mistry at the North London School of Medicine. Lee, Robert, M.D., F.R.S., Lecturer on Ure, Alexander, M.D., Lecturer on Che- Long, David M., Surgeon to the South Vaux, George, M.D., Birmingham. M.D. VII. Eminent writers advance various definitions of the nature and meaning of temperance. Some correctly assert, that an rules his reason; and that a temperate man, Temperance is a virtue of self-denial or under Lynn, W. B., Esq., M.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Westminister Hospital. Macilwain, George, Esq., M.R.C.S., Sur- intemperate man is one whose appetite geon to the Finsbury Dispensary. Mackenzie, J. D., M.D., Physician to the is one whose reason rules his appetite. Liverpool Infirmary Lock Hospital. Macrorie, D., M.D., Physician to the Fever restraint. Dr. Adam Clarke defines it to Hospital, Liverpool. be a proper and limited use of all earthly Manifold,, Esq., M.R.C.S., Liverpool. enjoyments, keeping every sense Matterson, William, Esq., M.R.C.S., York. proper restraint, and not permitting the Matterson, William, Jun., Esq., M.R.C.S., animal part to subjugate the rational. York. Parkhurst renders the word "self-governMayo, Herbert, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., ment, temperance, continence; having power Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. over one's own appetites." Pasor and Nelson, John Barritt, A.B., M.B., F.C.P.S., other lexicographers, give it a similar &c., Birmingham. signification. In this sense also, was the Merriman, Samuel, M.D., Physician Accou-word used by one of the most distinguished cheur to the Westminster General Dis- philosophers of old. "Temperance," obpensary. serves Cicero, "is the unyielding control of Middlemore, Richard, Esq., M.R.C.S., reason over lust, and over al wrong tenSurgeon to the Eye Infirmary, Birming- dencies of the mind. Frugality is not so ham. extensive as temperance. Temperance means Morgan, John, Esq., M.R.C.S., Lecturer not only frugality, but also modesty and on Surgery, &c., and Surgeon to Guy's self-government. It means, abstinence from Hospital. all things not good, and entire innocence of Morley, George, Esq., M.R.C.S., Lecturer character." Temperance is that which teaches us to regulate our desires and fears, Nightingale, Robert S., Esq., M.R.C.S., so that in desiring and in shunning things, Surgeon to the Eastern Dispensary, Liverpool. to the Leeds School of Medicine. we may always follow reason. Fortitude is concerned in labours and dangers, temperance in renouncing pleasures. The word temperance is derived from the latin tempero, which not only signifies to use moderation," but "to abstain" and 66 Parkin, John, Esq., M.R.C.S. Partridge, Richard, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy, at King's College, and Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital. Pinching, R. L., Esq., M.R.C.S.D. "to refrain." The latter significations, Quain, Richard, Esq., M.R.C.S., Professor indeed in most of the Lexicons, are found to of Anatomy at the London University, precede the former. The Greek enpatǹs, and Surgeon to the North London enkrates, corresponds with the Latin temHospital. Reid, James, M.D. Roots, H. S., M.D., Physician to St. perentia, and the English temperance. A passage in Xenophon well defines the nature and character of the temperate man, èужρaтHS δὲ, ὥστε μεδέποτε προαιρεῖασθαι το ἥδιον avTI TOV BEATÍOVOS. Xen. 4, 8, 11, but he Roupell, G. L., M.D., Lecturer on Materia Stanley, Edward, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., whatsoever prefers what is merely agreeable to what is best. Temperance is a virtue of distinction, and in its application requires the strict exercise of reason and discrimination. Moderate indulgence in some articles may with propriety be entitled temperance, while in others total abstinence is essential to the strict fulfilment of nature's laws and dictates. We may with great propriety conclude, that physical temperance consists in the moderate use of those things which are Toulmin, Frederick, Esq., Surgeon, Clapton. nutritious and proper for human sustenance, Travers, Benjamin, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.R.S., and in abstinence from everything which is Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen, and injurious and unnecessary This definition, Surgeon and Lecturer on Surgery to St is, in every sense of the word, strictly Thomas's Hospital. Ure, Andrew, M.D., F.R.S, applicable, because it not only comprehends the quantity but the quality also of those things which ought to enter into the com- nutritious food; moderate indulgence in inposition of human diet. Sir William Temple, ebriating compounds in the USE of substances a writer of considerable eminence of the neither possessed of nutriment nor capable seventeenth century, remarks thus :-"I do of promoting the healthy actions of the not allow the pretence of temperance to all human frame. The difference indeed, consists such as are seldom or never drunk or fall on the one part in the ABUSE of a good, and into surfeits, for men may lose their health on the other, in the USE of a bad thing. without losing their senses, and be intem- The continuance of our existence requires perate every day without being drunk the moderate and proper use of the oneperhaps once in their lives; but that which the other, to persons in health, is never I call temperance, is a regular and simple beneficial in its effects, but always opposed diet, limited by every man's experience of to, if not destructive of, nature's laws and his own easy digestion, and thereby pro- operations. portioning, as near as well can be, the The powerful influence which intoxicating daily repairs to the daily decays of our liquors exercise on the human system, their wasting bodies."