£ ¥ ay 4 roe | y al Yi 4 * ; , / ie ’ os a> mh A i \f if Fail RA AAA AAAS A NENA AS Wea AIAAA!. 3 he A 2 : A RR Rap Bg SIN Ap Lg ee § AAAI NS ADIN RORE AY A AAALIY VIAN late f fr L\PN tf ok Aly AROMA NAA : Ria Y 2, { er 4 lant en : A OANA AR Apna - Jat ut . ae 7 nr WAN ; af b : ; nae Y RAR REL? BR ; AAANARAAIYY / Ar | | pe _ fr! Ps ‘ TMi - om oa - ‘ nm Boe wy rage { mh mY \alay.V Valalalabiataley ae Ranh AN, fea A aal f f\\ ee 2 AR RAR Ane enaninn BAAN ANAS ~ A Ly fay ~ AE PNAS = iF AS ry \.. ‘Alan n Wa \/ AMINA vee ANG tay aay Manan. yeaa RAAT RAR : aRAEN ee earsarat EXE ZX x NAvava\al pe AAAAnAnnan’ oy Bannan: nan Ann aie ct - ¥ x it & Fi * - ' = ay . aan * ~ a eer a Re ah BS e ay Aare ee i | Fine a pete te th ite ‘Aa toe an re Hl Ye ope COVE ee Gd foHiditliihe ee ee ae , f/ ‘4 pl a COMMU AMON G fend ; ELEVENTH EDITION, MEDICAL, MORAL, AND CHRISTIAN DISSECTION OF TEETOTALISM, BY DEMOCRITUS. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY PHIZ. LONDON : SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER. DUBLIN: CURRY & CO. NEW YORK: E. BALDWIN, BROADWAY. 1846, PREFACE. A Yacutine Sartor, not, like the Philistine, a man of war, from our youth, whenever in the tropics a dense cloud or waterspout presented itself near us in the atmosphere, to disperse it we fired a gun point blank _ into its centre ; so, when we beheld the moral atmosphere obscured by an analogous moral phenomenon, for “ the earth hath bubbles as the water has,” recurring to the practices of our youth, right into the heart of it we fired ~ a paper pellet. The effects in both worlds, physical and moral, were very similar. The noise, as of the bursting of a large bubble was heard, with confused sounds of agitated waters ; convolutions and contortions of mistified matter were seen, with vapours wreathed and writhing grotesquely and ridiculously, then dispersing they left behind fair sunshine and clear sky. Once again we level our piece, with new and explosive missiles charged, at this cold vapourous cloud. 1V. No remark of ours is necessary on the rich humour, luxuriant fancy, and designs of the illustrations—they speak for themselves. As in the ashes of the grate, the fancy, in revery, bodies forth images and scenes of life, or creations strange, peopling a visionary world, as in a dream; so the dark speculum of a watery vapour has the creative fancy of the artist peopled in sportive mood, with figures strange and new, yet so real withal as to resemble life and life’s eventful history. The philosophic eye, penetrating beneath the surface, will clearly perceive in all this moral, just and true—‘ Excess in aught is wrong, and leads to evil.” ~ The demand for leven Editions of this brochure, and a Reprint both in this Country and the United States, though without the Author’s permission, which ought to have been first obtained, have induced us to give it the present improved appearance and additional matter, more befitting, what we cannot but consider, a most judicious — and discerning public. Their marks of regard we impute, not to ourselves but to truth, science, and scripture, which this little work _ has humbly but sincerely attempted to sustain. PREFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION, ees Lae We nee Tue Publishers inform us that this little brochure has afforded pleasure, in the usual phrase, to the whole world, except to the geniuses of that learned Society, the “ Trrrorat,’ who, although some of them can read, can not comprehend it. We feel the honour, and assure you, like the honest gentleman in © Guy Mannenine,” to whom his Majesty was pleased to grant a commission, that the pleasure is mutual. The many impressions that you have taken have left a lasting umpression upon us—which we hope is also mutual; for we ambition higher things than a mere supply of ephemeral amusement. We observe, since our last edition, that the sluices are opened, and the muddy and agitated waters out ; and that, in addition, we are threatened with a regular inundation of replies from the South —London, Manchester, &c. Zhe more and the sooner the better. One answer will serve for all, Let them come “ thick as.a pestilential congregation of vapours” into our moral atmosphere ; in humble dependance, not on ourselves but on truth, science, and scripture, we will burst the watery cloud, and, we trust, scatter its elements—mock and quack, medical and non-medical authorities, and all. Any attempts at reply, our readers, wherever they find them, will oblige by forwarding to our Publishers. DEMOCRITUS. A MEDICAL, MORAL, AND CHRISTIAN DISSECTION OF TEETOTALISM. — TO THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN SECT CALLING THEMSELVES “ TEETOTALERS.” Is your ignorance, conceiving yourselves wise, you have presumed to trample underfoot the dictates of nature and scripture, and, pleased with the sound of your own emptiness, have obtruded your discordant nonsense upon the more polished and informed ears of the general community. As I consider your body composed of two classes chiefly—the deceiver and the deceived, the knave and the fool—I will take the trouble briefly to expose the one, and, if I can, convince and undeceive the other. If there be really any sensible and well- meaning men amongst you, I beg them, without prejudice, to give their just weight to the few arguments I may adduce. You say that ale and porter, wine and spirits, are stimulating poisons ! What is the atmosphere—the air we breathe P_ It is composed of four-fifths (79 parts in the 100) of nitrogen gas, the most deadly poison, if breathed by itself; which is mixed with about one-fifth (21 per cent.) of oxygen gas, which is also a stimulating poison ; for if taken undiluted with nitrogen, it would produce great excitement, inflammation, and death. Into which gas, if it pleased Heaven suddenly and entirely to convert the atmosphere, it would consume x the world to its foundation in one universal blaze. Yet if diluted with the other gas gives vigour, vivacity, health, beauty, and existence to man, and the whole natural world. The oxygen applied for a few moments in a concentrated form, increases the pulse, and produces an excitement bordering on inebriation. Yet it is given by the All-wise Creator as fitted for health and happiness—nay, without its regular supply as a stimulus, all nature dwindles and dies. Is the Creator wrong, and are you right when you say we should take no stimulus, and must we, therefore, abstain from inhaling the stimulus of the atmosphere P A stimulating poison, too, it may be called, from being compounded of ingredients which, taken separately, would instantly kill; and which, like the moderate use of fermented liquors, does absolutely kill, when it has been incessantly used for 50, 60, 70, or 80 years. Do you know that the very waTeR you drink is compounded of two stimulating poisons of the most destructive nature, viz.:— 88+ per cent. of Oxygen Gas. 11g. 4, of Hydrogen Gas. That hydrogen, in certain quantities with oxygen, explodes with a violence surpassing gunpowder: that it is the chief ingredient in the fearful colliery explosions—and also the gas that illuminates your shops and streets, yet this inflammatory stimulant and poison forms 1-9th of the water you drink, combined with another strong stimulus, oxygen; and which, every time they are drunk, do absolutely excite the spirits and increase the pulse. Will you discontinue the use of these natural stimuli now you have discovered it, probably for the first time, and as you know they do kill within the century, try to live for ever without them—or impiously lift your ignorant and presumptuous eyes to Heaven, and complain of these beautiful arrangements of creation; denouncing BI them as unwise, immoral, criminal and demand; a new Heaven and a new Harth more fitted for the abodes of such exalted beings as yourselves. Do you know that walking, or riding, or running, so conducive to health, produces it by an increased flow of the pulse, causing an exhilaration of the spirits bordering on moderate excitement from ale, wine, or diluted spiritsP And do you know, but you do noi, that sedentary men, to obtain that vigour and vivacity of health from an increased pulse, either from correct natural feeling, or by advice of a skilful doctor, have frequently recourse to a healthy artificial stimulus as ale or porter, wine or spirits, moderately used? (1.) Oil of vitriol], with water, is an excellent tonic and stimulant, and often prescribed, but taken strong and undiluted, is certain death. Must we abstain from this stimulating poison tooP Mercury in inflammation, liver complaints, and some other complaints, as you know, is a specific—a strong stimulus—as a man affected by it is in a high state of continual excitement—it is also a deadly poison— must this stimulating poison not be used ? Gpium, which is so good in alleviating pain, hence has been called Laudanum: and many of you have substituted it for fermented liquors—it is also a deadly poison. (2.) Must this stimulating poison not be employed ? Because digitalis (foxglove), atropa belladona (night-shade), conium maculatum (hemlock), arsenic, and many of the best articles. of the Materia Medica may be employed as destructive poisons, must they be struck from the pharmacopeias as neither health-giving nor beneficial in the proper use of man P Because mustard, in large dozes, is a certain emetic, and might if often applied so, produce inflammation of the stomach and death ——will you not use mustard P eo? ee a ee ee vi LpMhie r] CM MVM Mi title yet eA lO 7 = | Ni SAWN gy) : ee syn ttttl U bs Wa ss ye CUM) S0UMY, Ma COSA ie eee io (gee 9) Because cormmon salt, when largely employed, produces sickness and vomiting—must you not use it as a condiment for food P Because strong concentrated vinegar would produce gastrites and death, is a stimulating poison, and, moreover, a fermented liquor, of which, perhaps, your ignorance is not aware—will you not employ diluted vinegar as an agreeable stimulant to the stomach P Because tobacco, when applied in a particular way is a deadly poison—but, properly employed, an, excellent medicine, and, when moderately used, an agreeable mode of throwing an odoriferous cloud over the dark prospects of the world: must this, too, be expunged, with the exhilarating liquors, from the vocabulary of human enjoy- ments P These analizing chemists—these modern Wollastons avd Davys —perform a wonderful and conclusive experiment to prove ale and porter to be poison, which only proves, and that very clearly, that neither operator nor audience are—Philosophers. They state the poison to be in the intoxicating qualities of the ale or porter—now the intoxicating qualities exist in the spirit or alcohol which they contain. Heat, even that of a water bath, drives this alcohol off in vapour, which is the mode of distilling spirits, and what is left has neither strength nor intoxicating quality. It is the refuse with which they commonly feed pigs. Now, after they have evaporated the spirit, the article which they complain does the mis- chief; they take the refuse which consists ofa bitter residuum, and is a good tonic for the stomach like any other bitter; and because it is bitter they don’t like it, and, with a wise shake of the head, anda mountebank grimace, they shout “‘ We have it—there’s the poison !” —while the very matter they think they have got is floating in thin vapours around their scientific heads. Why don’t they boil spirits inthe same manner? Simply because after several ridiculous attempts—like other spirits, on looking again they had evanished, and left not a taste behind. 