PRIZE ESSAY
ON
ARDENT SPIRITS,
AND
ITS SUBSTITUTES
AS A MEANS OF INVIGORATING HEALTH.
Deo Juvante-9
BY REUBEN D. MUSSEY, M. D.
Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, Dartmouth College, N. Hampshire;
President New Hampshire Medical Society, and Fellow
of the American Academy of Sciences, &c. &c.
WASHINGTON:
PUBLISHED BY DUFF GREEN.
1837
[Copy-right secured according to law.]

A Premium of Three Hundred Dollars was:
awarded to Professor Mussey, for this Essay, by
the following Board of Adjudicators:
JHON C. WARREN, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and
Surgery, Harvard University, Boston..
THOMAS SEWALL, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and
Physiology, Columbian College, Washington, D.C.
ROBERTS Vaux, Esq., President of the Pennsylva-
nia State Temperance Society, Philadelphia.
PARKER CLEAVELAND, M. D., Professor of Chemistry
and Materia Medica, Bowdoin College, Maine.
VANBRAUCH LIVINGSTON, Westchester county, N.Y.
BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, M. D., Professor of Chemistry,
Yale College, New Haven, Conn.
FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D., President of Brown Uni-
versity, Providence, Rhode Island.
WILLIAM GOODELL, Editor of the Genius of Tem-
perance," New York City.
Rev. W. W. Niles, Secretary of the Board.

ESS AY, &c.
DENT
QUEST. I. WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF AR-
SPIRIT, AND OF ITS INTRODUCTION INTO MEDI-
CAL PRACTICE ?
QUEST. II. WHAT ARE ITS EFFECTS UPON THE ANIMAL
ECONOMY?
QUEST. III. IS THERE ANY CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM IN
HEALTH OR DISEASE IN WHICH ITS USE IS INDISPENSABLE,
AND FOR WHICH THERE IS NOT AN ADEQUATE SUBSTI-
TUTE?
CHAPTER I.
History
ARDENT SPIRIT or ALCOHOL is a thin color-
less fluid, lighter than water, somewhat volatile,
of a pungent smell and taste, readily inflaming by
the application of a lighted taper, and burning with
a dim blue or purple flame. It is pro-
Physical pro-
duced only by the decomposition of perties and ori-
gin of alcohol.
vegetable and animal substances, * in
a state of fermentation. It is the intoxicating
principle of all fermented liquors, as wine, cider,
beer, &c., and may be separated from them by dis-
tillation and other processes.
*The Tartars and Chinese make a kind of wine and
ardent spirit from the flesh of sheep.
2
13

14
HISTORY.
ed by Noah.
Fermented liquors derived from the juices of
fruits, and from the farinaceous grains, were used
in periods of high antiquity. The first
Wine invent- authentic record we have of wine, re-
fers to a period scarcely less remote
than that of the deluge. Noalı planted a vineyard
and drank of the fruit of it; and the hypothesis
that he was the inventor of wine, receives coun-
tenance from the assertion of Hecataeus, the Mi-
lesian historian, that the use of wines was first
discovered in Ætolia by Orestes the son of Deuca-
lion. This last personage, it is well known, was
the hero of the deluge among those heathen nations
whose records and traditions recognise that great
event.
The early history of alcohol in its uncombined
state, or in the form of ardent spirit, is obscure.
Had Mahometan fanaticism spared
The period at
which distilled the Alexandrian library, the curiosity
invented—ob- of our own times might perhaps have
been gratified by a knowledge of the
period of its discovery, as well as with the name
and residence of the individual whose researches
gave to the world a poison, which, in countries
where its use has become general, has caused more
human suffering than any other invention of man.
There is indeed some probability that China
may claim the discovery of the process of distilla-
tion. “In that country,' says More-
discovered in wood, which has preserved its civil
polity for so many thousand years, the
art of distillation was known far beyond the date
of its authentic records. The same writer, refer-
ring to the authority of Du Halde, Martini, Gro-
scure.
1
Distillation
China.

HISTORY.
15
Chinese
2006
sier and others, says, that there is abundant proof
of the Chinese having been well versed in that
branch of alchemy which has for its object a pana-
cea, or universal medicine, long before this fancy
engaged the attention of European practitioners.
The search after this elixir of life is said to have
originated with the disciples of Lao Chiun, who
flourished six hundred years before the Christian
era. If this statement be authentic,
Distilled spir-
there can remain scarely a doubt that it possibly
known by the
the Chinese were acquainted with dis-
tilled spirit more than two thousand years ago.
years ago
With a knowledge of the process of distillation,
and impelled by a motive so strong as the hope of
finding an elixir, a single draught of which would
confer an immunity from disease, decay, and
death, the alchemists could hardly have failed
early to subject to this process every kind of be-
verage which was known to exert an exhilarating
influence upon the actions of life. The infatua-
tions of alchemy still existed in China
in times comparatively modern, for
three of her kings, two in the ninth, killed by the
and one in the sixteenth century, pe-
rished from a draught of the elixir of life, prepared
by the alchemists, and taken with a view to at-
tain to immortality. The
To Arabia, however, Europe appears to have
been wholly indebted for a knowledge of the art
of distillation. It has been suggested, that, as the
Arabians at a very early period for commercial
purposes penetrated into China, even as far as to
Canton, there might have been an interchange
49 Three Chi-
Kings
nese
life

16
HISTORY
Distillation
probably
covered in
Arabia.
7th century.
in the scientific discoveries of the two nations.
As the result of their intercourse
dis- must probably always remain a mat-
ter of conjecture, it is not unreasona-
ble to allow to the Arabians, what
has usually been accorded to them, the credit of
having found out the process of distillation,
whether they were the only inventors or not. A
knowledge of chemistry came with the Saracens
into Spain, and to this day, several terms purely
Arabic, are retained in the nomenclature of Eu-
ropean chemistry, as alcohol, alcali, &c.
Geber, whose period and country are question-
able, but who is regarded by many as of Saracen
Geber in the origin, and who is generally supposed
to have lived in the seventh century
of the Christian era, is so particular in his des-
criptions as to show, that in his time not only the
art of distillation, but the methods of conducting
various pharmaceutical processes were well un-
derstood. Distillation was certainly known in
Spain as early as the ninth century,
in and there is a high degree of proba-
bility that, along with other mechan-
ical arts, it was brought there by the Saracens in
the early part of the eighth century.
Rhazes, who was a most scientific and distin-
guished Arabian physician, born about the middle
of the ninth century, and who resided at the court
of Almansor in Seville, gives minute directions for
making a particular pharmaceutical preparation
in a glass retort. At what precise period the
chemists learned the art of extracting alcohol
from fermented liquors it is impossible to deter-
In the 9th
century
Spain.

HISTORY.
17
rit
Ardent spi-
mine; but from the fact of their being
probably
constantly engaged in the pursuit of known in the
the elixir of life, and from other con- possibly earlier.
siderations already suggested, there
can be but little doubt of its having been known
at or before the time of Rhazes. The ardent thirst
for discovery, and the guarded secresy with which
chemical processes were at that time conducted,
the great facility of disguising alcohol by a multi-
tude of odorous and colored substances, together
with the hope that in some shape or combina-
tion it would turn out to be the long sought elixir,
might prevent the mode of its preparation from
becoming public for a long period of time, possi-
bly for centuries.
We are not informed when it was first used as
a medicine. Its pungent and exhilarating pro-
perties would easily give it a place among resto-
rative remedies, more especially as it might easily
be reinforced or modified by the addition of me-
dicinal agents, from the vegetable and mineral
kingdoms.
omnes
The first spirit we have any account of in Eu-
rope was made from the grape, and sold as a
medicine in Spain and Italy under the Arabian
term alcohol.* The Genoese were
the first who prepared it from grain, medicine
and are said to have made, in the thir- the 13th cen-
teenth century, a gainful traffic by tury.
selling it in small bottles at a high price, under the
name of aqua vitæ, or water of life. Distillation
was known in France in 1313, and to this day
* The original signification of the word alcohol,' is a
substance which is odorous, and easily evaporates.
Sold as 2
by
2*

18
HISTORY.
Sold by a
century.
the common distilled spirit of that country bears
the name of water of life. In the 14th century
medicated spirits were manufactured and sold in
Hungary. A queen of that country is said to
have become famous by making a preparation of
aqua vitæ with rosemary, which was thought to
possess extraordinary medicinal vir-
Queen of Hun- tues. The medicated spirit called
gary in the 14th gin, which is distilled with juniper-
berries, is said to have been first pre-
pared in Holland in the 17th century. It is still
in vogue among those who labor un-
der certain local obstructions, occa-
sioned by irregular and intemperate
habits.
Thus introduced as a medicine, ardent spirit
gradually found its way from one region and king-
dom to another, and is now used both as a medi-
cine and a beverage in every
civilized country in
the world. The only regions where no kind of
intoxicating liquor is manufactured, are New-
Zealand, New South Wales, and Van Dieman's
Landt
Gin in the
17th century.
Morewood.
† Dr. Thompson.

EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
19
CHAPTER II.
vapor,
Effects of Ardent Spirit upon the animal economy.
The first effect of ardent spirit upon the living
fibre is stimulating. This has been observed on
its application to the web of the foot of a frog.
By the aid of the microscope, it appeared that the
blood in the small vessels circulated, for a short
time, more rapidly than before. Rubbed
upon
the
human skin, or snuffed into the nostrils in the
form of liquid or
of
it augments the sen-
sibility and quickens the circulation upon the sur-
faces with which it is brought in contact. Taken
into the stomach in a concentrated state, it instan-
taneously occasions a burning pain.
When swallowed in a state sufficiently di-
luted, it throws through the stomach
a glow or grateful warmth, which in stomach.
many cases is transmitted to the remote organs
of the body. The brain and the nerves of the
senses partake in the exhilaration. The
tens, the hearing is more acute, the colloquial
powers are exalted, and the expressions of the
countenance are vivid and emphatic, changing in
quick succession, in conformity with Brain, nerves,
the rapidly shifting topics of conver-
sation, denoting that the movements of the mind
are led by the influence of its more remote and
capricious associations.
As the alcoholic excitation increases, the pas-
Upon
the
eye glis-
&c.

20
EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
excited.
Effects of
sions are easily unfolded, as pity, hatred, gener-
osity, revenge, while the reasoning powers and
the moral sense are weakened and perverted, and
The passions the degradation of these noblest at-
tributes of human nature is manifest-
ed by indecent, profane, idiotic, or pugnacious
garrulity.
Under the still deeper and more protracted in-
fluence of this poison, the functions of
large doses.
the senses and the operations of the
mind are slower and less coherent; the voluntary
muscles at the same time indicating their en-
feebled condition, by the falling eye-lid, the open
mouth, the driveling lip, and the hanging head ;
and the exhausted brain and nerves at length
leave the whole system to sink into a state of un-
consciousness or profound insensibility, which
sometimes terminates in death.
The free and habitual use of ardent spirit, is
followed by habitual languor in the
spirits used ha- functions of the organs of the senses,
and in fact of every organ of the body.
The physiognomy tells what has been done. All
the exquisite delineations of benevolence, of deli-
cacy, and of high moral and religious feeling, are
effaced from the countenance, as their prototypes
are from the mind, and stupidity and selfishness
occupy their places. Even strong passion is but
faintly portrayed by the half palsied muscles of
the face, and sluggishness dwells in that mind which
was once impelled by a spirit of activity and en-
terprize. The powers of digestion, and nutrition
having been effectually invaded, the stomach ad-
mits less food than before, and the whole system
Effects
of
bitually.

EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
21
18 but imperfectly supplied with nourishment.
Numerous chronic diseases, with melancholy and
madness in their train, put in their claim for a re-
sidence in the decaying organs of the body; and
when acute forms of disease, as thoracic inflamma-
tion and pestilential fever make an attack, the
work of ruin, thus begun and prosecuted by al-
cohol, is completed by death.
In deep drunkenness there is lethargy and
stupor, the face is often pale, some-
Physiognomy
times flushed, very rarely livid and of
swollen, and still more rarely natural.*
The breathing is generally slow, sometimes
stertorous or laborious, seldom rapid or calm.
The respiratory movements are chiefly or whol-
ly abdominal ; the separate acts of inspiration and
expiration, particularly the former, occupying but
a short time. The puffing of the cheeks as in
apoplexy exceedingly rare. The extremities are
almost invariably cold; the pulse feeble and slow,
and not unfrequently imperceptible; the pupil
generally dilated, though sometimes contracted.994
drunken-
ness.
* Dr. Ogston's cases.
| Remedies for a fit of intoxication.
1. Dislodge the spirit from the stomach by emetics aid-
ed by pressure upon the pit of the stomach, or by the use
of the stomach pump.
2. Sometimes inject warm water to dilute the glairy
mucus, or to distend this organ to the point of action,
when not sufficiently distended by its contents.
3. Cold affusion to the head, especially when the head
is hot.
4. The vigorous and persevering application of a cow-
skin whip, or of small rods to the gluteal eminences.
This last is a most effectual remedy in rousing the op-
pressed energies of the brain and nerves.

22
EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
Appearances
after death.
In the bodies of persons dead from
a fit of drunkenness, the following ap-
pearances have been observed, viz.
The Brain. Its peripheral or exterior parts,
commonly firm; its blood vessels engorged ; tur-
bid serum beneath the arachnoid membrane; and
turbid or slightly bloody serum, often several
ounces, in the ventricles.
The Heart and great vessels filled with fluid
blood;
the right side of the heart more distended
than the left; sometimes bloody serum in the pe-
ricardium. .
The Lungs. Frothy mucus in the air tubes
and cells; lower portion of the lungs charged with
fluid blood ;-sometimes hepatized.
The Stomach contracted and small ; its walls
sometimes three or four times their natural thick-
ness and inclurated; the folds of its lining mem-
brane sometimes of a deep red color; the whole
membrané soft, and easily torn.
The Intestines. Inflammation, thickening and
softening of the lining membrane; ulcerations of
this membrane in the terminal portion of the small
intestine; occasionally preternatural adhesions of
them to the other yiscera as the duodenum and the
pancreas.
The Liver large and firm ; its surface frequently
uneven, pale, mottled, or orange colored, its inte-
rior orange colored, exhibiting fatty degenerations,
The Kidneys paler than natural, large, and flab-
by ; their cut surfaces sometimes bloody.
It should be observed, that of the foregoing
marks of disease, some, as the serum under the
arachnoid membrane and in the ventricles of the

EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY23
.
.
Blood
re-
mains fluid.
brain, the fluidity of the blood in the heart and
great vessels, and perhaps the deep red upon parts
of the lining membrane of the stomach, are to be
regarded as the effects of the last or fatal fit of in-
toxication; while others, as the striking firmness
confidently alleged by some anatomists to have
been observed in the superficial parts of the
brain ;—the thickening, induration, contraction,
and ulceration of the stomach and intestines-the
enlargement, unevenness, hardness, fatty deposits,
and orange color of the liver—the unnatural
color, size, and flabby texture of the kidneys,
must have resulted from the more gradual opera-
tion of the habitual use of strong drink.
It is well known, that often in cases of death
by lightning, the blood does not co-
agulate, but remains in the form of a
homogeneous fluid, the principle of life having
been suddenly and wholly extinguished by the
electrical shock. The same thing is observable
when death takes place from the influence of cer-
tain poisons, as the woorara, ticunas, and tobacco.
This is also the case when a draught of alcoholic
liquor proves fatal. The blood in the heart, the
large vessels, and the lungs, is entirely fluid; so
effectual is this poison in preventing the last na-
tural act of vitality in the blood, its coagulation.
A difference of opinion has existed among phy-
siologists as to the manner in which
alcohol acts upon the animal machine which spirit
in producing its peculiar effects. The effects.
sudden exhilaration and glow in distant organs,
occasioned by the swallowing of a small quantity
of it, result, probably, from the impressions made
Modes
by
its

24
EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
By sympathy. upon the nerves of that organ being
communicated by sympathy to those
of distant parts. From experiments practiced by
Rayer, it appears that an impression made by al-
cohol upon a sensitive surface of great extent is
speedily fatal. Injected into the peritoneum of a
rabbit, it extinguished life in less than a minute ;
an effect altogether too sudden to admit of expla-
nation by absorption. This view will also explain
the sudden recovery which takes place upon the
stomach being entirely emptied, in those cases of
inebriation which arise from a single and large
draught, and in which the symptoms have existed
only for a period too short to admit of absorption
to any extent.
Mr. Brodie, indeed, from some of his experi-
ments made upon animals, inferred, that this
article is not at all absorbed or carried into the cir-
culation. A sufficient number of facts, however,
By absorption, prove its capability of passing into the
circulation, and sometimes in large
quantities. Mr. Magendie, in an experiment
upon a dog, half an hour after tying up the outlet
of the stomach and injecting it with
alcohol, found a strong odor of this
fluid in the blood, and obtained it also from the
blood by distillation.
A healthy laboring man in London, about thir-
ty years
of
age, 'drank at a single draught, a quart
of gin for a wager;' within a quarter of an hour
he fell down insensible, and died in about three
hours from the time of falling. In the Westmin-
In the blood.
ster Hospital his body was dissected,
and in the ventricles of the brain was
In the brain.

EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
25
found a considerable quantity of limpid fluid, dis-
tinctly impregnated with gin, both to the sense of
smell and taste, and even to the test of inflam-
mability. The liquid appeared to the senses of
the examining students, as strong as one-third gin
to two-thirds water. *
Another case in point is related by Dr. Ogston.
He says, that on the 23d of August, 1831, he ex-
amined, in company with another medical man,
the body of a woman aet. 40, who was believed to
have drowned herself in a fit of intoxication no
one having witnessed the act. We found,
says he, nearly four ounces of fluid in the
ventricles of the brain, having all the physical
qualities of alcohol, as proved by the united
testimony of two other medical men who saw the
body opened and examined the fluid. The sto-
mach also smelt of this fluid.' That spirit exists
in the circulation is obvious, from the fact of its
being present in many cases in the breath, after
its entire removal from the stomach,t as is shown
by a careful examination of its contents, dis-
charged by vomiting, or through the aid of the
stomach pump.
Does spirit pass into the circulation by the route
of lacteal absorption ? It has been indubitably
established by a great variety of experiments,
that numerous articles, some of them slowly,
others expeditiously, may be imbibed directly by
the walls or coats of the blood vessels, and thus
In the aid of the
Cook on nervous diseases.-Hare on the stomach. 30
+ Ogston.
# Made by Magendie, Fodera, Dutrachet, Coates, Law-
rence, and others.
3

26
EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
pass into the blood. In one experiment, less than
three minutes were occupied in the passage of a
strong watery solution of nux vomica through the
coats of the jugular vein of a dog. In the other
experiment with the dog, already referred to, in
which M. Magendie found spirit in the blood,
there was none detected in the chyle.
Spirit, then, may sometimes enter the circula-
tion by direct imbibition through the coats of the
blood vessels; and when it has arrived at the
blood, it unites with its watery part, for which it
has a strong affinity, and circulates along with it
through every organ, deranging, oppressing, or
extinguishing the actions of life. In the brain,
when a portion of the watery part of the blood is
thrown into the ventricles to relieve the gorged
vessels, alcohol is deposited with it; and from its
strong affinity for water, it is probable that a pro-
portion of it is deposited along with the thin fluids
secreted by the large glands, as the mammary
glands, and kidneys; and there can be no doubt of
its being exhaled in large quantities from those
surfaces, as the skin and bronchial membrane,
from which there is a free transpiration of aque-
ous matter, whether in a liquid or æriform state.
The inhalation, only, of the vapor of distilled
Inhaling the spirit or of wine, may be carried so
vapor of spirit far as to produce deep intoxication.
drunk Received in this manner, it is proba-
bly imbibed by the blood in the fine
vessels distributed upon the walls of the air cells
of the lungs, and then conducted by the route of
the circulation to the brain and other distant or-
gans.
cause
ness.

EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
27
In so far as we are acquainted with the powers
of the stomach, we have no evidence that it is ca-
pable of digesting or decomposing alcohol. Dr.
Beaumont, in his experiments with St. Martin, ob-
served that neither alcohol nor fermented liquors,
nor other fluids, not holding aliment in solu-
tion, are changed by the gastric juice, but very
soon after being received, pass out of the stomach
either through the pylorus or by absorption. And
from the fact of an alcoholic exhalation from the
lungs existing for several hours after the drinking
of any kind of intoxicating liquor, as appears from
the odor of the breath, it is to be inferred that
no healthy animal process whatever can accom-
plish its dissolution. The stomach and its aux-
iliary organs act upon the thousands of nutrient
articles, decomposing them, changing their nature,
and preparing them to become a component part
of the organs themselves; but the versatile and
wonder working agencies of animal chemistry
seem powerless when brought to operate upon
this uncongenial and refractory material. In the
stomach it is alcohol, in the lungs it is alcohol, in
brain it is alcohol : and as the organs are unable
to break down its elements and render it nutritive
or harmless, they throw it out at every emunc-
tory and pore; not, however, until it has left upon
the vital tissues and movements the impress of
mischief, which being reiterated from day to day
and year to year, brings premature decay, disease,
and dissolution.

28
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
CHAPTER III.
Is there any condition of the system in health or
disease, in which its use is indispensable, and for
which there is not an adequate substitute ?
Alcohol as a
Of the effects of alcohol as a beverage in health,
there ought to be but one opinion.
beverage. The whole history of spirit drinking,
whether simple, or combined with the different
ingredients existing in fermented or brewed li-
quors, affords abundant proof of its being uncon-
genial with the most natural and healthy actions
of the bodily organs. How wide from the truth
is the notion that spirit aids the stomach in the
process of digestion.
Dr. Beddoes observed that, animals to whom he
Impairs di- had given spirits along with their food,
had digested nearly one half less than
other like animals to whom none had been given.?
Under the habitual use of spirit, the daily dose
may give a temporary alleviation to the irritated
nerves of the stomach already enfeebled, but in-
stead of conferring tone or vigor to that organ,
it only serves to perpetuate its disease or debility.
In the case of St. Martin, the young man before
In the case mentioned into whose stomach through
of St. Martin. the side, a large opening was left after
the healing of a severe wound, Dr. Beaumont
frequently observed diseased appearances ;--15,
gestion.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
29
the stomach.
red or purple spots upon the lining membrane of
the stomach, from some of which exuded small
drops of grumous blood ;--aphthous or Changes in the
cankery patches upon the same mem-
brane; "the gastric fluids mixed with a large propor-
tion of ropy mucus, and muco-purulent matter
slightly tinged with blood, resembling the discharge
from the bowels in some cases of dysentery. It is
worthy of remark that these beginnings of disease
were not always accompanied with external signs
or symptoms of disorder. When of considerable
standing, however, these appearances were occa-
sionally observed to be attended with
‘an uneasy sensation and tenderness effects.
at the pit of the stomach, and some dizziness and
dimness and yellowness of vision on stooping down
and rising again, also, with a brown coat upon
the tongue, and a slight sallowness of the coun-
Sympathetic
tenance.
Spirit of wine
changes.
Improper indulgence in eating and drinking,'
says Dr. Beaumont, 'has been the most
common precursor of these diseased produces these
conditions of the coats of the stomach.
The free use of ardent spirits, wine, beer, or any
intoxicating liquor, when continued for soine
days, has invariably produced these morbid
changes.'
In evidence of the directly poisonous influence
of alcoholic drinks upon the constitution, is the
fact, that men long accustomed to their daily use
may be taken off suddenly and en-
tirely from them, not only without im- quit spirits sud-
pairing the health, but with a certainty of im-
proving it. In the summer of 1829, Mr. Powers,
Men
may
S*

SO
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Auburn Pris-
on.
agent and keeper of the Penitentiary at Auburn,
N. Y. declared, that during several
years' residence in that institution,
he had never known an individual whose health
had not been benefited by the total abstraction of
spirit and every other stimulant drink and nar-
cotic from his diet. This testimony is very im-
portant, inasmuch as a large proportion of the
whole number of convicts when admitted to that
establishment are drinkers of alcoholic liquors,
from tippling to beastly drunkenness. These
drinkers," said Mr. P. are generally very uneasy
and nervous, and sometimes greatly distressed for
ten or fifteen days after being put upon water as
their exclusive beverage; but after that period
they have a good appetite, increase in flesh, and
become healthy.
A considerable number are
annually received and discharged; the average
number remaining in the penitentiary, was six
hundred. I have never seen so large a congrega-
tion of men so healthy looking as these convicts,
when they came into the chapel on Sabbath
morning to hear a sermon from their chaplain.
Some of these men were sixty years old when ad-
mitted, and were confirmed drunkards. The
evidence furnished by all our state prisons, where
similar discipline is practised, is of the same cha-
racter.
A wealthy farmer in Sullivan county, New
Hampshire, had been in the habit of drinking
spirit for a number of years, and during the hay-
ing season he often used it freely. With more
than ordinary activity of mind and a vigorous
bodily constitution, he attained the age of seven-

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
31
a
Case of
farmer.
ty-five years; much broken down
and decayed however, under occa-
sional attacks of gout, which he called rheuma-
tism. At this period he broke off suddenly and
wholly from the use of spirit; and within two
years, that is, at the age of seventy-seven, he was
so much recruited as to appear several years
younger, and he assured me that in the last two
haying seasons he had accomplished more person-
al labor than in any other two haying seasons for
the last ten or twelve years. He expressed him-
self in the most decisive and energetic manner
when remarking upon the effects, in his own case,
of total abstinence from spirituous drinks; he had
not only not been injured, but had been an un-
speakable gainer by the change. This case, and
others like it, show the futility of the opinion
that it is unsafe for persons of any age suddenly
to break the habit of spirit drinking, and that
those advanced in life should either not attempt to
discontinue it, or should do it in the most cautious
and gradual manner. The truth is, that the ef-
fects, whether immediate or remote, of alcohol,
whenever they are so distinct as to be estimated,
are always those of an unnatural, unhealthy, or
poisonous agent; and soon after the daily poison
is withdrawn, the vital powers, relieved from
their oppression, rally, the organs act with more
freedom and regularity, and the whole machinery
of life exhibits something like a renovation.
Spirit has been erroneously supposed to afford
a protective influence against the effects of severe
cold. A sea captain of Boston, Massachusetts, in-
formed me that in a memorable cold Friday in the

32
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
я
Spirit as
protection
gainst cold.
year 1816, he was on a homeward
a- passage off our coast not far from the
latitude of Boston. Much ice made
upon the ship, and every person on board was
more or less frozen, excepting two individuals, and
they were the only two who drank no spirit.
In 1619, the crew of a Danish ship of sixty
men, well supplied with provisions and ardent
spirit, attempted to pass the winter in Hudson's
bay; but fifty-eight of them died before spring.
An English crew of twenty-two men, however,
destitute of ardent spirit and obliged to be almost
constantly exposed to the cold, wintered in the
same bay, and only two of them died. Eight En-
glishmen did the same in like circumstances, and
all returned to England. And four Russians, left
without spirit or provisions in Spitzburgen, lived
there six years and afterwards returned home.'
Facts of this nature might be multiplied to any
extent.
So far, also, from guarding the animal fabric
Against heat. against the depressing and irritating
effects of heat, spirit tends to produce inflamma-
tory diseases. A distinguished medical officer,
Marshall, who was subjected to great exertion and
exposure in a tropical climate, observes, 'I have
always found that the strongest liquors were the
most enervating; and this in whatever quantity
they were consumed: for the daily use of spirits
is an evil which retains its pernicious character
through all its gradations; indulged in at all, it
can produce nothing better than a diluted or mi-
tigated kind of mischief.be
os

