GENERAL EFFECTS OF INTEMPERANCE ON THE HUMAN SYS- 3. Intemperance diminishes and ultimately destroys the Vital 4. Intemperance frustrates the healthy operations of the Organs 1. Division of Stimulants into Natural and Artificial, Simple and EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM 324 ib THE FALLACY OF POPULAR OBJECTIONS-continued. 2. Intoxicating Liquors do not permanently resist the effects of 3. Intoxicating Liquors do not lessen the effect of heat in warm THE INTEMPERANCE OF THE HEBREWS 2. Unfermented Wines of the Hebrews 3. Various kinds of Wines mentioned in the Scriptures 1. Actual Prohibition 2. Voluntary Abstinence THE TEMPERANCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS 1. General Cautionary Remarks of the Apostles to the various 2. Special Injunctions on the Members of the Christian Church 3. Regulations of the Christian Church respecting its bishops 3. Passages adduced in modern times in favour of the Use of 4. Diet of the Primitive Christians 5. The principle of Christian Love, or Expediency as applicable Persians, 433-Egyptians, 434-Romans, 435-Greeks, 437-Laws of Plato, 438-Carthaginians, 439-Locrians, 439-Massilians and Milesians, 439-Thracians, 439-Bulgarians, 440-Franks, 440-Anglo-Saxons, 441-Ancient Welch and Scotch, 441-An- Roman Law on this subject, 449-Laws of Greece, 449-English Legal Code, 450-Scotch Law in Relation to Drunkenness and History of Intoxicating Liquors in the United States The Morbid Anatomy of Drunkenness 1. Evidence in approval of Water as a common beverage 2. Testimonies of Individuals who have abandoned the use of 3. Temperance favourable to Longevity 4. Statements relative to the Health of certain tribes who ab- BACCHUS. PART I. CHAPTER I. NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF INTEMPERANCE. "To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the ground work of virtue."DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. "Nothing is so great a friend to the mind of man as abstinence; it strengthens the memory, clears the apprehension, and sharpens the judge. ment, and in a word, gives reason its full scope of acting; and when reason has that, it is always a diligent and faithful handmaid to conscience." DR. SOUTH. THE term INTEMPERANCE, according to its general signification, is indefinite and unsatisfactory. In the present day, however, it is almost exclusively and universally employed in reference to excess in the use of intoxicating liquors. The limits of lawful indulgence have, in all ages of the world, been variously defined. In a primeval state, man had few wants. His occupations were simple in their character and influence. The produce of the field, and the fruit of the trees yielded him suitable nourishment; water supplied him with a refreshing and innoxiously inspiriting beverage. In this state of virtuous simplicity, man had few temptations to lead him astray. In progress of time, however, new and unlawful sources of enjoyment were discovered, luxurious habits began to prevail, intoxicating liquors were produced, diseases were generated, and vicious habits followed in their train. Luxury, in its early approaches, has, in general, been characterized by its slow and insinuating progress. Virtuous habits gradually yield to the forms and practices of sensual gratification. A deterioration of the moral sense, A has invariably been found to follow concessions to sensual indulgence. The history of the nations of antiquity, and in particular of the Greeks and Romans, demonstrates the truth of this statement. The effects of strong drink were known to the ancients as inimical to freedom and national prosperity. To prevent intemperance laws were framed against the introduction of wine. The ancient Suevi, for example, would not allow wine to be imported into their country, believing it to be pernicious to the vigour, both of the body and of the mind. Similar laws are found among the primitive regulations of other nations. * Until influenced by impure motives, these sanative enactments were rigorously enforced. As an increased taste for luxury began to prevail, the primitive aversion to wine however, gradually wore away. The deadly enemy became a cherished friend. Those admirable laws which had once been the safeguards of national virtue and prosperity were finally modified, relaxed, and virtually annulled The consequences were degradation and ruin. From the experience of every age it is manifest, that the prevailing notions concerning the nature of temperance and intemperance, have arisen and taken their tone, from the moral condition of the existing age. The incli nations and appetites of mankind insensibly influence their opinions, and from such a source, has the world too frequently derived its notions of the subject under con sideration. Democritus, as Pliny informs us, wrote a volume with the design to show, that no person ought to exceed four or six glasses of wine. Epictetus advances the following opinion:-"That man is a drunkard who takes more thar three glasses; and though he be not drunk, he hath exceeded moderation." In comparatively modern times, striking examples are presented of the morals of the age influencing considerations concerning the nature of tem perance. A society, for instance, established about the sixteenth century, for the promotion of temperance, had its fundamental law constituted on the principle, that none of its members should drink more than fourteen glasses of wine daily. A certain general, in one of his regulations, * Vinum ad se omninò importari non sinunt, quòd eâ re ad laborem ferendum remollescere Homines, atque effœminari arbitrantur.-Cæsar de Rell Gall. lib. 4. Fragments, No. 3. Carter's Transl. 1758. p. 112. |