Footnotes:[56]Vansweiten, 1209. 3.[57]Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. VI. p. 310, 319.[58]Dissertations, vol. I. p. 326.
Footnotes:
[56]Vansweiten, 1209. 3.
[56]Vansweiten, 1209. 3.
[57]Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. VI. p. 310, 319.
[57]Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. VI. p. 310, 319.
[58]Dissertations, vol. I. p. 326.
[58]Dissertations, vol. I. p. 326.
GENTLEMEN,
It must afford no small pleasure to a benevolent mind, in the midst of a war which daily makes so much havoc with the human species, to reflect that the small-pox, which once proved equally fatal to thousands, has been checked in its career, and in a great degree subdued, by the practice ofINOCULATION.
It is foreign to my purpose to deliver to you the history of this art, and to mark the various steps that have attended its progress to its present state of improvement. We have yet to lament the want of uniformity and of equal success in the practice of it among physicians. A great number of pamphlets have been written upon the subject without exhausting it. There is still ampleroom left for the man of genius to exercise his talents for observation and reasoning upon it. The facts I mean to lay before you are so inconsiderable, compared with what still remain to be known upon this subject, that I have to request, when your knowledge in it is completed, that you would bury my name in silence, and forget that ever I ventured to lay a single stone in this part of the fabric of science.
In treating upon this subject, I shall
I. Consider the proper subjects, and seasons for inoculation.
II. I shall describe the method of communicating the disease.
III. I shall consider the method of preparing the body for the small-pox.
IV. I shall mention the treatment proper during the eruptive fever. And,
V. Point out a few cautions that are necessary after the disease is over.
I. Formerly there were great difficulties in the choice of subjects for inoculation. But experience teaches us, that it may be practised in every stage of life, and in almost every condition of the human body. In infancy, the periods before and after dentition are to be preferred. But we seldom see any great inconveniences from submitting to the general necessity of inoculating children between the ages of three months, and two years. Indeed we often see children cut three or four teeth during the preparation and eruptive fever, without the least addition being made to any of the troublesome symptoms which accompany the small-pox. There is one inconvenience attending the choice of the first months of infancy for inoculating, and that is, the matter often fails of producing the disease in such young subjects. I have frequently failed in two or three attempts to communicate it to children under four months old, with the same matter that has succeeded in a dozen other patients, inoculated at the same time. When the inoculation succeeds in such tender subjects, they generally have less fever, and fewer pustules, than are common in any future period of life.
Although a physician would prefer a patient in good health to any other as a subject for inoculation, yet cases often occur in which it is necessaryto communicate the small-pox while the body is affected with some other disease. I can with pleasure inform you, that the small-pox is rendered so perfectly safe by inoculation, that there are few chronic diseases which should be considered as obstacles in the way of it. I have inoculated patients labouring under a tertian fever, obstructed viscera, the hooping cough, the hypochondriasis, the asthma, the itch, and other cutaneous diseases, and even pregnant women, with the same, and, in some instances, with greater success, than persons in perfect health. Doctor Cullen informs us, that he has seen inoculation succeed in scrophulous patients. A physician in Jamaica informed me, that he had inoculated negroes with success in the worst stage of the yaws. To these facts I must add one more extraordinary than any that has been yet mentioned: Doctor Brown, my late colleague in the care of the military hospitals, informed me, that he had seen inoculation succeed in patients who were seized, after the infection was communicated, with the hospital fever. The preparation of the body should be accommodated to the disease which affects it. Some physicians have thought the small-pox, received in this way, was a remedy for other diseases; but my experience has not confirmed this opinion: on the contrary, I am inclined to think that no other change is produced byinoculation, than by the regimen and medicines that are used to prepare the body for the small-pox. Nor does the small-pox, during its continuance, afford any security against the attacks of other diseases. I have seen the most alarming complication of the small-pox and measles taken insuccessionto each other, in the same person.
The seasons commonly preferred for inoculation, in this country, are the spring and fall. It may be practised with equal safety in the winter, a due regard being had to the temperature of the air in the preparation of the body.
The principal objection to inoculating in the summer months in this climate, arises from the frequency of bilious diseases at that season, to which the preparation necessary for the small-pox probably disposes the body. This caution applies more directly to children, who, at a certain age, are more subject than grown people to a disease in their bowels in warm weather.
II. The methods of communicating the small-pox by inoculation, have been different in different countries, and in the different æras of its progress towards its present stage of improvement. The scab, dossel of lint, and the thread impregnatedwith variolous matter, and bound up in a gash in the arm, have been laid aside.
We are indebted to Mr. Sutton for the mode of communicating it by a slight puncture with the point of a lancet, or needle, dipt in fresh matter. As it is difficult sometimes to procure matter in a fresh state, I have been led to use it with equal success by preserving it on lint in a box, and moistening it with cold water just before I used it. Matter may be kept in this way for a month, without losing its infectious quality, provided it be not exposed to heat or moisture. The former destroys its power of infecting as certainly as the salt of tartar destroys the acidity of vinegar. Moisture, by remaining long upon the matter, probably destroys its virulence, by subjecting it to fermentation. The longer matter has been kept in a general way, the longer the distance will be between the time of communicating the disease, and the eruptive fever. It will be proper always to yield to the prejudices of our patients in favour of matter taken from persons who have but few pustules. But I am persuaded from repeated observations, that the disease is no ways influenced by this circumstance. I am satisfied likewise that there is no difference between the effects of the matter, whether it be taken in its watery and purulentstate. The puncture should not be larger than is sufficient to draw one drop of blood, but it should always be made by asharplancet, for the sudden inflammation and suppuration, excited by a dull lancet, sometimes throw off the matter, so as to prevent its infecting the body[59]. No plaster or bandage should be applied over the puncture. It should be made in the left arm of all subjects. The objections to inoculating in the leg are too obvious to be mentioned. I have heard of the disease being communicated by rubbing the dry skin with the matter. My own observations upon this subject, give me reason to suspect the facts that are contained in books relative to this mode of infecting the body. I have bound large pieces of lint dipt in fresh matter for twenty-four hours upon the arm, without producing the disease. A practitioner of physic in New-Jersey informed me, that he once gave a considerable quantity of fresh variolous matter in a dose of physic, without infecting his patient. I suspect the matter that produces the disease is of the samenature with certain poisons, which require to be brought in contact with a wound or sore in the body, before they produce their effects. I deliver this opinion with diffidence. The subject stands in need of more experiments and investigation.
