 variety and rang the changes upon champagne, old port, brandy, the 
 strongest Burton ale, and other liquids, some of which contained a 
 certain amount of sacharine matter, but not enough to maintain life as 
 he maintained it. Cases of a similiar kind are recorded by the late Dr. 
 Anstie and others ; and nothing is more certain than that people will live 
 upon alcohol and water for long periods. The evidence by which this 
 is proved seems to me altogether to outweigh the opinions of those who 
 declare that alcohol is not food, on no better grounds than that they 
 are unable to discover how it nourishes, or what transformation it under- 
 goes within the body. 
 
 — " We may assure ourselves by common observation, that 
 the moderate consumption of alcohol is useful to many persons, and 
 that it does not produce, at least necessarily, or in any but exceptional 
 cases, the dire effects which have been ascribed to it." 
 
 ALFRED B. GAROD, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. 
 
 — "The majority of adults can take a moderate quantity of 
 alcohol in some form or other, not only with impunity, but often with 
 advantage." 
 
 — As a beverage, alcohol should be taken in very moderate 
 quantities, freely diluted, and usually at or after meals." 
 
-2— 
 
 — " Many can abstain from their accustomed alcohol without 
 any unpleasant results, and some with marked advantage ; but others, 
 when they have ceased to take it for a little time, experience symptoms 
 indicating that the nutrition of the system is not fully kept up." 
 
 — " Alcohol in the different combinations in which it exists in 
 the various fermented liquors producer different effects upon the 
 system, and discrimination is necessary in the selection of beverages 
 by different individuals." 
 
 C. B. RADCLIFF, M.D., F.R.C.P. 
 
 f Formerly Lecturer on Mattera Materia, Westminster Hospital) 
 
 — " Alcohol, properly used is o' it service, partly in keeping 
 up the animal heat by supplying easily ....idled fuel to the respiratory 
 fire, partly in producing nerve-power by furnishing easily assimiliable 
 food to nerve-tissue, and partly in lessening the necessity for ordinary food 
 by diminishing the waste of the system which has to be repaired by food." 
 
 — I cannot help saying that he who chooses to urge the poor 
 to forego the proper use of alcoholic drinks for the simple reason that 
 semi-drunkenness, and drunkenness are, what they are indubitably, 
 evils of incalcuable magnitude, is no less than culpable — I cannot use a 
 milder term — in a high degree. I know that these persons are 
 actuated by the sincerist wish to do good to their fellow creatures, and 
 that they are at worst no more than wrong headed ; but I cannot allow 
 that goodness in the advocate for any particular cause is to be allowed 
 to take the place of soundness in argument. Good wrong-headed 
 people, you must allow, are very dangerous people. 
 
 ALBERT J. BERNAYS, Ph.D. 
 
 f Analyst to the City of London, England.) 
 
 — " If alcohol slays its thousands, water has also its victims, 
 and they are often the best of the race." 
 
 — " The experience of mankind is better than individual 
 experience, and so for every medical man of distinction who is in favor 
 of total abstinence, I would find twenty men who would be against it. 
 And if a man is observant of himself and is temperate in all things, 
 he is a better judge of what agrees with him, under ordinary circum- 
 stances than any physician can be. 
 
 — " Next to beer, the best form of alcoholic drink is wine. 
 The public owe to Mr. Gladstone many a benefit, and, among his manj 
 services, the introduction of wines at a moderate price." 
 
 — "The demands of the town-life on the nervous system, in the 
 mere struggle for existence, are sufficient reasons for recommending the 
 moderate use of wine." 
 
 — '* The principle I contend for is moderation rather than 
 abstinence." 
 
—3— 
 
 — " At the present day it is a common thing to meet a friend 
 in very bad health, and you ask him the cause : often it is owing to 
 some experiment in teetotalism." 
 
 — " The children in our schools should be taught that the 
 kingdom of Gul is neither in meats or in drinks ; that temperance does 
 not merely apply to drink, and should proceed from right principles ; 
 in fine, that temperance is better than abstinence, and that its influence 
 is far greater." 
 
 Sir W. W. GULL, Bart, M.D. F.R.C.P. D.C.L., F.R.S. 
 
 ' — " I prize alcohol and wine as medicines ; there are cases 
 in which it would be dangerous to do without it. If opium were used 
 instead, the results would probably be fatal. One of the Greek poets 
 writes, " There is an equal use in wine and fire to the dwellers upon 
 earth. In the northern regions you want more stimulant and fire, in 
 the south less ; and again, more as age increases and vitality 
 diminishes." 
 
 — " In advising a young man of sound health as to whether 
 he ought to give up alcohol I should consider his calling. I am not 
 sure that I should not advise an out-of-door man, doing a good deal 
 work, a carter for instance, to take some beer, as a good form of food, 
 containing sugar and vegetable extract and very little alcohol, but a 
 very small piece of beefsteak would make up the materials." 
 
 ' — I do not think we should be prepared to say that, speaking 
 of the labouring classes, everybody could go without beer, as a food ot 
 a light kind." 
 
 — " People will not listen to the temperance societies, because 
 they carry their theories too far. I do not think that you can start with 
 the idea that there is no use in alcohol and no good in wine." 
 
 SIR JAMES PAGET, BART, F.R.C.S., D.C.L., 
 
 L.L.D., F.R.S. 
 
 — " On the question of national health and strength, I cannot 
 doubt, on such evidence as we have that the habitual, moderate use of 
 alcoholic drinks is generally beneficial, and that in the question raised 
 between temperance and abstinence the verdict should be in favor of 
 temperance." 
 
 — " We have no statistics, and are not within reach of any, 
 for deciding the question between moderation and abstinence." 
 
 — " As for the opinions of the medical profession, they are by 
 a vast majority, in favor of moderation. It may be admitted that, of 
 late years the • number of cases has increased in which habitual 
 abstinence from alcohol has been deemed even better than habitual 
 moderation. But, excluding those of children and young persons, the 
 number of these cases is still very small, and few of them have been 
 
observed through a long course of years, so as to test the probable 
 influence ol a life-long habitual abstinence. Whatever weight, then, 
 may be assigned to the balance of opinions among medical men, it 
 certainly must be given in favor of moderation, not abstinence." 
 
 — "Then we have some deductions from physiological obser- 
 vations which are supposed to indicate a mischief in even habitual 
 moderation. But some of these are really such, that if, in the place of 
 "Alcohol" we were to read " common salt" we should be led to conclude, 
 if it were not for the experience to the contrary, that we are destroying 
 ourselves by the daily excessive use of a material which, in its excess, 
 can alter the constitution of our blood, or the permeability or other 
 properties of our tissues. And even the best of the physiological 
 observations on alcohol do not touch the question between abstinence 
 and moderation, more nearly than as suggesting some of the directions 
 which further inquiries should take." 
 
 — " The beliefs of reasonable people are, doubtless, by a large 
 majority favorable to moderation rather than abstinence, and this 
 should not be regarded as of no weight in the discussion." 
 
 — " Thus, then from all the witnesses to the evils of intemper- 
 ance we fail to get any clear evidence that there is mischief in 
 moderation. Looking further we find in them certain indications that 
 it is, on the whole, generally beneficial." 
 
 — ** We may safely say that there is a natural disposition 
 among adult men to drink ; a natural taste for alcoholic drinks whether 
 for their cheering influence or for any other reason." 
 
 — " As to working power, whether bodily or mental, there can 
 be no question that the advantage is on the side of those who use 
 alcoholic drinks. And it is advantage of this kind which is most to be 
 desired. Longevity is not the only or the best test of the value of the 
 things on which we live. It may only be a long old age, or a course of 
 years of idleness or dullness, useless alike to the individual and the race. 
 That to be most desired is national power and will for good working 
 and good thinking and a long duration of life fittest for these ; and 
 facts show that these are more nearly attained by the people that drink 
 alcohol than by those who do not." 
 
 — " I have dealt with the question between temperance and 
 abstinence entirely from the side from which my profession has enabled 
 me to study it so far as may justify my giving an opmion on .i. My 
 study makes me sure as I would ever venture to be on any such 
 question, that there is not yet any evidence nearly sufficient to make it 
 probable that a moderate use of alcoholic drinks is generally, or even 
 to many persons, injfrious ; and that there are sufficient reasons for 
 believing that such an habitual use is, on the whole and generally, 
 beneficial. It may be assumed that further study of the matter, by 
 competent and calmly-minded scientific persons, will discover many facts 
 concerning the use of alcohol which will lead to the remedy of such 
 harm as, even in moderation, it may do to some persons, or to some 
 whole races of men, and to its use being better directed and limited than 
 in GUI present customs. But knowledge of this kind will not change the 
 
— 6— 
 
 general conclusion in favor of the general utility of a moderate use of 
 alcoholic drinks ; and till this knowledge is gained, everyone may assume 
 that he may safely use them in such moderation as he does not find to 
 be injurious. 
 
 — " But as I have said, there are many, who, even if they 
 would admit this, would yet maintain that the mischiefs of intemperance 
 are so much greater than any conceivable advantages of moderation, 
 that we ought not to promote or defend moderation, because its 
 promotion hinders the general adoption of total abstinence, which they 
 say, is thetiecessary and only sure remedy for intemperance. Here 1 
 can only doubt. I should think that in this, as in other things lawful 
 yet tempting to excess, the discipline of moderation is better than tKe 
 discipline of abstinence." 
 
 — " But some will say what is this moderation ? How may 
 we define it ? Let those who thus ask try to define, to the satisfaction 
 of any ten persons, what, under all circumstances and to all people, is 
 moderation in bread or the wearing of jewels, in hunting or the language 
 of controversy." 
 
 T. LAUDER BRUNTON, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. 
 
 — " We will first consider what claims alcohol has to »<i 
 reckored as a food and perhaps this can be best done by comparing it 
 with a substance, like sugar, whose claim to the title of food no one 
 doubts. If we find that alcohol possesses those qualities which entitle 
 sugar to rank as a food we must admit that it also deserves the name. 
 Sugar disappears in the body as the fuel does in the steam engine : 
 and although it will not support life if given alone, yet along with other 
 food it will supply energy for increaseawork, or prevent the body from 
 wasting. In these points alcohol resembles sugar. It disappears in 
 the body, and although it will not of itself support life entirely, yet 
 instances are on record of persons having lived for a considerable time 
 with scarcely any other food. Hammond observed also, that when his 
 diet was insufficient, the addition of a little alcohol to it, not only pre- 
 vented him from losing weight as he had previously done, but converted 
 this loss into positive gain. The objection may be urged that some 
 observers have found alcohol pass out unchanged from the body and 
 that it therefore cannot be ranked as a food. But the same objection 
 applies to sugar for the experiments just referred to were made with 
 large quantities of alcohol and when much sugar is taken at once, it 
 will also be excreted unchanged." 
 
 WALTER MOXON, M.D., F.R.C.P. 
 
 — Speaking of teetotal societies he says : 
 " But the truth must be said that their success is deplorably small 
 as estimated by the^ number of drunkards they reclaim. — The 
 
teetotal organizations show considerable apparent achievement when 
 they turn to prevent the use of liquor by those who have shown 
 no tendency to abuse it. But unhappily there is a drawback to this 
 sort of gain." 
 
 — " I believe that to a large extent teetotalism lays foremost 
 hold on those who are least likely to become drunkards, and are most 
 likely to want at times the medicinal use of alcohol, sensitive, good- 
 natured people, of weak constitution, to whom the sacred ecclesiast 
 directed his strange sounding but needful advice. " Be not righteous 
 over-much, neither make thyself over wise : why shouldst thou destroy 
 thyself?" 
 
 CIIAS. MURCHISON, M.D., RR.r!.P.,LL.D.,F.RS. 
 
 — " Alcohol is useful in the course of most acute diseases, 
 when the organs of circulation begin to fail, as they are apt to do. A 
 moderate cjuantity usually suffices. The large quantities — e.g. one or 
 two bottles of brandy in twenty four hours — still sometimes administered, 
 may do harm by inducing congestion of various internal organs. 
 
 — " In convalesence from acute diseases, or from other weaken- 
 ing ailments, where the circulation remains feeble and the tempera- 
 ture is often subnormal, alcohol is also useful in promoting the 
 circulation and assisting digestion." 
 
 — " In persons of advanced life the circulation is also often 
 feeble, and a moderate allowance of alcohol often appears to be 
 beneficial. 
 
 — " In all conditions of the system characterized by weakness 
 of the circulation the daily use of a small quantity of alcohol is likely 
 to be beneficial at all events for a time. 
 
 J. R BENNETT, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 President Royal College of Physicians. 
 
 — " Has alcohol any special advantage over other articles of diet 
 in restoring exhausted nervous power or repairing the waste attendant 
 on its exercise ? I believe it has, and that where one man may be met 
 with who finds " a few raisins " answer the purpose, there are men whose 
 experience has told them that " three or four brandied cherries " are 
 better, and the majority of those who have to go through the labors of a 
 parliamentary session or any similiar continuous mental strain, will I 
 im convinced, admit that they do their work better and with more 
 comfort to themselves if they take three or four glasses of sherry or 
 claret as a part of their daily food." 
 
 — "Judging from my own experience both personal and pro- 
 fessional, there is need for every one to relax his rule and modify his 
 practice according to the varying circumstances of his life ; and to this 
 most men's instincts prompt them. Many a barrister or a doctor in his 
 
-7- 
 
 summer holidays feels that he does not need his customary glass of 
 sherry or port, does not care for it, and does not take it ; but he no 
 sooner returns to his duties than he becomes conscious that he is 
 happier, more comfortable, and ready for his work by resuming his 
 accustomed habit. I do not believe that such a one is, cceteris paribus 
 a worse, but a better life for an insurance office than a pledged 
 abstainer." 
 
 — " If every man is to forego his freedom of action because 
 men make a licentious use of it, I know not what is the value of my 
 freedom. If in the case of alcohol, as of meat, or any ot^ r thing, I 
 am to abstain from what I conscientiously believe to be the lawful and 
 beneficial use of it. " Lest I make my brother to offend," my life would 
 be an intolerable burden, worse than that of any ascetic monk that 
 ever lived, and, worse still, I should be perpetually giving the lie to 
 what I believe to be a truth, that "every creature of God is good, and 
 to be received with thanksgiving." 
 
 The following soientiats, amongst the highest in America, were examiued 
 before a joint special committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts at 
 Boston in 1867 : Professors Louis Agassiz ; Edward H. Olarke, M.D. ; Oliver 
 Wendall Holmes, M.D. ; Henry J. Bigelow, M.D. ; N. Horaford ; J. B. 
 Jackson, M.D. ; Charles T. Jackson, M.D. 
 
 The ansvrera given to the different queations put to thorn, will be found 
 intereating reading in view o' the fact that their teatimony waa given at a 
 time shortly after the publication of Dr. Carpenter's work on alcohol ; and 
 when the experiments of Lallemand, Perrin and Duroy together with their 
 complete refutation and exposure by Drs. Anstie, Dupre and Baudot were 
 still fresh in the minds of physiologists and chemists. 
 
 PROFESSOR LOUIS AGASSIZ. 
 
 The RtHowned Naturalist. 
 
 — " In the liquor drinking part of Europe we find intemperance, 
 but intemperance is unknown in the wine-growing countries. It waa 
 when I went to England, for the first time in 1834, that I learned what 
 drunkenneas was. lu England and in l!Jorthern Europe intemperance ia at 
 home ; but ia unknown in other parts of Europe where the grape ia grown. 
 I hail with joy — for I am a temperance man, and friend of temperance — I 
 hail with joy the efforts that are being made to raise wine in this country, 
 and 1 wish them all success. I believe that when you can have everywhere 
 cheap, pure, unadulterated wine, that you will no longer have need for 
 either prohibitory or license laws." 
 
 — *' If I understand you correctly, the use of such wines does not 
 engender any morbid appetite, resulting in drunkenness? A. — I have 
 never seen any morbid appetite engendered by the use of pure wine, any 
 more than the using of other food engenders a morbid appetite for more 
 food, or for food that is injurious." 
 
 — Q. " Your attention has been called to the effect produced upon 
 UboBO who come from the old country to this by prohibitory legislation ? " 
 
— 8— 
 
 A. " I think that the effect is an injurious one ; and I perceived very 
 early in my residence in the United States, that there were a great many 
 people who shared my opinion and my feeling about the use of pure wine, 
 but who were led by the pressure of the sentiment of the community to 
 publicly express opinions very different from those they really entertained, 
 and who practised in private what they denounced in public. I have 
 observed so much duplicity in regard to the subject, so much difference 
 between public profession and private practice, that the whole question 
 hail become so impleasant to me that I have generally abstained from making 
 en([uiries." 
 
 — " Not long ago, a clergyman of the highest respectability told me 
 thikt he could not perform his duties without sustaining his system by an 
 occasional glass of wine ; and he added that " such was the prejudice of the 
 country that he dare not let it be known for fear of losing his influence." 
 
 DR. JAMES C. WHITE. 
 
 Professor Chemistry in Harvard University, 
 
 Referring to the experiments of the three French ohemista, Messn. 
 Lallemand, Perrin and Duroy. 
 
 — " These experiments have been repeated at a much more recent 
 day, and by men occupying as high a scientific rank, and the result of all 
 the experiments is precisely the same. But the conclusions to which these 
 other chemists have come are quite different. That is, they find a small 
 percentage Of alcohol excreted, but they say any conclusion as to quantity, 
 iDased upon that amount is unfounded ; that they cannot assert, from finding 
 a small amount, that all is excreted. And this is the opinion of all 
 SCIENTIFIC MEN that I know at the present day. Moreover experiments 
 have been made by other chemists, by taking the whole amount of the 
 excretions passing within twenty-four hours and with very much larger, and 
 with very much smaller amounts than these French chemists used. It was 
 found by them, that in the case of a person taking twenty-four ounces 
 of brandy, from time to time, durine twenty- four hours, the amount of 
 alcohol discharged by the kidneys (which is the chief channel according to 
 these chemists) was very small indeed. The amount of fluid, containing 
 enough alcohol to burn which they obtained was a very few drachms. So 
 the conclusions of the French chemists were certainly unwarranted." 
 
 — Q. " Theji what, if anything, have you to say in reference to 
 the final conclusion of those French chemists, for the reasons they stated 
 alcohol was not to be classed as a food ? " 
 
 A. " That they offered no evidence whatever." 
 
 . — Q. There is a theory, is there not, among physiologists which 
 reckons alcoholics as in the category of foods ? " 
 
 A. "There is evidence, from their physiological action, that under 
 some circumstances, they act as food, in the same way, for instance, as beef- 
 tea does ; their effects are precisely the same as food, judging by their 
 effects alone." 
 
 — Q. " Is, or is not the theory stated by you — as to the theory of 
 alcohol being food — generally accepted by physiologists ? " 
 
 A. " I think that it is. " 
 
— 9- 
 
 DR. J. B. S. JACKSON, M.D., 
 
 Professor Morbid Anatomy, Harvard. 
 
 — " I refer, speaking o! the diseasea that seemed to be attributable 
 in a few cases to the use of liquor, to certain diseases of the kidneys which 
 have only been observed in modern times, and also to diseases of the liver. 
 Both of these are common diseases. But I would also say, that both of 
 these diseases I have often met with anatomically in persons perfectly 
 temperate. But on the other hand, I refer to turbercular disease, which is 
 so common, that it is said that, in the temperate regions, it destroys about 
 one out of every five or six in the community, as it has been observed in 
 various countries. This is the result in Europe, and in the observations 
 which I have made I came to the same conclusion — about one in five and a 
 half. I had occasion several weeks ago to refer to these observations of 
 my own, so that I can speak definitely, and in these observations I noticed a 
 fact I had not thought of before. It was not till I had proceeded some way 
 that I noticed that quite a number of the grossely intemperate subjects that 
 I examined had perfectly healthy lungs. From that time, I went on and ex- 
 amined all the cases with this point in view, to ascertain whether those who 
 had perfectly healthy lungs had been temperate : and in regard to those whom 
 I knew to be grossely intemperate, whether they died of consumption, and 
 whether they diowed that there had been formerly tubercular disease. And 
 I arrived at the conclusion that I just now stated, viz.: — I have met with 
 diseases, not unfrequently occuring in persons who had used liquor to an 
 inordinate extent, which T suppose I had reason to think was owing to such 
 use. And I was struck with the fact at the time that I made the examin- 
 ations to which I refer, that a very important class of diseases seemed to be 
 rather unfrequent in those who had been addicted to the use of their liquors." 
 
 PROFESSOR E. N. HORSFORD, M.D. 
 
 Tht well-known Analytical and practical Chemist, for sometime a student with 
 
 Baron Liebig. 
 
 --" Alcohol comes under the head of what is called respiratory food, 
 whicK includes starch and oil and those substances which when burned keep 
 the body warm. " 
 
 Q. * ' Have you any opinion whether any form of alcoholic drink does 
 act as food ? " 
 
 A. "I have, sir. " 
 
 Q. " What is your opinion % " 
 
 A. " I think it is a food." 
 
 Q. " Will you explain ? " 
 
 A. "It ministers to the strength of the organism, and it may also enter 
 the organism. It is allied to fat, and substances which produce fat, and in 
 BO far as it renders more perfect the digestion of food, meat and farinaceous 
 food, it acts itself as food. Perhaps the most recent experiment that has 
 been performed, is an experiment going to show that all these classes of 
 bodies do actually fulfil the office of food, and that they do enable a man to 
 perform feats of strength, which he could not otherwise do. These experi- 
 ments have been tried in Switzerland." 
 
 — Q. " Do you make an essential and characteristic difi'erence 
 between a large dose, and a small one ? That is, does a small dose, a mere 
 stimulating dose, have an effect characteristically like a large or narcotic 
 dose % Or i . the effect chbraoteristically different ? " 
 
—10— 
 
 A, " There are two stages of etfect, one of a stimulant, and the other of 
 a narcotic character, both of which have their office. If you mean to ask 
 whether, because it is a poison in its absolute purity, it is absolute poisonous 
 when in combination with other substances ; because there is acetic poison in 
 vinegar, it does not therefore follow that we may not use vinegar ; or because 
 there is poison in the oil of pepper, that therefore we cannot use pepper. 
 The essential principle of mustard and horseradish and a large number of 
 condiments, which in their dilution are not poisonous, act as a poison on the 
 human system, and yet the condiments themselves are very commonly used, 
 and are found to be beneficial to a certain extent." 
 
 — Q. " If the question was asked you, whether God made or pro- 
 duced alcohol, what should you say ? 
 
 A. — " I should say he did. It is something which is spontaneously pro- 
 duced at times, and does not require the operation of human agency in order 
 that it may be produced." 
 
 PROFESSOR EDWARD H. CLARK, M.D., 
 
 Professor Materia Medica, Harvard University 
 
 — A. " I have lived at one time for about three years iu an almost 
 exclusively vine-growing country, and I looked upon the light wine there 
 produced as being an addition to the comfort and sustenance of the people. 
 I saw but very little drunkenness. " 
 
 — Q. "You recognize, then, if I understand you, that there is 
 both a scientific, and a practical difference between a stimulant dose and a 
 narcotic dose ? " 
 
 A. — " We do. There is both a double, and treble action of many 
 liquids, and alcohol is no exception ; in certain doses it produces an effect 
 which is characteristically difierent from the effect produced by any other 
 dose." 
 
 — Q. " Can you or can you not, in all cases, substitute what is 
 properly called food, and thus get along without these stimulants ? " 
 
 A. — " You cannot ; the process (of life) sometimes will not go on without 
 something to aid it ; or it will go on imperfectly, if at all." 
 
 — Q. " Do you not frequently find persons in a diseased condition, 
 induced by the unnecessary use of alcoholic beverages ? " 
 
 A. — " Undoubtedly, but T should say, so far as my personal experience 
 goes, not a deal oftener in this city (Boston) than 1 do from the taking of 
 opium. " 
 
 — Q. " Is it demonstrable that the nutriment of these preparations 
 (Alcoholic) cannot be administered in any other form ? " 
 
 .\. — '' I know nothing that will take the place of them." 
 
 Q. — " You speak of diseases now, do you not 1 " 
 
 A. — " Of disease in a general way. I speak of people who are well enough 
 to be about their ordinary business and are called ' well.' " 
 
 — Q. '* What do you think would be the result upon the general 
 health of the people, if the whole community should determine no longer to 
 take their aliment in the form of alcoholic preparations, but in some other 
 way?" 
 
 A. — "I think they would seek some other form of excitement. I can 
 answer that question best by an illustration — at the close of one of my 
 lectures upon opium, one of the class, who was formerly a druggist, from an 
 interior town in the western portion of Massachusetts, came to my room and 
 said he believed that in the town in which he lived the prohibitory liquor 
 
—11— 
 
 law was perfectly enforced. The town was so situated (being remote from a 
 railroad) that there was no opportunity for dissipation, and but little oppor- 
 tunity for obtaining liquor. As far as he knew ; that law was enforced. He 
 stated that he had been a druggist in that town for many years ; that previ- 
 ous to the enforcement of the prohibitory law he sold opium only on the 
 direction of a physician ; since then he had sold for the last two or three years 
 an average of one grain per day of opium to every man, woman, and child, 
 ill that town. The people had sought another mean^of excitement, another 
 atiniulant." 
 
 — " There are very few persons in the community in perfect health, 
 probably not one of whom you could say with absolute certainty that every 
 j>art of his body was in a state of perfect health, but for average individuals, 
 who are in average health, you will tind that with some, the digestion is 
 imperfect ; the food cannot be converted into bone and flesh and brain, 
 })ccause there is an insufficient power in the machinery to work it up into 
 that material ; there are certain conditions of that sort, where the addition 
 of some kind of stimulant — which might in one case be one kind, and in 
 another, another kind — will enable that process to go on very perfectly, 
 perhaps as perfectly as it does in the average of cases. Under those circum- 
 stances, a person may be about his ordinary work, seemingly very well, 
 and yet requiring as an aid to his digestion, some agent which will enable 
 the process of alimentation to go on, and it will go on much better with, 
 than without it. Or a person may be troubled with some sort of disease by 
 which he is wasting away more rapidly than the system ought to waste, so 
 that the building up of the system is not equal to the destruction of it, and 
 such a person becomes emaciated, and yet in a condition of fair and average 
 health ; but such wasting away will tell upon him sooner or later. Under 
 such circumstances, the use, as a part of food, of some agent like that we 
 have described will arrest the defitruction, aid the process by which the 
 system is built up, and in this vay contribute to promote the health. 
 There are a great number of cases c:i that kind where the dietetic use of 
 alcoholic liquor is so important that I have deemed it necessary to give a 
 lecture to the class upon the proper dietetic use of this class of agents. " 
 
 Q. *• Are there any cases, that will admit persons who are properly 
 regarded as in health, and who are pursuing their regular avocations year 
 after year, and making up a good average life by that sort of ailmentation, 
 who otherwise would sink beneath the cares and burdens of daily duty and life." 
 
