Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 24.

Health and Temperance.

A WARNING TO MOTHERS.

AN English physician, in a lecture to a female audience on the use of alcoholic beverages, asserted that the "babes of London are never sober from their birth until they are weaned."

The use of beer and ale among nursing mothers is perhaps not so common in the United States as it is in England, but it is by far too common. How often a friend, and even the family physician, will recommend the use of beer to the mother, not only to give tone to the system, but as a means of nourishing the child.

What a fatal mistake! The eternities with their mysteries alone can reveal the amount of damage resulting from so dangerous a practice. The stimulant thus taken by the mother readily enters into the food nature has provided for the child, and every particle of nourishment drawn from the life-giving fountain is impregnated with a substance that is not only foreign to the highest physical condition of the child, but is actually poisonous to the system.

The old theory that these drinks are necessary to the well-being of the mother and the sustenance of the child, is thoroughly exploded, and those who advocate the notion are far in the rear of the car of progress. It is a well-established fact, demonstrated by the most logical minds of the day, that the physical system is in the most healthful and natural state when freest from the influence of stimulants.

Besides the custom being entirely unnecessary and uncalled for, every mother should take into consideration the future welfare of her child. There can be no doubt but that the appetite for stimulants is often bred and nurtured at the mother’s breast. Regarding this as true, how can any mother for a moment listen to the advice of a physician or friend in a matter of such weighty import to her child?

Mothers, in taking that draught that seems so harmless to you, remember you are doubtless paving the way to a drunkard’s doom for your darling child.

Beware lest the thing that now appears so innocent and harmless, by and by, warmed into life by your caresses and grown bold through your influence, should strike at your dearest interests, and turn to gall the honeyed chalice of life’s purest joys.—Oregon Temperance Star.