The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

1i 8 The Drinzking Sys/enz outr Chief Socihzl Evil.
which attend even a slight excess in drinkl Besides-a
point of primary importance-nature imposes a restraint
on eating when hunger is satisfied, so that the individual
appetite for food becomes its own protection against excess, whereas the effect of strong drink is to beget an
appetite for itself, and, therefore, no such safeguard is
provided; and hence the need of some other rule, plainly
perceived and easily applied, is the more urgently demanded. Especially is this the case in view of the admrnitted tendency of alcoholic drink to strengthen desire,
while it weakens the power of restraint, and even the
power of perception that restraint, at each removal from
the line of strict sobriety, is more and more required.
Proceeding upon the assumption that some portion of
intoxicating liquor is good for him, the consumer should
be able to satisfy himself first as to how much alcohol it
is safe and good to take at one time, and, next, as to how
often in the day this amount may be safely taken; for,
though the quantity may be small at one time, the times
may be so numerous, in any given period, as to render the
daily or weekly quantity excessive. Sir Henry Holland
warns wine-drinkers against "a dangerous plenitude,"
which they are apt mistakenly to think consistent with
moderation; and as an error of this kind will, it is acknowledged, turn the drink used into an unmixed evil(not so in the case of excess in food-another broad distinction)-every user of alcohol is bound, before he can
claim to be deriving good from the quantity he takes, to
have established for himself some rule of " moderation"
by which he strictly and constantly abides, and so avoids
the excess which he condemns. It is needless to ask how
many-rather how few-" moderate drinkers" adopt and
carry out such a precautionary rule. The facts of society
render such an enquiry superfluous, and demonstrate,
on the consumer's own ground, how little security he
can have for the virtue or even innocuousness of the