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

Evzidcnce iln I(ra,r of A4bsliitzccce.
holic drinks have not only equalled in health and vigor
others that have used them, but have been remarkable
for their freedom from numerous species of disease. The
early Persians and Romans, the Saracens for centuries,
the aborigines of North America and New Zealand when
first discovered, a large portion of the present inhabitants of India, including the Himlalayan tribes, and the
rural population of tihe Turkish Empire, supply examples
of a high average state of health, and of the strongest
powers of physical endurance, without any recourse to
the liquors supposed by many in this country to be the
sources of both.
(2.) Scr'zA/zral hzstory furnishes us with corroborative
evidence, in the sojourn of the Israelites in the desert
for forty years without strong drink; in the life of Samson, "strong above compare," to whom all intoxicating
drink was forbidden (not, surely, because it would have
made him naturally stronger!); in the experience of the
Nazarites, who were famed for their personal beauty and
vigor;* in the case of the Rechabites, who had been
gainers by centuries of abstinence; and in the lives of
men like Samuel, Elijah, Daniel, and John the Baptist,
whose habits of abstinence proved serviceable, and not a
hindrance, to the execution of their laborious missions.
(3.) There is the evidence procurable as to the health of
persons living surrounded by users of the drinks from
which they themselves abstained, and attaining, in many
cases, years " longi-drawn out" and a hale old age.t
(4.) Appeal can be made to the testimonies of!ersons
exposed to severe labors and protracted strazn on bodty and
mind-philosophers, poets, generals, divines, philanthropists, travellers, and the like.:
*" Her Nazarites were purer than snow, thev waere whiter than milk, they
were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire" (Lam.
iv. 7).
t See Appendix H..t See Appendix I.
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