ARMED FORCES MEDICAL LIBRARY




       Washington, D. C. 
 
 
AN INQUIRY  ,^  .
EFFECTS 01^ ARDENT  SPIRITS
THE HUMAN BODY AND MIND:
AN ACCOUNT OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTING,
      AND OF THE REMEDIES FOR
           CURING THEM.
    BY BENJAMIN RUSH, M. D.
FROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE VNIVERSITTr
         OF PENNSYLVANIA.
EIGHTH EDITION. WITH ADDITION?.
'v +
Stereotyped by T. H. $■ C. Ceirter, Boston.
C
>-.vr
 p               Barton^*-*".   ,?
          PUBUSHED BY JAMES LORlJ\*y *   ^,■■
 <*              No. 2 ComhiU.
' V                 1823. 
INTEMPERANCE.
 0~
10-

20-

30-

40-

50-

60

70
=
   Punch,

   Toddy and Egg Rum,

   Grog—Brandy and  Water,

~ Flip and Shrub,

n Bitters infused in Spirits and
     Cordials.
     VICES.

Idleness.

Gaming, peevish-
ness, quarrelling.
Fighting,  horse
  racing.
Lying and swear
  ing.
Stealing and
  swindling.
Perjury.

Burglary.
^  ^ c.
    Drams of Gin, Brandy, and
      Rum. in the momin<r.
    Tlie same morning and evening,
    The same during day and night, Murder,
?Q                           j       !
$-3  —
       DISEASES.
Sickness.
Tremors of the hands
 in the morning, puking,
 hloatedness.
Inflamed C} es,  red nose
 ;in<l face.
Sore and swelled legs,
 jaundice.
Pah is in the hands, burn-
 ing in the hands and feet
 Dropsy, Epilepsy.
 Melancholy, palsy, ap
  oplexy.
, Madness, despair.
   rUNISH-
   MENTS.
Debt.

Jail.

Black eyes,
  and rags.
Hospital, or
Poor House.

Bridewell.
State prison,

do. for life.
GALLOWS. 
                A  MORAL AND  PHYSICAL THERMOMETER.
       A scale of the progress of Temperance and Intemperance.—Liquors with effects in their usual order.

                                  TEMPERANCE.
70 —        Water           Health and wealth.


            Milk and Water^
                           \ Serenity of mind, reputation, long life, and happiness.
            Smalt Beer,

            Cider and Perry,"
Wine,


Porter,


Strong Beer,
 Cheerfiilness, strength, and nourishment, when taken only ir*
}    small quantities, and at meals. 
CONTENT-
                  PART I.

Of the effects of ardent spirits, as they ap-
    pear in a fit of drunkenness, -  -  Page  5
Of the chronic effects of their habitual use
    upon the body, --------   9
Of their effects upon the  mind,    -   -  -    11
Of their effects upon property,   -  -  -  -  12
Arguments  in favour of their use  answered,  13
Ca3es in which a small quantity of them may
    be taken with safety,  -----    14

                  PART II.

Substitutes for ardent spirits,  -----  15
Cautions  and directions to sundry classes  of
    people, with  respect to the  use of ar-
    dent spirits,    --------    20
Means of preventing their general use sug-
    gested to civil and ecclesiastical bodies
    of men,  ----------26

                 PART  III.

Remedies for a fit of drunkenness, -   -  -    28
Remedies for preventing  the pernicious ef-
    fects of the  habitual and intemperate
    use of ardent spirits,......29 
AN
INQUIRY,  &c
                    PART I

  By ardent spirits,  I mean those liquors only
which are obtained by distillation from fermented
substances of any kind.  To their effects upon the
bodies and minds  of men, the  following inquiry
shall be exclusively confined.  Fermented liquors
contain so little spirit, and that so intimately com-
bined with other  matters, 1hat they can seldom
be drunken in sufficient quantities to produce in-
toxication, and its  subsequent effects, without ex-
citing a disrelish to their taste, or pain, from their
distending the stomach.  They are, moreover,
when taken in  a  moderate quantity,  generally
innocent,  and often  have  a  friendly influence
upon  health and life.
  The effects of ardent spirits divide themselves
into such as are of a prompt, and such as are of a
chronic nature.  The  former discover themselves
in drunkenness;  and the latter, in a  numerous
train of diseases and vices of the body and mind.
  I.  I shall  begin by briefly  describing  their
prompt, or immediate effects, in a fit of drunken-
ness.
  This odious disease (for by that name it should
be called) appears with more or less of  the fol-
lowing symptoms, and most  commonly in the
order in which I shall enumerate them,
  1. Unusual garrulity.
  2. Unusual silence.
                    A2 
8          ON THE EFFECTS OF

  3. Captiousness, and a disposition to quarrel.
  4. Uncommon  good humour, and an  insipid
simpering, or laugh.
  5. Profane swearing, and cursing.
  7. A disclosure  of their own, or other people's
secrets.
  8. A rude  disposition to tell those persons in
company whom they know, their faults.
  9. Certain immodest actions.  I am sorry to say,
this sign of the first stage of drunkenness, some-
times appears in  women, who, when sober,  are
uniformly remarkable for chaste and decent man-
ners.
  10. A clipping of words.
  11. Fighting ;  a black  eye, or a swelled nose,
often mark this grade of drunkenness.
  12. Certain extravagant acts  which indicate a
temporary  fit  of madness.  These are singing,
hallooing, roaring, imitating the noises of brute
animals, jumping, tearing  off  clothes, dancing
naked, breaking glasses  and china, and dashing
other articles of  household furniture upon  the
ground, or floor.  After a while the paroxysm of
drunkenness  is completely formed.  The  face
now becomes flushed, the eyes project, and  are
somewhat watery, winking is less frequent than
Is natural;  the under lip is protruded—the head
inclines a little to one shoulder—the jaw  falls—
belchings and hiccup take place—the  limbs  tot-
ter—«the whole  body staggers :—The unfortu-
nate subject of this history next falls on his seat,
—he looks around him  with  a vacant counte-
nance, and mutters inarticulate sounds to himself
—he attempts to rise and walk.  In this attempt,
he  falls upon his side, from which he gradually
turns upon his back.  He now closes his eyes,
and falls into a profound aleep, frequently attend- 
              ARDENT SPIRITS.             1

