V.J VX ADDRESS HYSICIANS, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BO ATM OF MANAGERS / OF THE lieto*$orit <£ttj> STmijpernnce Sorietj). AN ADDRESS PHYSICIANS, BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS V 3£eto=i*ork <£ttg 3Tcm+icvaucc Socictg. i f ?, ■■. " r ^0%'-t NEW-YORK: PRINTED BY J. & J. HARPER. NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET, 1829. ■HV N44a, ■ ^^^/tx^^+lv »^6r; V^-^a* ' Respected Sir: The liberty which we take in addressing you,* must find its apology in the importance of the subject to which your attention is called, and the authority of the injunction, which has made it our duty to submit that subject to your consideration. Of the recent formation of the New-York City Society for the Pro- motion of Temperance, you are probably aware. The members of that Society, persuaded that its principles need only to be generally known to be ex- tensively adopted, have made it the special duty of their Executive Committee, by all practicable means, to present them to the public mind, and by the suasion of truth, to lead all classes of the community to a voluntary relinquishment of the use of distilled spirits. In discharging the trust committed to us,«ve are con- vinced, that no portion of society should receive earlier attention than medical practitioners—not that the sin and danger of intemperance lies particularly at their door, but because their peculiar station gives them facilities for the counteraction of the evil which no other persons possess. And while the members of your profession have almost daily opportunities of witnessing the destruc- tive operation of the present system of drinking, no persons are better qualified to appreciate the mea- sures of reform, now adopting. It is indeed gratify- mg to observe the alacrity and decision with which very many of the faculty, in various sections of our Union, lend their aid to the advancement of the greatest moral enterprise of the age. A sufficient proof of this, is the fact, that resolutions recommend- ing total abstinence from ardent spirits, have been already passed by ten Medical Societies, in different parte of the United States. There is one misapprehension, against which we wish to guard at the very commencement of our communication. It is the impression entertained by many, when the principles of the Temperance Society are recommended to their consideration and adop- tion, that they are supposed, by the persons propos- ing, to be peculiarly exposed, if not already addicted, to an over-free use of strong drink. Nothing is further from our apprehensions. Our business lies not with the intemperate. Experience has long con- vinced the benevolent, that such are, for the most part, incurable. The promotion of temperance, by the method of prevention, being all that can be done is all that we propose to do. Our appeal is to the' temperate, the only class of society with whom we may hope to succeed; and while we consider no man who uses liquor at all, as absolutely safe, the indi- vidual whose attention is solicited to the claims of our cause, so far from thinking himself the subject of suspicion, should deem it an evidence of our con- fidence in his moral character, and his regard for the real interests of his fellow-men. It were more than superfluous to recount to you the deleterious action of stimulus upon the human frame, or explain the process by which the stomach, raised above its natural tone, by the excitation of J ardent spirits, by a law of our system, falls again as far below it; then begins its craving for the accus- tomed stimulus, which it continues to demand with progressive importunity, until the bondage of an unconquerable appetite marks its possessor as the subject of the disease of drunkenness,—a disease which, like any other, runs through the several stages of morbid action, with this peculiarity, that it has no crisis, but in the consummation of death. Of its symptoms and consequences, you are con- stant witnesses in impaired digestion, hypochon- driasis, inflammation of the intestinal canal, morbid conditions of the liver, and organic derangements of the viscera. You find it among the frequent causes of eruptions, ulcers in different parts of the body, gout, jaundice, dropsy, diabetes, hemoptysis, and pulmonary consumption. Your practice ascertains it to be a fruitful cause of inflammation of the brain, and its membranes, of effusions in that organ, epi- lepsy, palsy, apoplexy, mania, and delirium tremens. Many of the fatal fevers, with which you are called to contend, are occasioned by the use of intoxicating drinks; and there is no disease, which is not rendered in its symptoms more violent, in its treatment more embarrassing, and its cure more difficult, by this perni- cious habit. You are well aware too, that these evils are not confined to the habitual drunkard, but extend to many who are regarded by themselves and others, as temperate. How often have you known the founda- tion of a fatal disease laid, before the true cause was even suspected by the patient or his friends; and how many of those deaths, which in the bills of mortality are ascribed to various diseases, might, with great truth, have been attributed to the use of strong drink; b winch, if not the proximate cause of death, was the remote and true cause of the mortal distemper ? While the feelings of survivors remain so sensitive to the disclosure of such facts, it will be in vain to look into the bills of mortality to ascertain, with accuracy, the whole extent of the agency, which ardent spirit exerts in the weekly work of death. The havoc of human life occasioned by this single agent, will astonish the person who examines the data, which have been collected on the subject. ;t Taking the proportion from the moral town of Salem, Mass., where one ninth of the deaths are ascribed to intemperance, the number in the United States would be more than 30,000 in a year. Taking the proportion from Portsmouth, N. H., the number would be 34,000. Taking it from New Haven, Con., it would swell to 46,500."