The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-02-25
SIXTEENTH VOLUME---N UMBER SOS.
Intenlperance as q Disease.

Inc theory that intemperance is disease,
which has been maintained in lecture delivered
by Dr. Parrish, of the Asylum for Inebriates in
Delaware county, Pa, lately noticed in our col
umns, has no doubt a good deal of truth in it.
1t may be- as the lecturer contends, hereditary
disease, or implanted by the mother in admins
tering remedies to her infant, or may be acquired
as other diseases are, through improper diet, &C.
But when Dr. Parrish maintains that the vic
TINS OF this disease "can no more help it than
they can help an attack of the cholera, yellow
fever or consumption" that it is "a very bad
habit to denounce 1T as a crime, to rate it among
the vices, he teaches, in our opinion, what is
false IN fact: and most demoralizing and vicious
in tendency. If we admit the authority of di-
vine revelation, drunkenness is a crime and a
vice, and human laws, not less than divine, treat
the drunkard as a responsible moral agent.
There is no tribunal Of justice in the land which
would presume to admit the plea of drunkenness
In defense or even extenuation of murder, or any
other crime. Though the criminal may be tenn
porarlly insane, as drunken men generally are,
and therefore may commit acts which he would
not have committed if in full possession of his
senses, yet he is held by the laws to have volun-
tarily put himself in that condition, and to be
justly responsible for its consequences We
should like to see the advocate who would ven
ture to set up plea for murderer who had
taken life in fit of drunkenness, that 'he could
no more help" the condition in which he was
than he could attack of cholera, yellow fever
or consumption"
The equity of human and divine laws on this
subject is entirely consistent with the theory
that the appetite for strong drink is often the re-
suit Of bodily disease. But it can just as readi-
ly be proved that other I'M furious passions and
appetltes of human nature are the result of de-
fective physical organization, and often trans
mitted from parents to children. Man is en-
dowed with reason, WILL and other attributes
and spiritual aids, for the very purpose of con-
trolling and regulating his physical passions, and
therefore is not irresponsible like the brutes
When Incorporate habits, or any other evil habits,
become formed, they may be irresistible; but, in
forming them every man is free agent, and it
is worse than nonsense in public teacher to
proclaim to the youth Of the land that intemper-
ancc is thing that cant be helped any more
than cholera or consumption" There is no
such paralysis to the efforts of man struggling
to resist the peculiar temptations of his nature
as to make him believe or even apprehend that
the tendency he struggles against is irress-
tble. There is no such pretext for those who
wish to go astray the consolatary idea that
they can't help it; no such inspiration aud help
to virtue as the insurance that it can triumph if
it VIII. The latter-day philosophy, which is get
ting so much in vogue, that man is mere ma
chine, which must run as it was made, commits
the fatal error Of ignoring the engineer, whom
the same hand that made the machine has sta
toned in charge Of the works. to avoid collisions,
colapscs and running off the track
At the same time it must be conceded that
those who have permitted themselves by con-
firmed habits of indulgence to become the mis-
cradle victims of the disease Of intemperance
ought not to be cut off from human sympathy
and care, and that asyums for inebriates present
the most practical method which has yet been
devised for their relief, and possibly for their re-
formation -Bauinao7e Sun