The age of biology : an inaugural address delivered at the opening of the Andersonian Medical School, session 1879-80 / by the President of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
- Fergus, Andrew, 1822-1887.
- Date:
- 1879
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The age of biology : an inaugural address delivered at the opening of the Andersonian Medical School, session 1879-80 / by the President of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![enced tliu same effect in Ins own person ? If any man affirm that he is an exception, I reply tliat he is an exception also from the great ma.]ority of his species in the constitution and susceptibilities of his body. If, therefore, I am asked whether alcohol be a good or a bad thing, I am bound to answer, in accordance witli the evidence of history, and in accordance with my own experience and the experience of many trustworthy men communicated to me, that I hold it to be a good thing—a good gift of God to man, which human perversity alone has converted into an instrument of evil. Now, how should such a gift be received at the hands of the great Giver of all good—rravrayv Awrrjpa Should we spurn it from us, and declare in our wisdom that it is an accursed thing which v/e cannot receive: or should we receive it humbly and thankfully, and use it without abusing it; that is, so use it that we may obtain from it the benefits intended for us, and avoid the evils consequent upon abusing it ? It is to my mind, therefore, quite clear that all who entertain these views of the beneficial action of alcohol upon the human body ought to partake of it; that they have a double sanction, moral and religious, in so doing; and that for any man, directly or indirectly, to prevent them from doing it is a wrong action, contrary to the dictates both of morals and religion. On the other hand, it is admitted on all sides that alcohol taken in excess is a poison, and destroys every year in- numerable human lives. It is admitted with the same unani- mity that alcohol deprives a man of the use of his reason, and so renders him dangerous to himself and to all who come near him. Alcohol is therefore a full and ever-flowing source of disease, of immorality, and of crime. It is no overdrawn picture to say of alcohol that it fills our gaols and our poor- houses, our hospitals and our churchyards; and that it would subvert civil society in this country altogether, were it not for the vast police force we are compelled to maintain to keep it down. The state of society I have described, seeing that the cause](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24920186_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
