56 ALCOHOLIC POISON,
Alcohol is the horrid fiend we are fighting, no
matter under what guise he comes.
12. Moderate Drinking not Harmful.
Every man, even the drunkard himself, admits
that liquor in excess is injurious ; but a large and
very respectable class claim that it isan evil only
in excess, and is a harmless luxury, if nothing
more, in moderate quantities. This, too, is an
error which has proved fatal to thousands. A
small dram soon grows to be a large one; claret
is exchanged for grog or toddy; and so, by de-
grees, the moderate drinker becomes a drunkard,
the first “small drop” engendering a love for
succeeding larger doses, .
It is not necessary that a man should be dead
drunk to be intoxicated. Intoxication is derived
from a Latin word meaning poison, and means, lit-
erally, a condition of poisoning. Alcohol isa poi-
son. If a man takes it into his system, he is poi-
soned, or intoxicated, in proportion to the amount
taken.
Moderate drinking produces a disease well-
known to physicians as chronic alcoholism. Tt is
especially dangerous to the old, as it is one of the
most powerful predisposing and exciting causes
of apoplexy, as well as of numerous other dis-
eases.
13. Doctors Recommend Wine and Brandy.
It is a lamentable fact that a large class of
physicians use alcohol in their practice in a most
THE DRUNKARD'S ARGUMENTS. 57
reckless manner. The result is seen in hundreds
of drunken sots who haunt saloons and grogger-
ies. That this use of alcohol is wholly unneces-
sary is shown in a succeeding section of this work.
14. Scientific Men Recommend the Use of Al-
cohol.
This, too, is a deplorable fact; for it is a sad
spectacle when science stoops to cater to the de-
mands of morbid appetites and vices. It is a
significant fact that those scientific authorities
who recommend the use of alcobol are themselves
addicted to its use. It isnot an unjust inference
that their judgment, in this case, is biased by
their appetite. But there are a great many of
the most eminent scientists who are the strongest
advocates of total abstinence. Among them are
Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Dr. Parkes, Dr. Richardson,
Dr. Parker, and Siv John Hall.
« [f alcohol were unknown, half the sin and a
large part of the poverty and unhappiness would
disappear from the world”—DR PARKES. Pre
tical Hygiene, p. 242.
“There is, of course, no doubt that wine 1s un-
M : 7” . .
necessary as an article of diet." —Ib. p. 241.
15. The Bible Sanctions the Use of Wine, and
Good Men Use It.
The Bible has been quoted to sustain polyga-
my, slavery, and other evil institutions, as well
. as intemperance, Rightly understood, it sup-
[&3
Alcoholic Puison. <