 ed with snoring, and profuse sweats, and some-
 times with such a relaxation of the muscles which
 confine the bladder and the lower bowels,- as to
 produce a symptom which delicacy forbids me to
 mention.   In this condition, he often lies from
 ten, twelve, and twenty-four hours, to two, three,
 f»ur, and five days, an  object of pity and disgust
 to his family and friends.  His recovery from this
 fit of intoxication, is marked with several peculiar
 appearances. He opens his eyes, and closes them
 again—he gapes and stretches his limbs—-he then
 coughs and pukes—his voice is hoarse—he  rises
 with difficulty, and staggers to a chair; his  eyes
 resemble  balls of fire—his  hands  trciable—he
 loathes the sight of food—he calls  for a glass of
 spirits  to  compose  his stomach—now and  then
 he emits a deep-fetched sigh, or groan, from a
 transient twinge of conscience, but  he more fre-
 quently scolds,  and curses every tlung around
 him. In this state of languor and stupidity, he re-
 mains for two or three  days, before he is able to
 resume  his former  habits of business and  con-
 versation.
   Pythagoras, we are  told, maintained that the
 souls of men after  death, expiated the crimes
 committed by them in  this world, by animating
 certain brute animals; and that the souls of those
 animals, iu their turns, entered into men,  and
 carried with them all their peculiar qualities and
 vices.   This doctrine of one of the wisest and
 best of the Greek Philosophers, was probably in-
 tended only to convey a lively idea of the changes
 which are induced hi the body and mind of man
 by a fit of druukenness.   In folly, it causes  him
 to resemble a calf—in stupidity, an ass—hi roar-
ing, a mad bull—in quarrelling and fighting, a dog, 
s
ON THE EFFECTS OF
 in cruelty,  a tiger—in fetor, a  skunk—in filthi-
 ness, a hog—and in obscenity, a he-goat.
   It ITelongs to the history of drunkenness to re-
 mark, that its paroxysms occur,  like the parox-
 ysms of many diseases,  at certain periods, and
 after longer or shorter intervals.  They often be-
 gin with annual,  and gradually increase in their
 frequency, until they appear in quarterly, month-
 ly, weekly, and quotidian, or daily periods. Fi-
 nally, they afford scarcely any marks of remis-
 sion either during the day or the night.  There
 was  a citizen of Philadelphia many years ago, in
 whom drunkenness appeared in  this  protracted
 form.   In speaking of him to one of his neigh-
 bours, I said, " Does he not sometimes get drunk ?"
*' You mean," said his neighbour, " is  he not
 sometimes sober?"
   It is further remarkable, that drunkenness re-
 sembles certain hereditary, family, and contagi-
 ons diseases.   I have once known it to descend
 from  a father to four out of five  of his children.
 I have seen three, and once four, brothers, who
 were born  of sober ancestors, affected by it, and
 I have heard of its spreading through a  whole
 family composed  of members not originally re-
 lated  to each other.   These facts arc  important,
 and should not be overlooked by  parents,  in de-
 ciding upon the matrimonial connexions of their
 children.
  Let us next attend to the chronic effects of ar-
 dent spirits upon the body and mind.  In the body,
 the}r dispose to every form of acute disease; they
 moreover, excite fevers in persons predisposed to
them, from other causes.  This  has  been re-
 marked in  all the yellow fevers which have vi-
sited the cities of the United States. Hard drink-
ers seldom escape, and rarely recover from thera. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.            9
The following diseases arc the usual consequen-
ces of the habitual use of ardent spirits, viz.
   1.  A decay of appetite, sickness at stomach,
and a puking of bile, or a discharge of a frothy
and viscid phlegm by hawkmg, in the morning.
   2.  Obstruciions of the  liver.  The fable of
Prometheus, on whose  liver a vulture was said
to prey constantly, as a punishment for his steal-
ing fire from heaven, was intended to illustrate
the painful effects of ardent spirits upon that or-
gan of the body.
   3.  Jaundice and dropsy  of the belly and limbs,
and finally of every cavity in the body. A swell-
ing in the feet and legs is so characteristic a mark
of habits of intemperance, that the merchants in
Charleston,  I have  been told,  cease  to trust the
planters of South Carolina,  as soon as they per-
ceive it. They very naturally conclude industry
and virtue to be extinct in that man, in  whom
that symptom of disease  has  been produced by
the intemperate use of distilled spirits.
   4.  Hoarseness, and a husky cough, which often
terminate in consumption, and sometimes in an
acute and fatal disease of the lungs,
   5.  Diabetes, that is, a frequent and weakening
discharge of pale, or sweetish urine.
   6.  Redness, and eruptions on different parts of
the body. They generally begin on the nose, and
after gradually extending all o\ er the face, some-
times descend to the limbs in the form of leprosy.
They have been called " Rum-buds,'* when they
appear in the face.   In persons who have occa-
sionally survived these effects of ardent spirits on
the skin, the face aflkv a while becomes bloated,
and its redness is succeeded by a death-like pale-
ness.  Thus, the same fire which produces a red 
10         ON THE EFFECxS OF