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
S3
on
Those ships' crews who now visit hot and sick-
ly climates without spirit, have an average of sick-
ness and mortality strikingly less than those who
continue the use of it as formerly. “The Brig
Globe, Captain Moore,' says the anniversary Re-
port of the Pennsylvania Temperance Society for
1831, has lately returned from a voyage to the
Pacific Ocean. She had on board a crew of ten
persons, and was absent nearly eighteen months.
She was, during the voyage, in almost all the
climates of the world ; had not one person sick
board, and brought the crew all back orderly and
obedient. All these advantages Captain Moore
attributes, in a great measure, to the absence of
spirituous liquors. There was not one drop used
in all that time; indeed there was none on board
the vessel.
To a place among preventives of disease, spirit-
uous drinks can present but the most
Spirit as a pre-
feeble claims. If, under occasional ventive of dis-
drinking during the period of alco- ease.
holic excitement, a temporary
resistance may
be
given to those morbid influences which bring acute
disease, be it occasional or epidemic, that excite-
ment, by the immutable laws of vital action, is
necessarily followed by a state of relaxation, de-
pression, or collapse, in which the power of resist-
ance is weakened, and this too in proportion to the
previous excitement. In order therefore to obtain
from alcoholic stimulus any thing like a protec-
tive influence against the exciting causes of disease,
the
exposure to these causes must be periodical,
precisely corresponding with the stage of artificial
excitation. If, however, such accuracy of adjust-

34
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
ment between the powers of vital resistance arti-
ficially excited, and the unhealthy agencies which
tend to produce disease be wholly impracticable,
then the danger must be increased by resorting
under any circumstances to spirit as a preserva-
tive; and if not, other articles would do as well.
The best protection against disease is derived
from a natural, healthy, unfluctuating state of vital
action, sustained by plain articles of nutriment
taken at regular intervals, uninfluenced by any
innutritious stimulus which operates upon the
whole nervous power. The habitual drinking of
ardent spirit creates a multitude of chronic or
subacute organic irritations and derangements,
upon which acute disease is most easily, nay, often
necessarily ingrafted; hence tiplers and drunk-
ards, exposed to the exciting causes of infiamma-
tory, epidemic, and contagious diseases, are liable
to an attack, and when attacked, having the vital
powers unnecessarily wasted, they die in larger
numbers. These results are witnessed in epide-
mic pleurisies, lung fevers, the severe forms of
influenza, pestilential fevers, and cholera.
Most appalling evidence is afforded by the his-
tory of this last disease of the perni-
cious influence of intoxicating liquors in preparing
the human constitution for its attack. In India,
Ramohun Fingee, a native physician, declares that
“people who do not take spirits or opi-
um do not catch the disorder, even when they are
with those who haye it. In the
army
under the
command of the Marquis of Hastings in India,
consisting of eighteen thousand men, more than
half of the men died in the first twelve days; the
Cholera.
In India.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
35
China.
Russia
Poland.
free use of intoxicating liquors in a hot climate
will assist in explaining this extraordinary mor-
tality.
bon
In China, according to Dr. Reiche, the disease
selected its victims from among such of the people
as live in filth and intemperance.?
Mr. Huber, who saw 2160 perish in twenty-
five days in one town in Russia, says, 'It is a
most remarkable circumstance, that
persons given to drinking have been swept away
like flies. In Tiflis, containing 20,000 inhabi-
tants, every drunkard has fallen! all are dead-
not one remains.
A physician of Warsaw says, that the disease
spared all those who led regular lives, and resided
in healthy situations; whereas they whose consti-
tutions had been broken down by ex-
cess and dissipation, were invariably attacked.
Out of one hundred individuals destroyed by cho-
lera, it was proved that ninety had been addicted
to the free use of ardent spirits.'
In Paris, of the 30,000 persons destroyed by
cholera, it is said that a great propor-
tion were intemperate or profligate.
It has been computed that 'five-sixths of all
who have fallen by this disease in
England, were taken from the ranks of the intem-
perate and dissolute.'
Dr. Rhinelander, who visited Montreal during
the prevalence of cholera there in the
summer of 1832, says, that the victims of the
disease are the intemperate-it invariably cuts
them off.' In that city, after there had been twelve
hundred cases of the malady, a Montreal journal
France.
England.
Montreal.

36
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
New York.
Albany.
states, that 'not a drunkard who has been attacked
has recovered, and almost all the victims have
been at least moderate drinkers.
Dr. Sewall of Washington city, while on a visit
to the cholera hospitals in the city of New York,
the same season, writes to a friend, that of 204
cases of cholera in the Park Hospital, there were
only six temperate persons, and that
those had recovered, while 122 of the others,
when he wrote, had died; and that the facts
were similar in all the other hospitals.?
In Albany, the same season, cholera prevailed
for several weeks, attended with a severe mor-
tality; and it is a remarkable fact, that during its
whole period it is not known that more
than two individuals, out of the five thousand
members of Temperance Societies in that city,
became its victims.
WATER is the natural and proper drink of man.
Indeed it is the grand beverage of crganized na-
ture. It enters largely into the composition of the
Water, the na- blood, and juices of animals and plants,
tural beverage. forms an important ingredient in their
organized structures, and bears a fixed and unal-
terable relation to their whole vital economy. It
was the only beverage of the human family in
their primeval state.
In that garden, where grew every tree pleasant
to the sight and good for food, producing all the
richness and variety of fruit and flower' which
an omnipotent and all-bountiful Creator could
adapt to the relish of his senses, and the exigencies
of his entire organization, it cannot for a moment
be doubted that man was in a condition the best

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
37
Water adapted
tite.
suited to secure to him the uninterrupted, as well
as the highest and best exercise and enjoyment,
of his physical, mental, and moral powers. His
drink was water. A river flowed from Paradise.
From the moment that river began to water the
garden,'till the present, no human invention has
equalled this simple beverage; and all the attempts
to improve it by the admixture of other substances,
whether alcoholic, narcotic, or aromatic, have not
only failed, but have served to deteriorate or poi-
son it, and render it less healthful and safe.
Water is as well adapted to man's natural ap-
petite, as to the physical wants of his
organs.
A natural thirst, and the to man's appe-
pleasure derived from its gratification,
were given us to secure to the vital machinery the
supply of liquid necessary to its healthy move-
ments. When this natural thirst occurs, no drink
tastes so good, and in truth none is so good as wa-
ter; none possesses adaptations so exact to the
vital necessities of the organs. So long as a fresh
supply of liquid is not needed, so long there is not
the least relish for water; it offers no temptation,
while its addition to the circulating fluids would
be useless, or hurtful.
This topic has been most ably discussed by Dr.
Oliver, as follows:- The waste of the fluid parts
of our bodies requires the use of drink Dr. Oliver.
to repair it, and we derive a sensible gratification
from quenching our thirst. What use do we make
of this fact?
Why, to try if we cannot find
something that we shall take pleasure in drinking,
whether we are thirsty or not; and in this search
mankind have been remarkably successful. To
4

38
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
such a degree indeed have we succeeded in vary-
ing and increasing a pleasure which was designed
by nature merely as an incentive to quench our
thirst, that to quench thirst is become one of the
last things that people drink for. It is seldoni
indeed that people in health have any natural
thirst, except perhaps after exercise, or labor in a
hot day. Under all other circumstances, we anti-
cipate the sensation by drinking before it comes
on, so as but seldom to enjoy the natural and
healthful gratification of drinking because we are
thirsty. Who has not observed the extreme satis-
faction which children derive from quenching their
thirst with pure water, and who that has perverted
his appetite for drink, by stimulating his palate
with bitter beer, sour cider, rum and water, and
other brewages of human invention, but would be
a gainer even on the score of mere animal gratifi-
cation, without any reference to health, if he could
bring back his vitiated taste to the simple relish
of nature. Children drink because they are dry.
Grown people drink, whether dry or not, because
they have discovered a way of making drinking
pleasant. Children drink water because this is a
beverage of Nature's own brewing, which she has
made for the purpose of quenching a natural thirst.
Grown people drink any thing but water, because
this fluid is intended to quench only a natural
thirst, and natural thirst is a thing which they sel-
dom feel.
One of the evils, though not the only or the
greatest one, of perverting the natural appetite of
thirst, is, that it leaves us without a guide to
direct us when we need drink, and when we do

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
39
not. There is no danger, it is true, that this want
will mislead us into drinking too little; the dan-
ger is, that we shall be betrayed into drinking too
much, i. e. when nature does not require it; and
such no doubt is frequently the case. If a man
is fond of some particular drink (and most people
I believe have their favorite liquor,) he will be
tempted to take it when he does not really need it.
This consideration points out the wisdom of na-
ture in providing for us a beverage which has no-
thing to tempt us to drink, except when we are
really thirsty. At all other times, water is either
perfectly indifferent, or it is disagreeable to us;
but when we labor under thirst, i. e., when nature
requires drink, nothing is so delicious to a pure,
unadulterated taste. While we adhere to this
simple beverage we shall be sure to have an uner-
ring prompter to remind us when we really require
drink; and we shall be in no danger of being
tempted to drink when nature requires it not.
But the moment we depart from pure water, we
lose this inestimable guide, and are left, not to the
real instincts of nature, but to an artificial taste
in deciding on actions intimately connected with
health and long life. What is more common than
for a man to take a glass of beer, or cider, or wine,
or rum and water, not because he is thirsty, and
really needs drink, but because opportunity makes
it convenient, and he thinks it will taste well.
And this is true, not only of fermented or dis-
tilled liquors which are directly injurious in other
modes, but in a less degeee of any addition made
pure water to make it more palatable. Let me
not be misunderstood. I am far from insinuating
to