 A. "I meant to include what I suppose you refer to, under what have 
 just stated." 
 
 DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, M.D. 
 
 Parkman Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. 
 
 —"I think, that alcohol, sir, is meant for use in the arts, for burn- 
 ing in lamps, and for various other similar purposes. Alcohol itself, I do 
 not think, is an article which is used in the human economy. I have never 
 known it to be drank unless some person may have been unfortunate enough 
 to have drank it from the jars containing specimens in anatomical museums." 
 
 Q.— " That question lays the foundation for the one next in order, 
 which is this : have alcoholic drinks, or drinks into which alcohol enters as 
 a consituent in combination any proper use in the human economy, dieteti- 
 cally or medicinally ? „ „ * 
 
 A.— "I think they have, both dietetically and medicinally. 
 
—12— 
 
 Q.— ** In what way do they act dietetically ? " 
 A. — " They act as food — these combinations." 
 Q.— " And also as medicines ? " 
 A.—" Of course." 
 
 PROFESSOR HENRY J. BIGELOW, M.D. 
 
 — Q. ** You have travelled pretty extensively on the continent? " 
 A — " Yes, Sir. In England, France, Italy, Egypt, Germany, Switzer- 
 land and other places." 
 
 Q. — " Have you any opinions as to the effect produced upon the health 
 of the people of the wine-growing countries, by the use of wine as a daily 
 
 BBVBBAOE '? " 
 
 A. — " I should judge from observation of people as you see them, and 
 from the entire absense of evidence of injurious effects, that it was not in- 
 jurious in any way." 
 
 — Q. — " What did you observe in your several visits in reference to 
 the sobriety and the habits of intoxication of the people there, either one 
 way or the other." 
 
 A. — " I should say there was a very marked absence of anything like 
 intoxication as you see it upon the surface of society." 
 
 Q. — " Do you say that in regard to those people who use wine daily as 
 a part of their daily food ? " 
 
 A. — " I speak of those." 
 ' ' — Q. — Is it or is it not, your opinion that the wine they used did 
 perform the office of food ? '' 
 
 A, — ** I have no doubt that it did to a certain extent." 
 
 Q. — " Did you attribute a good effect as food, to the alcohol or the other 
 ingredients ? " 
 
 A. — " To the alcohol in combination with the other ingredients ? " 
 
 — Q. " In relation to the influence of wioe upon the general health, 
 you are able to state whether the long-continued use of wine results in any 
 common class of diseases, insanity for example, in any considerable number 
 of cases ? Say, take it in France. ? " 
 
 A. — " Not to my knowledge, when taken temperately." 
 
 Q. — " By temperately, you are speaking of its use habitually with the 
 meals i " 
 
 A. — "Habitually with the meals; and based upon the fact that the 
 light- wines are constantly drank, year in and year out, in almost any com- 
 munity in France. If alcohol were used to produce a stimulating effect 
 alone, I should not expect diseases ; but if it were used to excess so as to 
 produce a narcotic effect, I should expect diseases to result. " 
 
 Q. — " Are these diflerent stages of the same cause 1 " 
 
 A. — "I incline to the belief that there is a characteristic difffferenoe. 
 So that you can put your finger upon the interval, and say that one is a 
 stimulant effect, and that the other is a narcotic effect. 
 
 - — Q. " Do you believe that the ordinary usages of society require 
 the use of stimulants ? " 
 
 A. — " Undoubtedly, like all habits, this habit is liable to excess." 
 
 Q. — '• Is that the strongest remark you would make 1 " 
 
 A. — " I should say that excess is not a good thing, but, for a little excess 
 you will find a vast amount of wine drinking, and the stimulus, on the whole, 
 to the advantage of the individual." 
 
 — *'Q. — " On the whole, you would say that the drinking usages 
 of the community about us are to be reprobated or deplored t " 
 
 A.—" Deplored ? No Sir." 
 
-13— 
 PROFESSOR CHARLES T. JACKSON. M.D. 
 
 Former Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University, 
 
 — " Alcohol and alcoholic liquors act as respiratory foods. When 
 alcohol either in the form of wine or in the form of any of our distilled 
 spirits sufficiently diluted with water, is drank, it goes into the circulation. 
 The alcohol takes the place of so much food in our bodies in the process of 
 respiration. The carbon and the hydrogen are oxidized and removed from 
 the system, and thus save the consumption of just so much tissue. 
 
 The moderate use of alcoholic drinks, ao far from doing harm to the 
 human body, serves to sustain its power of endurance, and saves the destruc- 
 tion of so much of our tissues, and is, therefore, conservative to the system." 
 
 — In answer to the question of whether the question of alcohol serv- 
 ing as food is unresolved, hu answered : 
 
 " I do not consider it unresolved. It is not so considered by scientific 
 men generally. There may be some doubts raised by some persons ; but I 
 think that the opinion of scientific men generally is the same on that point." 
 
 STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
 
 By Francis E. Anstie, M.D., M.R.O.P. 
 
 Lecturer Materia Medica, and formerly Lecturer on Toxicology, H 'estminster Hospital. 
 
 — " Common salt is, in small doses, a perfectly indispensible article 
 of human food, without which we should perish miserably ; in medium doses, 
 it is a safe and useful emetic medicine ; while in extremely large doses, it is 
 an irritant poison, and has caused death in several cases." 
 
 — *• It is idle to urge that the subject of a carefully prepared experi- 
 ment can be made to live in apparent health without the use of any of the 
 substances vulgarly called Narcotics, if the practical fact be that nations 
 cannot, and never have been able to do without them." 
 
 — *' One thing is specially to be noticed — that all really irritant 
 action (i.e. which is capable, if prolonged, of causing inflammation), is of 
 a radically distinct, if not opposite kind from whatever increases the proper 
 function of a part; whatever, in fact makes it to be more alive. We have no 
 right, for instance, to speak of the agglomeration of blood copuscles which 
 takes place when mustard is applied to a delicate web of nearly naked 
 capillary vessels, as a higher degree, or as any degree, of the same action 
 which is produced when we swaUow minute quantities of mustard with our 
 food." 
 
 — " If stimulation means the calling forth, that is, the getting rid 
 of a certain quantity of a force already existing in the organism, either the 
 Accumulated stores of this force must be immense, or they must he simul- 
 taneously repaired by that which can create force, or the vital power musk 
 after a very short time become completely exhausted, and the patient, 
 whether cured of his fever, or not, must be "improved off the face 
 of the earth." The simple facts of the case, however are these : a fever 
 patient often lies for days taking an entirely insuliicient quantity of common 
 food to create new force in place of that so lavishly wasted by the stimulant 
 
-14— 
 
 medicines, poaaibly taking no such food at all. Yet at the end of a certain 
 time, it may be many days, it is discovered that the necessity for the stimu- 
 lant medicine has ceased or diminished, not by the patient's death, but by 
 his having recovered his energy so far as to digest common food. Nor is 
 it possible to net over this difficulty by supposmg that the tissues have been 
 consumed to such an extent that force has been generated at the expense of 
 bodily bulk ; for the patients are comparatively very slightly emaciated on 
 convalescence, if they have been treated in this way. Has there been great 
 emaciation, so to speak, of the nervous syntem, though this has been 
 invisible to our eyes ? It does not appear so, for the patients recover intelli- 
 gence, sensation, and volimtary movement with great rapidity. In short, on 
 the theory that stimulant action is followed by a more than equivalent recoil, 
 we are entirely unable to explain these facts. But if we agree that stimulant 
 action is, indeed, followed by a recoil, but that the latter is not greater, on 
 not so great, as the original exaltation- -the statement loses all importance, 
 since this is exactiy what happens after the digestion of a trub food." 
 
 ■" — " Alcohol taken alone, or with the addition only of a small 
 quantity of water, will prolong life greatly beyond the period at which it 
 must cease if no nourishment, or water only had been given : that in acute 
 diseases, it has repeatedly supported not only life, but even the bulk of the 
 body during many days of abstineme from common foods ; and that in a few 
 instances, persons have supported themselves almost wholly on alcohol and 
 inconsiderable quantities of water for years If these things can be proved, 
 as I hereafter shall show they can be, there is no need, of course, to argue 
 further about the alimentary character of alcohol. We may be at a loss to 
 explain the chemistry of its action on the body, but we may very safely say 
 that it acts as a food." 
 
 — •' Much might be said, and very forcibly, in refutation of the 
 assertion, that there is a logical necessity for stimulation to be followed by a 
 recoil equal in extent to the tirst elevation ; but we may save ourselves all 
 this trouble by declaring simply that, in fact ; no such recoil occurs. The 
 narcotic dose of alcohol, as will hereafter be shown, is alone responsible for 
 the symptons of depressive reaction. " 
 
 — " What depression is there as an after consequence, of a glass or 
 two of wine taken after dinner, or of a glass of beer taken at lunch by a 
 healthy man 1 What reaction from a teaspoonful of sal-volatile swallowed 
 by a person who feels somewhat faint ? What recoil from the stimulus of 
 heat applied in a hot bath, or of oxygen administered by Marshall Hall's 
 process, to a half-drowned maa 1 Absolutely none whatever. The visible 
 immediate results of these measures do, indeed, after a time, disappear, not 
 being exempt from the ordinary condition of temporal things ; so that, just 
 as food requires from time to time to be renewed, so does the oxygen which 
 has been artificially driven into the drowned man's thorax require to be re- 
 newed by his own respiratory efforts, when he has once recovered the power 
 to make any : and so does the glass of wine which we took to-day to relieve 
 our sense of fatigue require to be repeated to-morrow, when simiUar circum- 
 stances present themselves, as on that occasion." 
 
 — " I submit that it is more rational to regard the stimulant claas 
 of remedies as exerting a food action." 
 
 ON THE USE OF WINES IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 
 
 By Dr. Anstib, M.R.O.P. 
 
 — " It i% amon t the class of natural wines, averaging not more than 
 ten per cent of absolute alcohol, that we must seek the type of a universal 
 
—16-- 
 
 beverage for every day life. If we turn to the most recent analysis (the very 
 careful work of Dr. A. Dupre, of the Westminster Hoepital), we find two 
 kinds of wine which, as far as alcoholic strength is concerned, meet the ideal 
 want — viz : Rhine wine at 9^ per cent alcohol, and a claret at 8^ per cent. 
 Such wines are easily procurable, and we may say that we have in either of 
 them a beverage which, alone, or diluted with a certain amount of water, 
 would at oncn satiHfy all needs for liquids with the principal meals, and all 
 needs for alcohol, in the most convenient and agreeable way. A bottle a 
 day of either of these wines for an actively employed adult, and a proportion- 
 aly less quantity for those whose life is more sedentary, would very well 
 represent th< allowance of alcohol which may be said to suit best the stand- 
 ard of ordinary health. 
 
 — We maintain that for the hard working student, politician, 
 professional man, or busy merchant there is no better arrangement possible 
 than that of taking, as the regular daily allowance, a bottle of sound ordinary 
 wine of Bordeaux : and that the number of persons with whom such a diet 
 really di" ^ee« is very limited ; but on the latter point we shall have more 
 to say h.ieafter, in discussing the other ingredients of wines. It maybe 
 added that no other wines which the world produces are capable of yielding, 
 day after day, such unwearied pleasure to the palate as the sound ordinary 
 wines of Bordeaux and the Rhine. 
 
 — " We did not intend, when recommending the " hard-working 
 Student " to allow himself a bottle per diem of weak Bordeaux wine, to give 
 that recommendation to young lads. We were thinking of " hard-working 
 Students " of middle age ; and we would state our very hrm conviction, 
 that fur y(mths (say under twenty five) whose bodily frame is as yet not 
 fully consoli-^p.ted, the proper rule is, either no alcohol or very little indeed. 
 
 Still, there can be no question that to many rapidly growing lads an 
 amount of alcohol (preferably as beer) strictly limited to these latter quanti- 
 ties, is not only harmless but most actively useful." 
 
 THE MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH. 
 
 By Jakes Baird, B.A. 
 IVeale's Scientific Series. 
 
 — " The habitual use of ardent spirits is altogether to be deprecated, 
 even by non-teetotalers. When used, it should be in some emergency, when 
 they may serve a temporary purpose, but there the use of them should cease. 
 There is, and can be, no valid objection against the moderate use of pure or 
 light wines, nor yet against wholesome beers. They do no tempt to excess, 
 and they refresh and exhilarate. Brandied wines are open to the same 
 objections as ardent spirits in a rather less degree. They should be used 
 but sparingly." 
 
 WEALTH OF NATIONS. 
 
 By Adam Sihth. 
 
 — " The cheapness of wine seems to be a great cause not of drunk- 
 enness but of sobriety. The inhabitants of the wine countries are in general 
 the soberest people in Europe ; witness the Spaniards, the Italians and the 
 inhabitants of the southern provinces of France." 
 
— IG- 
 
 HEALTH EXHIBITION LITERATURE. 
 
 Lecture delivered bef<yre the Exhibition Committee, London, 1884- 
 
 DIET IN RELATION TO HEALTH AND WORK. 
 By Albxandkr Wimtkr Blyth, M.R.O.S., F.O.S, Etc. 
 
 — ' ' There is a moderate and immoderate use of all things. Certain 
 people acquire a habit of drinking enormous quantities of tea or coffee ; the 
 majority, like smokers of tobacco, are not preceptably aiTected by the habit ; 
 but a few fall into a dyspeptic nervous state, evidently due to excessive tea 
 drinking. " 
 
 WATER AND WATER SUPPLIES AND UNFER- 
 MENTED KEVERAGES. 
 
 Professor John kmriBLD, Ph.D., P.R.S. 
 
 —"Tea drinking to excess is only less harmful than alcoholid 
 drunkenness. " 
 
 SALT AND OTHER CONDIMENTS. 
 
 By T. T. Majiley, M.A. 
 
 — Speaking of condiments, he says, " the golden rule of moderation 
 — ne quid nimie should be observed in their use." 
 
 .—Speaking of salt in certain districts of Africa, he says. «* Men 
 will barter gold for it where it is scarce, and for it husbands will sell their 
 wives, and parents their children." 
 
 — •♦ The full title of Dr. Howard's work is • Salt, the Forbidden Fruit 
 or Food ; and the chief cause of diseases of the body and mind of man , and 
 of animals : as taught by the ancient Egyptian priests and wise men, and 
 by Scripture ; in accordance with the author's experience of many years." 
 It is not too much to say that the writer is a painful instance as to the length 
 people will go in perverting historical and other facts, and t6xts of scripture 
 when they have once become the subjects of a craze, and dubbed themselves 
 apostles of a movement. Unfortunately such extremities will ever be found 
 and the present age seems particularly prolific of them, whether the crusade 
 be against the use of animal food, of tnbacco, or of alcohol, or againbt vaccina- 
 tion. With such it is of little avHii to adduce facts or arguments, they 
 admit nothing which tells against their views : they contort and pervert 
 everything ; and tho ' Counterblast ' of King James ia their only type of 
 reasoning. 
 
-17- 
 
 — " In this matter of salt some few are indeed more temperate, and 
 state their views more moderately and intelligibly. Thus, for intitanoe, one 
 of the opponents of salt eating puts the case, though with no little miscon- 
 ception of physiological facts. ' We have' says he ' among us physiologists 
 of no mean standing,* who regard mineral salt as a poison, and as the pre- 
 disposing cause, therefore, of many ailments. It is true that in its passage 
 through the system salt remains unchanged, but this is only to say that it 
 exerts upon the subatances with which it is mingled in the system the anti- 
 septic qualities that it does outside the system. That is, to a greater or less 
 extent, it prevents the food from decomposing, and therefore from turning 
 into nourishment. It is for this reason that salt is, as it notoriously is, a 
 provocative of scurvy — a complaint which consists mainly in poverty of blood, 
 through lack of nourishment owing to the action of salt. It may be granted 
 that a diet of flesh requires a certain small amount of salt to retard the process 
 of digestion and assimilation which otherwise would be too rapid, flush not 
 being the natural diet of man, who, in all physiological respects, is a grain 
 and fruit-eating animal. But with our natural diet salt is worse than 
 superfluous, saving only for the fact that we have become so accustomed to 
 it that we do not like to do without it." ' 
 
 — " That such views are held by a certain number of persons in this 
 country may be admitted, and recently there seems to have been an attempt 
 to organize something in the way of an Anti-salt association, the members of 
 which were to abstain from salt themselves, and to endeavor to gain converts 
 to their opinions and practice. Some years ago there was established in New 
 York a Medici^^ College, the prime tenet ot which was abstention from salt." 
 
 PRACTICAL DIETETICS. 
 
 Pkofessor Feancis db Chaumont, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 — " I tried with a friend to see how long we could live on this 
 essence of meat, taken instead of ordinary albuminate food, on the supposition 
 that it was equally nutritious and after a very few days we were reduced to 
 a state of considerable inanition, and exceedingly bad temper, which was 
 immediately improved by the addition of a little more proper food, especially 
 a little butter." 
 
 iESTHETICAL USE OF WINE. 
 
 J. L. W. Thudichum, M.D., F.R.C.P. 
 
 — "Of all alcoholic drinks true wine, as we shall define it offers the 
 least opportunity or inducement to abuse. Natural wine may make dmnk, 
 but it never produces delirium tremens, it never produces those permanent 
 lesions of the tissues which are the consequences of excess in the use of 
 spirits and beer : whenever such effects are added as the result of wine, they 
 will be found to be due to wine plu» tpirita added thereto, particularly to those 
 fiery mixtures which under the name of sherry and port have done so much 
 to obsoure the real and beneficial qualities of wine.' 
 
—18— 
 
 R. A. WITTIIAUS, A.M., M.D. 
 
 Professor Chemistry anti Toxicology ^ University of Vermouth and of 
 Physiological Chemistry New York University. 
 
 — Referrin<j to champagnes and moselles, he says: "When properly 
 prepared they are agreeable to the palate and assist digestion ; when new, 
 however, they are liable to communicate their fermentation to the contents 
 of the stomach, and thus seriously disturb digestion." Of clarets and 
 hocks, he says : "They are particularly adapted to table use and as mild 
 stimulants, especially for those predisposed to gout." 
 
 ROBERT DUNGLESON, M.D. 
 
 Professor Medicine^ Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. 
 
 — " When wine is good and of a proper age it is tonic and nutritive ; when 
 new, flatulent and cathartic, disagreeing with the stomach and bowels. It 
 is perhaps the best permanent stimulus in the catalogue of the Materia 
 Medica." " Beers are nourishing." 
 
 THE NATIONAL DISPENSATORY, [PHIL'D. 1879]. 
 
 By Alfred Stille, M.D., LL.D,, Professor of Medicine, University of Penn- 
 sylvania, and John M. Maisch, Phar. D., Professor of Materia 
 Medica in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. 
 
 — " Experiments and observations made to determine the mode of action 
 ot alcohol in the economy have too generally referred to excessive doses 
 rather than to such as are employed in dietetics and medicine. Hc-nce 
 a dispute has arisen whether alcohol raises or depresses the animal tempera- 
 ture, when it is of daily experience that moderate doses augment the heat 
 and excessive doses diminish it. * # >;: The special effect depends 
 upon the dose and upon the time during which it has been operating." 
 
 — "The use of alcohol in every age and by every nation in the world 
 demonstrates that it satisfies a natural instinct, that it literally refreshes 
 the system exhausted by physical and mental labor, and that it not only 
 quickens the appetite for food, and aids in its digestion, but that it 
 spareb the digestive organs by limiting the amount of solid food which would 
 otherwise be required. But in accomplishing this salutary end, it does not 
 act as a mere condiment. It is also food, in the sense, at least, that it offers 
 itself in the blood as a substitute for the tissues which would otherwise be 
 destroyed." " Alcohol," says Moleschott, " is the savings bank of the tissues. 
 He who eats little and drinks alcohol in moderation retains as much in his 
 blood and tissues as he who eats more and drinks no alcohol." 
 
 — " It is certain that of any amount of alcohol ingested, not in excess 
 of what the system requires, only a minute fraction can be recovered from 
 any of the excretions ; the remainder undergoes metamorphosis." 
 
 — " The doctrine that alcohol is food is probably true, not only indirectly 
 by preventing tissue waste, but in the more liberal sense of its favoring 
 the formation of fatty products, especially by increasing tHe amount of 
 adipose tissue." 
 
 — " Habitual excesses, according to the form and quantity of the alco- 
 hol consumed, tfend to increase fat and diminish muscular tissue, and to 
 render the capillary blood vessels everywhere turgid, giving to the skin, 
 
—19— 
 
 especially to the face, a puffy and purplish look. The digestion becomes 
 impaired, the nervous system unsteady, the {,'ait loses its elasticity, the 
 hands yrow tremulous, the senses ilull, and the mind torpid ; the sleep is 
 broken, dreamy and unrefreshing. After unusual ex( esses delirium tremens 
 is apt to occur, and habitual drunkenness sooner or later in many cases 
 induces a state of chronic imbecility with partial paralysis. Fatty heart, 
 cirrhosed liver, and granular kidneys are frequently associated lesions, pro- 
 ducing fatal dropsy, especially if distilled liquors have been employed, while 
 gout is the more usual result of intemperance in wine." 
 
 — " It would be a gross error to conclude that a given quantity of 
 wine is equivalent to an equal quantity of water containing a like per- 
 centage of alcohol. The peculiar effects of a true wine depend upon its 
 ethereal and saline elements, its sugar, tannic acid, etc., which modify 
 materi.iUy those which would be produced by alcohol alone." 
 
 — " In France drunkenness, as it is known in this country and in the 
 north of Europe, was comparatively rare as long as wine and cider were 
 the only alcoholic beverages iu general use : but the vice has greatly ex- 
 tended of late years, and its increase has been mainly in the cider-drinking 
 departments where alcohol distilled from grain is largely used. In the 
 wine-growing districts where brandy of a less injurious quality is made the 
 use of the latter beverage is comparatively small, and in the departments 
 where wine is not produced the cases of drunkenness requirin;: legal action 
 are five times greater than in those which consume wines pi mcipally. In 
 like manner the proportion of cases of insanity originating in alcoholic 
 drinks is in direct proportion to the use of distilled spirits, and especially 
 of those which are not procured from wine." 
 
 — " Wine, including all forms of genuine wine, is essentially a stmiu- 
 lant of the nervous and circulatory systems, but its mode of stimu- 
 lation is quite unlike that of alcohol. In due proportions it gives to all the 
 faculties increased activity and freedom of action, quickening and brighten- 
 ing the intellect and imagination, warming the feelings, invigorating the 
 digestive powers and diffusing a cordial satisfaction throughout the whole 
 being. Distilled spirits on the other hand tend to benumb the faculties even 
 while stimulating them, so that they seem to be struggling under a brute 
 force." 
 
 — " In excessive doses the effects of wine more nearly resemble those 
 produced by distilled spirits, but even these are less extreme and debas- 
 ing. When indulged in beyond measure its mischievous influence 
 upon the health is less than that of alcohol, for while the latter tends 
 directly to occasion fatty degeneration of the heart, liver and kidneys, the 
 intemperate use of wine is more apt to engender gout, gravel and nervous 
 affections. Even these results are rarely attributable to some of the sorts of 
 wines that are most largely used, as the Rhenish, Bordeaux and most Italian 
 wines." 
 
 — " Its (wine's) habitual use is conducive to the health of those who 
 drink it in moderation." 
 
 —Referring to the medicinal use of wine in typhoid fever and febrile 
 affections, which assume the typhoid state, the authors say : " It is 
 true of wine as of distilled spirits, that the necessity for its use is often more 
 apparent than real, and that a premature and excessive use of it renders the 
 patients insensible to its operation when it has become essential to his 
 recovery. We have never had such good reason to be pleaed with the 
 results of treatment in typhoid fever as when in a large hospital service the 
 use of alcohol in this disease was almost wholly omitted. In typhus fever 
 enormous quantities have sometimes been administered with the most salu- 
 tary results." 
 
—20- 
 
 — •' Wine is often of essential utility in chronic afTcrtions which waste 
 the strength by profuse discharges, by pain, or by inducing anctmic 
 conditions." 
 
 CARL BINZ, M.D. 
 
 J'rofi'ssor of Pharmacology, University of Bonn, in Quains Dictionary 
 
 of Medicine. 
 
 -"There is scarcely any other therapeutic agent the internal action 
 of which varies so much accordin}^ to the dose }^iven." 
 
 — "In sn\a!l c|uantity and sli<,'htly diluted with water alcohol promotes 
 the functional activity of the stomach, the heart and the brain; whilst 
 a like (juaiuity largely diluted exerts but a limited influence upon these 
 organs ; if, however, the dose of alcohol be often repeated, it is readily 
 asVimiiatcfl, and becoming diffused throughout the system, undergoes com- 
 bustion within the tissues of the body, imparts warmth to them, and yields 
 vital force for the performance of their various functions. Simultaneously 
 with this consumption of alcohol the body of the consumer is often observed 
 to gain in fat, a circumstance due to simple accumulation, the fat furnished 
 by ihe food remaining uuburned in the tissues, because the more combustible 
 aUoliol furnishes the warmth required, leaving no necessity for the adipose 
 hydrocarbon fo be used for that purpose. A quantity of loo cubic centi- 
 meters of alcohol per diem (about three and a half fluid ounces) equivalent 
 to about one litre of Rhine wine of medium strength, is sufficient to supply 
 between one-third and one-quarter the whole amount of warmth requisite 
 for the human body during the twenty-four hours. The warmth so supplied 
 cannot be measured by a thermometer, however, any more than can that 
 furnished by the internal combustion of other hydrocarbons such as oils or 
 sugars." 
 
