The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1856-02-01
The History Of Drunkenness.

DR.. Turner, in IN address which he do
liyered ut the Broadway Tabernacle on the
7th of November, in behalf Of the United
States Inebriate Asylum, in speaking Of the
influence which inebriety has upon nations,
uses the following language- I
Incbriatcly is tho first disease Of which
we have any record. It dates It's existence
from the birth Of the grape, the formation
of wine from which was one Of tho first dis
coyeries Of man. We find nothing in the
medical records Of the Egyptians to prove
that It was recognized Us a disease. Escu-
lapius, Hippocrtes and Galen are likewise
silent ON the subject. Yet we have for tho
recorder Of the pathology Of inebriety, tho
most renowned man Of ancient or modern
times. Solomon describes the malady in the
lncss significant language. "At thc last 1t
blteth like q serpent and stingoth like an
adder" Thus we have sacred history to O.
nblish tho fact that inebriety was the most
frightful and destructive disease then known;
comparing it to the venomous bite Of the
serpent and the deadly sting Of the adder,
which have no speci6c-no cure.
We are compelled to trnce the influence of
this disease in nations rather than individu-
ais, and form our opinions from the facts of
history which record the rise and fallof IA
ces and nations. When the seeds Of this
deadly malady were sown by the great men
of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome, in
their Bacchanal feasts, then thegreatness Of
these mighty nations began to decline, and
their chosen people perished and passed
away. Babylon, with all her glory and
magnifcencc, fell into the hands Of the
Persians when her rulers werc drunk with
wine, and her people maddened by the in
toxicating bowl.
BY incbriety Egypt lost her ruler, the
world her conqueror, in the death Of Alex
ander the Great, in the thirty-third year Of
his age. The historian pens the fact that
he perishcd through selcindulgence-by o
disease "that biteth like o serpent and
stingeth like an adder"
Polished Greece, the grand depository Of
the arts and sciences Of the civilized world,
the residence of the historian, philosopher,
statesman and physician, was the first which
erected temple to the god Bacchus. Lit
tic did her great men consider that they
were dedicatinga temple to god on whose
altar would be sacrificed tho glory Of their
beloved country.
The Bacchanalian feasts in tho Roman
Empire were the cause Of her degcnerated
councils and her weak government. Inc
briefly was the malady that destroyed the
Roman statesman, general and soldier
Thus Rome fell by this physical and moral
coutagion, and the dark ages followed in her
downfall.
Arabic history proves conclusively that
the Arabians were temperate people
Their philosophers considered wine rs the
blood of the devil, and that whoever par
took of It was deyilish. Tho lshmaelite,
with his temperate and primitive mode of
life, combined with his indomitable courage,
has proved to the Psychologist that where
the disease of inebriety has not been found
in race, there will be discovered full de-
velopment of physical power, capable of en-
during the greatest amount Of labor and
fatigue, mind with energies that know no
defeat, o will that can never be subdued.