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

78 Tze Plag,ic of Social Iziilcmpcrance.
alone is the antidote for actual intemperance (drinkdisease) is universally admitted-a proof that society
perceives one-half of the truth, by recognizing the
plague-cast of the malady when formned; so that all that
is needed to the full enlightenment of society is a perception of the other half of the truth-that the disease
cannot be certainly prevented except by the exclusion of
the foreign agent (alcohol) which engenders it. In regard
to diseases of the zymotic type, the principal difficulty in
the way of prevention arises from the invisibly minute
constitution of the poison-germs, and their power of vital-.
ity and propagation, except under conditions of heat
or cold too severe for human endurance. Could their
detection be secured, and means for their exclusion fromi
the human system be devised, science would achieve one
of its proudest triumphs and humanity reap one of its
most precious boons. Happily, a great contrast is here
offered to our view, for the substance by which the alcoholic craving is induced is not too attenuated to be seen,
nor is there any danger of receiving it unconsciously into
the body. The senses have sufficient indications of this
enemy; and if the will issues orders for its rejection, no
evil can ensue.
If, however, we contemplate events as they are, not as
they ought to be, what do we discern? \Ve see that every
year the people of this country, or rather a majority of
them (for very young persons and abstainers must be
deducted), consume sixty million gallons of alcohol, the
physical seed of the drunken appetite; and we see, as we
might expect, that the agent of evil takes with it the evil
effect; that those who have been smitten grow worse,
and that, as they die off, a number as great begin to develop signs of the same terrible malady; that both sexes, and persons of all ages (sometimes the very young,
even infants in arms), and in all social conditions, are
among the victims; and that from year to year, from age'
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