III. I come now to consider the best method of preparing the body for the small-pox. This must be done, 1st, byDIET, and 2dly, byMEDICINE. TheDIETshould consist chiefly of vegetables. I have never seen any inconvenience from the free use of milk, as a part of the preparative diet. In some habits, where a morbid acid prevails in the stomach, we may indulge our patients in a little weak flesh broth two or three times a week with safety. A little salted meat may likewise be taken daily in such cases. Tea, coffee, and even weak chocolate, with biscuit or dry toast, may be used as usual, by persons accustomed to that kind of aliment. Wine and spirits of all kinds should be withheld from our patients, during the preparation. The more acescent their drinks are, the better. It is unnecessary that this change in the diet should take place till a day or two before the time of communicating the disease. The system accommodates to a vegetable and low diet in the course of three weeks or a month, so as to defeat in some measure the advantages we expectedfrom it. The good effects of it appear to depend in a great degree upon thesuddennesswith which we oblige our patients to conform to it. For this reason, when we are called upon to inoculate persons who have lived more than three or four weeks upon a low diet, we should always direct them to live a few days upon animal food, before we communicate the disease to them. By these means we may produce all the good effects of thesuddenchange in the diet I have already mentioned. 2. TheMEDICINESmost commonly used to prepare the body for the small-pox are antimony and mercury. The latter has had the preference, and has been given in large quantities, under a notion of its being a specific antidote to the variolous matter. Many objections might be made to this opinion; I shall mention only three.
1. We often see the disease in a high degree, after the system is fully impregnated with mercury.
2. We often see the same salutary effects of mercury, when given before the disease is communicated to the body, that we perceive when it is given after inoculation; in which case we are sure the mercury cannot enter into the mixture with the variolous matter so as to destroy it.
3. If mercury acted specifically in destroying the variolous matter, it would render every other part of the preparation unnecessary: but this we know is not the case, for the neglect or improper use of the vegetable diet or cool regimen is often attended with an extraordinary number, or virulence of the small-pox, even in those cases where mercury is given in the largest quantity.
The way in which mercury prepares the body for the small-pox, seems to be by promoting the several excretions, particularly that by perspiration, which, by diminishing the quantity of the fluids, and weakening the tone of the solids, renders the system less liable to a plentiful eruption of the small-pox. But I object to the use of this medicine for the following reasons:
1. It effectually deprives us of all the benefits of the cool regimen; for mercury, we know, alwaysdisposesthe system to take cold.
2. All the good effects of mercury may be produced byPURGES, which do not subject the body to the above-mentioned inconvenience.
ThePURGESmay be suited to the constitutions, and in some cases, even to the inclinations of ourpatients. I have seen jalap, rhubarb, senna, manna, aloes, soluble tartar, glauber and Epsom salts, and the butter-nut pill, all given with equal success. The quantity should be sufficient to procure three or four stools every day. A little magnesia should always be mixed with rhubarb and jalap in preparing children. It will be sufficient for the mothers and nurses of infants to conform strictly to the vegetable diet. I have never seen any advantages from giving them even a single dose of physic.
It is hardly necessary to observe, that the quality, dose, and number of purges are to be determined by the age, sex, and habits of our patients. A constitution enfeebled by a previous disease forbids the use of purges, and requires medicines of a restorative kind. Patients afflicted with cutaneous diseases bear larger and more frequent doses of physic, than are indicated in more healthy subjects.
In adult subjects of a plethoric habit, blood-letting is very useful on the third or fourth day after inoculation. We are not to suppose, that every fat person labours under a plethora. A moderate degree of fat is so far from rendering the disease more violent, especially in children, that Ithink I have generally found such subjects have the small-pox more favourably than others.
Moderate exercise in the open air should be used during the preparation. But hard labour, and every thing that promotes sweat or fatigue, as also the extremes of heat and cold, should be avoided.
IV. We come now to consider the treatment of the body during the eruptive fever. On the eighth day after inoculation our patients aregenerallyseized with the common symptoms of fever. Sometimes this fever appears on the sixth and seventh day after inoculation. But when it is irregular, it is often delayed till the ninth and tenth days. I have seen many instances of it on the fourteenth, a few on the fifteenth and sixteenth, andonecase in which it did not come on till the eighteenth day after the infection was communicated to the body[60]. The place where the puncture was madewith the lancet, or needle, generally serves as a harbinger of the approaching fever. A slight inflammation appears about it, and a pock rises up in the centre. But this remark is liable to some objections. I have seenfourinstances in which the fever came on at the expected time, and the disease went through all its stages with the greatest regularity, and yet there was no sign of an inflammation or pock near the spot where the puncture was made: even the puncture itself became invisible. On the other hand, we sometimes see an inflammation and pock on the arm appear on the eighth and ninth days, without any fever accompanying them. Some physicians suppose that this inflammation and solitary pock are sufficient to constitute the disease; but repeated experience has taught me to be very cautious in relying upon these equivocal marks. It is true, I have sometimes seen patients secured against the small-pox, both in the natural way and by inoculation, where these marks have appeared; but I have as often seen such patients seized afterwards with the small-pox in the natural way, to the great distress of families, and mortification of physicians. Upon this account, I make it a constantpractice to advise a second or third inoculation, where a fever and eruption have been wanting. As the absence of these symptoms is probably occasioned by the weakness or age of the variolous matter, or the too high state of preparation of the body, we should always guard against both, by making the puncture the second time withfreshmatter, by subjecting our patients to alessabstemious diet, and by giving fewer doses of physic. I have heard it remarked, that if a slight redness and a small pimple appeared on the arm on the third day after inoculation, it was a sign the matter had infected the whole constitution. I acknowledge I have often seen a greater degree of redness on the third than on the second day after inoculation, but I have not been able to establish a diagnostic mark from it; for I have seen the disease produced on the usual days where the redness has appeared on the second day, and in some cases where it has not appeared until the eruptive fever.
