228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Arcadian in its innocence respecting the use of spirits is remark- 

 able. The laws concerning spirits, local option, license, and pro- 

 hibition, and the penalties for common drunkards, selling to 

 minors, soldiers, Indians, and drinking on Sunday, and where and 

 when liquors should be sold, passed in 1821-^24 and 1829, give 

 no indications of Arcadian innocence in Maine at that time. 



In 1829 the first local option and literal prohibition law was 

 passed in Maine ; this was changed from time to time, and finally 

 became the famous Maine law of 1816 and 1851, which exists 

 to-day. In a little volume by Dr. Jewett, published in 1853, ap- 

 pear some harrowing accounts of the crimes and pauperism in 

 Maine springing directly from drunkenness, long before the fa- 

 mous prohibitory law was enacted. Thus there is no doubt that 

 the early settlers of Maine were as much addicted to, the so-called 

 vices of drink as any other people. 



The author declares that all prohibitory liquor laws are dan- 

 gerous to the physical, moral, and political health of the commu- 

 nity ; that (1) " they increase the demand for, while deteriorating 

 the quality of, the supply of liquors." The censuses of 1880 and 

 1890, and internal revenue reports, indicate a decrease in the sale 

 of spirits in all the States where prohibition exists. The demand 

 and consumption of spirits and beer in adjoining States and cities, 

 not under these laws, give no indications of increased sales of spir- 

 its which are or may be consumed in these prohibition sections. 

 Individual opinions to the effect that the demand for spirits has 

 increased are not sustained by statistics from reliable sources. 

 The deterioration in the quality of the liquors is found, from 

 numerous analyses by chemists of the various State Boards of 

 Health, to be principally from water. The drugs used for color 

 and flavor are generally innocuous in both effect and quantity. 

 The quality of the liquor depends on the kind of alcohol, which is 

 far more likely to be dangerous in the so-called pure liquors than 

 the cheap combinations of the saloon keeper. 



This fact has been studied by the leading chemists of France, 

 in several elaborate reports, in which it appears that the poisons 

 of liquors are due to the formation and combinations of different 

 alcohols, that are due to natural changes, and can only be known 

 to the analytical chemist and inferred by the clinician from a 

 study of the observed effects on the consumer. It has been re- 

 peatedly stated by authorities that a large part of the cheap 

 liquors sold are new spirits adulterated with water, and made 

 pleasant by flavoring substances. Hence cheap liquors from low 

 places may be far safer as beverages than old, expensive spirits 

 from the cellars and vaults of the most reliable dealers. 



(2) The assertion that the law against the use of liquors 

 stimulates to greater violation of the law, and produces an appe- 



