Volume 1

Essay on the use of alcoholic liquors in health and disease / [John Chadwick].

  • Chadwick, John
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on the use of alcoholic liquors in health and disease / [John Chadwick]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as medicines ; and that man loses nothing, but gains every thing that is good, in restricting himself to the beverage which an all- wise Creator has provided for him. That the whole of the medical profession does not understand the effects of alcoholic drinks, is evident from the following ex- tracts from two of the leading medical periodicals of the day :— The last volume of the British and Foreign Medical Review, in a long article on the subject, commences with the following statement :~-—‘‘ There are many reasons why we deem it incum- bent upon our brethren of the medical profession, to take an active part in the investigation which is now being carried on by a large and not unimportant section of the public in this country and elsewhere, with regard to the effects of the habitual use of alcoholic drinks, and the possibility of effectually maintaining the ‘¢ mens sana in corpore sano,’’ without recourse to them. The fearful array of social and individual evils which may be traced to the abuse of fermented liquors, should lead every reflecting mind to consider how far the use of them is desirable or necessary ; and this enquiry is peculiarly incumbent upon those who assume to themselves the right of guiding the public in all that concerns the welfare of the bodily fabric, whether in health or disease. Their influence for good or evil in this matter can scarcely be too highly estimated. If they are able, after careful consideration of the evidence on each side, to give their sanction to the statements of the advocates of the total abstinence cause, that sanction ought