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

Tle'Plysiolog ic(l Effects of A lcoloi.
ably exposed the fallacy of supposing that any good can
arise from increasing the natural activity of the stomach,
the sure consequence being that " the organ thus' assisted' will gradually lose its own independent vigor."* If it
is pleaded that the alcohol is useful in giving temporary
activity to an enfeebled organ, the folly of habitually
using an agent which increases the feebleness complained
of must be transparent. Far better will it then be to
adopt some proper medicinal treatment fromn which real
and permanent relief may be obtained. To expend
pounds yearly in alcoholic medicines, and then, like the
woman in the Gospel, to be no better, but rather worse, is
not a proceeding attesting either the value of the medicine or the wisdom of the patient. As to an augmented
supply of gastric juice, it is sufficient to state that the
presence of food in the stomach is always followed by a
sufficient supply of gastric juice; and, as will be shown
hereafter, the only effect alcohol exerts upon that important fluid is to deteriorate its digestive quality and power.
The notion that food is rendered more digestible by its
association with an alcoholic liquid is overthrown by the
well-known antiseptic property of alcohol, and by a variety of recorded experiments, making it plain that in precise proportion as it acts at all, alcohol renders food more
difficult of digestion, so that its removal from the stomach
is a condition essential to the completeness of the digestive process. Sometimes alcohol may mask a morbid
state of the stomach, and sometimes it may give relief by
helping to pass on portions of semi-digested food, but
these are "aids" dearly bought, and which the intelligent
owner of a disordered stomach would be only too happy
to dispense with.t Hippocrates long ago had antfcipated
* " Physiology of Temperance and Total Abstinence" (Prize Essay).
t To apply to alcohol the name of a "tonic " is to pervert the just signification of terms. A tonic is that which gives tone or firmness to an organ, and
therefore is the opposite of that which, by exciting an organ to extra action,
is certain to impair its tone.
I