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

William Benjamin Carpenter

Date:: 1850

Credit: Temperance and teetotalism : an enquiry 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 Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$oo were mixed up with beer-drinkers, the total amount harvested on the abstinence principle bj' the farmers attending Bodmin market would not be short of 3000 acres. This, we think it will be allowed, is a scale of operations quite sufficient to afford satisfactory results. The testimony of those who e.-nploy none hut total abstin- ence labourers is unanimous in favour of the system. ‘ I feel assured,’ says one, ‘that work can be performed better on the teetotal principle, and that quite as much work can be done as on the use of alco- holic drinks. I am quite satisfied of total abstinence being more congenial to health, strength, and happiness in the harvest-field than the old drinking system, and am resolved, as long as I remain a farmer, to save all my hay and corn on that principle.’ ‘I am glad to inform you,’ says another, ‘ that I have done my labour this harvest with comfort and contentment on the teetotal principle, as I have for the past eight successive har- vests.’ ‘ Our parish,’ writes a labourer, ‘ is divided into small farms ; and many of the farmers have their harvest work done by men who have to go to the mine or stream work, and do their day’s work first, and then in the afternoon they go in the harvest field; and most of them say j they would rather have teetotal beverages \ than intoxicating drinks. I have passed through nine harvests on the teetotal prin- ciple, and three I have been on the cold water system, and I find this is the best of all. I have been at it for a month together, and I could always do my work to the satisfaction of my employers ; and the men I have worked with have said that teetotalism is best.’ Another farmer says, ‘ We have saved our hay and com for eight or nine years to my satisfaction ; the last two years the best of all. The last harvest has been passed with pleasure to the men (though not pledged teetota- lers) and to myself. Not an oath nor an angry word has been heard. AVe have worked in times of necessity till 10 o’clock; and I never heard one say that he was tired. One of them cut an acre and a half of wheat after 2 o’clock ; two acres a day per man was the average quantity cut; and they worked with such comfort to themselves, that they wish to go through another harvest on the same principle.’ ‘ I have sent,’ writes another fanner, ‘ the return of the hay and corn I have cut and saved this year; and I can say that I have done it much more comfortably on the teetotal principle than wo ever did when w'e used malt liquor ; the work-people have done their work well, and with great spirit.’ ‘ AVith out any brawl or anything uncomfor- table, is the additional testimony of another. ‘ As to the comfort of the plan,’ writes another, ‘ I can say, the more I have of it, the better I like it.’ Never did I do my work so easily, nor enjoy my health so well as I have since I abstained from all intoxicating drinks; and as to the work-people in the harvest-fields, all appeared to be pleased and satisfied ; and some of them who were not teetotalers said, that they would sooner work on the teetotal plan than on the drinking system if they could be attended to properly! My full conviction is, that if farmers would but put half the e.vpense in solids and teetotal drinks for their men, that they put in beer and cider, their men would be better pleased, and their work be better done, and a gi-eat deal of sin would be prevented.’ AA'^here an improved diet has been substituted, in the Bodmin district, for alcoholic drinks, it has been found that the labourers, like Mr Hunt’s, increased in weight during the severe labour of the harvest as much as Slbs. per man on the average. AA’e think that we have now adduced sufficient testimony of the inutility, to say the least, of fermented liquors, as re- | gards the maintenance of muscular strength in field labour. It is obvious I that practice here fully beiu's out theory; j and that the substitution of solid aliment i containing the materials of muscular ! tissue, for a liquid which contains but little of these, and whose principal con- stituent is a heat-producing substance— never less wanted than when laborious exertion is being made under the summer sun—is attended with the very result which the physiologist would predict, namely, an increase in the amount of ; muscular substance, and consequently in j muscular vigour. If we only go the ; length of admitting that they are unneces- j sary, the duty of doing our utmost to j check their employment seems to us im- | perative; since it is the universal testi- i mouy of those who have fairly tried the | ahstinence system, that the temper and j habits of workmen, who were previously , ‘ moderate drinkers,’ are in every way im- | proved by it,—to say nothing of the ^ avoidance of absolute intoxication with ! all its evils, which, although the most j obvious, is not perhaps the most impor- : tant result of the abstinence system—$

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

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