734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these specifics for the cure of inebriety are without any practical 

 interest except as phases of the psychology of the drink disease. 

 It is very evident that they could not attract attention on their 

 merits, and the means and appliances used to bring them into no- 

 tice. Their existence depends on a psychological subsoil, which 

 would favor the growth and culture of any remedy involved in 

 mystery, and promising marvelous cures in a brief time. This 

 subsoil is simply the expectant credulity of a large number of 

 persons, who recognize the possibility of disease in inebriety. 

 Without this all specifics, no matter how wisely and shrewdly 

 presented, would fail. The conditions are all ripe for such em- 

 piricism, and its growth, life, and death are governed by causes 

 unknown to and beyond the control of its boastful authors. 



Every temperance revival movement depends on some psycho- 

 logical subsoil of expectant credulity, and is followed by the 

 same dogmatic empiricism and the same wonderful cures, and 

 hysterical confidence of permanent results. Certificates of cure, 

 and enthusiastic praise of means and methods of far greater 

 magnitude than that which follows any specifics, could be gath- 

 ered and noted after every temperance revival. 



The specific cures of inebriety to-day have appeared many times 

 before in the history of the past. Often the empiricism associ- 

 ated with it has been entirely moral and ethical, and at other 

 times it has been pecuniary and selfish. The old Washingtonian 

 movement was a good illustration of a great specific cure, bound 

 up with a great tide of moral empiricism, which for years created 

 intense interest. 



The presidential campaign of 1840 was notorious for the ex- 

 cessive use of hard cider, whisky, and rum. Every political 

 meeting was marked by the free use of these spirits, and as the 

 excitement of the struggle increased, temperance men drank, 

 moderate drinkers became drunk and delirious, and never before 

 or since has the excitement of politics been so intimately associ- 

 ated with inebriety in all its forms. 



At the close of the campaign it was estimated that over half 

 a million voters were practically inebriates, or had been repeat- 

 edly intoxicated during the excitement and excesses of the cam- 

 paign. 



Newspapers and court records showed clearly that a high 

 tidal wave of drunkenness and moderate drinking existed at that 

 period. Then followed the inevitable reaction, and at this mo- 

 ment the Washingtonians appeared. A few months before, a 

 small drinking club in Baltimore changed to a temperance soci- 

 ety, and called themselves Washingtonians. Its members were 

 reformed men, and its leader, John Hawkins, was an enthusi- 

 astic, passionate orator, who urged the pledge as a remedy for 