colour in iron, when urged to a more intense de-
gree, produces what has been called a white heat.
  7. A fetid breath, composed of every thing that
is offensive in putrid animal matter.
  3.  Frequent  and disgusting  belchings.  Dr.
Haller relates the  case of a notorious drunkard
hiving been suddenly destroyed in consequence
of the vapour discharged from his  stomach by
belching-, accidentally taking fire by coming in
contact with the flame of a candle.
  9. Epilepsy.
  10. Gout, in  all its various forms  of swelled
limbs, colic, palsy, and apoplexy.
  Lastly,  11. Madness.   The  late Dr. Waters,
while he acted'as house pupil and apothecary of
the Pennsylvania Hospital, assured me, that in one
third of the patients confined by this terrible dis-
ease, it had been induced by ardent spirits.
  Most of the diseases which have been enume-
rated are of a mortal nature.   They are more
certainly induced, and terminate more speedily in
death, when spirits are taken in scrh quantities,
and at such times,  as to produce frequent  intoxi-
cation ; but it may  serve to remove an error with
which some intemperate  people console  them-
selves, to remark,  that ardent spirits often bring
on fatal  diseases without producing drunkenness.
I have known many persons destroyed by them
who were never completely intoxicated  during
the whole course  of their  lives.  The solitary
instances of longevity which are now and then
met with in hard drinkers, no more disprove the
deadly effects of ardent spirits, than the solitary
instances of recoveries  from apparent death by
drowning, prove that there is  no danger to  life
from a human body lying an hour or two under
water. 
/    F n'T SPIRITS.            11
  The body, atte, its death, from the use of dis-
tilled spirits, exhibits by dissection  certain ap-
pearances which are of a peculiar nature.   The
fibres of the stomach and bowels are contracted—■
abscesses—gangrene—and schirri are found in
the  viscera.—The bronchial vessels  are  con-
tracted—the blood-vessels and  tendons in many
parts of the body are more or less ossified, and
even the hair of the head possesses a crispness
which renders it less valuable to wig-makers than
the hair of sober people.
   Not less destructive are the effects  of ardent
spirits upon the human mind.  They impair the
memory, debilitate the understanding, and per-
vert the moral faculties.  It was probably from
observing these effects of intemperance in drink-
ing upon the mind, that a law was formerly passed
in Spain, which excluded drunkards from being
witnesses in a court of justice. But the demoral-
izing effects of distilled spirits do not stop  here.
They produce not only falsehood, but  fraud, theft,
uncleanliness, and murder.  Like the  demoniac
mentioned in the New Testament, their name is
'" Legion," for they convey into the  soul a host
of vices and crimes.
   A more affecting spectacle cannot be exhibited
than a person into whom this infernal spirit, ge-
nerated by habits of intemperance, has entered*
It is more or less affecting according to the sta-
tion the person fills in a family, or in society, who
is possessed by it.   Is he a husband ? How  deep
the anguish which rends the  bosom  of his wife !
Is she a wife ? Who can measure the shame and
aversion wliich she excites in her husband?  Is he
the father, or is she the  mother of a family of
children? See their averted looks from their pa-
rent, and their blushing looks at each  other! Is he 
12         ON THE EFFECTS OF
a magistrate ? or has he been chosen to fill a high
and respectable station in the councils of his coun-
try? What humiliating fears of corruption in the
administration of the laws, and of the subversion
of public order and  happiness,  appear in  the
countenances of all who see him! Is he a minis-
ter of the gospel?—Here language fails me.—If
angels weep—it is at such a sight.
  In  pointing out the  evils  produced by ardent
spirits, let  us  not pass by their effects upon  the
estates of the persons  who are addicted to them.
Are  they inhabitants  of  cities?—Behold! their
houses stripped gradually of their furniture,  anil
pawned, or sold by a constable,  to  pay tavern
debts.   See!  their names upon  record  in  the
dockets of every court, and whole pages of news-
papers filled with advertisements of their estates
for public sale.  Are they inhabitants of country
places ?  Behold!  their  houses with shattered
windows—their  barns with  leaky roofs—their
gardens overrun with weeds—their  fields with
broken fences—their  hogs without yokes—their
sheep  without wool—their  cattle  and  horses
without fat—and their children filthy and  half
clad,  without  manners, principles,  and  morals.
This picture of agricultural  wretchedness is  sel-
dom of long duration.   The farms and property
thus neglected, and depreciated,  are seized  and
sold for the benefit of a group of creditors. The
children that were born with the prospect of in-
heriting them, are bound out to  service in the
neighbourhood ;  while their parents, the unwor-
thy authors of their misfortunes, ramble into new
and distant settlements, alternately fed on their
way by the hand of charity,  or a little casual la
hour.
  Thus we see poverty and misery, crimes and 
ARDENT SPIRITS.           13
infamy, diseases and death, are all the natural
and usual consequences of the  intemperate  use
of ardent spirits.
   I have classed death among the consequences
of hard  drinking.   But it is not death from the
immediate  hand of the Deity,  nor from any of
the instruments of it which were created by him.
It is death from suicide.   Yes—thou  poor  de-
graded creature, who art daily lifting the poison-
edVbowl  to thy lips—cease to avoid the unhallow-
ed ground in which the self-murderer is interred,
and wonder no longer that the  sun should shine,
and the rain  fall, and  the grass look green upon
his grave.  Thou art perpetrating gradually, by
the use  of ardent spirits, what he has effected
suddenly by  opium—or a halter.  Considering
how many circumstances from surprise, or de-
rangement, may palliate his guilt, or that (unlike
yours) it was not preceded  and  accompanied by
any other crime, it is  probable  his condemnation
will be less than yours at the day of judgment.
   I shall now take notice  of the  occasions  and
circumstances which are supposed to render the
use of ardent spirits necessary,  and endeavour to
show that the arguments  in favour of their use
in such cases are founded in error, and that in
each of them, ardent  spirits, instead of affording
strength to the body,  increase the evils they a»e
intended to relieve.
   1. They are said to be necessary in very cold
weather.  This is far from being true ; for the
temporary warmth they produce, is always  sue
ceeded by a greater disposition  in the  body to be
affected by cold. Warm dresses, a plentiful meal
just before exposure  to the cold, and eating oc-
casionally a little gingorbvead,  or any other  cor- 
 14          OX THE EFFECTS OF

 dial food, is a much more durable method of pre-
 serving the heat of the body in cold weather.
   2.  They arc said to be necessary in very warm
 weather.  Experience proves that they increase,
 instead of lessening the effects of heat upon the
 body, and thereby dispose to diseases of all kinds.
 Even in  the warm climate  of the West Indies,
 Dr. Bell  asserts this to be true.  " Rum (says
 this author) whether used habitually,  moderate-
 ly,  or in  excessive  quantities in the West Indies,
 always diminishes the strength of the  body, and
 renders men more susceptible of disease, and un-
 fit for any service in  which vigour or activity is
 required.*'*  As well might we throw oil into a
 house, the roof of which was on fire, in order to
 prevent  the flames from extending to  its inside,
 as pour ardent spirits into the stomach, to lessen
 the effects of a hot  sun upon the skin.
  3. Nor do ardent spirits lessen the effects of
 hard labour upon the body.  Look at the horse ;
with every muscle of his body swelled from morn-
ing till night in the plough, or a team, does  he
make signs for a draught  of toddy, or a glass of
spirits to  enable him to cleave  the ground, or to
climb a hiil?—No—he requires nothing but cool
water and substantial  food. There is no nourish-
ment in ardent spirits.  The strength  they pro-
duce in labour is of a transient  nature, and is  al-
ways followed by a sense of weakness and fatigue.
  But are there no conditions of the human body
in which ardent spirits may be  given ? I answer
—there are.   1st. When the body has been sud-
denly exhausted of its strength, and a disposition
to faintness has been induced.  Here a few spoon-

  *  Inquiry into the causes which produce, and  the means of
preventing diseases among British officers, soldiers, and others
in the West Indios. 
             ARDENT SPIRITS.            16

fuls, or a wine-glassfull of spirits, with or without
water, may be  administered with safety and ad-
vantage.  In this case we comply strictly with
the advice of Solomon, who restricts the use of
w strong drink" only " to him who  is ready to
perish."—2dly. When the body has been exposed
for a long time to wet weather, more especially,
if it be combined with cold.   Here  a moderate
quantity of spirits is not only safe, but highly pro-
per to obviate  debility, and to prevent a fever.
They will more certainly have those salutary ef-
fects, if the feet are at the same  time bathed
with them, or a half pint of them poured into the
shoes or boots.  These, I believe, are the only
two cases in which distilled spirits are  useful or
necessary to persons in health.


                   PART II.

