The Placer herald. [volume] (Auburn, Placer County, Calif.) 1855-1991, 1868-08-29
HOSTETTER'S BITTERS.
The Evils of Excess Prohibitory Laws J.
Medicinal Stimuli.
From the Cincinnati Commercial, May 2S. 1865
TNTEMPERANCE HAS NO AVOWED

1
Even its slaves curse the vice
10 which they yield, or regret. with maudin
tears, their inability to resist the false appetite
for stimulants which long-contnucd excess has
engcndered. OF all the millions whom it de-
grades, brutifes and ruins there is not one who.
in his sober moments. stands forth its champion.
Temperance, ON the other hand has Il host of ac
tive and energetic friends. Society, as Il body.
breaches it. although so many members OF society
fail to practice il. 1t is advocated in every pull
pit it's prOmnlgation is the object Of large and
respectable social organizations 1t 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 deprecating drunkenness. and the only
question connected with it upon whicI they do
not agree is as TO the wisest method OF controll-
ing the evil. Prohibitory State legislation has
been thought by many sincere and good men to
be the best remedy but it has been tiled again
and again in New England and elsewhere. with
out having produced any of the beneficial effects
expected from it and at last Massachusetts. so
long the stronghold OF prohibition, has repuda-
ated that policy by an immense majority. The
Federal government partly in the interest OF
temperance and partly for revenue purposes, has
imposed a tax upon domestic liquors which. it
the law were rigidly executed, would lessen their
consumption and increase the sum total OF the
national revenue, but it appears to have signally
failed in both these objects. There is no percept-
ble decrease in the manufacture or consumption
of domestic spirits, and no proportlonate aug
menation in the receipts of the government from
that source Laws of this nature are always cX
tcnsively evaded, and result in n large amount o.
official corruption and public decentralization.
without accomplishing the primary objects which
their originators had in view.
Experience seems to teach us that moral lnilu-
ences are more potent than penal statutes IN re-
sraning this species of excess. Father Mathew
moral and elieious crusade against inebrety
probably did more good than all the prohlDitory
laws that have ever been enacted.
The extreme prohibitonists insist that alcohol
has no uses as Il medicine that it is, when taken
into the stomach. necessarily poisonous. But
here the faculty that has made disease ana the
remedy for disease study for so mnny ages GIN
creasing its knowledge and periecting It's system
of treatment with every passing Year,, meets the
allegation with u point blank deEial. VINO are
the best competent to decide this question, IN
which the health and lives OF millions OF human
beings are involved-thc professors OF the art oil
healing or individuals who, coniessedly are IN
competent to prescribe for their own ailments
and who. when Frustrated by illness. place their
chief reliance upon the doctor? Does not lne
profession in whom next TO God, they put thelr
trust in sickness, know better than they DO
whether alcoholic toncs are or are not necessary
in certain phases of disease? Common sense
answers in the affirmative. Physicians tell us
that alcoholic medicines are among the most val
unble remedial agents in the Materia Medica.
specifics which cannot be dispensed win Wlthout
sacrificing the health and lives OF multltudes OF
their notients If we put trust in them and
that we nut trust in them is evident, or we would
not call them in to minister to us when IN dan
per-we are bound to subscribe to their dlctum'
So far then. us medication is concerned the
object of the phlanthropists who advocate TEN
pcrapce should he to aid the profession ia us
trustworthy efforts to secure pure unadol'era-
ted alcoholic stimulant for curative ana prevent
i've purposes. If any law could be devised lor
keeping the unwholesome and impure liquors OF
commerce out Of the sck'room, 1T would be an
apprcciabe blessing; and If, on the other hand,
a law guaranteeing pure stmuhht 10 al VIM
are professionally declared to need 1t could be
practically enforced, that. too, would be oil mn
mite benefit to mankind. But no such special
legislation could be rendered effective 1t would
be evatlcd, and rendered null and void by the in
tercss in conflict with il. just as the liquor laws
are now nullilied by similar causes.
But when. as in the case, for example, o:
HOSTETTER'S STOMACH BITTERS-a med-
cina stmulant has been proved, beyond all cavll
to he absolutely free from adu'tentlon' ana
complete specific Tor large class Of diseases, no
benevolent and enlightened friend OF Temperance
can consistently lit his voice against 1t. On the
contrary every proper effort should be made TO
procure the substitution OF such tome ior the
acrid. fiery and poisonous fluids too frequently
administered to invallds.
II should be a powerful argument in iavor of
n preparaton like this, that it has been deprived
by rcctiicaton and by the medicinal vegetable
ingredients of which it partly consists. OF all the
deleterious properties present in ordinary alco.
holic stmulants, and which beget an unnatural
craving for strong drink. thereby leading directly
10 intempcrance. This, we say, should be Il
strong argument in its favor with all rational
temperance men; Tor since stlmulai's are ueo!
cines that can not he dispensed WITH IT is mani
testify all important to administer the best.
AS recognized and standard tonic of undispu-
ted nurty HOSTETTERS BlTTERS may be
cit I'd rs an apt illustration OF the use OF stmu-
lants as contrast ed with their abuse. 1t is not
intended as a beverage; indeed, there are many |
varieties of unmedcated alcohol which the man |
who loves strong drink for itself would prefer TO
the BITTERS. No topper is partial to the article
for it's effect, when taken in excess is that OF an
emetic, 1t is regarded as Il medicine only, ana
is prescribed for the prevention and cure oil sick
ness. and for nothing else.
The temperance reader who has perused the
foregoing remarks in a candid and impartial
shirt will sec, we think, that the cause he has
Mt heart and which unfortunately has been
greatly retarded in its progress by Intolerance
and misconception, is likely to be benefited, ralh-
or Than retarded. by the employment in medical
nractce of a Wholesome Pharmaceutical Prepa-
ration. with pure cumulative basis, instead oil
the nbominablc fre-water (now more abomina-
ble than it was beiore) sold by liquor dealers and
at tavern bars.