The sources of health and the prevention of disease, or, Mental and physical hygiene / by John A. Tarbell.

  • Tarbell, John A. (John Adams), 1810-1864
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sources of health and the prevention of disease, or, Mental and physical hygiene / by John A. Tarbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    such, in all its forms, no opposition to it can be too strenuous and persevering. It is said to be fallacy of reasoning to argue against the use of an article from its abuse. But, in this instance, one term implies the other. The use of any solid or fluid not necessary for sustenance, and for the perservation of health, may be termed its abuse ; but this alcoholic principle, in any shape whatever, is not only needless, but positively inimi- cal to the natural operation of the living functions. It is an absolute poison when pure, and but a diluted poison when weakened ; and, while no one but a madman would attempt to swallow it undiluted, many gradually insinuate the poison into their systems by the more palatable and rather less excoriating form, deluding themselves into the belief that the poison is altogether neutralized by being diluted. It matters not in what shape the enemy is put into the mouth, even if in not sufficient force at once to steal away the brains; it still remains an enemy, and no ingenious device can possibly deprive it of that character. It [alcohol] does not form a constituent part of any tissue or of any fluid in the healthy body ; it retards, in place of aiding, those series of changes which the aliment undergoes before it is converted into blood ; it is perturbating always, and deleterious generally, to the functions, whether they be merely of nutrition, or those by which man is enabled to speculate on his own situation, and