* Besides all the antece- dent disease and suffering, our country annually offers 30,000, and more, human victims to the Moloch of Intemperance ! As guardians of the health of the community, the removal of such an evil must be an object of prime and deep importance to Medical practitioners. There are other views of the subject, to which they cannot be indifferent so long as the indissoluble tie of brotherhood unites them to the interests of their fellow-men, or the glow of patriotism enkindles their anxiety in whatever involves the welfare of their country. The amount of human misery and crime justly attributable to intemperance, can only be known to him, who is acquainted with all the property which it directly spends, and indirectly prevents from earn- * Christian Spectator, May, 182R. I ing, with all the sufferings of poverty, the relaxation of parental discipline, and perversion of parental example ; the crime which it occasions by stupify- ing the moral sense, by adding violence to the evil passions of the human breast, by exposing to tempt- ing circumstances and depraved companions, and by removing the restraints imposed by sense of cha- racter, and the means and influences of religion. In a word, the untold wretchedness inflicted by this single cause, can only be known to that Omniscient One who counts the bitter tears of the drunkard's wife, and can estimate the bitterer pangs which reve- lation discloses as the retribution of that future state of being, where he who is « filthy,' shall be 4 filthy still.' To the lover of his country, it can be no trifling con- sideration, that at least one hundred millions of dol- lars are expended per annum, for that which, in every sense, "profiteth not." His regret would be less, were it of a merely negative character, and nothing more involved than the loss of money. But every grog-shop, among the many thousands in our land, is a standing demonstration, that the depravation of morals, the relaxation of sound principle, and the corruption of the national virtue, which is the pre- serving salt of our republican government, are the direct and alarming consequences of this enormous consumption of intoxicating drinks. The problem to which the man of foresight and humanity can be no longer indifferent, is, how shall the evil be arrested ? The question has been often asked with anxiety, and has led to some efforts which have been long applied without success. Moral So- cieties, and Societies for the suppression of intempe- 5 ranee have toiled to withstand the invading toe, but have been driven back with defeat. The moralist has descanted on the odiousness of a vice, which it slanders the very brutes to call brutal. The pulpit has sounded the alarm of caution to the temperate drinker, and poured the thunders of Almighty wrath in the ears of the drunkard. But the temperate drinkers in large numbers have become drunkards, and drunkards have continued, without interruption, to drink while liquor and life lasted. - Alas ! Leviathan is not so tamed :'' Reproof subdues him not, " and stricken hard Turns to the stroke his adamantine scales, That fear no discipline of human hands." The aim of the benevolent had been to suppress intemperance, and reform the drunkard, while the temperate were permitted to go on in the sober use of strong drink. The expediency of moderate drink- ing had never been questioned, and the reformers themselves were for the most part examples of what was deemed the prudent use of ardent spirits. At length " The American Society for the promotion of Temperance" was formed about three years since, on a different plan from any previous institution. Its novel and fundamental doctrine was total abstinence from ardent spirits on the part of all the temperate. It was an institution which struck upon a new chord —and the right one—and the effect has been won- derful It was founded on a deep and sagacious view of human nature, and the circumstances in which it is placed. Its founders saw that as all in- temperance commences with temperate drinking; so long as liquor is used at all, it will be abused by n 9 considerable portion of mankind. In the frequent and daily use of stimulating drinks, administered on every occasion of pleasure and business, required by hospitality and friendship, and sanctioned by usage and grave example, they saw the commencement of an appetite,—a susceptibility for which exists in every human constitution,—small in its beginnings, insi- dious in its progress, uniform in its results, and dread- ful in its termination. Observation had painfully convinced them, that where that appetite was once formed, in all human probability, the individual was ruined beyond recovery. After all the solemn coun- sels of friends, the strong resolutions of reformation, and the bitter consequences of drunkenness, the man in love with strong drink would " seek it yet again." They had been hitherto expending their strength in extirpating a noxious weed, which had overrun many a fair field; but their labour had been useless. The weed was attacked in its ripeness, and its treasure of seed was scattered in the very act of cutting down. The method of prevention was at last thought of; and the inference was clear, that if the seed ceased to be sown, the field would be no longer overrun with the destructive plant. That method is a total abstinence from spirituous liquors. So long as every man in society was presenting them to his neighbour, and daily partaking himself, the love of stimulus, by the very laws of our nature, must be created in the bo- soms of many. It is too late to strike at the evil after the unnatural appetite is produced. It had been better to have prevented its production, by the remo- val of the producing causes. The intemperate can- not be reclaimed, but the temperate may be secured, and that in only one way, which is entire abstinence: R 10 a way which the exigency of the case makes the bounden duty of every sober man to pursue. Thus was it anticipated, that this pestilence which walketh in darkness, this destruction which wasteth at noonday, might be arrested by the same policy, which in the time of a desolating epidemic, cuts off all intercourse with the infected district, which is abandoned to the em- pire of death, while all the healthy retreat to a station of safety. Such is the fundamental doctrine of the American Temperance Society. For two years past, by every channel of access to the public mind, by the press, from the pulpit, in the circle of friendship, and the deliberative assembly, it has been proclaim- ing " Touch not, taste^ not, handle not" an article which is rarely useful and never necessary, which is always dangerous, and commonly ruinous. Its un- ceasing injunction has been, " gently, but seriously and resolutely refuse, on every occasion, and in every place, and from every hand, to taste the fatal cup." To the man, who objects that the little