* Sir William Temple then strong tendency to lead to excess, their proceeds to apply this rule of temperance to effects in inflaming the passions and enerthe removal of a disease on which he has vating the mind, are sufficient indications, written largely, and enforces the necessity of that even their moderate and habitual use is rigorous abstinence from inebriating liquor incompatible with a temperate and healthful on all ordinary occasions. condition of either body or mind. Another writer, about the middle part of IX. The vice of intemperance, during every the seventeenth century, in reprobating the stage of its progress, has been characterized practice of intemperance, makes the follow- by some prominent and peculiar features. ing pertinent remarks:-"It is sad to 1. The use of intoxicating liquors is an consider how many will hear this charge, acquired habit. The influence which infor one that will apply it to himself, for ebriating compounds exercise over the menta confident I am, that fifteen of twenty, this and physical constitution of man, is altogether city over, (London) are drunkards, yea, the result of artificial feelings and impresseducing drunkards, in the dialect of sions, superinduced on those with which scripture, and by the law of God, which the system is naturally endowed. extends to the heart and the affections." Providence, in wisdom and bounty, has 'Perhaps," observes the same writer, "by supplied the wants of man in rich profusion. the law of the land, a man is not taken for Animal and vegetable creation, well stored drunk except his eyes stare, his tongue with aliment, surround him on every side. stutter, his legs stagger; but by God's law, Each substance, moreover, bears characterhe is one that goes often to the drink, or istic evidence of the design of its munificent that tarries long at it. Prov. xxiii. 30, 31. Creator. The vast variety of vegetables and He that will be drawn to drink when he their fruits, which enter so largely into the hath neither need of it, nor mind to it, to diet of the human race, present evident the spending of money, wasting of precious relation between the nature of their comtime, discredit of the Gospel, the stumbling- position, and the purpose to which they are block of weak ones, and hardening associates. designed to be appropriated. This observaBriefly, he that drinks for lust, or pride, or tion applies with equal force to water, one covetousness, or fear, or good fellowship, or of the most useful substances in nature. to drive away time, or to still conscience, is a DRUNKARD."† It Alcohol, in all its combinations, is devoid of these nutritious characteristics. VIII. Gluttony is a crime equally to be re- is, on the contrary, inimical to the healthy probated with drunkenness. The advocates functions of the animal economy, and proof Temperance Societies, exclaim some ob- ductive only of that injurious excitement, jectors, might with equal justice declaim which subsides into morbid debility. against the moderate use of food, as against It is a humiliating reflection, that man is the moderate use of alcoholic liquors. "No the only animal in creation accustomed to valid reason," says a recent writer, "can be use intoxicating liquors. No analogous produced against the use of a jug of wine substances are found in the whole range of any more than against making a hearty meal animate creation. Alcoholic stimulants are on roast beef. Each admits equally of purely the results of human ingenuity and abuse." There exists, however, in this invention, called into operation by the desire respect, a broad and palpable distinction. to gratify a sensual and sinful propensity. Gluttony consists in the ABUSE of good and Mankind have thus themselves originated an evil, which has proved the severest moral Part I. 1677. "The Blemish of Government, the Shame of * An Essay on the Cure of the Gout.-Miscellanea, and physical scourge that ever afflicted the human race. Pliny might well exclaim :Religion, the Disgrace of Mankind, or a charge Vitio damus homini quod, soli animalium, drawn up against Drunkards and presented to his non sitientes, bibimus-it is a vice peculiar highness the LORD PROTECTOR, in the name of all to man that he alone, of all animals, drinks the sober party in the three nations," &c., &c., by when he is not thirsty. R. Younge. London, 1658. t Penny Magazine, 1835, p. 286. Several prominent and striking facts ar adduced in the present place, to prove that A corresponding illustration of these statethe habit of vinous indulgence is altogether ments, may be found in the fact, that young acquired. persons, and in particular children, almost Entire nations are known to have existed universally exhibit signs of repugnance, when for ages in a state of comparatively superior first induced to taste of any kind of intoxihealth, comfort, and happiness, without the cating liquor; which indications of disgust aid of intoxicating liquors. Mr. Buckingham are not manifested, when they partake of states it to be