 — "Under ordinary circumstances and after the consump'ion of moder- 
 ate quantities of alcohol only slight traces of it are to be detected in 
 the wine, and none whatever in the breath. Pure alcohol imparts no taint 
 to the exhalations of the body : the ethers of fusil oil on the other hand do 
 so by reason of their being so readily combustible." 
 
 — "There can be no doubt but that a healthy organism supplied with 
 sufficient food, is capable of performing all its functions without requir- 
 ing any especially combustible material for the generation of heat and 
 the development of vital force. But the case assumes a different aspect 
 when in sickness it transpires that while the metamorphosis of tissue goes 
 on with its usual activity, or with increased energy, as happens in many 
 diseases, the stomach refusing to digest ordinary foods fails to supply 
 material to compensate its waste. Here it is then, that a material that can 
 be readily assimilated by the system, and which by its superior combusti- 
 bility spares the sacrifice of animal tissue, is especially called for, and such 
 a m.iterial we have in alcohol. Small, but oft repeated doses of alcohol, 
 largely diluted with water, are generally well tolerated by the weakest 
 stomach, and thus given its absorption and oxidation go on without 
 difficulty on the part of the patient's system." 
 
 — "According to the experiments of Dr. Frankland and others the 
 burning of one gramme of alcohol yields sufficient heat to raise the 
 temperature of seven litres of water one degree centigrade, and the burning 
 of one gramme of cod liver oil suffices for nine litres. Now in taking three 
 tablespoon fuls of the oil daily we yield about the same amount of warmth 
 to the body as is given by four tablespoonfuls of absolute alcohol. The oil, 
 however, is digested and oxidized by the organs of the body with difficulty 
 
—21— 
 
 while for tt.^ assimilation of the alcohol scarcely any exertion of the work- 
 ing cells is required." 
 
 — " In this sense alcohol is a food^ for we must regard as food not 
 only the building material, but all substances which by their combustion in 
 the tissues afford warmth to the animal organism, and oy so doing contriUute 
 towards the production of vital force and keep up the powers of endurance." 
 
 — " In such cases ( such as where in acute or chronic troubles 
 where the digestive organs refuse to tolerate more substantial nourishment, 
 at least in quantities that would answer the necessities of the case) it is cer- 
 tainly not sufficient to call alcohol merely a stimulant. If alcohol here 
 served merely in the quality of a stimulant its effects would soon pass away, 
 leaving the patient more exhausted than ever, for the human organism is so 
 constituted that it cannot be driven to perform its functions by the applica- 
 tion of mejisures that simply stimulate without supplying some new force to 
 take the place of that put forth by the organs of the body under the impulse 
 of excitement." 
 
 — " For general use a pure claret, hock or niosel are the prepara- 
 tions mostly to be recommended." 
 
 — " Amyl alcohol is the agent, to the presence of which, the extremely 
 poisonous action of many drinks upon the nerves and other organs 
 is due. All distilled liquors made from other sounes than from 
 grapes contain it to a greater or le3£ extent." 
 
 J. PEARSON IRVING, Ph. D. 
 
 Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at Charing Cross Hospital. Qiniin's 
 Dictionary of Medicine. 
 
 — "Food and drink can, by their abuse, excite disease, and ghiitony 
 is as powerful an excitant as drunkenness, though in temperance outcries this 
 fact is completely lost sight of." 
 
 CHAMBERS" ENCYCLOPCEDIA. 
 
 (Articles on Diet, Beer, Wine, ^c.) 
 
 — "From three series of observations mnde upon himself, Dr. Ham- 
 mond arrives at the conclusion that "alcohol increases the weight of 
 the body by retarding the metamorphosis of the old and proinotin.L,'^ the 
 formation of new tissue, and limitin^^ the consumption of fit." The respira- 
 tory and urinary excretions and the f;eces were invariably dinlini^^hed. 
 These effects, occurring when the amount of food was below the quantity 
 required to maintain thj weight of the body, were productive of no deleterious 
 effect on the system, but when the food was sufficient to balance the wei};hl 
 from the excretions, and still more, when an excess of aliment over the 
 demands of the system was ingested, the health was disturbed and disease 
 almost induced. 
 
 —Hence the laboring man, who can hardly find bread and meat enoMgh 
 to preserve the balance between the formation and decay of his tissues, finds 
 in alcohol an agent, which, if taken in moderation, enables him, without 
 disturbing his health, to dispense with a certain quantity of food, and yet 
 keep up the weight and strength of his body. On the other hand he who 
 uses alcohol when his food is more than sufficient to supply the waste of the 
 
--2i-- 
 
 tissues, and at the same time does not increase the amount of his physical 
 exercise, or drink an addilionril ciiiantity of water (by which the decay of 
 tissue would be accelerated) retards the metamorphosis while an increased 
 amount of nutriment is being assinnhtted, and thus adds to the plethoric 
 condition of the system which excessive food has a tendency to produce. 
 # * # " 'Pea and coffee are usually believed to have a somewhat 
 similar effect to that which, as we have shown, is produced by alcohol and 
 tobacco. The power of tea in arresting the waste of tissues has, however, 
 recently been called in question." 
 
 — " Considered dietetically," says Dr Pereira, " beer possess2S a 
 threefold property ; it quenches thirst ; it stimulates, cheers, and if taken in 
 sufficient quantity it intoxicates ; and lastly, it nourishes or strengthens. 
 ■-•= * * From these combined cpialities beer proves a refreshing and 
 salubrious drink (if taken in moderation) and an agreeable and valuable 
 stimulus and support to those who have to undergo much bodily fatigue." — 
 [Article on Food and Dttnk.^ 
 
 — '"Wine is our most valuable restorative when the powers of the 
 body and mind have been overtaxed." — yjbid] 
 
 — " It may be laid down as a genem rule that the use of wine, 
 even in moderate quantity, is not necessary for young or adult persons 
 enjoying good average health, breathing fresh country air, and rot exposed 
 to overwork, or any other abnormal depressing agency. As, however, life 
 advances, and the circulation becomes languid, wine in moderation becomes 
 an essential, or, at all events, a valuable article of food, and even in early 
 life the physician meets large numbers of townspeople, especially women, 
 engaged in sedentary occupations, who cannot digest the national drink, 
 beer, which is admirably suited to our out-door laboring population, and to 
 persons of higher life who indulge freely in open-air exercise. In such cases 
 the beer is replaced by the more grateful beverage, tea, which, however, 
 when taken too freely, and without sufficient food, often gives rise to a fo-m 
 of distressing dyspepsia, ivhich too often impels the sufferer to seek refuge in 
 spirits. In many such cases cheap wine, which may be purchased under the 
 new tar' 'I at from is. 6d. to 2s. a bottle, mixed with an equal quantity of 
 w.iif-r. will be found aii excellent substitute for the beer or tea." — [Article oti 
 Wine."] 
 
 -■* The distinctive elements of wine," says Dr. Druitt, are to be 
 had in abundance in cheap Bordeaux, Burgundy, and other Frc.ich wines ; 
 in Rhine wine ; in the Hungarian, Austrian and some Greek wines ; and in 
 all with a natural and not injurious quantity of spirit. In prescribing pufe 
 «V«^.r, viz., light, natural, virgin wine, the practitioner has a perfectlynew 
 article of both diet and medicine in his hands." — [^Article on JVine.] 
 
 — " In cases of debility and indigestion, snoh wine as we are now 
 considering, diluted with cold water may often be freely prescribed with great 
 advantage in place of tea at breakfast as well as luncheon or dinner or sup- 
 per. — [Article on IVine.] 
 
 — " The best of cheap wines are those of Bordeaux ; they are pure, 
 lighv and exhilarating, moderately strong, seldom containing lo per 
 cent, of alcohol : free from sugar and other materials likely to induce gout 
 or headache ; and are admirably adapted, according to Dr. Druitt (who 
 has experimented largely on them) for children with capricious and bad 
 appetites, for literary persons, and for all whose occupations are chiefly car- 
 ried v)n indoors, and which tax the brain more than the muscle." — [Article 
 on IP'ine.] 
 
—28— 
 
 TREATISE ON FOOD AND DIET. 
 
 BY 
 
 JONATHAN PEREIRA, M.D., F.R.S., L.S. 
 
 — " In case of extreme suffering and exhaustion from excessive exertion, 
 and privation of lood, the cautious and moderate dieletical use of spirit 
 has, on many occasions, proved invaluable.'' * 
 
 — " The practice of taking a moderate quantity of mild malt liquor, 
 of sound quality, at dinner, is, in general, not only unobjectionable, 
 but benclicial. It is especially suited to those who lead an active life, and 
 are engaged in laborious pursuits." 
 
 REPORT ON ENDOSMOSIS. 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. JULIUS VOGEL, M.D., Ph. D. 
 
 — " If alcohol be diflfased with watery fluids through animal mem- 
 brances, only a small portion of the spirit will pass to the water, while a 
 great deal of the latter will go over to the spirit. This evidently indicates 
 that spirits of wine, when taken into the stomach in a highly concentrated 
 condition, can only reach the blood slowly, and in a diluted state. Thus, 
 the spirit cannot possibly retain its usur.l action of coagulating albumen, 
 after it has entereu the blood of the living organism." — \_Works of the 
 Cavendish Society j Chem. Reports and Me/nos.'] 
 
 NAVAL HYGIENE. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. ALBERT L. GIHON, A.M., M.D., Surgeon U.S.N. 
 
 (Philadelphia, 187 j. ) 
 
 — "Ihe usefulness of tea, coflfee, and alcohol in the form of wine, 
 beer, or whiskey, as food-stimuli or accessory food has been satisfactorily 
 established by Anstie, Lankester and others. * * * * The fright- 
 ful consequence of intemperate indul'^ence in alcoholic liquors have resulted 
 in the abolition of the spirit portion of the ration. If the substitution ot a 
 pint of beer cr half a pint of wine could have been effected Uiere is no doubt 
 of the propriety and benefit of its issue. 
 
 STATE MEDICINE. 
 
 BY 
 
 DE. CHAUMONT, M.D. 
 
 --"No single nutritious principle whether nitrogenous or carboniferous, 
 can support life, except for a very short time." 
 
 ---"Alcohol can be dispensed with by many persons, and might be 
 so by more with advantage. At the same time, in moderation I think it 
 
—24— 
 
 useful. It ought, however, to be taken considerably diluted, and not in 
 greater quantity habitually than can be destroyed by oxidation in the system. 
 This is on an average from one to two ounces of absolute alcohol in the 
 twenty-four hours, representing one or two pints of beer, or half a pint to a 
 pint of claret, or two to four glasses of sherry, or one or two glasses of 
 brandy. It ought to be taken with meals, generally with the fullest meal, or 
 quite at the end of the day. Occasion may arise for abstinence for one or 
 more days, just as is the case with foods." 
 
 POPULAR LECTURES ON FOOD. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. LANK^:STER. 
 
 — " The only remedies that can rationally be employed as medicines 
 are those which act as food on the system." 
 
 — " It becomes a matter of serious consideration for those who would 
 put down both drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco, as to whether it 
 might not lead to the objectionable habit — eating opium." 
 
 — " We take alcohol as food, just as we adminiser sal-volatile, cam- 
 phor, and other drugs as medicines. Medicine and food are more nearly 
 allied to each other than most people think, and medicines are constantly 
 administered from a dietetical point of view." 
 
 — " Then in regard to the beverages we take, such as tea, coffee, etc.. 
 we find that the greater portion is water, even in regard to beer, taking 
 table beer, which, by the bye, is much the best for ordinary drinking." 
 
 PARKES' PRACTICAL HYGIENE. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND A. PARKES, M.D., F.R.S., 
 
 EMERITUS PROFESSOR CLINICAL MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY COL., LONDON. 
 
 Edited by De Chauvtont. 
 
 — " When alcohol is given to healthy animals in full but ' t exces- 
 sive doses the temperature of the body falls. This seems to be i . yn con- 
 clusively by the experiments of Ringer, Eichards, Richardson, Binz, Amy, 
 Bouvier and Ruge. In healthy men who have been accustomed to 
 take alcohol in moderate quantities the results are rather contradictory. In 
 a man accustomed to take alcohol Ringer could find no change ; in two 
 men, temperate, but accustomed to take beer and sometimes spirits, I could 
 not detect any raising or lowering of the thermometer either in the axilla or 
 rectum. De Mainzer found no fall of temperature on himself, but a slight 
 fall in another healthy person. .'Some experiments by Obernier and Fokker 
 are also quite negative. On the other hand Ringer, Binz and Bouvier noticed 
 in some healthy persons a decrease of ten.perature, and though some of 
 these experiments are evidently rather inaccurate, and though the fall of 
 temperature was inconsiderable, it is difficult to refuse belief that in some 
 cases there may be a slight depression of temperature. . . . We may 
 conclude that the effect of moderate doses on temperature in healthy men is 
 extremely blight ; there is no increase, and in many persons no decrease." 
 
 — ''There is every reason to discourage the use of spirits, and to 
 
—26- 
 
 let beer and wines, with moderate alcoholic power take their place . . . 
 because it is so easy to take them (ardent spirits) undiluted, and thus to in 
 crease the chance of damaging the structure and nutrition of the albuminous 
 structures with which they first come into contact." 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY FOR PRACTICAL USE. 
 DR. JAMES HINTON, M.D. 
 
 (London, 1874.) 
 
 Dr. Hinton is the well known aural surgeon of London, and a well 
 known medical writer. The work which we quote is from a compilation of 
 papers originally published in the People's Magazine. 
 
 — " Can alcohol fail to be a food when in states of habitual intem- 
 perance, in diseased conditions of the body, as in fever, a man lives 
 somv.times for many days together upc .1 spirit and water alone ? Surely 
 that thing is rightly called a food upon which life can be maintained." 
 
 — " Part of it, (alcohol) we know, is carried off through the alimentary 
 canal as waste,' is never therefore taken up into the blood at all ; 
 but the greatest part by far is absorbed into the circulation. Of this a por- 
 tion is exhaled, a portion also is excreted by the channels above mentioned, 
 (sweat-glands and kidneys), but a portion, and this a large one too, we be- 
 lieve, is broken up into water and carbonic acid, and thus consumed, as 
 Liebig originally surmised, either in the blood, by the action of the red 
 cells, or in the liver, or in the nutrient changes in the interstitial tissues of 
 the body, perhaps in each and all of these places ; or if not thus consumed, 
 it is converted into fat, and thus appropriated to the uses of the economy." 
 
 — *' Two physiological effects, distinct and opposite, have been attri- 
 buted to alcohol — an early stimulant, a later depressant action. To ex- 
 plain these, several theories have been mooted. All excitation, it was said, 
 means more rapid oxidation, quicker consumption of nutrition, greater 
 wear and tear of tissue ; if the heart's action be quickened by the stimula- 
 tion of alcohol, this organ must shortly suffer fatigue, the circulation will 
 then become retarded, and the sense of depression be felt. Similarly of the 
 nervous system it was affirmed, exhilaratioii means what our American cou- 
 sins call rapid brain-functioning, living too fast for repair ; for the nutritive 
 processes require time and cannot be carried on so quickly as the expendi- 
 ture of f-'rce." 
 
 — " There is something true in the theory thus enunciated, and framed 
 no doubt to meet the occasion. Fatigue does follow over-exertion of 
 mind or muscle, and is evidence that the processes of repair have not 
 taken place so quickly as those of destruction. But the idea that life and 
 energy are antagonistic things involves fundamental error, Energy, or the 
 manifestation of pov _r, the conversion of force into action, involves no ex- 
 penditure of life or loss of power. Thinking, or lifting a weight is but a 
 function of tissues provided to issue thoughts or actions. The tissues do 
 not suffer by reason of employment, so long as their nutrition is maintained. 
 Brain and muscle can be very faitiy likened to machinery, instinct with life 
 but requiring nourishment, as the engine needs fire and water in order to be 
 put in motion. Both require food in order to perform their functions, but 
 there is this difference between them : The engme may lie by and not suf- 
 
—26— 
 
 fer, but the nutrition of brain and muscle is requisite tb >t they may live; 
 and perfect nutrition, the appropriation of what is needfui, the removal of 
 what is harmful, cannot be maintained unless the organs themselves be 
 exercised." 
 
 — " The employment of his mind or of his hands does not wear out 
 the life of a man, except the work be performed under conditions for 
 which the machinery was never constructed. The human body was made 
 for labor, and parts which are not employed very quickly degenerate ; indeed, 
 we believe more men v^t^ar out through indolence, than through strain of 
 overwork." 
 
 — " But to revert, The temporary exhilaration conferred by alcohol 
 is termed its stimulant effect ; a sense of well-being is diffused all 
 over the body by the greater fulness of the blood-vessels, and a more 
 equable distribution of animal-heat. Nor is this sense of comfort followed 
 of necessity by any depression, so long as the alcohol has not been taken in 
 excess J if however, it accumulate to any extent in the blood, the ne us 
 tissue suffers impaired nutrition and exhibits its fatigue by mal-functi mg." 
 
 — " As we ghall hereafter have occasion to insist, alcohol cannot 
 be called anything else but a food, for it contains elements by which the 
 body can be sustained, but it is not difficult to show that it is a dangerous 
 food, and one that should be very sparingly employed." * 
 
 — " But it is not merely for its stimulant effects that he (the 
 physician) prescribes, and allows the sparing and careful employment of 
 alcohol-containing liquors — nearly all of them contain other nitrogenous 
 principles as well as alcohol, and are strictly food, with just that amount of 
 stimulant combined with them which makes digestion easy and nutrition 
 more complete. The man who gives up taking beer or wine with 
 
 his food can maintain himself quite as well without them, but he will eat 
 more bread, more meat, more vegetables, and he will require more time for 
 his meals, being able to exert himself neither quite so quickly or so vie^orously 
 after them.'" 
 
 — " One, at least, amongst the many risks attached to feimented liquors, 
 as adjuncts to other food, is their quick assimilation, th>jir very easy 
 appropriation by the body, and the facility with which '.hey staunch the 
 sense of hunger. Thus they are employed often to save time, which a more 
 solid meal would require in consumption ; and the principal meal of the 
 day, which can never be dispensed with if health is to be consulted, is post- 
 poned until the evening when the body is fatigued, and requires reposo 
 rather than food, and certainly rest before ta' .ng it." 
 
 —"AH foods are stimulants, and all stimulants are foods, and the 
 distinction drawn between them is not merely fanciful but strictly untrue ; 
 furthermore, we might inculcate a doctrine that we are well aware every 
 physiologist would endorse : that any food taken in excessive quantity is a 
 poison, that is, acts prejudicially to health, and disturbs and damages the 
 body." 
 
 -;-" Those who inherit an unstable mental equilibrium, irritable, 
 excitable persons, and epileptics, should abstain from alcohol as rigorously 
 as from very poison. Contrariwise, the lymphatic, the over-large, pale, 
 apathetic persons find good wine and beer, not only their best medicine, but 
 a useful adjunct to their dietaries." 
 
—27— 
 
 PROF. MOLESCHOTT. 
 (From Circle of the Sciences— Article on Chemistry.) 
 
 " Tea and coffee excite the .activity of the brain and the nerves. Tea 
 increases the power of digesting the impressions we have received : we 
 become disposed for thoughtful meditation, and in spite of the movements 
 of thought, the attention can be more easily fixed upon a certain object : a 
 sensation of comfort and cheerfulness ensues, and the creative activity of the 
 brain is set in motion ; through the greater collectedness and the more 
 closely confined attention, the thoughts are not so apt to def.'enerate into 
 desultoriness. Educated persons will assemble to tea for tie purpose of 
 investigating a certain subject by a regular conversation, and the higher 
 spirits produced by the tea tend to secure with more facility a successful 
 result," 
 
 — " If tea be taken in excess an increased irritability of the nerves takes 
 place, characterized by sleeplessness, by a general feeling of restlessness, with 
 trembling of the limbs ; spasmodic attacks even, in the cardiac region, may 
 arise. The volatile oil of the tea produces heaviness in the head, and in 
 fact, a real tea intoxication, first manifesting itself in dizziness, and finally 
 in stupefaction, takes place. Green tea, which contains much more of the 
 volatile oil than black, produces these obnoxious effects in a far higher degiee 
 than the latter." 
 
 — " Coffee acts also on the reasoning faculty, but communicates to the 
 imagination a much higher degree of liveliness. Susceptibility to sensuous 
 impressions is intensified by coffee ; the faculty of observation is therefore 
 increased, while that of judgment is sharpened, and the enlivened imagination 
 causes the perceptions more quickly to adopt certain forms : an activity of 
 thoughts and ideas is manifested ; a mobility and ardour of wishes and 
 ideals which are more favorable to the shaping and combination of already 
 premeditated ideas, than to a calm examination of newly originated 
 thoughts." 
 
 — ''Coffee, taken in excess, causes sleeplessness and a state of excitement 
 similar to intoxication, in which images, thoughts and wishes rapidly succeed 
 each other. A sensation of restlessness and heat ensues, together with 
 anxiety and dizziness, trembling of the limbs and a strong desire to go into 
 the open air. Fresh air is commonly the best means of throwing off this 
 condition, which whilst it continues exercises a really consum ng power over 
 man." 
 
 — " In Constantinople," says Prof Moleschott, " the coffee houses 
 alarmed the authorities and were closed." " In the seventeenth century, the 
 coffee houses in London had a similar fale." 
 
 — " Spirituous liquors stimulate the imagination in pa'ticular. In conse- 
 quence of this faculty the association of ideas is facilitated and ilvj memory 
 sharpened. The susceptibility of the senses is also rendered more keen, 
 the impressions are quickly and distinctly perceived. The jur' icut is 
 formed with greater ease, as from the lively idea and tlie excited memory, 
 the facts from which it is derived are brought nearer together. Hence a 
 frequent and surprising clearness and precision of judgment in matteis not 
 requiring a long end close examination. We speak foreign languages with 
 more than usual adroitness. The facilitated movements of thought, the 
 versatility of ideas, are associated with greater ease in the movement of 
 all the voluntary muscles ; the voice becomes fuller and stronger ; the 
 weariness and relaxation following the exertions of the body vanish. Thus 
 arises a feeling of comfort and delight, of increased strength and freshly 
 
—28— 
 
 armed courage ; scaring away ill-humor, sorrow or fear. The affairs of 
 others find a greater sympathy and forbearance." 
 
 — " When wine or other spirituous liquors are taken in excess, halluci- 
 nations of the senses ensue ; objects appear to the intoxicated person 
 obliterated, blurred or double, &c. At the same time the imagination pro- 
 duces uncertain, variegated, unsteady images, combined without regularity ; 
 the memory refuses its functions in the very act of speaking ; the intoxicated 
 man forgets what he intended to say, and thus the judgment is troubled and 
 confused. Then follow the ebullitions of an unjust passion and a sensibility 
 to opposition, which is so much the oftener irritated as the disturbed action 
 of the brain, over-loaded with alcohol, impairs the correctness of the judg- 
 ment. Excessive indulgence in wine and all other spirituous liquors 
 causes sleep ; if increased to a complete ' toxication the mental functions 
 are disturbed to such a degree that a condition of temporary insanity super- 
 venes ; the senses become blunted, the imagination produces the most 
 various and irregular images which the judgment is unable to examine, 
 distinguish or combine ; all self-possession vanishes, at length even 
 consciousness is lost, the intoxicated man becomes giddy and finally falls 
 into a profound slumber." 
 
 — " But before this, a sensation of lassitude and exhaustion arises, the 
 muscles lose their elasticity, the features become flabby, the angles of the 
 mouth widen, &c., and even the respiratory muscles are weakened, the 
 pulse becomes languid and slow." 
 
 — "Tea and coffee, though of themselves not difficult of digestion, tend to 
 disturb the digestion of albuminous substances by precipitating them from 
 their dissolved state. Milk, therefore, if mixed with tea or coffee is more 
 difficult of digestion than if taken alone. No Italian takes cream with his 
 coffee after dinner. * * Theine is excreted again as urea with sur- 
 prising rapidity." 
 
 — "A good beer is as nutritious as fruit." 
 
 — "Alcohol may be considered a savings box of the tissues. He who eats 
 little and drinks a moderate quantity of spirit retains as much in the blood 
 and tissues as a person who eats proportionately more without dr'.nking any 
 beer, wine or spirits." 
 
 — " It would be cruelty to deprive the working man who earnfi his frugal 
 meal by the sweat of his brow of those means by which he is enabled to 
 prolong the nourishment yielded by his scanty food." 
 
 — " Fermented liquors, taken in moderation, increase the secretion of the 
 •digestive juices and promote the solution of the food. Taken in excess 
 they cause induration of the stomach, which destroys together with the 
 digestive powers, the formation of blood." 
 
 — " Sugar is useful to the stomach if it do not by being taken in excess 
 produce too great a quantity of lactic acid." 
 
 — "That which renders vmegar so favorite an addition to food is a peculiar 
 acid, consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, formed from alcohol by the 
 absorption of an additional quantity of oxygen. "-■' * In a majority 
 of cases the use of vinegar is founded on good reasons. * * Beverages 
 contftiniig vinegar have a dissolving effect on the blood and are cooling. 
 * * Vinegar assists digestion. * * In excess it produces 
 ■dangerous and deeply rooting diseases." 
 
 — " Large drau^^hts cf water (at meals) vould be most injurious with 
 aliments difficult of digestion, like the fats. * * but in countries 
 
 where soup does not constitute a regular par^ of the meal, drinkmg water is 
 positively to be recommended." 
 
 — " Beer and wine at dinner are hurtful only if taken in excess ; for in the 
 latter case the alcohol coagulates the albuminous substances, not only of 
 
—20— 
 
 the food, but also of the digestive fluid, and thus disturbs digestion. If taken 
 in moderate quantity such beverages are calculated to make the meal hold 
 out longer : for the fact that we are not so soon hungry again after taking a 
 meal with wine, than if we have taken only water with it, is to be accounted 
 for by the slower combustion of the constituents of our body, because the 
 alcohol we have imbibed takes possession of the inhaled oxygen. Hence 
 wine with a meal is extremely useful when a long journey or work in hand 
 renders it impossible to take food again at the usual time ; so much the 
 more so, as such detention from food itself usually causes an acceleration of 
 the metamorphosis of the tissues which beer and wine efficiently obviate." 
 
