Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease.
- William Benjamin Carpenter
- Date:
- 1848
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease. 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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![■whole row of ginger-heer bottles behind him, the contents of one of -which he im- bibed every ten or fifteen minutes. He stated, upon further questioning, that he found it quite impossible to drink alcoholic liquors -whilst at his work; their effect being to diminish his strength to such a degree as to render him unfit for it. This case might be regarded as a solitary exception; but the fact is, we believe, borne out by general experience,—men who have to carry on laborious occupations at a high temperature, as in iron-foundries, gas-works, sugar-houses, etc., finding that the use of alcoholic liquors, whilst they are so employed, is decidedly prejudicial to them. Most such men, however, are in the habit of drinking a moderate amount of beer or other fermented liquors in the intervals of their work, and many more drink to excess; the idea that such liquors enable them to support their exertion being a very prevalent one among all classes. The matter was long ago put to the test, however, by Dr Beddoes, who, I under a conviction of the worse than use- , less character of fermented liquors for this ' purpose, went to the anchor-forge in Ports- I mouth dockyard, and selecting a dozen of the smiths, proposed to them that six of i them should drink only water for one week whilst the others took the usual al- [ ; lowance of beer. The men, convinced that ! such a system would not answer, refused to try the experiment, and were only in- . 1 duced to do so on the promise of a re-ward ' if they succeeded in beating the beer-driu- ' kers. On the first day the two sets of men were very much alike; on the second, \ the water-drinkers complained less of fa- i tigue than the others; the third day, the \ advantage was decidedly in favour of the ■\ abstainers; the fourth and fifth days it be- f came still more so; and on Saturday night, -. the water-drinkers declared that they never felt so fresh in their lives »s they had felt during that week. This result may fairly Ije viewed with suspicion, on account of the strong inducement which this benevo- lent, but not always judicious, physician had placed before the water-dnukers to ])rocure their trial of his system; and it might also be objected that a week s ex- ijcrience was not enough to test it. There I 13 ample evidence at the present time, ' however, contained in the various publi- , cations devoted to the total abstinence cause, that labour of the severest kind, and under exposure to the greatest vicissitudes of heat and cold, may be fully as well sus- tained without alcoholic drinks as with the most moderate and regul.ited employ- ment of them. We shall not quote from these publications, however, because their statements may appear to bear the stamp of partiality. It is comparatively easy, it may be objected, to get up a body of evi- dence in favour of any system of quackery; hut the whole truth must be known, before we can give assent to doctrines so com- pletely opposed to the experience and common sense of mankind. We have al- ready grappled with the latter part of the objection, and have shown that the expe- rience of mankind at large is decidedly in favour of habitual abstinence from fer- mented liquors; and in regard to the par- ticular question of evidence, we trust that our readers will give us some credit for discrimination when we state that we have ourselves collected and carefully examined a great variety of evidence from all parts of the kingdom, some of it furnished by unwilling, and much more by indifferent witnesses. Among the documents which we have before us is a letter from a' moulder' in the Gorbals iron-foundry at Glasgow, containing the foUomng statement:—'! can assure you that temperance men can do more work and better work than those who use or indulge in spirituous liquors of any kind. I have joined the Total Absti- nence Society eleven years ago; and from that day to this hour I have abandoned the use of spirituous drinks; and the happy result has been that I am better in health and abler for work than when 1 -was in- dulging in the use of those delusive liquors.' From Kotherham we have the testimony of 100 reformed drunkards, of various oe- cupations ; among them that of S. S., who has been a teetotaler now about seven years, and whose work is moulding iron plates for spades and shovels, which is, taking it throughout the d.ay, one of the hottest and most laborious occupations known. We have received from Leeds the testimony of thirty-four men fand we are assured that many more might have been easily obtained), whose signatures are appended to the following statement: —' We, the undersigned, having practised the principles of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, for the several periods stated below; and having, during that time, been engaged in very laborious occupations, voluntarily testify that we are .ible to per- form our toil with greater ease and satis- i](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21450742_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
