Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease.

  • William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
1849
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    most insidious plea of all) the power of digesting their proper food. And how pleasant it is to preserve the confidence of our patient by thus chiming in with his humour, rather than by rashly propound- ing what he may regard as unreasonable crotchets to excite his doubts as to our own sanity. The medical profession in this country, however, is beginning to be awakened from this pleasant insouciance by the pressure from without; and to find it necessary to place itself in the midst of the current of human progress, which might otherwise sweep past it, and leave | its dicta among the despised relics of an j immovable conservatism. Some hun- dreds of medical men of all grades and degrees, in every part of the British em- pire, from the court physicians and lead- ing metropolitan surgeons, who are con- versant with the wants of the upper ranks of society, to the humble country practi- tioner, who is familiar with the require- ments of the artizan in his workshop, and the labourer in the field,have given their sanction (as we shall presently see) to the statement that the maintenance of health is perfectly compatible with entire absti- nence from fermented liquors; and that such abstinence, if general, would incal- culably promote the improvement of the social condition of mankind. The medi- cal adviser may now shelter himself, there- fore, under this high authority; and need no longer be considered a madman, or even an enthusiast, for denying what it has been supposed that the common sense of man- kind unmistakably teaches. The difficulty, however, is to carry this doctrine into practice; and nothing but such a degree of moral courage as can rise superior to temporary ridicule, can give success. But our profession is surely one of the last in which that moral courage should be found wanting; for the demands upon it are varied and continual. And in this parti- cular case, it may be remarked, the diffi- culty is constantly lessening, from the spread of more correct information on the subject; and we have, in fact, known in- stances in which medical men have lost credit with their patients, through urging upon them as necessary those stimulants which their own convictions told them that they were better without. We need not descant at any length up- j on the evils of intemperance. The expe- ! rience of every medical practitioner must 1 have brought its terrible results frequently before his ey es But whilst thus familiar with its consequences as regards indivi- duals, few but those who have expressly j inquired into the subject have any idea of j the extent of the social evils resulting from it, or of the degree in which they j press upon every member of the commu- nity. On this account we shall preface our inquiry with a few passages from a short paper in a recently published pamph- | let.* This paper,entitled‘Intemperance ) the Great Cause of Crime,’ consists almost jj entirely of extracts from recent public ad- dresses of our judges, and from the written j statements of magistrates, gaolers, and police-superintendents, whose position furnished them with the means of gaining j the fullest information on the subject The whole of it is pregnant with the deep- ; est and most fearful meaning; and nothing but our limited space prevents us from placing it before our readers in its una- bridged condition. We beg their earnest consideration of the following statements: jj ‘Judge Wightman stated in his address to the grand jury at Liverpool, in Aug., 1 1846, that “ he found, from a perusal of j the depositions, that one unfailing cause of four-fifths of these crimes was, as it 1 was in every other calendar, the besetting sin of drunkenness.” ‘Judge Alderson, when addressing the grand jury in 1844, at the York assizes, j said—“Another thing he would advert to was, that a great proportion of the crimes , to be brought forward for their considera- ] tion arose from the vice of drunkenness alone; indeed, if they took away from the calendar all those cases with which drun- j kenness has any connection, they would make the large calendar a very small one.” ‘Judge Erskiue declared at the Salis- j bury assizes in 1844, when sentencing a gentleman to six months’ hard labour, for a crime committed through strong drink, j that ninety-nine cases out of every hun- dred were from the same cause. Judge j Coleridge likewise stated at the Oxford assizes, that he never knew a case brought before him that was not directly or indi- j rectly connected with intoxicating liquors. And Judge Patteson at the Norwich as- J sizes said to the grand jury, “ If it were ; not for this drinking, you and I would have nothing to do.” One ot the judges j stated some time ago at the circuit-court in Glasgow, that “ more than eighty cij* * Proceedings of the World’s Temperance Convention, held in London, Aug. 4, 1S46. and following days. With the Papers hud before the Convention, Letters read, Statis- tics and general information presented, &c. See.—London, 1840, 8vo, pp. 140.