   But it may be said, if we  reject spirits  from
being a part of our drinks, what liquors shall  we
substitute in their room ?  I  answer, in the first
place,
   1.  Simple Water. I have known many instan-
ces of persons who have followed the most labo-
rious employments for many jrears,  in the  open
air, and in warm and cold weather,  who never
drank any thing but water, and enjoyed uninter-
rupted  good health.  Dr. Mosely, who resided
many years in the West Indies, confirms this  re-
mark.  " I aver, (says the doctor) from my own
knowledge  and custom, as well as the custom and
observations of many other  people, that those
who  drink nothing but water, or make it  their
principal drink, are little affected by the climate,
and can undergo the  greatest fatigue without in- 
16         ON THE EFFECTS OF
  convenience, and are never subject  to trouble-
  some or dangerous diseases."
    Persons, who are unable to relish this simple
  beverage of nature, may drink some  one, or of
  all the  following liquors, in preference to ardent
  spirits.
    2.  Cider.  This excellent  liquor  contains a
  small quantity of spirit, but so diluted,  and blunt-
  ed by being combined  with a large quantity of
  saccharine matter, and water, as to be perfectly
  wholesome.   It sometimes disagrees with per-
  sons subject to  the  rheumatism, but it may be
  made inoffensive to  such people, by extinguish-
  ing a red hot iron in it, or  by mixing it with wa-
  ter.   It is to be lamented  that the  late frosts in
  the spring  so often deprive us of the fruit  which
  affords this liquor.  The effects of these  frosts
  have been  in some measure obviated by giving
  an orchard a north-west exposure, so as to check
  too early vegetation, and by kindling two or three
  large fires  of brush,  or  straw, to the windward
  of the orchard, the evening before  we expect a
  night of frost.  This last expedient  has in many
  instances preserved the fruit of an orchard to the
  great joy and emolument of the ingenious hus-
  bandman.
    3. Malt  Liquors. The grain from which these
  liquors are  obtained, is not liable, like the apple,
  to be affected by frost, and,  therefore,  they can
  be procured, at all times, and at a moderate  price.
'  They contain a good deal of nourishment; hence
  we find many of the poor  people in Great Bri-
  tain endure hard labour with no  other food than
  a quart  or three  pints of beer, with a few pounds
  of bread in a day.  As it will be  difficult to pre-
  vent small  beer from  becoming sour  in  warm
  weather, an excellent substitute may be made for 
             ARDENT SPIRITS.            17

St by mixing bottled porter, ale, or strong beer,
with an equal quantity of water;  or a  pleasant
feeer may be made  by adding to a  bottle of por-
ter, ten quarts of water, and a pound of brown
sugar, or a pint  of molasses.   After they have
been well mixed, pour the liquor into botthn and
place them loosely  corked,  in a cool cellar.  In
two or three days, it will be fit for  use.   A spoon-
ful of ginger added to the .* ixture,  renders it
more lively and agreeable  to the taste.
   3. Winf.s.  These fermented liquors  are com-
posed of the same  ingredient*  as  cider, and are
both  cordial and nourishing.  The peasants of
France, who drink them in  large quantities, are a
eober and healthy body of people.  Unlike ardent
spirit, which render the temper irritable, wines
generally inspire cheerfulness and  good humour.
It is to be lamented that the grape has not as yet
b ^n sufficiently cultivated  in our country, to af-
ford wine for our citizens ; but many  excellent
substitutes may be made for it, from the native
fruits of all the states.   If two  barrels of cider
fresh from the press, are boiled into one, and af-
terwards fermented, and kept for two  or three
years in a dry cellar,  it affords a  liquor which,
"according to the  quality of  the apple from which
-the cider is made,  has  the  taste of Malaga, or
Rhenish wine.   It affords, when mixed with wa-
ter,  a most agreeable drink in summer.  I have
taken  the liberty  of calling  it  Pomona Wine.
There is another method of making a  pleasant
wine from the apple, by adding four and twenty
gallons  of new cider to three gallons  of syrup
made from the expressed juice of sweet apples.
When thoroughly fermented, and kept for a few
yearn, it becomes fit for use.  The blackberry of
our fields, and the raspberry, and currant of our 
 18         ON THE EFFECTS OF