6 Let them try those articles they drink to such excess, that, as Old Weller says, “ they swell wisibly to the naked eye.” Let them try Coffee or Tea after the same scientific mode—let them boil a pint of these potations down to a tea-spoonful or two, and then take it or offer it to one of their gaping gobemouches in the state they find it, without sugar and without milk. If the family doctor be not needed they have better digestions than I calculated on. Let them treat sugar, or milk, or bread, or potatoes, or vegetables, or beef, after the same fashion, and see what would be its residuum after the nutritious parts are dispelled or extracted; they would have a nauseous excremental preparation, sufficient to sicken even their large capacities. | Do you know, but, no, you know nothing about it, that the elements that compose alcohol compose also sugar, vinegar, oil, albumen or white of egg, and the most nutritious parts of animal matter, and in proportions very similar, viz. :— Carbon. Oxygen. Hydrogen. SMP AT Os.) eye tae erereec nec aster ee mae 502 635 Acetic Acid or Vinegar, ............ 504 444 5.55 PIDUMENS << 5.2. on. odeestes danssiae aren Ueeay 235% 5 Olive Oils Socks oe lag eee aed dee 9.45 134 Cheese, 0.2 -puitvssnsescteen easekoen roman 114, Ws N. 21,5 Alcohol, cite. c.iss. ae her sees sees ee 343 133, Say, what difference, learned Thebans, between egg and alcohol P The digestive organs which decompose these articles when taken, extract similar food from alcohol as from sugar,egg, oil, orcheese. (3.) That ale and porter, wine and spirits, are nutritious, every brewer and brewer’s horse, plump landlords and landladies, and all connected with wine and spirit establishments can testify, when they use the articles of their trade as reasonable.creatures should. j Proverbially Britain drinks more ale and porter, wine and spirits, than any other country in Christendom: you know you charge her to her disgrace with doing so. You will of course see it in the results. Her people should be half-poisoned—their strength degenerating—the towns and villages depopulating—were your assertions based on truth. What is the factP Why our people are the finest race in Europe—strong, healthy, and energetic— let travellers and the last war decide—and they are longer lived, on an average, than any other population—let the insurance offices and Dr. Hawkins decide. Dr. H.’s calculations make only 1 death every year out of 58 of the population of Britain, while in sober France there is one out of every 40; in Austria, 1 out of 38; in Russia, 1 out of 41 ; and in the United States, 1 out of 40. And London, where one would think they had mistaken gin for water, and were all teetotalers, why that London is the healthiest Capital in Europe. But, like the Mock-Doctor, you would change all that I suppose. As we are the most deadly drinkers, were your ridiculous statements based on even the shadow of truth, we should present the most fatal list of mortality. Yet, as a people there is less mortality than in any country of the world. And instead of our towns and villages depopulating, has not Par- liament passed an Act, and zfs members shown personal examples, to discourage every overt act to increase the population, setting Commissioners to watch and separate even ihose that the Church has blessed and told to cleave to each other and to multiply ? In a nation’s strength we are too strong—-ihe Concentrated Wisdom says it—our people are too numercus, They are proceeding on more than a ratio of even geometrical progression; 1 and 1 not making 2, with them, but too frequently 10 or 12; who again, multiplying by each other, produce similar results—and so on ad libitum et ad infinitum. Are these the acts of a weak, poisoned, or unhealthy people ? a ; 8 When you advise your votaries to drink effervescing liquors, such as soda-water, ginger-beer, and lemonade, you are hypocritically attempting to evade your own dogmas, for the carhonic acid gas is both exciting and inebriating to as great a degree as a small portion — of wine or ale, or diluted spirit, with less of sustenance in it. Do you not know, but you don’t, that champagne wine owes its chief power to the effervescing carbonic acid which it contains, and although the least spirituous it is the most exhilarating of all wines ; and that bottled ale and porter are proportionably more inebriating than when simple liquids—yet you are sneakingly trying to steal a little fit of drunkenness from your chalky productions, under the symbol of water, soda-water, ginger-pop, and lemonade. But this is not the worst of it, for this same carbonic acid gas if inhaled but for one minttte will poison—producing convulsions, and destroying life of man or animal. A candle is instantaneously ex- tinguished by being enveloped init. It is the same gas which is engendered by charcoal fires, that, in wooded countries, sometimes destroys whole families. It is the chief destructive principle of the after-damp and choke-damp of mines, It is also the very gas which in the Poison Grotto (Grotto del Cano) at Naples throws every animal breathing it into cunvulsions, and, if not immediately re- lieved, induces death. Yet this most deadly and noxious gas you have substituted for a healthy beverage, and pour it into your debilitated — frames by gallons. Your infatuation can only be equalled by your ignorance and folly. You are the most grotesque reformers that this reform age ever produced. Those effervescing drinks are thus more injurious to the system than plain unsophisticated water. They generate bile by injuring the digestive organs, and give the liver and lungs more to do than they are naturally prepared for—the surplus carbonic acid gas must be carried off by the lungs. That you are producing by such liquids liver complaints and consumptions, which the yellow chalk countenances that make up your meetings will prove to any but a jaundiced eye; and you, before you are 10 years older, if you survive it, or, if not, your widows and orphans ae 9 will unfortunately find that I propound a sound medical truth—and the moderate user of ale and porter, wine and spirits, will be able to point a moral to his children from your graves, warning them of the vices of excess! But, worse still remains behind, if worse there be—you are not only as humble emissaries of the New Poor Law system assisting to reduce Englishmen to a lower state of subsistence, and making them mere brute machines, but you are tending to produce from such liquids, with large quantities of carbonic acid gas, a paralysis of all the masculine powers of nature—for small dozes, like opium, excite— and large, like opium, stupify and destroy. The generous feelings of the heart, the mental energies, and the bodily powers will all sink into incapacity, and I utter no new truth when I state if every wndividual man and woman of this empire were to use carbonic acid gas to excess Britain would be annihilated—there would be no children, however destrous you might be, and whatever efforis you might use, to obtain them. (A.) I trust, to a certain extent, this is not a part of the base plan for restricting the population. Perhaps you are not aware that tea and coffee, especially tea, are strong narcotics, and most injurious to the nerves, which is one of the chief causes of the many mental and nervous diseases of modern days. Do you think Queen Elizabeth, and the young ladies of her court, when they breakfasted on ale and beef steaks, and dined and supped not less substantially, had any zarves, and all their concomitant evils P And must the men of their days, our ale and wine-fed ancestors, who trod the earth like masters of the world, must they give place to such chalk and water shadows, and slop-fed spectres as you would make the race. Behold a true Percy feeding :— “My Lord and Lady have set on their table at 7 o'clock in the 10 morning, a quantity of beer, as much wine, two pieces of salt fish, six red herrings, four white ones, and a dish of sprats; andon flesh days half a chyne of mutton, or a chyne of boiled beef.”