Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-03-27
PURE LIQUORS.

1
made, that "there is us much poison in
potato or a doughnut rs there is in II glass of
pure % liquors" and only IL few days ago
we heard ii asserted that the assayer for the
state of Massachusetts had made such II
statement
Now we do not believe that Dr. Hayes is
so ignorant or foolish Us to say anything Us
absurd us that, and we demand proof. But
II great many people believe pure alcohol to
be- perfectly harmless, and we car only re-
greet that they are so radically mistaken in II
matter that concerns them so directly; for
a person who supposes alcohol to DO harm
less can easily find reasons for its use.
Dunglison says in his Medical Dictionary
which is rs high authority ms can be found
that Poison is generic name for all sub
stances, which, when introduced into the
animal economy, act in noxious manner
on the vital properties, or the texture of the
organs
We call for proof that potatoes, beans,
wheat, corn, etc, ever acted in ~ .noxious
manner on the vital properties" when taken
IN proper quantities into healthy stomach
Those things do not disturb the natural tune
tions in the slightest particular.
But don't you believe that pure liquor is
wholesomePn o yes, il you could get it,
If you could only get pure stagnant water
and pure rotten potatoes very likely people
could subsist upon them; but such things
are grossly impure. Whatever may be said
rs to Adams choice of diet, II is certain he
used the purest drink ever invented.
Foods are products Of formation, while
what is left after decay becomes poisonous
for animals. and food for plants. The prod
ucts of vinous fermentation are rs impure rs
stagnant water, and rs unfit to sustain an
imal life. And more than this, they occasion n
from the system, causing both body and
brain to make false manifestations. And
the purest liquors do this. But to talk about
pure liquor is like the farmer who said he
always took clean dirt to cover his cornm
J. A. TENNEY. NJ. ID.
West Concord, w., March, %.
1t is essential, in all verbal controversy,
if anything but pro6tsss and veaatiouS
Jaw, is expected, that both parties use
words in the same sense DR.. Tenney and
those whom he undertakes to reason with in
the above letter do not use the word pure "
in the same sense. If DR.. Tenney were 60
ing to buy alcohol for any chemical purpose
he would require of the seller that it should
be free from contamination by the admix-
ture of any foreign substance, and he would
probably express his demand by calling for
"pure alcohol. That is what people mean
by pure liquor, when they say that pure
liquor is wholesome. 1t is true that they
are fearfully mistaken in this belief, but DR..
Tenney's argument does not meet their state
ment at all, because they each use the word
"pure" with a different meaning That
alcohol is product of decomposition Tor
"retrograde metamorphosis y is true, but
so are water, nitrogen gas and carbonic acid.
Would DR.. Tenney maintain that those sub
stances, obtained as results of the decompo-
stiOn of organic matter, are therefore not
pure If so, then there is probably not an
ounce Of pure carbonic acid in nature, since
it is probable that it has all, at some time
or other, been organized.
We have not made this criticism from
captiousness. We believe that those who
favor the use of alcoholic stimulants can be
met fairly, IN argument, and that the tenn
persnce cause is hurt By quibbling on the
sense of words, or by misstatements in mat
tiers of fact We do not admit with Dr.
Tenney that pure liquor is wholesome, " it
you could get it. 1t is our belief land we
have given good deal of time and labor to
the study of the subject that no natural i'm
purity of alcoholic drinks, or any substances
habitually added to shem in the manuiac-
ture, are 80 poisonous to the human system
as the alcohol they contain. We do not
hesitate to stgmatlso as sensation falSehoods,
unworthy of great aud noble cause, the
stories SO generally circulated about liquors
containing stryohnine, and other substances
| OF d Hho CudIaoIoI, auuou W i"OlOo'O '"Oh
strength Strychnine will not increase the
stimulant power of alcohol, and as 1t is the
bitterest substance in nature, ten grains in II
barrel of whiskey would be distinctly tast-
ed.
Careful investigation has shown that the
fusel oil of grain spirits, and the narcotic
matter contained in potato spirits, are poi
sonous but yet not so poisonous, even in
the proportions in which they are found in
the worst liquors, as the alcohol with which
they are mingled. The only poison arti6.
cialy added to liquors to increase their ap.
parent "drunk producing power, is the
COccullS IndicuS, seed sometimes used tc
stupefy FISH, under the name Of " fish berr
les " This too, is less poisonous than alec.
hol. Other substances used in making im
tatiOn runs, whiskeys, gins, brandys,. &c.
} from rectifed spirit, such as spirits of nitre
} oil of juniper, and the like, are all, in tn,
} quantities used, very much less pernicious I,
the drinkers than the spirit itself. We re-
peat, that advocates Of total abstinence Gu
the ground from under their own feet whel
! they make the ridiculOusy false concession