The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-02-28
THE DELUSIONS OF DRINK.

Old as drink Itself, ana are as preFdleut
now as in Solomon's time. There are men
who honestly believe that alcoholic drink is
good for them; yet there is not one OF
them who would touch it except as a pre-
scribed medicine if it were not for its
pleasant TASTE The delusion touching its
healthfuluess grows out of the desire to
justify an appetite which may either be
natural or acquired. If man likes
whisky or wine, he likes to think that it is
good for him, and he will take some pains
to prove that it is so, both to himself and
others.
Now, alchol is a pure stimnlant. There
is not so much nutriment in it as there is
in chip. 1t never added anything to the
permanent forces of life, and never can add
anything. Its momentary intensiiication
of force is permanent abstraction Of
force from the drinkers capital stock. All
artificial excitants bring exhaustion. The
physicians know this, and the simplest
mans reason is quite capable of compre-
hending it. If any man supposes that
daily drink, even in small quantities, is
conducive to his health, he is deluded. If
he possess a sluggish temperament, he may
be able to carry his burden without much
apparent harm, but burden it is, and bur
den it will always be.
After man has continued moderate
drinking long enough, then comes
change-a demand for more drink. The
old quantity does not suffice. The powers
which have been insensibly undermined,
clamor, under the pressure of business, for
increased 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 a condition of great danger, but the
delusion is upon him that he is in no
danger at all. At last, however, drink
begins to take the place of food. His APP
petite grows feeble and fitful. He lives on
his 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 emacia-
ton. His friends see that he is killing
himself, but he cannot see it at all. He
walks in delusion from his early man.
hood to his death.
A few weeks ago one of our city ply
sicians publicly read a paper on the drink
ing habits of women. 1t was thoughtful
paper, based on a competent knowledge OF
facts. 1t ought to have been of great use
to those women of the city who are expos
ed to the dangers it portrayed, and
especially to those who have acquired the
habits it condemned. Soon aftelward
there appeared in the columns of daily
paper protest from a writer who ought
to be good deal more intelligent than he
is, against the doctors conclusions. The
health and physique of the beer
Englshwomen were placed over against
the health and physique of the water
drinking American women, to the disad-
vantage of the latter. The man is deluded.
1t is not year since Sir Henry Thompson,
one of the most eminent medical men III
England,-a man noteriously beyond the
reach of any purely Christian considera-
tions,-decared against the beer-drinking
of England on strictly sanitary grounds.
Our literateur declares that the English
woman 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 forty
wears old, is too fat to walk anywhere easily
out of doors, or gracefully within.
During our late civil war this matter of
drinking for healths sake was thoroughly
tried A stock of experience and observa-
ton was acquired that ought to have lasted
for century. Again and again, thous-
ands and thousands of times, was it prov
ed that the man who drank nothing was
the better man. He endured more, he
fought better, he came out of the war
healthier than the man who drank. Moth
ing is more easily demonstrate than that
the liquor used by the two armies, among
officers and men alike, was an unmitigated
curse to them. 1t disturbed the brains and
vitiated the councils of the officers, and
deblitated and semeralized the men. Yet
all the time the delusion among officers and
men was that there were both cnmfort and
help in whisky.
The delusons of drink are numberless,
but there is one of them which stands in
the way of reform SO decidedly that it calls
for decided treatment. We allude to the
notion that it is nice thing to drink nice
liquors or wines at ones home, to offer
them to ones friends, and to make them
minister to good fellowship at every social
gathering, while it is a very different thing
to drink bad liquor, in bad places, and in
large quantities. A man full of good
wine feels that he has a right to look
with contempt upon the Irishman who
is full of bad whisky. 1t is not long
time since the election of professor
in British university was opposed solely
on the ground that he neither drank wine
nor offered it to his friends; and when, by
a small majority, his election was effected,
the other professors decided not to rec
ognize him socially. There are thus two
men whom these sticklers for wine despse
viz the man who gets drunk on bad
! liquor, and the man who drinks no liquor
at all. Indeed, they regard the latter with
hatred or contempt which they do not
feel for the poor drunkard. The absolute
animosity with which many men in society
regard one who is conscientiously opposed
to wine drinking, could only spring from a
delusion in regard to the real nature of
their own habits. The sensitiveness of
these people on this subject, however,
shows that they suspect the decisions of
which they are the victims. They claim
to be on the side of temperance. They
deprecate drunkenness, and really don't
see what is to be done about it. They
wish that men would be more rational in