I am led here unwillingly to discuss the old question, Is it possible to have the small-pox in the natural way after inoculation?—In many of the cases supposed to be the small-pox from inoculation, it is probable the matter has been taken from the chicken-pox, which resembles the small-pox in many of its peculiarities, but in none more than thatof leaving pits or marks on the skin. But there are certainly cases where there are the most irrefragable proofs of the infection implanted by inoculation being of a variolous nature, where the disease has been afterwards taken in the natural way. In these cases I would suppose the variolous matter produced only a topical or cuticular disease. We see something analogous to this in nurses who attend patients in the small-pox. But further, this topical or cuticular infection may be produced by art in persons who have had the small-pox in the natural way. Some years ago, I made a puncture on my left hand with a lancet moistened with variolous matter. On the eighth day an inflammation appeared on the place, accompanied by an efflorescence in the neighbourhood of it, which extended about two inches in every direction from the spot where the puncture was made. On the eleventh day I was surprised to find two pocks (if I may venture to call them such), the one on the outside of the fourth finger of my left hand, and the other on my forehead. They remained there for several days, but without filling with matter, and then dropped off, rather in the form of a soft wart, than of a common scab. Doctor Way of Wilmington repeated the same experiment upon himself, but with an issue to his curiosity more extraordinary than that I have just now related. Onthe eighth day after he had made a puncture on his hand, a pock appeared on the spot, which in the usual time filled with matter, from which he inoculated several children, who sickened at the usual time, and went through all the common stages and symptoms of the small-pox. It would seem from these facts, that it is necessary the small-pox should produce some impression upon thewholesystem, in order to render it ever afterwards incapable of receiving an impression of a similar nature. A fever and an eruption therefore seem necessary for this purpose. As the inflammation of the arm on the eighth day is a sign of thetopicaland cuticular infection, so an eruption (though ever so small) seems to be the only certain sign of the infection of thewholesystem. The eruption is the more decisive in its report, in proportion as it comes out and goes off in the usual manner of the small-pox in the natural way. In those cases where patients have been secured against a second attack of the disease, when there have been noobviousfever orvisibleeruption, I think I have observed an unusual inflammation, and a copious and long continued discharge of matter from the arm. Perhaps this may serve as an outlet of the matter, which in other cases produces the fever and eruption. I am the more disposed to embrace this opinion, from the testimony which several authorshave left us of the effects of ulcers in securing the body from the infection of the plague. The effects of issues are still more to our purpose. We observe a plentiful discharge of matter from them every time the body is exposed to cold, and the febrile effects of it upon the system are thereby frequently obviated. How far a ratio exists between the degrees of inflammation and the discharge of matter from the arm, and the degrees of fever and eruption, must be determined by future and very accurate observations. If it should appear, that there are the least inflammation and smallest discharge, where there have been the highest fever and most copious eruption; and, on the contrary, if it should appear that there are the greatest inflammation and discharge, where there have been the least fever and smallest eruption, I must beg leave to add, without attempting in this place to explain the reasons of it, that the remark, if generally true, is liable to some exceptions. But the subject is involved in darkness; I shall be satisfied if I have brought you within sight of the promised land. Your own ingenuity, like another Jewish leader, must conduct you thither.
The indications in the treatment of the body during the eruptive fever are,
I. To regulate the degree of fever.
II. To mitigate troublesome and alarming symptoms.
The fever which produces the eruption is generally of the inflammatory kind. It sometimes, therefore, comes on with the symptoms of great heat, preceded with chilliness, and determination to the head and breast, and a full hard pulse. The remedies proper in this case are,
1. Blood-letting. The quantity to be drawn must be regulated by the violence of the symptoms, the constitution, habits, and even country of the patient, and by the season of the year. I have never found more than one bleeding, to the quantity of twelve or fourteen ounces, necessary in any stage or degree of the eruptive fever of the small-pox by inoculation.
2. Cool air is of the utmost consequence in the eruptive fever. The use of this remedy in fevers marks an æra, not only in the management of the small-pox, but in medicine. The degrees of cold should always be increased in proportion to the violence of the fever. Stove-rooms, so common in this country, should be carefully avoided. The more we oblige our patients to sit up and walk in the open air, the better. Even in those cases wherethey languish most for the bed, they should be encouraged rather to lie upon, thanunderthe bed-clothes. Children should be stript of flannel petticoats that come in contact with their skins; and even clouts should be laid aside, if possible without great inconvenience, and at any rate they should be often removed. Great and obvious as the advantages of cold air appear to be in the eruptive fever, it has sometimes been used to an excess that has done mischief. There are few cases where a degree of cold below fifty ofFahrenheit'sthermometer is necessary in this stage of the small-pox. When it has been used below this, or where patients have been exposed to a damp atmosphere some degrees above it, I have heard of inflammations of an alarming nature being produced in the throat and breast.
3. The bowels, more especially of children, should be kept open with gentle laxatives. And,
4. Cool subacid drinks should be plentifully used until the eruption be completed.
Sometimes the small-pox comes on with a fever the reverse of that which we have described. The heat is inconsiderable, the pulse is weak, and scarcely quicker than ordinary, and the patientcomplains of but slight pains in the back and head. Here the treatment should be widely different from that which has been mentioned when the fever is of the inflammatory kind. Bleeding in this case is hurtful, and even cool air must be admitted with caution. The business of the physician in this case is to excite a gentle action in the sanguiferous system, in order to produce the degree of fever which is necessary to the eruption of the pock. For this purpose he may recommend the use of warm drinks, and even of a warm bed with advantage. If the eruption delay beyond the third day, with all the circumstances of debility that have been mentioned, I have frequently ordered my patients to eat a few ounces of animal food, and to drink a glass or two of wine, with the most desirable success. The effects of this indulgence are most obvious where the weakness of the fever and the delay of the eruption in children, have made it necessary to allow it to mothers and nurses.
The small-pox by inoculation so seldom comes on with the symptoms of what is called a malignant fever, that little need be said of the treatment proper in such cases. I shall only observe, that the cold regimen in the highest degree, promises more success in these cases than in any others. I have repeatedly been told, that when the small-pox appearsconfluent among the Africans, it is a common practice for mothers to rub their children all over with pepper, and plunge them immediately afterwards into a spring of cold water. This, they say, destroys a great part of the pock, and disposes the remainder to a kindly suppuration. From the success that has attended the use of the cold bath in malignant fevers in some parts of Europe[61], I am disposed to believe in the efficacy of the African remedy.
The fever generally lasts three days, and the eruption continues for a similar length of time, counting the last day of the fever, as the first day of the eruption. But this remark is liable to many exceptions. We sometimes observe the eruption to begin on the first, and often on the second day of the fever; and we sometimes meet with cases in which a second eruption comes on after the fever has abated for several days, and thefirst eruption considerably advanced in its progress towards a complete suppuration. This is often occasioned by the application of excessive cold or heat to the body, or by a sudden and premature use of stimulating drinks, or animal food.
I come now to treat of the best method of mitigating troublesome and alarming symptoms.
The onlyalarmingsymptom is convulsions, to which children are subject during the time of dentition. These have been less frequent, since the liberal and judicious use of cool air in the eruptive fever than formerly. They are often relieved by putting the feet in warm water. But a more effectual and speedy method of curing them, is to expose our patients suddenly to the open air. The colder the air the quicker relief it affords in these cases. To prevent the return of the fits, as well as to allay any disagreeable and troublesome startings, a few drops of laudanum should be given. They generally yield in a little while to this excellent remedy.
The next symptom which demands the aid of our art, is the inflammation and sore on the arm. Poultices of all kinds should be laid aside, as tending to increase the inflammation and sore. Insteadof these, the part affected should be washed three or four times a day with cold water[62]. This application is not only agreeable to our patients, but soon checks the progress of the inflammation, and disposes the sore to heal about the time the eruption is completed. The eyes should likewise be washed frequently with cold water, to secure them from pustules and inflammation. With respect to those alarming or troublesome symptoms which occur in those cases where the pocks are numerous, or confluent, they happen so seldom in inoculation, that they do not come properly under our notice in this place. They are moreover fully discussed by Doctors Boerhaave, Huxham, Hillary, and other practical writers.