 gardens, afford likewise an agreeable and whole-
 some wine, when pressed, and mixed with cer-
 tain proportions of sugar and water, and a little
 spirit, to counteract the disposition to an exces-
 sive fermentation.   It is no objection to these
 cheap and  home-ma do wine.-, that ihey are unfit
 for use until  they are two or three years  old.
 The foreign wines in common use in our coun-
 try, require not oiia  a much longer time to bring
 them to perfection,  but  to prevent their being
 disagreeable even to the taste.
   4. Molasses and Water, also Vinegar and Wa-
 ter, sweetened with sugar or molasses, form an
 agreeable  drink in warm weather.  It is plea-
 sant and cooling, and  tends to keep up those gen-
 tle and uniform sweats on which health and  life
 often depend.  Vinegar and water constituted the
 only drink  of the soldiers of the Roman republic,
 and it is well known  they marched and fought iu
 a  warm climate, and  beneath a load  of arms
 which weighed sixty pounds.   Boaz, a wealthy
 farmer in Palestine,  we find treated his reapers
 with nothing but bread dipped in vinegar.   To
 such persons as object to the  taste of vinegar,
 sour milk,  or buttermilk, or sweet milk diluted
 with water, may be  given  in its stead.  1 have
 known the  labour of the longest and hottest days
 in summer  supported by means of these pleasant
 and wholesome drinks with great firmness, and
 ended with scarcely a complaint of fatigue.
   5. The Sugar Mamx affords a thin-juice which
 has long been  used by the  farmers in Connecti-
cut as a cool and refreshing drink in the time of
harvest.  The settlers in t\\3  western  counties
of the middle  states  will do well to let a few  of
the trees which yield this pleasant juice remain
in all their  fields.   They may prove the  iii-?;,i''j 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
19
 not only of saving their children and grand-chil-
 dren  many hundred pounds,  but of saving their
 bodies from  disease and death, and their souls
 from  misery  beyond the grave.
   6.  Coffee po.-sesses agreeable and  exhilarat-
 ing qualities, and might be used with  great  ad-
 vantage  to obviate  the painful effects of heat,
 cold,  and  fatigue, upon the body.   I once knew
 a country  physician  who  made  it a practice to
 drink a pint of strong coffee previous to his tak-
 ing a long or cold ride.  It was more  cordial to
 him  than  spirits, in any of the forms  in which
 they  are commonly used.
   The use of the cold bath in the morning,  and
 of the warm bath in the  evening,  are  happily
 calculated to stengthen the body in the former
 part of the day,  and to restore it in the latter
 from  the langour and fatigue which are induced
 by heat and iabour.
   Lat it not be said, ardent spirits have become
 necessary  from  habit in harvest, and  in other
 seasons of uncommon and arduous labour.  The
 habit  is a  bad one,  and may be easily broken.
 Let but half a dozen farmers in a neighbourhood
 combine  to allow higher wages  to their labour-
 ers than are common, and a sufficient quantity of
 a,iy of the pleasant and wholesome liquors I have
 recommended,  and they may soon, by their  ex-
 ample, abolish the practice of giving  them spi-
 rits.  In a little while they will be delighted with
 the good effects of their association. Their grain
 and hay will be gathered into their barns in less
 time,  and in a better condition than formerly, and
 of course  at  a less expense, and a hundred '.Ms-
agreeable scenes from sickness,  contention,  and
accidents, will be avoided, all of which follow, in
a greater or less degree, the use of ardent spirits. 
20
ON THE EFFECTS OF
    Nearly all  diseases have  their predisposing
  causes.   The  same thing may be said of the in-
  temperate use of distilled spirits.  Ii v.ili, there-
  fore, be useful to point out the different employ-
  ments, situations, and conditions of the body and
  mind, which predispose  to the love  of these ii-
  quors, and to accompany them with directions to
  prevent persons  being iguorantly and undesign-
  edly  seduced into  the  habitual and  destructive
  use of them.
    1.  Labourers  bear  with great difficulty, long
  intervals between their meais. To enable theiu
  to support the  waste of their strength, their sto-
  machs should be constantly, but moderately sti-
  mulated by aliment, and this is best dene by their
  eating four or five times in a day, during the sea-
  sons of great bodily exertion.   The food at this
  time should be  solid, consisting chietly of salted
  meat.  The vegetables used with it should pos-
  sess some activiiy, or they should he made savou-
  ry by  a mixture of spices.   Onions and garlic are
  of a most cordial  nature.  They composed a part
  of the diet which enabled  the Israelites'to en-
 dure,  in a warm climate, the heavy tasks impos-
 ed upon them  by their Egyptian  masters;  and
 they were eaten, Horace and Virgil tell us, by
 fhe Roman farmers, to repair  the waste of their
 strength, by the  tcils of harvest.   There are.,
 likewise, certain sweet substances which support
 the body under the pressure of labour.   The
 negroes in the West Indies  become strong,  and
 even fat,  by drinking the juice of the sugar-cane
 in the  season of grinding it.   The Jeivish  sol-
 die i-.i were invigorated by  occasionally  eating
 raisins and figs.   A  bread compos.ni  of  wneai-
 flour,  molasses, and ginge.-,  (commoniy  called
gingerbread,) taken in small  quantities  du:\\..j; 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
21
the day, is happily calculated to obviate the de-
bility induced upon the body by constant labour.
All these  substances, whether  of an  animal or
vegetable nature, lessen the desire, as well as the
necessity for cordial drinks, and  impart equable
and durable strength to every part of the system.
   2. Valetudinarians, especially those who are
afflicted with diseases of the stomach and bowels,
are very apt to seek relief from ardent  spirits.
Let such people be cautious how they make use
of this dangerous remedy.  I have known many
men and women of excellent characters and prin-
ciples, who  have been betrayed by occasional
doses of gin and brandy, into a love of those li-
quors, and  have afterwards  fallen sacrifices to
their fatal effects.  The different preparations of
opium are much more safe and  efficacious than
distilled cordials of any kind, hi flatulent or spas-
modic affections of the stomach and bowels.   So
great is the danger of contracting a love for dis-
tilled liquors by accustoming the stomach to their
stimulus, that as few medicines as possible should
be given in spiritous vehicles,  in chronic diseases.
A physician of  great eminence, and uncommon
worth, who died towards the close of the  last
century, in London,  in taking  leave of a young
physician of this city, who had finished his studies
under his patronage, impressed this caution with
peculiar force  upon him, and lamented  at the
same time, in pathetic terms, that  he had inno-
cently made many  sots by prescribing brandy
and water in stomach complaints.   It is difficult
to tell how many persons have been destroyed
by those physicians who  have  adopted  Dr.
Brown?s indiscriminate  practice in the  use of
stimulating remedies, the most popular of which
is ardent spirits ; but it is well known, several of 
22         ON THE EFFECTS OF
them have  died  of intemperance in  this city,
since the year  1790.   They were probably led
to it, by drinking brandy and water to relieve
themselves from the frequent attacks of debility
and indisposition to which the labours of a phy-
sician expose him, and for which rest,  fasting, a
gentle  purge,  or weak  diluting drinks,  would
have been more safe and more  certain  cures.
  None of these  remarks are intended to pre-
clude the use of spirits in the low state of short,
or what are called acute diseases; for in  such
cases,  they produce their  effects too  soon, to
create  an habitual desire for them.
  3. Some people, from living  in countries sub-
ject  to intermitting fevers, endeavour  to fortify
themselves against them, by taking two or three
wine-glasses of bitters, made with spirits, every
day.   There is great danger of contracting ha-
bits of intemperance from this practice. Besides,
this mode of preventing intermittents, is far from
being a certain one;  a much  better security
against them, is  a tea-spoonful of the Jesuits bark,
taken every morning during a sickly season.  If
this safe and excellent medicine  cannot be had,
a gill, or half a  pint of a strong watery infusion of
centaur}', camomile, wormwood, or rue, mixed
with a  little of the calamus of our meadows, may
be taken every morning with nearly the  same
advantage as the  Jesuits bark.   Those persons
who live in a sickly country, and cannot procure
any  of  the  prevent itives of autumnal fevers,
which  have been mentioned, should avoid  the
morning and evening air—should kindle fires in
their houses on  damp days, and in cool evenings,
throughout the  whole summer,  and put on win-
ter clothes about  the first week in September. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
28
The last part of these directions aptdies only to
the inhabitants of the middle states.
  4. Men, who follow professions,, which require
constant exercise of the faculties of their minds,
are very apt to seek relief, by the use of ardent
spirits,  from the fatigue which  succeeds great.
mental  exertions.   To such persons it may be a
discovery to know, that tea is a  much better re-
medy for that purpose. By its grateful and gen-
tle stimulus, it removes fatigue,  restores the  ex-
citement of the mind, and invigorates the whole
system.   I am no advocate for the excessive  use
of tea.  When taken too strong, it is hurtful, es-
pecially to  the  female constitution; but when
taken of  a moderate degree of  strength, and in
moderate quantities,  with  sugar and cream, or
milk, I  believe it is in general innoxious, and at
all times to be  preferred  to ardent spirits, as a
cordial  for studious men.  The late Anthony  Be-
nezet, one of the most laborious schoolmasters I
ever knew, informed me, he had been prevented
from the love of spirituous liquors, by acquiring a
love for tea in early life.   Three or four cupp,
taken in an afternoon, carried off the fatigue of
a whole day's labour in his school.  This worthy
man lived to be seventy-one years  of age,  and
died of an  acute disease, with the full exercise
of all the faculties of his mind.   But the use of
tea counteracts a desire for distilled spirits, dur-
ing great bodily as well as  mental exertions.  Of
this, Captain Forest has furnished  us with a re-
cent  and remarkable proof,  in his history of a
voyage from Calcutta to the Marqui Archipelago.
'• I have always observed,  (says this  ingenious
mariner,) when sailors drink  tea, it weans them
from the thoughts of drinkinx strong liquors, and
pernicious grog;  a;-d  with this, they arc  soon 
24         ON THE EFFECTS OF

