The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-05-25
i DR.. LEONARD ON ALCOHOL,

Soul, TO the Conscience, to the Home
and to Religion.
A. B. Leonard, D. D., Missionary
Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal
church, recently delivered an address
in Chickering Hall, New York, from
which we extract as follows:
'Alcohol is the product Of the law
of death. 1t can not be produced
without first destroying the life prin-
ciple of that from which it is derived.
Where the breath of death is not felt,
alcohol is not found. Fermentation
always precedes the production of alco-
mol, and fermentation is the first
step in the process of decay. Fer
mentatfon must reach the stage of
actual decay before alcohol is evolved.
The process of decay renders the
articles upon which it operates worth
less for food purposes. A fresh, we'll
prepared beefsteak makes an excel
lent breakfast, but you would not care
to eat a fermented or decayed beef
steak. A fresh egg is palatable ar
ticle OF food, but no one cares for a
fermen.ed or decayed egg. A ripe
pippin is luscious to the taste. but
fermented or decayed pippin is Of
fensive and is rejected. In order to
produce alcohol, the article from
which it is derived must pass through
the process of fermentation and decay.
The cluster of grapes, the luscious
peach, the beautiful pippin, the golden
grain must die or rot to yield the in
toxicating fluid. Alcohol is born of a
dead mother, and is thus an orphan.
Being the product of death and having
no life-giving substance, it causes
death everywhere. 1t has no element
of nutrition, and consequently Can not
build up tissues in a human body. The
only nutrition there is iH fermented
liquors is small resi2uum OF unde-
cayed vegetable master. quantity so
small that MANY gallons of the poison
GUS fluid mus be consumed to obtain
even q teAspoonful of nutrition, while
in diySilled liquors there is not an atom
ofnood material, the process of distil-
iation having eliminated the last par
ticle.
"Alcohol has no power to cure dis
eases, and no intelligent physician ad-
ministers it for that purpose, but its
power to kill is terrible to contem-
plate. 1t is simply deadly poison.
and as such is classed with opium,
nicotine and other deadly vegetable
poisons. These articles are used for
the sake of the poison they contain.
Take the poison out of the tobacco
and no one would either smoke or
chew; and take the poison out of the
beer and whisky and no man would
drink. To be intoxicated is to be
poisoned; the man that staGgers along
the street and is said to be drunk is
simply poisoned with beer, cham
payne, whisky or brandy.
alcohol is death to the body. Tho
man who drinks it renders himself
susceptible to disease, and particular
ly to diseases that prevail in epidemic
forms. When yellow fever and chol-
era appear drinkers are the fiISt to be
attacked. In the recent yellow fever
epidemic in Jacksonville, Fla, the
physicians reported that hard drinkers
were the first to fall. Besides render
ing its victims susceptible 10 disease
alcohol lessons the power to resist the
ravages of disease when once the at
tack has occurred. The drinker tn at
is attacked by any acute form of dis
ease is likely to speedily succumb. |
But more, alcohol produces dis
eased physical condition which is
known as alcoholism. What harvest
this destroyer gathers for the grave
year by year!
"Alcohol is death to the mind. The
brain, the organ of the mind. is the
first to feel it's power. This organ,
which nature protects by q strong
wall of bone. delicately lined. is par
ticularly susceptible to alcoholic in
f1uences. The brain is the center Of
the nervous system, which ramifies
every part of the body. Alcohol as
saults the nervous system, skaters
and destroys it. No man can have
SJeduy u6FN6S stIlu lHutllSS III Ilc COu-
slant use of alcoholic beverages. The
drunkard reels and staggers ard falls
into the gutter because his nerves fail
him. For the work of life we need
steady nerves. When the nerves are
healthful the nand is steady, the step
is quick and the power of endurance
other things being equals at its
maximum. But the use of alcohol,
long continued, indurates the SUBJ
stance of the brain, cooks it, hardens
it. About seven per cent. of the brain
is albumen, and, next to water, is its
largest constituent element. You can
test the effect of alcohol upon al
bumen by simple experiment. Take
the white OF an egg, which is almost
pure aibumen, put it into glass and
pour upon it an ounce of pure alcohol,
and note the effect. In moment you
can lift the whole mass out of the al
cohol upon the point of your pencil.
What has happened? Why, the albu-
men has been indurated, cooked, hard |
ened. Something similar happens to
the brain of hard drinker. A cele-
brated anatomist has stated that he |