V. I come now, in the last place, to deliver a few directions that are necessary after the eruption and suppuration are over.
It is well known that eruptions of an obstinate nature sometimes follow the small-pox. These I believe are often occasioned by a toosuddenand speedy use of animal food. To guard against thesedisagreeable consequences of inoculation, it is of the utmost importance to enjoin a cautious andgradualreturn to the free use of an animal diet; and at the same time it will be necessary to give our patients a dose or two of purging physic.
Thus, gentlemen, have I delivered to you a short history of the new method of inoculating for the small-pox. I am aware that prejudices are entertained against some parts of it by physicians of the most ancient name and character among us. I have witnessed the effects of the old and new methods of preparing the body upon many thousand patients, and I am satisfied, not only from my own observations, but from the experience of gentlemen upon whose judgments I rely more than upon my own, that the new method is by far the safest and most successful. Added to this, I can assure my pupils, that I have never known a single instance of a patient, prepared and treated in the manner I have described, that ever had an abscess after the small-pox, or even such an inflammation or sore upon the arm as required the application of a poultice.
Footnotes:[59]I am disposed to believe that the external applications which are used by the Indians for the cure of the bite of poisonous snakes act only by exciting inflammation and suppuration, which discharge the poison from the wound before it is absorbed. All their external remedies are of astimulatingnature.[60]Since the publication of the first edition of this lecture, I have heard of two cases, in one of which the fever did not come on till the twentieth, and in the other till the twenty-first day after the infection was communicated to the body. In some of these tedious cases, I have seen an inflammation and suppuration on the punctured part of the arm on the eighth day without any fever. Perhaps in these cases the inflammation and suppuration are only cuticular, and that the small-pox is taken from the matter which is formed by them.[61]In a dissertation entitled “Epidemia verna quæ Wratislaviam, Anno. 1737 afflixit,” published in the appendix to the Acta Nat. Curios. Vol. X. it appears, that washing the body all over with cold water in putrid fevers, attended with great debility, was attended with success atBreslawinSilesia. The practice has since been adopted, we are told, by several of the neighbouring countries.Cullen's first lines of the practice of physic.[62]Where the inflammation on the arm has been so considerable as not to yield immediately to the application of cold water, I have used the vegeto-mineral water with advantage.
Footnotes:
[59]I am disposed to believe that the external applications which are used by the Indians for the cure of the bite of poisonous snakes act only by exciting inflammation and suppuration, which discharge the poison from the wound before it is absorbed. All their external remedies are of astimulatingnature.
[59]I am disposed to believe that the external applications which are used by the Indians for the cure of the bite of poisonous snakes act only by exciting inflammation and suppuration, which discharge the poison from the wound before it is absorbed. All their external remedies are of astimulatingnature.
[60]Since the publication of the first edition of this lecture, I have heard of two cases, in one of which the fever did not come on till the twentieth, and in the other till the twenty-first day after the infection was communicated to the body. In some of these tedious cases, I have seen an inflammation and suppuration on the punctured part of the arm on the eighth day without any fever. Perhaps in these cases the inflammation and suppuration are only cuticular, and that the small-pox is taken from the matter which is formed by them.
[60]Since the publication of the first edition of this lecture, I have heard of two cases, in one of which the fever did not come on till the twentieth, and in the other till the twenty-first day after the infection was communicated to the body. In some of these tedious cases, I have seen an inflammation and suppuration on the punctured part of the arm on the eighth day without any fever. Perhaps in these cases the inflammation and suppuration are only cuticular, and that the small-pox is taken from the matter which is formed by them.
[61]In a dissertation entitled “Epidemia verna quæ Wratislaviam, Anno. 1737 afflixit,” published in the appendix to the Acta Nat. Curios. Vol. X. it appears, that washing the body all over with cold water in putrid fevers, attended with great debility, was attended with success atBreslawinSilesia. The practice has since been adopted, we are told, by several of the neighbouring countries.Cullen's first lines of the practice of physic.
[61]In a dissertation entitled “Epidemia verna quæ Wratislaviam, Anno. 1737 afflixit,” published in the appendix to the Acta Nat. Curios. Vol. X. it appears, that washing the body all over with cold water in putrid fevers, attended with great debility, was attended with success atBreslawinSilesia. The practice has since been adopted, we are told, by several of the neighbouring countries.Cullen's first lines of the practice of physic.
[62]Where the inflammation on the arm has been so considerable as not to yield immediately to the application of cold water, I have used the vegeto-mineral water with advantage.
[62]Where the inflammation on the arm has been so considerable as not to yield immediately to the application of cold water, I have used the vegeto-mineral water with advantage.
By ardent spirits, I mean those liquors only which are obtained by distillation from fermented substances of any kind. To their effects upon the bodies and minds of men, the following inquiry shall be exclusively confined. Fermented liquors contain so little spirit, and that so intimately combined with other matters, that they can seldom be drunken in sufficient quantities to produce intoxication, and its subsequent effects, without exciting a disrelish to their taste, or pain, from their distending the stomach. They are moreover, when taken in a moderate quantity, generally innocent, and often have a friendly influence upon health and life.
The effects of ardent spirits divide themselves into such as are of a prompt, and such as are of a chronic nature. The former discover themselves in drunkenness, and the latter, in a numerous train of diseases and vices of the body and mind.
I. I shall begin by briefly describing their prompt, or immediate effects, in a fit of drunkenness.
This odious disease (for by that name it should be called) appears with more or less of the following symptoms, and most commonly in the order in which I shall enumerate them.
1. Unusual garrulity.
2. Unusual silence.
3. Captiousness, and a disposition to quarrel.
4. Uncommon good humour, and an insipid simpering, or laugh.
5. Profane swearing, and cursing.
6. A disclosure of their own, or other people's secrets.
7. A rude disposition to tell those persons in company, whom they know, their faults.
8. Certain immodest actions. I am sorry to say, this sign of the first stage of drunkenness, sometimes appears in women, who, when sober, are uniformly remarkable for chaste and decent manners.
