The Wilmingtonian., 1884-11-01

man beat 12, $50 times oftener than it would
otherwise do, which means the labor of
raising nearly fifteen tons weight one foot.
During this labor the heart also beats more
strongly so long as it is directly under the
influence of the alcohol. 1t must do so
because its own circulation is quickened.
Its own vessels flushed with blood, and the
tension Of resistance of vessels at the
extreme parts reduced, it works with
rapidity and force, derived from its own
excessive blood supply, which is in excess to
the degree stated, and which is wearing in
proportion.
need not follow this section of my argu-
ment further. The production of a certain
extended calendar of disease by alcohol in
the human family is, so long as that family
takes alcoholic drinks, inevitable. On that
basic fact alone we have sufficient scien-
tiflc reason for the reformation We demand.
If bread by its use produced the same
unvarying phenomena of disease, we should
be scientifically justified in demanding that
even bread itself should be discounted and
replaced by some less deleterious food.
DISEASE AS LIGnTENED BY ABSTINENCE.
could follow up the history just rem
dered by reference to other histories bear
ing on sanity and insanity, suicide and
heredity. Suffice it to say that tho lesson
would be the same.
There is one more topic on which, for the
sake of faithfulness Of testimony, | must
dwell before / lay down the pen. have
been now thirty-four years in active medical
practice. Except during brief vacations, l
have never been out of harness. and do not
think have been more profoundly asleep
to what is going on in the special world in
which live than the rest of my contempor-
aries. And this is the conclusion | have
been led to, until it is an unshaken conclu-
sion-that among those who praotice total
abstinence, not only is mortality much
reduced, but, when recoverable sickness
falls to them, the severity of it and the
period of it are also remarkably reduced.
In the acute stages of disease, the acuteness
is, as rule, less severe; in the convalescent
stages, the recovery is more rapid. These
rules hold good in respect to the epidemic
diseases, i'll respect to wounds and injuries.
and in respect even to some diseases which
are more Immediately of hereditary type, as
insanity, gout, rheumatism. l am further
perfectly sure that these results, although
up to the present time drawn from a limited
and fortunate part of the community, are
affecting in the most signal way the mate
rial interests of the professors of medica
art, to the extent even of lessening theii
numerical strength as an organized portion
of the working community.
In the ten years ending 1881, the numbers
constituting the body of religious teacher.
increased lat, which was as nearly as posi-
bic the increase of the population. TIL,
practicing members of the legal profession
barristers and solicitors, increased 10 pc
cent The professors of education, school
masters and schoolmistresses, increased 8
per cent. Musicians, 3s per cent; actors an,
actresses, 80; dentists, 40. But Of medica
men actually practicing medicine or sur
gerry, or both, the increase was less than
per cent.
DIR. William Farr, who occasionally en-
ioyed fling at us abstainers, once told M
his belief, in real earnest, that if all men be
came abstainers, the number of medical me-
required for public service would remaiI
stationary, while the population continue,
in its regular progress. How fast that pre-
diction is being fulfilled, these later censu
returns better indicate than any furthe
words of mine They are most significant
and although we temperance folk must no
take the credit all to ourselves, seeing tina
other great outlets of sanitary progress ar
adding their assistance to health, we ma
accept fairly that, in the opinion of the mos
eminent English statistIcian of the century
our health and life saving labors ente
largely into the calculation.
Finally, sucl facts run well with the fio
ures which DR.. Ridge and the late Re,
Eardley Stanton, and other investigators
have collected in relation to the fewer day
of sickness of the abstainers in proyiden
clubs,as compared with the days of sicknes
OF those who do not abstain; while the
indicate, even from the present small seal
on which they are represented, what au enol
nous change in the sickness of the natio
would occur if all the members of thes
grand societies were of the same mind i
practical support of our cause.