The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

226

DR. BIGELOW'S OPINION.

habitual use of alcoholic drinks produces deplorable
consequences. Carpenter's Physiology says the physiological objection to the habitual use of even quite small
quantities of alcoholic drinks rests upon the following
grounds: "They are universally admitted to possess a
poisonous character." " They tend to produce a morbid
condition of the body at large." " The capacity for
enduring the extremes of heat or cold, or mental or
bodily labor, is diminished rather than increased by
their habitual employment."
In a lecture of Professor Jacob Bigelow, in 1825,
he used the following words, which I recorded at the
time -
"Alcohol is highly stimulating, heating, and intoxicating, and its effects are so fascinating that, when once
experienced, the danger is that the desire for them may
be perpetuated." " Many patients have become gradually and imperceptibly intemperate under the sanction
and guidance of a physician."
How often has my heart been saddened by witnessing illustrations of Professor Jacob Bigelow's statement
concerning patients being led to intemperance by the
guidance of their physician. Not long since an interesting lady, not thirty years old, came to me for advice.
She had been subject, for two or three years, to terrible
internal cramps from indigestion, and was advised by
her physician to take gin. At first she only took it
when the cramps occurred, and it relieved her, but
soon she took it to prevent their recurrence, and it
seemed for a time to succeed; but as she never knew