 — " If man eat more than he excretes the tissues become overloaded, 
 which endangers their activity as much as the impoverishment of the blood 
 and the consequent defective nutrition could do ; fat is collected which the 
 oxygen does not consume, and the albuminous sr stances with the salts 
 assume a fixity which at once enfeebles the intellect and destroys the plea- 
 sure of thinking, while it diminishes the strength of the muscles, etc." 
 
 — " Vehement, passionate natures become still more ardent from partak- 
 ing of game, heavy bread, leguminous seeds or any considerable quantity of 
 beer, wine or spirits, coffee or tea. By these more stimulating aliments the 
 circulation is accelerated, etc." 
 
 — " Fruit and vegetables with lemonade and similar drinks are more 
 advantageous for irritable constitutions than spirituous and aromatic bever- 
 ages The latter are more appropriate to persons whose activity of brain is 
 disproportionately great, while their weak digestive organs, their slow for- 
 mation of blood and nutrition, occasion a disposition to melancholy. Su^h 
 persons require a stimulating diet." 
 
 — " Wines taken in moderate quantity ♦ * accelerate digestion. 
 * * They produce a greater uniformity in the functions of the differ- 
 ent organs, and thus exercise a beneficial influence upon disposition and 
 character." 
 
 — "Where slight irritability is united with flabby muscles, a pale, flaccid, 
 puflTy skin, etc., as in phlegmatic persons, a nutritious animal diet is to be 
 combined with strong spice strong beer and wine ; vegetable aliments, 
 especially roots containing much starch and sugar, must be avoided by all 
 such." 
 
 — "A good beer partakes in all the advantages of the alcoholic beverages, 
 and at the same time usefully quenches the thirst by its more abundant 
 amount of water. Hence this beverage is particularly adapted to satisfy the 
 frequent thirst caused by bodily exertion : it is therefore a laudable custom 
 to refresh artizans who have to work h: id, in morning and afternoon, with a 
 glass of ale. This beverage by its proportionate amount of albumen, which 
 is equal to that of fruit, supplies even a direct substitute for food." 
 
 — "The regular increase in the consumption of alcohol, corresponding to 
 the nature of the climate, cannot but suggest the existence of some valid 
 reason for this popular custom, which has been completly confirmed by scien- 
 tific investigation. The alcohol which has been taken, is a new source of 
 the development of warmth, by which on the one hand, the food is more 
 slowly consumed ; and on the other, the cushion of fat under the skin which 
 is a bad conductor of heat, and sufficiently protects the system against 
 extreme cold, is kept from wasting. 
 
 — " Inasmuch as man is formed by all the circumstances conjointly, the 
 influence of which upon diet we have endeavored to descibe, the rules given 
 must be separately considered. The nature of man i the product, or 
 rather the sum of all those e.^^cts of parentage and country, age and sex, 
 position and habits, * * whK we have referred to. It is for the reader 
 to determine the choice of food, according to individual influence, bearing 
 
-80— 
 
 in mind that other circumstances to which we have not alluded still remain 
 for consideration. These combinations of circumstances are nearly as 
 numerous as the men themselves, and it must be left to the judgment of the 
 individual to accommodate his diet to his own particular case. 
 
 — "Only one point is of the highest value m daily life: intemperance may 
 become the source of the various diseases. This atfirmation in its widest 
 sense bears on the use of aliments of every description." 
 
 — ''The predilf^ction for cooling beverages at this season (summer) has a 
 perfectly rational basis, as the heat frequently produces palpitations, while 
 the less rapid decomposition of the tissues which is peculiar to the warm 
 seaso n, retards the transformation of blood. Cooling and diluting beverages 
 containing vinegar, currant juice, raspberry vinegar and water, operate 
 against this retardation ; but the palpitations are only increased by heating 
 beverages and spices. An allowance of spirituous liquors, is, therefore, 
 doubly injurious m summer, for the alcohol deprives the constituents of the 
 body of inhaled oxygen which is necessary for this decomposition, and also 
 for the animation of the corporeal functions. For this reason the 1 ghter 
 sorts only of beer and wine ought to be chosen. It is also important to be 
 moderate in the use of heating spices, or to allow them only where a certain 
 excitement of the digestive activity within the limits of health is wished for." 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY OF COMMON LIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 G. H. LEWES. 
 
 — " In compliance with the dictates of physiology, and let me add, in 
 compliance also with the custom of physiologists, we are forced to call 
 alcohol food, and very efficient food, too. It it be not food, then neither is 
 sugar food, nor starch, nor any of those manifold substances employed 
 by man which do not enter into the composition of his tissues. That it pro- 
 duces poisonous effects when concentrated and taken in large doses is per- 
 fectly true ; but that similar effects follow when taken in small doses is 
 manifestly false, as proved by daily experience." 
 
 — " Every person practically acquainted with the subject knows that 
 concentrated alcohol has, among other effects, that of depriving the mucus 
 membrane of the stomach of all its water, i.e., of hardening it and destroying 
 its powers of secretion ; whereas diluted alcohol does nothing of the kind, 
 but increases the secretion by the stimulus it gives to the circulation." 
 
 — " He (Bardleben) found that forty-five grains of common salt introduced 
 at once into the stomach through an opening occasioned a secretion of 
 mucus, followed by vomitings ; whereas five times that amount of salt in 
 solution produced neither of these effects. The explanation is simple and 
 would be understood by any one who has seen the salt which was sprinkled 
 over a round of beef converted into brine, owing to the attraction exercised 
 by the salt on the water in the beef : this attraction is incalculably smaller 
 when the salt is in solution and the salt already saturated." 
 
 — " We might multiply examples of the differences which result from the 
 use of concentrated a-\d diluted agents, or from differences in the quantities 
 employed ; as when a certain amount of acid assists digestion, but if in- 
 creased, arrests it. But the demonstration of such a position is unnect "sary, 
 since no well informed physiologist will deny it." 
 
 — "Men take their pint of beer, or pint of wine daily for a number of 
 years. This dose daily produces its effect ; and if at any time thirst or 
 
—81— 
 
 social seduction makes them drink a quart instead of a pint, tliey are at once 
 made aware of the excess," 
 
 — " We know what a stimulant tea is ; we know that treble the amount of 
 our daily consumption would soon produce paralysis — why are we not 
 irresistibly led to this fatal excess. 
 
 — " Alcohol replaces a certain amount of ordinary food. Liebig tells us 
 that in temperance families where beer was withheld and money given in 
 compensation, it was soon found that the monthly consumption of bread was 
 so strikingly increased that the beer was twice paid for — once in money and 
 a second time in bread. He also reports the experience of the landlord of 
 the Hotel de Russie, at Frankfort, during the Peace Congress ; the members 
 of this congress were mostly teetotallers and regular deficiency was observed 
 every day in certain dishes, especially farinaceous dishes, puddings, etc. So 
 unheard of a deficiency in an establishment where for years the amount of 
 dishes for a given number of persons had so well been known excited the 
 landlord's astonishment. It was found that men made up in pudding what 
 they neglected in wine?" 
 
 F. W. PAVY, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ; PHYSICIAN TO AND 
 LECTURER ON PHYSIOLOGY AT GUY'S HOSPITAL. 
 
 From Pavys Treatise on Food and Dietetics, 2nd Ed. Wood, N, Y., 1881. 
 
 — Referring to Dr. Anstie's experiments (1874) which completely sustained 
 the conclusions of Dupre, Thudichum, Schulinus and Baudot against the 
 errors of Lallemand and Dr. Smith, regarding the elimination of alcohol 
 unchanged. Dr. Pavy says : — 
 
 — " Evidence is there advanced which shows that only a fractional propor- 
 tion of the alcohot ingested is eliminated through the various channels of exit 
 from the body. * * An experiment is related in which, after the adminis- 
 tration of Bordeaux wine to six persons in sufficient quantity to produce in- 
 toxication, not more than one per cent, of the alcohol ingested could be re- 
 covered by distillation from the samples of urine." 
 
 — " From a review of the evidence as it now stands, it may reasonably be 
 inferred that there is sufficient before us to justify the conclusion that the 
 main portion of the alcohol ingested becomes destroyed within the system, 
 and if this is the case, it may fairly be assumed that the destruction is at- 
 tended with oxidation and a corresponding liberation of force, unless indeed, 
 it should undergo metamorphosis into a principle to be temporarily retained, 
 but nevertheless, ultimately applied to force production." 
 
 — " It appears that about one seventh of the habitual energy — capacity for 
 force production — belonging to nitrogenous matter is carried off by urea and 
 thereby escapes in an unexpended state, where nitrogenous matter is con- 
 sumed within the body.'' 
 
 — "The weight of evidence appears to be in favor of the affirmative (that 
 alcohol has alimentary value.) A small portion seems undoubtedly to 
 escape from the body unconsumed, but the main part of the alcohol that 
 may be ingested is lost sight of, and presumably from being turned to ac- 
 count in the system." 
 
 — " It has been affirmed that the temperature is lowered. Dr. Parkes, 
 however, from his recent thermometric observations, remarks that there is 
 but little change induced in the axilla and rectum of healthy men, but what 
 change occurs is in the direction of increase." 
 
 — Referring to the report on the issue of a spirit ration during the Ash- 
 antee campaign of 1874, (Churchill's 1875) Dr. Pavy says :— " Whilst the 
 
—83— 
 
 general testimony resulted in the condemnation of the employment of spirits 
 as a restorative durinj; the fatlRue of marching : the evidence on the other 
 hand went strongly to siiovv that, issued after the day's fatigue was over, the 
 spirit ration exerted a beneficial reviving effect and afterwards induced an 
 increased feeling of warmth accompanied by the promotion of sleep. Upon 
 these points Corporal Hindley, who had been always a temperate man and 
 never m the habit previously of taking spirits, expressed himself as follows : 
 ' Had two rations of rum (a ration equal to 2\ fluid ounces) on the way to the 
 Prah, taken in the evening just before going to bed ; thought it useful ; when 
 there was no issue felt chilly and cold at night : felt warmer when he had 
 taken the rum and slept better ; had no doubt about feeling warmer and 
 Bleeping better. On the next day felt no ill effects from the rum.' " 
 
 — " Popular belief sanctions the practice which is adopted by many, of 
 swallowing a mouthful of brandy or some other neat spirit after partaking of 
 an indigestible article of food. Now, alcohol consumed in this way, by 
 stimulating the mucous membrane of the stomach and exciting an increased 
 flow of gastric secretions, is calculated in reality to afford assistance to diges- 
 tion. * * Should it be introduced, however, in larger quantity 
 into the stomach an opposite result is to be looked for. The alcohol 
 now, by virtue of the amount present, will throw down the nitrogenous 
 digestive principle — pepsine — in a solid ^orm and so destroy the energy of 
 the solvent juice. Thus, whilst a small quantity by its stimulant action may 
 assist digestion, a large quantity stops it and accounts for the rejection of 
 food in an undigested state, that is frequently noticed to occur after the too 
 free indulgence in alcoholic liquors at or after a meal." 
 
 — "Nothing with such ceitainty impairs the appetite and the digestive 
 power as the continued use of strong alcoholic liquors. From the stomach 
 the alcohol is absorbed, and with its distribution through the system it 
 interferes with nutrition and leads to a general textural deterioration. Upon 
 certain organs, however, its effects are more manifest than upon others. 
 The liver, kidneys and nervous system, for instance, very strikingly suffer, a 
 diseased state being set up, which forms a distinctly recognizable source of 
 death." 
 
 — " I have hitherto referred to the action of alcohol /^r j^, and in spirits 
 we have little or nothing else, it may be considered, besides this action, to 
 deal with, except, perhaps, in the case of hollands and gin, which possess 
 diuretic properties, due to the flavoring agent (juniper) added. In the 
 primary fermented liquids, however, there are associated ingredients which 
 give rise to the production of modified and additional effects upon the 
 system. The beverages, for instance, which are rich in saccharine and 
 extractive matters, as particularly stout, porter and the heavier ales possess 
 a nourishing and fattening power, which does not belong to a simple 
 alcoholic liquor. Such beverages also are apt to occasion what falls under 
 the denomination of biliousness in those who lead a sedentary mode of life, 
 whilst a lighter and purer alcoholic drink may be found to agree." 
 
 — " Beer is a refreshing, exhilarating, nutritive, and when taken to excess, 
 an intoxicatir J beverage. * * A light beer, well flavored with the 
 hop, is calculated to promote digestion and may be looked upon as con- 
 stituting one of the most wholesome of the alcoholic class of beverages. It 
 IS not all, however, who can drink beer without experiencing inconvenience. 
 In the case of persons of a bilious temperarnent, &c." 
 
 —Cider and perry have, according to analysis by Brande, the following 
 alcoholic strength by volume ; — cider, highest average 987 per cent : lowest, 
 5-21. Perry, averaged, four samples, 726. They are thus stronger than 
 beer. 
 
—88— 
 
 — " They (cider and perry) constitute aRreeable, wholesome and refreshing, 
 stimulating beverages, when in a perfectly sound condition. Their prone- 
 ness, however, to undergo acetous fermentation renders it necessary that they 
 should be drank with caution, for in a sour state they are apt to occasion colic 
 and diarrhcua with those who are not in the habit of constantly taking 
 them." 
 
 — " The red wines derive their color from the Tiusks of black grapes. 
 These contain the coloring matter in an insoluble form and thus the juice 
 escapes being impregnated with it. Although insoluble in the fresh juice, it, 
 however, undergoes solution when in contact with the fermented juice, the 
 rationale being that the presence of alcohol in combination with the acids of 
 the juice gives rise to the production of a hquid possessing a solvent power, 
 which the original aqueous liquid did not. As then alcohol becomes 
 developed in the mixture of husks and fermenting juice, the coloring matter 
 is t.'xken up. The watery juice of the grape, simply impregnated with the 
 acid fails to touch the coloring matter" (of the skins) ; "directly, however, alco- 
 hol is present, it becomes taken up. * * * The deeper the color the 
 rougher the flavor of the wine." 
 
 — " Except in the case of the teinturier grape (a very rare variety) the 
 juice of grapes is colorless, and hence when wine is made from the juice 
 alone, or with the exclusion of the husk from the fermenting vat, the product 
 is nearly colorless, no matter whether wnite or black grapes have been 
 employed." For coloring wines "foreign agents, particularly elderberries and 
 logwood, it is asserted, are frequently used. — White wines, it is further alleg- 
 ed, are sometimes dyed." 
 
 — "Independently of the amount of saccharine matters in the juice the 
 extent of alcoholic strength is limited by the action of the alcohol generated, 
 for directly a certain quantity is present, a check is put upon the further 
 progress of fermentation and the excess of sugar remains unfermented. 
 Thus, although the juice may have been artificially sweetened by the addition 
 of sugar, or the proportions oY sugar increased by the partial dessication of 
 the grape or the evaporation of the juice, only a limited strength can be 
 acquired as the result of fermentation." 
 
 — " Natural wine, it may be stated, rarely contains more than 22 per cent- 
 by volume of proof spirit." (11 per cent, of absolute alcohol.) 
 
 — "About five glasses of the natural and three of the fortified wine contain 
 . the equivalent of one glass of brandy." 
 
 — " A great deal of unnecessary stress has been attached to the question 
 of the amount of free acid in wine in relation to the production of acidity of 
 the stomach. — Experience shows that it is not acids which particularly favor 
 the acidity of the stomach, but in reality articles containing sugar, especially 
 where the sugar is in an unstable condition. — The presence of a moderate 
 amount of acid does no harm ; on the contrary, it may afford assistance to 
 digestion. — A wine which has acquired sourness from such a source (acetous 
 fermentation) is no longer sound." 
 
 — " Whilst wines differ considerably — each should possess a clean, sound 
 and simple taste. It should give an idea of unity in contra-distinction to 
 the mixed tastes belonging to a made up article." 
 
 — " A good wine promotes the appetite, exhilarates the spirits and in- 
 creases the bodily vigor.'' 
 
 — " With the moderately exhilarating and the othei properties that the 
 clarets possess they form an exreedingly valuable kind of stimulant, both for 
 the healthy and the sick. There is scarcely any condition in which they are 
 calculated to disagree. Thry form a most suitable beverage for persons of a 
 gouty or rheum.itic disposition, and also for the dyspeptic." 
 
—34 — 
 
 — " It may be said that they" (clarets) "are not prone to turn sour upon the 
 stomach themselves, nor to cause other articles to become sour ; neither do 
 they provoke headache nor derangement in those who are subject to bilious 
 disorders." 
 
 — " In character Burgundy is a richer, fuller-bodied or more generous wine 
 than claret.— Therapeutically, it is a valuable agent where poverty of the 
 blood or an ill-nourished state of the system exists. In such cases it is deci- 
 dedly to be preferred to claret." 
 
 — " Champagne has a tendency to allay irritability of the stomach ; unless 
 in a good sound state, however, there is scarcely any wine that is so calculated 
 to upset the stomach." * * * " German wines are of light alcoholic 
 strength, — grateful and refreshing to drink, as well as excitant of the appe- 
 tite." ♦ * Greek wines "constitute natural wines with a high alcoholic 
 strength for their class. The white are clean, fresh and agreeable drinking, 
 whilst the red have fulness and roughness belonging to the better kinds 
 and some degree of tartness in the cheaper kinds. — Port, like sherry and 
 marsala, belongs to the fortified class,— pre-eminent as a full, rich strength- 
 giving stimulant — of great service in enfeebled states of the system. For 
 every day use, while suiting many, — far too heavy for others. By dyspeptics, 
 the gouty, &c., should be shunned. Drank in excess — tends to produce 
 plethoric state ; gouty habit may be developed through its influence. Port, 
 some years back, was largely consumed amongst the upper classes, — at the 
 present time its place may be said to be taken by claret. * * Sherry has 
 long held a high position in public estimation as a wholesome and clean 
 drinking wine. Unbrandied sherries are often advertised, but the wine in an 
 unfortified state is only exceptionally imported into England and con- 
 sumed. — Hambro' sherry is a made-up article. Hamburg is not a wine 
 growing but a wine fabricating locality. Much of the cheap sherry sold and 
 a great portion supplied at refreshment rooms and public houses, is derived 
 from this source. It is this which often brings sherry into disrepute Ly 
 occasit ning acidity, headache, and other syrpptoms of gastric derangement. 
 — Sometimes called Elbe sherry. * * Marsala. — better they should use a 
 good marsala than a bad sherry. — Average alcoholic strength of wines of 
 the fortified class. * * * Madeira is one of the choicest of the for- 
 tified wines. * * Mead is a wine prepared from honey and water. 
 Orange wine, currant wine, plnm wine, gooseberry wine, &c., — prepared from 
 fruits ; palm wine, maple wine, parsnip wine, &c. — prepared from other 
 vegetable products ; none will bear comparison for purity and choiceness of 
 flavor with the fermented liquors derived from the grape." 
 
 — Brandy — " purity and delicacy of its flavor give it the position it holds 
 and render it suitable for selection in any case where either dietetically or 
 therapeutically, a spirit St required — popular remedy for sickness, diarrhoea, 
 exhaustion, spasms and iot correcting indigestion or stimulating the digestion 
 of an indigestible article of food. Burnt brandy is often specially useful in 
 protracted sickness and will be sometimes found to be retained when other 
 articles are rejected. * * Whiskey : — If the flavor be not objected to, 
 whiskey may be used in precisely the same way as brandy. * * Gin pos- 
 sesses diuretic properties, to an extent not enjoyed by the other spirits. Age 
 does not improve it. * * Arrack is a name given to the spirit obtained 
 from a fermented infusion of rice, and also from toddy or palm wine. * * 
 Koumiss, which has lately been extolled as useful in the treatment of con- 
 sumption, is procured in Tartary from fermented mare's milk, and latterly 
 also, has been made in this country from cow's milk artificially sweetened. 
 * * Absinthe — sweetened spirit flavored with wormwood. Perhaps the 
 most treacherous and pernicious fur habitual use of all the liquors of the 
 alcoholic class." 
 
—85- 
 
 — " Tea is not to be looked upon .s constituting an article of nutrition. 
 The quantity of material furnished to the system in the manner it is used is 
 too small to be of significance per se in contributing to the chemical changes 
 which form the source of vital action. If not occupying the position of an 
 article of nutrition, however, its extensive and widely spread employment 
 may be taken as an indication that some kind of benefit is derivable from its 
 use, and it is probably through the nervous system that this is mainly, if not 
 entirely, produced." 
 
 — " In moderate auantities tea exerts a reviving influence when the body 
 is fatigued, but perhaps some of the effect is also attributable to the warmth 
 belonging to the liquid consumed. It disposes to mental cheerfulness and 
 activity, clears the brain, arouses the energies and diminishes the tendency 
 to sleep — to such an ex'tent, it may be, in some sensitive persons as to occa- 
 sion a painful state of vigilance or watchfulness and sleeplessness." 
 
 — "The phenom:na produced when tea is consumed in a strong state and 
 to a hurtful extent, shows that it is capable of acting in a powerful manner 
 upon the nervous system. Nervous agitation, muscular tremors, a sense of 
 prostration and palpitation constitute effects that have been witnessed. It 
 appears to act as a sedative on the vascular system. It also possesses 
 direct irritant properties which lead to the production of abdominal pains 
 and nausea. It promotes the action of the skm, and by the astringent matter 
 it contains, diminishes the action of the bowels." 
 
 — " Lehmann was of opinion ihat it lessened the waste of the body, but 
 Dr E. Smith asserts that it increases the amount of caroonic acid exhaled, 
 and he thereby speaks of it as promoting rather than checking cherp'oyital 
 action. More conclusive evidence, it may be considered, is requ.red in 
 reference io this matter, to show that any decided action either way is 
 exerted." 
 
 — " ' Tea' forms an agreeable, refreshmg and wholesome beverage." 
 
 — " Its use, particularly green tea, is objectionable in a strong state, in the 
 case of persons who are rendered watchful by it, and in all irritable con- 
 ditions of the stomach." 
 
 — " Coffee forms a favorite and useful beverage. The properties it 
 possesses fully justify the estimation in which it is held. * * * It, how- 
 ever, exerts a more heating and stimulating action than tea, and increases in 
 a decided manner the force and frequency of the pulse. It also differs in 
 being heavier and more oppressive to the stomach. It arouses the mental 
 faculties, &c. Taken in immoderate quantity it may induce feverishness, 
 and various manifestations of disordered nervous action, as tremor, palpi- 
 tation, anxiety and deranged vision. One of the most valuable properties of 
 coffee is its power of relieving tlie sensation of hunger and fatigue. * * 
 * In addition to its dietetic value, considerable benefit is often derived from 
 the employment of coffee as a therapeutic agent." 
 
 — •' The experiments of Lehmann led him to conclude that coffee 
 diminishes the waste of ihe tissues and causes food to go further, but 
 whether this is true is doubtful. Mr. Squarly could not find that the eliiul- 
 nation of urea and chlorides wi.s diminished as might be looked for, if the 
 above view were correct, under the use of large doses of coffee." 
 
—86— 
 PROF. SIR WM. ROBERTS, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO THE MANCHESTER ROYAL INFIRMARY, 
 AND PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The following extracts are from Dr. Roberts' address on therapeutics at 
 the Cardiff meeting of the British Medical Association, July, 1885, and are 
 based upon a long series of laboratory observations on the action of tea, 
 coffee, alcoholic drinks, table waters, and other drinks, &c., taken with solid 
 foods, on I. Salivary digestion, i.e.y the action of the saliva as a digestive 
 agent ; 2. peptic digestion, «>., the action of the fluids secreted by the 
 stomach as digestive agents ; and 3. pancreatic digestion, <>., the action of 
 the secretion of the pancreas as a digestive agent." 
 
 — " In studying the influence of our food-accessories on digestion, it is 
 necessary to distinguish sharply between their action on the chemical 
 processes and their action on glandular and muscular activity. These two 
 actions are quite distinct and generally opposed to each other ; for while 
 all food accessories were found to exercise a more or less retarding influence 
 on the speed of the chemical process, some, if not all of them, exercise a 
 stimulating influence on the glands which secrete the digestive juices, and 
 on the muscular contractions of the stomach." 
 
 — " It is also necessary to distinguish between the effects of the food- 
 accessories on salivary digestion and their effects on peptic digestion, inas- 
 much as wide divergencies were found to exist in this respect. The distilled 
 spirits — brandy, whiskey and gin — were found to have but a trifling retarding 
 effect on the digestive processes, whether salivary or peptic, in the proportions 
 in which they are commonly used dietetically. Their obstructive effects only 
 became apparent when used in quantities which approach intemperance. 
 Taking this in conjunction with the stimulating action which they exercise 
 on the glands which secrete the digestive juices and on the muscular 
 activity of the stomach, their effect in these moderate dietetic proportions 
 must be regarded as distinctly promotive of digestion." 
 
 — •" In the customary dietetic use of wines with meals there is probably a 
 double action ; on the one hand a stimulating action on the secretion of 
 gastric juice, and on the muscular contractions of the stomach ; and on the 
 other hand a retarding effect on the speed of the chemical process. In the 
 case of persons of weak digestion, wines should be taken sparingly, and the 
 quantity so adjusted as to bring out their stimulating action without pro- 
 voking the retarding effects which follow their more liberal use. * * 
 Effervescent wines, other things being equal, favour the speed of peptic 
 digestion more than still wipes." 
 
