Bacchus: an essay on the nature, causes, effects, and cure of intemperance / By Ralph Barnes Grindrod.

  • Ralph Barnes Grindrod
Date:
1843
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bacchus: an essay on the nature, causes, effects, and cure of intemperance / By Ralph Barnes Grindrod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    derived its notions of the subject under con- , sideration. The language of our poets precisely ac- cords with the popular and crude notions of the times. The moderate use of intoxicating 1 liquors (a vague and unsatisfactory mode of expression), receives unqualified commenda- tion—excess alone incurs blame. In the words of one of our most valued writers, they advocate “The rule of not foo much—by temperance taught.” Thus, Shakspeare— “ Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the in- gredient is a—devil.” Armstrong, sometimes denominated the Poet of Health, exclaims— We curse not wine;—the vile ercesa we blame.” Rarely do any of our writers refer to the nature of these liquors, and the tendency to excess which inseparably connects itself with moderate indulgence. Unfortunately, in- deed, for the interests of mankind, the effu- sions of not a few of our poets too frequently contain sentiments at variance with the sober realities of experience, and too little in accordance with the pure principles of morals and religion. II. Democritus wrote a volume, with the design to show that no person ought to exceed four or six glasses of wine. Epictetus advances the following opinion :—“ That man is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses ; and though he be not drunk, he hath exceeded moderation.”* l’anyasis, however, a Greek writer, allows indulgence in two cups only ; those, he re- marks, who proceed to a third cup, dedicate it to lust and strife.-|* Athenaeus preserves the following verses of Eubulus, a writer of Greek Comedy. Bacchus thus speaks : — “ Only three cups for prudent men I mix : For health the one, which first they quaff: the second For love and pleasure ; and the third for sleep; Which they, who are by reason’s name distinguish’d, No sooner drink, but home they bend their steps. A fourth would ill become us, 'tis the cup Of contumely ; the unseemly din Of uproar marks the fifth ; debauch the sixth; Blows and black eyes the seventh ; with the eighth In comes the constable; the ninth engenders Fell rancour; hut the tenth is madness ’self, Whose desperate fury prompts to deeds of blood.” In comparatively modern times, striking examples are presented of the morals of the age, influencing considerations concerning the nature of temperance. A society, for instance, established about the sixteenth century, for the promotion of temperance, had its fundamental law constituted on the principle, that none of its members should drink more than fourteen (/lasses of wine daily. A certain general, in one of his regulations, ordered, that no officer who dined at his table should exceed two bottles * Fragments, No. .3. Carter’s Tran 1. 1738. p. 112. \ Archa-ologia Gneca. Veil. 2, p. of wine. I)r. Trotter, who adverts to this circumstance with somewhat of astonish- ment, records it as an honour to the British Navy, that in his time, the commanders in chief never allowed more at their tables than half a bottle to each guest.* The writings of distinguished authors ot the present day, assign curious and certainly untenable limits, to what some persons are pleased to denominate moderate drinking. Dr. Sigmond, Professor of Materia Mediea to the Royal Medico-Botanical Society, in his Essay on Tea, recommends to those who are “engaged in occupations which do not demand any very extraordinary exertions, either of body or mind,” “ a (jentle stimulus of three or four glasses of trine during (he great meal of the day a practice which he further states does not “ trespass on the limits of moderation,” and is moreover productive of a general state of health as well as longevity. “After the meal,” says the same writer, “ when some little time has elapsed, two or three glasses of port produce no ill effects!! <yc. It is but proper, however, to state that opinions like those propounded by Dr. Sigmond, alike unphilosophical and contrary to experience, are less entertained by medical men in the present day than they were at a more remote period, and ere long, it is to be hoped, that as the light of truth diffuses its influence, they will he altogether discarded from the medical profession. The formation of Temperance Societies in this country and in America, in the present century, forms a striking illustration. Many of these institutions had merely an ephemeral existence. Of those established, one class had for its object the advancement of tem- perance, by inculcating the moderate use of all kinds of intoxicating liquors. Another class, still in operation, has for its fun- damental regulation the moderate use of fermented liquors, but abstinence from ardent spirits. These societies evidence the existence, not only of erroneous notions concerning the nature and effects of intoxi- cating liquors, but the very general and deep-rooted appetite which exists for artificial and stimulating drinks. The members of one of these short-lived societies were required to pledge themselves to abstain altogether from the use of ardent spirits, and to confine themselves to the use of “one quart of beer, porter, or ale, or three glasses of wine per day,” which quantity was to be so partitioned as not to be taken at one and the same time. The secretary of this society, states that this pledge was instituted with the view to yield to the prejudices of those persons who advocate the moderate (!) use of intoxicating liquors. III. An examination of these facts, irre- sistibly forces the conviction upon all un- prejudiced minds, that the inclinations and ’ Trotter’s Essay on Drunkenness, p. 137.
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