* Lady Lucy, a Maid of Honour in the Court of Henry VIII., was allowed for breakfast a chine of beef, a ‘loaf, and a gallon of ale ; for dinner, a piece: of-boiled beef, a slice of roasted meat, and a gallon of ale; for supper, a mess of porridge, a piece of mutton, a fine loaf; and’a gallon of ale; removed by, amanchette loaf, a gallon of oe and hal yr a: ams of wine. . There was “Hie wisdom of our anconeey for so fed the court and country ; rich and poor ‘twas ale, still ale. Watery potations were . avoided as a pestilence,. and the inspired Shakspeare observed in — his day, that “thin drink’ doth so overcool their blood,-and making many fish meals,+ that’ iiss fall into a kind of Male. green ia ty Thus did all live till the sooo of China were , generally introduced last century, originating a host of fearful nervous diseases, — substituting for frames of the hardy oak, the tremulous aspen, quivering at a breath; weakening the system, enervating the stomach, and making it like the inside of an unwashed teapot—and, as a nation, only saved by the ancestral habits ofa large proportion of the neeple, from falling: into a Boerere ctrophte O > Here are two oe which each of you can try, and try honestly if you please ; if you don't, itis a matter of no consequence to me or any body else, you will only deceive yourselves. Live one month on’the slops.of: modern times—tea‘ or coffee and — soda-water, ginger-beer (I wonder you call it beer); lemonade, and such like watery elements, with bread, &c., to any amount—Live the month after like men in the fashion of your ancestors, with a pint of good ale morning and night, and what you catch at dinner * Domestic Regulations of Percy, Fifth Earl of Northumberland. + Feeding like Fish, in a watery manner. Ree@ecrs «Or ALE 7 SCAR mi WT HAN ErFECTS OFS TEA 11 and supper—but if you get drunk I am off the bargain—and ask your wife and your glass (I mean the looking-glass) at each month’s end, which has been the healthiest and most energetic feeding. You will not wait for your answer. At the end of the first you will be pale shadows, starting at the flickering of a feather. At the end of the second, once more, good Englishmen, manly, healthy, and energetic. Look at those who generally thrust themselves forward as advo- cates of this new light—or rather darkness visible. I will say nothing of their former dissipated lives, and their sudden conversion when the supplies were no longer forthcoming in that line. Open your eyes, and open them wide, when amongst a meeting of these professors. Did you ever behold such an assembly; almost every individual member of which had been previously branded with the deepest shades of infamy—the very outcasts of society—the sweep- ings of the streets, that had rushed in here as a refuge for the destitute of character. Examine at next Raggybite meeting, as the pitmen call it, and judge for yourselves. Are these the people we are to take for examples, who, like the fox, having lost his tail in a trap baited with grapes, want us all to cut off our tails, or to eat no more grapes. Zhe Slump is too apparent to deceive. Aye, there it is, look at the men who are paid itinerants on this subject, and look at ihe men who profees to take a lead amongst yourselves. Do you ever see the collecting plate out of their hands in your presenceP Do they or do they not try perpetually to squeeze every farthing out of you that they can P What heavy expenses can he required for water drinking? Other Englishmen, but then they are Englishmen, in other public things, as in the Societies for Building Churches, sending Missionaries to the Heathens, the Highlands, the wild Irish, the Greenlanders, the Chinese, Terra del Fuego, and the South Sea Islanders, distributing Bibles, emancipating Negroes, publishing tracts, and other great philanthropic works, have to collect too for eating and rinking in a generous and jovial manner—which, you know, as the labourer is worthy of his hire, ’tis but just they should. 12 But water and water gruel can’t require all that everlasting — outlay of your money. The thing is impossible. r say nothing—but any man, except a water man, may see it with half an eye. Besides these acteve knaves and yourselves, their subjects, there — is another kind of knave amongst you who may be called negative knaves—who, from a mean spirit of avarice when a bill is paid them—or their workmen are over-worked—or their ship proceeds io sea—shelter themselves from the performance of a kind, humane, or hospitable act, by the “It is:inconsistent with my profession,” they say nothing of their practice, «Tam a pledged teetotaler.” Yet | in a certain dark cupboard, or closet, in each of these mean men’s domiciles, you will be almost certain to find a large black magnum, labelled “ Medicine, three table-spoonfuls to be taken when required ;” which seems, from its frequent application, to be a specific for all the diseases that flesh is heir to. | And yet when the poor exhausted workman, or the shivering sailor ina-stormy winter’s night, on a — lee shore, wet, and worn out by exertion, has no means of refreshing sinking nature; you are selfishly indulging yourself largely in your: “ Medicine,” and cannot spare asingle dose, it would cost too much, to these poor fellows in their extremity. This class of hypocritical pretenders is the worst of all. ‘The little-knaves may practice their tricks from their incapacity to live in any other manner—these from a miserable lust to oe every thing on Dies os in hein own low selfishness. 7 : . The whole system, I am afraid, will be found, on inquiry, one of the many tricks that is inflicted on poor Master Bull, to dazzle his eyes while his pockets are being picked. Alas, poor John Bull, age and experience ought to have lent thee sense and solidity, but I am afraid with all thy gravity, appearance of wisdom, and innocence of face, thou art little better than an overgrown, inexperienced youth of thy breed, and should more properly bear thy youthful name. Thou art beginning to open thy large eyes, and to wonder at-thy SSS, oh Le 63 , / Es CUPL Ae, ? SSS a = SSS FUL. SSS A Of. SS ki / é | Gy ade : MMW Nt Wahi My ; # from we ee hui ‘ — «18 past folly, and hast at length discovered that it is unfitted for thy constitution, thy simple nature and the climate, and contrary to reason and to scripture. I would not one instant have shocked thy gentle credulity by pointing to thy expiring weakness—but to warn thee that they will be substituting some new folly when the present entirely fails, for affecting thy soft heart and head, and touching thy ever open pockets. John, John, why wilt thou not fearn wisdom ? Before concluding, let me ask you how you dare profane ihe Scriptures, and set at nought the dying injunction of the Saviour to the Disciples and all future Christians. And the most important of his commands, by the noisy ravings of your few half insane followers, is thus trampled under foot and reviled—“ Drink ye all of it; do this in remembrance of me.” You desperately say it was:not wine. It was the liquor of “the fruit of the vine’ that was ‘given them “to drink.” Was it not? That is, the juice of the grape. Now you ought to know, but you do not, that the juice of the grape in a temperature of 709 of Fahrenheit, and consequently ina climate as warm as that of Judea, will fall into spontaneous fermentation in a very few hours, and make uself into wine. It is no artificial preparation, but a natural process; and natural wines, that is, pure juice of the grapes, are always at this day produced in the countries of the wines by spon- taneous fermentation, and there is no process known to prevent the juice of the grapés from doing so, And yet these creatures will tell us that the wine of Scripture was the simple juice of the fruit of the vine unfermented. Such athing was not known, nor ever will be, except in the fermenting brains of ignorant and frothy visionaries. It would have been as great a miracle, and required as fully the command of the natural laws to have retained the juice of the fruit of the vine unfermented in Judea as it was to create the wine from water at the marriage feast. The same divine power would have been as great to subvert the laws of nature as to produce a new creation. And yet these miserable epitomes of folly in a manner 44 which would be too ridiculous were it not so impious, have presumed to defy the clearest injunction of scripture, and to suspend the eternal laws of nature to support a peevish crotchet of their con- temptible and almost imperceptible intellects. (6.) It is too much to hear these creatures daring to deny the dying command of their divine master by unfaithful and pitiful interpre- tations of his clearly expressed will in one of the most touching, pathetic, and beautiful memorials that was ever bequeathed to poor suffering humanity. View the Saviour’s use of wine in another respect, that of an innocent meafis of enjoyment at a marriage feast. (7.) What say you to the marriage at Cana in GalileeP The six waterpots, from 2 to 3 firkins each, being filled with water he changed it into wine; disproving, at any rate, one of your silly dogmas that water is the only drink for Christians—if so, it would never have been changed by the Saviour into wine. You desire to inoculate on the Christian dispensation an absurd tenet of the Koran, and instead of drinking like men and christians you do it like fish and heathens. Was it not wine that the Saviour created . at the feast P It appears the guests had “ well drunk,” and the governor of the feast remarked, that from its quality it was unusual to give such good wine at the conclusion of the feast, for generally the finest wine was given first when they could appreciate 1t; but when, perhaps, the acuteness of the senses had been somewhat blunted by probably a slight excess, a wine of an inferior quality was commonly sub- stituted—a proceeding approaching slightly to a Jewish trick. However, it displayed, as clearly as words can, not onl y the practices of the Jews, but the nature of the wine which they drank, and which the inspired writer in the beautiful 104th Psalm, ranks among, the great works and blessings of God—“ Wine that maketh glad the heart of man ;” and it proved the encouragement the Saviour fod ese himself in person, with his mother and disciples, gave to the innocent rejoicings of the heart—for he not only sanctioned the happy feast with his presence, but supplied them with more wine that they might continue their enjoyment to the full. Will you presume so far as to impute blame for bis sacred countenance in a matter which you are too holy to approach—and spurning the miracle of Cana like the Pharisee when Christ healed on the Sabbath, declare the demonstration of his power over nature, to be impiety and of Beelzebub P _ Blasphemous and impious men, where would you le#d the few weak and silly followers of your follyP What command of the Saviour would you next set at defianée P You would take away the great virtue of moderation, and make man a brute machine (8); you would reduce the healthiest and most manly population of Kurope to milk and water skeletons, trembling at their own flimsy shadows; and you end by de-christ- ianizing Christianity. While we would defend the scriptures, expose these unnatural beings, and secure to our population healthy diet and innocent enjoyment (of which God knows they have already too little) ; yet would we abhor an excessive use of ale or porter, wine or spirit, as we would an overdose of opium, belladona, tobacco, mustard, salt, or concentrated vinegar. Excess commencing, beneficial use then ceases—good has been forsaken, and evil is at hand. (9.)