The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-11-10
'Latest Drink SOphistries VS.. Total
Abstinence"

Abstinence"
Those accustomed to do battle against
King Alcohol will find whole array of
helpful facts in pamphlet recently is
sued by Rev. DIR. Daniel Dorchester.
1t is entitled --latest Drink Sophistries
versus Total Abstinence" and is re-
plete with arguments that are at once
complete and convincing From all
ages and from all lands the author has
gathered testimony that disperses not
hne mistaken proposition only, but
Fhost of the fallacious theories of the
defenders of alcohol. In taking up the
question: care the milder liquors a
remedy for intemperance?" DIR. Dor
chester says:
ION the theory that the current use OF ma
tive wines and beer is promotive of temper
ance, we should logically infer that there was
no gross intemperance in the world prior to
the discovery of distilled liquors, and their in
PRODUCTION into common life, less than four
hundred years ago But this hypothesis is not
sustained by history. Not only did excessive
drinking prevail among the Germans in their
primeyal forests long centuries before but in
France Charemagne found it necessary to
restrain it by severe enactments; and in En-
gland, as far back as the early days of beer
and methcglin-more than one thousand years
agQ-edcts were issued against this vice. Co
inhstill further back, we find in Rome, in the
daN Of her power and splendor, that feats of
exN3sive and shameful drinking were COM
Vim Italy and Greece, the best wine-grow-
ing countries of the Old World, wild and
tragic Bacchanalian revelrieS, exceeding in
grossness and bloody rage any in our times
were popular. characterized by eXtravagant
indulgences, they led to the coarsest eXceSses
immortality, and even barbaritcs. Not only
eating and drinking, but, also, when heated by
liquor the most unnatural vices were in
uFrnI i'm ind
satisfaction. The consequences seriously az
fected society, for false testimonies, denun-
CATIONS poisonings and asSassinations pro-
ceeded from this focus of crime"
Equally convincing testimony is
found in the records of later years.
The experience of old times is the ex-
perience of to-day. Results recorded
in France, Switzerland, Southern Eu-
rope, Asia and California, all disprove
the wine theory, and the records of
Germany and England annihilate the
beer fallacy. Taking Switzerland, for
example, we learn that so recently as
December last a Geneva correspondent
of the London Times wrote to that
journal as follows:
1.-THE vice of intemperance is growing so
fast in Switzerland as to occasion grave any-
1ety among public men of all classes So
which, in some districts, insobriety is giving
rise, that people speak of alcohol as the en-
envy, and of ea't-cte-ufe the old term for cog
public fortune is compromised by the excess
i've drinking of the population, runs a report
on the subject lately addressed by the ASCOT
ated Mayors of Ajoie lin the Bernese Jural to
the Cantonal Government. Failures bank
ruptcles and forced sales of property are
alarmlngly on 1.-THE increase The official
Gazette can hardly contain them. AS Il natural
consequence, land is deprcciating in value,
and MORTGAGES who are compelled to fore
close can often find neither buyers nor ten
ants. The evil affects all classes and is even
rife among the other sex.
The Associated Mayors of Ajoie are not
alone m their alarm and denunciations
Almost every church synod that meets passes
resolutions cOndemnatOry of intemperance;
the Federal department of the Interior is now
engaged, at the instance of the National As
semblY in making inquiries with IL view of
combating the enemy by restrictive legisla-
uon; ana no subject more frequently en-
gageS the attention of Societies of Public
Utility and the. press than the war against
drunkenness ;"
In the words of our author "Such is
the condition in wine-prOducing Swift
erland, often declared to lie free from
lntemperance." Much valuable medi-
cal testimony is gathered that certainly
upsets the theory of the sanitary utility
OF alcohol. Indeed, the facts presented
IN this pamphlet suggest that even for
curative purposes alcohol is often of
doubtful eXpediency. Statistics pro-
duced by hospital physicians in Man
CHESTER and London show that as the
use OF alcohol for remedial purposes was
diminished the rate of mortality de-
cllned. Thus DR.. Edmunds, senior ply
slcian to the London Temperance Hos
pltal' is given as the authority for the
statement that the mortality in that in
sstltution was four and half per cent.
lower than in any other hospital taking
the same run of cases
Or. Dorcbester's facts are not all new:
OF course not! Some of them are cent
urles old. But only in this respect do
they at all resemble the wonted argu-
ments IN the defense of alcohol. The
age OF the latter is surely the only quail
hcatlon that in these days of enlighten-
ment insures for them shred of respect.
They may appear plausible, but investi-
CATION proves them fallacious and per-
nicious. They have been worn thread
bare, while the oldest of the facts which
are presented as arguments upon the
othef side are as forceful as ever. Rea-
soning people will read DR.. Dorches-
lers pamphlet with great interest. Such
are informed that it is for gratuitous
ulstributlon to any who will send for it,
lncloSlng tW0-cent stamp, to r. b.
g1ewel, Room 3, &c Brom4ield street,