Drunkard's Arguments Answered. (Continued.)
12. MODERATE DRINKING NOT HARMFUL.
EVERY man, even the drunkard himself, admits that liquor in excess is injurious; but a large and very respectable class claim that it is an evil only in excess, and is a harmless luxury, if nothing more, in moderate quantities. This, too, is an error which has proved fatal to thousands. A small dram soon grows to be a large one; claret is exchanged for grog or toddy; and so, by degrees, the moderate drinker becomes a drunkard, the first "small drop" engendering a love for succeeding larger doses. It is not necessary that a man should be dead drunk to be intoxicated. Intoxication is derived from a Latin word meaning poison, and means, literally, a condition of poisoning. Alcohol is a poison. If a man takes it into his system, he is poisoned, or intoxicated, in proportion to the amount taken. Moderate drinking produces a disease well- known to physicians as chronic alcoholism. It is especially dangerous to the old, as it is one of the most powerful predisposing and exciting causes of apoplexy, as well as of numerous other diseases. 13. DOCTORS RECOMMEND WINE AND BRANDY.
It is a lamentable fact that a large class of physicians use alcohol in their practice in a most reckless manner. The result is seen in hundreds of drunken sots who haunt saloons and groggeries. That this use of alcohol is wholly unnecessary is shown elsewhere. 14. SCIENTIFIC MEN RECOMMEND THE USE OF ALCOHOL.
This, too, is a deplorable fact; for it is a sad spectacle when science stoops to cater to the demands of morbid appetites and vices. It is a significant fact that those scientific authorities who recommend the use of alcohol are themselves addicted to its use. It is not an unjust inference that their judgment, in this case, is biased by their appetite. But there are a great many of the most eminent scientists who are the strongest advocates of total abstinence. Among them are Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Dr. Parkes, Dr. Richardson, Dr. Parker, and Sir John Hall. 15. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS THE USE OF WINE, AND GOOD MEN USE IT.
The Bible has been quoted to sustain polygamy, slavery, and other evil institutions, as well as intemperance. Rightly understood, it supports none of these practices. In another place we have considered this point at greater length. Good men, even ministers, do many evil things. All men are human. One man's transgression is no apology for another's sin. This argument is only a subterfuge. It has no weight. 16. ALL NATIONS USE STIMULANTS.
Some will argue from the fact that the use of liquor of some kind is almost universal that the appetite for it is a natural one. Admitting that inheritance may have made it such, the argument is still worthless; for what nation is there among whom lying, stealing, and other crimes and vices do not also exist? If intemperance is a universal evil, the fact should be most deeply deplored, instead of being made an excuse for perpetuating the vice. But intemperance is not universal. Until taught the use of liquor by white men, the North American Indians were wholly unacquainted with the fiery beverage which they have appropriately named "fire water." And the introduction of liquor among these savages has done more toward their extermination than any other cause. Many other barbarous tribes are in happy ignorance of this enticing poison. Again, the appetite for fermented drinks is not a natural one. Offer an infant brandy; it is repulsed at once, as it should be. No beast naturally loves alcohol, though there are several animals which, like men, may be taught to love liquor and demand it as imperiously as any old toper. The hog is an animal of this kind. The resemblance of man to this animal, in this respect, is not flattering, at least. Even though an artificial appetite has in some cases been created, this fact does not change the relation of alcohol to the system in the least. Alcohol is a poison still; and the system will treat it as such, in spite of an inherited or an acquired appetite for it. 17. THE USE AND SALE OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS IS A SOURCE OF GREAT REVENUE TO THE GOVERNMENT.
Says the liquor dealer, The manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks gives employment to more than 500,000 men. It furnishes a market for more than 40,000,000 bushels of grain each year, and pays to the government an annual tax of $60,000,000, or about two-fifths the whole revenue of the country. Such arguments are actually urged by the dram-sellers and their infatuated customers. What a damage to the government would be the loss of $60,000,000 of revenue! and what a pity that 500,000 poor laborers should be thrown out of employment! Ah! yes; and what a pity that 40,000,000 bushels of grain, equivalent to 600,000,000 four-pound loaves of bread, should be wasted—worse than wasted, manufactured into poison. The same liquor which brings to the government a revenue of $60,000,000, makes 800,000 paupers, who require for their maintenance $100,000, 000. There is very little profit in this, surely. The cost of crime resulting from drink is still greater. The expense of caring for 30, 000 idiots and lunatics must also be charged to alcohol. Where then are the profits? We have said nothing of the loss resulting from the unproductive labor of those employed by the liquor business, or from the idleness, disease, and death occasioned by drink, which aggregate an enormous sum. 18. THE MODERATE USE OF WINE IS NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN NERVOUS ACTIVITY IN OLD AGE.
Many, even of those who profess to be instructors of the people in the laws of health, advocate the use of wine in old age, on the ground that age renders the system somewhat sluggish in its activities, and hence a little stimulus is needed to maintain its functions, and especially nervous activity. A consideration of this argument will show that the use of alcohol is not only unnecessary in old age, but absolutely hazardous. Why are the bodily functions less active in old age than in youth? Why is the mind less brilliant? Because the organs of the body have become worn and disabled by long usage and imperfect repair. The tissues are not kept intact by assimilation. The reason why they are less active, then, is that they are less qualified to act. They are incapable of that vigorous action which they sustained in youth and middle age. This decreased activity is an admirable provision of nature for the prolongation of life to the utmost limit. The waste of tissue depends upon its activity; the more action, the more waste and wear, the sooner worn out. Using alcohol produces an increased activity, but does not increase the capability of the system to sustain action. In other words, it tears down tissue, but does not build it up. It interferes with the repair of tissues. The increased vigor seemingly imparted by alcohol, therefore, is dangerous, rather than desirable. If alcohol enables a man to live faster, it shortens his existence by so doing. Again, alcohol, even in moderate quantities, produces a peculiar degeneration of the walls of the blood vessels, by which they become weakened, the muscular tissue composing the small vessels being replaced by particles of fat or carbonate of lime. This kind of degeneration is also a frequent incident of old age, even in those who are not spirit drinkers, and is especially liable to occur in the small arteries of the brain. The use of alcohol not only facilitates this morbid process, but adds to the danger which is always present with it under the most favorable circumstances. When the arteries are thus weakened, a little extra supply of blood in the brain, a "rush of blood to the head," will often occasion rupture of some one of them, and apoplexy, with paralysis or immediate death, is the result. Alcohol, even in very small quantity, produces congestion of the brain, and thus renders an aged person doubly liable to death from apoplexy. Are we not justified, then, in the position that alcohol is not only less desirable for the old than for the young, but is far more dangerous?