 — " It was found that tea had an inhibitory effect on salivary digestion : 
 even in very minute proportion it completely paralyzed the action of saliva ; 
 on the other hand coffee and cocoa had only a slight effect on salivary 
 digestion . The inhibitory action of tea on saliva was found to be due to the 
 large quantity of tannin contained in the tea-leaf. Some persons have sup- 
 posed that by infusing tea for a very brief period — two or three minutes — 
 the passage of tannin into the beveiage could be avoided. This, however, 
 is a delusion. Tannin is one of the most soluble substances known, it melts 
 like sugar in hot water. * * The effects of tea, coffee and cocoa on 
 peptic digestion were found to be as nearly as possible alike for infusion of 
 equal strength. All three exercised a retarding effect when their proportion 
 in the digesting mixture rose above twenty per cent. These beverages 
 should, therefore, be taken very moderately ty persons of weak digestion. 
 * * The strong coffee which it is customary to hand around after dinner 
 must have a powerful retarding eflect on gastric digestion ; and although 
 
—87— 
 
 this practice may be salutary to robust eaters, it is not to be recommended to 
 those of feeble peptic power." 
 
 — The following extracts from Sir Wm. Roberts are given by Dr. Barney 
 Y:o, in a review in the Nineteenth Century^ (Feb. 1886) of Dr. Roberts' 
 "lectures on dietetics and dyspepsia" : 
 
 — " These generalized food customs of nfiankind are not to be viewed as 
 random practices adopted to please the palate or gratify our idle and vicious 
 appetite. These customs must be regarded as the outcome of profound 
 instincts, which correspond to important wants of the human economy. 
 They are the fruit of colossal experience accumulated by countless millions 
 of men through successive generations. They have the same weight and 
 significance as other kindred facts of natural history, and are fitted to yield 
 to observation and study, lessons of the highest scientific and practical 
 value." 
 
 — "A too rapid digestion and absorption of food may be compared to • 
 feeding a fire with straw instead of with slower-burning coal. In the former 
 case it would be necessary to feed often and the process would be wasteful 
 of the fuel ; for the short-lived blaze would carry most of the heat up the 
 chimney. To burn fuel economically and to utilize the heat to the utmost 
 the fire must be damped down so as to ensure slow, as well as complete, 
 combustion. So with human digestion; our highly prepared and highly 
 cooked food requires, in the healthy and vigorous, that the digestive fires 
 should be damped down, in order to ensure the economical use of food. * 
 * * We render food by preparation as capable as possible of being com- 
 pletely exhausted of its nutrient properties : and on the other hand to pre- 
 vent this nutrient matter from being wastefuUy hurried through the body, we 
 make use of agents which abate the speed of digestion." 
 
 — The following are extracts from Dr. Yeo's summary {Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury ) of Dr. Roberts' conclusions : 
 
 — "So far as salivary digestion is concerned, these spirits when used in 
 moderation and well diluted, as they usually are when employed dietetically, 
 rather promote than retard this part of the digestive process, and this they 
 do by causing an increased flow of saliva. With regard to peptic digestion 
 the results are still more surprising. It was found that with ten per cent, 
 and under of proof spirit there was no appreciable retardation, and only a 
 slight retardation with twenty per cent. , but with large percentages it was 
 very dififerent, and with fifty per cent, the digestive ferment was almost 
 paralyzed." 
 
 — " In the proportions in which these spirits are usually employed dieteti- 
 cally, not only do they not appreciably retard digestion, but these experi- 
 ments show that they act as pure stimulants to gastric digestion, causing 
 an increased flow of gastric uice and stimulating the muscular contractions 
 of the stomach, and so accelerating the speed of the digestive process in the 
 stomach. For obvious reasons (stated in these lectures) alcoholic drinks, as 
 used dietetically, can never interfere with pancreatic digestion." 
 
 — Explaining the retarding action of wines on salivary digestion, he says : 
 — " This is wholly due to the acid — not the alcohol — they contain, and if 
 the acid be neutralized, as it often is in practice.by mixing the wine with 
 some effervescent alkaline water, this disturbing effect on salivary digestion 
 is completely removed. The influence of acids in retarding or arresting 
 digestion is further of importance in the dietetic use of pickles, vinegar, 
 salads and acid 0-uits. When acid salads are taken with bread the effect 
 ■of the acid is to prevent any salivary digestion of the bread, a matter of little 
 moment to a person with a vigorous digestion, but to a feeble dyspeptic, 
 ione of some importance." 
 
—88— 
 
 — " Small quantities of these wines (clartt, hock and sherr^) do not pro- 
 duce any appreciable retarding effect" (on peptic digestion) "but act as 
 pure stimulants. These wines, then, may be taken with advantage, even by 
 persons of feeble digestion, * * in small quantities but not in large." 
 
 —"A moderate quantity of lager beer, when well up, is favorable to 
 stomach digestion." 
 
 — " Beef tea has a powerful retarding effect on peptic digestion. Further 
 researches appeared to show that the retarding effect of beef tea was due to 
 the salts of the organic acids contained in it. Beef tea must be locHced upon 
 rather as a stimulant and restorative than as a nutrient beverage., but it is, 
 nevertheless, very valuable on account of these properties." 
 
 " In healthy and strong persons this retarding effect on digestion, observed 
 to be produced by many of the most commonly consumed food accessories, 
 answers a distinctly useful end." 
 
 I. BURNEY YEO, M.D. F.R.C.P., 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO THE HOSPITAL AND PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL 
 THERAPEUTICS IN KING's COLLEGE. 
 
 (From '^ Nineteenth Century'' Feb., /SS6.J 
 
 — " He (man) has departed, in the course of his civilization, very widely 
 from the monotonous uniformity of dit t observed in animals in the wild state. 
 Not only does he differ from the anin-als in cooking his food, but he adds to 
 his food a greater or less number of condiments for the purpose of increasing 
 its flavor and attractiveness ; but above and beyond this, the complexity of 
 his food habits is greatly increased by the custom of partaking in consider- 
 able quantity of certain stimulants and restoratives, which have become es- 
 sential to his social comfort, if not to his physical well-being. The chief of 
 these are tea, coffee, cocoa and the various kinds of alcoholic beverages." 
 
 —" It is also a curious fact that many persons with whom tea, under 
 ordinary circumstances, will agree exceedingly well, will become the subjects 
 of tea dyspepsia if they drink this beverage at a time when they may be 
 suffering from mental worry or emotional disturbances." 
 
 — " It is a well recognized fact that persons who are prone to nervous ex 
 citement of the circulation and palpitation of the heart, have these symptoms 
 greatly aggravated if they persist in the use of tea or coffee as beverages. 
 The excessive consumption of tea amongst the women of the poorer classes 
 IS the cause of much of the so-called " heart complaints " amongst them : the 
 food of these poor women consists largely of starchy substances (bread and 
 butter chiefly) together with tea, /. e. a food accessory which is one of the 
 greatest of all retarders of the digestion of starchy food." 
 
 — " To the strong and vigorous, the slightly retarding effects on digestion, 
 It " (coffee) " would then " (when a sm-^ll quantity is taken after a large meal) 
 ' have may be * * not altogether a disadvantage ; but after a spare 
 meal and in persons of feeble digestive powers, the cup of black coffee 
 would probably exercise a retarding effect on digestion, which would prove 
 harmful." 
 
 — " The funeral conclusion to be drawn from these highly interesting and 
 mstructiv researches (Sir W. Roberts,) is that most of the food accessories 
 which in ti.e course of civilization man has added to his diet are, when taken 
 in moderation, beneficial to him and conduce to his physical welfare and 
 material happiness, but if taken in excess, they may interfere to a serious 
 and harmful degree with the processes of digestion and assimilation. It also 
 
—89— * 
 
 is made clear that dietetic habits which may prove agreeable and useful to 
 those who enjoy vigorous health and a strong digestion, need to be greatly 
 modified in the case of those who are feeble and dyspeptic." 
 
 FRANCIS E. ANSTIE, M.D., F.R.C.P., 
 
 CIAN TO WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL AND EDIT( 
 " PRACTITIONER." 
 
 (From " The Uses of Wine in Health and Disease^^ ^877.) 
 
 LATE PHYSICIAN TO WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL AND EDITOR OH THE 
 
 " PRACTITIONER." 
 
 — " To a medical writer on wines there are several inducements to attack 
 the subject first from the side of the medicinal uses of these drinks ; the 
 strongest reason being that, from the nature of his daily experience, he is 
 most familiar with this aspect of the question. We prefer, however, to start 
 from the view of wine as a beverage of ordinary life ; being persuaded that 
 the subject can only be fa'rly examined in this way." 
 
 — " There is no such clear line between health and disease as is assumed 
 in common speech : the foreshadowings and faint images of disease are to be 
 seen in sundry incidents of the life of those who are conventionally regarded 
 as " healthy," and it is in the study of these natural diseases (if we may use 
 such a phrase) and their relations to the dietary medicines which general 
 custom, independent of medical authority, has prescribed for them, that we 
 are most likely to discover a reasonable basis for the use of these remedies 
 in diseases which involve extensive and obvious departures from the standard 
 of health." 
 
 — " The stronf[ wines, including port, sherry, madeira, marsala, and all thai 
 genus, contain on the average something like 17 per cent, of absolute alcohol, 
 (the strongest ports ranging as high as 23 per cent, or more,) and the lighj 
 wines, including claret, burgundy, champagne, Rhine and Moselle wines, 
 Hungarian wines, etc., average between 10 and 1 1 per cent, of absoluto 
 alcohol, (the lightest champagnes not containing more than 5 or 6 per cent). 
 Comparing wines with beer, we may note that the poorest sorts of beer con- 
 tain about 2 per cent, of absoldtle alcohol ; ordinary table-ale, as drunk in 
 niost middle-class households, about 3 per cent. ; ordinary porter between 3 
 and 4 per cent. ; stout from 5 to 6 per cent, j while the strongest kinds of 
 malt liquors rangp through various degrees up to even 10 per cent., and a 
 common strength for good bottled ale or stout is about 7 per cent, of absolute 
 alcohol. On the other hand good brandies and rum average between 45 and 
 50 per cent." 
 
 — "So far as alcoholic strength is concerned it may be said In general 
 terms that half a bottle a day of such wine" (light wines, 10 per cent, alcoholic 
 strength) "for a sedentary and a bottle a day for a igorous and actively em* 
 ployed adult affords a reasonable and prudent allowance >f alcohol ; and 
 this quantity of wine, either clear or with water, will be enough to satisfy the 
 needs of moderate pp'-^'^-.s for a beverage at lunch and dinner, the only two 
 meals at which aU o.iol should, as a rule, be taken. * * The same quantity 
 of alcohol represented in beer makes up between two and three pints." 
 
 — "We have put this question of the absolute alcoholic allowance for 
 healthy adults in a somewhat crude and abstract form, not undesignedly ; 
 for we wish to compel the upper and middle classes and their medical 
 advisers to look the fact of alcoholic consumption honestly in the face." 
 
 — " It is therefore much to be desired that people may be educated in the 
 direction of using only one alcoholic drink ; at least for every-day consump- 
 tion. The choice of this one drink must in each individual case depend upon 
 
a number of other considerations besides mere alcoholic strength. What we 
 have practically to consider is the possibility of selecting some alcoholic fluid 
 which shall be weak enough — either when taken neat or with only so much 
 water as will not make it distasteful — to enable us to drink so much of it as 
 will satisfy all need of fluid at lunch and dinner (or dinner and supper with 
 folk of early habits) without producing any of the injurious effects of alcohol. 
 Weak beer would, of course, very well fulfil these requirements : for instance 
 a sound, light, table beer, containing about 3 per cent, of absolute alcohol. 
 But to a large number of persons the quantity of such beer that would satisfy 
 thirst and also prove sufficiently stimulant, would not be readily digestible. 
 Especially to persons of a gouty constitution such a regimen would be most 
 unwholesome ; also to many persons with rheumatic tendency on account of 
 the sugar and dextrine which some light beers contain." 
 
 — " It is amongst the class of natural wines, averaging not more than lo 
 per cent, of absolute alcohol, that we must seek the type of a universal alcoholic 
 beverage for every-day life. * * A bottle a day of either of these wines 
 (9>4 per cent. Rhine or 8'/i per cent, claret) for an actively employed adult, 
 and a proportionately less quantity for those whose life is more sedentary, 
 would very well represent the allowance of alcohol which may be said to suit 
 best the standard of ordinary health." 
 
 — " For the hard-working student, politician, professional man, or busy 
 merchant, there is no better arrangement possible than that of taking, as the 
 regular daily allowance, a bottle of sound, ordinary wire of Bordeaux, and 
 the number of persons with whom such a diet really disagrees is very 
 limited." 
 
 — " It is a common idea that the stronger wines are particularly suited to 
 healthy adult life and especially to middle age : but we believe that this is a 
 complete mistake. * "i- It is otherwise with the two extremes of life — 
 fnfancy and old age ; in both these periods there are tendencies to a variety 
 of afflictions which scarcely appear to deserve the name of positive disease, 
 but which demand serious modifications of the diet ; these conditions may, 
 we affirm, be far more advantageously treated by the administration of the 
 stronger wines than by any other means whatever." 
 
 — " It is one of the commonest medical observations that a considerable 
 number of persons can only maintain a googl and active state of the digestive 
 powers by means of a very strict limitation of their allowance of sugRrand 
 also of the starch-containing foods which undergo conversion into sugar at an 
 early stage of the digestion. Such persons are obliged to be extremely 
 moderate, for instance, in their consumption, not merely of pastry and 
 sweets, but even of bread and potatoes, under penalty of severe dyspepsia if 
 they transgress this rule. To such individuals the saccharine wines are very 
 unsuitable and disturbing." 
 
 — " Dyspepsia, gout * * * are comparatively uncommon among the 
 European nations who habitually consume the natural acid-tasting light 
 wines in large quantities." 
 
 — " One has only to remember the quantities of malic and tartaric acid 
 which everyone swallows during the fruit season, and the quantities of acetic 
 acid which even the most modest consumer of pickles, sauces and salads 
 habitually takes, to perceive how extremely improbable it is" that a wine con- 
 taining not more than 6 per 1,000 total free acid should (from that cause) dis- 
 turb the digestion of any moderate drinker of it." 
 
 — " It is a singular thing that while the tonic powers of mineral acids, as 
 used in medicine, have obtained universal recognition, the no less remark- 
 able tonic qualities of the vegetable acids, which are essential ingredients of 
 a variety of foods which we consume in ordinary life, should have been so 
 
-41— 
 
 slightly dwelt upon ; one can only ascribe the fact to the vicious conven- 
 tional tradition which habitually separates the action of food from that of 
 medicines.'* 
 
 — " A more profound and important action of this substance (acetic acid) 
 ;jn the organism is indicated by the empirical observations of numerous 
 physicians and travellers, that vinegar is an antidote to scurvy. * ♦ It is 
 probable that malic and tartaric acids, which are the principle representa- 
 tives of vegetable acid in natural wines, are able to exert a real influence on 
 secondary assimilative processes." 
 
 — " Generally speaking, the tannin element of wine may be said to be neu- 
 tral as regards its influence on persons in ordinary health." 
 
 — " The combination of alkalies (more especially of potash) with vegetable 
 acids, which every natural wine contains, are of a dietetic value not to be 
 easily overrated, and in the particular function of warding off scurvy and 
 some allied diseases of mal-nutrition, they rise to the highest importance." 
 
 — " As regards the infancy of delicate children. * * The worthy tee" 
 totallers have easily enlisted the sympathies of persons whose experience of 
 the management of children was limited, when they have declaimed against 
 the practice of 'rearing drunkards from the cradle,' &c., &c.; and it is, of 
 course, quite possible to do even so dreadful a thing as this. But the judici- 
 ous use of wine as a part of the diet even of quite young children, (of course 
 always under medical sanction) is evidently free from such dangers, and on 
 the other hand, may do positive good of a very visible kind. The cases 
 in which it is useful (we are now talking of children not absolutely diseased) 
 are, (i) those where a tendency to wasting in very marked — ;'. e., where 
 children are very apt, without positively seeming ill, to run down suddenly 
 in flesh with or without simuhaneous failure of appetite ; and (2) those where 
 trifling catarrhal affections are very easily caught and very slowly shaken off. 
 We are firmly convinced that multitudes of such children have been allowed 
 to slide into confirmed ill-health, and then into organic disease, who would 
 have doiis perfectly well had such symptoms as the above been attended to 
 by the administration of wine." * * "With children it is much better 
 to give wine at separate hours, as if it were strictly a medicine." 
 
 — " Used under the pi^.autions above given" (as to quantity, &c., &c.) "not 
 merely is there no danger of corrupting children's tastes, but the services it 
 renders to health are more important than any medicine with which we are 
 acquainted ; indeed it is just in the cases where medicines would disorder 
 the stomach and aggravate the child's malaise that wine plays the most re- 
 markable dietetic role." 
 
 — " As a dietetic aid in the debility of old age the more potent wines are 
 even more remarkably useful than in infancy and childhood. More particu- 
 larly in the condition of sleeplessness, attended often with slow and ineffi- 
 cient digestion and a tendency to stomach cramps, a generous and potent 
 wine is often of great value. It is not desirable for such persons to include a 
 large allowance of fluid in their daily diet, and their alcohol may well be 
 taken in the more concentrated forms." 
 
 Dr. Anstie's advice on when to use and when not ♦^o use wine, brandy 
 and other alcoholic liquors in acute and in chronic diseases, and the safe- 
 guards against abu e which he steadily keeps in view, cannot be indicated 
 here by brief extracts with advantage to the reader. In many cases the ad- 
 vantages of these liquors are highly spoken of. In certain conditions of 
 insanity highly etherized wines '* are of inestimable value." 
 
 — Regarding certain kinds of dyspepsia where the original cause " is in 
 truth nothing but nervous depression," Dr. Anstie says, '' a fixed moderate 
 allowance of a generous wine is verv helpful. Where we can distinctly make 
 
—42- 
 
 out from the history that the patient has not exposed himself to the effects of 
 improper food or drink (very often such people have been too abstemious in 
 every way) or other ordinary causes of stomach catarrh we may very proper- 
 ly employ a wine of good body and medium alcoholic strength," * * In 
 one form of anuemia, with due discrimination the use of port or other stimu- 
 lant is commended. In another class of anaemic complaints caused by lack 
 of rest "coupled or not with anxiety of mind" he says, " If this neglect of 
 rest be inevitable, from the press of work, then imperfect as the remedy may 
 be, we believe that alcohol must be allowed and that pretty freely. It must 
 never be forgotten that rest and not alcohol is the true remedy. Neverthe- 
 less we are quite certain that it is an error to suppose that alcohol does no- 
 thing more than enable such persons to use up their brain tissue faster and 
 thus get work out of themselves for the moment. We cannot doubt that it 
 affords substantial assistance." * * The question of alcohol in phthisis 
 (says Dr. A.) " has engaged our particular attention." " There are two classes 
 in which alcohol appears to play an important part in the arrest of phthisis." 
 The cases, Ac, are then described. * * # " It is especially in warding 
 off true tuberculosis from children that the value of wine is conspicuous, and 
 were this more generally recognized we believe that phthibis of children in- 
 stead of being so fatal a disease as it is, would rarely develop in a fatal form 
 at all : of course supposing that all proper hygienic precautions were adopted 
 and especially a liberal supply of simple and nutritious food. But we repeat 
 here that said in another place : wme should always be given to young 
 children in the form of medicine." * ♦ Certain chronic neuroses of the 
 latter part of life present special aspects in which wine becomes an impor- 
 tant consideration, specially a " severe and intractable form of neuralgia 
 rarely or never developed after the age of forty, and one which developed 
 resists remedies with such pertinacity." # * " Still the misery which these 
 neuralgias inflict and the extent to which they shatter the system is deplor- 
 able under the best of circumstances, and we need every helpful adjunct we 
 can get. The reflex irritation which the disease sets up is often fatal at once 
 to appetite and sleep, and wine is the true remedy for this part of the mis- 
 chief." 
 
 ENCYCLOPCEDIA BRITTANICA. 
 
 (latest edition.) 
 (From Article on Diet— Dr. T. King Chambers.) 
 
 DIET FOR BODILY LABOUR. 
 
 — " The Oxford system of training for the summer boat races may be cited 
 It may be considered a typical regimen for fully developing a young man's 
 corporeal powers to fulfil the demands of an extraordinary exertion, a stan- 
 dard which may be modified according to the circumstances for which train- 
 ing is required : — 
 
 — "Rise about 7 a.m. ; a short walk or run, not compulsory. Breakfast at 
 8.30, of tea as little as possible ; meat —beef or mutton underdone ; bread or 
 dry toast, crust only recommended. Exercise in forenoon, none. Dinner, 
 much the same as for breakfast : Bread, crust only recommended ; vege- 
 tables, none (not always adhered to) ; beer, one pint. Exercise — About 5 
 o'clock start for the river and row twice over the course, the speed increasing 
 with the strength of the crew. Supper at 8.30 or 9 p.m. : meat, — cold ; 
 bread and perhaps a little jelly or water-cress ; beer, one pint. Bed 
 about la" 
 
—48— 
 
 — " The Cambridge system differs very slightly." 
 
 — " It is notorious that overtraining leads to a condition of system in 
 which the sufferers describe themselves as 'fallen to pieces,' etc. Over- 
 trained persons are also liable to a languor and apparent weakness which is 
 found on examination to depend on the excessive secretion of urea by the 
 kidneys, etc. * Such are not the results, however, of the traming 
 
 adopted at the universities, by which it would appear that the constitution is 
 strengthened, the intellect sharpened and life lengthened. Dr. John Morgan 
 has collected statistics of the subsequent health of those who have rowed in 
 the University races since 1829, and he finds that wherea« at twenty years ci 
 age, according to Parr's life table, the average expectation of survival is forty 
 years ; for these oarsmen it is forty-two years. Moreover, in the cases of 
 death, inquiry into its causes exhibits evidence of good constitutions rather 
 than the contrary, the causes consisting largely of fevers and accidents, to 
 which the vigorous and active are more exposed than the sick. And it is not 
 at the expense of mind, etc." 
 
 — " For reducing corpulency, claret and water at three meals." 
 
 — " Small quantities of diluted alcoholic liquids taken with meals slightly 
 increase the activity of the renewal of the nitrogenous tissues, mainly 
 muscle ; that is to say there is a more rapid reconstruction of those parts, as 
 is shown by the augmented formation of urea and the sharpened appetite. 
 Life is fuller and more complete ; old flesh is removed and food appropriated 
 as new flesh somewhat more quickly than when no alcohol is ingested. 
 There appears to be a temporary rise in the digestive powers of the 
 stomach, which is probably the initiative act. The nerve functions are 
 blunted and a lessened excretion of phosphorus exhibits a temporary check 
 on the wear and renewal of the nerve tissues." 
 
 — " The effect on a healthy man of taking with a meal such % quantity of 
 fermented liquor as puts him at ease with himself and the world around, 
 'vithout untoward exhilaration, is to arrest the wear of the nervous system, 
 especially that part employed in emotion and sensation. Just as often, then, 
 as the zest for food is raised to its normal standard by a little wine or beer 
 with a meal, the moderate consumer is as much really better as he feels the 
 better for it. When the food is as keenly enjoyed without it the consumption 
 of a stimulant is useless." 
 
 DIET FOR MENTAL WORK. 
 
 — " When a man has tired himself by intellectual exertion, a moderate 
 quantity of alcoholic, stimulant taken with food acts as an anesthetic, stays 
 the wear of the system which is going on, and allows the nerve force to be 
 turned to the due digestion of the meal. But it must be followed by rest 
 from toil and is in essence a part of the same treatment which includes 
 rest." 
 
 — " There is no habit more fatal to a literary man than that of taking 
 stimulants between meals." 
 
 — " As to quantity the appetite for solid food is the safest guide. If a 
 better dinner or supper is taken when it is accompanied by a certain amount 
 of fermented liquor, that is the amount most suitable ; if a worse, then an 
 excess is committed, however little be taken." 
 
 — " As regards the proper quantity of alcohol that may be used, the two 
 following questions naturally occur : How is a man to know when he has 
 had enough? What are signs of too much?" * * "Amoredelicate test still 
 is the appreciation of temperature by the skin ; if a draught doesn't chill, if a 
 hot room fails to produce the usual discomfort the wise man knows he has ex- 
 ceeded and must stop at once. In short the safest rule is that when there is a 
 ccmsciousness of any physical effect at all beyond that of satisfaction at the 
 
—44— 
 
 relief of bodily weariness— such a sati *^action as is felt on taking a good 
 meal by a vigorous person — then the limits of moderation have been 
 attainca. On ordinary occasions of daily life and ' for the stomach's sake ' 
 no more should be taken. * * To the practiser of daily temper- 
 ance, festive occasions are safe and may be beneficial. A man may, from 
 time to time, keep up without harm the above-mentionrd sense of satis- 
 faction by good and digestible wine in good company without getting drunk 
 or failure of health, if he makes k a law to himself to stop as soon as he 
 experiences any hurry of ideas or indistinctness of his senses." 
 
 DIET FOR OLD AGE. 
 
 — " In the autumn of life the advantages derived from fermented liquors 
 are more advantageous and the injuries it can inflict less injurious to the 
 body, than in youth. The effect of alcohol is to rheck the activity of des- 
 tructive assimilation, to arrest that rapid flux of the substance of the fr/in^e 
 which in healthy youth can hardly be excessive, but which in old age ex- 
 hausts the vital force. Loss of appetite is a frequent and serious symptom 
 in old age, and it usually arises from a deficient formation of gastric juice, 
 which in common with other secretions, diminishes with years. It is best 
 treated physiologically, rather than with drugs." 
 
 DIET IN SICKNESS. 
 
 — " In green sickness, or anaemia, wine is useful at meals on account of 
 the stimulus it gives to the appetite." 
 
 — "And before quitting the subject of health, as affected, by diet, the com- 
 mon sense hint may be given to those who are in good sanitary condition, 
 that they cannot do better than let well alone. The most trustworthy secur- 
 ity for future health is present health, and there is some risk of overthrow- 
 ing nature's work by over-caring." 
 
 GENERAL. 
 
 — " The social importance of gratifying the palate has certainly never been 
 denied in practice by any of the human race. Feasting has been adopted 
 from the earliest times as the most natural expression of joy and the readiest 
 means of creating joy." 
 
 Signor Cornaro is cited as having, by varying diet and making it con- 
 sist of such articles as bread, meat, yolks of eggs and soups, lived on 12 oz. 
 per day. "But he made the solids go so much further by taking 14 oz. of 
 good wine." 
 
