Deterioration of the Puritan stock : and its causes / by John Ellis.

  • John Ellis
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Deterioration of the Puritan stock : and its causes / by John Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    modify the nutrition of the nervous substance, as to shape it (so to speak into an accordance with itself; and this will l>e especially the case during that earlier period of life in which the bodily constitution (and with it, it great degree, the mental) is being fixed and rendered permanent. A hi in of dependents upon alcoholic stimulants thus grows up, which may rise Snfc an irrepressible craving. “ Any one of the young persons I now address may say, ‘ I am in no danga of becoming the victim of such a propensity.’ But I can assure v >u, a one who has looked upon this matter both scientifically and practically b something like half a century, that no one who has not had like expcri*n« can have an idea of the enslaving power whicn this habit may acquire ij virtue of its physical effect upon the nutrition of the nervous system, ». less than on its specific power of weakening the will and exciting the M sions. Every time the temptation is yielded to, is so much ‘to the bad’ ii both these ways ; so that the recovery of healthful selt-control l>ecQn»e more and more difficult. There is no rule in egard to alcoholic indul«no that it is so safe to observe, as the old one, Obsta principiis—oppo-e tt* beginnings ; for there is no saying what the ending may be. “ And there is one more consideration which I would specially urge upn you. The physical deterioration produced by alcoholic indulgence in th nervous system is one which has a peculiar tendency to hereditary tram mission ; insanity, idiocy, instability of mind, weakness of will, and e*pe dally the craving tor alcoholics, presenting themselves so much more tre quently in the offspring of the habitually intemperate than in than i habitual water-drinkers, that there cannot lie any reasonable doubt that thi sins of the fathers (or mothers) are here most fearfully visited on the children.’ Dr. Benjamin Richardson, of England, who has un- questionably observed and experimented more carefully and for a longer period of time, on the action of alcoholk drinks on the body and mind than any other man, speaking of “The Moderation Fallacy,” says : “ This thought leads me to add a word on what is called the practice o moderation in the use ot alcohol. I believe the Church of England Tem perance Association is divided by two lines, one of which marks off fc ta abstainers, the other moderate indulgers. I am one of those who haw once been bitten by the plea of moderate indulgence. Mr. Worldly Wise man, with his usual industry, tapped me on the shoulder, as he does ever] man, and held a long and plausible palaver on this very subject. If I had no lieen a physician he might have converted me. But side by side with hr wisdom, there came fortunately the knowledge which I could not, dare not ignore, that the mere moderate man is never safe, neither in the counsel 1* gives to others, nor in the practice he follows for himself. Furthermore, I observe as a physiological, or perhaps, psychological fact, that the attrac tion of alcohol for itself is cumulative. That so long as it is present in i human body, even in small quantities, the longing for it, the sense of re quirement for it, is present, and that as the amount of it insidiou 1) increases, so does the desire.
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