New-York tribune., 1869-03-04
EnR0pEAN MASSACRUSETEs.

sumDtOnS have been sent out from MaSSachd-
setts, and, of course, from Boston in particular,
the sum of which is, that within limitations,
alcoholic drinks are positively beneficial. AT
first we were at loss to account for PROPOSE
tiOn of this kind, no less so at seeing it re-
peated in what have passed for organs OF
respectability; but now that our attention mas
been called to the report on the License law by
Joint Special Committee of the Massachusetts
Legislature, made in 1867 we easily trace the
origin of the new idea, which, from present ap-
pearances, is likely to give an entirely new as
pect to the Temperance question. a.~ a..~
In reply TO a question from the Committee,
Prof. Louis Agassz said that in Switzerland
wine is so much the beverage of the common
people that "when one is not able to supply
" himself with it lie is a pauper," while 1t Is
considered one of the charities proper Tor the
poor I" / do not" says he, know a more cheer
"ful temperate and steady class of people than
care the peasantry and citizens OF Switzerland
generally OF the Germans, he says they live
on bread, beer, and little meat, and some
times without any meat at all; but he thinks
where beer il drank the people are not 80
sprightly as where they drink wine. AS for
drunkenness, nc did not know what it was until
he went to England. For this reason, and also
because he is q Temperance man, he balls with
Joy the efforts made to raise wine IN this coun-
try, and he adds that if We can have pure un-
aduterated wine eve will have no need OF
"license or of prohibitOry laws.p In answer to
a question regarding the general use OF stlmu-
ants by men, and in all ages Of the world, the
Professor says that in the human body there
lis class of agents which tend TO check or
"to retard the disintegratiOn Of tissue. In the
"process of life there IS going on all the time
"a construction or building up of the system,
"and a destruction or wearing away, which Is
CONTINUED every moment of life We find
"tea, tobacco, fermented liquors or alcoholic
beverages distributed wherever the race is
found, and they seem to afford the opportu-
"nity of checking too rapid destruction OF
"the tissues, and so keep the balance right
"and the individual in health Other testimo-
ny was given by +. ii. Derby, esq, and DR..
Horsford, mainly with reference 10 European
customs, the most prominent of which Is that
of placing bottle of cIaret 10y ones plate; and
an occasion is mentioned where, during cold
weather, no fire was supplied, but there was
plenty of wine, which made things pleasant;
and when some intelligent persons In Italy
considered the question OF immigrating 70
America, they said they could not think of
going unless there was a plenty OF wine.
Finally, DR.. Charles 7. Jackson was intro
duced, and he stated that alcoholic liquors act
as respiratory food, and that in respiration
"alchohol takes the place of so much food in
"our bodies. Brandy stimulates the heart
whisky acts upon the lungs and liver, and
"gin npon the kidneys, but. if taken in excess,
=" it acts injuriously upon the liver" Further
more, this DIR. c. II. jackson asserts-and it is
undoubtedly upon this, as upon a cornerstone,
the new church is to be built-"The moderate
"use of alcoholic drinks, so far from doing any
charm 10 the body, serves TO sustain It's pow
GERS of endurance, and saves the destruction
"of so much of our tissues, and is, therefore,
conservative to the system"
II seems, then, that the Temperance folks are
all wrong, and that neither narcotics nor alco-
hol unfavorably affect the nervous system.
Certainly this is strange doctrine to be preached
in this country, and in this century. 1t had
been supposed, past all dispute, that upon q
basis of moderate drinking alcohol builds up
of itself an irresistible despotism, from which
inevitably follow softening of tue brain, mani
tested by epilepsy, apOplexy and, among a
crowd of other horrors, that hopeless disease
whether among the insane, the sane, or the
idotc-paralysis. But we are told that alcohol,
so far from being this dreadful enemy of a
human being, is not only harmless, but is
actually an element Of reconstruction and also
of preservation. Here let us have another
quotation from Prof Agassiz He says that
the wine of the wine-making countries of Eu-
rope is made without the addition of alcohol,
which is n reason why the people are so cheer
full. If he means by this that the wine is, as
has been alleged, made of sweetened water
and various drugs, it should be called by an
other name, because grapes which do not con-
tain alcohol, or its equivalent, will not make
wine, nor even vinegar; but If he means that
distilled alcohol is not superadded, either he or
some one else ought TO explain how it is that,
of the different brands of wine, from 10000 to
100000 more bottles of each are imported into
England alone saying nothing about the United
States and the other parts of the world, than
aro made IN all the respective wine districts.
Even in France more champagne wine is drank
than France herself produces. Facts of this
kind are 30 far from being new, thatthey were
known more than hundred years ago. An
other inquiry ought also to be answered, and
that Is. If wine is so salutary, why does it not
have some counteracting tendency in regard to
cretinsm or idiocy among those cheerful
people-the Swissf
We are informed that ii is now becoming a
custom with the best people of Boston to send
their children TO England or some other coun-
try in Europe to be educated, either because
tbere are M COod schools i'm that citV or be-