} We abominate the drunkard, and would not however otherwise great or good, rank so infatuated a creature in our list of friends. The common drunkard is not a rational being, but degraded and brutalized to a level with the beasts that perish. He is not a man —he has no mind—his reason has forsaken him—he knows not his high calling—basely he has disgraced humanity—he has descended from the sphere in which the Almighty placed him, and has uncreated 16 himself ; quitting the distinguishing mark of the species, he has selected for himself an inferior grade among the irrational creation. But what is a habitual liar, a debauchee, or adefamer of character? are they not criminal too, nay, equally so, perhaps more soP One only injures one man, himself, the other injures all society: they should all be equally shunned and declared infamous. But, I would not, therefore, condemn a fair enjoyment of the good things of the Creator—or the lights of imagination—a devoted lover—an affec- tionate husband, or a just criticism of other men’s deeds. These are virtues—the other, their excesses, degrading vices deserving the punishment of the law and the reprobation of society. _ Because excess of pleasure enervates and eventually destroys the mental and bodily powers, must we not enjoy? Must the delicacy of the refined senses—those miraculous creations—be rudely de- stroyed? Must the gems of earth, the beautiful animals, the delightful colouring and delicious fragrance of the flowers and fields, the gorgeous majesty of the heavens, the music of the spheres, and the melody of nature not be enjoyed? Must we uncreate ourselves ? Must these delighting and delighted senses—the mind’s sweet purveyors—the impulsive and good-producing passions —the soaring imagination—the penetrating genius, pervading all space and entering everywhere—and conscience and God-like reason, the celestial balances and guides of this wonderful machine in all its strange varieties—must they be reduced to a mere mass of rude mechanical matter—a senseless automaton? Shall the potsherd guide the hand of its maker ? Is there no happy medium between luxurious Epicurism and coarse and dehumanizing Stoicism ? Because. a river now and then overflows its banks, producing injury, must we dam it back and prevent its fertilizing, Deets and civilizing flowings ? Because there is evil in the world is it necessary that men should go out of it P aan OL Because excess of love produces criminal adoration of an object, therefore should we not love P Because excess of anger sometimes produces murder, therefore must we not be angry even at sin—though the scriptures say “be angry and sin not.” In humble imitation of which we say “ drink, and sin not’—use the good things of the world as not abusing them. Because prodigality brings ruin on aman and his family, Toust you not have a heart open to melting charity P Because an alderman’s brain grows fat and stupid from gross feeding, and sometimes one dies of repletion from too much turtle and venison ; must, therefore, all aldermen not taste these very pleasant things, but shun them as they now do red herring and hasty pudding P Because a child now and then surfeits itself with fruit, and pro- duces sickness and fever, will you deny all children a single apple, pear, or orange, and denounce them as poisons P Because a goose sometimes is drowned will you proclaim to all geese that water is a most dangerous element, and should be entirely shunned P And because a fool occasionally drinks himself to death, by a criminal excess in ale, or wine, or spirits, must, therefore, all men refuse the beneficial use of them, and drink not at all, however useful, nutritious, or 1efreshing to nature—not even at the command and after the example of the Saviour P Go to,—of all sects of modern philosophers you are the most ridiculous and least respectable. Are innocent and rational enjoy- ments of men of sense to be governed by the conduct and capacity of ihe most stupid of creation: and must the incapacity - of fools be the law of society, and the regulation of the wise. All other systems that have appeared in the world that have risen and 18 sunk again, have been usually led by the head—by talents, wisdom, eloquence ; but you would reverse it, and lead society by the tail— by ignorance, folly, and stuttering incapacity. Fully impressed with the absurdity of cutting blocks with a razor, I have used a well-tempered axe, which I trust has not only been laid to the roots but has penetrated more or less the mass of their thick understandings—laying bare and convicting the knave— lopping off his subterfuges—exposing him to the simpleton; and, carrying conviction to any reasonable material that may accidentally be amongst them. | . | In employing it, I would sincerely regret had I, in the slightest manner, grazed the man of sense, principle, or religion; but I hope better, and that I have satisfied him that those noisy quacks have neither justice, nor reason, nor sense, nor science, nor scripture; on which to base their silly dogmas. I am, your sincere friend, DEMOCRITUS. oe ESS Z = ~ = = ig 7) = = = ba Va j a al a es Oe r aS <2 =a > 0 = =z : ig Se rc ‘ i, Paast 8 ' , 7 ri ; : 7 z 3 ci f ; ’ ; i F . ‘ - r c fale * ; ? 14 “ag é suet eae ses} ica NOTES. Tues Notes will recall to the remembraiice of the learned reader the fale of the erudite Slawkenbergius de Nasts, when in the excited discussion of the Faculty on the nasal phenomenon that had passed through Strasburg to Frankfort, which afterwards was the cause of the loss of the former City, one of the disputants exclaimed,— “« Tanium nasus, quantum homo.” (1.) When a person is sick, worn down by disease—weak and debilitated, wine, or weak spirits-and-water, or ale, is given to aid his recovery. The exhausticn by disease is only a more permanent physical debility, than the tem- porary one that occurs daily from labour and exertion. Dr. Moors, on fevers, quoted by the great nosological writer, CULLEN, in his Ap- pendix, says— “On the first appearance of the pulse becoming weaker, more wine must be given, sufficient to keep up the pulse, and ward off the other bad symptoms ;” and “I have seen the same good effects from the use of port, Madeira, and other wines; and when no kind of wine is to be had, brandy or rum, diluted with water or milk, and sweetened with sugar, must be substituted.” “In the state of stupor, debility, and low delirium, spirits diluted have nearly the same effect as wine.” The celebrated Dr. Hooper writes— “The general effects of wine are to stimulate the stomach, exhilarate the spirits» warm the habit, quicken the circulation, an1 promote perspiration.” “ All thin or weak wines. though of an agreeable flavour, yet, as containing little alcohol, are readily disposed to become acid in the stomach, and thereby to aggravate all anthartic and calculous complaints.” “In fevers of the typhus kind, or of a putrid tendency, wine is found to raise the pulse, support the strength, promote a diaphoresis, and to resist putrefaction.” * Deliiium, which is the consequence of excessive irratibility, and a defective state of nervous energy, is often entirely removed by the free use of wine.” And— “Jn almost all cases of languor, and of great prostration of strength, wine is ex- perienced to be a more grateful and efficacious cordial than can be furnished from the whole class of aromatics.” Also, ‘‘ It is a well-founded observation, that those who indulge in the use of wine are less subject to fevers of the malignant and intermittent kind.” The abstemious and-wise Cato, the stoic philosopher, observed the beneficial effects of wine on the frame of the labourer 2,000 years ago. In his De re Rustica, 57, he remarks— “On the whole we may reckon the annual consumption of wine for each man at 8 amphore, but to the slaves in fetters we must give rather more, in order that they may perform their work. For them we may consider the allowance of 10 amphore (68 gallons) in the year as by no means immoderate.” 22 See the following striking effects of abstinence from wine in three several modern instances related in ‘“‘ Davidson’s Trade and Travel in the Far East.” “There seems to be some fatality attaching to clergymen at Singapore. The last three incumbents, Messrs. Burn, Darrah, and White, all died young, and of the same complaint, namely, diseased liver. My own opinion is, that they were all three too strict adherents to teetotalism. In warm climates, a moderate or rather liberal allow- ance of wine I believe to be absolutely necessary.” Dr. SigmonpD thus beautifully sustains our views— “ Good wine is a cordial, a good cordial, a fine stomachic, and, taken at its proper season, invigorates mind and body, and gives life an additional charm. Tf, on the other hand, disease and sorrow atiend the abuses of alcoholic liquors, innocent gaiety, - additional strength and power of mind, and increased capabiiliiy of encountering the ever-varying agitation of life, ave amongst the many good results which spring from a well requiated diet, in which the alcoholic preparations have their just proportion and adaptation.” . Dr. ADAM CLARKE, whose name in itself carries with it, to Christians, a weight that bears down all opposition, says in his reflections :— “ Wine is a gift of the Divine goodness, and should excite our admiration and gra- titude; * * to render our lives still more comfortable, and to confirm and preserve our health be has created the vine. Other beverages, whether natural or artificial, do not produce these effects in the same degree. Wine alone has the power of banishing sadness and of inspiring that cheerfulness, which is equally necessary for the well- being of our bodies and minds. * * * * This liquor is a wholesome remedy, it supports animal life, and contains vital spirits which warm and animate the humours, and increase and establish the strength.” And the ancients were so convinced of the salutary nature of wine, that they con- densed it into an axiom— “Tn vite hominis vitam esse dicere.” The antiseptic vittues of alcohol are very striking. It is alcohol that preserves spe- cimens of fish, serpents, &c., the most easily decomposed substances. It extracts and preserves the properties of medicinal plants—there are upwards of 50 tinctures. It was alcohol that preserved the body of Lord N elson for two months after the puitie of Trafalgar ; and that of Sir Herbert Taylor in 1839, till it was brought home to England from Italy. (2) Not satisfied with the noxious narcotics and injurious system Teetotalers have sunk to—with the infatuation of weakened intellects