The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-02-24
From the Journal of Health.


Perverse ingenuity of some cannot find onis
slons, which they are fain to regard as eS
ceptlons III their favor. We have repea,
eddy, in this Journal, entered our soiem
proteS against the sin of drunkenness, an
pointed out, with some care, the masks it
votarles put on, to evade the reprobatio
with which the vice, in its grosser forms, il
Universally stamped. We have indicated
the various means by which at first tn,
health and afterwards the disposition O
children are ruined by an early indulgence,
OF then appettes; and reprobated the false
method devised in well-intentioned but mis-
chlevous ignorance, of attempting to restore
lost strength by domestic prescriptions, re-
course to wine kitters, or home-brewef
liquors. Our effots have, we are well as
sured, been attended with some success
and we are encou aged thereby to perse.
we're and continue to point out the various
malpractices, by Which the bcdy's health
and minds peace are slowly, but surely
destroyed.
The evil to which we would now direct
the attention Of our readers, and entreat
them to abandon or shun, as the case nav
be, is not confired to either sex exclusively
N'Oi 10 IL OilC lOI lJC
OF youth, or the infrmties of age can lie
pleaded as pallhtion. The enjoyment which
1t brings is solitary, as that from dram
drinking ITSELF and its consequences, if pos
sDle, still more pernicious. 1t is, in fact,
dram-drlnking on a small scale, and in a
more fashionable, and, as it is thought, sci
entlhc manner II is concentrated poison,
not Jovially quaffed from the glass and the
bowl amid songs, and joyous shouts; but
carefully metel out in drops by the idle and
luxurious man. who has lounged away his
day In hstlessness at home, in place of court
ing occupation and enlivenment by active
exercise in the open air; or by the belle,
whose pallld face and sunken eye show the
exhaustion OF the midnight assembly and
dance. They dare not hope for, they are
sure they cannot obtain, the sweet sleep
which follows industrious labor and useful
exertion; but they must forget themselves :;
the day had for them sufficient horrors,
without a wakeful night redoubling the
store. What then, say they, remains for
them to do if not to take their accustomed
number of drops of laudanum, or son.a,equiv-
alent supplying solution. They who are
afraid to meet the summers heat or winters
lce-whose nerves are too feeble to bear tine
slight motion of carriage, or the shortest
ride on horseback-and to whom pain is
ff6h2 4 fFe9 I9 idea, haye 90 HESITATION up
OF which, causelessly taken, brings with it
more bodily uneasiness and mental torment,
than the longest day to the dashed galley
slave. They may sleep the sleep of stupe-
faction, or dream themselves in paradise :;
but when they awake. fear, sorrow, sus-
picion, discomfort, cares and WEAKNESS Of
life, surprise them in a moment, and they
can think of nothing else: continually sus-
pecting, no sooner are their eyes open, but
this Internal plague of melancholy seizeth
on them, and terrifies their souls, represent
ing some dismal object to their minds, which
now, BY no means or persuasions they can
avoid.n
However repugnant to our feelings as ra-
tional beings may be the vice of drunken
ness, it is not more hurtful in its effects,
than the practice of taking laudanum. Dis
gushing and repulsive to the eyes of Others
and injurious to the indulgers in it, as is the
chewing of tobacco, it is not more censura-
BILE, nor so much to be dreaded in its conse-
quences, as the habit of chewing and swal-
lowing opium, to mitigate unpleasant feel
ings, or remove melancholy. Some have
habitual recourse to laudanum or opium to
relieve pain and uneasiness, caused usually
by the undue qualification Of their appetite.
Let them learn that there is no example on
record of any agent used for medicinal pur-
poses, in particular diseases, or alarming
emergencies, which has on these occasions,
direct, controlling, and sanitary power
hot mill ,x,han ieto NIL peoI ho
come noxious to the animal economy, and
poison all the springs of life. 1t is thus with
wine, alchoholic liquors, opium and lauda-
mum. and the various tinctures and cordials
of which opium is the basis: it is thus with
all the vegetable bitters and mineral TONES
without exception. All the powders and
cordials which have been recommended fol
the cure of the govt, have invariably, when
taken for any length of time, destroyed the
digestive powers, enfeebled the brain anC
nervous system, and often brought on drop.
sy, palsy, and apoplexy. A physician, after
due deliberation and much counsel with
himself, or medical friends, will prescribe
mercury, bark, opium, or perchance arsenic
| for the cure of the violent and dsngerou.
malady under which his patient is laboring
at the time; and his efforts will often b'
crowned with success. But let this patient
of his own accord, or under the pestilentia
influence of domestic or empirical advice
use any of these articles for length o
time, and, for one uneasy symptom which hi
wished removed, ten will take it's place
and his constitution will be so broken down
that even his first successful adviser ant
medical friend, can now lie little more thai
n melancholy spectator of remediless decay
This is not the language of exaggeration o
speculative fear. We speak from tul
knowledge of the facts. We repeat it
the person who gives into the habit 70
weeks, (he may not reach to months, or
he pass these, his years will he but few ant
miserable,) of daily measuring out to himsel
his drops of laudanum, or his pills of opium
or the like deleterious substance, call
tincture, solution, mixture, potion, what yo
will, is destroying himself as surely as if h
were amallo1uipo areanic or had the nstu