The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-03-31
chronological Journal.1
Our Legacy from Alcoholic Drinks.

One OF the most common fallacies
in connection with this whole subject
is the supposition that the effects of
liquor-drinking are transient. Proba-
bly, one cause Of this is the fact that
intoxication, the first great visible re-
suit Of the poisoning by alcoholic
drinks, is transitory, and yet in the
very saying Of this we are reminded
that people ought to look for after
results from such a paralysis Of all the
faculties, and that these results are
terrible and cumulative. Why is it,
for example, that man has delirium
tremens only after quite a period of
indulgence in alcoholic drinks? Ger
tainly it can be for no other reason
than that the frequently repeated in
gestion of alcohol has produced new
conditions which do not pass away
with the stupor of intoxication. DR..
Richardson contends that drinkers are
always becoming other men, men
within men; that the alcohol induces
a different constitution with its own
peculiar appetites and demands, which
the individual finds more difficult to
resist than it is for healthy man to
resist his natural appetites. He quotes
the Western man as good illustra-
ton. This man was clever and intel
ligent, but he drank to sottishness.
When friend demonstrated and asked
him why he thus pursued course ru-
inous to soul and body, he replied:
Hospitality prompts me. When |
betake myself to whisky, | soon be-
come another man, and then l feel it
but fair to treat that other man"
We have frequent and forcible IL
lustration Of this change in the con-
slant testimony Of the drunkard's S
wife, from which no amount of reiter-
alton can ever remove the pathos:
1T isn't Jim at all; it's the drink.
He is the kindest husband in the
world when the drink is not in him"
Albeit she may even then be suffering
from the severest abuse inflicted by
''the drink" This proves the mental
transformation; while DIR. Richardson
bears testimony to the fact that there
is a corresponding physical change,
which becomes more or less perma-
nent, and that this changed condition
being the result Of the presence of al
coholic liquors, exists just according
to the degree in which alcoholic liquors
are taken. We wish to have no room
for lodging in this matter. Every
appreeiable quantity of alcohol pro-
duces an appreciable effect, and very
small quantity, frequently repeated,
produces the alcoholic constitution
more certainly than heavier doses at
long intervals which permit the natu-
raj constitution to resume it's sway.
The inquiry is Immediately suggest
ed as to what influence such consti-
tuition has on posterity. The father
who tipples and has little idea of the
extent to which he has induced the
alcoholic constitution, never fancies
any possible evil in this direction. II
is, indeed, known to some that chill
dren begotten during debauch may
be imbecile OF idiotic, or sufferers in
some other way, but that the taint in.
duced by even moderate drinking mas
be passed down to future generations
is a truth which very few parents re
J alize. Hear what DIR. Richardson say
, about this; ''The most solemn fact O.
all bearing upon these mental aberra
tions produced by alcohol, and upol
! the physical not less than the mental
is that the mischief inflicted upon mai
by his own act and deed cannot fail t,
) be transferred to those who descent
: from him, and who are thus irrespon
sibly afflicted. Among the many in
! scrutable designs Of nature, none
! more manifest than this, that physica
vice, like physical feature and phYsica