 Referring to the dietary regime of one of the European armies the 
 article says : " The issue of an occasional glass of brandy on holidays makes 
 an agreeable change and benefits digestion, but if wine could be obtained it 
 would be better and not extravagant." ,, 
 
 From Article on Drunkenness. — Dr. W. Balfour. 
 
 — "Apart from the pathological causes, the condition may be actually 
 iproduced by a multitude of agents, whose use is so widespread throughout 
 the world as inevitably to lead to the belief that their moderate employment 
 must subserve some important object in the economy of nature. Moreover, 
 the physiological action of all these agents gradually shrides into each other, 
 all producing, or being capable of producing consecutive paralysis of various 
 parts of the nervous system, but only in doses of a certain amount ; a dose 
 •which varies with the agent, the race and the individual. Even the cup so 
 ■often said ' to cheer, but not inebriate' canno; be regarded as altogether free 
 from the last named effect. Tea sots are veil known to be affected with 
 palpitation and irregularity of the heart, as well as with more or less sleep- 
 
—46— 
 
 lessness, menUl irritability And muscular tremors, which in some, culminate 
 in paralysis, while positive intoxication has been known to be the result of 
 the excessive use of strong tea." (See 3rd Annual Report of the Massachu- 
 setts Board of Health, page 129.) 
 
 — " It is well to remember that there is not a shadow of a proof that the 
 moderate use of any of these agents as a stimulant has any definite tendency 
 to lead to its abuse ; it is otherwise with their employment as narcotics." 
 
 — " It is interesting to know that a late judge, who lived to nearly ninety 
 years of age, believed he had prolonged his life] and added greatly .0 his 
 comfort by the moderate use of ether, which he was led to employ because 
 neither wine nor tobacco agreed with him : while the immediate use of the 
 same agent has, particularly of late and in the north of Ireland, given rise to 
 a most deleterious form of drunkenness." 
 
 — •' However degrading, demoralizing and pauperizing the vice of drunken- 
 ness may be, it is important to remember in all our thoughts concerning it, 
 thiat it is the outcome of a craving inniite in human nature, whether civilized 
 or savage, and that there has been no period in the world's history and no 
 nation on its surface in which one or other, and often several simultaneously, 
 of the many natural or artificial nervine stimulants have ot been employed, 
 and well has it been for those who have used them modetately." 
 
 — " It may be, as a recent speaker has said, that ' a national love for strong 
 drink is a characteristic of the nobler and more energetic populations of the 
 world,' it may be, as he goes on to say, 'hat it ' accompanies public and pri- 
 vate enterprise ; constancy or purpose, liberality of thought and aptitude for 
 war ; it,' as he further adds, • exhibits itself prominently in scronp and nervous 
 constitutions and assumes in very many instances the characier of a curative 
 of itself.' In other words, in certain constitutions the moderate use of stimu- 
 lants excites to action rather than to a sensual keyf ; and the pleasurable 
 stimulus of action renders such individuals less likely to fall in'iO de- 
 grading habits of excess." 
 
 — " The desire for stimulants is one of the strongest instincts of human 
 natnre. It cannot be annihilated, but may be regulated by reason, con- 
 science and by law when it encroaches on the rights of others." 
 
 DR. DUPRE'S CONCLUSIONS. 
 (1872.) 
 
 The experiments of Lallemand, Perrin and Duroy published in an 
 elaborate memoir in i860, were interpreted as showing that alcohol was 
 eliminated unchanged. The conclusions and the errors in experimenting 
 which led to *hem were subsequently pointed out, and it was shown how 
 unfounded the conclusions were by a series of • periments by Dr. Dupr6 
 and others. Some of Dr. Dupri's conclusions are here summarized : — 
 
 — •' The amount of alcohol eliminated per day does not increase with the 
 continuance of the alcohol diet, and therefore all the al^hol consumed daily 
 must of necessity be disposed of daily, and as it certainly is not eliminated 
 within that time it must be destroyed in the system." 
 
 — " The elimination of alcohol following the ingestion of a dose or doses 
 of alcohol, ceases in from nine to twenty-four hours after the last dose has 
 been taken." 
 
 — "The amount of alcohol eliminated in both breath and urine is a minute 
 fraction only pf the amount of alcohol taken.." 
 
—46— 
 J. MILNER FOTHERGILL, M.D , EDIN. 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO THB CITY OF LONDON HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES 
 
 OF THE CHEST 
 
 (From "Manual of Dietetics."— 1886.) 
 
 — " As to the food value of vinegar it is not easy to find anything positive. 
 No doubt it is changed and oxidized ii; the body ; and it is agreeable to 
 the palate as an addition to many articles of food ; but beyond that it has a 
 further utility. ' It seems not improbable that as vinegar powerfully excites 
 the secretion of the salivary glands, it exerts a similar influence upon tbe 
 stomach, augmenting the flow of gastric juice and thereby increasmg the 
 digestive powers of the organs.' (Stilld). Of its evil effects when taken 
 to excess there is no question." 
 
 — " Condiments are agreeable to the palate, and in moderation, good for 
 the digestive organs." 
 
 — " Whether his (Sir W. Robert's) conclusions will be entirely confirmed 
 by other observations or not, we may feel pretty confident about the main 
 facts. The well known effects of ' high tea ', /. e., tea with a solid meal, seems 
 to find its explanation in the effects of tea retarding digestion and especially 
 salivary digestion. If the digestion of starch be thwarted and a quantity of 
 undigested starch be lying on the stomach, no wonder if pains and still more 
 flatulence be experienced'* 
 
 — " The founder of high tea was certainly not a benefactor of his species ; 
 nor indeed has the introduction of tea from China — a static country — into 
 England, a country of distinct advance, and from thence wherever the Anglo- 
 8axon has spread himself, been an unalloyed good. Tea and damper (a 
 cake of dough without leaven or yeast) may be a meal 6f simple character 
 and easily prepared, but nothing can be said for it in a dietetic point of view. 
 No wonder that indigestion is as common among the stock riders of Australia 
 as among those of Mexico. Tea may be drunk as a refreshing stimulant be- 
 verage, but it is not desirable as a food accessory, especially where the food 
 is largely farinaceous." 
 
 — " That wines and malt liquors have an action upon the stomach which 
 is pleasant and grateful is a fact most people know for themselves. That 
 they stimulate the gastric flow and increase the muscular activity of the 
 stomach is probably the underlying cause of the sense of well-being which 
 accompanies their use." 
 
 — " It (beef tea) is not a food ; it is a stimulant. Grateful and acceptable 
 alike to the palate and stomach, possessing stimulating qualities, beef tea 
 has its value. But, all the same, as regards its food value it is but a jackass 
 in a lion's skin." 
 
 — "The 'tea drinker's heart' is a well recognized malady. People, especi- 
 ally of the female sex, who drink largely of tea and still more when they do 
 not eat a sufficient quantity of food, suffer from many nervous troubles as 
 well as palpitation and neuralgia and present all the phenomena of nerve ex- 
 haustion. The nurse often drinks tea to sustain her when theie is no appe- 
 tite for food until utter exhaustion is the untoward result and a state border- 
 ing on the delirium tremens of alcoholic excess is revealed. The tea drunk- 
 ard is a well-known patient at all hospitals ; and is not unknown in private 
 practice. * ♦ *The cup which cheers but does not inebriate' is not 
 without a toxic influence when taken to excess." 
 
 — " Total abstainers are ranked in battle array on the matter with other 
 observers. These last, and their names are both numerous and weighty, 
 hold that alcohol is largely burnt m the b-Kiy by oxidation and is therefore a 
 'fuel food.' Personally, after very considerable attention to the subject,' I 
 
—47— 
 
 must say that I am among those who hold that the chief portion of the alco- 
 hol ingested undergoes consumption in the body." 
 
 —"As to the food value of alcohol in health it is utterly subordinate to its 
 action on the nervous system. But in ill-health, and especially in acute 
 disease, the question of its food value as well as its value as a stimulant may 
 well engage our attention." 
 
 — "Alcohol requires no digestion." 
 
 —"The well-fed navvy who prefers to do the last hour's work of his 
 laborious day on a pint of good sound ale, has a hard, solid argument on his 
 side." 
 
 — " There are two matters connected with alcohol well worth bearing in 
 mind. — (i) Never have alcohol on the brain when it has work to do. (2) A 
 little alcohol betwixt a man and a past trouble is permissible, but it is not 
 well to put a little alcohol in front of a coming trouble." 
 
 — 'All matters which are oxidizable in the body are ' foods.' — Hermann, 
 
 T. LAUDER IBRUNTON, M.D., D.Sc, F.R.C.P., F.R.S. 
 
 From the " Lancet's^' report of the Lettsomian Lectures, delivered before the 
 Medical Society of London in T885. 
 
 — " Ludwig and Schmidt-Miilheim have shown that peptones when in- 
 gested into the general circulation are poisons, producing loss of coagulabil- 
 ity in the blood and great depression of the circulation, so that even the 
 products of healthy digestion might prove fatal if they passed rapidly into 
 the general circulation." 
 
 — " Alcohol is one of the most powerful stimulants both to secretion and 
 the circulation. Hence the value of the pre-prandial sherry and bitters, of 
 the sherry with soup, of the champagne with its effervescing carbonic acid 
 and of the small glass of liqueur or brandy and the like." 
 
 — " Provided that moderation has been exercised, no harm will result even 
 from a heavy meal. Moderation is a relative term. The symptoms of 
 gastric indigestion — loaded tongue, loss of appetite, tendency to nausea and 
 perhaps even vomiting — on the next day, result if the food has been excessive 
 in quantity and more especially if alcoholic stimulants have been taken in 
 excess. Dr. Beaumont, in the case of Alexis St. Martin, said that there were 
 ' several red spots and patches abraded of the mucous coat, tender and irri- 
 table, when the above symptoms were present.' The gastric juice then 
 seems to have an alkaline reaction and very little or no dige-tive power ; 
 hence undigested lumps may pass on and cause diarrhoea, or the mflam- 
 mation may extend to the intestines ; then dulness and languor with irrita- 
 bility supervene, &c." 
 
 — " Man is a low-pressure engine and works almost all his organs consid- 
 erably under their full power." 
 
 — " Cookery may not only be a powerful moral agent in regard to individu- 
 als, but may be of great service in regenerating a nation. Schools of cook- 
 ery for the wives of workingmen in this country will do more to abolish 
 drunkenness than any number of teetotal associations." 
 
 — " Walking or other exercise after a long day's work and prior to dinner, 
 by exhausting the nervous system, was a potent cause of indigestion,. Effects 
 somewhat similar may be produced by disturbing mental emotions or bodily 
 conditions." 
 
 — " In regard to the use of alcohol in dyspepsia, Dr. Brunton thought St. 
 Paul's advice to Timothy was very good : ' Drmk no longer water, but use a 
 little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine oft^n infirmities.' " 
 
—48— 
 
 (From text of Lettsomian Lectures^ Published i8S6.) 
 
 — "A succession of heavy dinners is no doubt injurious ; but when the 
 organism is exhausted, a good dinner with abundance of wine is sometimes 
 of the greatest possible use." 
 
 — "The alkaloids formed either by normal digestion or by abnormal 
 putrefactive process in the intestine, might read'V pass to the heart, nervous 
 system and kidneys, and cause dangerous or fata> consequences." 
 
 — "A glass of cold water, slowly sipped, has more effect upon the pulse 
 than a glass of brandy swallowed at a draught. It lasts while the sipping 
 is continued, if the sips be taken at short intervals, but it passes away after 
 the sipping ceases. While its effects upon the pulse is thus greater for the 
 time than that of alcohol, it is much less permanent." 
 
 — " When pushed beyond a certain point the appetite rebels, and the ' full 
 soul loatheth the honeycomb ; ' but before this point is reached a good deal 
 more than enough may have been eaten ; and if the same process be re- 
 peated every day serious mischief will undoubtedly result; and the more 
 accommodating the appetite is the more serious will the mischief be. Many 
 a man has been saved by a weak stomach. * * Where the stomach and 
 intestines are more accommodating and continue to digest all that is put 
 into them, the burden of the work is shifted elsewhere, and either the liver 
 fails to reconstruct the new material with which it is deluged or the tissues 
 are poisoned and the overworked kidneys become degenerated." 
 
 — " Heat is a powerful stimulant to the heart, and a cup of hot tea is there- 
 fore much more stimulating and refreshing than a cold one. * '*' The 
 practice of sipping the tea almost boiling hot is, however, apt to bring on a 
 condition of gastric catarrh." 
 
 — "Another cause of imperfect digestion is fatigue. * * But where we 
 are tired the case is very different ; a little roughness in the road will cause 
 us to stumble and an une. pected stone may give us a sudden fall. The 
 nervous system no longer co-ordinates the movements of the various parts 
 of the body so that they no longer work together for a common er.J. The 
 same thing occurs with the various parts of the intestinal canal. * * The 
 acts of chewing and swallowing appear to act as stimulants to the circulation 
 and nervous system, and thus to ensure the proper co-ordination between 
 the functions of the mouth, stomach, intestines and liver. But, if the 
 nervous system be exhausted by previous fatigue, or debilitated by illness, 
 the requisite co-ordination may not take place, and indigestion or biliousness 
 may be the result. Effects, somewhat similar to those of fatigue, may be 
 produced by depressing and disturbing mental emotions and bodily con- 
 ditions." 
 
 — " Some would deny that it ( alcohol ) has any place at all, and assert 
 that it is injurious at all times and in all places. But such assertions are 
 valueless ; they contradict the common experience of mankind and defeat 
 their own end by their extravagance. It is no use to deny the existence of 
 facts, for they will continue to be facts, whether we allow them or not 
 What we have to do is to open our eyes to their existence and regulate our 
 conduct accordingly." 
 
 — " It is impossible to lay down a rule for the quantity necessary, for thi» 
 will vary, not only with every individual but with the individual at different 
 times. The stimulant which is most generally useful is claret." 
 
 — " I do not think it a sin to use alcohol, in moderation, as a luxury, pro- 
 vided always that it be used in moderation, not only for the individual, but 
 for the individual at the particular time at which it is taken, for what is 
 moderation at one time would be excess at another." 
 
—49— 
 
 (From Paper on the Physiological action of Alcohol.) 
 
 —"The latter "(heat, &c.,)" produce permanent coagulation while the coagw 
 lum formed by alcohol readily dissolves again ir water, or in the liquids of 
 the body * * counteracted by the blood which dissolves the albumen as 
 fast as it is coagulated, so that we do not see any opacity of the mucous 
 membrane of the mouth, unless alcohol has been acting upon it for a good 
 while. * * ^ The coagulation of alburiinous fluids by alcohol seems due 
 in the first instance to the simple abstraction of v-ater, and when this is 
 added again they re-dissolve. If the alcohol acts for a long time upon them, 
 however, their constitution seems to undergo a change and they become 
 insoluble in water." 
 
 — "Most substances which possess the power of coagnlnting albumen 
 * * act as astringents when taken internally. * * Alcohol is no ex- 
 ception to the rule and we all know that a person suffering from an attack of 
 diarrhoea usually flies to the brandy bottle for relief before he thinks of con- 
 sulting a medical man." 
 
 — " When the stomach is empty its mucous membrane as seen through a 
 gastric fistula, is pale and only covered with a little mucous. If a little 
 alcohol is now introduced the blood-vessels of the mucous membrane 
 dilate and it becomes of a rosy red color, its glands begin to secrete 
 copiously, beads of gastric juice stand upon the surface, become larger and 
 larger until they can no longer preserve their form, when they* coalesce and 
 run down together in a little stream." 
 
 — " How is it that we take a glass of spirits with our lobster to digest 
 it ? Is not this adding fuel to fire and increasing the irritating effects of the 
 lobster on the stomach by that of alcohol ? By no means — the fibers of 
 lobster are probably in themselves no more irritating than fibers of beef, but 
 only less soluble in gastric juice, so that they retain their form and hardness 
 instead of being reduced to a pulp, and by thus exerting for a longer time 
 a mechanical irritating action upon the stomach, they produce nausea and 
 indigestion, not immediately after they have been swallowed, but in the 
 course of some hours. If, however, an increased secretion of gastric juice 
 be produced by means of a glass of spirits swallowed at the same time with 
 the lobster, we n.av expect that digestion will take place more rapidly, the 
 fibers will be dissolved and the prolonged irritation of the stomach being 
 avoided no nausea will ensue." 
 
 — " In patients convalescent from an acute illness, or weak, delicate anae- 
 mic persons, the food does not sufficiently stimulate the weakened stomachy 
 the secretion of gastric Juice is small and the meal lies for a long time like 
 a weight at the epigastnum. The same is the case with the merchant, the 
 lawyer or the doctor, who comes homn from his counting house, his office or 
 his rounds and sinks exhausted in his easy chair, weary and worn out by a 
 long day's work. In such cases the diminished sensibility of the stomach 
 must be compensated by an extra stimulus and the glass of sherry which to a 
 healthy person not exhausted by over fatigue would be superfluous, will in 
 them restore the normal equilibrium and quicken the otherwise slow and 
 imperfect digestion." 
 
 — " Alcohol taken into the stomach increases the movements of the organ 
 as well as its secretion, and by mixing the contents more thoroughly with the 
 gastric juice accelerates digestion." 
 
 —Of the reflex action on the heart and vessels of lart^e doses of alcohol 
 introduced into the stomach : " The irritation produced by it is conveyed by 
 the different nerves to the medulla oblongata and thence by the vagus to 
 the heart which it either slows or stops entirely. The mode of action on the 
 intestines is not certain. It may simply arrest the normal action of the 
 vaso-motor centre upon the intestinal vessels, or may be conducted down 
 
_ 0— 
 
 to them by vaso-inhibitory nerves. In either case it will cause them to 
 dilate." Of the reflex action of moderate doses : — " The irritation is con- 
 veyed to the medulla, but instead of calling into action the vagus and vaso- 
 inhibitory nerves it excites the accelerating nerves of the heart and probably 
 the vaso-motor nerves of the intestines, thus increasing instead of dimin- 
 ishing the circulation in the body generally. This difference in the reflex 
 action of large and small doses of alcohol upon the heart and vessels 
 corresponds to the different action already noticed, of slight and great 
 irritation of the stomach, mechanical or otherwise, the slight stimulation 
 increasing and the greatdiminishingor arresting the circulation and secretion." 
 
 — " It is the merit of Baudot, Anstic and others who have worked at 
 this subject, to have shown that alcohol is oxidized and is thus to be reckoned 
 as a food and not merely as a drug. But still more satisfactory evidence of 
 its claim to the title of food is afforded by the fact that it will keep up the 
 weight of the body and prolong life when the supply of other food is 
 insufficient or entirely wanting." 
 
 — " From a survey of all the evidence on the subject I think we may con- 
 clude that in moderate doses alcohol undergoes combustion in the body and 
 will supply energy, yield warmth and tend to sustain life in the same way 
 that sugar would do, and is therefore to be reckoned as a food." 
 
 — " In order to prevent any complication, from the reflex action of which 
 we have already spoken, let us suppose that instead of pure brandy, diluted 
 spirits or some light wine has been taken, which will have little or no 
 irritating effect upon the gastric membrane. One of the best possible 
 opportunities of studying the earlier and slighter effects of alcohol is afforded 
 by a public dinner. If we look at our bands and those of our neighbors 
 before going in, especially if the ante-room is somewhat cold, we may find 
 them somewhat pinched looking ; the colour somewhat dusky and distributed 
 in patches instead of being uniform ; the veins very thin, almost like threads. 
 They are of a somewhat blue colour and on emptying them by pressure they 
 fill very slowly, showing that the circulation is languid. After a few glasses 
 of wine, however, their appearance begins to change. The hands now 
 assume a uniform rosy tint, showing that the capillaries are now dilated and 
 filled with bright arterial, instead of dark venous blood ; the veins swell up, 
 become prominent, of a light blue colour almost like arteries ; and when 
 emptied by pressure fill rapidly, showing that the circulation has become 
 very c^uick, and that they, like the capillaries, are now filled with blood 
 which IS tolerably bright, if not quite arterial, instead of the dark blood they 
 previously contained. The hands entirely lose their shrunken look, Ac. 
 This dilation of the vessels, so readily seen in the hands, is not confined to 
 them but occurs generally throughout the body. The warm blood pouring 
 from the interior of the chest and abdomen, over the surface, imparts to it a 
 pleasing glow and a most agreeable feeling of comfort pervades the whole 
 frame. The face shares the general flush, Ac. ♦ * The muscles acquire 
 new strength ; the work which previously fatigued them is done with ease ; 
 the mental faculties become much more acute and new ones, previously un- 
 suspected, may even appear, «&c. * * Provided the liquor has been good, 
 or in other words, provided the alcohol employed has been free from all in- 
 jurious admixtures, all these effects, I believe, may be produced and may 
 pass away without any bad effects." 
 
 — "The slight diminution in the oxidizing power of blood, which alcohol 
 occasions, is many times over compensated by the amplitude of its current." 
 
 — " Exercise, like alcohol, both dilates the vessels and increases the action 
 of the heart. 
 
 — " While alcohol is thus injurious during prolonged exposure to cold, the 
 case is very different after the exposure is over, and its administration may 
 
—51— 
 
 then be very beneficial. * * The cutaneous vessels, so long contracie-. 
 by the cold, will not relax all at once, and the deeper tissues gain heat very 
 slowly, just as they lose it very slowly, by mere conduction through the 
 skin. * * If a little spirits be now taken * ♦ the cutaneous vessels 
 dilated allow the blood to circulate through them, and become warmed by 
 the fire it returns warm to the internal organs. ♦ * At the same time the 
 dilation of the cutaneous vessels opens new channels to the blood which has 
 been pent up in the interior of the body, and thus lessens any tendency to 
 congestion or inflammation of internal organs, so that a glass of hot brandy 
 and water, at the proper time, may possibly prevent bronchitis or pleurisy." 
 — '* Although alcohol during continued exposure is generally injurious, 
 yet in some instances when pain or cramp in the internal organs seems to 
 mdicate more risk from the engorgement than from diminution of the 
 general temperature of the body, it may be beneficial even while the exposure 
 continues." 
 
 PROF. schutz5:nberger. 
 
 DIRECTOR AT THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY AT THE SORBONNE. 
 
 — " The examination of its " (yeast's) " biological functions, studied more 
 particularly in their chemical aspect, shows us clearly that this elementary 
 form of life does not difier in essentials from other elementary cells unpro- 
 vided with chlorophyll, whether isolated or in groups, and belonging to the 
 more complex organs. It breathes, transforms and modifies its proximate 
 principles in a continuous manner, and certainly in the same way as other 
 cells ; like th<;m, it can be multiplied by buds and spores. The only im- 
 portant and decidedly distinctive character which seems to render it a form 
 of life, absolutely apart from other forms in creation, was removed from it by 
 M. Lechartier and M. Bellamy, when these chemists succeeded 'n establish- 
 ing that the cells of fruits, seeds and leaves, and even animal cells are 
 capable of changing sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide." 
 
 — " Admitting, with M. Pasteur, and all those who have preceded and 
 followed him in this inquiry, that alcoholic fermentation, and the other 
 phenomena of the same order, * * are palpable manifestations of certain 
 physiological functions of ferments, or organisms of an inferior order, we may 
 ask, whether the power of esolving glucose into alcohol and carbon dioxide, 
 or of changing it mto '.actic acid, and that again into a mixture of hydrogen, 
 carbon dioxide, and butyric acid, belongs, for each special fermentation, only 
 to a single organism, to a single ferment, or at least to species very nearly 
 allied, as we have seen in the species of the genus Saccharomyces j or 
 whether these reactions are the result of cell life in general, when organic 
 cells are placed under special conditions. On this hypothesis, ferments 
 would have no advantage over other living cells, than that of showing these 
 manifestations in a more energetic and intense degree." 
 
 — " There is no doubt that this thought must have presented itself invol- 
 untarily, as we may say, to the minds of men of science accustomed to reflect 
 on these delicate questions of the reactions in living organisms, but M. 
 Pasteur has the honor of first clearly expressing it, and supporting it by 
 positive experiments. (Pasteur, Comp. Rend, de I'Acad. des Sciences, Vol. 
 75, p. 784.) These experiments were undertaken in order to prove that the 
 alcoholic fermentation of sugar may be excited by other organisms than the 
 cells of Saccharomyces " (yeast) " and notably by the elementary cells of 
 larger plants, such as are found in fruits, leaves, &c. The researches of M. 
 Lechartier and M. Bellamy, on the alcoholic fermentation of fruits ♦ ♦ 
 have been directed to the same end and lead, as we shall see, to this import- 
 
—62— 
 
 Ant consequence, that the elementary organs of plants in general ar« 
 endowed, tliough in a less degree than the cells of yeast, with the property 
 of exciting alcoholic fermentation." 
 
 —"The same investigator" (M. Fremy) "observed the production of 
 alcohol and carbon dioxide in the interior of fruits, such as pears and 
 cherries." 
 
 — " This observer," (M. Lechartier) " placed fruits (pears, apples, lemons, 
 cherries, chestnuts, potatoes, grains of wheat, linseed, currants,) in test jars, 
 connected with smaller test tubes, placed over a mercurial trough. Under 
 these conditions, the whole of the oxygen of the confined air m which the 
 fruits are placed is absorbed. This absorption is accompanied and followed 
 by a considerable production of carbon-dioxide ^as. The disengagement of 
 carbon-dioxide is generally divided into two distinct periods ; in the first, 
 after the absorption of the oxygen gas of the air which remained in the test 
 glasses^ the disengagement of carbon-dioxide proceeds, at first, in a regular 
 and uniform manner, then it slackens, and stops for a certain time, to be 
 afterwards renewed with an increasing rapidity, greater than that observed 
 during the first period. This continues for several months. At this time, if 
 we have taken the precaution to experiment on fruits isolated from each 
 other and kept from contact witt the sides of the vessel containing them ; if, 
 besides, we have been careful to prevent any deposit of liquid on the surface 
 of the fruit, we may ascertain the production of notable quantities of alcohol, 
 easily separated by distillation, after the fruit that has been experimented 
 on has been crushed into pulp ; and what is more, a careful microscopical 
 examination of the parenchyma reveals no trace of alcoholic ferment." 
 
