Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1851-01-24
CARPENTERS PRIZE ESSAY.

considerable care and attention, and are salts I
fed that it is perhaps the most convincing and 8
powerful Essay that has ever fallen into our I
handsAand critics capable of judging, have
pronounced It the gerry best ever written upon
the subject.
The Author is a Medical Practitioner and
Surgeon, and handles the subject with a skin
only to be attainedby those fully acquainted
with the mental and corporal man. The Es-
say was drawn out by an Advertisement offer
ing one hundred guineas for the best Essay on
the use of alcoholic liquors in health and dis
ease,-coming from Prince Albert. Several
Essays were submitted to the adjudicators, but
the one before us, written by DR.. VIM. B.
Carpenter, was unanimously selected as the
best, and comes to us endorsed by DIR. John
Forbes, Physician to the Queen, &c., DR..
Roupell, Physician to St. Bartholomew Hos
pital; and DIR. Guy, Professor of Forensic
Medicine, in Kings College, London.
The Author, in discussing the subject, lays
down the following eight propositions, viz:
lst. That from a scientific examination of
the mole of operation Of alcohol upon the hu-
man body, when taken in sufficient potions to
produce drunkenness (Which he terms poison
Gus doses) differences may fairly be drawn with
regard to the specific effect, when repeatedly
taken in excess, but not to an Immediately ia
tai amount.
I'd. That the consequence of the ~ercessiUe
use of alcoholic liquors, as proved by the ex-
perience and admitted by the writings of all
medical men, fully justify the position that the
habitual use Of smaller quantities, will ultimate
" be attended with consequences prejudical
to the human systematic morbid actions thus
engendered being likely rather to be chronic,
than acute, in their character.
Sd. That as such morbid actions are found
to be among the common disorders Of persons
advanced in life, who have been in the habit Of
a " moderate" use of alcohol, there is strong
ground for regarding them dependent upon
this cause.
4sh. That the preceding conclusion is fully
borne out by the proved results of The " mod
crate" use of alcoholic liquors, in causing a
marked liability to the acute forms of similar
diseases in hot climates, where their action is
accelerated by other conditions.
9Th. That the capacity of the healthy hui
man system to sustain as much bodily or men.
tai labor as it can be legitimately called upon
to perform, and its power of resisting the ex.
tremes Of heat and cold, as well as other de.
pressing agencies, are not augmented by the
use of alcoholic liquors but on the contrary
n their use tends positively to the impairment
of that capacity.
4 9Th. That where there IS a deficiency. O
n power, on the part Of the system, to carry OF
its normal actions, with the energy and regu
e larity which constitute health, such power car
o rarely be impaired by the habitual use of al
n cohclie liquors its deficiency being general,
consequent upon some habituald departure from
e the laws of health, for which the use Of alec
holic liquors cannot compensate and thougI
the employment of such liquors may have tn
temporary effect of palliating the disorder
yet they tend to mask the action of other NOR
h biic causes, by rendering the system more to
/ Grant of them.
9TH. That, consequently it is the duty of tn
Medical Practitioner, to discourage, as much q
possible, the habitual use Of alcoholic liquor
in however " moderate" quantities, by all pei
sons in ordinary health; and to seek to remt
dy those slight departures from health whic
: result from the wear and tear of active If
!, by the means which shall most directly remov
or antagonize their causes, instead of by sue
as simply palliate their effects.
9Th. That, whilst the habitual use of alcoho
ic liquors, even in the most moderate "
mount, is likely Except in a few rare instal
y ces) to be rather injurious than benefcia
10 great benefit may be derived, in the trea
ment of disease, from the medicinal u
of alcohol, in appropriate cases but tn
ite the same care should be employed in the d
We eliminating selection Of those cases, as would
Of taken by the conscientious Practitioner in T
of gard to the administering of any other powe
full remedy which is poisonous in large doses.
M DIR. Carpenter asserts the foregoing to
xes the legitimate conclusions deducible from I
an facts and arguments which he has brought
VS. bear in the examination OF the subject, and a
peals to his Professional readers to decide b,
nd far the case which he has made out is suficiel
ly strong to lead them to the same results.
hey He declares that he has been for some We;
un- investigating this subject; that he has adopt
in no ~foregonc conclusions, nor attempted to ma
nee the facts square with ~preconceived views !; Il
he has endeavored to treat the subject as {
of purely scientific inquiry, and has avoid
mixing up any other considerations with tn
which presented themselves to him as a Phi,
ologist and a Physician; and that for the p