A dissertation on the means of preserving health in Charleston, and the adjacent low country. Read before the Medical Society of South-Carolina, on the 29th of May, 1790 / By David Ramsay, M. D.
- David Ramsay
- Date:
- 1790
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dissertation on the means of preserving health in Charleston, and the adjacent low country. Read before the Medical Society of South-Carolina, on the 29th of May, 1790 / By David Ramsay, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![evil that naturally refults from an excels of heat; is ageravated by a plentiful ufe of ardent fpirits. Thefe tend to inflame the blood, and concur with a waim fun in wearing out the vitals, haften- ing On a premature old age vand an whtinaely death. How fat it would be for the benefi: of our country to exterminate the ufe of diftilled fpiries, I will not undertake to determine, but have no: hefitation in pronouncing, that the fum of evil refulting from their abufe infinitely outweighs ail the good that flows from them. The habit of immoderate drinking when oncé begun, hurries on its unhappy votaries almoft irrefiitibly. In the intervals of iobriety, they feel a faintneis and oppreffion which is intulerably dif- trefficg. For this they find no relief but in a fecond intoxication. As the liquor lofes its fti- mulus, the defe mut be increafed fo as to procure an abatement of paiaful fenfations. The remedy proves worfe than the difeafe, and both continue to increafe in a faial progreffion from bad to worfe, from ordinary grog to undiluted Jamaica fpirits s even the latter become: infufficient to warm the flomach, and infances fometimes occur where the hotreft peppers have been added to the warmeft fpirits to take off their fancied coldnefs. To enumerate al] the difeates which are brought on in this warm climate, by. the abufe of arcent. fpirits, would far exceed the limits to which 1 muft confine myfelf. Suffice it to obferve, that among them is the deftruction of the'digeftive powers, obftiuctions of the abdominal vilcera, dropfies and madnets, Nothing can more powerfully illoftrate the pers nicious](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32886500_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
