The New York herald., 1879-01-06
Is Alcohol Injurious or Benencial.

peptlc feacllOn Wueu Houefoto "iihAe1o
begin to distrust their daily glass of wine.
and it may not be untimely to seize the
| moment to lay before our readers what
English men of science have recently
said on the use of alcoholic liquors.
Is alcohol, ask seven most notable
physicians of London, a beneficial or
deleterious agent of civilization? What
is its influence for and against mans
working power? The habitual drunkard
being ruled out of court-snce all agree
that there is no more .pernicious animal on
earth than the self-destroying and family
destroying sot = does it give to the moderate
drinker that extra dash of vigor which the
struggle for existence, OF against existence,
demands from him? Does it lend strength
to men engaged in anxious callings or in
intense mental exertions, or thaw the
numbness of advancing age, or fan the en-
bers of diminishing vitality? Does it help
the scientist wrestling with on abstruse
problem, or the singer in quest of a lost
note, or the musician striving after delicacy
of touch? Should the sportsman linger over
that last glass of Mumm at lunch, or field
laborers drink beer on their way to the
harvest field, or the delicate housewife take
constitutional glass of sherry every morn
ing? Or, again. when you come home from
business, your brain irritable, your head
throbbing, does glass of wine tend to set
you right, calm your worried nerves,
smooth away tho days friction. counteract
its wear and tear and oil the whole ma
chinery of life spent at high pressure?
That is the question. The answer will be
received with the more satisfaction by all
moderate drinkers because, contrary to
their expectation. it is entirely in their
favor.
Sir James Pagets fame is worldwide.
His research is immense, his genius high,
his impartiaity unquestionable. And Sir
James Paget speaks plainly thus:-"My
study makes me as sure asI ever would ven-
ture to be on any such question that there
is not vet any evidence nearly sufficient to
make it probable that moderate use of
alcoholic drinks is generally, or even to
many persons, injurious; and that there
are sufficient reasons for believing that such
moderate use is, on the whole, generally
beneficial" SirJames supports his position
by an argument drawn from the laws of
heredity. If moderate drinking were bad
generations of men devoted to that practice,
the total abstainers in their number bal
ancing the habitual drunkards, would GER
tainly now be noticeable. Yet compared
with the heirs of thirty generations of abb
stainers, all the world over, they will be
found better men in force of body and mind.
A human being has as many bloods in his
veins as he has lineal ancestors. Black
stone, the jurist, shows that in the twen-
tieth degree every man has more than half
a million of ancestors. What. then, if alco-
holic drinks were mischievous, would be
the condition Of each of US, seeing that on
each of us some measure of evil must have
come along each Of the half million lines,
with constantly accumulating and COD
vergent force? And to demand the repeal
of o custom which is certainly pleasant,
probably useful, on the ground that intoxi-
cation is q rapidly spreading vice, is about
as reasonable as to urge that honest people
should cease to gain money because there
are so many misers, swindlers and thieves.
The medicinal uses of alcohol in fever
cases are too we'll known to need mention.
But it also serves, in healthy life, to call
upon the reserve store of energy and inn
part power to accomplish things that
would be otherwise impossible. Sheridan
delivered his great oration against Warren
Hastings under the influence Of two bottles
of champagne. Dickens could write with
great fuency after dinner, though he sell
dom approved of his work in the morning.
Lord Derby drank cherry brandy while he
translated Homer. And oil those men
whose lives were merely o succession of
flashes and spurts-pleasant companions
and brilliant talkers-have invariably
lants and have generally lived to o green
old age. During the Ashantee war rations
of rum were served out to the fatigued
troops and fairly supported their strength
till lassitude supervened, and then recourse
was had to beef tea, which seemed to work
as we'll and to be followed by no reaction.
But ut the end of the march the exhausted
soldiers found that nothing but rum would
unlock their digestive organs, numbed by
fatigue. SO there is o strong relish Of
worldly wisdom in Pauls advice to Timo-
thy-"Drink no longer water, but use q
little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine
often intrmities"
In short moderate use of alcohol is uni
versally pronounced to be true temperance.
Sir William Gull, the Queens physician,
advises every out-of-door man to drink
beer. Teetotalism is soundly rated. 1t is
said to lay hold of three Glasses namely,
the strong and good natured people. who
are led by philanthropy to join the cause;
the weaker who are Influenced by the ac-
ton of the strong, and sots in their phases