The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1884-02-26 00:00:00

" THE VIRTUES OF SEER!"

To the Editor.

There being two *ides to this and every other
question, parboil. you will kindly find spoce for the
following opinions. For my own pert, I will only say
that when the aid of the all-powerful pm.
Is sought to endeavour to make people drink beer—as,
for instance, the letter of "Gembrinus " In the
&mom' Guardian—it seems to tell body rather
plainly that the beer trade la not in all eurlshing state.
"Gambrinut," according to the Telegram. says that
—" It will then be realised how every brewery, every
beer saloon, contributes to break the p ewer theet
alcohol gains in tholes lands where distilled liquor I.
used habitually, working like • fluid dynamite,"
with which I role. agree. If abetainers, however,
bad seed such language it would have been denounced
as "awful ..xaggerstion." Neither "Gambrinus" nor
anyone elm can possibly deny the well.known f t
that it is simply cal ',defy the "alcohol" which make,
spirits act like fluid dynamite. S 'rely, he forg-ets
thst all beer. alert wines end opirita, ocmt sin this
self-same Algot:el, which he to. no unmercifully con-
demns' although not in such large proportions. It
cannot possibly make any difference whether a given
lednriou, quantity of this slob el I. drank as beer or
spirits. Nearly every person who eerip hoer sell also
spirits (coiled by "Gembrions" "fluid dynamite").
(Now, the dreedfnl slaughter of Baker Poet.'. army
of 2.000 men in the Soudan, fill. our breosts
with honor; yet how many of u. leave ever given •
passing thought to the awful statement that more
than double that number have been killed by drink
during the past week I Pause and consider I 4,000
lives lost through drinking •loobolic beverages (include
log beer) reek. Are we doing much to prevent
this wholesale slaughter el our neighbours, friends,
and even relatives This colculation Is based on the
great authority of Dr. Richardson, who
observed—" I do not over estimate the facts When I
say that if such • miracle could be performed in Erg-
land as a general ono Tertian to temperance, the vitality
of the nation would rise one-third in value,"

The following will help your readers to diacover
the truth about this matter, and when found many
will doubtless follow in the path of reel temperance.
" No form of alcoholic liquid is so bad is beer."—
Dr. Lee's book. . .

" Alcohol cannot by any ingenuity of exeunt for
it be classified sm tngtt the foods of man."—Dr. B. W.
Richardson, F.R.S.
"All writers on mated& medics now renk alcohol
amongst thl most powerful and fatal of narcotic
vegeteble polenus."—Dr. C. Lee.
"Out of 100 gallons of 'dot nearly 93 gallons are
water, 5 gallons alcohol, as Cot the rest the lewd said
about it the better ; very strong broth that most be.
nand it not Suppote your wife boiled I pounds of
mutton in 92 p mods of water. and put It before you
for dinner, you would not hesit Its to call it workhouee
. . . Suppose we examine 16 ounces of ale
by science, 11} will be found to be water. If a
butcher sent 14i ounces of bone and only 11 ounces
of me tt you would call bum a swindler."—Dr. Kirton.
. . . . . . . . .

"It is 'a
mlit%lien notio; il;at--aii:—wine,—Or—s-prir:l;
communicate strength, and it is disgraceful to see
m•dical unvu endeavour to propagate the error."—Dr.
O'Sullivan.

" We can prove with mathematical certainty that as
much flour or oterti a. can be on the point of a table
knife is more nutritious than nine quarts of the best
Bavarian beer-Professor Liebig.
For more than 30 years it has been asserted with-
out any contradiction that 51. worth of barley, and
14. worth of hops will make a gallon of 2.. ale; you
pay for barley and hops, 64. ; =lister. $l4 brewer,
ad ; publican, 51. ; taxes on malt, ac., 61. Total colt
of trailuo of at., 2,
" The average darathn of sickness per member
among the Orldfellows is lO days in the year, among 4
the R•chabites (abstainers) it is only a small fraction
o,r no days per member."—Rev. F. Wagstaff,
FR. If
I.a.t verse of Mr. Brown'. celebrated ode to
alcohol. translated Into several languages—
Tempe.t.,cat•erer, windoan.omber,
ileetlpfetrrrunner, bell's dire brink;
'isn't.us murderer, windpipe-dasher,
Drunkard's lodiFino, meat and drink I
And if yu are care ess ab,ut all this misery, if
s .16shnese and custom, an 4 the gains of brewers and
publicans weigh with you against all this evidence, if
you see no need to blush for all this national
disgrace, if it rouses ia your heart no feelings as •
es a Chridian, or as a man, are you not at
lewd afraid last if we suffer thew things to go on
unchecked, a voice should at last cry " Arise 1" to the
awful angel of retribution ; and lest when he stands
with drawn sword over • country so guilty and
apathetic, the cup of our iniquity and of our drunk-
enness being full, there should be none to say to him—
'Put up thy sword within its shwa.' "—Fen. Arch-
delcon Fsrrar, kW, sir, your obedient
servant,
" TRUTH AND REAL TIMPIIUMak"