New-York tribune., 1868-10-21
yI1uR- -EYuS-nR-EYcEcn-
EI1HE E-ENlS-Llf-h-Ni
THE EVILS OF EXCESS.-PRoHIBITORY
| LAWS MEDICINAL SrRtIi.-I INTEXftRANcE

sist the false appetite for stimulants which long
continued excess has engendered. OF all the
millions whom it degrades, brutifes, and ruins,
there is not one who in his sober moments,
stands forth its champion. Temperance on the
other hand, has host OF active and energetic
friends. Society, as a body, breaches it, al
though so many members of society fail to
practice it. 1t is advocated in every pulpit; its
promugation is the object of large and respect
able social organizations it is made side issue,
and sometimes main ISSUE at the polls, and
stringent laws are enacted to enforce it.
In short, all parties, all creeds all interests,
unite in dcprecating drunkenness, and the only
question connected with it upon which they do
not agree is as to the wisest method Of con-
trolling the evil. Prohibitory State legislation
has been thought by many sincere and good
men to be the best remedy; but it has been
tried again and again in New England and else
where, without having pr0duceu any Deneneial
effects expected from it; and at last Massachu-
sets, so long the stronghold of prohibition, has
repudiated that policy by an immense majority.
The Federal Government, partly III the interest
of temperance and partly for revenue purposes,
has imposed tax upon domestic liquors which,
| if the law were rigidly executed would at once
lessen their consumption and increase the sum
total of the national revenue, but it appears to
have signaly failed in both these objects.
There is no perceptible decrease in tho manu-
facture or consumption of domestic spirits, and
no proportonato augmentation in the receipts
of the Government from that source Laws OF
this nature are always extensively evaded, and
result in a large amount of official corruption
and public generalization, without accomplish
ing the primary objects which their originators
had in view.
Experience seems to teach us that moral in
huences are more potent than penal statutes
| in restraining this species of excess. Father
Mathews moral and religious crusade against
inehriety probably did more good than all the
prohibitoTy laws that have ever been enacted.
The extreme prohibitionists insist that alco-
ho has no uses as medicine; that it If, when
taken into the stomach, necessarily poisonous.
| But here the faculty that has made disease and
| the remedies for disease its study for so many
| ages increasing its knowledge and perfecting
| its system of treatment with every passing
year, meets the allegation with point blank
| denial. Who are best competent to decide this
| question. in which the health and lives of mil
| lions of human beings are involved-tho pro-
| fcssOrs of the art Of healing individuals who,
cOnfcssedly, are incompetent 10 prescribe for
| their own ailments, and who, when prOstrated
by illness, place their chief reliance upon the
doctor Does not the profession in whom, next
10 God they put their trust in sickness, know
better than they do whether alcoholic tOnics
are or are not necessary in certain phases of
disoasel Common sense answers in the aflirma-
tive. Physicians tell us that alcoholic medi-
cines are among the most valuable remedial
agents in the Materia Medca-spccifcs which
cannot be dispensed with without sacrificing the
health and lives Of multitudcs OF their patients
II We put trust in thcm-and that we put trust
in them Is evident, or we would not call them
in 10 minister 10 us when in dangcr-we are
bound to subscribe to their dictum.
So far, them as medication s concerned, the
object Of the philanthropists who advocate tenn
pelance should be To aid the profession in its
praiseworthy efforts To secure q pure, nnadnl-
tcrated alcoholic stimulant for curative and
preventive purposes. If any law could be de
vised for keeping the unwhoesome and impure
Hauors of commerce out of tho sck-roOm, it
would be- an inappreciabe blessing; and If, on
the other hand, q law guaranteeing q pure
stimulant 10 all who arc professionally declared
to need il could bc practically enforced that
too. would be of infinite benefit to mankind
But no such special legislation could be rem
dered effective. II would be evadcd, and rem
derod null and void by the interests in conflict
with it, Just as the hqnor laws are now nullihed
10y similar causes
But whcn-as in the case, for example,
| of IIostettei's Stomach Bitters-a medicinal
stimulant has been proved, beyond all cayil to
be absolutely free from adultertion, and
complete specific for large class Of diseases
no benevolent and enlightened friend Of Tenn
pcrance can consistently lift up his voice
against it. On the contrary, every proper effort
should be made 10 procure the substitution OF
such a tonic for the acrid, fiery and poisonous
fluids too frequently administered 10 invalids.
IL should be a powerful argument in favor
of a preparation like this, that it has been de
priyed by rcctGcation. and by the medicinal
| vegetable ingredients of which it partly con
sists, of all the deeteriou9 properties present
| in ordinary alcoholic stimulants and which be
! get an unnatural craving for strong drink,
thereby leading directly to intemnerance. This,
we say should be strong argument in it's
| favor with all rational temperance men; for
since stmuants are medicines that cannot be
dispensed with, it is manifcstly all-hmportant
! tn administer the best.