they have, in addition, sub- stituted for the healthy stimulants of the last 6000 years, that bane to whoever touches it—the soul-absorbing, mind-and-body-destroying Orp1um. Which, once assumed as a habit, prostrates all mental power of resistance, and worse—even the power of wishing to resistit. Before this Moloch-divinity all is offered up—the principles—sentiments— the senses—nay, the very passions themselves stand appalled amidst the death-like silence of the swift and inevitable ruin. From the moment of its adoption, body and mind have died a living death, and then are swept with irresistible and increasing speed to a hopeless grave. Poquvitxs, in his travels through the Morea, says of the opium eaters, called Theriakis :— “ They begin with only helf a grain, and increase the dose, as they find it to produce the desired effect. They take care not to drink water after it, as that would bring on violent colics; but the man who, at twenty, takes to opium, seldom lives beyond the age of thirty or thirty-six. In the course of afew years the dose is increased to up- wards of adrachm, or sixty grains. At this time, a pallid countenance and extreme state of leanness announce a state of cachexia, which is only a prelude to a general 23 merasmus, or consumption of flesh. The infatuation is so great, that the certainty of death, and of all the infirmities which lead to it, is incapable of correcting a Theriaki, or a person addicted to the use of opium; he coldly answers any one who apprizes him of his danger, that his happiness is incomparable, when he has absorbed his pill of opium ; if he be asked to define his supernatural felicity, he only says that it is im- possible to describe it, as it is a pleasure not to be explained. These miserable beings, however, towards the close of their lite, or rather of that state of stupefaction, into which they are plunged, experience the most severe pains, and a continued hunger ; they are tormented by a desperate safyriasis, without the capability of satisfying their desires ; in short, they experience pains which even the delicious paregoric cannot assuage ; and having become hideous, deformed by numerous periostoses, deprived of their teeth, their eyes sunk into their heads, and afflicted with an incessant trembling, they cease to exist a long time before their life is at an end.” Baron DE Tort, writing on the same subject, states that at Constantinople :— - “ Seated in the twilight of the evening, or reclining on sofas in the little shops ranged along the walls of the Mosqne of Solyman, may be seen the infatuated Theriakis swal- lowing their opium pills, in proportion to the degree of want which habit has rendered ‘necessary. Each poor votary anxiously awaits the agreeable reverie that is to follow as the effect of this indulgence. He soon retires to his home full of imaginary hap- piness which neither reason nor the realities of life can procure: each succeeding drug witnesses the same irregularity, till worn out with debility and excess, he at last sinks like a shadow into the grave.” These people, by their religious tenets, are forbidden the use of wine and alcoholic drinks, and so fall into the destructive habit of opium-eating as a substitute for those healthy stimulants. It will be found, on inquiry, that almost invariably the use of fer- mented liquors prevents the employment of opium; and that wherever, from religious scruples, as amongst the Mahomedans, and other Eastern votaries, or from fantasy, as amongst Teetotalers, those are not drunk, the fearful practice of opium-eating is uni- versally had recourse to in their stead. Itis also very striking that the Chinese nation of Teetotalers, like the Teetotalers at home, have had their systems so accustomed to and vitiated by the narcotic tea plant, that it has generated in them, the usual effects of narcotics, an insatiable craving after a stronger narcotic stimulant—Opiwm—to satify the longing infatuation that ceases not, night nor day. The Parliamentary Returns give, for five years, from 1825 to 1830, 110,886Tbs. of opium consumed in Great Britain. From 1830 to 1835, the period in which Teetotalism was pretty rife, 142,735tbs., an increase of more than 31,000fbs. over the former period. From 1835, inclusive, to 1840, the period they claim as peculiarly their own, there is the enormous consumption of 180,615tbs., an mecrease of more than 37,000Ibs. ‘over the previous five years, and more than 69,000Tbs. over those ending 1830, when Teetotalism was not in existence. In 1838, the consumption was.............-+++0. 31,204 Ibs. BPO OL ie See Net alt weedeat elke ewe Pade 4, More than one-fourth increase of 10,000Ibs. in a single year. This is a most appalling fact; and the subject requires the serious attention of the British as well as the Chinese government. The distinguished and scientific Dr. Jounson says, at a meeting of the Westminster Medical Society— “From his own personal knowledge, he was able to state that opium-eating had in- creased in this country to such an extent as to have become nearly equal, in its pro- portion, with Teetotalism. Indeed, the subject had called forth the particular attention of the different Insurance Offices, who were about to hold a meeting in consequence of their having discovered that they had sustained considerable loss from, as well as ‘that a new risk had been created by, the enormous increase in the consumption of opium.” 24 (3.) We find the human system composed in the foetus almost entirely of a soft gelatinous substance. It is born, and gradually acquires more and more consistency—it grows cartilaginous—its structure becomes firmer—its functions more powerfully exercised— its system better developed. At length the child becomes a strong man, with a polished and unyielding frame of marble ; the bones are formed chiefly of solid lime, 64 per cent., anil flint and iron are found in the blood. Whence came all these solid substances? They were not born with it—but grew with it—formed after the being was complete—a/ter the soft parts and not before—they grew with its growth and in- creased with its strength. There is only one inlet to the system by which they must have entered—the stomach, and been taken up by the tiny absorbents. The stomach, then, has digested iron, and marble, and flint; think you then that alcohol, so eeeny. decom. posed, is not instantaneously digested by the same organ. Is there a man so ignorant as to conceive that the stomach, that has digested flint, lime, tron, and has mate these substances, almost the hardest in nature (certain heads excepted), into solutions so fine, as to enable them to be carried through the most minnte. vessels of the infant system, and built up a solid framework of these materials, as in the skeleton, or the enamel of the teeth, cannot digest the liquid alcohol, ready to assimilate almost without digestion ? Ilooper tells us ‘ the stomach is sufficient to reduce to a soft mass the hardest bones which are formed of lime) on which certain animals subsist ;” and Gosse, of Geneva, has proved rather more, ‘‘ that animal and vegetable fibre, the white of an egg boiled, and those things which are not fermented, or very litile fermentative, make greater resistance to the gastric juice, than the gelatinous parts of animals and vegetables, Sermented bread, &c.; that the latter, fermented and fermentative substances, require only one hour for their complete dissolution, and the former Sate That is, in other words, that alcohol is more digestible than eggs. Let us see farther. The man who has drunk a bottle of wine or a large quantity of spirit, does he ever return it from any part of the body—alcohol? Does it then accu- mulate in the stomach, or is it taken into the system ? Let us open a vein, draw forth blood, and minutely examine it by the senses, the most powerful instruments, and by analysis,—not the slightest trace of alcohol can be found, but—here we will find all its elements, every one of them. Here is the alcohol decomposed for blood; its elements arranged and assimilated for fibrin, albumen, and gelatin, flowing in the living stream amicably side by side, with the elements of sugar, egg, cheese, beef, bread, pudding, or vegetable ; and in no manner or in no way by the most acute senses, or the most perfect instrument, or the most delicate and in- genious chemical experiment can they be distinguished from each other. There they are all uniting in one beautiful, harmonious, and homogeneous mass, rolling on in the purple stream to supply the regular waste of the system,—to renovate the bone, muscle, nerve, fat, vessels, and every thing of which the wonderful and beautiful machine of man is composed, and so kept for years in full and finished operation. Here the alcohol, from the moment of its admittance to the stomach, has been lost in as complete a manner as the nutritious parts of beef and bread, and we will now find it, where we will find their nutritious parts in the blood and body, which give the following results :— 25 Fibrin of the blood that chiefly forms mus- ele, according to Guy Lussac and Thenard, Oxygen. Hydrogen. Carbon, Nitrogen. ReOMTe ISL GHO ESI a ala sctiscs spe erereee eters tl cele tna es 19°68 7:02 53°86 19°93 Albumen, which enters largely into the for- mation of solids and fluids, is composed, merortiure to Dr, Prout, Of 9. .0..66 365s 33 26°67 113 50° 15°55 Gelatin, which composes the chief parts of the skin, cartilages, tendons, membranes, and bones, according toGuy Lussac and Thenard, MM ose is wis. hs sees 9 08 6 ey ni 27°20 791 47:88 16:99 _ Hematosine and Colouring Matter of the blood, are, according to Berzelius, nearly similar to Albumen. These are the elements that compose the Fibrin of the blood and the whole body. And now here are the elements of Alcohol, according to Saussure .......... 