The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-05-04


ality--thc sensorium, toSwhich all our ac-
lions or emotions are reported back, are in
toxicated by alcohol, and the whole system
Of voluntary nerves partakes Of the common
disturbance and loss Of equilibrium, What
can be more evident than the law of cause
and effect in this case? Men drink intoxi-
eating liquor before they are intoxicated;
they are intoxicated before they lose their
voluntary power and become incapable Of
voluntary action. These effects do not take
place among those who do not drink alcohol.
But, so long as persons continue in their
habits Of intoxcation, they never revover
their voluntary powers. The position, that
these effects are primary and direct, and not
secondary or accidental, receives confrina-
ton from the fact, that less quantity OF
liquor intoxicates the first time it IS drunk,
than when repeated Young and new drink
ers Of alcohol are proverbially liable to IN
toxication, This powerful and dfiuslble
stimulus works in US neither to will, nor TO-
do good. The intoxication begets its own
like. The actions and emotions, which
flow from It, are as false as itself. II exposes
the weak side OF human nature, and gives
strength TO the sins which most easily beset
it. When the win is deranged and pros
trated by alcoholical intoxication, no con-
sentative power remains, no delverance or
salvation can be worked out. The habit
Of drunkenness rapidly tends to become in
durable.
This brief statement OF the nature and
consequences of alcoholic intoxication stands
directly opposed to the common opinion,
among unrefecting drinkers, that there is a
principle Of nourishment in alcohol, and that
il is this which intoxicates. This opinion is
propagated in drinking songs, and in decla-
nation in favor of drinking. Here lie the
great error and delusion, the basis OF intern
perance in drinking throughout the world.
Hence, the belief OF drinkers, that they can
not live without drinking spirits. They
verify believe that intoxicating liquor is as
necessary to them as their daily food, and it
is certain that the appetite for that may be-
come much stronger than for this, and may
destroy the appetite for food altogether.
The cause Of this delusion is, that the first
sensation of this kind Of intoxication is, that
of greater life or an increase Of strength.
The idea thus produced is, that the principle
| is in the alcohol and is communicated by it.
The reverse Of this is the fact and the true
theory. The alcohol acts only as stimu-
lus, and calls forth or evolves the principle
Of life, in the living organ, called excitabil-
! ity. Repeated applications Of an exciting
cause to an exctable living organ, must
necessarily exhaust the principle Of life.
Nothing pertaining to physiology is more
| fully demonstrated than this. The numbers
who have killed themselves by drinking al
cohol in its distilled or undistiled form, are
examples. IN every sober interval the
drunkatd is conscious that virtue is gone out
of him. All who observe him, perceive that
his vital powers are wasting away.
The effects of eating nourshing food and
drinking intoxicating liquor are contrast
The first is final feeling of strength, the
second final feeling Of weakness; and
these effects answer to their causes. Both
the substances have been analysed. Scien-
/ tifc and skilllul chemists have made the
demonstrations. The gases which compose
alcoholsare given in the tables-Hydrogen
gas 8. Carbon 2, and Oxygen /. Now,
such combination in the human stomach is
wholly mdigestible. II It were reduced to
solid form, it would yield no nourishment
The original sugary or nourishing matter,
as has been shown, has undergone two pro-
cesses, that OF fermentation and that Of dis
tillation. When the fermentation is incom-
/ plete, as in beer, in which it is checked by
hops, portion only Of the alcohol is evolved,
and the remainder is as distinct as sugar
would be when mingled with spirits. In the
dstllation of grain, what remains in the still
after the alcohol is separated, is known by
the name Of "still-slop," and is equally dis
tinct in ITS quality. The alcohol produced
by fermentation is as distinct from the un-
fermented matter, in every combination, as
alcohol would be if poured upon a loaf Of
bread or upon lump Of sugar II all may
be consumed in blush fame, and the
water with which il was combined will re-
main, II is this inAammable, gaseous pro-
perty, which, in the mother tongue, is called
ardent or burning spirits, and which, when
taken into the human stomach, diffuses itself
50 rapidly through the brain and the nervous
system, instead Of being digested and taken
up by the lacteal vessels and passed into the
circuations to supply the secretory organs,
furnish nourishment to the brain and nerves,
and become, as one speaks, "the pasture Of
the flesh"
II is during the stimulating action Of the
alcohol upon the brain and the nerves, that
the pleasurable sensation Of intoxication is
created and the mode Of the operation is,
. in the rapid manner the voluntary power is
evolved. Hence, the shortest processes Of
intoxication yield the most acute sensations
Of pleasure, and hence, the increased eager
ness OF the appetite or desire Tor the most
ardent liquor. This law being admitted, il
is evident that the pleasure of eating nourish-
ing food or OF digesting and assimilating it
cannot be rendered equal in intensity to the
evolution Of sensibity by the stimulus Of
slcohol--the maxium Of the supply being SO
much slower. This important fact, that a
plessurable sensation accompanies the loss