Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-04-08
For the Enquirer.
MEDICAL INFLUENCE.
Yorkville, April 7, 1858.

Mr.. Editor:-The cause of Temperance and of
the Sons, in York, is greatly indebted to the eff
cient influence of many Of the Medical Profession
among US. These Physicians have borne impor-
tant testimony to the injurious. destructive. and
fatal tendencies Of alcoholic drinks. They have
not been content merely to talk temperance-they
have acted temperance; and not only so, they have
gone farther still-they have made an open and q
public profession Of their faith and practice, by
uniting in fellowship with the only association
among US, whose avowed and pledged object is the
promotion of total abstinence, and the suppression
of drunkenness.
This action in these medical gentlemen must
have had its origin in some of the best motives
and feelings which belong to human nature. It
was directly opposed to sel6shness. This opposite
of selfshness is mo other than benevolence-a noble
trait of mind. A regard to their pecuniary in.
terest would have dictated q different course Of
conduct-money was not then the god Of their
idolatry. Public sentiment ran counter TO their
sct-they therefore were not the sycophantic and
supple tools Unpopular applause, synonymous too
often with popular error and vice. The fear Of
nan had no snare for them. To rise superior to
the love Of money-to that adulatory appreciation
of the world, which tends only to degrade, and to
that selfish principle, so deeply implanted in hui
manity, speaks volumes in their praise, and must
bring to them a good reward-much inward salts.
faction and an approving conscience.
Nor is their action surprising. Than the skill
full and successful Physician, who better knows
from observation the incalculable evils of intem-
p%erance? To watch for one time only by the bed
side of a ~deranged and dying drunkard-to be
compelled to contemplate his worse than unhappy
situation-to see him bereft of reason. that noble
attribute Of man, and sunk beneath the condition
of the beasts Of the forest for they ordinarily
that all which the inebriate suffers, and which he
makes others suffer, arises from the unhallowed
use of 'the eli1er of hell'-to behold a poor mortal
suicidally thrust himself into a hopeless and doom
ed grave-to see only this, only once, should be
enough-more than enough-for an intelligent and
conscientious physician. The result is, the num-
Der of Physicians, who are Sons, about equal the
number of the Divisions. Hence it is also, that
most Of these are active, jealous, working mem
bers. knowledge is ever q prerequisite Of belief,
and action should accompany belief. Knowing
well the evils of the poison, they readily become
efficient and uncompromising opponents of the
drunkard' drink and looking around for a field
to NANTES, hat opposition, they have cast in their
lot with the Sons of Temperance.
1t may be easily understood, how a Physician,
skillful in his profession, and subject to no pecu-
liar moral obliquity, may fail to advocate a par
ticular plan for the e1tirpation Of drunkenness;
but it passes our comprehension to reconcile in
t~ellirence and moral rectitude with opposition to
the cause Of Temperance generally, and an advo.
cacy of the drinking habits of our age and coun-
try. To explain such conduct in an individual,
it is demonstrate, there must be either q want Of
knowledge in this department of his profession,
or a deficiency in that moral tone Of character,
highly desirable in q profession Of such fearful
RESPONSIBILITIES. KNURRY CRUX.