9. A clipping of words.
10. Fighting; a black eye, or a swelled nose, often mark this grade of drunkenness.
11. Certain extravagant acts which indicate a temporary fit of madness. These are singing, hallooing, roaring, imitating the noises of brute animals, jumping, tearing off clothes, dancing naked, breaking glasses and china, and dashing other articles of household furniture upon the ground, or floor. After a while the paroxysm of drunkenness is completely formed. The face now becomes flushed; the eyes project, and are somewhat watery; winking is less frequent than is natural; the under lip is protruded; the head inclines a little to one shoulder; the jaw falls; belchings and hiccup take place; the limbs totter; the whole body staggers. The unfortunate subject of this history next falls onhis seat; he looks around him with a vacant countenance, and mutters inarticulate sounds to himself. He attempts to rise and walk; in this attempt, he falls upon his side, from which he gradually turns upon his back. He now closes his eyes, and falls into a profound sleep, frequently attended with snoring, and profuse sweats, and sometimes with such a relaxation of the muscles which confine the bladder and the lower bowels, as to produce a symptom which delicacy forbids me to mention. In this condition, he often lies from ten, twelve, and twenty-four hours, to two, three, four, and five days, an object of pity and disgust to his family and friends. His recovery from this fit of intoxication is marked with several peculiar appearances. He opens his eyes, and closes them again; he gapes and stretches his limbs; he then coughs and pukes; his voice is hoarse; he rises with difficulty, and staggers to a chair; his eyes resemble balls of fire; his hands tremble; he loathes the sight of food; he calls for a glass of spirits to compose his stomach; now and then he emits a deep-fetched sigh, or groan, from a transient twinge of conscience, but he more frequently scolds, and curses every thing around him. In this state of languor and stupidity he remains for two or three days, before he is able to resume his former habits of business and conversation.
Pythagoras we are told maintained that the souls of men after death, expiated the crimes committed by them in this world, by animating certain brute animals; and that the souls of those animals in their turns, entered into men, and carried with them all their peculiar qualities and vices. This doctrine of one of the wisest and best of the Greek philosophers, was probably intended only to convey a lively idea of the changes which are induced in the body and mind of man by a fit of drunkenness. In folly, it causes him to resemble a calf; in stupidity, an ass; in roaring, a mad bull; in quarrelling, and fighting, a dog; in cruelty, a tiger; in fetor, a skunk; in filthiness, a hog; and in obscenity, a he-goat.
It belongs to the history of drunkenness to remark, that its paroxysms occur, like the paroxysms of many diseases, at certain periods, and after longer or shorter intervals. They often begin with annual, and gradually increase in their frequency, until they appear in quarterly, monthly, weekly, and quotidian or daily periods. Finally they afford scarcely any marks of remission, either during the day or the night. There was a citizen of Philadelphia, many years ago, in whom drunkenness appeared in this protracted form. In speaking of him to one of his neighbours, I said,
“Does he notsometimesget drunk?” “You mean,” said his neighbour, “is he notsometimessober?”
It is further remarkable, that drunkenness resembles certain hereditary, family, and contagious diseases. I have once known it to descend from a father to four out of five of his children. I have seen three, and once four brothers who were born of sober ancestors, affected by it, and I have heard of its spreading through a whole family composed of members not originally related to each other. These facts are important, and should not be overlooked by parents, in deciding upon the matrimonial connections of their children.
Let us next attend to the chronic effects of ardent spirits upon the body and mind. In the body, they dispose to every form of acute disease; they moreoverexcitefevers in persons predisposed to them, from other causes. This has been remarked in all the yellow fevers which have visited the cities of the United States. Hard drinkers seldom escape, and rarely recover from them. The following diseases are the usual consequences of the habitual use of ardent spirits, viz.
1. A decay of appetite, sickness at stomach, and a puking of bile, or a discharge of a frothy and viscid phlegm by hawking, in the morning.
2. Obstructions of the liver. The fable of Prometheus, on whose liver a vulture was said to prey constantly, as a punishment for his stealing fire from heaven, was intended to illustrate the painful effects of ardent spirits upon that organ of the body.
3. Jaundice and dropsy of the belly and limbs, and finally of every cavity in the body. A swelling in the feet and legs is so characteristic a mark of habits of intemperance, that the merchants in Charleston, I have been told, cease to trust the planters of South-Carolina, as soon as they perceive it. They very naturally conclude industry and virtue to be extinct in that man, in whom that symptom of disease has been produced by the intemperate use of distilled spirits.
4. Hoarseness, and a husky cough, which often terminate in consumption, and sometimes in an acute and fatal disease of the lungs.
5. Diabetes, that is, a frequent and weakening discharge of pale, or sweetish urine.
6. Redness and eruptions on different parts of the body. They generally begin on the nose, and after gradually extending all over the face, sometimes descend to the limbs in the form of leprosy. They have been called “rum-buds,” when they appear in the face. In persons who have occasionally survived these effects of ardent spirits on the skin, the face after a while becomes bloated, and its redness is succeeded by a death-like paleness. Thus the same fire which produces a red colour in iron, when urged to a more intense degree, produces what has been called a white heat.
7. A fetid breath, composed of every thing that is offensive in putrid animal matter.
8. Frequent and disgusting belchings. Dr. Haller relates the case of a notorious drunkard having been suddenly destroyed, in consequence of the vapour discharged from his stomach by belching, accidentally taking fire by coming in contact with the flame of a candle.
9. Epilepsy.
10. Gout, in all its various forms of swelled limbs, colic, palsy, and apoplexy.
Lastly, 11. Madness. The late Dr. Waters, while he acted as house pupil and apothecary of the Pennsylvania hospital, assured me, that in one-third of the patients confined by this terrible disease, it had been induced by ardent spirits.
Most of the diseases which have been enumerated are of a mortal nature. They are more certainly induced, and terminate more speedily in death, when spirits are taken in such quantities, and at such times, as to produce frequent intoxication: but it may serve to remove an error with which some intemperate people console themselves, to remark, that ardent spirits often bring on fatal diseases without producing drunkenness. I have known many persons destroyed by them, who were never completely intoxicated during the whole course of their lives. The solitary instances of longevity which are now and then met with in hard drinkers, no more disprove the deadly effects of ardent spirits, than the solitary instances of recoveries from apparent death by drowning, prove that there is no danger to life from a human body lying an hour or two under water.
The body after its death, from the use of distilled spirits, exhibits by dissection certain appearances which are of a peculiar nature. The fibresof the stomach and bowels are contracted; abscesses, gangrene, and schirri are found in the viscera; the bronchial vessels are contracted; the blood-vessels and tendons, in many parts of the body, are more or less ossified; and even the hair of the head possesses a crispness which renders it less valuable to wig-makers than the hair of sober people.
Not less destructive are the effects of ardent spirits upon the human mind. They impair the memory, debilitate the understanding, and pervert the moral faculties. It was probably from observing these effects of intemperance in drinking, upon the mind, that a law was formerly passed in Spain, which excluded drunkards from being witnesses in a court of justice. But the demoralizing effects of distilled spirits do not stop here. They produce not only falsehood, but fraud, theft, uncleanliness, and murder. Like the demoniac mentioned in the New Testament, their name is “legion,” for they convey into the soul, a host of vices and crimes.
