The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-15 00:00:00

QUARTERLY TEMPER.INCE MEETING.

The quarterly meeting of this society was hell on the
3rd intl. St. John's Schoolroom ; Mr. Peter Chance in
the chair. There woo a very good attendance of dele-
gates from the various societies of the district, and dur-
ing the evening two papers were reel—the first by Mr.
Brazier, of Old Hill, on thu " Medical Aspect of the
Teuiperance Question," an abstract of which will be
found below; and the second was read by Mr. Newman,
sail an abstract of it will appear in our next:
1 "The first part of the paper referred to the fact that
I an important stage in human progress can be attained
I without disturbing sound social arrangements, or oppo•
I sing some interests, CilstAMIS, or monopolies; or expos•
ing some old and cherished delusions ; and especially to
the conflict with the medical protssion whiell the pro-
gress of teetotalism rendered inevitable. With respect
to the objection that "doctor* should know better than
teetotallers," it was urged that the medical profession
had been driven to relinquish one al.:it another of its
fatal theories, and was slowly and reluctantly coming to
the teetotal stand-point.
" Several reasons were given which necessitate enquiry
and justify the holding of opinions on this question by
teetotalers.
" I. The nature of the question at issue and the con.
dition of medical art justify teetotallers in hol nog
opinions contrary to those of acme professional me,.
It is simply preposterous to require Viet those who cou•
demo and avoid alcoholic drinks should take no pales to
acquire, nor presume to express shy ‘ipinions of th -Ir
own with respect to the nature of the drinks which they
refuse. Nor can teetotallers be rtquired, with any rea-
son, to pin their faith to the doctor a sieve. The; e are
many sleeves, representing so many opinions. The dif-
fering of doctors is proverbial, and in a hundred ques-
tions beeides that of tettotalisni they have held totally
opposite opinions. On the most important medical
ques:ious the highest authorities contradict each other.
and ollin centradiet themselves. What one physician
declares to be the ouly true remedy, another declares to
be the cause of the disease. The stubborn fact of Inle
practitioner direetly contradicting tho equally credible :
statements of another, perplexes a thoughtful man till !
he is driven to It conclission similar to that, of pr0f,,,,,
Gregory, who declared that ' ninety-nine out of every
hundred medical facts, are no many undical lies ; and
medical doctrines are fur We, most part little hotter th

aura, staring notoienae." Such aru assertion PaUld—b:
unlmeoroitiff is. Use tuoutbs of ordinary toet.A.dlers, kut
"

,
it means s ~,,, ething in the mouth of an °mama proles
sue. Sir John Forbes declares that a great proportion
of patients are cored by nature and not by the doctor;
and that a great proportion are cured M spite of the
doctor; and that it would fare as well or better with
patients in ninny diseases if all active remedies, espe-
cially drugs, were abandoned.
James Johnson King's physician), says, " I declare
it to be my most conscientious .minion, that if thin' Was
not a single physician, or Sargisal, or apothecary, or
chemist, or druggist in the world, there would be less
mortality among mankind than there is now.' A bust of
similar opinions may be cited from aeeredited leaders in
the profession shooing it to be at any rate questionable
whether the practice of medicine is not on tile whole a
misfortune rather thou a benefit to mankind. It is
therefore a mark of folly and superstition to place
plicit confidence in a profession whose history has boon
so marked by variations, contradictions, and fatal delu-
sions.

---;70.n the subject of alcoholic drinks medical opinions
have been as conflicting as on any other. It is univer-
sally admitted that alcohol is a powerful poison; yet
there is no advantage of food or physic which Las not
been claimed foe it. Whatever food or medicine can do
4,01 re have taught Veit alcohol can do. Alcohol has
been taught to be lucid, ti be a substitute for to I, aud
to be no loot stall; to be fuel, and nut to be fact ; to
be force awl not to be force; to be stimulant, tonic, 1111.•
colic ana,tlietic—• every thin; by terns, all noViing
long '—to be good for everything, and good for not log.
' Such being the case, it is perfectly reasonable on the
part of teetotallers to discard 'authorities' +mil theories,'
sad to fare their opinion of the carefully a.,certained facts
of
,scheme and hull/111 CX

'2. C./Walk/LI sense, common honesty, ant simple re-
gard for truth require teetotallers to become informed,
a id to hold definite opinions on the nature of aleeholic
drinks. If these drinks are beneficial or, as some duet Jr.
allies, even necessary, then teetotalism is Is greet mis
take, and is LAI. ecioutificelly and ngirally wrong.
'To speed time and money and energy in persuading
people to abandon a beverage which Is conducive to the
heel' h and prosperity of mankind, is a work in which no
christian man would engage. Unless teetotaller* can
allow strong reasons for believing iu the poisonous and
pernicious nature and effect of strong drinks, th ,y stand
convicted of folly, fanaticism, and positive immorality.
They can only escape from these charges by doing what
wine people blame them for doing—taking pains to un•
derstand the medical aspects of this questiou. The pail-
lemon* nature of alcoholic drinks is the only foundation
on which the temperance cause mui be honestly or :safely
based.

" One can scarcely avoid the inference that those who
blame teetotallers for pretending to know what they talk
about, would not of course be guilty of know log what
they talk about themselves.
" 3. Teetotallers meddle with medicine, because medi-
cine meddles with them. Tb wo.k of the t ni,ioraree
reformers is being coustautly hindered and wit a, by
the doctors. The medical muddle of this gee Ai° i in-
duces a vast amount of drinking aid druukemiess, and
I thousands at teetotallers bare been wduced to drink,
many to their utter ruin, by Use advice of the doctor.
Very often, sometimes with \arias porpooe, Um doctors
tall their teetotal patients that they will die unless they
drink wine or brandy. It happene however that they
never die unless they take the doctor's advice. Hundreds
of canes might be given, and In this district, in which
the patient has followed the advice, and died; and otheis
in which patients have rejected the advice and recovered.
The pandering to popular nppetiter and prejudice. on
the part of doctors is a challenge which temperance re.
formers could not reject if they wished. The conflict
was inevitable, and the compensation to society has been
that the attention of eminent medical men has been
directed to this question ; the profession has given up
one after another of its theories ; and the progress of
knowledge has abundantly strengthened the teetotal po-
sition.

'Tie limits assigned to this paper allow but a brief
g:anee at the light which recent enquiry and experiment
have thrown on this subject.
"In forming our OWII opinions, we depend on the en•
tablislied facts of science, and the experialmts and
teachinga of eminent medical men. One rule is abs
lately necessary to be observed, viz.: to place no value
on what ordinary /lectors say, but to consider only what
eminent declaim write. The wost reckless statement, are
mid., by doctors sometimes in denouncing teetotalism
In our own district one asserts that brandy is converted
into blood in the human body, and another that ' Tee-
totallers are all humbugs, and that' a emu can p iion
himself with bread, by eating too much.' Intelligent
writers will not be satisfied with those authorities