228 NUTRITIONAL PHYSIOLOGY 



result. We cannot point to many great men in the his- 

 tory of nations who have entirely avoided the use of al- 

 cohol. 



Here in America there was little concerted protest 

 against the use of alcoholic drinks until the nineteenth 

 century. The Puritans, with all their restriction of recre- 

 ation and self-indulgence, were singularly tolerant of hard 

 cider and Jamaica rum. This laxity extended to all classes 

 of society. About one hundred years ago Lyman Beecher 

 described the immoderate drinking which was a feature of 

 an ordination to the ministry in a Connecticut parsonage, 

 host and guests being clergymen. ' Beecher himself be- 

 came a vigorous leader of the movement for temperance, 

 which was not until some years later an agitation for total 

 abstinence. 



Edward Everett Hale has told us in his "A New Eng- 

 land Boyhood" of the common practice of serving wine 

 at children's parties about the year 1830. He also 

 tells us that when the "Franklin Medals" were annually 

 awarded to Boston schoolboys, an entertainment and ban- 

 quet was provided from which the youths departed in a 

 tipsy condition. The utter impropriety of these proceed- 

 ings shows us in an impressive manner how far we have 

 moved from the standpoint of that age. The offenses of 

 the time appear the more aggravated when we reflect that 

 the liquors used were largely of the strongest type. 



The world has long had one conspicuous example of con- 

 sistent abstinence on the part of a great population. This 

 is afforded by the Mahometan peoples. It is said that the 

 Lascar sailors who visit our ports can be allowed shore 

 leave with implicit confidence that they will return to the 

 ship as sober as when they left it. A seaman who erred 

 in this respect and was remonstrated with by his captain is 

 reported to have excused himself on the ground that he had 

 embraced Christianity. 



Something will be said of alcohol under each of five 

 heads. We shall proceed to consider it as a relish, a food, 

 a drug, a cerebral alterative, and as a poison. While 