40
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
that lemonade, soda water, and milk and water,
are hurtful drinks. Far from it. But I say, that in
using even these mild and healthful beverages we
lose one important advantage we should derive
from the use of pure water alone. If they are
more palatable to us than water (and otherwise
we should have no motive to use them.) we shall
be tempted to take them oftener, and in greater
quantities than is required by nature, and may
thus unconsciously do ourselves an injury. It is
rare for a person to drink a glass of water when
he is not thirsty, merely for the pleasure of drink-
ing; and as thirst is the natural guide, if he drinks
when not thirsty, he takes more fluid than nature
points out as proper; and so far violates one of
her obvious laws. But it may be asked if any in-
jury can result from drinking more than nature
absolutely requires. Not perhaps in particular
instances, but the habit of drinking more may
undoubtedly be injurious. It is a sufficient an-
swer to all these questions to say that our Creator
knows best. Under the guidance of the instincts
he has implanted in us we are safe. But as soon
as we leave these, and place ourselves under the
direction of our own educated appetites, we are
constantly liable to be led into danger. It is cer-
tainly hurtful to drink habitually more than was
intended by nature, because it imposes upon the
constitution the task of removing the excess ; or
else is retained in the system, and there may
lead to dropsy, or some other of the consequences
of plethora, or redundance of fluids in the sys
tem.'
Dr. Cullen, formerly a distinguished professor

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
41
Dr. J. John-
son.
of Medicine at Edinburgh, after speak- Dr. Cullen.
ing of the general use of water, both by man and
the brute creation, remarks,— Simple water is,
without any addition, the proper drink of mankind.'
Dr. Gregory, the successor of Cullen, in his
Conspectus Medicinæ Theoreticæ, Dr. Gregory.
says, that pure spring water, when fresh and cold,
is the most wholesome drink, and the most grate-
ful to those who are thirsty, whether they be sick
or well; it quenches thirst, cools the body, dilutes,
and thereby obtunds acrimony—often promotes
sweat, expels noxious matters, resists putrefac-
tion, aids digestion, and, in fine, strengthens the
stomach.'
Dr. James Johnson, an eminent physician now
residing in London, remarks upon
water as follows: "There can be no
question that water is the best and the only drink
which nature has designed for man; and there is
as little doubt but that every person might, gradu-
ally, or even pretty quickly, accustom himself to
this aqueous beverage. The water drinker glides
tranquilly through life without much exhilaration,
or depression, and escapes many diseases to which
he would otherwise be subject. The wine drinker
experiences short but vivid periods of rapture,
and long intervals of gloom; he is also more sub-
ject to disease. The balance of enjoyment then,
turns decidedly in favor of the water drinker,
leaving out his temporal prosperity and future an-
ticipations; and the nearer we keep to his regi-
men, the happier we shall be.'
How congenial is this fluid to the human organi-
zation, adapted as it is to its necessities under
4*

42
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
every variety of constitution, and vicissitude of
climate, from the equator to the arctic circles.
Dr. Mitchel, in reference to facts already quoted,
and others like them, respecting ships' crews win-
tering in icy regions, says, ' that in all the frequent
attempts to sustain the intense cold of winter in
Dr. Mitchel. the arctic regions, particularly in Hud-
son's Bay, Greenland, and Spitzbergen, those
crews or companies which had been well supplied
with provisions and liquors, and enabled thereby
to indulge in indolence and free drinking, have
generally perished; while at the same time the
greatest number of survivors have been uniformly
found among those who were accidentally thrown
upon the inhospitable shores, destitute of food and
spirituous liquors, compelled to maintain an inces-
sant struggle against the rigors of the climate in
procuring food, and obliged to use water alone as
drink.
In hot climates, too, water is the only safe drink,
Dr. Mosely. Dr. Mosely, on tropical diseases, uses
the following language: 'I aver, from my own
knowledge and custom, as well as from the cus-
tom and observations of others, that those who
drink nothing but water, or make it their principal
drink, are but little affected by the climate, and
can undergo the greatest fatigue without incon-
venience."
The Arabs of the desert are among the most
hardy of the human race, enduring
the greatest fatigue and exposure under a burning
sun, and their habitual drink is water.
The effects of water drinking in a burning cli-
mate are well marked in the following account
Arabs.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
43
given by Mr., afterwards Sir James M Gregor, of
the march in Egypt of a division of the British
army sent from Hindostan to aid the main army
in opposing the French under Napo- Sir J. M'Gre-
leon. After crossing the Great De- gor in Egypt.
sert in July 1801, from a difficulty in procuring
carriage, no ardent spirit was issued to the troops
in upper Egypt. At this time there was much
duty of fatigue,which, for want of followers, was
done by the soldiers themselves; the other duties
were severe upon them; they were frequently ex-
ercised, and were much in the sun; the heat was
excessive: in the soldiers' tents in the middle of
the day the mercury in the thermometer of Fah-
renheit stood at from 114 degrees to 118 degrees,
but at no time was the Indian army so healthy.'
Dr. Johnson, from whom an opinion Remarks and
on the superiority of water to wine as case
a beverage has already been given,
remarks, in his Tropical Hygiene, that it might
appear very reasonable that in a climate where
ennui reigns triumphant, and an unaccountable
languor pervades both mind and body, we should
cheer our drooping spirits with the mirth-stirring
bowl; a precept which Hafiz has repeatedly en-
joined. But Hafiz, though an excellent poet, and,
like his predecessor, Homer, a votary of Bacchus,
was not much of a physician; and without doubt
his “liquid ruby,' as he calls it, is one of the worst
of all prescriptions for a 'pensive heart.' I re-
member a gentleman at Prince of Wales? Island,
(Mr. S.) some years ago, who was remarkable for
his convivial talents, and flow of spirits. The
first time I happened to be in a large company
by Dr.
Johnson.

44
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
with him, I attributed his animation and hilarity
to the wine, and expected to see them flag, as is
usual, when the first effects of the bottle were
past off; but I was surprised to find them main-
tain a uniform level, after many younger heroes
had bowed to the rosy god. I now contrived to
get near him and enter into a conversation, when
he disclosed the secret, by assuring me he had
drunk nothing but water for many years in India:
that in consequence his health was excellent-his
spirits free-his mental faculties unclouded, al-
though far advanced on time's list; in short, that
he could conscientiously recommend the 'antedi-
luvian' beverage, as he termed it, to every one that
sojourned in a tropical climate."*
Facts and opinions, corresponding with the
foregoing, from physicians and others, might be
cited to a much greater extent, but it is deemed
unnecessary. Not only at the present day, but
Eminent phy-
in times gone by, and even far back
sicians in diffe- up to the remote periods of regular
mend water medicine, eminent physicians have
commended water as the best, or as
as a drink.
* Hon. J. S. Buckingham, Esq., member of Parliament,
says, that the finest and strongest men he ever saw in his
life, were a tribe residing upon the Himalaya mountains
.
They came to Calcutta as Athletæ, to show their skill in
wrestling, boxing, throwing the quoit, and other athletic
exercises; they were pitted against British grenadiers and
sailors, the strongest that could be found ; the result was
that one of them was a match for any three, and yet these
men never tasted any drink stronger than milk or water,
from their infancy upwards. He had himself traveled
from Diarbekir to Bagdad, a distance of eight hundred
miles, on horseback in ten days, with the thermometer
ranging from 100 at sunrise, to 125 or 130 degrees in the

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
45
ine only proper and healthful beverage for man.
Among them may be mentioned Parr, Cheyne,
Arbuthnot, Sydenham, Haller, Stahl, Van Swie-
ten, Bærhaave, Hoffmann, and even Celsus, Galen,
and Hippocrates. These were like so many me-
teors shooting here and there amid the darkness
which for ages hung over men's minds; but upon
chis darkness a broad light has at length broken,
which, it is believed, is a sure presage of perfect
day. The experiment has been made on a large
scale, and many thousands of witnesses in our
country may now be referred to for an opinion
furnished by their own personal experience, on the
effects of water as the habitual and only drink,
Multitudes of farmers, mechanics, manufacturers,
sea-faring, and professional men, give their voice
in its favor.*
afternoon, without drinking any thing but water, and he
was as fresh and as strong at the end of his journey as
when he set out.'
**More than 1000 American vessels are now afloat on
the ocean in which ardent spirit is not used.'-—Annual
Report of the American Temperance Society. May, 1834.
Of 186 whaling vessels belonging to New Bedford,
Massachusetts, 168 furnish no spirits for their crews; and
the uniform opinion of the owners and captains of these,
as well as of merchant vessels in different ports, as fur.
nished to the executive committee of the New York State
Temperance Society is, that the use of intoxicating drinks
for sea-faring men in any climate, and under any circum-
stances, are not necessary, but injurious ; and they assert
that observation and experience prove that sailors are
more healthy, more orderly, and perform their duty alto.
gether better without these liquors. Vide Testimony of
American merchants and sea captains.'— American Quar-
terly Temperance Magazine for August, 1834.
So fully impressed are commercial men with the belief

