The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOLIC ACTION.

I. The action of alcohol upon the animal body in health
is essentially poisonous, producing such a disturbance in
the regular current of vital action as, when a sufficient
dose or succession of doses is administered, becomes fatal.

11. The consequences of the habitual excessive use of
alcoholic liquors, as proved by the experience of the
medical profession, and generally admitted by medical
writers, are precisely such as the study of its effects in
poisonous doses would lead us to anticipate, various
diseases being thus induced in the organs whose actions
are peculiarly liable to derangement from the presence of
alcohol in the system.
111. The habitual moderate use of alcoholic liquors has
a tendency to produce morbid actions in those organs espe-
cially acted on by them, which ultimately manifest them-
selves in various chronic diseases of advanced life. _ _

IV. The preceding conclusion, as to the remotely inju-
rious effects of the " moderate" use of alcoholic liquors, is
borne out by the comparative rapidity with which similar
results develope themselves in tropical climates.
V. The capacity of the healthy human system to sustain
as much bodily or mental labour as it can be legitimately
called on to perform, and to resist the extremes of heat
and cold, as well as other depressing agencies, is not
augmented (as commonly supposed) by the use of alcoholic
liquors ; but, on the contrary, their use under such circum-
stances tends positively to its impairment.

VI. Although there are certain exceptional cases, in
which occasional or even habitual recourse may be had to
alcoholic liquors with apparent advantage, the number of
cases in which permanent benefit is gained by their use is
much less than is generally supposed, their effect being
rather to palliate the results of departures from the laws
of health than to antagonise or remove their causes, and
any temporary increase of power beinc, usually purchased
at the expense of a greater subsequent' diminution in the
capacity of exerting it.
VII. Whilst the habitual use of alcoholic liquors, even
in the most moderate amount, is likely (except in a few
rare instances) to be injurious rather than beneficial, great
benefit may be derived in the treatment of diseases from
the medicinal use of alcohol in appropriate cases.

Having so stated his propositions, he goes on to
show that to ensure the efficacious operation of the
" temperance principle," experience has taught
that total abstinence is the only safe and certain
means, and on this ground he advocates, and con-
vincingly advocates its adoption, by the intelligent
and influential classes, as the most potent and
efficient means of enforcing the precept. In the
course of his inquiry the doctor discusses the
subject of intemperance in its various social and
frequently appalling aspects. Like most writers
on the subject he dwells at much length on its
baneful influence as an incentive to crime. His
investigations under this particular head of inquiry
are hardly, in our estimation, so satisfactory in
their results as they are on some other of the points
considered. His data in this instance are generally
derived, directly or indirectly, from the criminals ;
and all experience goes to show how very little
reliance is to be placed on the :declarations of
such parties. In most cases they are lamentably
ignorant and unprincipled, yet generally pos-
sessed of sufficient cunning to perceive the re-
sults intended to be arrived at by their interro-
gators, which their own unscrupulousness, and an
innate desire to palliate their crimes, leads them at
once to humour and to gratify by all manner of
self-accusations, but the right ones. There can
exist no reason for doubting that a large amount
of crime originates in intemperance ; but there are
also grave reasons for believing that it receives
even more than its due share of blame in respect
to that great social evil. The effects of intem-
perance, in producing a mentally degenerated
offspring, is a phase of the social malady which
was not likely to escape the observation of so
earnest an inquirer and so acute a reasoner as Dr.
Carpenter ; and he cites instances in corroboration
of his views as follows :

DRUNKENNESS CAUSES MENTAL DEBILITY IN THE

OFFSPRING.

The drunkard not only injures and enfeebles his own
nervous system, but entails mental disease upon his
family. His daughters are nervous and hysterical ; his
sons are weak, wayward, eccentric, and sink under the
pressure of excitement, of some unforeseen exigency, or
the ordinary calls of duty. On this point, however, the
most striking fact that the writer has met with, is con-
tained in the report on idiocy lately made by Dr. Howe to
the legislature of Massachusetts. " The habits of the
parents of 300 of the idiots were learned; and 145, or
nearly one-half, are reported as known to be habitual
drunkards." Such parents, it is affirmed, give a weak
and lax constitution to their children, who are conse-
quently, "deficient in bodily and vital energy," and pre-
disposed by their very organisation to have cravings for
alcohol stimulants ; many of these children are feeble and
live irregularly. Having a lower vitality, they feel the
want of some stimulation. If they pursue the course of
their fathers, which they have more temptation to, and
less power to avoid, than the children of the temperate ;
they add to their hereditary weakness, and increase the
tendency to idiocy in their constitution,—and this they leave
to their children after them. * * * * There is every
reason to believe that the monomania of inebriety not
only aggravates, and renders more deleterious, whatever
taint may exist in the individual ; but that it vitiates or
impairs the sources of health for succeeding generations.
The doctor is eloquent and convincing in showing
the debasing influence of inebriety upon the moral
constitution ; he is equally effective in demon-
strating it to be productive of physical weakness, as
that is evinced in a diminished power of sustain-
ing or resisting injuries caused by disease or acci-
dent. With much success he combats the opinion
that the moderate use of alcoholic stimuli is bene-
ficial to the system, by showing that its frequent
application even in small quantities is not only
unnecessary for the maintenance of bodily and
mental vigour, but is unfavourable to the perma-
nent enjoyment of health. In a very interesting
section of the work he examines and dissipates the
popular ideas of such stimulants being required in
certain conditions, or at certain periods of life. In
conclusion, we are glad to have at last met with a
declared advocate of total abstinence from intoxi-
cating liquors, who bases his advocacy on calm
inquiry, and enforces it in a systematic manner by
rational views unfoldedwith temperance of language
and modesty of demeanor.

Yankee Humour, and Uncle Sam's Fun.
London : Ingram, Cooke and Co.
This volume of transatlantic humour contains a
large amount of mirth-provoking grotesquerie. It
is prefaced by a protracted and somewhat heavy
introduction from the pen of Mr. W. Jerdan. The
illustrations, eight in number, are clever, though
so much overstrained as to border on caricature.