contented.   Not  so  with  whatever will intoxi-
cate, be it what it will.   This has always been
my remark :  I, therefore, always encourage  it,
without their knowing why."
  5. Women have sometimes been led  to seek
relief from what is called  breeding sickness, by
the use of ardent spirits.  A little gingerbread,
or biscuit, taken occasionally, so  as to  prevent
the stomach being empty, is a much better re-
medy for that disease.
  6. Persons under the pressure of debt, disap-
pointments  in worldly pursuits,  and guilt, have
sometimes  sought to drown their sorrows  in
strong  drink.   The only radical  cure  for  those
evils, is to  be found  in  religion; but where its
support is  not resorted  to, wine  and  opium
should  always be  preferred to  ardent spirits.
They are far less injurious to the body and mind,
than spirits; and the habits of attachment to them
are easily broken, after time and repentance have
removed  the  evils they were taken to relieve.
  7. The sociable and imitative  nature of man,
often disposes him to adopt the  most odious and
destructive practices  from  his companions.  The
French soldiers who  conquered  Holland, in the
year 1794,  brought back with them the love and
use of  brandy, and thereby corrupted the inhab-
itants of  several of the  departments of France,
who had  been previously distinguished for their
temperate and sober  manners.  Many other facts
might be mentioned,  to show how important it is
to avoid the company of persons addicted to the
use of ardent spirits.
  8. Smoking and chewing  tobacco,  by render-
ing water and simple liquors insipid to the UnU;
di-pose very much to the stronger stimuli.'.* of
ardent  spirits. The  pradve of smoking segar-. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
25
     ha*, in every part of our country, been more fol-
     lowed by a general n=e of brandy and water, as
     a common  drink, more especially by that  class
     of citizens  who have  not been in the  habit of
     drinking wine, or malt liquors.  The less, there-
     fore, tobacco is used in the above ways the better.
       9. No man ever became suddenly a drunkard.
     It is by gradually accustoming the taste  and sto-
     mach to ardent spirits, in the forms of grog and
     topdy,  that men have been led to love them in
     their more  destructive  mixtures and in their sim-
     ple state.   Under the  impression  of this  truth,
     were it possible for me to speak, with a voice so
     loud as to be heard from  the river St. Croix, to
     to the  remotest shores of the Mississippi, 1 would
     say—Friend*, and fellow citizens! avoid the ha-
     bitual use of those two seducing liquors,  whether
     they be made with brandy, rum, gin, Jamaica spi
     rif *, whiskey, or what is called cherry bounce. It is
     true, some men, by limiting the strength of those
     drinks, by  measuring the  spirit and water,  have
     drunken them  for many years, and even during
     a long  life, without acquiring  habits of intempe-
     rance or intoxication; but many more have been
     insensibly led, by drinking weak toddy, and grog
     first at their meals, to take them  for their con-
     stant drink, in the intervals of their meals ;  after-
     wards  to take them, of an increased strength, be-
     fore breakfast in the morning,  and finally  to de-
     stroy themselves by drinking  undiluted spirits,
     during every hour  of the day and night.   I am
the    not singular in this remark.   " The consequen-
     ces of drinking rum and wate.% or grog, as it is
     called,  (says [jr. Moselv,) K that habit increases
ilf,    the desire  of more spirit, and decreases its ef-
 ol    tects;   and there are very few  grog-drinkers,
                           (.: 
25          ON THE EFFECTS OF

who long  survive  the practice  of debauching
with it, without acquiring the odious nuisance of
dram-drinker's breath,  and downright stupidity
and impotence.'"* tTo enforce the caution against
the use  of those  two  apparently innocent  and
popular  liquors still further, I shall select  one
instance, from among many, to show the ordinary
manner,  in which they beguile and destroy their
votaries.  A citizen  of Philadelphia, once of a
fair and sober character,  drank toddy for many
years,  as his constant drink.  From this he pro-
ceeded to drink grog.  After a while, nothing
would  satisfy him but slings made of equal parts
of rum and water, with  a little sugar.   From
slings,  he advanced to raw rum, and from com-
mon rum, to Jamaica  spirits.  Here he rested
for a few months, but at length finding even Ja-
maica  spirits were not strong enough  to  warm
his stomach, he made it a constant practice to
throw  a  table spoonful of ground  pepper into
each glass of his spirits, in order, to use his own
words, " to take off their coldness."  He soon af-
terwards died a martyr  to his intemperance.
   Ministers of the gospel,  of every denomination
in the United States!—aid  me with all the weight
you possess in society, from the dignity and use-
fulness of your sacred office, to save our fellow-
men from being destroyed by the great destroyer
of their lives and souls.  In older more success-
fully to effect this purpose, permit me to suggest
to you, to  employ the  same wise modes of in-
struction, which you use in your attempts«to pre-
vent their destruction by  other vices.   You ex-
pose the evils of covetousness, in order to pre-
vent theft; you point out  the  sinfulness  of iai-
* Treatise on tropical diseases.. 
ARDENT SPiRI'lis.           27
pure desires, in order to prevent adultery; and
you dissuade from anger and malice, in order to
prevent murder.  In like manner, denounce, by
your preaching, conversation, and examples, the
seducing influence of toddy and grog, when you
aim to prevent all the crimes and miseries which
are the offspring of strong drink.
  We have hitherto considered the effects of ar-
dent spirits upon individuals, and the means of
preventing thorn.  I shall close this head of our
inquiry, by a few remarks on their effects upon
the population and welfare of our country, and
the. means of obviating them.
  It is highly probable, not less than 4000 peo-
ple die annually, from  the  use of ardent spirits,
in the United States.  Should they continue  to
exert this deadly influence upon our population,
where will their evils terminate ? This question
may be answered by asking,  where are all the
Indian tribes, whose  numbers and arms formerly
spread terror among their civilized neighbours 1
I answer in the words of the famous Mingo chief,
4- the  blood of  many of them flows  not in the
veins of any human creature."  They have per-
Lshe 1, not by pestilence, nor war, but by a great-
er foe to  human life than  either of  them—Ar-
dent Spirits.  The  loss of 4000  American citi-
zens, by the yellow fever, in a single year, awak-
ened general sympathy and  terror,  and called
forth all the strength and ingenuity of laws,  to
prevent  it: recurrence.  Why is not the same
zeal manifested in  protecting our citizens from
the more ge,.-:*al and consuming ravage* of dis-
tilled spirits ?—Should  the customs of civilized
life, preserve  our  ;•: ition from extinction, and
even from an  increase of mortality, by those li-
quors ; they cannot  prevent  our country being 
J8          O..  /HE EFFECTS OF

governed by men, chosen  by intemperate  and
corrupted voters.  From such legislators, the re-
public would soon be in danger.   To avert this
evil—-let good men of every class unite and be-
siege the  general and state governments, with'
petitions to limit the number of taverns—to  im-
pose heavy duties upon ardent spirits—to inflict
a mark of disgrace,  or a temporary abridgment
of some civii right, upe.n every man, convicted
of drunkenness;  and finally, to secure the pro-
perty of habitual  drunkards,  for the benefit of
their families, by placing it in the hands of trus-
tees,  appointed for that  purpose,  by a court of
justice.
  To aid the operation  of  these laws, would it
not be extremely useful for the rulers of the dif-
ferent denominations  of Christian  churches to
unite, and render the sale and consumption of ar-
dent  spirits  a subject of ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion ?—The  Methodists, and society of Friends,
have, for some time past, viewed them as contra-
band articles to the pure  laws of the gospel, and
have  borne  many  public  and private testimonies
against making them the objects  of commerce.
Their success jn  this  benevolent enterprise, af-
fords ample  encouragement for all other reli-
gious societies to follow their example.

