Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-17
The Advantage of Temperance among
Soldiers.

SOidlers.
The Scientific American has this valuable
information:
1t was at one time generally believed that
the use of alcoholic liquors was positively
necessary and beneficial to all men, and
especially soldiers and sailors on active duty.
Physicians recommended such beverages,
and regular daily rations of rum were pro-
vided in all armies and navies
These notions are still entertained by
many persons, and very generally there is
want of correct information on the subject.
1t is very common for soldiers Of all classes
to indulge in the use of alcoholic beverages;
and we witness daily their prevalent and in.
furious use among the volunteers in our city.
A few words of advice on this topic may be
of great benefit to them.
By close observation and many expert.
.ments, it has been found that the tissues and
the blood of drunkards, as well as those who
continually tipple in beer and whisky, but
do not get drunk, are generally in state Of
degeneration. Alcohol passes into the blood
and retards the elimination of waste and
injurious matter from the body, and thus 1t
tends to produce disease, especially fever.
French physicians have determined that
the blood of q man who drinks a pint of
brandy per day is never free from alcohol,
and they assert that its presence in the blood
exerts most prejudicial effect upon nutritDn.
A man in ordinary health, they assert,
requires no alcohol it is only useful il a
medicinal sense, taken in moderate dosei
1t was long supposed by the British ptysi-
clans that spurious liquors impaired to
soldiers in India power 10 resist the de-
pressing influences of q tropical climate;
hence it was regular practice TO provide
each soldier with ration of spirituous liquor
before partaling of breakfast. This c1stom
led TO the decentralization of the army, by
affordiDg temptation to general drunken
ness, which led to the increase of crime and
disease.
This has resulted in the abolitionof the
spirit rations in the entire Indian ARM, with
a manifest improvement in the heath and
morals of the soldier. An experienced In
dian medical officer states that thu use of
spirits III warm climates tends to mike men
furious and produce deliriuRl trenleab and he
recommends the total absence of vines and
spirits in the army.
Colonel Dawes, of the Bengal Artillery
states that his experience in Indie has led
him to see into the terrible evils Of the use
of spiritons liquors among soldiers, even in
moderate quantities. He has witnessed the
best men become useless from an Indulgence
in liquor; while, on the other hand, he has
seen men of bad charseters converted into
able bodied, hard working, courageous sol
diers, by abstaining from drinking spirits.
When the Thirteenth Regiment Of Light
Infantry was beIeaguered ia Jellalabad for
FIVE months during which they could OBJ
tain no spiItous liquors, they were re-
markably healthy and cheerful, aud behaved
with great courage and good temper. After
the garrison was relieved, they then OBJ
| tanned plentf of liquor, and the result was
much insubodination and disease.
Major GeJeral Wylie, Of the Bombay
army. testies that when the soldiers were
quaftered An districts where no spirituous
liquor cold be obtained, no crimes were
| COMMITTED, their health was good, and
discipline admirable; but whenever they
obtained and were supplied with great deal
ofspirits, illeonduet and disease prevailed to
| q frightful eltent.
This information, we trust, will exert q
salutary iIiuence upoA the officers and
soldiers of ,ur army.