THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM i6i 



to judge by the light of his own experience. When 

 he refuses a third or fourth glass of wine, why does 

 he do so ? In the great majority of instances 

 surely not because he is fighting temptation, but 

 only because, like " the taste of sweetness, whereof 

 a little more than a little is by much too much," the 

 wine would awaken sensations which, on the whole, 

 are unpleasant to him. The majority of his friends 

 and acquaintances, the members of his household, 

 the men and women he meets in society, or with 

 whom he has business dealings are constituted 

 like him. Obviously, they are temperate without 

 effort, or with very little effort. They are quite 

 unlike the miserable beings instanced by Professor 

 William James. 



" The craving for drink in real dipsomaniacs, or for opium or 

 chloral in those subjugated, is of a strength of which normal 

 persons can form no conception. ' Were a keg of rum in one 

 corner of a room, and were a cannon constantly discharging balls 

 between me and it, I could not refrain from passing before that 

 cannon in order to get that rum.' ' If a bottle of brandy stood 

 on one hand, and the pit of hell yawned on the other, and I were 

 convinced I should be pushed in as sure as I took one glass I 

 could not refrain.' Such statements abound in dipsomaniacs' 

 mouths. Dr Mussey of Cincinnati relates this case. 



" A few years ago a tippler was put into an almhouse in this 

 State. Within a few days he had devised various expedients to 

 procure rum, but had failed. At length he hit on one which was 

 successful. He went into the woodyard of the establishment, 

 placed one hand upon the block, and with an axe in the other 

 struck it off at a single blow. With the stump raised and stream- 



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