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

CHAPTER II.
PROPOSITION: THAT INTOXICATING LIQUORS ARE USELESS
AND INJURIOUS AS ARTICLES OF DIET.
IT is a common belief that alconolic liquors are useful,
and even necessary to a good state of health and to long
life; and though this belief may not absolutely regulate
the personal or social consumption of those liquors, it is
of the first importance that this opinion, if erroneous,
should be disproved. Health andestrength are blessings
of a very high order; to the multitude they areinvaluable
as the means of manual work and industrial support; and
although, in countless cases, health and life itself are sac->
rificed at the shrine of some custom or pleasure, it is veryevident that ignorance concerning strong drink, joined to
a laudable concern for the maintenance of health, has
much to do with the daily use of some alcoholic liquor,
especially among the more respectable and thoughtful of
all classes.
I.-INTOXICATING LIQUORS USELESS.
In maintaining that alcoholi liquors ar useless, it is not
necessary to show that they contain nothing which is
useful to the consumer. It is practically sufficient for the
argument that they contain nothing of any sensible
utility which does not exist in other articles of diet, free
from objectionable combinations, and purchasable at a
cheaper rate. The superstition of ages has attached to
fermented drinks properties not residing in other dietetic
substances; but scientific analysis and widespread experience have exploded this superstition-one which will, in