A more affecting spectacle cannot be exhibited, than a person into whom this infernal spirit, generated by habits of intemperance, has entered. It is more or less affecting, according to the stationthe person fills in a family, or in society, who is possessed by it. Is he a husband? How deep the anguish which rends the bosom of his wife! Is she a wife? Who can measure the shame and aversion which she excites in her husband! Is he the father, or is she the mother of a family of children? See their averted looks from their parent, and their blushing looks at each other! Is he a magistrate? or has he been chosen to fill a high and respectable station in the councils of his country? What humiliating fears of corruption in the administration of the laws, and of the subversion of public order and happiness, appear in the countenances of all who see him! Is he a minister of the gospel? Here language fails me.—— If angels weep,—it is at such a sight.
In pointing out the evils produced by ardent spirits, let us not pass by their effects upon the estates of the persons who are addicted to them. Are they inhabitants of cities? Behold their houses stripped gradually of their furniture, and pawned, or sold by a constable, to pay tavern debts! See their names upon record in the dockets of every court, and whole pages of newspapers filled with advertisements of their estates for public sale! Are they inhabitants of country places? Behold their houses with shattered windows! their barns withleaky roofs! their gardens over-run with weeds! their fields with broken fences! their hogs without yokes! their sheep without wool! their cattle and horses without fat! and their children filthy, and half clad, without manners, principles, and morals! This picture of agricultural wretchedness is seldom of long duration. The farms and property thus neglected, and depreciated, are seized and sold for the benefit of a group of creditors. The children that were born with the prospect of inheriting them, are bound out to service in the neighbourhood; while their parents, the unworthy authors of their misfortunes, ramble into new and distant settlements, alternately fed on their way by the hand of charity, or a little casual labour.
Thus we see poverty and misery, crimes and infamy, diseases and death, are all the natural and usual consequences of the intemperate use of ardent spirits.
I have classed death among the consequences of hard drinking. But it is not death from the immediate hand of the Deity, nor from any of the instruments of it which were created by him. It is death fromSUICIDE. Yes! thou poor degraded creature, who art daily lifting the poisoned bowl to thy lips, cease to avoid the unhallowed groundin which the self-murderer is interred, and wonder no longer that the sun should shine, and the rain fall, and the grass look green upon his grave. Thou art perpetrating gradually, by the use of ardent spirits, what he has effected suddenly, by opium, or a halter. Considering how many circumstances, from a sudden gust of passion, or from derangement, may palliate his guilt, or that (unlike yours) it was not preceded and accompanied by any other crime, it is probable his condemnation will be less than yours at the day of judgment.
I shall now take notice of the occasions and circumstances which are supposed to render the use of ardent spirits necessary, and endeavour to show that the arguments in favour of their use in such cases are founded in error, and that, in each of them, ardent spirits, instead of affording strength to the body, increase the evils they are intended to relieve.
1. They are said to be necessary in very cold weather. This is far from being true; for the temporary warmth they produce, is always succeeded by a greater disposition in the body to be affected by cold. Warm dresses, a plentiful meal just before exposure to the cold, and eating occasionallya little gingerbread, or any other cordial food, is a much more durable method of preserving the heat of the body in cold weather.
2. They are said to be necessary in very warm weather. Experience proves that they increase instead of lessening the effects of heat upon the body, and thereby dispose to diseases of all kinds. Even in the warm climate of the West-Indies, Dr. Bell asserts this to be true. “Rum (says this author) whether used habitually, moderately, or in excessive quantities, in the West-Indies, always diminishes the strength of the body, and renders men more susceptible of disease, and unfit for any service in which vigour or activity is required[63].” As well might we throw oil into a house, the roof of which was on fire, in order to prevent the flames from extending to its inside, as pour ardent spirits into the stomach, to lessen the effects of a hot sun upon the skin.
3. Nor do ardent spirits lessen the effects of hard labour upon the body. Look at the horse: with every muscle of his body swelled from morning till night in the plough, or a team, does hemake signs for a draught of toddy or a glass of spirits, to enable him to cleave the ground, or to climb a hill? No; he requires nothing but cool water, and substantial food. There is no nourishment in ardent spirits. The strength they produce in labour is of a transient nature, and is always followed by a sense of weakness and fatigue.
But are there no conditions of the human body in which ardent spirits may be given? I answer, there are. 1st. When the body has been suddenly exhausted of its strength, and a disposition to faintness has been induced. Here a few spoonsful, or a wine-glassful of spirits, with or without water, may be administered with safety and advantage. In this case we comply strictly with the advice of Solomon, who restricts the use of “strong drink” only “to him who is ready to perish.” 2dly. When the body has been exposed for a long time to wet weather, more especially if it be combined with cold. Here a moderate quantity of spirits is not only safe, but highly proper to obviate debility, and to prevent a fever. They will more certainly have those salutary effects, if the feet are at the same time bathed with them, or a half pint of them poured into the shoes or boots. These I believe are the only two cases in which distilled spirits are useful or necessary to persons in health.
But it may be said, if we reject spirits from being a part of our drinks, what liquors shall we substitute in their room? I answer, in the first place,
1.Simple Water.I have known many instances of persons who have followed the most laborious employments for many years in the open air, and in warm and cold weather, who never drank any thing but water, and enjoyed uninterrupted good health. Dr. Moseley, who resided many years in the West-Indies, confirms this remark. “I aver (says the doctor), from my own knowledge and custom, as well as the custom and observations of many other people,that those who drink nothing but water, or make it their principal drink, are but little affected by the climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue without inconvenience, and are never subject to troublesome or dangerous diseases.”
Persons who are unable to relish this simple beverage of nature, may drink some one, or of all the following liquors, in preference to ardent spirits.
2.Cyder.This excellent liquor contains a small quantity of spirit, but so diluted, and blunted by being combined with a large quantity of saccharine matter, and water, as to be perfectly wholesome. It sometimes disagrees with persons subject to the rheumatism, but it may be made inoffensive to such people, by extinguishing a red hot iron in it, or by mixing it with water. It is to be lamented, that the late frosts in the spring so often deprive us of the fruit which affords this liquor. The effects of these frosts have been in some measure obviated by giving an orchard a north-west exposure, so as to check too early vegetation, and by kindling two or three large fires of brush or straw, to the windward of the orchard, the evening before we expect a night of frost. This last expedient has in many instancespreserved the fruit of an orchard, to the great joy and emolument of the ingenious husbandman.
3.Malt Liquors.The grain from which these liquors are obtained, is not liable, like the apple, to be affected by frost, and therefore they can be procured at all times, and at a moderate price. They contain a good deal of nourishment; hence we find many of the poor people in Great-Britain endure hard labour with no other food than a quart or three pints of beer, with a few pounds of bread in a day. As it will be difficult to prevent small beer from becoming sour in warm weather, an excellent substitute may be made for it by mixing bottled porter, ale, or strong beer with an equal quantity of water; or a pleasant beer may be made by adding to a bottle of porter, ten quarts of water, and a pound of brown sugar, or a pint of molasses. After they have been well mixed, pour the liquor into bottles, and place them, loosely corked, in a cool cellar. In two or three days, it will be fit for use. A spoonful of ginger added to the mixture, renders it more lively, and agreeable to the taste.