84:32 13°70 51:98 Why, it is the body itself; and here is the lost alcohol, ready-made fibrin, gelatin, and albumen. The thing is as clear as science can demonstrate it; there are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen—the elements of alcohol, in nearly similar proportions as form the living flaid of the blood, all absorbed into it, and there made, compounded, and assimilated into fibrin, albumen, and gelatin—the body. What clearer—what more certain ? Away they have all gone together to form the wonderful organized body, which, ac- cording to Dr. Gregory and every scientific man —“ facile in pauca elementa resol- vuntur; duriores in caleem et phosphorum: molliores vero in carbonem, nitrogenium, hydrogeniwm, et oxygenium.” | (4) The following interesting fact on this point has been recorded by the Morning Register and Journal of Jamaica, of the 8th May last :— “ Marriages have decreased fully a third in all the Districts in which the Teetotal sysiein tas been introduced.” The powers and propensities of men have been lost. This, too, in the torrid zone. What the effects have been upon Young Ireland, where the system is much operated on, as well as upon the Population Returns of England, in a climate like ours, we have not yet ascertained. It appears a question, as it relates to the former country, deeply interesting to States- men and Repealers of Unions, more so than to a philosophic work of this kind; inas- much as it is a vital question of the—source and extension of legitimate power—the people. And it strikes us that it is one that will of itself settle the Repeal ; for that in future, owing to it, there will be, in all probability, no unions to Repeal, and nobody to repeal them. Young Ireland will be quietly disposed of without any previous action or agitation. What Young Lady Ireland may say to this is a question, like the other, which we, not being in that category, will not presume to answer; but which, though not one of ° them, we can conceive; and leave to the fair reader, at her pleasure, to doso likewise. (5.) The erudite Dr. MrntEeNnGEN, in his curiosities of medical experience, states :— “Tt has been remarked that ALL THA-DRINKING NATIONS are essentially of a, 26 lencophlegmatic* temperament, PREDISPOSED TO SCROFULOUS AND NERVOUS DISEASES. The Chinese, even the Tartur races amongst them, are weak and infirm ; and their women subject to various diseases arising from debility.” Our spirited and spirit fed troops d-veloped this nervous predieactagen in the Chinese and Tartar races before Canton, Chusan, Nankin, &c., shewing that taking Towns and Tea cannot possibly co-exist. ; * Tea,’ quoth the learned Dr. HooPpER :— 4 “When taken too copiously, Is APT TO OCCASION WEAKNESS, TREMOR, PALSIES, AND VARIOUS OTHER SYMPTOMS, ARISING FROM NARCOTIC PLANTS, WHILE IT CONTRIBUTES TO AGGRAVATE HYSTERICAL AND HYPOCHONDRIACAL COMPLAINTS.” To this narcotic poison, pruducing such miserable effects, there is conjoined the stimulant of hot-water, which is also seriously injurious to the stomach, so much so, that the Romans, who had observed the evil, at one time were obliged to keep their people out of hot-water by inderdicting it to them. In the reign of Claudius an edict was issued. forbidding the sale in the Phere: polia (public- -houses) of hot waier ; and we find Ampilius, the prefect of Rome, subjecting the Thermopolia to new regulations, and prohibiting the sale of hot water to the common people. The Monks of former times also used hot-water as a stimulant, but being men of © taste, and in their pilgrimages probably having received dispensations from “ Highgate high,” they only did so when better was not at hand. For “in the ancient monasteries,” we learn from St. Bernard, “ when the vintage had failed, it was customary to serve hot-water to the monks instead of wine;” shewing a very thirsty or improvident disposition. The Romans used to keep some of their wines 200 years, not so these reverend fathers. Quantities of watery liquids, hot or cold, seem to be pernicious to the system. The great CULLEN says— “ An unusual quantity of water ry liquids taken in, has run off by the several intemal exhalants, and produced dropsy.’ Nay, more, in this vapourous clime of Britain, always surcharged with moisture, the system requires to be secured from its debilitating effects; for— ** When the circulation of the blood on the surface of the body is very languid, the skin may be changed from a per-piring to an imbibing state.”+ That is, the skin may absorb moisture like a sponge and inundate the internal cavities, producing dropsies. It isnot from medical knowledge of this fact, but from experience and instinct, that all wet nations, as the Dutch, the Scotch, the Highlanders, the English, the Irish, and the Germans, amongst the lower classes, feel themselves always dry, and use alcoholic stimulants not only as articles of diet-drink, but to counteract the debilitating effects of their humid climates. Demonstrating not only the necessity of negative resistance to watery liquids, but of active and spirited measures against their insidious encroachments. (6.) Every one of the hundred varieties of celebrated wines in France, Spain, Portugal Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Persia, as well as others of Asia and America, all, every one, ere produced by natural fermentation. SSS SESS * Lencoplegmatic, 7. e. of dropsical or watery habits. + Cullen, vol. ii., p. 220. 27 REDDING, the recherché and tasteful writer on modern wines, states in pages 25, 106, 116, 166, and 176— ‘Even in the North of France, vinous fermentation begins in a few hours.” “The must (of champagne) is placed in a vat for 6, 10, or 15 hours, for the dregs to deposit when it begins to ferment;” and such is the power of fermentation that this wine possesses—which is bottled before the p*ocess is complete, to secure the carbonic acid gas—that a breakage of 30 per cent. is often incurred. In Burgundy, “ the must is suffered to ferment, and lasts from 30 to 48 hours if the weather is hot, and from 3 . to 8 days, and o!ten 12 days, if the weather is cold.” White Hermitage, “the finest white wine of France, is often in a state of fermen- tation for 2 years.” Some of the Bordeaux wines, “the must is placed in an uncovered vat, when the temperature is warm, fermentation takes place in 2 or 3 hours.” Th: effervescing wines of the Loire, “ the vins de garde,” have the juice of the grape put up immediately in iron-bound casks completely air-tight, yet it ferments in the most powerful manner; and at Moulines, they make a species of wine called Vin Fou— diunkard’s wine; “they fill a small strong bound cask, having no bung, with must, and plunge it into the vat, from which it is not withdrawn, till ihe fermentation ceases. This wine is very intoxicating.” What stronger evidence is necessary to show, beyond a doubt, that juice of the grape will ferment, and cannot be prevented under any circumstance; in open vats, or in hermetically sealed iron bound casks, this process will go on—sometimes in 2 hours, and sometimes for 2 years—nothing can prevent it. At Shirah, in the Kast, on being placed in the cellar, “ the must is agitated briskly ;” and so in every country of the world. Not only so, but for years fermentation continues its operation, as demonstrated by the continued increase of “‘crust” on the sides of bottles, for 6, 8, 10, and sometimes more years. Bitartrate of Potash, or Créam of Tartar, the crust of wines, is insoluble in alcohol; therefore, the more of it is deposited, the stronger the wine; insensible fermentation perpetually proceeding, the effects are, as Turner observes, ‘an addi tional quantity of bitartrate of potash subsides, constituting the crust, during the progress of wine towards its highest perfection.” The consequences are, that wines go on strengthening themselves to an indefinite period, and the older the wines (as Port) the greater quantity of crust—the strong indication of alcohol—and the indication that fermentation is proceeding at all times, carrying wine, as Turner expresses it, “‘to its highest perfection,” and that the atmos- pheric air has no share in the phenomena, since it may be altogether excluded without affecting the result.” We have also the authority of the great chemist, Murray, in his Elements of Materia Medica, that “‘ saccharine matter, or sweet vegetable juices, and fecula, are the substances susceptible of fermentation; and the access of the air is not necessary to it.” The sugar which disappears is almost precisely equal to the united weights of the alcohol and carbonic acid.” It is recorded that, more than 4,000 years ago, ‘‘ Noah began to be an husbandman and he planted a vineyard ; and he drunk of the wine and was drunken.” Noan, saved from the destruction of a wicked world, could not have known the secret of preserving the juice of the grape unfermented; or if he did, he evidently preferred the fermented: and this good man, selected by the Almighty, thought it no sin to enjoy it to the full. This seems to be the earliest record of wine, which demonstrates its nature, showing it alcoholic almost coeval with the grape. One thousand years before Christ, Homer sung of the exhilerating and intoxicating effects of wine, and records that the wine with which Ulysses filled the giant 28 i Polyphemus drunk, was so strong, that it required 24 parts of water to 1 of wine. And Mago, the Carthagenian, who wrote 28 books on husbandry, 550 years before the’ Christian era, gave these directions, amongst others, for wine making: —“ After it (the must) has remained 20 or 30 days and fermented, rack it into another vessel,’ &c. — Here is direct evidence of fermentation at an early date; and CoLuMELLA, who lived 50 years afler Christ, writes—“ that Tago gives directions for making the best sort of wine, as I myself have done.” This also supports the correct opinion, that the miracle — of Christ at the marriage feast,ina Roman province, was the wine, of course, then in use—the fermented wine of Mago and Columello. “The Greeks,’ quoth Dr. Henderson, chap. viii., in his treatise on wines, “ were © generally reproached with their love of wine, and their parties of pleasure have been stigmatised as little else than mere drinking matches.” When ALEXANDER, 2190 years ago, became madly intoxicated on the wines of the - Exst, in Babylon, and slew his dearest friend, and afterwards became dead-drunk, in sober reality, with the cup of Hercules in his hand,—these effects were not by unfermented wines—nor yet when Babylon was taken—Persepolis destroyed —and Syracuse fell at the feast of Bacchus. And this effect of them, sung by Ovin, was — very much in the same strain :— “Ebrins ecce, senex pando delapsus asello, Clamarunt Satyri, surge, age, surge, pater.” It is a surprising fact, that the very mode of drinking wine is descended to us from the Greeks and Romans, amongst whom it was a common practice to drink the healths of distinguished individuals, and to the absent friends and mistresses of the guests— our practice at public and private dinner parties of the present day;—and at the conclusion of dinner, they thought