Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors.

Date:
[1874?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (cheers)—but still more, that we should endeavour gradually to instruct the great mass of the people—(cheers)—until they them- selves shall understand what is the time nature of the question at issue, and they themselves shall take up in their own interest that which we are constantly charged with taking up out of a fanatical desire to support a theory. It is for this reason that this meeting has been called here to-night to vindicate one par- ticular method which, perhaps, has not. hitherto received that attention which it ought to have received, of thus leavening the whole mass of public opinion. It is impossible to question that a great deal of the drunkenness of this country, and, what is perhaps of more importance, a great deal of the resistance that is constantly opposed to all efforts on the part of the advocates of temperance to improve the customs and to improve the legislation that affects this matter—I say that a great deal of it is due to ignorance, and to ignorance only—(hear, hear)—and that one large part of our work must consist in the endeavour steadily to remove that ignorance, and to convert the mass till they shall understand what is the real truth of the case. I am thankful to say that the perpetual discussion of this matter has already had the effect of converting to a very large degree the students of science and the medical profession. (Cheers.) I hold students of science and the medical profession in very high honour. I hold them in very high honour, both for the profession which serves such noble purposes in the discharge of its duty to mankind, and also for the steady progress which it is perpetually making in new knowledge for the benefit of all alike ; but simply because the studies of this kind are so exceedingly long, simply because the science extends over so wide a range, simply because many of the questions that science has to deal with are so subtle and so diffi- cult, it is almost inevitable that a great deal will be quietly put aside and left unexamined, unless public attention is strongly directed to it. Failing this, scientific men and medical men will be content simply to accept the traditions of their forefathers unless we loudly demand that they should examine the facts over again for themselves. (Loud cheers.) It is because the advocates of temperance have made this demand so loudly and so persistently, that it is now undeniable that a great change has come over phy- siological science and the medical profession in this matter. I do not doubt the honesty of those who not so very long ago were perpetually prescribing stimulants. I do not doubt that they honestly believed in the value of their prescriptions ; I do uot complain that at a time when no special attention was directed to the matter, they were content simply to accept what had come down as a tradition from the past; I do not complain that in con- sequence of that, they very often were misled, and we can now see by the evidence of the medical profession in the present day how completely they were misled. I complain not of that, but I
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