3.Wines.These fermented liquors are composed of the same ingredients as cyder, and are both cordial and nourishing. The peasants ofFrance, who drink them in large quantities, are a sober and healthy body of people. Unlike ardent spirits, which render the temper irritable, wines generally inspire cheerfulness and good humour. It is to be lamented that the grape has not as yet been sufficiently cultivated in our country, to afford wine to our citizens; but many excellent substitutes may be made for it, from the native fruits of all the states. If two barrels of cyder fresh from the press, are boiled into one, and afterwards fermented, and kept for two or three years in a dry cellar, it affords a liquor which, according to the quality of the apple from which the cyder is made, has the taste of Malaga, or Rhenish wine. It affords when mixed with water, a most agreeable drink in summer. I have taken the liberty of calling itPomona wine. There is another method of making a pleasant wine from the apple, by adding four and twenty gallons of new cyder to three gallons of syrup made from the expressed juice of sweet apples. When thoroughly fermented, and kept for a few years, it becomes fit for use. The blackberry of our fields, and the raspberry and currant of our gardens, afford likewise an agreeable and wholesome wine, when pressed and mixed with certain proportions of sugar and water, and a little spirit, to counteract their disposition to an excessivefermentation. It is no objection to these cheap and home-made wines, that they are unfit for use until they are two or three years old. The foreign wines in common use in our country, require not only a much longer time to bring them to perfection, but to prevent their being disagreeable, even to the taste.
4.MolassesandWATER, alsoVINEGARandWATER, sweetened with sugar or molasses, form an agreeable drink in warm weather. It is pleasant and cooling, and tends to keep up those gentle and uniform sweats, on which health and life often depend. Vinegar and water constituted the only drink of the soldiers of the Roman republic, and it is well known they marched and fought in a warm climate, and beneath a load of arms which weighed sixty pounds. Boaz, a wealthy farmer in Palestine, we find treated his reapers with nothing but bread dipped in vinegar. To such persons as object to the taste of vinegar, sour milk, or butter-milk, or sweet milk diluted with water, may be given in its stead. I have known the labour of the longest and hottest days in summer supported, by means of these pleasant and wholesome drinks, with great firmness, and ended, with scarcely a complaint of fatigue.
5. TheSUGAR MAPLEaffords a thin juice, which has long been used by the farmers in Connecticut, as a cool and refreshing drink, in the time of harvest. The settlers in the western counties of the middle states will do well to let a few of the trees which yield this pleasant juice remain in all their fields. They may prove the means, not only of saving their children and grand-children many hundred pounds, but of saving their bodies from disease and death, and their souls from misery beyond the grave.
6.Coffeepossesses agreeable and exhilarating qualities, and might be used with great advantage to obviate the painful effects of heat, cold, and fatigue upon the body. I once knew a country physician, who made it a practice to drink a pint of strong coffee previously to his taking a long or cold ride. It was more cordial to him than spirits, in any of the forms in which they are commonly used.
The use of the cold bath in the morning, and of the warm bath in the evening, are happily calculated to strengthen the body in the former part of the day, and to restore it in the latter, from the languor and fatigue which are induced by heat and labour.
Let it not be said, ardent spirits have become necessary from habit in harvest, and in other seasons of uncommon and arduous labour. The habit is a bad one, and may be easily broken. Let but half a dozen farmers in a neighbourhood combine to allow higher wages to their labourers than are common, and a sufficient quantity ofanyof the pleasant and wholesome liquors I have recommended, and they may soon, by their example, abolish the practice of giving them spirits. In a little while they will be delighted with the good effects of their association. Their grain and hay will be gathered into their barns in less time, and in a better condition than formerly, and of course at a less expense, and a hundred disagreeable scenes from sickness, contention, and accidents will be avoided, all of which follow in a greater or less degree the use of ardent spirits.
Nearly all diseases have their predisposing causes. The same thing may be said of the intemperate use of distilled spirits. It will, therefore, be useful to point out the different employments, situations, and conditions of the body and mind, which predispose to the love of those liquors, and to accompany them with directions to prevent persons being ignorantly and undesignedly seduced into the habitual and destructive use of them.
1. Labourers bear with great difficulty, long intervals between their meals. To enable them to support the waste of their strength, their stomachs should be constantly, but moderately stimulated by aliment, and this is best done by their eating four or five times in a day during the seasons of great bodily exertion. The food at this time should besolid, consisting chiefly of salted meat. The vegetables used with it, should possess some activity, or they should be made savoury by a mixture of spices. Onions and garlic are of a most cordial nature. They composed a part of the diet which enabled the Israelites to endure, in a warm climate, the heavy tasks imposed upon them by their Egyptian masters; and they were eaten, Horace and Virgil tell us, by the Roman farmers, to repair the waste of their strength, by the toils of harvest. There are likewise certain sweet substances, which support the body under the pressure of labour. The negroes in the West-Indies become strong, and even fat, by drinking the juice of the sugar cane, in the season of grinding it. The Jewish soldiers were invigorated by occasionally eating raisins and figs. A bread composed of wheat flour, molasses, and ginger (commonly called gingerbread), taken in small quantities during the day, is happily calculated to obviate the debility induced upon the body by constant labour. All these substances,whether of an animal or vegetable nature, lessen the desire, as well as the necessity, for cordial drinks, and impart equable and durable strength to every part of the system.
2. Valetudinarians, especially those who are afflicted with diseases of the stomach and bowels, are very apt to seek relief from ardent spirits. Let such people be cautious how they make use of this dangerous remedy. I have known many men and women of excellent characters and principles, who have been betrayed, by occasional doses of gin and brandy, into a love of those liquors, and have afterwards fallen sacrifices to their fatal effects. The different preparations of opium are much more safe and efficacious than distilled cordials of any kind, in flatulent or spasmodic affections of the stomach and bowels. So great is the danger of contracting a love for distilled liquors, by accustoming the stomach to their stimulus, that as few medicines as possible should be given in spiritous vehicles, in chronic diseases. A physician, of great eminence and uncommon worth, who died towards the close of the last century, in London, in taking leave of a young physician of this city, who had finished his studies under his patronage, impressed this caution with peculiar force upon him, and lamented at the same time, in pathetic terms, that he had innocentlymade many sots, by prescribing brandy and water in stomach complaints. It is difficult to tell how many persons have been destroyed by those physicians who have adopted Dr. Brown's indiscriminate practice in the use of stimulating remedies, the most popular of which is ardent spirits, but, it is well known, several of them have died of intemperance in this city, since the year 1790. They were probably led to it, by drinking brandy and water, to relieve themselves from the frequent attacks of debility and indisposition, to which the labours of a physician expose him, and for which rest, fasting, a gentle purge, or weak diluting drinks would have been safe and more certain cures.
