THE REMEDIES OF NATURE. 7 6 9 



emphasis ; "no man shall look me in the face, on the day of judgment, 

 and tell the Almighty that Dr. Hush made him a drunkard ! " 



I do not intend to deny that the use of mild alcoholic tonics, as a 

 substitute for the frightful remedies of the mediaeval Sangrados, is a 

 decided improvement, but, still, it is only a lesser evil, a first step of a 

 progressive reform. Alcohol lingers in our hospitals as slavery lingers 

 in the West Indies, as the witchcraft delusion lingers in Southern 

 Europe. Has alcohol any remedial value whatever ? Let us consider 

 the matter from a purely empirical stand-point. Does alcohol protect 

 from malarial fevers ? It is a well-known fact that the human organ- 

 ism can not support two diseases at the same time. Rheumatism can be 

 temporarily relieved by producing an artificial inflammation ; a head- 

 ache yields to a severe toothache. For the same reason the alcohol- 

 fever affords a temporary protection from other febrile symptoms 

 i. e., a man might fortify his system against chills and ague by keeping 

 himself constantly under the stimidating influence of alcohol. But 

 sooner or later stimulation is followed by depression, and during that 

 reaction the other fever gets a chance, and rarely misses it. The his- 

 tory of epidemics proves that pyretic diseases are from eight to twelve 

 times more destructive among dram-drinkers than among the temper- 

 . ate classes ; rich or poor, young or old, abstainers are only centesimated 

 by diseases that decimate drunkards. On no other point is the testi- 

 mony of physicians of all schools, all times, and all countries, more con- 

 sistent and unanimous. 



Is alcohol a peptic stimulant ? No more than Glauber's-salt or 

 castor-oil. The system hastens to rid itself of the noxious substance, 

 the bowels are thrown into a state of morbid activity only to relapse 

 into a morbid inactivity. The effect of every laxative is followed by 

 a stringent reaction, and the habitual use of peptic stimulants leads to 

 a chronic constipation which yields only to purgatives of the most 

 virulent kind. 



Does alcohol impart strength ? Does it benefit the exhausted sys- 

 tem ? If a worn-out horse drops on the highway, we can rouse it by 

 sticking a knife into its ribs, but, after staggering ahead for a couple 

 of minutes, it will drop again, and the second deliquium will be worse 

 than the first by just as much as the brutal stimulus has still further 

 exhausted the little remaining strength. In the same way precisely 

 alcohol rallies the exhausted energies of the human body. The pros- 

 trate vitality rises against the foe, and labors with restless energy till 

 the poison is expelled. Then comes the reaction, and, before the pa- 

 tient can recover, his organism has to do double work. Nature has to 

 overcome both the original cause of the disease and the effect of the 

 stimulant. 



Alcohol has no remedial value. But that would be a trifle, if it 

 were not for the positive mischief which the wretched poison is liable, 

 and very liable, to cause. Four repetitions of the stimulant-dose may 



VOL. XXIII. 49 



