Permanent temperance documents of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Permanent temperance documents of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I. 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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    523] I know, my clear Sir, that some will say, ‘ You poor, deluded fanatic; you have deprived yourself of all the comforts of life, and what have you worth living for ?’ I have health, such health as men never enjoy who do not lead a uniformly temperate life. For years I have scarcely known what an ache or a pain is; and for years 1 have not had a cold, worth calling a cold. My appetite is always good. 1 have a great pleasure in eating whatever is suitable for man to eat, and I have lost all desire for any thing, but the plain nourishing food on which I live. I feel as if I had gone back many years of my life, and have the ability and disposition to perform much more labor than I had seven years ago. Here is what I have, that is worth living for; and I will ask those inquirers, in turn, what do they enjoy that is more worth living for ? Do they eat the luxuries, and fat things of the earth ; and drink the fruit of the vine in its fer- mented and joy-inspiring state? I use my plain food, and plain water, with as much pleasure and gratification as they; for I have tried both, and speak from experience, and know that their grat- ifications are often followed by a bitter pang, and that mine are not. Indeed, so far am I from suffering from my mode of living, that it has relieved me entirely from the common sufferings of life, to which improper living exposes us. I used to suffer much from head-ache, sick stomach, want of appetite, irregularity of the bowels, restless nights, rheumatic pain, melancholy feelings, and a most distressing affection of the heart—a disease of which organ has become one of the most powerful, and alarming dis- eases of our land ; and brought on, perhaps, nine times out of ten, by a deficiency of exercise, and the use of stimulating food and stimulating drink. Of all these I have got cured, by aban- doning stimulants and improper food. You ask me, Sir, respecting the experience of others on this subject. To tell you all the good effects l have known, would need a volume, and I should not know where to begin. I will, however, state one case. My neighbor, for whom I had often prescribed for a head-ache, which had seriously injured his health, and which he had had, with only one exception, once a month, for more than forty years, applied to me, two or three years ago, to try again and do something for him; for he suffered excessive- ly ; and his looks showed it. In fact his health was seriously de- clining. His attacks lasted him a day or two, and he always had to sit up one whole night, in his chair—so severe was the pain, at every attack. I knew he was fond of rich food, loved coffee dearly, and his tobacco still more, and used them very freely. I told him, that I had trifled with him long enough, I would give him no more medicine, he must cure himself, and that he must abandon his