 — " Thus, on November 12, two pears, one weighing 1 57 grammes, and 
 the other 125, were suspended separately, each in a glass jar, well corked, 
 and provided with a tube by which gas might escape. Calcium chloride had 
 been previously placed at the bottom of the jars, to maintain around the 
 fruits an atmosphere unsaturated with the vapour of water. The test jars 
 were opened on July 19 : 1,762 cubic centimetres of gas and 2*62 grammes 
 of alcohol were collected. The pears had preserved their colour, their skin 
 was wrinkled, but not damp. Their consistence and smell were like those 
 of mellow pears. They had lost together 134 grammes of water, yet they 
 still contained it in the proportion of 69 per cent, of their weight. Micro- 
 scopical observations, made at different distances from the centre, could 
 discover no alcoholic ferment." 
 
 — " It appears, then, as these writers say, that at the moment when fruits, 
 seeds, and leaves are detached from the plant which bears them, life is not 
 extinct in the cells of which they are composed. This life goes on, sheltered 
 from the air, consuming sugar and producing alcohol and carbon-dioxide. 
 The moment when carbon-dioxide ceases to be formed, is that at which all 
 the vitality of their cells is 'destroyed. Fruits, serds and leaves may fken 
 remain for an indefinite period m an inert stato if no organic ferment is 
 developed in the interior.' 
 
 — " * Guided by all these facts, I have been gradually led to look upon 
 fermentation as a necessary consequence of the manifestation of life when 
 that life takes place without the direct combustion due to free oxygen.' " — 
 Pasfeur. 
 
 — " They prove irrefragably that vegetable cells can produce alcohol and 
 carbon -dioxide at the expense of sugar, and can act like the yeast of beer, 
 but much less energetically ; but nothing in the description given of th<:ir 
 experiments by M. Pasteur and M. Lechartier can induce the reader to 
 admit that this production of alcohol, this cellular fermentation, only com- 
 mences from the very moment when the cell is either partially or entirely 
 removed from contact with oxygen." 
 
—SB- 
 MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 
 
 — " In no part of Germany do the apothecaries' establishments bring so 
 low a price as in the rich cities on the Rhine, for there wine is the universal 
 medicine for the healthy as well as the sick ; it is considered as milk for the 
 aged." — Baron Liebig. 
 
 — "It is true that thousands have lived without tea or coffee, and daily 
 experience teaches us that under certain circumstances they can be dis- 
 pensed with without disadvantage to the merely animal functions. But it is 
 an error, certainly, to conclude from this that they can be altogether dis- 
 
 Sensed with in reference to their effects ; and it is a question whether, if we 
 ad not tea or coffee, the popular instinct would not seek for and discover the 
 means of replacing them. Science, which accuses us of so much in this 
 respect, will have in the first place to ascertain whether it depends upon 
 sensual or sinful inclinations merely that every people of the globe has 
 appropriated some such means of actmg on their nervous life — from the 
 shore of the Pacific, where the Indian retires from life for a few days in 
 order to enjoy the bliss of intoxication with koka, to the Arctic regions 
 where Kamschatdales and Koriakes prepare an intoxicating beverage from a 
 poisonous mushroom." — Baron Liebig. 
 
 — "As the action of alcohol, in dietetic doses, on the elimination of 
 nitrogen and on the bodily temperature is so utterly negative, it seems 
 reasonable to doubt if alcohol can have the depressing effect on the excretion 
 of pulmonary carbon, which is commonly attributed to it." — Dt . Parkes on 
 his experiments. 
 
 — " There can be no doubt that many have found by perse nal ex perience 
 that they could undergo more bodily and mental fatigue wiien drinking no 
 draught but the crystal lymph, than they could do when using wine, beer, 
 spirits, and whatever else, in the way of beverage, was deemed generous and 
 nourishing. On the other hand no one can look at the positions in which 
 man is placed in civilized countries, such as ours, at the habits which have 
 been engendered from infancy amongst the population, at the great variety 
 of constitutions and states of health amongst individuals, and at the wear 
 and tear of mind and body, so universal amid the struggles and competition 
 characteristic of go-ahead communities, without seeing that stimulants must 
 be resorted to by many, in spite of everything that can be said against them. 
 And amid this endless variety of circumstances and contingencies in which 
 we are placed, and the sudden prostrations of mind or body to which we are 
 liable, to say that tea, coffee, wine, beer and spirits are only injurious and 
 never of service, would be to contradict an experience almost universal 
 from the Deluge to our own time. We would say, then, that stimulants 
 being used * * the weaker only should be so habitually, and always in 
 moderation. The stronger should be reserved for emergencies. The 
 habitual use of ardent spirits is altogether to be deprecated, even by non- 
 teetotallers. When used i\ should be in some emergency, when they may 
 serve a temporary purpose, but there the use of them should cease. There 
 is, and can be, no valid objection against the moderate use of pure or light 
 wines, or yet against wholesome beers. They do not tempt to excess and 
 they refresh and exhilarate. Brandied wines are open to the same objection 
 as ardent spirits in a rather less degree. They should be used but 
 sparingly. — The injurious results flowing from the use of narcotic and 
 stimuli tmg beverages are singularly aggjravated by the adulterations prac- 
 tised in regard to them. — Tea and coffee, those '■ slow poisons^ of which so 
 much was written pro and con, when the present century was first looming 
 -in the distance, by the 'Sir Sapients' of that day. — We are taught that 
 
—64— 
 
 ' every creature is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with 
 thanksgiving.' Philosophy confirms this teaching."— ^.«Wj Management 
 of Health. 
 
 — " Much discussion has been expended on its elimination and combustion, 
 and some years ago the hopes of the ' temperance ' agitators were much 
 raised by the important results of experiments put forward by two French 
 observers which seemed to prove that all the ingested alcohol is given out 
 unchanged in the urinary and other secretions. Anstie and Dupr6, however, 
 showed the fallacy of this and pointed out that a substance is eliminated in 
 the urine of the most rigid abstainers which cannot be distinguished from 
 alcohol, and it has since been asserted that this may actually be alcohol 
 derived from converted liver sugar." — Dr. Farguharson, M. /?., Edin. ; 
 F.R.C.P., London. 
 
 — " On the other hand it is necessary to remember how often the whole 
 question must practically be approached from a totally different aspect ; how 
 often alcohol constitutes nop the single feather which distracts the sleepy 
 savage, but the bed of down which restores the exhausted man. It may 
 distnrb a balance exquisitely adjusted and yet, in the main, counterpoise a 
 scale heavily laden with disadvantages. If alcohol exhilarates, imparts 
 comfort and energy, counteracts fatigue, hunger and unrest, then it does in 
 effect, increase the capacity for work of those who take it under such circum- 
 stances ; and affords, in so far. a direct benefit and advantage." — Dr. Brinton. 
 
 — " Let it" (alcohol) "be taken never as a stimulant or preparation for work, 
 but as a defence against the injury done by work, whether of mind or body. 
 For example ; it is best taken with the evening meal, or after toil. Let the 
 increase in the desire for and power of digesting food be the guide and limit 
 to the consumption of all alcoholic liquids. Let the forms be such as contain 
 the least proportion of fusil oil. Let all with an hereditary tendency to 
 hysteria or other functional disease of the nervous system refrain from its 
 use altogether, even though as yet they are in good health.'' — Dr. T. King 
 Chambers. 
 
 — " All nations that have led the van in the march of civilization have 
 been addicted to drink — ay, and addicted to drunkenness. The Jews, the 
 Greeks, the Romans, the Germans, the Swedes, the Danes — not to mention 
 the English, all round the globe, are amply attested by their own native 
 literature to have been distinguished above their contemporaries in this way. 
 It is true that some reactionary races, famous as conquerors, have been 
 abstinent, but they and their faiths are dying out and the coloring they have 
 given to civilization is even now fainter than that left by the robnster races 
 a thousand years before they were heard of." — Dr. T. King Chambers. 
 
 — Referring to medium quantities of alcohol : " There is nothing, there- 
 fore, to prevent us from assuming that alcohol is a food, though as to its 
 proper action we are yet in doubt ; so completely is it assimilated thai no 
 well defined traces of its products have so far been noted." — R. A. IVi/thaus, 
 Af.D^ Prof, of Physiology, Universities of New York and Vermont, in his 
 " General Medical Chemistry," 1881. » 
 
 — " When diluted alcohol may be a food, a medicine, or a poison accord- 
 ing to the dose. Taken in moderation with food it aids digestion." — Prof. 
 Witthaus, 1881, 
 
 — " In this holy microcosm" (the human body) " are represented the kin^- 
 d(Hns of nature, only immeasurably more perfectly. * * The next is 
 the still more remarkable discovery of alcohol, representing wine. I hope, 
 therefore, I shall be forgiven by those gentlemen who practise and preach 
 total abstinence for saying that there is no such person as a teetotaller, in the 
 literal and scientific sense of the word, on the face of the earth." — J. P, 
 Levns, M.D.^ University of Brussels^ L.R.C.P. Edin.j M.R.C.S. Eng. 
 
—55- 
 
 — " After noting how some of Dr. B. W. Richardson's medical theories 
 had been exploded, Dr. Lewis states his belief that Dr. Richardson's theory 
 about alcohol depressing the system has just as little truth. He sums up 
 * I prescribe total abstinence as an extreme remedy for a desperate disease, 
 but those that are whole need not a physician — nor the remedy.'" — Prof. 
 Sidney Ringer. 
 
 — " To speak," as Dr. B. W. Richardson does " of the danger of producing 
 such slight excitement of the hearts' action, is an abuse of science ; if it were 
 true every exeiiion, every pleasing emotion, nay, all activity of every sort, 
 would tend to shorten our days, and they alone would be wise and happy 
 who exist in torpor." — Dr. Greenfield. 
 
 — " The use of alcohol in every age and by every nation in the world de- 
 monstrates that alcohol satisfies a natural instinct ; that it literally refreshes 
 the system exhausted by physical or mental, labour and that U not only 
 
 3uickens the appetite for food and aids in digestion, but that it opens the 
 igestive organs by limiting the amount of solid food which would otherwise 
 be required. But in accomplishing this salutary end, it does not act as a 
 mere condiment ; it is also a food ; in this sense at least, that it offers itself 
 in the blood as a substitute for tissues which would otherwise be destroyed. 
 ' Alcohol,' says Moleschott, ' is the savings bank of the tissues. He who eats 
 little and drinks alcohol in moderation retains as much in his blood and tis- 
 sues as he who eats more and drinks no alcohol.' It is certain that of any 
 amount of alcohol ingested, not in excess of what the system requires, only a 
 minute fraction can be recovered from any of the secretions ; the remainder 
 undergoes metamorphosis and is eliminated in a new form. The notion that 
 alcohol is unassimilated, and is chiefly eliminated through the lungs rested 
 upon this peculiar fact that all the alcoholic beverages contain ethereal ele- 
 ments which are so eliminated, and thus the breath is affected. * * Alco- 
 hol is not exhaled by the lungs or skin, or excreted by the urine, unless the 
 body be supersaturated with it" — Anstie and Brintz, in U. S. National Dis- 
 pensary, 1884. 
 
 — " The first pre-requisite for the acquisition of a sound knowledge of the 
 dietetics of the sick is to have clear ideas on the origin and meaning of the 
 dietetic customs of the healthy ; for it is obvious that the proper diet for the 
 sick must be some purposive modification of the diet of the healthy." — Prof. 
 Sir W. Roberts, Cardiff, 2883. 
 
 — " It is important to remark that the main dietetic customs of all coun- 
 tries grow up and are established for the benefit of the robust and healthy, 
 of the sober and temperate and those of mean average constitution ; in other 
 words for those who are bearing the burden of the day and fighting the bat- 
 tle of life. These form the great mass and bulk of the adult population upon 
 whose bodily and mental efificiency national progress and ascendancy de- 
 pend, h. good many individuals and even entire families may not find these 
 customs in certain particulars beneficial to their exceptional tendencies or 
 weaknesses. Thev may even find in them a source of destruction to their 
 health and life, but here as elsewhere, and indeed universally in nature's 
 operations the individual is sacrificed to the welfare of the community." — Sir 
 W. Roberts, Cardiff, 1883. 
 
 — " In taking dietetic customs as objects of study, it is obvious that widely 
 disseminated customs, followed by many races and by vast masses of popu- 
 lation have a deeper and broader significance than customs limited to a few 
 races or to small communities." — Sir IV. Roberts, Cardiff, i88j. 
 
 — Referring to the dietetic customs of Britain and Western Europe, Prof. 
 Roberts says : " Alongside the main dietetic habits formed for the operative 
 mass of the community, there are secondary habits formed for the use of 
 infants and children, and for persons advanced in years. With regard to in- 
 
—66— 
 
 fants and children we observe that they are not allowed to partake of the 
 accessory articles of food which form so conspicuous a part of the dietary of 
 their elders. They are allowed neither the use of alcoholic beverages nor of 
 tea or coffee — except gradually as they draw toward adult age — but are fed 
 on simple nutrients— milk, cooked cereals and more or less meat. With 
 advancing years the diet undergoes certain modifications ; the consumption 
 of meat is, I tliink, somewhat lessened, and the consumption of soups, 
 milk, and cooked cereals proportionally increases." — Sir IV. Roberts, 
 Cardiff, iSSj. 
 
 — " With regard to alcohol this modification of diet seems to vary with the 
 preceding practice of the individual. Persons who have been in the habit, 
 during their prime, of taking a full allowance of stimulants gradually diminish 
 the proportion as age creeps on and their nutritive processes decline in 
 elasticity and power. Sometimes the indications of this natural tendency 
 are neglected or resisted by the unwary : they imagine that the quantity of 
 stimulants thej^ tolerated with impunity during the vigour of mannood can- 
 not hurt them in later life. This is a serious mistake, the commission of 
 which tends to accelerate senile decay, and to provoke fatally tending organic 
 changes in the large organs of the body and in the arterial system. On the 
 other hand, persons who, during their youth and prime have only used 
 alcohol occasionally or have abstained entirely from it, find advantage in 
 their declining years in a more systematic use of alcoholic beverages." — Sir 
 W. Roberts, Cardiff, 1885. 
 
 — " Not very long ago those unhappy folk who go wearily and sadly 
 because, forsooth, they are waxing fat, were warned to leave off drinking 
 largely and to minimize the quantity of liquid they consumed. Never before, 
 perhaps, was there a more mischievous fad imposed on a too credulous 
 public than this reduction of the amount of fluid takem * * Take, for 
 example, the uric acid ; tHis excrementitious product requires not less than 
 eight thousand times its bulk of water at the temperature of the blood to 
 hold it in solution, and if it be not dissolved it rapidly crystallizes with more 
 or less disastrous consequences, as in gout, gravel and probably many other 
 less well recognized troubles. * * Three and a half pints should be 
 consumed by any person in the twenty-four hours, and where the body is 
 bulky four or even five pints should be the average."— Annotation in London 
 " Lancet,'* Nov. 25, 1885. 
 
 — Referring to the increase of drunkenness in France, especially northern 
 France, reported to the French Senate, an annotation in the London Lancet 
 says : — " To remedy the evil it is proposed to increase the tax on alcohol and 
 to impose more stringent regulations with respect to wine shops. The 
 phylloxera is undoubtedly in a great measure responsible for the increase of 
 drunkenness in France. Given cheap and pure wine, there would probably 
 be but little alcoholism. Drunkenness is almost unknown in wine-growing 
 countries, and intemperance in France prevails principally in the northern 
 departments, where the vine cannot grow. What is more particularly 
 wanted is the stringent application of laws against the sale of bad alcoholics 
 and adulterated wine, combined with facilities of transit, so that pure wine 
 may be brought within reach of the poorer classes. When once the palate 
 is accustomed to natural and wholesome wines, the intoxicants that do so 
 much harm will be considered too coarse to be drunk with any sort of 
 pleasure. A Spanish peasant from the vineyards of Andalusia, accustomed 
 to the unsophisticated Manzanilla or the Montilla of his native country would 
 find the schiedam drunk in Northern Europe inexpressibly nasty. It is 
 difficult to prevent drinking by act of Parliament, but the Legislature may 
 seek to check fraud and adulteration." — Annotation in London "Lancet^ 
 
 June 85^ 1887. ,.-„-; ::.,.;. ^; ,.i ;,. .j' . .. . w ,^ 
 
—67— 
 
 — " While the subjects were creating a demand for nourishment by exer- 
 cise and starvation diet" (very moderate diet) "there was no ascertainable 
 elimination of alcohol by the kidneys. When on the other hand the demand 
 for nourishment was reduced to a minimum by rest and feeding, the elimin- 
 ation of alcohol by the kidneys was easily demonstrated." (The test was the 
 chromic acid reaction.) * * " Unless our results have been rendered falla- 
 ceous by errors of practical manipulation, which I can hardly think probable 
 our experiments certainly indicate in the clearest manner that alcohol, in small 
 doses at all ev "ts, is a food."— Z>n T. IV. Thompson, M.R.C.S., April, 1885. 
 
 — "Almost all persons in fairly normal health may partake of sound and 
 ripe fruit in greater or less amount. Among exceptions may be noted the 
 gouty and rheumatic diathesis." 
 
 — " Th(B physiological opinion opposed to these arguments is, that while 
 alcohol, like ether similar substances, has, in large quantities, a narcotic, a 
 devitalizing effect, it has in small quantities a stimulating effect, between 
 which and narcotism there is a difference, not of degree, but of kind. The 
 stimulating effect is precisely the same with that of highly nutritious and 
 easily digested food ; as regards the vital functions, it differs from the effect 
 of ordinary food only in the rapidity of production. It does not substitute 
 an abnormal for the normal action of the bodily organs ; it restores their 
 natural functions; and it is capable of rectifying either deficient or redun- 
 dant functional action. The only positive difference of effect between 
 ordinary food and alcoholic stimulation is that the latter does not to any 
 great extent add to the bulk of the body. There is no rffcoil or reaction 
 after it, except that, as in the case of ordinary food, the effect is exhausted 
 after a time. There is nothing to support the belief in a reaction, except 
 the depression involved in the gradual recovery from the narcotic effect of a 
 large quantity of alcohol, but between the narcotic effect of a large and the 
 stimulating effect of a small quantity there is, as already said, a difference 
 of kind — their connection is merely accidental. And the experience of man- 
 kind — 'he fact that moderate drinking does not usually pass into excessive 
 drinking — sufficiently shows that it is not found necessary to increase the 
 quantity. Since stimulation restores the natural functions, it, of course, is 
 capable of removing the consequences of functions being perverted. Thus, 
 it is maintained, that among other things, it gives relief from pain and mus- 
 cular spasms, reduces the circulation when too rapid, produces healthy sleep, 
 and removes general debility as well as the fatigue of the special organs. 
 * * If these views are correct it follows that alcohol taken cautiously 
 and in small quantities — the quantiites varying with the circumstances and 
 with the constitution of the individual, may be used not only with safety but 
 with advantage." — Chambers's Encyclopcedia. 
 
 — "it is not disputed that many persons live in health without them — that 
 persons having an abundance of wholesome food, not overworked, living in 
 well constructed houses, and in wholesome air, can usually dispense with 
 them. But when some or all of these conditions are wanting, which in 
 towns at any rate, happens in all but exceptional cases, it is alleged that a 
 nearer approach to health is made when a moderate use is made of alcohol." 
 — Chambers's Encyclopcedia. 
 
 — "Dr. Richardson 'of course' advocated total abstinence. We pro- 
 nounce in favor of extreme moderation." — British Medical Journal. 
 
 — " Lewis Cornaro, who was a corpulent, gouty man, put himself upon a 
 spare dietary, viz., twelve ounces of food, mainly vegetables, and fourteen 
 ounces of light wine daily ; and on this lived in good health for over half a 
 century." — Dr. Milner Fothcrgill. 
 
 — " Some generous wine will very commonly be found to agree well 
 with persons with old standing heart or lung mischief and will help them at 
 
—88— 
 
 their meals. In attacks of dyspnoea some alcohol as a stimulant is of incal- 
 culable value. As cordials alcoholic compounds are excellent." — Dr. Milner 
 Fothergill. 
 
 — " The Englishman who will persist in the dietary and especially ' the 
 roast beef of old England ' in tropical climates sooner or later falls ill with 
 some hepatic trouble," — Dr. Milntr Fother^ill. 
 
 — " There can be no doubt that a large proportion of the diseases of the 
 digestive apparatus which are so fatal among European residents in India 
 and other tropical climates result from the habitual ingestion of a much 
 larger quantity of food than * ♦ the system requires." — Dr. W. B. 
 Carpenter. 
 
 — " Speaking of a dietary which embraces meat three times daily, two 
 glasses of wine and two pmts of ale, Dr. Milner Fothergill says : — * The 
 dietary is that of well-fed, prudent navvy who diets himself so as to earn the 
 best wages he can." 
 
 - '• With persons of weak digestion, it is a good rule to eat less and 'o be 
 
 [>articular about the food bein^ easily dige&tible, when tired. Perhaps to eat 
 ess and take a little extra wme is the best plan to adopt." — Dr. Milner 
 Fothergill. 
 
 — " Referring to the diet of lymphatic persons. Dr. Coombe says : 
 ' Aromatics and spices, however, are useful, as is also wine in moderation 
 and conjoined with adequate exercise." 
 
 — " The stomach of one man is offended and irritated by wine and his 
 digestion impeded, whilst the appetite of another is improved and \r^ diges- 
 tion facilitated. The former is better without alcohol and he comes \w\jo the 
 category of fools if he takes it ; but the latter has no claim to the character 
 of physician if he abstains at the bidding of a mistaken fanatic or mere 
 theorist."— Z>r. ./. R. Bennett, LL.D., F.R.S., President Royal Coi'ege 
 of Physicians. 
 
 — " I believe that alcohol has a special advantage over other articleii of 
 diet in restoring exhausted nervous power and repairing the waste that h-i-s 
 taken place. I believe alcohol to be among the gifts of God accorded to 
 man for therapeutic as well as other beneficial purposes — to make glad his 
 heart and strengthen his nerves." — Dr. J. R. Bennett. 
 
 — " There are no statistics to prove that abstinence from the moderate use 
 of alcohol is attended with unusual length of life or improvement of health. 
 — Alfreds. Garod, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. 
 
 — In a sketch of the life of the late Prof. E. L. Youmans, published in the 
 Popular Science Monthly, March, 1887, Prof. Youmans' sister thus refers to 
 " Alcohol and the Constitution of Man," a book published by Prof. Youmans 
 in 1853, and " based upon the view that alcohol is in all cases a brain poison." 
 " The temperance people urged him to make a book of it, which he accord- 
 ingly did, but further examination of the subject made him uncertain of his 
 ground and the work was allowed to ^o out of print." This long since 
 repudiated book is still, however, quoted m favor of universal total abstinence. 
 
 — " Grapes bear on their surface all that is necessary to '\iuse saccharine 
 water to ferm^t even when protected from the air, — Schiitzenber^er. 
 
 — In Weston's walk of 100 miles in 22 hour; 39 minutes — his best record 
 — he drank, during the last r>art of the waJk, three ounces of champagne and 
 two and a half ounces of brandy. In his famous walk of 3i7>ii miles in five 
 days, his pulse rose from an average below 80 previous to the walk to 109 on 
 the third day, fluctuating a great deal, and the temperature of his blood 
 actually fell from 99°. 5, the day previous to the walk, to 95*.3 on the first 
 day and 94*.8 on the second. 
 
 — " There is good ground for believing that alcohol lessens the excretion 
 of nitrogenous material from the body. It would seem most probable that 
 
—60— 
 
 this is achieved by checking i.jsue waste, Mt it may be that alcohol * ♦ 
 simply renders the digestion of the food more perfect, and lessens the pro- 
 duction of food urea."— 6'. S. Dispensatory^ iS8j. 
 
 — " Alcoholismus chronicus is very rare in our hospital, because our la- 
 bouring people drink beer. Distilled liquors are used very seldom. We 
 have had in the last year (1883) in our hospital nearly ten thousand patients, 
 but only twenty-one casjs of alcoholism." — Dr. Von IJemssen, Director of 
 the General Hospital 0/ Munich. 
 
 — " At one time in my life I regarded alcohol as the cause of half the cases 
 of insanity, because I had been taught that such was the fart. Now I be- 
 lieve, of course speaking from my experience alone, it produces a very small 
 amount of such disease. My error was and is a common one, and is one 
 into which both the profession and the laity fall."— Z?r. A. I. Thomas, In- 
 diana Hospital for the Insane., 1 884. 
 
 — •* However willing to admit drunkenness as a frequent source of physi- 
 cal disease, I very much doubt the truth of the reiterated assertion that it is 
 often the immediate cause of insanity, and still more of general paralysis." — 
 Dr. Thos. T. Austin, Medical Officer of the Bethnal House Asylum. 
 
 — " The number of insane persons admitted to this department of the hos- 
 pital from the time it was opened in October, 1859, to the first of January, 
 1884. was 2,212. Of these 2,212 persons the insanity was caused by intem- 
 pctdiice in 285 cases. Of (hese 285 the following number would sooner or 
 later have become insane from dther causes, 56." — S. Preston Jones, Med. 
 Supt. Pennsylvania Hoipital for the Insane. 
 
 — "This hospital was opened Nov. i, 1848. From that date to Oct. 31, 
 1870, there were 4,431 persons admitted. In that number were 147 cases 
 attributed to alcoholism— 143 men and 4 women." — Wnt. B. JHletcher, 
 Supt. Indiana Hospital for the Insane. Supt. Fletcher's tables from 187 1 to 
 1873 show 6,934 admissions, of which 195, or 2"8 per ceni., are attributed 
 to alcoholism. In 1883 there were 698 admissions, of which 17, or 2*15 per 
 cent., are ascribed to alcoholism. 
 
 — In returns from 54 leading asylums of the United States, covering 36,- 
 973 patients, 2,588 cases are ascribed to alcohol, or 6*99 per cent. The number 
 thus classed embraces m the returns of many asylums cases where several 
 causes, including intemperance, co-operate. — 1883. 
 
