310 STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS 



many of whose members were total abstainers and the 

 rest made up of moderate drinkers and those prone to 

 excesses, the latter constituting 20 to 25 per cent of the 

 whole. Of the latter class, only two returned home in 

 approximately the same condition of health which they 

 enjoyed at the time of enlistment. Of the moderate 

 drinkers who confined themselves to malt liquors, a large 

 majority suffered more or less impairment of general 

 health. But the total abstainers returned almost to a 

 man in excellent health, having endured the same hard- 

 ships of an active campaign. The same correspondent, 

 speaking of the far greater harm induced by the stronger 

 alcoholic drinks, relates that he had repeatedly seen 

 American soldiers, after spending several hours under 

 shelter, drinking round after round without perceptible 

 harm, fall over with all the symptoms of sunstroke as 

 soon as they stepped into the glaring rays of the hot 

 sun." 1 



Another man who was in the Civil War gives the fol- 

 lowing results of his observation of the soldiers who, as 

 prisoners, were deprived of alcoholic beverages : ' * During 

 the war I was a prisoner for thirteen months in Louisiana 

 and Texas. Among the prisoners were many men, sol- 

 diers and sailors, but chiefly sailors, who had been ad- 

 dicted to drink. For four or five months the conditions 

 of life were fairly sanitary. On the one hand, the 

 prisoners were in roomy, well- ventilated barracks; they 

 had to police and keep clean their quarters and grounds 

 under their own officers, acting with the cooperation of 

 the Confederate authorities ; they had sufficient food and 

 sufficient means for cooking it properly ; they had saved 

 their clothes when captured ; they were allowed to go out 



1 Practical Hygiene, Harrington. 



