The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-05-28
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT.
EDITED BY THE WOMEN IS CHRISTIAN TEN
PERANCE UNION.
OUR MOTTO FOR GOD AND HOME AND
NATIVE LAND.
OUR STATE MOTTO I'm DUE SEASON WE
SHALL REAP IF WE FAINT NOT. y
OUR PLEDGE

SHALL REAP IF WE FAINT NOT. :"
OUR PLEDGE:
l hereby promise, God helping me, to
abstain from all distilled, fermented and
malt liquors, including wine, beer and
cider as a beverage, and to employ all
proper means to discourage the use of and
traffic in the same.
When the Canadian troops left Toronto
to proceed against the Northwestern
rebels, one of their officers made an earnest
temperance speech, advising those who
had provided themselves with whiskev
TASKS to throw the liquor away, since it
would not benefit them in any respect, and
far from helping them to bear the priva-
tions Of the march, would tend to break
down their strength as soon as any real
efforts were to be put forth. General Mid
dleton's party crossed the great Alkali
plains, which are in their whole extent so
salty that, although streams abound, the
water is as unfit to be drunk as that of the
sea. Over these plains some years ago
Lieutenant-Gov Morris, of the North
west Territories, passed with an armed
escort of one hundred men. They were
conducted by guide who had often taken
travellers across. The men, knowing that
they would get no water for at least sixty
miles of the journey, had very generally
brought whiskey, thinking that it would
supply the deficiency. But when they
reached the plains the guide told them
that whiskey was the very worst thing
they could use under such an ordeal, as
they had to husband their remaining
strength, and to do SO should abstain from
stimulants. At this every man poured
the contents of his flask on the ground.
THE MEDICAL USE OF ALCOHOL.
One Of the most potent obstacles to the
advancement of the Temperance Reform
in this country, at the present time, is the
too general prescription of alcoholic liquors
as medicines, or rather as a part of the
diet of the sick or the feeble; for the rea-
sons assigned for their use, and the care
less manner of their use, would seem to
class them, in the opinion of the doctor,
with the..agents of nutrition rather than
with articles more strictly medicinal.
They are not generally prescribed as other
drugs are, with nice attention to dose, to
the strength of the article, and to be ad-
ministered at regularly recurring periods,
but in sort of I'D zbitasm style, as if spe-
ciIic directions were scarcely needed when
an article in such general use. so safe, and
wlthal so agreeable to the patient, is to be
swallowed. < With many physicians,
no matter what may be the character of
the ailment, some alcoholic liquor is sure
to form part of their prescription. and
in very many cases the disease and the
remedy keep company with the unfor-
tunate patient to the end Of wretched
life.
Extract from an article by DR.. James 7.
Wakely IN the Lancet 1870:
1T is no figure of speech, but the literal
truth, when we say that hundreds of neu-
ralgic, hysteric and epileptic patients have
been driven into drunkenness OF lunacy
or both, by the careless folly of advisers,
who had no better reason for the prescrip-
ton of large doses of alcohol than the fact
that these diseases are attended with ner-
yous weakness, as they undoubtedly are.
The assumption involved. that SO much
;,,;o al s,1o
lowed) is necessarily So much added-ner-
vous strength, is SO gross a fallacy that no
one would assent to it, if expressed i'll
plain words vet we constantly see it acted
PLAIN. The repeat, with all the energy Of
which we are capable. that il is II grave
scandal and mischief that medical men
should tnGanger III this serious way, TIE
powers Of moral resistance of women and
other weak persons. While Lasting their
practice upon IDEAS that are illogical and
untenable and We trust that reform
will Immediately be commenced.
May one in whose family consumption
is hereditary or whose declining health
exctes fears that he may become i victim
of the dreaded malady, promise himself
any permanent good from the continued
use of alcoholic liquors 2" That question
would at present, receive very opposite
answers from medical men Of good repu-
tation for general character. knowledge
and skill. That the continued and free
use of such liquors will not prevent the
formation of tubercleS in the lungs, is
proved by the fact that hundreds of per-
sons die thereof every year in our North
ern States who have been moderate and
steady drinkers from their childhood, or
at least from their early manhood -CAas.
Jeacett, NJ. D.
DR.. Bennett, of Winterton, England,
states that for a period of forty one years
he has used no alcoholic liquor in his
treatment of disease ; and that in serious
epidemic Of typhoid he treated 500 cases
with mortality of only 4 per cent. AS
typhoid fever is treated by most of our
physicians with the free use of wines or
spirits. the death-rate is more than double
that stated above"
The late DR.. Cheque states, that moth
ing more effectively binders digestion than
alcohol That many hours, and even a
whole night, after debauch in wine, it is
common enough to reject a part OF the
whole of dinner undigested. | hold
that those who abstain from alcohol have
the best digestion and that more in
stances of indigestion, of fatulency, of
acidity, and of depression of mind and
body, are produced by alcohol than by any
other single cause.'
Black grenadine armures have large de-
signs woven with cut jet.
Black satin dresses are very fashionable
for reception or dinners.