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

D1isuse of A lco/iol as:I7 cdiciiie.
(4) The pro//-'c.. os recommendation of alcoholic
liquors by members of the medical faculty is ad azbise
wholly iln'defensible, whether or not alcohol has medicinal
virtues in particular cases. Dr. Carpenter has not hesitated to affirm, "Nothing in the annals of quackery can
be more empirical than the mode in which fermented and
distilled liquors are directed or permitted to be taken by
a large proportion of medical practitioners." Since this
was written, Dr. Todd's system of treating fever with
heavy doses of brandy has been pursued, and, after causing an awful excess of hospital mortality, has met with
the condemnation it deserved from seme of the leading
organs of the profession. Dr. S. Wilks, of Guy's Hospital, has severely censured the sanction, by many medical
practitioners, of the popular opinion that patients who
are " low" need "supporting" by wine and spirits.*
(5.) A variety of authentic testimonies and facts are on
record, tending to the conclusion that a diiminished- use of
alcohol. and even zts entzire dzisuse, in the treatiezetz of dizsease
is attended wisth a decreased mortality and more rabzpid recover,. The most eminent members of the fiaculty are generally agreed that the alcoholic treatment of cholera and
deliri'umt tremens is a complete mistake; and the statistics
supplied by Drs. Gairdner and Russell, with respect to the
City of Glasgow Fever Hospital, have shown a reduction
of the mortality from I7-5 to ii'9 per cent., and. later still,
to 9'o5 per cent., a reduction keeping pace with a lessened consumption of wine and spirits by the patients.
To the same effect are the testimonies of medical men in
large practice, who have, with striking advantage, discontinued for years all use of alcohol, whatever the nature or
type of disease under their care.t If, then, there is rea
* See also Dr. Wilks's Letter in Lancet, May iS, I867; also in Lancet, January 8, x870.
t See " Medical Experience and Testimnony in Favor of Total Abstinence"
('Twecdie, Strand.)-Dr. MIunroe, of Hull: "It is now seven years since I
7 T
I