The physiology of temperance & total abstinence : being an examination of the effects of the excessive, moderate, and occasional use of alcoholic liquors on the healthy human system / by William B. Carpenter.

Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of temperance & total abstinence : being an examination of the effects of the excessive, moderate, and occasional use of alcoholic liquors on the healthy human system / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    in them merely because advanced by him. He has_ simply employed this form, as the one which seemed to him best adapted to embody the results of his inquiries, and to present them to others for their own examination. It has been his constant aim to distinguish what is to be received as pro- lahle truth, from that which he considers, to have _ been ' demonstrated; and on no point has he expressed himself • more strongly, than he feels himself justified in doing onij scientific grounds alone. I'l The mutual connection of the Propositions which are ta 11. be afterwards discussed seriatim, will be best seen by re- 'jl^ garding them as parts of one continuous series. lil I. The action of Alcohol upon the animal body in health tl is QB&enti&Xlj poisonous; producing such a disturbance in the'I ] regular current of vital action, as, when a sufiicient dose orm-: Succession of doses is administered, becomes fatal. II. The consequences of the habitual excessive use off Alcoholic Liquors, as proved by the experience of the Medi-- cal Profession, and generally admitted by Medical writers,, are precisely such as the study of its effects in poisonous* doses would lead us to anticipate; various Diseases being; thus induced in the organs whose actions are peculiarly- liable to derangement from the presence of alcohol in the' system. * III. The habitual moderate use of Alcoholic Liquors has? a tendency to produce morbid actions in those organs espe- cially acted-on by them, which ultimately manifest them- selves in various clyonic diseases of advanced life. IV. The preceding conclusion, as to the remotely injurious^ effects of the moderate use of Alcoholic Liquors, is borne out by the comparative rapidity with which similar results^ develope themselves in tropical climates. V. The capacity of the healthy human system to sustaiii] as much bodily or mental labour as it can be legitimately)' called on to perform, and to resist the extremes of heat andi cold, as well as other depressing agencies, is not augmentedJ (as commonly supposed) by the use of Alcoholic Liquors;; but, on the contrary, their use, under such circumstance&s tends positively to its impairment. VI. Although there are certain exceptional cases, in which i