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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    3] steam companies and largo shipowners, who regulate their discipline and allow- ances after the model of the navy, nine- tenths of the ships sailing from ports in the United Kingdom have a stipulation that ‘no grog’ shall be allowed. It is obvious, therefore, that e.vperieuce has been demonstrating the inutility and in- jurious effects of the previous practice. Several of the witnesses give it as their decided opinion that, under circumstances of peculiarly trying exposure, hot tea and coSee are more sustaining than grog. Surgeon Bonnet states that he has heard one of the officers of the ‘ Quail’ cutter, which was wrecked in the Bay of Biscay in 1836, say, that for ten days, during which slie lay as a wreck on the water, the sea making a clean breach over her, and the man at the helm needing to be lashed to his place, although grog was offered to the men every hour, they re- fused it, preferring warm tea—not that they disliked grog, but tea proved in their case the most invigorating beverage. And Dr Martyn states that he recollects in North America having pilots on board in snow-storms, who remained on the bow- sprit-end for twelve hours at night, and who preferred coffee to grog, as more I APPENDIX B.—(See Page 25.) In his recently published Prize Essay on the ‘ Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors,’ the Author has entered much more fully into an examination of the consequences attributable to the habitual ‘moderate’ use of fermented liquors ; and he has arrived at the following conclu- sions, the grounds of which are fully specified in that work:— In the first place,—That from a scienti- fic examination of the modus ojxrandi of alcohol upon the human body, when taken in a poisonous dose, or to such extent as to produce intoxication, we may fairly draw inferences with regard to the specific effects which it is likely to produce, when repeatedly taken in excess, but not to an immediately-fatal amount. Secondly,—That the consequences of the excessive use of alcoholic liquors, as proved by the experience of the medical profession, and universally admitted by medical writers, being precisely such as the study of its effects in poisonous and immediately-fatal doses would lead us to anticipate, we are further justified in expecting that the habitual use of smaller quantities of these liquors, if sufficiently prolonged, will ultimately be attended, in a large proportion of cases, with prejudicial consequences of a similar kind,—the mor- bid actions thus engendered being likely rather to bo chronic, than acute, in their character. Thirdly,—That as such morbid actions are actually found to be among the most common disorders of persons advanced in life, who have been in the habit of taking a ‘moderate’ allowance of alcoholic li- quors, there is very strong gi'ound for re- garding them as in great degree depen- dent upon the asserted cause; although the long postponement of their effects may render it impossible to demonstrate the existence of such a connection. Fourtldy,—That the preceding conclu- sion is fully borne out by the proved re- sults of the ‘moderate’ use of alcoholic liquors, in producing a much greater lia- bility to the acute forms of similar diseases in hot climates, where their action is ac- celerated by other conditions; and also by the facts now universally admitted, in re- gard to the remotely injurious effects of slight excess in diet, imperfect aeration of the blood, insufficient repose, and other like violations of the laws of health, when habitually practised through a long period of time. Fifthly, — That the capacity of the healthy human system to sustain as much bodily or mental labour as it can be legiti- mately called upon to perform, and its power of resisting the extremes of heat and cold, as well as other depressing agencies, is not augmented by the use of alcoholic liquors; but that on the other hand, their use, under such circumstances, tends positively to the impairment of that capacity. Sixthly,—That where there is a defi- ciency of power on the part of the system, to carry on its normal actions with the energy and regularity which constitute health, such power can rarely be imparted by the habitual use of alcoholic liquors; its deficiency being generally consequent upon some habitual departure from the laws of
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