Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-01-25
Of Wine--And Why People Drink,

Wine, ale, and liquors, administer
ed strictly as medicine-what of
them? Doctors differ on the subject,
and known facts point to different CON
clusions. Distinguished physicians
are Of opinion that the Prince Con-
sort would be alive at this moment if
no wine had been given him during
his last sickness, but there were for
merly those who thought that the
Princess Charlotte would have been
saved, if, at the crisis of her maladv,
she could have had the glass Of port
wine which she craved and asked for.
The biographers Of William Pitt
Lord Macaulay among them-tell US
that at fourteen that precious youth
was tormented by Inherited gout, and
that the doctors prescribed a hair p
of the same dog which had bitten his
ancestors from whom the gout was de-
rived. The boy, we are told. used to
consume two bottles of port wine
day; and, after keeping up this regi-
men for several months, he recovered
his health, and retained it until at the
age Of torty-seven, the news of Ulm
and Austerlitz struck him mortal
blows. Professor James Miller, of
Edinburg University, a decided teeto-
taller, declares for wine in bad cases
of fever but DR.. R. I. Trail, aaoth-
er teetotaler, says that during the last
twenty years he has treated hundreds
of cases Of fevers on the cold-water
system, and mot vet lost the first one !"
although, during the first ten years of
his practice, when he gave wine and
other stimulants, he lost 'about the
usual proportion OF cases The
truth appears to be that, in a few in
stances of intermittent disease, a
small quantity of wine may some
times enable patient who is at the
low tide OF vitality to anticipate the
turn OF the tide, and borrow at tour
o'clock enough of FIVE o'clock strength
to enable him to reach five o'clock.
With regard to this daily drinking Of
wine aud whiskey, by ladies and 9th
ers. for mere debility, it is deIusion.
In such cases wine is; in the most lit
eral sense of the word, a mocker. 1t
seems 10 nourish, but does not; it
seems to warm, but does not; it
seems to strengthen, but does not; it
is an arrant cheat, and perpetuates
the evils it is supposed to alleviate.
Man will learn not to drink wine
when he is well. 1t will be also an
article of bis religion not to commit
any of those sins against his body the
consequences of which can be post.
poned by drinking wine. He will
hold his body in veneration. He will
feel all the turpitude and shame of Vi
olatingit. He will not acquire the
greatest intellectual good by the small
est bodily loss. He will know that
mental acquisitions gained at the ex-
pense Of physical power or prowess
are not culture, but effeminacy. He
will honor rosy and stalwart igno
ramus, who is also an honest man
faithfully standing at his post; but he
will start back with alright and in
dignation at the spectacle of palliC
philosopher. The Man of the Future
| am firmly persuaded, will not drink
wine, nor any other stimulating fluid
| If by chance he should be sick, he vii
place himself in the hands Of the Doc
tor of the Future, and take whatever
is prescribed. The impression il
} strong upon my mind, after readins
almost all there is in print on the sub
ject, and conversing with many ply
sicians, that the Doctor of the Futur,
, will give his patients alcoholic mix
lures about as often as he will lauda
| mum, and in doses of about the sam
magnitude, reckoned by drops.
We drinkers have been in the hab
: it, for many years, of playing off tn
wine countries against the teetotal
ers; but even this argument fails u
: when we question the men who reall
| know the wine countries. Alcoho
: appears to be as pernicious to man /
Italy, France, and Southern Germany
7 where little is used except in the forI
| of wine, as it is in Sweden, Scotland
Russia, England and the Unite
r States, where more fiery and powe
full dilutions are usual.
Q l have been surprised at the quar-
tity, the emphasis, and the uniformit
of the testimony against drinking
Close observers OF the famous bee
countries, such as Saxony and Bav;
It ria, where the beer is pure and exec
lent, speak of this delicious liquid
the chief enemy of the nobler facu
ties and tastes of human nature. III
s surplus wealth, the surplus time, I'll
It surplus force of those nations al
;. chiefly expended in fuddling the bra