Scientific teetotalism : appendices to the illustrated history of alcohol : exhibiting a view of the accordance of teetotalism with recent discoveries in organic chemistry, and explaining the modus operandi of alcohol : firstly, on the function of respiration, and, secondly, in the formation of fat.

  • Sewall, Thomas
Date:
[1843?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scientific teetotalism : appendices to the illustrated history of alcohol : exhibiting a view of the accordance of teetotalism with recent discoveries in organic chemistry, and explaining the modus operandi of alcohol : firstly, on the function of respiration, and, secondly, in the formation of fat. 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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    the arctic regions, surrounded by eternal snows and icebergs. How do they support respiration ? Has the Polar bear learnt tbo art of distilling brandy ? And if he can support respiration without this alcohol, so can tbo Samoyedes ! Third case.— When the powers of digestion and assimilation fail, as after an attack of typhus fever, then a little wine may be prescribed. What for? Why, says Mr. Jeaffreson, first, as an element of respiration, second, to impart tone for a time ! But we have already seen, that alcoholic drinks do not increase- warmth, but on the contrary, decrease it, and render the body more susceptible of cold, and therefore wine is a bad element of respiration. We have also seen, that alcohol is not a tonic, but an irritant; it cannot, therefore, impart tone, but must destroy it, and ought, consequently, to be most cautiously abstained from when the powers of digestion and assimilation fail. It hardens the food also, as well as weakens the digestive powers. Mr. Mayo, author of the Philosophy of Living, and late senior Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, opposes the use of stimulants in recovery from fever. He says;— To those of naturally good stamina, who are convalescent after fever, or inflammatory attacks, the lightest nutriment alone is commonly necessary;—gruel, arrow-root, beef tea, with dry toast, calves' foot jelly, boiled whiting, and the like. The stomach does not want, and will not bear, stimulating ; but it is weak and can chymify only the most digestible food; and that in small quantities. Its tone is sure to return spontaneously. p. 59. Hence our teetotal surgeons found, on trial, that they could do better without this medicine, even in recovery from fevers, than with it. Dr. Cheyne, of Dublin, in his letter on wine and spirits, many years ago, justly observed, that the benefits which have been supposed to flow from their liberal use in medicine, and especially in those diseases which were once uni- versally, and are still vulgarly supposed to depend upon mere weakness, have invested these agents with attributes to which they have no claim; and hence, as we physicians no longer employ them as we were wont to do, we ought not to rest satisfied with a mere acknowledgment of error, but we ought also to make every retribution in our power for having so long upheld one of the most fatal delusions which ever took possession of the human mind!—If, however, they do possess any medical virtues, then the habitual abstainer will most assuredly experience a greater amount of advantage from their medical use, than' the moderate drinker possibly can, whose constitution has become hardened by their constant use. Speaking of wine, Dr. Christison says, that the artificial states of the constitution produced by the habits of civilized life are supposed to render it for some people a necessary stimulant, especially during exposure to unusual fatigues (Dispensatory, p. 943.) But what says the Professor to this supposition ? « Very few constitutions of this kind really exist among those who are willing to think they themselves possess it/' You see trentlemen, that Dr. Christison understands the secret—the patients are willing to think that they possess the peculiar constitution, because they like the medicine! The habitual use of wine/'says he, is safest or most salutary when the habit is united with regular exercise out of doors, or, in plain English, is least hurtful in those constitutions and circumstances in which it is soonest got r.d of-«and most hurtful where the occupation is sedentary, and the mind much exerted. Thus we see, that of all people, the weak, feverish, or studious, ought most carefully to refrain from wine. ' rriatfen, TJT ^°m,faC1ts to th° theoiT of those facts, and unfold (1,0 true aJ °2n .aIco]ho.hc ^r,nks to the laws of nutrition and the functions of Zff^rf^? Se. mC,° P°intS iQ P^siol°^ pathology, and organic tu haYth.r U y°Ur ta™ hearcl 8° «aid-and I undertake to Show you that the discoveries of Licbig and the organic chemists, rightly interpreted perfectly accord with the principles of tectotalism. ' S J ,ntorPIctod> in the living temple of the healthy body three distinct sets of principles, Alcoliol bad in recorery from fe»er. Peculiar con- stitutions.
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