46
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Alcohol as a
dicines.
As a vehicle for medicinal agents, alcohol has
held a distinguished place. An ex-
vehicle for me- tensive list of tinctures, or spirituous
infusions of vegetable articles, and of
alcoholic solutions of mineral substances, is still
found in our dispensatories. In a highly scientific
work of this kind, lately published in this coun-
try, there are given the methods of preparing
about one hundred and fifty tinctures !
The tonic barks, and roots, and
woods, impart more or less their me-
dicinal properties to distilled spirit; and thus im-
parted, these properties are preserved for a con-
siderable length of time. Of these preparations,
however, it may be observed, that the spirit often
Vegetable to-
nics.
that disasters at sea are very often connected with the use
of intoxicating drinks, that an insurance company in Bos-
ton, and more recently all the marine insurance compa-
*nies in New York, in all amounting to ten, have engaged
to return five per cent. on the premium of every vessel
navigated without spirit.
*At a meeting of the board of underwriters, held at
the office of the American Insurance Company, in the
city of New York, on the second of October, 1834, it was
Resolved, That the different marine insurance compa-
nies in the city of New York will allow a deduction of
five
per cent. on the net premiums which may be taken
after this date on all vessels, and on vessels together with
their outfits, if on whaling and sealing voyages, termi-
nating without loss, provided the master and mate make
affidavit, after the termination of the risk, that no ardent
spirits had been drunk on board the vessel by the officers
and crew during the voyage or term for which the vessel
or outfits were insured.
WILLIAM NEILSON, President.
Walter R. Jones, Secretary of the Board.'
Vide American Quarterly Temperance Magazine for
November, 1834.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
47
so modifies the impression made upon the stomach,
brain, or blood vessels, as to prevent their being
given in doses sufficient for the objects intended.
This is the case in certain forms of gastric and
intestinal irritation, accompanied with an unna-
tural irritability, not only of the ganglionic nerves,
but of those belonging to the cerebro-spinal sys-
tem. Cases not unfrequently occur where the
decoction or watery infusion of the Peruvian bark
is altogether preferable to the tincture; and per-
haps there is never a case in which some prepara-
tion of quinia, as the sulphate for example, is not
decidedly better for the patient than any alcoholic
infusion of the bark.
The spirituous preparations of opi- Opium.
um are in many, if not in all cases, inferior to
the black drop. The stomach has been known,
in a state of great irritability after excessive vomit-
ing, to retain the black drop, or one of the salts
of morphia, when the tincture of opium was per-
severingly rejected.
In those cases of excessive irritability of the
stomach, accompanied with spasms of
its muscular coat, and also that of the application.
intestines, in which external anodyne applications
are indicated, the warm black drop upon the ab-
domen, or the (dry) acetate of morphia applied to
a blistered surface, is altogether more efficient
than the tincture of opium. I have repeatedly
witnessed a much happier effect from the simple
acetous solution of opium locally applied, than
from the spirituous solutions, in relieving the ago-
nizing pain of phlegmasia dolens.
The medicinal qualities of the tonic and nar-
For external

48
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Chemical
pre-
cotic vegetables may be preserved
parations of ve- without decay in the form of the ele-
cines prefera- gant preparations, which owe their
hle to the spir- existence to the perfection in chemical
processes invented in our own times;
and these preparations may be employed without
alcoholic or any other admixtures which would
serve to modify or impair their effects. The ma-
teria medica then would sustain no loss if alcohol
were wholly given up as a vehicle for these classes
of medicines. The same is true of its combina-
tion with the active principle of the Spanish fly.
This article yields to water and to vinegar its
active properties. A strong vinegar of flies is a
better vesicant than the alcoholic infusion; and
the chemical extract named cantharidin unites
readily with oil as a vehicle, and in this form may
be most conveniently employed for the purpose of
making a blister.
The essential oils, the balsams, and the resins,
Essential oils, may unite with, or become diffused in
balsams, &c.
water by the aid of sugar and gum
arabic, or by the admixture of ammonia, where
this can be done without too far modifying their
medicinal effects.
These mixtures, called enulsions,
admit of the medicinal article being taken at any
requisite degree of dilution. They are greatly
to be preferred to the alcoholic solutions, inas-
much as these last are precipitated in the form of
a white or brown cloud, or in a mass of small
globules the moment they are thrown into water,
and are thus less equably diffused in the water
than when combined with it through the medium
Emulsions.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
49
Camphor.
of sugar, or some other suitable arti-
cle. Camphor may be very effectually commi-
nuted and diffused in water by rubbing it with
calcined magnesia, and adding water slowly.*
This is a more uniform mixture, and more con-
venient for internal exhibition, than can be made
by mixing the spirituous solution with water.
The emulsions then of these articles, as medi-
cines to be taken into the stomach, are decidedly
preferable to the alcoholic solutions, or tinctures
as they are called. If an attempt be made to
swallow these tinctures without diluting them,
they are not only found too pungent, or acrid, but
they are at once precipitated by the fluids of the
mouth and throat ; and when the tincture of guai-
acum or of tolu is taken, the resinous matter is
at once spread out upon the surface of the tongue
and mouth in the form of an adhesive coating or
varnish, which is dislodged with difficulty.
As a remedy itself, in various forms of disease
alcoholic stimulus has long been re-
garded with high consideration.
In medicine.
the slight departures from the equable healthy
living actions of the body, marked by exhaustion
from fatigue, loss of blood, hunger, thirst, and
exposure to great heat or cold, which approach the
state of syncope or fainting, some In slight de-
kind of intoxicating liquor is gene- healthy action.
rally resorted to as if it were the only remedy:
but in some of these states this kind of stimulus
is not quite safe, and in none of them is it abso-
lutely necessary.
Camphor is soluble in strong acetic acid.'-Tur-
ner's Chemistry.
Alcohol as a
partures from
5

50
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
stitutes.
A draught of bland liquid, as simple water, or
sweetened water, or milk and water, or cocoa, or
Various sub- some other simple nutritious sub-
stance, as some liquid farinaceous
pre-
paration, or the pulpy or juicy part of fruits; or the
tea of some aromatic herb; or a drop or two of one
of the essential oils, as those of the mint tribe, dif-
fused in water by the aid of sugar, or a small dose
of carbonate of ammonia; or simple ammonia well
diluted with water-taken, one or more of them
at a temperature suited to the state of the stomach
and of the circulation, and repeated at proper
intervals, will accomplish every good purpose of
alcoholic stimulants, and in most cases with less
exposure of some of the functions to undue or
dangerous excitation. In the prostration, for ex-
ample, occasioned by long exposure to cold, the
introduction of a stimulus so exciting and uncon-
genial as distilled spirit into the stomach, makes
an impression upon its nerves too strong and un-
natural, and a transition from a state of languor
and exhaustion to that of activity, too sudden to
comport with an economical expenditure of the
vital
power, tending to create a predisposition to
some form of disease, if not speedily to excite it.*
In a complete syncope, or fainting
fit, cold water dashed upon the head
Captain Harding gives his own experience as follows:
In answer to your eighth question I say, that when I was
in the habit of using ardent spirits when wet and fatigued
at sea, on going below to refresh and shift myself, I
thought a little toddy was absolutely necessary to prevent
taking cold; but now that I am more than fifty years old,
I can get wet, cold, and fatigued, go below and put on
dry clothes, and, if thirsty, take a drink of water, and
In a fainting
fit.
*

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
51
and face; ammonia, or some essential oil, or both,
passed into the nostrils, or into the mouth and
throat, will do more than any preparation of alco-
hol, towards a speedy and effectual resuscitation.
Ammonia and the essential oils exert an agency
different in kind from that made by alcohol. If
in a sense they are diffusible, their impressions
bring readily transmitted from one part to another,
they are not intoxicating. They seem to stimu-
late the brain only indirectly, perhaps through the
medium of a slightly increased action of the
bloodvessels, causing like muscular exertion a
brisker motion of the blood in the brain ; but they
do not make the same apparently direct, unna-
tural, poisonous, bewildering, and exhausting im-
pression upon the whole power of the brain and
nerves as that which is derived from alcoholic
stimulus.
In dyspepsia the alcoholic treatment is now for-
tunately almost universally abandoned. Dyspepsia.
Experience has at length taught physicians that the
irritations, chronic or subacute, of the lining mem-
brane of the alimentary canal, the capricious ex-
citements of the nervous system, and the slight
but obstinate deviations from the healthy standard
in the circulation, may be more easily and per-
manently controlled, under the influence of a
plain diet, suitable clothing, bathing, frictions, ex-
feel no inconvenience whatever; so that in this case I
answer from actual experience.
SAMUEL HARDING, master, ship Romulus,
of Brunswick, Me.'
Vide Letter to Mr. Delavan, American Quarterly Tem-
perance Magazine for August, 1834.