his conviction, "judging the almost unlimited varieties of nutritious from what he himself has seen, and heard on food. the testimony of creditable writers, that one- The unnatural excitement which these fifth of the entire population of the globe are liquors induce when first used produces abstainers from all intoxicating liquors." unpleasant sensations on the unvitiated "A number," he remarks, "sufficiently palates of the young. The benevolent arge to show that they are not necessary to Creator has, in his wisdom, so arranged the human existence, health, or enjoyment." constitution of man, that every article of a When first offered to the inhabitants of nutritious character is calculated to afford such countries, they evince considerable agreeable sensations of pleasure and refreshaversion to their use; and are reconciled ment to the temperate consumer. The to the practice, only by a conformity to the excitement produced by alcoholic stimulus, habits and persuasions of those civilized however, becomes agreeable only when the nations who seduce them into the destructive system has, for some time, been habituated vice of intoxication. to its use; and, in fact, not until a series of Prince Le Boo, a native of the Pelew artificial feelings have been created, which Islands, when on his way to England, on require for their continuance the repeated his arrival at Macao, witnessed one of the application of the stimulating agency by seamen in a state of gross intoxication. This which they were first produced. uncivilized child of nature evidently supposed The varied sensations which inebriating the man to be ill, and expressed much con- compounds impart to the taste, furnish an cern at his state, requesting the surgeon of additional proof that the habit of indulgence the vessel to visit him and afford him every in their use is altogether acquired. The requisite assistance. The Prince was told taste and flavour of these compounds have that nothing material ailed the man, and varied, to a considerable extent, in almost that he would soon be well, as it was the every age of the world. The nausea and effect only of indulgence in liquor, a habit disagreeable sensations which most of them common to the sailors. The alarm of impart, require, in the first instance, to be Lee Boo was removed by this statement, conquered or rendered familiar by continued but they could never afterwards, on any use, before a vitiated appetite can relish occasion, prevail upon him even to taste their reception. The Jews, for example, spirituous liquors. frequently mixed frankincense and various Captain Beckman relates the following spices with their wines, in order to render instructive anecdote. The natives of Borneo, them either fragrant, or more powerful in it appears from their temperate habits, have their effects. The Romans and Greeks rarely occasion to use medicine, much less made plentiful use of pitch, turpentine, to resort to the operation of bleeding, which resin, and other potent ingredients for the to them is a circumstance of no trifling same purpose. Malt liquors were formerly alarm. One day, being unwell, he ordered prepared without the bitter addition of hops; the surgeon to bleed him. Cay Deponalte, in the present day, however, habit has renone of the natives, in company with others of dered that celebrated bitter so familiar to the his countrymen who were present, strangers taste, that it is on all occasions employed in to the operation, evinced great amazement the preparation of beer and ale. The various at the affair. When they witnessed the kinds of malt liquors now in common use blood gush out, they were so frightened that in England are forcible illustrations of the they immediately ran out of the room, crying same fact; almost each district having its aloud, "Oran, gela atte;" that is, the man's ale or beer more or less celebrated for some heart or mind is foolish. After this event, peculiar flavour or reputed strength. Long the natives told him that they let out their continued use renders these various comlives and souls willingly. To this remark pounds highly agreeable; physical disorder, Captain Beckman replied that their diet being indeed, is not unfrequently induced, even by very plain, and their drink only water, they occasional indulgence in another variety of had no occasion for bleeding, but we, said the same liquor. The system habituated to he, who drink so much wine and punch, and one peculiar kind of inebriating liquor, feed upon flesh, which all render the blood rejects, with natural repugnance, stimulants hot and rich, are absolutely obliged to resort possessing different properties, both in regard to this operation to prevent illness. Cay to their strength and flavour. Deponalte made this sensible reply, "I This diversity of character, more or less, think that shows you to be still greater applies to inebriating liquors in every part fools, in putting yourselves to such expensive of the globe in which they are used; each charges on purpose to receive pain for it." nation possesses its favourite liquor, to which its inhabitants have become attached, and "The use of tobacco and brandy," he further the use of which they cannot abandon without remarks, " a hundred years since was hardly feelings of painful deprivation. All of these, known. Nay, the use of our ale and beer has however nauseous at first, become not only hardly been above 200 years, which now we agreeable, but are eventually considered as account most natural. Great hath been the necessary to healthful existence. Such is increase of those foreign ingredients of late the influence of habit. "Most persons, years, insomuch that they are esteemed good remarks Dr. Garnett, "have so indulged to be mixed amongst common food and themselves in the pernicious habit of drink-drinks, as also to be taken physically."