it the best offering to the gods, as will be found in the Odyssey i., 149. They filled the goblet with pure wine, but before drinking, poured a portion upon the ground as an oblation to some of the gods—the goblet being filled to the brim, was thus said to be crowned with wine. And ANTIPHANES, in Athaneus xv., shews, they dedicated cups to particular deities, the first to Bacchus, under the name of the ‘ Good Genius, the second to ‘Jupiter the Saviour, then the ‘ Cup of Health, and so on; and at last they concluded with the ‘Cup of Mercury, the dispenser of sleep and pleasing dreams. The Scriptural reader will be struck with the similarity of the heathen offering to that ordained by the Lord as an offering from the Jews, “a hin of wine as a sweet savour to the Lord:” and of this sacrifice to ‘‘ Jupiter the Saviour,” 350 y: ars before Christ ; darkly shadowing forth the mighty dispensations that were to chaugy a world; in all combined with some of the dearest objects and feelings with which sentient beings can be endowed. So highly did all the nations of antiquity value wine, that they imputed the blessing to a god—and worshipped him—ofiering sacrifices and erecting temples. The early Phoenicians hal their sacrifices, Giscophoria; the Athenians their Canephoria; and the Romans their Bacchanalia, or Orgia, in honour of Bacchus, where— “Et te Bacche vocant per carmina leeta.” “Parent matresque, nurusque. Talasque, calathosque ; infectaque; pensa reponunt: Thuraque dant: Bacchumqne vocant, Brominmque, Lyceumque, Ignigenamque, satumque iterum, soluumque bimatrem.” Ovid, Metem. Lib. iv. 29 Formerly, wines were exposed to the action of heated smoke, in their Fumarium and thence became inspissated ; but it was after they were perfect wines, and had been fermented, the ancients believing that they ripened and acquired flavour by such a process. We learn from AristorLe, Meteoralog iv., 10, that “ some of the stronger wines, such as the Arcadian, were reduced to a concrete mass, when exposed in skins to the action of smoke.” Soconsolidated did they sometimes become, that they could not be poured from the vessels, and it was necessary to dissolve them in hot water before they could be drank. But this inspissated wine was still intoxicating in the highest degree. We have inspissated juices of fruits in this country; but in this case it is effected before they have taken on fermentation, by their immediate boiling down to a jelly, which is then simple, saccharine matter combined with the flavour of the fruit. ‘Six hundred years "go, Marco Poto met with boiled wines in the confines of Persia, that in their effects were as powerful as uaboiled. “‘The Mahommedans used to boil them, as they were forbidden by law to drink wine;” so by changing the flavour and appearance somewhat by boiling, they presumed to change its name, and evaded the prophet’s law; yet as Polo observes, “the people were great drunkards.” So that neither boiling nor watering, nor any other process, seemed to prevent intoxicat- ing effects. Pury, in Liv. xiv., ch. 11, states that in his day, “ Winein the whole world may be reduced to fourscore kinds or thereabouts ;” and in the description of their production, intimates their full fermentation. Take an example, Liv. xiv., ch. 20, a mode of preparing their wines with the stimulant o! pitch common to the ancients :— “ Howbeit the manner of seasoning new must” (fresh drawn juice of the grape) “therewith that when it is proper wine it may smell of pitch and bite at the tongue’s end, is to bestrew it with the powder of pitch at the first working.” Showing that, like some of the finest French wines, it went through a secondary fermentation. To show fully their nature, read Pliny’s description of their drinking bouts, which, for drunken excess, far exceeded the times of “ the fine old English gentleman :’— For instance, “ Tergilla challenged M. Cicero, the younger, son to that M. Cicero, the famous orator, and reproached him to his face, that ordinarily he drank two gallons at once, and that one time, above the rest, when he was drunk he flung a pot—(I presume a gallon one )—at M. Agrippa’s head.”— Pliny, Liv. xiv., ch. 20. SENECA, in a very ungallant manner, befitting his character, complains of an accom- plishment of the Roman ladies that has not descended to our times. He states that the Roman women boasted of their capacities for carrying excess in wine as far as the most robust men, passing night after night at table, and, with cup in hand, gloried in vieing with the men, and trying to overcomethem. They usually drank for wagers. TipERivs Craupivus knighted, a boon companion, Novellius Torquatus, by the distinguished Title of Zricongius—the 3 Congii or 3 Gallon Knight, because he possessed the faculty of drinking 3 Congii or 9 Quarts, at a breath. Carus Piso, it is said, owed his advancement at the Court of Tiberius to his bibacious powers—he could sit for 2 days and 2 nights dricking wine without inter- mission or falling from his couch. Some wines produced during the Consulship of Orrmivs, were called after hin— and at 200 years old were considered almost invaluable, bringing enormous prices. 30 A small portion of them mixed with other wines gave them the most delightful flavour and increased strength. = The Pucine wine was greatly valued; the Empress Julia Augusta, an excellent judge it appears, often declared the free use of this wine was the source of her great age. This pleasant old lady lived to 82 years in its full enjoyment. The Cecuban, and Setine wines were, with cthers, in great request and celebrity in the time of Augustus Cesar. i The Falernian, sung by Horace, and pronounced most solemnly, immortal, by Martial, because it rendered its votaries immortal, I presume, was the most celebrated of all the Italian wines; it was never drunk till upwards of 10 years old. They had also the delicious Faustian, the Alban, Surrentine, Massic, and Rhetian : and*im- ported the wines of Cyprus, Lesbos, and Chios. Sirabo thought the Chian the best Greek wine; but Virgil, a man of undoubted fine taste, proclaims the Phanewan, the King of wines. From the great value the Romans set on Chian wine, however, it seemed to be generally preferred—only a single draught of Chian was allowed at table—it being so scarce and costly—of which the 3 Gallon Knight, it is probable, never complained. In the 16th chapter of his work, Pliny treats of artificial wine, which is merely a weaker wine, about one-third reduced by water previous to, instead of after fermentation. “'To come now into the artificial wines. Adynamon, without strength, is made of new wine, in this manner:—Take of new wine 20 sextas (quarts), water half as much, let them boil together till the measure of water be consumed, then suffer them 1o work in the hot sun for the space of 40 days.” ‘This is just the time that the wine of a similar climate, in modern times, takes to work or ferment. Redding, the celebrated writer on wines, states, that for Port and Madeira “ the fermentation generally lasts siz weeks,” or 42 days. Inthe same book Pliny gives a description of the making of strong ales, which he states is used throughout the then known world, and adds “so that no part or corner of the world there is but drunkenness prevails.” The British islends, at the same time, possessed ali the luxurious wines of the Roman empire. Tne vine, in early ages, was even cultivated in Britain, and wine made of a widely-different quality from the present home-made.’ The art of distillation has been supposed to have been known in Ireland prior to its introduction amongst the Romans, apparently unknown in Pliny’s day; but whether from Geber or the Arabians seems uncertain. Some authors would have whisky as old as Old Ireland herself— the spirit of that island from its formation. A highly-respectable spirit it has been up to this period, when the evil spirit of detraction seeks to exorcise it and become the cold animating principle instead. ” Morewoop in his elaborate work on Inebriating Liquors, says of it :— “ Aqua vite was first used in this country, Ireland, as a medicine, considered as a penacea for all disorders, and the physicians recommended it to patients indiscrim- inately for preserving health, dissipating humours, strengthening the heart, curing colic, © dropsy, palsy, quartan fever, stone, and even prolonging existence beyond the common limits.” “The Latin epithet, Aqua vite, the Irish term Usquebaugh, and the modern word Whisky, are in point of fact synonymous. Agua vite signilying the water of life, and usquabaugh, which should be written Iskebaghah or Isquebeoh, the former implying water of life and the latter living water.” , “As Isgue or Iske means water, it must appear evident that the word Whisky is only a slight alteration in the pronunciation of this Irish term.” 31 It appears that 3200 years ago, in the time of Joshua, wine was kept in skins, as is now the practice in Spain and other countries; and the text of Job (ch. 82, v. 18) shows a strong natural fermentation going on “ ready to burst;” and Luke (ch. 5, v.37) proves beyond a doubt that old scriptural bottles, previously weakened, if charged with new wine the fe:mentation being unfinished and still proceeding like that of champagne, will, by the strong development of carbonic acid gas, ‘‘ burst the bottles.” As a further corroboration of the fermentative process going on to perfection, developing its full alcoholic powers then as at this hour,—any man that drank the old, preferred, and at once said, as now, if a man of taste, “ the old is better.” When Ulysses proceeded to the cave of the Cyclops, he carried with him a goatskin filled with the rich black wine which he received from Maron, the priest of Apollo.— Odyssey ix., 195. The sherry wines-in Spain are now conveyed from the press, half-fermented, into the merchants’ stores, in sheep skins ; and in Madeira, “ the wines are brought to the towns in hog skins upon asses.” Borracha, in Spain, is a /eathern bottle, and odriis a wine skin, made of hog's or goat's hide, and pitched. Three centuries ago, in Spain, it was exactly similar, as CuervanreEs’ description of Don Quixote’s battles with the giant proves. Sancho Panza, the inimitable, rushed amidst the company in the inn, and declared— “T saw the blood run about the floor, and the head cut off and fallen on one side, and as big as a great wine skin.” Shade of mighty Sancho, hadst thow been alive, what bursts of inimitable huamour— what happy strokes of wit—what irresistible flashes of honest indignation wouldst thou have discharged against those stomach attacks. Thy taking of the healing balsam, and the loss of thy earldom and thy ass, woultl have been a joke to it. Thus it is the practice now, as it was three, as well as thirty centuries ago, to put wine into skins of all descriptions, and then, as now, its powerful effects gave strong proof of its fermentative and alcoholic nature. Tn all other parts of the world the variety of alcoholic drinks is greater than in civilized Europe—shewing them contemporaneous everywhere with man’s existence. Here is an imperfect list :— MEVUE teres OVI ceca aces sa dees DET. SPS cy so REP ts ores. ieee. | Dittos Araklves. c++: DitiO,......65.