Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-09-11
Temperance.
ALCOHOL IN SICKNESS.

abuse. Like all other poisons, or
unnatural agents, the use of alcohol
demands some effort-a revolution in
the natural taste, in certain sense,
new creation before it can be
gratefully tolerated. Such an I'M
natural change in our condition, such
a decided departure from the original
state produces marked effects, inev-
itably resulting in an abnormal appe-
tite, this appetite being far more ex
acting in its demands, more potent
than any natural taste. 1t matters
not, therefore, whether this is taken
as beverage or as a medicine, so
far as this effect is concerned, for |
nature never makes the nice distinc-
ton of 'science"-falsely socalled-
allowing poison to produce eff
fects dramatically opposed when tax
en- under slightly varying circum-
stances. Nature is always reliable.
From the peculiar debility of the
body in sickness, it's unusual suscep-
tibility to take on abnormal condi-
tions, it's marked sensitiveness, vi
tiated appetite is far more easily in
duced than in the vigor of health.
For this reason, the use of ardent
spirits in sickness is far more liable
certain, | might say-to create an
abnormal condition, relish for spir-
its, and tendency which shall re-
suit in drunkenness, than when the
same amount is taken in health.
Hence, in the effort to remove some
malady not specially formidable a
far worse disease may be created
that of drunkenness, among the most
incurable diseases. Again, l object
to the use of alcoholic stimulants in
sickness, on the supposition that they
|
We learn from science that alcohol is
foreign to the human system-thal it
is never appropriated by the organs
of digestion and assimilation like
food, and, consequently, that it can
not give strength and form tissues.
When taken into the system it pro-
duces commotion, is q poison, an If
ritant. Like any metallic substance,
as a needle, it preserves it's distinc-
tive character, is hurried through the
round of the circulation as purely al
coholic as when imbibed, imparting
no strength, adding to no tissues.
From the brain, for which it seems
to have special affinity, it may be
taken-alcohol still-and used a sec
ond time. Some parts of it pass off
in the breath, some in other channels,
no part of it leaving any evidence of
having performed the functions of
food. 1t is ignored by every organ
of the body or treated as a foe-a
foreign element. On the contrary,
food is changed in the mouth, stom-
ach, bowels, its nutrient portions
separated from the waste, and sc
manipulated in natures grand labor
atory as to be transformed into bone
$ muscle, nerve-everything connected
2 with the body. By this means re.
construction of wasted tissues is eff
e fected, strength impaired, vigol
evolved, all effected that this ever
decaying frame demands. But no
so with alcohol. That produces none
r of these changes. And more, it is
not found anywhere in nature. Goo
"a never made it. 1t is the result o.
utter destruction, the fruit of mans
10 skill. 1t is produced only by new
Il combinations of elementary princi
n. pies. Not trace of it is found il
u the decayed apple on the tree, OF il
s. the grape, in the same state. 1t
production necessitates the destruc
81 ton of all nutrition, the real value o
the grains being transformed into al
o. engine of cruelty and death. A pop
'g ular author justly remarks, that ''an..
- quantity of alcohol intoxicates in
:. toxication is poisoning. A little al
+. cohol intoxicates a little; a large
" quantity intoXicates a great deal
The moderate drinker, no matter hoy
or small his ibations, only differs froI
~ the gutter-toper in degree" If thes
principles are correct, am unable t
m see how this foe to every function Q
he the body can produce just its usus
and natural effect on the sick an
.r. that be favorable. If it affords n
lie. strength, does it not invigorate b
being digested like food, I am una
y, BILE to appreciate its favorable effe(
S. on those especially demanding invis
grafton. If disease is simply th
absence of ease, or health, cannc
see how the introduction of a foreig
element, antagonistic to every fun'
ton of the body, will, in any MAJ
:, ner, promote health or destroy di
he ease.-Dr. j. II. Hanaford.
b. ABOUT CIDER.
ri. stWhat not drink sweet cider, tt
pure juice of the apple" says son