 — The admissions to the Bakkehus and Mathison Asylum for Idiots, 1871 
 to 1880, were 196, of whom 19 were born of intemperate parents. — Danish 
 Bureau of Statistics, Report on Inebriety, 1882. 
 
 — Of 500 cases treated in King's County, N. Y., Asylum for Inebriates 
 (pop, of county in 1880, 599,495), the necessity for medical treatment is at- 
 tributable to distilled liquors in 441 cases , to distilled and fermented liquors, 
 in 35 cases ; to fermented liquors, in 24 cases. 
 
 — Warden Murray, of King's County, N. Y., Poor House, gives the history 
 of 671 indigent male persons supported at the expense of the county. The 
 cause of dependence was : Physical disability in 457 cases ; want of work 
 in 99 cases ; intemperance in 72 cases ; vagrancy in 33 cases ; senility in 10 
 cases. Nationality of persons whose intemperance caused pauperism : 
 Irish, 38 ; American, 28 ; German, 3 ; English, 1 ; Scotch, i. 
 
 — " Is it not, indeed, probable that were all brain stimulants other than 
 ordinary foods common to man and other animals at once and forever an- 
 nihilated or the alcoholic varieties alone withheld from common use, that the 
 result would be in the course of time deleterious to mankind by reason of 
 brain deterioration resulting from a loss of such food aiid a consequent grad- 
 ual (no matter how slow) return of the races to a more common level at the 
 expense of those who have accomplished the greatest departures therefrom ?" 
 Dr. Everts. 
 
—GO— 
 
 — " He (Dr Wm. Sharpe) finds that the vine and the product of the vine 
 have been in olden times more intimately associated with man's intellectual 
 growth and development than with his purely physical wants. The stimu- 
 lus of alcohol when judiciously controlled ' always leads to active and higher 
 mental efforts on the part of individuals,' thus pioducing a contrary effect to 
 that of other stimulants, which tend rather ' to bring out a contented state of 
 dreamy inaction,' and to repress effort. ' To understand fully,' he says, ' the 
 beneficial action of alcohol as regards mental development we must first get 
 a clear view of the value of those states of cerebral excitement which most 
 people, though in varying degrees, experience something of, rising as they 
 do, mentally above the level of what may be called their ordinary every day 
 thoughts. * * The stimulus produced by alcoholic liquors, if not nearly 
 of so high an order, is more easily called into play, while in a practical sense 
 the latent ability being present it is more vigorous and effective as regards 
 actual work. Hence the value of alcohol as a stimulant lies in the fact that 
 it produces artificially anu sustains temporarily that state of mental excite- 
 ment or exaltation necessary to the conception and projection, though not to 
 the detailed elaboration of those enduring works that whether in the do- 
 mains of art, architecture or engineering, are remarkable for toldness of exe- 
 cution, originality and grandeur of design , and farther, that it is the only 
 manageable stimulant which when used in moderation and in the form of 
 wine or spirits is not only not injurious, but conduces to the general health 
 while it favours both mental and physical development. Dr. Sharpe also 
 assigns to alcohol a beneficial agency in stimulating genial thoughts and 
 feelings." — Popular Science Monthly, April, 1884. 
 
 — The following remarkable records of pedestilanism are given in the 
 latest Sporting manual. Match for championship of the world, $2,500 each, 
 April 2-7, 1877 : D. O'Leary (non-abstainer), 519 miles 1585 yards — time, 
 141 h. 6 min. 10 sees. ; E. P. Weston, 5 10 miles. P. Fitzgerald, (beer) 610 miles 
 in 141 hrs.: Weston, 550 miles no yards in 141 h. 55 min. 10 sees.; Mark 
 C. Rowell (non-abstainer) and E. P. Weston — Weston gave up at 198 milesf 
 and Rowell stopped after covering 280 miles in 2 days 15 hrs. 17 min. Wes- 
 ton, I977>4 miles, resting Sundays, and walking on country roads, in looo 
 consecutive hours. Within the past few years the notable feat of walking 
 5306 miles by Fitzgerald on beer against 5000 miles in 100 hours by Weston 
 on »vater was accomplished. 
 
 — Dr. Koch, the noted German discoverer of the comma baccilus of chol- 
 era, is reported to state that the bacilla will not live in beer. During the last 
 severe epidemic of cholera in Vienna it is stated that not one brewers' em- 
 ployee died. 
 
 — Dr. Anstie (" Stimulants and Narcotics ") gives a detailed account 
 of a man treated in Westminster Hospital who for about twenty years lived 
 on nothing but gin and water (unsweetened) and a finger length of bread per 
 day, generally toasted, and a few pipes of tobacco. His average daily al- 
 lowance of gin was one bottle. He was eighty- three years of age when ad- 
 mitted to the hospital for treatment for a respiratory complaint. 
 
 — " Instances are not very uncommon of men drinking, for years in succes- 
 sion, as much as a pint of spirits and from half a gallon to a gallon of beer a 
 day. The large majority of such persons, as far as my experience goes, live 
 upon a very inadequate quantity of solid food, even when their exertions en- 
 tail constant and strenuous bodily exertion " — Dr. F. E. Anstie (Stimulants 
 and Narcotics). 
 
 — " I have dwelt on thi? fact with regard to alcohol, and have detailed ex- 
 periments which exemplify it, because I am anxious to impress on the reader's 
 mind an important inference which appears to follow inevitably from it, 
 
-(31— 
 
 namely, that alcohol was never designed by the wisdom of Providence to be 
 employed by the human race as an anasthetic at all, but for the sake of those 
 stimulant Qualities of its non-narcotic doses which are to a certain extent 
 also shared by small doses of aether and chloroform. It seems as if the for- 
 mer were intended to be the medicine o'' those ailments which are engen- 
 dered of the necessary every-day evils of civilized life, and has, therefore, 
 been made attractive to the senses and easily retained in the tissues, and in 
 various ways approving itself to our judgment as a food ; while the others 
 which are more rarely needed for their stimulant properties, and are chiefly 
 valuable for their beneficent temporary poisonous action, by the help of 
 which painful operations are sustamed with impunity, are in great measure 
 deprived of these attractions and of their facilities for entering and remain- 
 ing in the system." — Dr. Anstie (Stimulants and Narcotics). 
 
 — " I have never been able, for instance, to perceive the logical necessity 
 of the inference that because a large excretion of carbonic acid in the breath 
 coincides with the digestion of certain undoubted foods, the alimentary value 
 of the latter was to be considered as directly proportionate to such in- 
 crease." — Dr. Anstie (Stimulants arid Narcotics). 
 
 — " The intemperance of the tcetotalleri; has greatly hindered the cause of 
 temperance. Their denunciations of moderation and moderate drinking have 
 estranged whole classes of men who would have brought strength and help 
 to their cause. Their dogmatism about what constitutes food and what 
 poison and about the injurious effects of every drop of alcohol has excited 
 ridicule and laughter rather than intelligent interest. By such an attitude 
 the medical profession has been prevented from co-operation with those who 
 see in the drunkenness of the country a gigantic evil and disgrace, to be 
 remedied at any cost short of that of talking nonsense." — Editorial in " Lon- 
 don Lancet r 1884. 
 
 — " I think we have a number of cases of which mania h potu, or acute 
 mania from drink is the type, in which the alcohol acts as an excitant of 
 morbid cerebral function. In these cases there is almost invariably a strong 
 hereditary tendency, or a previous history of brain disease ; and the alcohol 
 lights a train of mischief already laid, and which might have been exploded 
 by any other moral or physical cause of mental excitement." — Dr. Buck- 
 nill, 1878. 
 
 — " Consider the great part which grief and anxiety, worry and overstrain, 
 play in the production of insanity, the depressing effects of poverty and the 
 faihng struggle for existence, of misery in all its forms, and then consider to 
 how great an extent the use of alcohol oftentimes tends to make the burthen 
 of life bearable, if not by stimulating the powers, at least by deadening the 
 sensibilities of men ; and I think you will agree with me that by the occa- 
 sional help of strong drink a man may sometimes be able to weather that 
 point of wretchedness upon which his sanity would otherwise have been 
 wrecked." — Dr. Bucknill ( Habitual Drunkenness and Insane Drunkards.) 
 
 — " Alcohol in its physiological action, is atriptic, retarding the disintegra- 
 tion of the tissues, especially of the nerve tissue ; and when the brain is 
 wearing itself into madness, alcohol, at the right time, and in the right 
 doses, without doubt, sometimes checks the ebb-tide of reason." — Dr. Buck- 
 mil (Habitual Drunkenness and Insane Drunkards.) 
 
 -^^^^Vt^itiT^iS^ 
 
I, ' 
 
 
.^•'^r 
 
 
 BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON, M.A., M.D., LL.D., 
 
 F.R.S., F.R,C,P 
 
 Honorary Physician to the Royal Literary Fund and Author of the Cantor 
 
 Lectures on Alcohol. 
 
 The acknowledged head of the medical teetotallers is Dr. B. W. Richard- 
 son, whose Cantor lectures, delivered in 1874-5, have, through republication 
 and industrious circulation by various teetotal organizations, been widely 
 disseminated throughout Anglo- Saxondom, and have been utilized on plat- 
 form and in pulpit and press in the service of prohibition. A text-book for use 
 in the schools, by the same author, shortly followed the Cantor lectures, and 
 through the efforts of various teetotal organizations has been forced into the 
 schools of several American States and Canadian Provinces under the spe- 
 cious pretence of being ''Scientific Temperance." The text-book is an 
 adaptation of the Cantor lectures. Both works are of an extraordinary char- 
 acter : the methods adopted suggest mote than the mere error and one- 
 sideness vaXr which an extreme man might fall. In order to support uni- 
 versal total abstinence the effects of excess are by inference transferred to 
 temperate use, as if the action of different quantities was the same in kind and 
 differed only in degree — a most fallacious idea. Certain physiological 
 actions are exaggerated and misrepresented, while incidental counteractive 
 actions are ignored. Physiological phenomena pertaining to the action of 
 r>any kinds of food, in common with alcohol, and generally beneficial in 
 their moderate manifestation, are represented in excessive exhibition with a 
 view to su£[gesting false inferences. In fact, the physiology of these books 
 is very similar in kind to that of a certain well-known class of alarmist quack 
 advertisements, which fulfil their purpose of impressing the ill-informed. 
 Were the same kind of reasoning applied to common articles of diet many 
 people would eat their meals in tear and trembling, for there is scarcely any- 
 thing which may not be, with some constitutions, and with most people under 
 certain circumstances, even when indulged in in moderation, productive of 
 seriou? injury. Salt, beef, vinegar, could by the methods cleverly and ingen- 
 iously, if unscrupulously, applied in these books, be shown to be most in- 
 jurious articles of diet, capable of leading to dire results. Sugar could, and 
 with a measure of reason, be credited, even where used in comparative moder- 
 ation, with producing fatty degeneration of the heart, liver and kidneys, 
 apoplexy, paralysis, indigestion, nervous irritability, insanity, crime and 
 misery, and the medical evidence to make a case strong enough to impress 
 and even convince millions that it is a dangerous article of diet would be 
 readily forthcoming were it called for to aid in the propagation of a popular 
 moral " fad." Rest, exercise, study, heat, cold, could all be represented m an 
 alarming aspect, simply by the application of methods analogous to those 
 adopted by Dr. Richardson, who has been brought into deserved ridicule in 
 consequence in the scientific world, and whose notoriety, achieved almost 
 entirely by teetotal laudation, is mistaken by many for fame. 
 
 The errors and perversions — historical, physiological, and in regard to fact 
 — the false coloring and false suggestion, the suppression of important 
 truths, and the direct misstatements to be found in Dr. Richardson's books, 
 would require longer space for discussion than our limits will permit. The 
 direct contradiction of many of these errors will be found in reading the 
 
— 11 — 
 
 great physiologists of the age, while many will be at once apparent to 
 intelligent men even without much acquaintance with physiological 
 science, -v e append a few extracts from Dr. Richardson's " Temperance " 
 Text-Book as examples of the misstatement, silliness and prejudice 
 sought to be imposed on our children in the name of " Scientific Temper- 
 ance," leaving it to the common sense of the reader to judge whether an 
 author capable of penning these extracts can have the disposition or capac- 
 ity to carefully weigh facts and theories in such ' a manner as to make his 
 opinions of any scientific value. 
 
 [NoTB— The words in brackets are not in the Text-Book.— Ed] 
 
 — " In all my experience I never once knew a person who liked the first 
 taste of any one of the drinks we are now thinking about. This fact seems 
 to me to show clearly that it was never intended that human beings should 
 take these drinks regularly every day." — p. 8. (Oysters, tomatoes— bah ! A 
 limited experience only could fail to notice that many persons, even child- 
 ren, relish wine at first taste, and some other liquors as well.) 
 
 — " Although there are so many drinks made and sold as beers, wines and 
 spirits none of them are fitted to the first natural wants and desires of man. 
 I gather from the facts before us that the said drinks are therefore not 
 wanted at all." — p. 8. (Nor for the same reason tea, coffee, &c.?) 
 
 — " If a little child can live, and grow up, and learn, and work, and play, 
 and be very healthy, and pretty, and strong, and happy without these drinks 
 a man and woman can live without them equally well." — p. 8. (Applied to 
 other things, how would this logic answer ?) 
 
 — " It is right lO remember that the same rule applies to all the lower 
 animals, and that, too, through every period of their lives. * * Many 
 other animals that are not mammals have never at any time any drink ex- 
 cept water." — p. 9, 
 
 — " To think of these facts is to feel the best of proof that artificial fluids 
 have no place whatever in the scheme of creation, and that the natural 
 human instinct, which, as we have seen, abhors at first artificial drinks, does 
 so because it would if it had its way lead men through the same simple pro- 
 cess of living as it does the less endowed animals." — p. 10. (That is to say, 
 we should " go to grass.") 
 
 — " Besides the colloidal and starchy and fatty foods which the water helps 
 to bring into solution, there are other substances which we take in, by or 
 with foods, and which are called salts. Common table salt, chloride of 
 sodium, is a good example of this nature. These salts are very soluble in 
 water, and the water is the means of conveying them in solution into the 
 blood." — p. 1 5. " Alcohol acts on the blood in somewhat the same manner 
 as salt does, and gives a tendency to a disease similar to that which is pro- 
 duced by living a long time on salted provisions, to which disease the 
 name of scurvy is commonly applied." — p. 51. 
 
 — " Living bodies are built for water only to be the fluid by which they 
 may live. * * Even those animals which are nearest to man in their ap- 
 pearance and anatomy (monkeys and apes) even these have always contin- 
 ued to exist on water. It is man alone who by the aid of his unfetterei 
 reason and skill has changed the natural ordinance." — p. 18. (And man 
 .alone who uses a carriage instead of walking as the animals do.) 
 
 — " Moreover, amongst those people who have invented different drinks 
 there have been none who have not mainly subsisted on water. No one has 
 yet lived, actually lived, on any other fluid." — p. 19. 
 
 — " The worst persons who break the natural law retain water as their 
 staple drink, though many are so blindly ignorant that they do not know the 
 
— ni- 
 
 fact. They drink what they think is not water at all, and they give to the 
 drink so used many fine names. They pay for the fluids they drink very 
 heavy prices. They go to a great deal of trouble m order to obtain them. 
 But strangest of all is that in spite of fine names, expense and trouble, they 
 only succeed at last in getting a drink the larger part of which is water. * 
 * Poor people ! why at the very time they are holding up a drink which 
 has in it at least three parts out of four of water."— p. 19. 
 
 — " From the earth the water rises in distillation under the heat of the 
 sun. Ascending in vapor, it becomes pure in the air. It condenses on the 
 mountain tops from the vapourous into the liquid form, and streams down in 
 rivulets and torrents. It condenses in clouds and falls in showers of rain. It 
 is stored up for us in cool reservoirs of the earth or runs to us in rivers or 
 brooks." — p. 21. (This is correct, and agrees with all the geographies.) 
 
 — " I hope these important truths are now understood. First, that wine, 
 which is water containing a new liquid, did not come down to man flowing as 
 pure water flows from the earth, a liquid ready made as drink for all ani- 
 mals, including man." — p. 23. 
 
 — " Secondly, that the liquid which, added to water, makes wine does not 
 exist ready made as water exists, springing from the earth." — p. 23. 
 
 — " Thirdly, that in order to obtain the fluid which so changes water as to 
 transform it mto wine it is necessary to let the juices of fruit mix with water 
 and undergo fermentation." — p. 23. (This about mixing grape juice with 
 water is not true, but teetotallers are not: supposed to know anything about 
 vineyards.) 
 
 — " And that if this process were not constantly being performed in the 
 most wholesale way by men who devote their lives to the work there would be 
 no supply of wine or strong drink at all^ — p. 23. (It is difficult to properly 
 characterize this statement without using words which might suggest uncom- 
 plimentary reflections on either the mental or moral condition of the ardent 
 disciples of Dr. Richardson, who are responsible for bringing such •' import- 
 ant truths " before the minds of our pupils, and so imbuing them with high 
 respect for '* Temperance Science " and advancing " the cause of truth and 
 righteousness." Of course^ children might not know how natural and simple 
 is the making of wine and beer, or the full meaning of the words " home- 
 brewed ale " and " home-made wine," nor might they be aware of where the 
 rural populations of wine and beer countries now derive, and still more, in \^ 
 all past ages before the subdivision of labour resulted in the common estab- 
 lishment of wine vaults and breweries, did derive their supplies of beer and 
 wine. And so on the assurance of a text-book they might grow up in bliss- 
 ful ignorance into good prohibitionists, who would imagine that abolishing 
 breweries, &c., would easily secure the abolition of alcoholic drinks, and the 
 cause of morality would thus be " promoted.") 
 
 — " When the ancients drank wine at their feasts they mixed it with water, 
 and at first used it very sparingly." (When it was scarce. — Ed.) " It was 
 offered at the sacrifices to the gods, and ydune; men under thirty were not 
 permitted to take it at all. Women were not permitted to take it at any age. 
 In time these restrictions were broken through." — p. 24. (It is almost incon- 
 ceivable that Dr. Richardson did npt know that the prohibitions spoken of 
 existed only in a few localities at most, such as Rome, and only for a limited 
 period, ar.i that therefore the ascription of these prohibitions to the "an- 
 cients " generally, as is implied in the text, is unwarranted.) 
 
 — " A pigeon will take, without showing the slightest symptoms, as much 
 opium as would kill several men. A goat will swallow, without injury, a 
 quantity of tobacco which would kill several men. A rabbit will swallow, 
 without injury, a dose of belladonna that would kill several men. But neither 
 the pigeon, nor the goat, dor the rabbit can swallow alcohol without being 
 
— IV — 
 
 influenced by it much in the same manner as a man would be."— p. 41, 
 (Ergo — terrible poison, isn't it ?) 
 
 — " As soon as the taking of alcohol becomes a habit either in a lower ani- 
 mal or in a man the quantity required to produce obvious effects has, as a 
 ruffe, to be increased." — p. 42. (What is meant by " obvious " ? Science has 
 conclusively proven that when taken in moderate or stimulating^ quantities 
 it is not necessary to increase the quantity to secure the same effects. It is 
 only when immoderate or narcotic quantities are frequently used that a 
 physiological necessity for an increase exists.) 
 
 — " She (Nature) did not give man boiling water to drink and leave him to 
 discover that the water was dangerous unless it were cooled to a certain safe 
 degree. (Sic <) Neither did she give him such active chemical fluids as ar- 
 dent spirits for his nourishment Yet there are many persons who declare 
 that alcohol is a food." — p. 44. (Therefore hot roast beef, frozen water, hot 
 water, Ac, &c., &c., should not — what ?) 
 
 — " We can drink milk without being burned." — p. 44. 
 
 — " Compared with milk alcohol shows no trace of being a food in any par- 
 ticular. We want no better evidence, and we could have no better proof that 
 alcohol is not u food." — p. 44. (Sic.) 
 
 — " The warmth of surface which seems to be imparted by alcohol only 
 seems to be imparted. Positively the warmth is not imparted by alcohol, but 
 is set free by it. * * Alcohol acts in the same manner as cold."— pp. 60, 
 61. •iJThis argument, intended to ridicule people who say in ordinary well 
 understood language that alcohol warms them, is a silly " catch," and if in 
 a sense correct it might also be applied as follows : The warmth which seems 
 to be imparted to a boy's hand b]r a strap only seems to be imparted. Posi- 
 tively the painful warmth is not imparted by the strap but is set free by it. 
 The man who gets his skin into a radiating glow by brisk exercise and says 
 he is warmer is foolish. The warmth only seems to be imparted. He is 
 really bringing the warmth to the surface of his body, and by exposing it to 
 radiation is setting free the warmth. — This may in some circumstances, just 
 as is the case with alcohol, be objectionable, but in others is distinctly pro- 
 motive both of comfort and physical benefit. The cup of warm tea on a cold 
 day may also in like manner be beneficial or not according to the circum- 
 stances under which it is taken. That alcohol does produce warmth, or its 
 y equivalent, is a necessary deduction from scientific law.) 
 
 — " The alcohol, from its great affinity for water, induces those who drink 
 it to imbibe water to excess. * * Alcohol when it is freely diluted acts as 
 I have said on the fibrine of the blood, rendering the fibrine unduly fluid. In 
 fact, alcohol acts on the blood in somewhat the same manner as salt does." 
 —p. 51. (So water, like alcohol, can actually be taken to excess, and result 
 injuriously. The statement in the first sentence is apt to provoke a smile 
 amongst the vast majority of users of diluted alcohol, who find no such re- 
 sult. The whole explanation of scorbutic conditions associated with these 
 extracts is grossly misleading.) 
 
 — *'_A disease of a similar kind (to scurvy) sometimes affects poor people 
 who live on land, and who are obliged for the sake of economy to subsist on 
 coarse bread, bacon, or other salted foods, and who try to make up the de- 
 ficiency by resorting to beer or perhaps to stronger drinks. If they would 
 * * take to plain and nourishing foods, like oatmeal and peasemeal, they 
 would be very much better off in mind, body and estate." — p. 52. 
 
 — " All great consumers of alcohol are chillier during the winter months 
 than are those who abstain." — p. 71. (And very frequently those who ab- 
 stain are chillier than those who use alcohol in such moderation as tends to 
 increase bodily health.) 
 
 — (The argument of the chapters on heart action, stimulation and depres- 
 
sion, nervous action, respiration, &c., is characterized by the plausible use of 
 some actual facts, exajjgeration and distortion of others, and careful suppres- 
 sion or ignoring of stil! other facts, and by false suggestion, while throughout 
 there is a steadily marked endeavour to confound the results of excess, often 
 explained in a misleading way, with the effects of moderation. And finally, 
 there is a ghastly array of diseases presented as the results of alcohol, di- 
 seases in most cases quite as readily provoked by the wrong use of other 
 things rightful in themselves. And there is a total omission of numerous 
 morbid conditions remedied, modified or prevented by the use of alcohol.) 
 
 — " Insanity — It is certain that no single cause of madness is so frequent." 
 — p. 94. (Dr. Workman's reports of Toronto Asylum show only a very 
 small percentage ascribed to drink, and twice as large a percentage ascribed 
 tp religious excitement. Recent returns from American asylums show 
 about 7 per cent, or less than from each of several other causes — or occas- 
 ions, more strictly speaking, — of insanity.) 
 
 — " We shall, however, still find many to defend the use of alcohol, for 
 many, very many, are still ignorant about it ; many, very many, are strongly 
 prejudiced in favour of it ; many, very many, are so fond of it that they can- 
 not help praising it as a good thing for themselves, and therefore as a good 
 thing for everybody. Such is the strange perversity of the human mind, that 
 numbers of people who are going wrong, and who know they are going 
 wrong, in the use of alcohol will still persist in their error, and with their eyes 
 open to the wrong they are doing will persist in leading others with thefn. It 
 is one part of the madness inflicted by alcohol on its friends that it deceives 
 them and in turn makes them deceivers."— p. 95. 
 
 — " The reason why those who are habituated to the use of alcohol believe 
 that moderate quantities of it inflict no harm is that they do not clearly know 
 what it is to be free fiom alcohol." — p. 77. 
 
 — " You will have often in your lives to listen to the arguments of these 
 persons. They will tell you a great deal of error, which you must be ready 
 to hear and at once recognize as error." — p. 95. 
 
 — " If men could have been kept sober by practising temperance the fight 
 against intemperance would never have had to be fought." — p. 78. (And if 
 men could have been kept honest, unselfish, &c., by practising temperance in 
 all the things of life, the fight against avarice, cruelty, excess of passion, 
 gluttony, &c., and unrighteousness generally, would not have to be fought, 
 arul we would not have societies actually existing, or which might be sug- 
 gested, proposing to abolish private property, ribbons, kid gloves, pies, and 
 other things which many people make the occasion of sin. Nor would Com- 
 munism, proposing the entire abolition of the right of private property, have 
 as many adherents in Europe as the parallel absurdity — prohibition- 
 has in America.) 
 
 — ("It will be asked : was there no evidence of any useful service rendered 
 by the agent in the midst of so much obvious evidence of bad service ? I 
 answer to that, question that there was no such evidence, and there is none. 
 * * It is an agent as potent for evil as it is helpless ^or good.'' — Dr. B. 
 W. Richardson — Action of Alcohol on the Body.) 
 
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 llatianal Wihtxal ^mxftxantz WLnim. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 GoLDwiN Smith. 
 
 \/'ICE-FRESIDENTS, 
 
 A. J. Cattanach. Larratt W. Smith, D.C.L. 
 
 Prof. J. Thorhurn, M.U. Geo. R. R. Cockburn, M.P. 
 
 Edw. J. Chapman, Ph. D., LL.D. ' 
 
 SECRETARIES, 
 
 J. (iORDON MOWAT. C. (iORDON RICHARDSON. 
 
 TREaSTJRER, 
 P. H. Drayton, Barrister, York Chambers. 
 
 ■* 
 
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 GoLDwiN Smith, LL.D. 
 Rev. Prof. W. Ci.ark, M.A., Trinity College. 
 
 Jas. Thorburn, M.D. T. F. MacMahon, M.D. 
 
 C. Gordon Richardson, J. Gordon Mowat. 
 
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