++- «+. Spirit distilled fiom date. COU ecaiers eee CIN UDIG, |. 9 oie.s 0.0 siaws © 9 ». LOT. Ee AS OOP (OARS ROE See 1 ee MRO aN cree esis c'ckec, aieie.< Kaleo do) 3 ‘OLDS Giese ee entiation PMNS dh. CO sie dew kiwed sé BRT ME AR cri acierge A OTM g dea ais og sah sb, 0, @glaidin Arrack, ...... East‘Indies,.... PRM ¢clerea exes Ditto,. BIO y Wsicer'es.o NODA, oo: ofndeeele ae share i aN carishe, oo vd AND, 05a S ea: Vial atlas Palm wine,.... Batavia,...... See Bae Ywera, ....... Saadwich Islands, .... eee ee eses ee eere Distilled from the grape of Shiraz. Distilled from figs, Palm wine. Rice wine. Wheat beer. .. ... Spirit distilled from fermented rice. Wild date wine. Spirit distilled from wheat. Distilled rice. From the Palm. A spirit, like whiskey, from the tea root. Koumiss, in Tartary, is mare’s milk fermented, from which a strong spirit, called Arika is frequently distilled. Airen,in Tartary, cow’s milk treated in a similar manner. Sihee, in Affghanistan, sheep’s milk fermented into a strong drink. Lamb wine, in China, is lamb’s flesh mashed with milk or rice, and fermented. 32 Capt. Cook informs us, that in Otaheite the intoxicating liquor, Ava, is made thus:—The makers chew a qua: tity of the tree, till it becomes soft and pulpy, then every one spits the juice he has pressed out into the same platter, and more or less water is mixed with it, according to the strength required.” As a proof of its effects, he “observed that the reverend father, the Otaheitan priest, could walk very well in the morning, but in the evening was generally led home by two friendly supporters.’ ” This reverend father had unwittingly failen into the habit of some other reverend fathers in more enlightened lands. _That is not the wonder in this matter, but the fermentative process being produced by saliva, which we also find is done in Guiana. Piworree, in Guiana, is prepared from the Cassava, by fermentation, not from yeast, or being left to nature, but from woman’s saliva. The women chew cakes of baked Cassava, and eject it, saturated with saliva, amongst a mass of the same material moistened with water, ‘“‘then leave it to ferment,” which it forthwith does to some purpose, rapidly producing intoxication. Thus we have seen that in the most remote heathen ages, amongst the civilized Greeks and homans, and more barbarous nations of antiquity, amongst the ancient Jews and early Christians, as well as in modern times ; in all countries, in enlightened Europe, in the darkest nook of the Souta Seas, and throughout the world. fermented and intoxicating liquors have been, and are, the ordinary drink of man. That the great conservative law of fermentation pervades Nature, and that the juice of the grape, and certain other vegetable juices, rush, under every circumstance, into it; and that we cao trace neither proof nor process of any description of wise without fermentation, and, consequently, none without alcohol; and that, therefore, the British people may live, as the great nations of antiquity lived, as their wise ancestors lived, as the Patriarchs, as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Daniel, and the Prophets lived, as the Apostles, as ‘limothy, St. Paul, and the Saviour himself lived, with propriety and advantage, and without sin. (7.) The following additional texts of Scripture referring to “ wine and strong drinks,” demonstrate their fermented and alcoholic nature, the Jewish customs relating to them, their mode of preparing them, the high estimation in which they were held by the Jews as articles of food, with the approbation of Jehovah, their then spiritual guide, munificent earthly purveyor and benign Physician; which to the Scriptural reader are deeply interesting :— Genesis, ...... chapter 9 verse 20. Proverbs, '..... chapter 51 verse 6, 7: +, Spr ih ee yom Bans 3 2 Isaiah>. 7). 163, 9,10. ms Runood laters Orage 9 , — JOeremiilan,” °. «sae ine 34°C, dL, Pe Mcstete gi eas QT 4, |) 2B, Ole} MAZCKICN, pores meee A eres i Numbersyo i. so, 13 >) 4. Aba Daniels acc cae + haar 3. Mec) ti eae ae saan tc? AGS, «48 a 5 oe tee ALINE BosO RiGee. pA Se) oa 6. PE Ate A bs: LOOMS, 2, 10. JOD ss cee cette : K SVM aida Hob Psdras eee esses A 305, — JUAROR, cise teio sas Paar. Boe Matthew, 7.2." 45, Oro eee ist Samuel,<... 5, Reha le he, _ cath sa eag at) > ee Prat tir Ro aes Buake, Sosa ss ee Se eis 2d Samuel,.... —,, 625", John; he's eee ae DAS i. FIStHPPS sve cine Mtge Tose AU: CLS. raregeiain ne ae, 2a a > Veaoie me tae 2 es 2. Timothy, ....%s a ‘ree ” OU, Cicta'e es see a, ass L eas: Ejphesians, .... 45 Bet ads. De sece cs tate Teas ye a ce Thessalonians,.. ,, BL i, ha Paeaglyns, 36 Sse 5 17. seeks Tao tb ys: o5)3 setae Bi 3. Provérbs;* 030.) 44; BU ey, Revelations, .... yy LG ir ae 33 (8.), The being, these fanatics would reduce to a mere machine, is the beautiful creation Man—with his noble faculties, almost divine—the power of his intellects—the vigour of his conceptions—the brilliancy of his imagination, and the soaring beauty of his apprehension, which scarcely surpass the graceful magnificence of his physical frame— the strength, yet lightness ofits construction—the wonderful perfection of its machinery —the susceptibility of its organs, the delightful acuteness of its senses, and the extraordinary delicacy of its se vsibility—a fit receptacle and instrument for the celestial inmate. This noble work of God—all this undeniable Divinity in the paragon of animals, with organs for the enjoyment of the other perfect works of creation, they would presumptuously uncreate and render an irrational machine. Are all these fine susceptibilities, bestowed by a beneficent Creator, for happiness and enjoyment, to lie unexercised and useless ? The Palite—with the delicacy of its little papille, and the beautiful arrangement of its nerves and vessels, producing such pleasurable sensations in the enjoyment of the pleasant foods and delicious wines for the natural supply; must it be disgusted with the coarsest productions rs The Ear—must no sweetness of tone—no harmony of numbers—no gorgeous richness of celestial notes—no elevation of inspired sounds enrapture its fine organiza- tion, and “ steal o’er the sense like the sweet south o’er a bank of violets ;” but must it be always irritated with every day noises or perpetual discord ? The Eye, too—that concentration of God-like perfection—the bodily imagination— must we not employ it on the rainbow and glowing tints of heaven, or their embodied reflection on the earth—the divinely-painted flowers, the violets, the roses, and the lilies—the eternal ocean with its never-ending change—the towering mountains—the lovely-bedecked plains—the gems of animated Nature—the sparkling creatures that adorn this nether world in all their varied forms—must all this banquet of beauties be rejected for eternal shade or solemn sombre night ? The charming combinations of the pencil for a lasting black? Beautiful woman, too, with all the grace and elegance of her nature, instead of adorning life, must she be confined to common household drudgery, and the low indulgence of the animal propensities ? Has the beneficent Creator, in these glorious works, put forth the perfection of His power that His creatures may refuse their enjoyment? Would He have placed us amidst such scenes, and possessed us with such corporeal sensibilities, so refined as to be almost mental, for their appreciation, but for the purposes of happiness—their adaptation for which is so peculiarly striking? Had he intended us to be stocks and stones, he would have made us so. “The earth was given to man and the fullness thereof,” with organs and senses for its perfect enjoyment, and he best shows his gratitude to their glorious and common Author when, with a grateful heart he freely partakes of his bounty, guided by no fanciful or mechanical regulation of his own, but by God-like reason alone, the only guide, Revelation excepted, which the Creator has vouchsafed to his creature. (9.) If the more permanent sinking of the pulse in low fevers requires wine or alcohol to elevate it, that life may go on, so, in the daily fever of life, the temporary sinking of 34 the pulse from exhausted strength requires a similar “ medicine,” in moderation, for the same purpose. P ; Here would I venture to suggest an exact rule for the healthy indulgence of fer- mented liquors. Drink without dread till the pulse or the feelings have been elevated to the bounding and healthy state of natural and vigorous life—but not one drop more. The instant you exceed this, and rush from a low fever of debility, by whatever cause produced, to the excited pulse, and maddened feelings of an inflammatory action, by excess, you have passed the bounds of useful enjoyment, and are then effecting deep and serious injury. It thus is, that as each individual man possesses an idiosyncrasy, he is a standard and rule to himself alone of what is proper, regulated by his own sensations and pulse, without reference to another. If he stop at the proper point, he leaves his physical frame and mental powers greatly benefitted and invigorated ; if he rush into excess, he produces an injurious fever to the body, disorganises his moral powers, and dethrones — from its sublime majesty that representative of the Deity—the Intellect. . In drinking, as in eating,* sleeping, exercising mentally or corporeally, indulgence of the affections, or concession to the passions—live moderately and live happily :— according to Hippocrates :— “ Cibi, potus, somni, venere, omnia moderata sint.” * In his day, it was observed by Celsus, “ Seepe, si qua intemperantia subest, tutior es in potione quam in esc.” NEWCASTLE: PRINTED BY M. BENSON, FOOT OF DEAN STREET. 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