Tonics and Stimulants

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 4, 1878

Tonics and Stimulants.

The question is constantly being asked by correspondents. How do tonics and stimulants give strength to the system? The answer is, they do not. Stimulants, and those articles commonly called tonics, instead of giving vitality, they always consume it. But if this be true, says one, how does the patient seem stronger after taking these things? Just exactly as the horse seems stronger when lashed by his master's to induce him to draw a heavy load up some steep declivity. When the task is accomplished, the poor animal stands trembling like the aspen, plainly exhibiting a fearful expenditure of vitality.

No one will claim that the whip imparted strength to the animal, even although he might not have otherwise accomplished the work. Nor will any one deny that the task was performed at the expense of vitality. So it is in the use of tonics and stimulants. They do, indeed, produce results which seem to indicate an accession of strength, but this is never really the case.—Sel.