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

72 Thze Pliysfo[ogical Effe'cts of AlcoAhol.
son to believe, that diseases would be less fatal, and more
successfully overcome, were alcohol less patronized, or
even excluded from the mafceria izedzca; and if it is obvious that when prescribed it should not be carelessly used
in the form of ordinary liquors, but carefully furnished
in the form of a chemical preparation; and, if it is further
apparent that any benefit by alcohol in sickness must
largely depend upo-n abstinence from it in health-no
argument can be other than intrinsically invalid which
infers its advantage as diet from its supposed utility in
disease.
From all that has been advanced, we may reasonably
conclude that intoxicating beverages are of no advantage, and that their alcoholic property, so far from rendering them contributory to health and strength, conduces to the injury of those who partake of them, and
thereby hinders the attainment of that standard of physical vigor and enjoyment put within the reach of his creatures by the beneficent Creator; and therefore that, in
the words of one great medical declaration, "Total and
universal abstinence from alcoholic liquors and intoxicating beverages of all sorts would greatly contribute to the
I
have ordered any alcoholic drink either as medicine or diet; and the success
attendant upon its disuse is so gratifying as to lead me to its entire abandonment in the treatment of disease." Mr. Higginbottom, F.R.S., of Nottingham, has discontinued the use of alcohol with marked success for forty years.
Mr. Bayley, M.R.C.S., of Stourbridge: " I have treated successfully nearly
every form of disease without alcohol, and with the best results, for years."
Mr. Mudge, MI.R.C.S., of Bodmin: "There never has been made a trial of
diminished alcohol, or none at all, without good resulting and preponderating." Mr. Collenette, L.R.C.P., Guernsey: "For some twenty-nineyears
I have banished them from my practice, and I have never had cause to regret
having done so." Mr. Bennett, M.R.C.S., Winterton, refers to a treatment
of 40o cases of fever, and attendance on 3,0o0 cases of childbirth, without
any alcoholic treatment, with manifest advantage. Dr. Nicolls, Longford:
"It is now more than twenty years since wine, spirits, or porter was used inl
the hospitals under my care, and the result in every way has been most satisfactory."