* ing wine, that they imagine they cannot live [That is, as physic.] Ardent spirits, for without a little every day; they think that a considerable period after their invention their very existence depends upon it, and were confined to the Apothecaries' shop, that their stomachs require it to enable and used only as medicines. In the them to perform the necessary functions of present day, however, these deleterious comdigestion. Similar arguments may be brought pounds are become familiar and habitual in favour of every other bad habit, though, articles of refreshment. Sir W. Douglas, at first, the violence we do to nature, makes in a work printed at Boston, 1755, remarks: her revolt; in a little time she submits, and "Spirits, (spiritus ardentes) not above a is not only reconciled, but grows fond of the century ago, were used only as official corhabit, and we think it necessary to our dials, but now are become an endemical existence. Neither the flavour of wine, of plague, being a pernicious ingredient in opium, of snuff, nor that of tobacco, is most of our beverages." These observations naturally agreeable to us: on the contrary, apply, with equal force, to the habitual use these articles are highly unpleasant at first; of other medicinal articles,--the nature and but, by the force of habit, they become effects of which render them altogether unfit pleasant. It is, however, the business of for use to persons in a state of health, and rational beings to distinguish carefully, be- consequently productive sources of bodily tween the real wants of nature, and the and mental disturbance. "You may hear artificial calls of habit; and when we find many say," observes old Tryon," that tobacco that the last begin to injure us, we ought to is good to prevent fumes and vapours from use the most persevering efforts to break flying into the head, and so make it their the enchantment of bad customs; and though constant practice to take it. Now, if this it may cost us some uneasy sensations at had any such operation, as they say, the first, we must learn to bear them patiently; constant use of it would destroy its virtues ; a little time will reward us for our forbearance the same may be alleged of brandy, wine, by a re-establishment of health and spirit." and spices."+ This sensible writer in another Historical facts present strong proof of place, states "It is not above sixty or the use of intoxicating liquors being an seventy years ago since, that only gentlemen, acquired bad habit, in a national point of and but a few of those took tobacco, and then view. Most of the tribes of antiquity so moderately that one pipe would serve four were unaccustomed to drink wine in the or five, for they handed it from one to anearlier and more prosperous periods of other; but now every plowman has his their existence. The Persians, the Greeks, pipe to himself." The use of opium in the Carthaginians, and the Romans are this country forms another, and more examples in point. Antoninus Pius, remarks recent, as well as instructive example. an old writer, on "voracitie and immoderate This potent narcotic drug remains no drinking," in the quaint language of his day, longer an article of purely medicinal use. "commanded that none should presume to Thousands, and it is to be feared, tens sell wine, but in Apothecaries' shops, for the of thousands-of our fellow-creatures emsicke or diseased." It would have been ploy opium as most persons make use of well for the interests of mankind had this tobacco, that is, as a means of sensual gratiwise and salutary enactment been enforced fication, and unless information be spread as up to the present period. The Zephyrii, to its injurious qualities and effects, we may a people of Locris, as the laws of Zaleucus anticipate an extension of its use in European testify, punished with death those who drank nations equal to that which has long obtained wine unmixed, except by order of a physician, among the inhabitants of Asia. These and and prescribed for the benefit of his health. other similar illustrations which might be Boethius informs us that the enactments of adduced, exhibit the influence of habit and the ancient Scots were no less severe in their circumstances over our character and lives, character. In England, the use of wine and and strongly enforce, as an important object spirits has been in exact proportion with in the education of our youth, the proper indulgence in luxurious habits and sensual direction and control of the appetites. Exgratifications. Tryon, who wrote A. D. 1683, perience testifies that legislatorial enactments informs us that in this country, in former are trifling in importance when compared times, Canary wine was chiefly sold by the Apothecaries. Where," says this writer, Tryon's Way to Health, Long Life, and Hap "there was one quart of wine drunk forty piness, p. 220, 1683 or fifty years ago, there is now ten thousand." f Ibid, P. 220. with early and