None of these remarks are intended to preclude the use of spirits in the low state of short, or what are called acute diseases, for, in such cases, they produce their effects too soon to create a habitual desire for them.
3. Some people, from living in countries subject to intermitting fevers, endeavour to fortify themselves against them, by taking two or three wine-glasses of bitters, made with spirits, every day. There is great danger of contracting habits of intemperance from this practice. Besides, thismode of preventing intermittents is far from being a certain one. A much better security against them, is a tea-spoonful of the jesuits bark, taken every morning during a sickly season. If this safe and excellent medicine cannot be had, a gill or half a pint of a strong watery infusion of centaury, camomile, wormwood, or rue, mixed with a little of the calamus of our meadows, may be taken every morning, with nearly the same advantage as the jesuits bark. Those persons who live in a sickly country, and cannot procure any of the preventives of autumnal fevers which have been mentioned, should avoid the morning and evening air; should kindle fires in their houses, on damp days, and in cool evenings, throughout the whole summer; and put on winter clothes, about the first week in September. The last part of these directions applies only to the inhabitants of the middle states.
4. Men who follow professions, which require constant exercise of the faculties of their minds, are very apt to seek relief, by the use of ardent spirits, from the fatigue which succeeds great mental exertions. To such persons, it may be a discovery to know, thatTEAis a much better remedy for that purpose. By its grateful and gentle stimulus, it removes fatigue, restores the excitement of the mind, and invigorates the whole system. I amno advocate for the excessive use of tea. When taken too strong, it is hurtful, especially to the female constitution; but when taken of a moderate degree of strength, and in moderate quantities, with sugar and cream, or milk, I believe it is, in general, innoxious, and at all times to be preferred to ardent spirits, as a cordial for studious men. The late Anthony Benezet, one of the most laborious schoolmasters I ever knew, informed me, he had been prevented from the love of spiritous liquors, by acquiring a love for tea in early life. Three or four cups, taken in an afternoon, carried off the fatigue of a whole day's labour in his school. This worthy man lived to be seventy-one years of age, and died of an acute disease, with the full exercise of all the faculties of his mind. But the use of tea counteracts a desire for distilled spirits, during greatbodily, as well as mental exertions. Of this, Captain Forest has furnished us with a recent and remarkable proof, in his History of a Voyage from Calcutta, to the Marqui Archipelago. “I have always observed (says this ingenious mariner) when sailors drinkTEA, it weans them from the thoughts of drinking strong liquors, and pernicious grog; and with this, they are soon contented. Not so with whatever will intoxicate, be it what it will. This has always been my remark. I therefore always encourage it, without their knowing why.”
5. Women have sometimes been led to seek relief from what is called breeding sickness, by the use of ardent spirits. A little gingerbread, or biscuit, taken occasionally, so as to prevent the stomach being empty, is a much better remedy for that disease.
6. Persons under the pressure of debt, disappointments in worldly pursuits, and guilt, have sometimes sought to drown their sorrows in strong drink. The only radical cure for those evils, is to be found in religion; but where its support is not resorted to, wine and opium should always be preferred to ardent spirits. They are far less injurious to the body and mind, than spirits, and the habits of attachment to them are easily broken, after time and repentance have removed the evils they were taken to relieve.
7. The sociable and imitative nature of man, often disposes him to adopt the most odious and destructive practices from his companions. The French soldiers who conquered Holland, in the year 1794, brought back with them the love and use of brandy, and thereby corrupted the inhabitants of several of the departments of France, who had been previously distinguished for their temperate and sober manners. Many other facts mightbe mentioned, to show how important it is to avoid the company of persons addicted to the use of ardent spirits.
8. Smoking and chewing tobacco, by rendering water and simple liquors insipid to the taste, dispose very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent spirits. The practice of smoking cigars has, in every part of our country, been more followed by a general use of brandy and water, as a common drink, more especially by that class of citizens who have not been in the habit of drinking wine, or malt liquors. The less, therefore, tobacco is used in the above ways, the better.
9. No man ever became suddenly a drunkard. It is by gradually accustoming the taste and stomach to ardent spirits, in the forms ofGROGandTODDY, that men have been led to love them in their more destructive mixtures, and in their simple state. Under the impression of this truth, were it possible for me to speak with a voice so loud as to be heard from the river St. Croix to the remotest shores of the Mississippi, which bound the territory of the United States, I would say, Friends and fellow-citizens, avoid the habitual use of those two seducing liquors, whether they be made with brandy, rum, gin, Jamaica spirits, whiskey,or what is called cherry bounce. It is true, some men, by limiting the strength of those drinks, by measuring the spirit and water, have drunken them for many years, and even during a long life, without acquiring habits of intemperance or intoxication, but many more have been insensibly led, by drinking weak toddy and grog first at their meals, to take them for their constant drink, in the intervals of their meals; afterwards to take them, of an increased strength, before breakfast in the morning; and finally to destroy themselves by drinking undiluted spirits, during every hour of the day and night. I am not singular in this remark. “The consequences of drinking rum and water, orgrog, as it is called (says Dr. Moseley), is, that habit increases the desire of more spirits, and decreases its effects; and there are very few grog-drinkers who long survive the practice of debauching with it, without acquiring the odious nuisance of dram-drinkers' breath, and downright stupidity and impotence[64].” To enforce the caution against the use of those two apparently innocent and popular liquors still further, I shall select one instance, from among many, to show the ordinary manner in which they beguile and destroy their votaries. A citizen of Philadelphia, once of a fairand sober character, drank toddy for many years, as his constant drink. From this he proceeded to drink grog. After a while, nothing would satisfy him but slings made of equal parts of rum and water, with a little sugar. From slings he advanced to raw rum, and from common rum to Jamaica spirits. Here he rested for a few months, but at length, finding even Jamaica spirits were not strong enough to warm his stomach, he made it a constant practice to throw a table-spoonful of ground pepper in each glass of his spirits, in order, to use his own words, “to take off their coldness.” He soon after died a martyr to his intemperance.
Ministers of the gospel, of every denomination, in the United States! aid me with all the weight you possess in society, from the dignity and usefulness of your sacred office, to save our fellow men from being destroyed, by the great destroyer of their lives and souls. In order more successfully to effect this purpose, permit me to suggest to you to employ the same wise modes of instruction, which you use in your attempts to prevent their destruction by other vices. You expose the evils of covetousness, in order to prevent theft; you point out the sinfulness of impure desires, in order to prevent adultery; and you dissuade from anger, and malice, in order to prevent murder. Inlike manner, denounce, by your preaching, conversation, and examples, the seducing influence of toddy and grog, when you aim to prevent all the crimes and miseries, which are the offspring of strong drink.