                  PART III.

  We come now to the third part of this inquiry;
that is, to mention the  remedies for the  evils
which are brought on by the  exoessive use of
distilled spirits.   These  remedies divide  them-
selves into two kinds.
   I. Such as are  proper  to cure a  fit of drunk-
enness ; and 
ARDENT  SPIRITS.            28
   H.  Such as are  proper to prevent its recur-
rence, and to destroy a desire for ardent spirits.
   I. I am aware that the efforts of science  and
humanity, in applying their resources to the cure
of a disease induced by an act of vice, will meet
with  a cold  reception from many people.   But
let such people remember, the subjects  of  our
remedies are their fellow creatures, and that the
miseries brought  upon  human nature, by its
crimes, are as  much the objects of divine com-
passion, (which we are bound to imitate,) as the
distresses  which are brought upon men,  by the
crimes of other people, or which they bring upon
themselves, by ignorance  or accidents.  Let us
not, then, pass  by the  prostrate sufferer from
strong drink, but administer to him the same re-
lief, we would  afford to a fellow creature, in a
similar  state, from an accidental and innocent
cause.
   1. The first thing to be done to cure  a fit of
drunkenness, is to open the  collar, if in  a man,
and remove all tight ligatures from  every other
part  of the body.  The  head and  shoulders
should at the same time be elevated, so as to fa-
vour a more feeble determination  of the blood
to the brain.
  2. The  contents of the stomach should  be  dis-
charged, by thrusting a feather down the  throat.
It often restores  the  patient immediately to  his
senses and  feet.   Should  it  fail of exciting  a
puking,
  3.  A napkin should be  wrapped round  the
head, and  wetted' an hour or  two with cold wa-
ter, or cold water should be poured in a  stream
upon the head.  In the latter way, I have some-
times seen it used, when a boy, in the  city of
Philadelphia.  It was applied, by dragging  the 
30         ON THE EFFECTS OF

patient, when found drunk in the street, to a
pump, and pumping water upon his head for ten
or fifteen  minutes.  The patient generally rose,
and walked off,  sober  and sullen, after the use
of this remedy.
   Other remedie*. less common, but not less ef-
fectual for a fit of drunkenness are,
   4. Plunging the whole body into cold  water.
A number of gentlemen who had drunken to in-
toxication, on board  of a ship in the stream, near
Felfs point, at Baltimore, in consequence of their
reefing in a small boat on their way to the shore,
in the evening, overset it,  and fell into the wa-
ter.   Several boats  from the shore hurried  to
their relief.  They were all picked up, and went
home, perfectly sober, to their families.
   5.  Terror.  A number of young  merchants,
who had  drunken together, in a compting-house,
 on James river, above thirty years ago, until they
 were  intoxicated, were carried away by a  sudden
 rise of the river, from an immense fall of rain.
 They floated several miles with the current, in
 their  little cabin, half hlled with water.  An isl-
 and in the river arrested it. When they reached
 the shore that saved their lives,  they were  all
 sober   It i- probable terror assisted in the cure
 of the persons who fell  into the water at  Balti-
 more.                              „,  ,  ,
   6   The excitement of a fit  of anger,  lne late
 Dr. Whherspoon used to tell  a story of a man in
 Scotland, who was always cured of a fit of drunk-
 enness, by being made angry. The mean chosen
 for that purpose, was  a singular one.   It was
 talking against religion.
    7.  A severe whipping.  This remedy acts  by
  exciting a revulsion of the blood from the brain,
  to the external parts of the body. 
             ARDENT SPIRITS.           31

  8. Profuse sweats.  By means of this evacua-
tion, nature sometimes cures a fit of drunkenness.
Their  good  effects  are obvious in labourers,
whom  quarts of spirits  taken in a day will sel-
dom intoxicate, while they sweat freely.  If the
patient be unable to swallow warm drinks, in or-
der to  produce sweats,  they may be excited by
putting liim  in a warm  bath,  or wrapping his
body in blankets, under which should be placed
half a dozen hot brick*,  or bottles filled with hot
water.
  9. Bleeding.   This remedy should  always be
used where the former ones have been prescrib-
ed  to  no  purpose,  or where there is  reason to
fear, from the long duration of the disease, a ma-
terial injury may be done to the brain.
  It is hardly necessary to add, that each of the
above remedies should be regulated by the grade
of drunkenness,  and the greater or less degree,
in which the intellects are affected in it.
  II. The remedies which  are proper  to pre-
vent the recurrence of  fits of drunkenness, and
to destroy the desire  for ardent spirits, are reli-
gious,  metaphysical, and medical.  I shall briefly
mention them.
   1. Many hundred drunkards have been cured
of their desire  for  ardent spirits,  by a practical
belief in the  doctrines of the  Christian religion.
Examples  of the  divine  efficacy of Christianity
lor this purpose, have lately  occurred in many
parts of the United States.
  2. A sudden sense of the guilt  contracted by
drunkenness, and  of its punishment in a future
world.  It once cured a gentleman in Philadel-
phia, who, in a fit of drunkenness, attempted to
murder a wife whom he loved. Upon being told
of  it when he was sober, ho was so struck with 
52
ON THE EFFECTS OF
 the enormity of the crime he  had nearly com
 mitted, that he never lasted spirituous liquors af-
 terwards.
   3.  A sudden sense of shame.  Of the efficacy
 of this deep-seated principle in the human bosom,
 in curing drunkenness,  I shall relate  three re-
 markable instances.
   A  farmer  in  England, who had been many
years in the practice of coming home intoxicated,
from  a market town, one day observed appear-
ances of rain, while he was in market.   His hay
was cut, and ready to be housed. To save it, he
returned in haste to his farm, before he had tak-
en his customary dose of grog.  Upon coming
into his house, one of his children,  a boy of six
years old, ran to his mother, and cried out, " O!
mother,  father is  come  home, and he is not
drunk !"  The father,  who heard  this  exclama-
tion, was so severely rebuked by it, that he sud-
denly became a sober man.
   A noted drunkard was  once followed  by a fa-
vourite goat,  to a tavern, into which he was in-
vited  by his master, and  drenched with some of
his liquor.  The poor animal  staggered home
with his  master, a good deal  intoxicated.  The
next day he followed him to his accustomed tav-
ern.   When the goat came to the door,  he paus-
ed : his master made signs to him to follow him
into the  house  The goat stood  still.  An at-
tempt was made to thrust him into the tavern.
He resisted, as if struck with  the recollection of
what  he suffered from being intoxicated  the night
before.   His  master was so much affected by a
sense  of shame,  in observing  the conduct of his
goat to be so  much more rational than  his  own,
that he ceased from that time to drink spirituous
liquors. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.           35
   A gentleman in one of the southern states, who
 had nearly destroyed himself by strong drink,
 was remarkable for exhibiting the grossest marks
 of folly in his fits of intoxication.  One evening,
 sitting in his parlour, he  heard an uncommon
 noise in his kitchen.   He went to the door, and
 peeped through the  key-hole, from whence he
 saw one of his negroes diverting his fellow-ser-
 vants, by mimicking  his master's  gestures and
 conversation  when he was drunk.—The sight
 overwhelmed him with shame and distress, and
 instantly became the means of his reformation.
   4. The association of the  idea of ardent spirits,
 with a painful or disagreeable impression upon
 some part of the body, has  sometimes cured the
 love of strong drink.   I  once  tempted a negro
 man, who was habitually fond  of ardent  spirits,
 to drink some rum, (which  I placed in his way,)
 and  in which I had put  a  few grains of tartar
 emetic.—The tartar sickened and puked -him  to
such a degree,  that he supposed himself to be
poisoned.   1  was much gratified by observing he
could not bear the sight nor smell of spirits, for
two years afterwards.
   I have heard of a.man who  was cured of the
 love of spirits, by working  off a  puke, by large
draughts of brandy and  water;  and I know  a
gentleman, who, in consequence of be.ing affect-
ed with a rheumatism, immediately after drink-
ing some toddy, when overcome with fatigue and
exposure to the rain, has ever since loathed that
liquor, only because it was  accidentally associat-
ed in his  memory with the recollection of the
pain he suffered from his  disease.
   This appeal to that operation of the human
mind, which  obliges it to associate ideas, acci-
dentally or otherwise  combined, for the cure of 
 34          ON THE EFFECTS OF