sound moral and religious leave off drinking, said, "Were a keg of instruction. rum in one corner of a room, and were a 2. Habitual and long continued indulgence cannon constantly discharging between me in the use of inebriating drinks, obtains an and it, I could not refrain from passing almost irresistible influence over both the before that cannon in order to get at the mental and physical constitution of man. rum." This change appears to be peculiar in its The pages of history record numerous character, impairing the moral perception, examples of similar infatuation. Ælian enervating the mind, and deranging all the informs us that Dionysius the younger, operations of the physical powers; substi- would sometimes continue for many succestuting an artificial and tyrannical condition, sive days in a state of gross intoxication, a in the place of the harmonious and agreeable habit, the frequent recurrence of which operations of nature. This condition is so reduced him at last almost to total blindness.* enslaving in its character, that individuals The Emperor Zeno daily drank himself into have been known to make the most severe a state of insensibility. In one of these sacrifices, rather than submit to be deprived fits of inebriety, his consort, Ariadne, had of the means of sensual gratification. The him committed to the horrors of the tomb. victims of strong drink indeed, often declare Returning consciousness revealed the dreadtheir utter inability to resist its influence, ful situation in which he had been placed by so strong and so painful are the cravings of his folly and imprudence. His lamentable the intemperate appetite. cries and entreaties, however, were suffered It is important to observe, that this pe- to pass unheeded, and the sensual tyrant, culiar fascination is found to exist, even detested alike by his wife and his subjects, when the mind is perfectly conscious of the was thus left to die a miserable death. guilt and awful consequences, temporal and The conduct of Winceslaus, King of spiritual, which inevitably result from per- Bohemia. exhibits another instance of the severance in intemperate habits. The infatuating influence of strong drink. This entreaties of friends and relations, the loss monarch visited Charles VI. at Rheims, A.D. of character, the privation of all temporal 1397, in order to treat with him on some prosperity, and the positive knowledge of important national affairs. The wine of eternal punishment,- all such inducements, that country afforded him such unexpected however powerful in themselves, are often pleasure, that on one occasion, rather than found insufficient to arrest the drunkard in be diverted from the excess in which he his self-destroying career. Dr. Cheyne, of daily indulged, he consented to make Dublin, relates a remarkable example of the certain important and disadvantageous coninveteracy of this evil habit. A gentleman, cessions.† very amiable in his disposition, and justly popular among the circle of his acquaintance, contracted habits of intemperance: his friends argued, implored, and remonstrated, but in vain. At last, he thus put an end to all importunity. A friend addressed him in the following strain:-"Dear Sir George; Shane O'Neil, the famous opponent of your family are in the utmost distress on Queen Elizabeth, usually kept in his cellar account of this unfortunate habit; they at Dundrum, 200 tuns of wine, of which as perceive that your business is neglected, well as of Usquebaugh, he drank to such your moral influence is gone, your health excess that his attendants were accustomed is ruined, and, depend upon it, the coats of to bury him in the earth chin-deep, until your stomach will soon give way, and then a the inflaming effects of inebriation had change will come too late." The poor victim, become dissipated. || One of the monarchs of Bamba, in Africa, resigned his right to the throne, rather than submit to be removed from the Portuguese settlements, where he had ample opportunities of indulging his fondness for intoxicating liquors. deeply convinced of the hopelessness of his The following evidence of the "infatuating case, replied thus: "My good friend, your nature of the habit," is the result of an remarks are indeed too true, but I can no extended experience of Mr. Poynder, late longer resist temptation. If a bottle of Under-Sheriff of Middlesex, London.—“ I brandy stood at one hand, and the pit of have observed that when it has once taken hell yawned on the other, and if I were possession of the mind and body, it is next convinced that I were to be pushed in, as to a miracle if it yields to any sense of shame, surely as I took one more glass, I could not or any fear of loss. The power with which refrain; you are all very kind; I ought to it retains its hold is really wonderful. A be very grateful for so many kind good man shall see his property wasting, his friends, but you may spare yourselves the health declining, his character departing trouble of trying to reform me,-the thing from him, and all in vain; he shall even is now impossible.”* form the most solemn resolutions of amend "An habitual drunkard, writes Dr. Rush, when strongly urged by one of his friends to A Statement of Certain Effects of Temperance Societies, 1829, p. 8. *Elian, Var. Hist. Cap. 6. + Journ. de Scav. June, 1706. Adamson's Voyage to Senegal. Hiushed's Chronicles. Vol. vi. page 331. |