The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-06-28
ESSAYS
Read at the Lawn Party AT s'Nornins
Side,- near H~arrtsonsfiIe. June
18Th. 1853.
o AS MEDICINE.

1DlitE4 ~ AEl}ANlAEAs
MISS DBuE cHEEsExAS.1
Mrs. President AND LADIEs:-The use
of alcoholic ~stimulants as medicine is not
a new subject, and yet there are facts con-
nected with their use which have not re-
ceived that consideration .heir importance
demands.
There seems to exist a force of habit or
prevailing fashion among physicians, to
prescribe alcoholic stimulants upon nearly
all occasions, and | believe they do so with
out considering the evils which are likely
to result, or without realizing the response
bility which rests upon them rs members
of the medical profession. All Intoxicating
stimulants ale injurious, aud, when taken
into the system, have the effect, first to ex-
cite, then to depress the entire vital force.
As the habit of using intoxicants in
creases, the desire for food and the power
to assimilate it is diminished. Alcohol is
neither food or medicine, it does not supply
but diminishes vital force, it weakens the
nerves and deadens the sensibilities. Every
physician knows that a man whose sys-
TEN is filled with liquor does not have
the same chance for recovery when sick
as q man has who is a total abstainer. lie
knows that alcohol SO poisons the blood
that medicine is Intellectual.
The fashionable lady, exhausted by the
dissipation of late hours and late suppers,
c~onsults her physician; he recommends
wine two or three times a day; she is
pleased with his prescription and follows
it. After a few months the desire for slim
ulants is acquired; the dose is increased,
and finally brandy and whiskey are substi-
tuted; the drinking habit has become con-
irmed, and she INDUCES to such IN extent
that she is obliged to go to bed and sleep it
off. A man in like condition would be
called drunk. You ask, .'do you mean to
say that you do not approve of alcoholic
stimulants under any circumstances |
answer yes.
But you say there are many cases where
it has done good. | believe the estimate of
good done is erroneous. In a case of rapid
sinking, l might, perhaps, give whiskey,
were nothing else at hand, but with the be-
lief that the object would have been more
satisfactorily attained by harmless medi-
cines.
I'll find myself when driving in a dam
gerous place, and no one near to render as
sistance, l should, most certainly, apply
the whip, but, once in safety, | should
give the tired animal just what is most
n~eeded-rest.
This is precisely what alcohol in any
form does to the human system. 1t may be
given in tones or other medicines, which
may be of service, but alcohol itself is the
lash, and never under any circumstances
anything else.
The hereditary effect Of alcohol is worthy
OF notice. The appetite for liquor may be
inherited, and lay dormant for years, but
let alcoholic liquor be taken in any form,
and the appetite may be aroused and be-
came difficult to control.
We are largely the product of the past:
our physical and mental natures are, in a
great measure, woven for us. How import
ant then, that we abstain from all stimu'
lants, immoral practices, and unholy
thoughts, that we may improve u owr
condition and transmit to our posterity 8
higher intellect and a sound constitution
1t has been said thet a large majority o
the ladies Of London society have acquired
the habit of using wine, beer and frequent
ly whisky and brandy. The result is tina
the infants of the present generation an
never sober, from the earliest period Of ex
~istence, until they have been weaned. Thii
is a shocking statement for me to make
but | should not be doing my duty if
made it less broad and strong.
1t is a simple fact that the mother
blood is entirely in common with that o
the child: a physician has to be exceedingl,
careful in prescribing for a mother, as thu
medicine will often affect the child NOR
than the mother. Now what does thi
prove? that the soothed condition of thu
child after the mother has taken her bee
is really the first stage OF drunkenness witt
the child, and when | hear a mother sa.
that she takes whisky and water becaus
her child is %fretful, and that she finds tina
it makes her milk agree with it better,
am obliged to ask her if she knows tina
she is simply making herself the medium
for distilling into her baby's system almos
the whole of those spirits which she takes
and whether she knows that the soothe'
condition of her child is the first stage O
drunkenness. The very frame work o
your child is constructed out of blood tina
is alcoholized.
STRAY THOUGHTS On TIE WHITE RIBBo,
ARMY.
(E. r. CHATHAM
Ju st a fortnight ago to-day, in reeogni