 vice, is very ancient.   It was resorted to by Mo-
 ses, when he compelled the children ^f Israel to
 drink the solution of the golden calf (which they  *
 had idolized) in water.  This solution, if made,
 as it most probably was, by means of what is call-
 ed  hepar sulphuris, was  extremely bitter, and
 nauseous, and could  never be recollected after-
 wards,  without  bringing into equal detestation,
 the sin which subjected them to the necessity of
 drinking it.  Our knowledge of this principle of
 association upon the minds and  conduct of men,
should lead us to destroy, by means of other im-
pressions, the influence of all those circumstan-
ces, with which the  recollection  and desire  of
spirits are combined.  Some men drink only in
the morning, some at  noon,  and some  at night.
Some men drink only on a market day,  some  at
one tavern only, and  some only in  one kind  of
company.  Now by finding a new and  interest-
ing employment, or subject of conversation for
drunkards at the usual times in which they have
been accustomed to drink,  and by restraining
them by the same means from those places arid
companions, which suggested to them the  idea of
ardent spirits, their habits of intemperance  may
be completely destroyed.  In the  same way the
periodical returns of appetite,  and a desire  of
sleep have been destroyed in a  hundred  instan-
ces.  The desire for strong drink, differs from
each of them, in being of an artificial nature, and
therefore not disposed  to return,  after being
chased for a few weeks from the system.
  5. The love  of ardent spirits has sometimes
been subdued, by exciting a counter passsion in the
 mind.  A citizen of Philadelphia had made many
 unsuccessful attempts  to cure his wife of drunk-
enness.   At  length, despairing  of her  reforma. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
35
  tion, he purchased a hogshead of rum, and after
.'tapping it, left the key in the door of the room
* in which it was placed, as if he had forgotten it.
  His design was to give his wife an opportunity of
  drinking herself to death.  She suspected this to
  be his motive, in what he had done, and sudden-
  ly left off drinking.  Resentment here  became
  the antidote to intemperance.
   6.  A  diet,  consisting wholly  of  vegetables,
  cured  a physician in Maryland of drunkenness,
  probably by  lessening that  thirst, which  is al-
  ways more or less excited by animal foodV
   7. Blisters to the  ankles, which were follow-
  ed by an  unusual  degree of inflammation, once
  suspended the love  of ardent spirits, for one
  month, in a lady in this city.  The degrees of her
  intemperance may be conceived of, when I add,
  that her  grocer's accompt, for  brandy alone,
  amounted annually, to one hundred pounds, Penn-
  sylvania currency, for several years.
   8. A violent attack of an acute disease, has
  sometimes destroyed a habit of drinking distilled
  liquors.  I attended a notorious drunkard, in the
  yellow fever, in the year 1798, who  recovered
  with the loss of his relish for spirits, which has,
  I believe, continued ev^r since.
   9. A salivation has lately performed a cure of
  drunkenness  in a person in Virginia.   The  new
  disease excited in  the mouth and throat, while it
  rendered  the action of the  smallest 'quantity of
  spirits upon them painful, was happily calculated
  to destroy the  disease  in the stomach  which
  prompts to drinking, as well as to render the re-
  collection of them disagreeable, by the  laws of
  association formerly mentioned.
   10. I have known an oath  taken before a ma-
 gistrate, to drink no more spirits, produce a per- 
  j        '_>N THE EFFECTS OF &c.

 feet cure of drunkenness.  It is sometimes cured
 in  this way in Ireland.   Persons who  take oathljfl
 for this purpose, are called affidavit men.      .*
    11. At advantage would probably arise  from
 frequent  representations being made  to drrtn'v-
 ards, not  > ily of the certainty,  but of the sudden-
 ness of de.-'tn, from  habits of  intemperance.  I
 have heard of two  persons being cured of the
 love of ardent spirits, by seeing death suddenly
 hr,"r-;ed by fits of intoxication ;  in the one case in
 i '•trang."•:•, and in the other, in an intimate friend.
    ■I'It has been said, that the disuse of spirits
 Suv, jid be gradual;  but  my observations author-
 ize me to say, that  persons who have been ad-
 dicted to them, should abstain from them sudden-
 ly and entirely.  " Taste not, handle not, touch
 not," should be inscribed upon every vessel that
 contains spirits in the house of a  man, who wishes
 to be cured of habits of  intemperance.  To ob-
 viate,  for a while, the debility which arises from
 the sudden abstraction of the  stimulus  of spirits,
 laudanum,  or bitters infused in  water,  should be
 taken, and perhaps  a larger quantity of beer or
 wine,  than is  consistent with the strict  rules of
 temperate Jiving.  By the temporary use of these
 substitutes  for spirits, I  have never known the
 transition to sober habits,  to be attended with any
 bad effects,  but often with  permanent  health of
 body, and geace of mind.
  The drunkard shall come to poverty.—Solomon.
  Wo  to the drunkards—the drunkards of Ephraim,
 Shall be trodden under foot.—Isaiah.
  I  have written unto you not to keep company, if any
man that is called a brother be a—drunka. J—with such
a one no not to  eat.—Paul.
  Our son is—a drunkard. All the men of the city shall
stone him with stones, that he die.—Deut.
  Be not deceived—the drunkard—shall not inherit the
kingdom of God.—Paul. 
 
 
 
 
 
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