52
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Scrofula.
eases.
ercise in the open air, proper hours for sleep, and
a light and agreeable occupation of the mind, than
under the use of any kind of intoxicating drink,
in any manner administered.
In strumous constitutions, and un-
der the local developments of scrofula, ardent
spirit was formerly employed. But who, at this
day, would think of placing it in competition with
the preparations of iodine, employed at the hospi-
tal of St. Louis in Paris, and in other places,
joined with proper diet, bathing, frictions, exer-
cise, air, &c.
In the whole range of nervous diseases alcohol,
Nervous dis- in any shape, is entitled to but very
limited confidence. It seems to be
incapable of doing any thing better than to cause
a transient alleviation, while its ultimate effects
are pernicious; with the exception perhaps of that
state of the brain and nerves exemplified in trau-
matic tetanus, which requires a narcotic influence.
For this purpose the combinations of morphia,
either internally given, or externally applied,
especially to a blistered surface, are to be pre-
ferred. A tonic or sustaining power in the treat-
ment of this disorder may better be derived from
the judicious use, in addition to the morphia, of
some vegetable tonic, as the sulphate of quinia,
joined perhaps with carbonate of ammonia, than
from spirituous drinks.
In inflammations, whether deep-seated or su-
Inflamma- perficial, the vascular and nervous
irritations are usually observed to be
increased by the use of alcoholic liquors, some
cimes a soothing effect is seen to follow the appli-
tions.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
53
cation of spirit to an inflamed part. But how is
this accomplished, if the internal exhibition of it
be pernicious ? Without much doubt, by the great
abstraction of morbid heat caused by the rapid
evaporation of the spirit from the inflamed part,
and by its anodyne or stupifying influence which
is ultimately exerted upon the irritated nerves,
unremittingly drenched in it by its persevering
application. The brain, at the same time, and the
nerves not directly involved in the inflammation,
receive but a slight impulse from the spirit so cir-
cumscribed in its application; the morbid impres-
sion they may receive from the medicine being
more than compensated for by the diminution of
local heat and irritation.
But all the anodyne effects of spirit in such
cases, as well as that by which heat is abstracted,
may be had from other agents. Watery infusion
of opium, or the solution of the salts of morphia,
or a poultice of the petals of the poppy, and as a
lotion to cool the part, simple water will accom-
plish every good object that can be obtained from
the spirit. Besides, the persevering local use of
alcohol appears to enfeeble, as it might be expected
to do, the vital powers of the part, while water
may be applied for any length of time required
by the inflammation, without an undue local ex-
haustion of vitality.
In a case of simple fracture of the leg of a boy,
several years ago, in which common spirit diluted
with water was locally employed for two or three
weeks, there was in five weeks so slight a union of
the fracture that a very small force broke it down.
This effect seemed fairly to be attributable, chiefly

54
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Gangrene or
mortification.
Fevers.
at least, to the influence of the spirit, in part over
and above what resulted from the escape of heat
by evaporation ; especially as the limb was so
covered as to prevent the sensation of cold, the
fragments were kept in undisturbed contact, and
the
general health was pretty good. A consider-
able
number of surgeons at the present day prefer
simple water to every other lotion for the purpose
of moderating excessive excitement in local in-
flammation.
In the treatment of gangrene, intoxicating drinks
bear no comparison with opium or the
salts of morphia, carbonate of ammo-
nia, and sulphate of quinia.
To the morbid conditions of the system in fe-
vers, alcohol, as a remedial agent, is
far from being well adapted. It bears no com-
parison with the sulphate of quinia as an article
suited to break up the morbid associa-
and remittent. tions in intermittent and remittent
fevers after suitable evacuations.
In the apyrexia, or remission of the paroxysm
of continued fever, there are probably
but few physicians in our country who have seen
a large febrile practice during the last twenty-five
years, who have not had occasion to regret its un-
favorable effects. Under the stimulant practice,
trains of morbid symptoms are often aggravated,
new centres of irritation established, and which,
if not sufficient to destroy the patient, prolong the
period of the fever, and frequently cause relapses,
or a lingering and interrupted convalescence. In
the occasional states of depression occurring in
continued fever, those internal stimulants should
Intermittent
Continued.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
55
Cholera.
In debility
be preferred, if any be used, which exhaust the
nervous power less than the intoxicating articles.
In this connexion may be named the carbonate of
ammonia, camphor, and some of the essential oils.
In the collapse and prostration of
cholera the spirit practice is now very generally
acknowledged to have been unfortunate. Indeed
it would have been remarkable if an article which
so strongly predisposes to this disease as alcoholic
stimulus should have proved to be its best remedy.
The evidence of the mischievous effects of spir-
ituous drinks in cholera is too generally diffused
to require its being introduced here in a formal
manner. Ice, cold water, or even ice in small
bits, swallowed at short intervals, may be more
relied on for allaying the deadly nau-
sea of cholera than any form of in- after acute dis-
toxicating liquor. For the purpose of ease.
restoring the strength in the debility which fol-
lows acute disease, is alcohol necessary?
If the fever or inflammation have been early
treated with the proper evacuants, and the pro-
gress duly watched, and local determinations pre-
vented or obviated, the debility which remains on
the subsidence of the disease is easily removed
The patient may be greatly reduced in strength,
but when free from disease, his convalescence is
rapid under the most simple treatment. But when
the stimulant plan has been perseveringly pursued
with a view to remove the disease, or the debility
subsequent to it, how often if the constitution can
resist the action both of the disease and the me-
dicines, is the patient observed to linger for weeks,
and perhaps months, before his health is re-esta-

56
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Cases.
blished ; and how often is he subjected to some
new form of disease, either subacute or chronic,
or perhaps both in succession; a cough, or difficult
breathing from bronchial or thoracic irritation or
effusion, an enfeebled and irregular action of the
alimentive organs, a swollen limb, &c. In illus-
tration of these remarks, the following sketches
of actual cases are given, the facts of which may
be fully relied on.
Dr. R., æt. twenty-five, possessing a good con-
stitution, had, in February 1806, a severe typhus
fever which showed symptoms of crisis
on the twentieth day. He took, early in the dis-
ease, purgative doses containing calomel, and
afterwards small doses at short intervals of the
same article, which in ten or twelve days occa-
sioned a slight soreness of the mouth; soon after
this, aphthæ being observed in the throat, bark
and wine were prescribed. The bark however
was soon omitted on account of the great distress
it seemed to have occasioned at the pit of the
stomach, but the wine was continued. In three
or four days after the symptoms of crisis were
observed, a cough arose which was very trouble-
some for about a week, but as it subsided a swel-
ling attended with pain and heat seized the whole
left lower limb. In six weeks from the attack of
the fever the patient began by the aid of a staff to
hobble out of his chamber. The swelling of the
limb, however, although bandaging was employed
for several weeks, was never wholly removed ;
and from that day to the present, upwards of
twenty-seven years, the leg has exhibited a vari-
cose state of its superficial veins, and the whole

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
57
limb including the foot has been larger and less
vigorous than the other, proving that its organiza-
tion was permanently affected. Before the fever,
and until after the crisis, this limb was, in the
estimation of the patient, as sound in every re-
spect as the other.
If in this case the processes
of nature had not been interfered with by an un-
natural excitation of the nerves and bloodvessels,
is it probable that any form of local disease would
have shown itself simply as the effect of the fever?
One result, rather inconvenient to the patient as
he has often remarked, of the use of wine during
his convalescence was the acquisition of a strong
relish for that beverage which he had never before
felt, and which at various periods since it has re-
quired some effort properly to control.
'Mr. F., æt. eighteen, tall, and of fair com-
plexion, having I believe always enjoyed good
health, was attacked with continued fever in au-
tumn. He was bled repeatedly, and took purga-
tives and antimonials. At the end of the second
week it was thought that he would bear tonics.
Mild articles were resorted to, and continued
about a week. The symptoms remaining nearly
the same, sulphate of quinia and wine were pre-
scribed. In a few days he had cough and difficult
breathing, with symptoms of effusion in the chest.
Auscultation readily detected a fluid in the right
cavity. Blisters and diuretics with active cathar-
tics were now employed. He was soon relieved,
and in about a week his symptoms were very much
as when he began to take the wine and quinia,
excepting that the debility was greater. Wine
and the sulphate of quinia were again given, and

58
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
soon the same train of symptoms appeared as be-
fore, with an effusion of fluid ,in the left cavity
of the chest. Under the use of diuretics and
blisters, these symptoms were removed.
A third time the wine and quinia were resorted
to, and the result was a swelling of one of the
lower limbs with heat and pain, resembling some-
what the appearances in phlegmasia dolens. All
tonics and stimulants were now laid aside, and at
a time when he was unable to turn himself in bed.
A mild diet was now prescribed, together with
ablutions and frictions; and he very gradually
and uniformly recovered, so as to have acquired a
tolerable degree of health in about four months.
In the course of the treatment, valerian, car-
bonate of soda, carbonate of ammonia, camphor,
serpentaria, and sulphuric acid, were employed.
We varied the combination of the medicines a
great many times; a measure which seemed to be
rendered necessary by the sickness at stomach
which invariably followed each combination in a
day or two. At the time when he rejected stimu-
lants, and in fact all medicines, he could retain
articles of food.'
Mr. H., æt. twenty-five, of a fine constitution,
had remittent fever. In one full day of his sick-
ness, that is in twenty-four hours, he took three
pints of brandy, and in addition, a small pill of
opium every two hours, besides a small dose of.
sulphate of quinia at the same interval through
the night. Spirit was taken freely for several
days, although the quantity, as well as that of the
opium and quinia, cannot be vouched for. Two
years after this sickness the patient had not re-

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
*59
covered his health, but was still feeble, with im-
paired digestion, and swollen limbs.
There is probably no case in which pure wine
would not answer as good a purpose as ardent
spirit; especially if the acidity of stomach rarely
attending its use should be corrected by some
alkaline article; and there is one ground of pre-
ference due to wine, if the use of any sort of in-
toxicating liquor be insisted upon, namely, that it
is probably rather less liable to establish the habit
of intemperate drinking than distilled spirit.
But there are agents of higher įmportance than
alcohol or fermented liquors, which may safely be
employed to sustain the sinking powers in fevers,
and to restore the lost strength after they have
subsided.
Of these, the first to be named is Air a tonic.
pure air. 'I believe,' says Mr. James in his valu-
able work on inflammation, there is no poison
more injurious than foul air-no restorative more
effectual than pure air; and it runs no risk of dis-
ordering the digestive organs, as bark often does,
or stimulating the vessels too much, like wine.?
The restorative powers of the blood depend on its
purity, and the purity of this fluid cannot be
secured without pure air; hence the absolute
necessity of the most strict and persevering atten-
tion to ventilation and cleanliness.
Another agent is water. This is the
proper beverage when a beverage is needed.
Nothing is so grateful in the thirst of fever, and
nothing so good; and its febrifuge,
as well as tonic or invigorating power, the surface of
judiciously applied to the surface of
Water.
Applied to
the body.

