326 



Temperance. 



Vol. V. 



from all others within the sphere of his infln- 

 ence, an article which can be done loithout ; 

 and which, if tolerated, mast, in all human 

 probability, involve some of them in all the 

 evils above described. 



In the year 1838, the legislature of Massa- 

 chusetts directed certain returns to be made, 

 including the statistics of pauperism. The 

 returns made appear to have been incom- 

 plete; but those from a number of the larger 

 towns exhibit an aggregate of 7245 paupers, 

 of whom 5328 are supposed to have been 

 reduced to that condition by intemperance 

 of themselves or others. The number re- 

 turned in the state for the year 1837 was 

 14099, of whom 7590 are represented as the 

 victims of intemperance. 



In 1839 there were stated to be 2400 in- 

 mates of the almshouse in Nevr York, 1600 

 of whom were reduced to poverty by intem- 

 perance. From a careful investigation of 

 almshouses in various States, it is found that 

 of all the persons who by idleness and im- 

 providence have been reduced to poverty, 

 from two-thirds to seven-eighths were intem- 

 perate, and that more than nineteen-twen- 

 tieths drank ardent spirits. Of 3000 admitted 

 into the almshouse in Salem, Massachusetts, 

 the superintendent was of opinion that 2900 

 were brought there by intemperance. Of 

 4969 found in various almshouses, 4690 are 

 stated to have been reduced to pauperism by 

 intemperance. The expense of supporting 

 the paupers in the Philadelphia almshouse, in 

 1833, was $130,000, of which about nine- 

 tenths were caused by intemperance. But 

 the reports of almshouses, and other recep- 

 tacles of the destitute, furnish a very imper- 

 fect account of the sufferings and poverty 

 occasioned by intemperance. Many women, 

 whose husbands are intemperate, endure all 

 the miseries that poverty and rags can entail 

 upon them, and yet never find a refuge for 

 themselves or their destitute children, in any 

 public receptacle for the poor. There is no 

 doubt that many women in this situation, are 

 impelled by a noble independence of mind 

 to resort to every honest expedient which 

 ingenuity can devise, to provide for their own 

 wants, rather than resort to the charities of 

 the public. And the greatest sufferers of all 

 are probably the poor degraded victims of 

 intemperance themselves. Among the name- 

 less miseries which the drunkard entails 

 upon all who are brought under his power, 

 there is none equal to what he endures him- 

 self: and he generally suffers without pity, 

 except perhaps from the wife whose pillow 

 he has planted with thorns. 



But pauperism is only one of the evils 

 brought by intemperance on the human race 

 — insanity is frequently superinduced by the 

 use of intoxicating drink. Of 244 patients 



admitted into the lunatic asylum at Worces- 

 ter, Mass., 110 are said to have become in- 

 sane by intemperance. Of this number 

 about one half were restored ; but of the 

 remainder the intellect appears to have been 

 irrecoverably lost. In an article on insanity, 

 by Dr. Earle, published in the American 

 Journal of the Medical Sciences, it is stated, 

 that in 496 cases of insanity, from physical 

 causes, 146 were traced to intemperance. 

 In another account I find it stated, that of 

 781 maniacs, in different hospitals, 392 were 

 rendered insane by strong drink. A phy- 

 sician of great experience gave it as his 

 opinion, that more than half the cases of in- 

 sanity which had come under his notice, 

 were caused by excessive drinking. The 

 fact already cited of alcohol being found in 

 one of the ventricles of the brain, leaves 

 little room to wonder that insanity should 

 arise from intoxication. It is rather matter 

 of surprise that the temporary insanity which 

 intemperate drinking excites, does not more 

 frequently become permanent. 



Another evil arising from intemperance, 

 and indeed, from moderate drinking of alco- 

 holic liquors, is its aptitude to render diseases 

 of any kind unmanageable — this is more par- 

 ticularly the case with malignant ones. It 

 is a fact attested by the experience of every 

 practical physician, that when disease fixes 

 upon a frame which has been indurated by 

 strong drink, medicines do not act with the 

 efficiency they do upon others. Hence per- 

 sons addicted to the use of strong drink, are 

 frequently brought to the grave, by diseases 

 which would produce but little inconvenience 

 to one of abstemious habits. 



In the year 1832, the cholera prevailed in 

 several parts of our country. In the city of 

 Albany, with a population of about 25,000, 

 there were 336 over sixteen years of age, 

 who died of that disease. But it was re- 

 marked that out of five thousand members 

 of temperance societies, only two died. So 

 that this disease carried off but one in 2,500 

 of the total abstinence men, or at least of 

 those who were members of temperance 

 societies, and about one in sixty of the rest. 



In the city of New York, out of six hun- 

 dred taken to the Park Hospital, not more 

 than about one in five professed to be even 

 temperate drinkers. The number who died 

 of that disease, and who for the last two 

 years, had not used ardent spirits, was ex- 

 ceedingly small. A gentleman of that city, 

 after paying particular attention to the sub- 

 ject, remarked that facts abundantly autho- 

 rised the conclusion, that if there had been 

 no spirits used, there would not have been 

 cholera enough to interrupt their business for 

 a single day. The transition from the grog- 

 shop to the hospital, and thence to the pot- 



