The clarion., 1885-09-23
The Physiology of Alcohol
BY. REV. W. c. BLACK.

use of alcoholic beverages Is conducive
to health and longevity has been
investigated in the same
scientific way; and the answer is that
even the moderate use of alcohol In
auy of the forms tends to shorten lie.
'Congested brains, insanity, paralysis,
rheumatism and various
diseases of the kidneys, liver and stom-
ach, are the result of that slow process
of blood poisoning which comes from
even tenn perate, decorous, gentlemaniy
drinking" Thousands die annually OF
these diseases who would have lived on
for wears had they been total abstainers
This is fact which it seems difficult for
men to believe. but it Is the cool,
unimpassioned utterance of science. |
Take a few facts as proof. Since 1890
the Temperance aud General Mutual
Assurance Office in London kept Its
policy-holders in two classes-abstalners
and moderate drinkers, no immoderate
drinkers being taken. Now during
period of sixteen years, thirty out OF
every hundred of the abstainers lived
beyond the life-insurance expectancy;
while out o: every hundred moderate
drinkers only one survived. Moreover
during the same period the company
paid to the legatees of the moderate
drinkers more than 100000 over and
above the grated expectation" while
the death claims of the abstainers fell
$4,000 below the expectancy.
Again. the records of the Temper
ance Providence Institution, another
great insurance company domiciled IN
| London, show that among its poilcy
4 L A. fWQntV-nlne
ner cent. greater among the moderate
| drinkers than among the abstainers.
Just think of it. For every hundred
deaths among the abstainers there were
100 among the drinkers. And mark
YOU. they are all temperate drinkers;
| there were no drunkards among them.
Similar testimony can be adduced In
wholesale quantities from the archives
of various other companies. In view OF
such an array of facts, is 1T all wonder
full that insurance companies make care
full inquiry concerning the drlnSlng
habits of would-be policy holders? Is
there not abundant warian6 Tor the
recent statement of Col. J. IL. Green,
president of the Connecticut Mutual
: Life Insurance Company, that among
persons selected fer physical soundness'
the death-rate is more Proiouhoiy
affected by the use of intoxicating liquors
than from any other cause, apart from
heredity."
Similar testimony can be accumulated
, in vast abundance from the RECORDS o.
hospitals, aims houses, &c. 1t Il
, unnecessary, however, to multiply proofs
| These facts are sufficient TO con
vince any one who is willing to be con
' vinced.
With all this vast overwhelming mas
q of scientific evidence in favor OF tota
I abstinence, what plea can the advocate
a of rum put for the continuance OF tnei
tippling practices? Well, here is
n bioated, redeyed, red-nosed, equity
n poverty-stricken, half imbecile ola so
p who calls out in stentorian tones, Loo
+ at me. l am living refutatlon OF you
/ total abstinence doctrine. have bee
st drinking for fifty years, and 1t hs
q never hurt me.o Well, as to its ne
rs hurting him, everybody knows that 1t
! not true. Everybody knows that he
n not half the man he would have bee
- had he been an abstainer. PHYSICAL.
"A mentally and morally he is wree
~ though of course an angel from heave
ut could not make him believe 1T. But
| is not dead; that is fact. And oecau'
: he has lived so long with his drinkif
- habits. he argues that drink is not hui
he full Is this solid reasoning Let
IS, see.
nv | knew a man once who lived t
/ twenty-four years with all his linn
ass utterly paralyzed; does that prove tn
1T paralysis is conducive to longevit
/ knew another man who had puln
nary consumption for more than Tor
veaIs. and who lived to be more tn
seventy years of age. Does that pro
ex- that consumption tends to length
tv- the thread of life7 Coleridge and
fth Quincy were great opium eaters
,ur vet they did great deal OF liters
To work: does it therefore follow that
ats onium habit il conducive to success
nv. literary pursuits7 Every man who
fho not an idiot knows how to answer 81
!; m questions as these The consumpt
4 and the paralytic lived, not because
h q their diseased conditlon, but in spite
nd. IL: and they would have lived lon
III. undiseased. Coleridge and DE Qul'
was delved successfully in the mines
,olt literature not because OF the OPP
nds habit, but in spite of it, and but
alks that habit, their diggings would q
hur been more skillfuIly directed, and q
,ct lores would have been of more valu'
off the world. Likewise, our topper
the lived through many years-not
tin account Of his drinking habits, bu
cIe. ante Of them. With such = const
4 ton. had be been an abstainer,
I in might have lived to be . hundred y
YES old and been vigorous and active to
sold last. As il is his sands have nearly