60
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
Dr. R. Jack-
the body is most striking. Either pure, or im-
pregnated with soap, or saline substances, it may
be used by way of affusion, ablution, or sponging,
at a temperature warm, cool, or cold, according to
circumstances. The successful use of cold water
by Dr. Currie applied to the body in fevers is well
known.
Dr. Robert Jackson, speaking of the
son's remarks. fevers of Jamaica, says, that after
obviating particular symptoms of a fatal tendency,
it was the principal indication to support the gene-
ral
powers
of life, or to excite the tone and vigor
of the system. For this purpose he mention
cold bathing as the most important remedy na
the cure of the fevers of the West Indies. For
the purpose of removing the prostration and lan-
guor accompanying a form of fever prone to attack
foreigners arriving in hot climates, he observes,
that the principal trust was placed in warm and
cold bathing, which under proper management
seldom failed of answering every expectation com
pletely, or of speedily removing the chief symp-
toms of danger. This gentleman was in the
habit of frequently impregnating the water strongly
with common salt.
Often have I witnessed in fits of distressing
prostration, joined sometimes with great irrita-
bility of the nerves, both during and after the
subsidence of the severity of acute disease, a far
more refreshing and invigorating effect from
sponging the head, body, and limbs with simple
water, or weak warm soap-suds, followed by gen-
tle friction, than from any doses of spirit, wine,
* The hair having been previously sheared off.

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
61
or porter, I have ever seen administered. It is
a striking remark of the celebrated Hoffman, that
if there be in nature a universal remedy, that
remedy is water.
Among the means of restoring the strength, one
of great value is exercise, especially in the open
air. Indeed there seems to be no adequate sub-
stitute for this remedy. Who has not felt its in-
vigorating effects ? Dr. Jackson, already quoted,
observed the most happy effects in the restoration
of the bodily powers reduced by yellow fever,
from his patients when too weak to raise their
heads, being carried out daily in carts or wagons.
Passive exercise in the sick chamber, or the re-
moval from it to an adjoining room on a truckle-
bed or chair, may be made very useful to the sick
patient, when his strength is too much reduced to
admit of his being carried abroad.
In addition to the common articles of plain,
unstimulating food, may be mentioned as an im-
portant restorative agent, fresh, ripe fruit. This,
especially if acidulo-saccharine and juicy, often
presents to the stomach precisely the stimulus it
craves, and may be borne when spirit and wine
cannot be taken without disturbing the circulation.
The man who shall invent a cheap and easy me-
thod of preserving without decay the well ripened,
juicy, and pulpy fruits, will be entitled to the
thanks of succeeding generations. Could the
grape, instead of being manufactured into wine,
be carried fresh and distributed freely in distant
countries, in place of the intoxicating liquor with
which it now supplies them, an unspeakable
6

62
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
amount of health and comfort would result to the
human family.
With prescribed attention to ventilation, clean
liness, ablutions, and frictions, plain, nourishing
food, including often fresh fruits, joined with
early and persevering exercise, I have known
patients to recover with a rapidity greater than I
remember to have observed from any use what-
ever of intoxicating drinks and narcotics.
Under a more perfect acquaintance with the
functions of life, and with the influences exerted
upon it by remedial agents, may it not be hoped
that the period will arrive when not only ardent
spirit, but all intoxicating liquors, will be regarded
as not absolutely necessary in the practice of
physic or surgery? It may perhaps be worth re-
marking, that throughout the wide-spread king-
Alcohol never doms of animal and vegetable nature,
getable or ani- not a particle of alcohol in any form
or combination whatever has been
found as the effect of a single living process, but
that it arises only out of the decay, the dissolu-
tion, and the wreck of organized matter, or of its
ever varied and wonderful productions; and is it
probable that the beneficent author of such a count-
less multitude of medicinal agents as exist in the
products of vital action, would have left, to be
generated among the results of destructive che-
mistry, an article essential to the successful treat-
ment even of a single disease ?
The profession of medicine has an
medical extensive scope. It looks into the
profession structure of animal machinery, it in:
vestigates the laws of its vital movements, both
mal secretion.
Objects of
the

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
63
in health and disease, and contemplates a variety
of influences by which its complicated processes
are accelerated, retarded, suspended, or de-
stroyed. It learns, that to the functions of life
belongs a standard rate of action, beyond which
they cannot be safely excited or driven; that al-
coholic and narcotic stimulants derange and con-
fuse the healthy movements, exhaust the vital
power more than nature intended, and induce
premature decay, and dissolution. This profes-.
sion claims the strictest alliance with the cause
of humanity; it cherishes good will, and proffers
substantial blessings to men. It extends its hand
not only to the exhausted, bed-ridden patient, and
to the tottering and dejected invalid, but even to
the healthy man, to save him from the pain and
suffering which ignorance, or custom, or reckless-
ness might bring upon him.
Let physicians then be true to their profession,
Let them study the duties they owe to the com ·
munities with whom they live and labor. Let
them teach the means of preserving health, as well
as of combating disease; let them show, as it is in
their power to do, that the taking of medicine in
health in order to prevent disease is most absurd
and mischievous; that the surest guarantee of
health is a correct regimen, and that the best treat-
ment of acute disease is often very simple.
Let them explain, as far as practicable to those
around them, the mechanism of their physical or-
ganization, and when it can be done, knife in
hand,' the work will be easy. Let them expound,
so far as known, the beautiful and harmonious
laws enstamped upon this organization, by which

64
CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM
its complicated movements and diversified pheno-
mena are sustained; laws as immutable in their
nature, and inflexible in their operation, as those
that hold the planetary system together; and like
them originating in the same incomprehensible
and mighty mind, which, acting in the strength of
its own philanthropy and unchangeableness, gave
to man a moral code from amidst the smoke and
thunders of Sinai. No law coming from this high
source can be violated with impunity; and he who
infringes a law of the vital economy, receives, in
an injury done to the machinery of life, the pe-
nalty of his transgression with no less certainty
than he who leaps from a tower heedless of gra-
vitation. With all its given power of accommo-
dation to circumstances, no possible training or
education of this machinery can change the nature
of its primitive adaptations, and make an article
congenial and healthful, which was originally
repulsive and noxious. No human ingenuity or
perseverance can render impure air as wholesome
as that which is pure, or any form of intoxicating
liquor as healthful as water.
So long as alcohol retains a place among sick
patients, so long there will be drunkards; and
who would undertake to estimate the amount of
responsibility assumed by that physician who pre-
scribes to the enfeebled, dyspeptic patient the
daily internal use of spirit, while at the same
time he knows that this simple prescription may
ultimately ruin his health, make him a vagabond,
shorten his life, and cut him off from the hope of
heaven. Time was when it was used only as a
medicine, and who will dare to offer a guaranty

IN HEALTH OR DISEASE.
65
that it shall not again overspread the world with
disease and death?
Ardent spirit-already under sentence of pub-
lic condemnation, and with the prospect of under-
going an entire exclusion from the social circle,
and the domestic fire-side-still lingers in the sick
chamber, the companion and pretended friend of
its suffering inmates. It rests with medical men
to say how long this unalterable, unrelenting foe
of the human race shall remain secure in this sa-
cred, but usurped retreat. They have the power,
and theirs is the duty to perform the mighty ex-
orcism. Let the united effort soon be made, and
the fiend be thrust forth from this strong but un-
natural alliance and companionship with men, and
cast into that outer darkness' which lies beyond
the precincts of human suffering and human
enjoyment.
6*

10
2
assey, R.D.
36678-M
[BOOK]


ANDOVER, Nov. 9, 1836.
MY DEAR SIR-It appears to me, that could your
i'rize Essay be published alone and in a cheap form,
adapted to universal circulation, in this and other coun-
tries, it would do unspeakable good. And whoever shall
be instrumental in putting a copy of it into every family,
will be eminently the benefactor of mankind. Hoping
that Providence will open the way for the accomplish-
ment of this object,
I am, with great respect and esteem, truly yours,
J. EDWARDS, Pres. Theo. Seminary.
BOSTON, Nov. 24, 1836.
MY DEAR SIR--When your Prize Essay was first pub-
lished, I read it with pleasure and profit. I have had
occasion to consult it more than once. I have referred to
it and quoted it, in speeches and publications repeatedly,
and I regret that it is not before the public in a cheaper
form. It is precisely the work to form a part of those
little parcels, which we are called on almost daily to
distribute. In making up our gratuitous packages for
various quarters, your work should go with them: it may
be called the medical chest for a temperance voyage.
This, however, is inconvenient in its present form; and
if it can be published in a much cheaper form, pamphlet
of course, I have no doubt that its circulation extensively
would subserve the interests of the temperance cause.
Very truly and respectfully yours,
Professor MUSSEY.
L. M. SARGENT.
I entirely concur in the above opinion.
JOHN TAPPAN. .
Trenton, January 6, 1837.
Dr. THOMAS SEWALL:
Dear Sin-Most cheerfully do I unite with many
devoted friends to the cause of temperance, in recom-
mending the republication of Dr. Mussey's Prize Essay.
Dr. M.'s writings on the subject of temperance are excel-
lant, and I should rejoice to see them scattered thickly
over the whole length and breadth of our land.
With great respect, yours, GARRIT SMITH.