The Hawaiian gazette., 1874-05-06
HAWAIIANGAzETTE
Drinking DeIusions.
DR.. J. G. Holland on the Evils OF Strong Drink
How the Vice Is Growing.


Dr.. G. Holland on the Evils Of Strong Drink
How the Vice is Growing.
from 9. scribner's Magazine - for March,
King Solomon has the credit of being
the wisest man that ever lived; and he de
clared that he who is deceived by wine
the mocker, and strong drink, the raging
is not wise. The decisions of drink are a
old as drink itself, and are as prevalen
now as in Solomon's time. There are mel
who honestly believe that alcoholic drinl
is good for them; yet there is not one o
them who would touch 1t except as pre-
scribed medicine if it were not for thu
pleasant taste. The delusion touching it
healthfulness grows out of the desire Il
justify an appetite which may either b.
natural or acquired. If man likes whisky
or wine, he likes to think that it is GOOD
for him, and he viii take some pains t.
prove that it is so, both to himself anG
others.
Now, alcohol is pure stimulant. Their
is not so much nutriment in it as there j,
in a chip. 1t never added anything to tn,
permanent forces of life, and never can ado
anything. Its momentary intensifcatior
of force is permanent abstraction of force
from the drinkers capital stock All arti
fetal excitants bring exhaustion. The ply
sicians know this, and the simplest man:
reason is quite capable of comprehending
it If any man supposes that daily drink
even in small quantities, is conducive tc
his health, he is deluded If he possess 8
sluggish temperament, he may be able to
carry his burden without much apparent
harm, but burden it is, and burden it will
always be.
HOW THE APPETITE GROWS
After a man has continued moderate
drinking long enough, then comes change
"a demand for more drink. The old guam.
tity does not suffice. The powers which
have been iusensibly undermined, clamor,
under the pressure of business, for in
creased stimulation. 1t Is applied, and the
machine starts off grandly; the man feels
strong, his form grows portly, and he
works under constant pressure. Now he
is in condition of great danger, but the
delusion is upon him that he is in no dan
ger at all. At last, however, drink begins
to take the place of food. His appetite
grows feeble and itful He lives on drink,
and, of course, there is but one end to
this, viz: death 1t may come suddenly,
through the collapse of all his powers, or
through paralysis, or it may come slowly
through atrophy and emaciation. His
friends see that he is killing himself, but
he cannot see it at all. He walks in de-
fusion from his early manhood to his death.
TIE VICE AMONG WOMEN.
A few weeks ago one of our city physi.
clans publicly read paper on the drinking
habits of women. 1t was a thoughtful
paper, based on competent knowledge
of facts. 1t ought to have been of great
use to those women of the city who are
to the dangers portrayed, and es-
pecially to those who have acquired the
habits 1t condemned. Soon afterward
there appeared in the columns of daily
paper protest from writer who ought
to be good deal more intelligent than he
is, against the doctors conclusions. The
health and physique of the beer-drinking
English women were placed over against
the health and physique of the water
drinking American women, to the disad-
vantage of the latter. The man is de-
Iuded. 1t Is not year since Sir Henry
Thompson, one of the most eminent medi.
cal men in England man VIGOROUSLY
beyond the reach of any purely Christian
Observation-Disclosures against the beer
drinking of England on strictly sanitary
grounds Our litterateur declares that the
can outwalk her American
sister. That depends entirely upon the
period of life when the task is undertaken.
The typical Englishwoman who has stood
BY the beer diet until she is more than
orty years old is too fat to walk anywhere
EASILY out of doors, or gracefully within.
DRINKING FOR HEALTH.
During our late civil war this matter of
thinking for health's sake was thoroughly
ried. A stock of experience and observa-
ion was acquired that ought to have last
ID for a century. Again and again,
thousands and thousands of times, was it
proved that the man who drank nothing
vas the better man. He endured more,
lie fought better, he came out of the war
than the man who drank. Moth
ng is more easily demonstrable than that
he liquor used by the two armies, among
he officers and men alike, was an unmiti-
,ated curse to them. 1t disturbed the |
rains aud vitiated the councils of the