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

  • William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
1850
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    since, for one drunlcard there are scores ■who are injuring their bodies and souls, their families and their employers, and who are consequently in the end more or less burdensome to the public at large, by what is accounted amongst them but a I moderate use of fermented liquors. I We shall next adduce evidence of the I equal inability of alcoholic drinks to sustain the bodily powers in prolonged labour of other kinds; and -we may first mention a very striking case which came within our own knowledge a few years since:—A gentleman with whom we were then intimate, and who, though moderate in his own habits, was by no means a disciple of the total abstinence system, informed us that he had once had the command of a merchant vessel from New South Wales to England, which had sprung so bad a leak soon after pass- ing the Cape of Good Hope, as to require the continued labour, not merely of the crew but of the officers and passengers, to keep her alloat by the use of the pumps during the remainder of her voyage, a pe- riod of nearly three months. At first, the men were greatly fatigued at the termina- tion of their ‘spell’ at the pumps; and after drinking their allowance of grog, would ‘turnin’ without taking a proper supply of nourishment. The consequence I was, that their vigour was decidedly dimi- nishing, and their feeling of fatigue of course increasing, as our physiological knowledge would lead us to expect. By our friend’s direction, coffee and cocoa were substituted for the grog; a hot ‘mess’ of these beverages being provided, with the biscuit and meat, at the conclusion of every watch. The consequence was, that the men felt inclined for a good meal of the latter, their vigour returned, their fa- tigue diminished, and after twelve •weeks of incessant and severe labour (with no interval longer than four hours) the ship was brought into port with all on board of her in as good condition as they had ever been in their lives.—When visiting Messrs Boulton and Watt’s celebrated factory at the Soho, Birmingham, some years since, we were much struck by the Herculean aspect of a particular workman, who was engaged in forging the steel dies (using in coining) into the massive blocks of iron in which they are imbedded. This, we were informed, was the most laborious occupation in the whole factory, requiring a most powerful arm to wield the heavy hammer, whose blows were necessary to ensure the union of the two metals; and involving also constant exposure to a very high temperature. The day was sultry and oppressive ; and the additional heat of the forge ■was, to our feelings, al- most unbearahle. But we stood awhile watching this gigantic workman, the girth of whose chest seemed twice that of any ordinary subject, whilst naked to the waistband, and with the perspiration streaming down his head and body, he dealt the rapid and skilful blows of his ponderous hammer upon the heated mass. At the first pause, we asked him (from mere curiositj', for teetotalism was then scarcely talked of) what liquor he drank ; and he replied by pointing to a whole row of ginger-beer bottles behind him, the contents of one of which he imbibed every ten or fifteen minutes. He stated, upon further questioning, that he found it quite impossible to drink alcoholic liquors whilst at his work; their effect being to diminish his strength to such a degree as to render him unfit for it. i This case might be regarded as a j solitary exception; but the fact is, we • believe, borne out by general experience, ] —men who have to cany on laborious occupations at a high temperature, as in iron foundries, gas-works, sugar-houses, etc., finding that the use of alcoholic liquors, whilst they are so employed, is decidedly prejudicial to them. Most such men, however, are in the habit of drinking a moderate amount of beer or other fermented liquors in the intervals of their work, and many more drink to excess; the idea that such liquors enable them to support their exertion being a very prevalent one among all classes. The matter ■(\’as long ago put to the test, however, by Dr Beddoes, who, under a conviction of the worse than useless character of fermented liquors for this pur- pose, went to the anchor-forge in Ports- mouth dockyard, and selecting a dozen of the smiths, proposed to them that six of them should drink only water for one week whilst the others took the usual allo'wance of beer. The men, convinced that such a system would not answer, re- fused to try the experiment, and were only induced to do so on the promise of a reward if they succeeded in beating the beer-drinkers. On the first day the two sots of men were very much alike; on the second the water-drinkers com- plained less of fatigue than the others; the third day, the advantage was deci- dedly in favour of the abstainers; the fourth and fifth days it became still more
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