The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-02-15
A NEEDED REVIVAL.

Beverages.
There is urgent present need of more
effective teaching among the masses
concerning the use OF intoxicants. The
increase in the production and con-
sumption especially of fermented liquors
in the last quarter of a century is start
ling. The quarterly report of the chief
of the United States Bureau of Stats
tics, of the Treasury Department, for
the three months ending March 81, 1889,
Colonel w. T.. Switzler, being then the
official head of the Bureau, states that
there were consumed in the United
States during the year 1888, of malt
liquors, 767, 5S7, 056 gallons; of distilled
spirits, 70, S45, 353 gallons; and Of wines,
SO, 1886, 06S gallons-a grand total of all
kinds, of $40, 7G7, 476 gallons of liquors.
This is about 1430 gallons per capita of
the entire population of the country
Deducting abstainers, it indicates a still
larger per capita consumption of liquors
by those who do drink The large ma
jority Of drinkers, moderate and i'm
moderate, are men. AS under our form
of government men, at the polls and in
halls OF legislation, determine legal
methods for the regulation, or prohibit
tion, of the sale of intoxicants, it is a
matter Of the utmost Importance that
majority at least of the men be won over
to the ranks of the abstainers who will
intelligently and conscientiously refrain
from their use. Men who are wont to
use intoXicants, even occasionally in
moderate quantities, will not generally
be inclined, either as voters, Legislators
or executive officers, to do much to stop
their manufacture and sale.
In the minds Of many otherwise intel
ligent people there fingers the conyic-
ton that in reality, if not abused"
alcoholic liquors, especially fcrmented
liquors, may be taken without injury in
health, and in sickness, with essential
benefit
In Europe, especially in Great Britain,
and to some extent now on the CONT
nent, eminent medical men are doing
much to dispel this illusion by teaching
with the authority of enlightened
science that in health they may and
should be wholly dispensed with, and in
sickness that they are useful only in a
limited sphere and when prescribed
with scientific accuracy. Somewhat
singularly, on this side of the Atlantic,
whore the earnest Temperance agitation
years ago originated, it has now rela-
lively less support and encouragement
from eminent and leading members of
the medical profession than abroad. The
Temperance reform, in its educational
and nrpv1nfiIyn lv ,,nn1c in,
this era more help from the medical
profession, whose representatives are
accepted by the people generally as the
true opponents of the lessons of science
concerning alcoholic beverages, as in
other matters pertaining to health and
physical economy
One grand pioneer in American scien-
tific alcoholic investigation survives
still to render most valuable service,
DIR. N. S. Davis, Of Chicago, the father
and founder of the great American Med
ical Association. In a recent pamphlet,
published by the National Temperance
Society, he discusses, from the scientif-
ic doint Of view, with marked ability
and with the authority of an expert of
large experience and observation, the
influence of alcohol on the human system,
especially as used in beer and wine, and
he declares unqualifiedly that there is
no greater or moro destructive error ex-
listing in the public mind than the be-
lief that the use of fermented ard dis
titled drinks does no harm so long as
they do not intoXicate." He further
declares that the oft-repcated popular
phrase: ut is not the temperate use but
the abuse of alcoholic drinks that does
harm" embodics ''thc error which helps
to rob more than 100 900 persons of from
five to twenty years of life each in the
United States, through the gradual de-
velopment of chronic structural dis
eases induced by tho daily use of beer.
ale, wine or distilled spirits in quanti-
ties so moderate as at no time to pro-
duce intoXication." He maintains that
a popular error but little less mischiev.
GUS is the opinion widely prevalent,
that the substitution of beer and wine
for distilled spirits promotes Temper
ance and lessons the evil effects of alco-
hol on the health and morals of those
who use them. His pamphlet is replete
"Asii hiOoO NttiudblC On UnO
alcohol question, both for the medical
profession and the general public. We
know of nothing more absolutely con-
elusive in behalf of total abstinence.
There should be general revival of
total-abstinence agitation which shall
make 1890 memorable as year of prog
ress in converting those people, men
and women, who are now consumers of
alcoholics and patrons of the brewery,
the distillery and the saloon, to an ac-
acknowledgement, in theory and practice,
OF the wisdom and duty of personal abb
stinence from all kinds of Intoxicating
beverages.
In this greatly-needed revival Chris
tian ministers and members of churches
should take the lead. Within the church
nothing is worse for the spiritual well
fare of its members than the alcoholic |
paralysis which injurious social drink
ing usages beget, and in the world at
large there is no more powerful agency
fo- the promotion of irreligion than the |
saloon and the ungodly influences radiat-
ing therefrom. Latterly public atten-
ton has been very largely directed to-
ward the Sds Of intoxicants, and rela-