he uses will not endanger him, it replies, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." A sense of security is no assurance of safety. Every drunk- ard once thought himself proof against temptation, and would have felt insulted by the man who should have predicted his present state. It tells him that if he is a perfectly sober man, it will be no sacrifice to abstain,—that if he find it such he has the more ur- gent need to adopt the resolution without delay. To the man, who professes that he sees no reason why he should disuse liquor because others abuse it, it replies, That every man is bound to exhibit a salu- tary example, which he does not who indulges in even moderate drinking, for moderate drinking ie 11 maintained to be the source of all the evil. He who will not make so small a sacrifice as total abstinence, (which is indeed no sacrifice to the temperate,) for the removal of a scourge which is felt in almost every house in the land, may well doubt his obedience to the " royal law" of love, or even his claim to com- mon humanity. To the man, who pleads for liquor as essential to sustain the frame under the exertion of hard labour, and in exposure to cold and inclement weather, the Temperance Society shows, that the only permanent strength is that derived from food and sleep ; that the effect of stimulation is not to increase, but simplv con- centrate the animal energy, at the expense of succeed- ing debility. It produces instances without number of houses built, of harvests gathered, of manufactories conducted, of ships navigated, and of exposure to cold endured, with superior advantage and comfort, without the aid of spirit. It produces the instance of those persons in Britain, whose business it is to train men for pugilistic combats, who, impartially adopting the best method of bringing them to " the top of their condition," rigidly enforce a total absti- nence from every species of distilled spirits. It points to the iron armour, in which a modern can scarcely move his limbs, and tells him that the Roman veteran who wore it, used nothing but water mixed with a little vinegar, to quench his thirst in the day of dusty and bloody battle. Thus have the advocates of total abstinence an- swered inquiries, and met objections, and urged the simple and obvious duty of every citizen. It has not been without its effect. An impulse has been com- municated, which is now felt throughout our twentv- 12 lour United States, and has already produced the happiest results. Permit us, from the many evidences of this fact that lie before us, to select one or two, which may be considered as an outline of what is true of numberless other places in our country. The Rev. Lyman Colman, pastor of the church and society in Belchertown, Mass., in answer to the inquiries of the General Agent of the American Temperance Society, writes as follows : " In June, 1827, a few persons, eleven only in number, entered into a social compact, mutually pledging themselves to abstain from the use of ardent spirits, except for medicinal purposes. Such was the opposition to this association, that no urgent measures were used to increase the number of subscribers. But the good effects which manifestly resulted from it, gradually removed the objections which many of our reflect- ing and influential citizens had entertained. In June, 1828, a public meeting was called, to take into con- sideration the expediency of forming a Society for the Promotion of Temperance. A Society was accordingly organized, and thirty subscribed their names as members. Our Society has gradually in- creased from the beginning, and now consists of one hundred and twenty male members; among whom are some of the most influential citizens, and many of our wealthiest farmers. The restraining and counteracting effects of our efforts have been various and happy, beyond our most confident anticipations. It has laid a restraint upon our whole community, which every man is obliged to acknowledge that he feels, however he may affect to despise it. It has had vast influence in checking the use of ardent spirits among every portion of the community. To 13 illustrate the declaration, I have instituted a com- parison between the actual consumption of ardent spirits in this town, during the years 1824 and 1828. The facts have been collected from the books of our retailers, are given on their authority, and will, it is confidently believed, abide the severest scrutiny. The quantity of ardent spirits consumed in 1824, was eight thousand and fifty-six gallons ; and the cost of the same was 4883 dollars. In 1828, the quantity consumed was two thousand and ninety-nine gallons, at the cost of 1440 dollars. These facts show an actual reduction of almost three-fourths in the quan- tity consumed, and of more than two-thirds in ex- pense ; making a saving to the town of 3443 dollars annually—to say nothing of the time, health, and happiness, rescued from waste and destruction. The annual taxes of the town, for the last year, were as follows: minister's tax 600 dollars ; school tax 300 dollars; town tax 1200 dollars; county tax 330 dollars. Total 2430 dollars. " Thus it appears that enough has already been saved, by reducing our tax for spirits, to defray the annual town expenses. In addition to the above advantages, it ought to be mentioned, that the expe- riment with us has done much to expose the needless use of ardent spirits. It has shown that all the inclemencies of the weather may be safely endured, without this universal specific. Our buildings may be erected, our crops gathered, and all kinds of manual labour performed, without rum. Several of our most extensive farmers have gathered their hay and grain, without either using spirituous liquors themselves, or furnishing it for their workmen; and they have easily availed themselves of the services, 14 even of the intemperate. It has also strengthened the civil administration of the town, and called into action the laws which the state has wisely enacted for the suppression of intemperance, but which had long been permitted to sleep in the statute book. There is another fact worthy of notice; within ten miles of this place there are seven distilleries, which are usually in operation six months annually, and consume, on an average, two hundred and sixty bushels of rye daily. The present season not one of them is in operation, and yet our grain finds a ready market, and commands a high price." East Machias, Me.—This Socie.ty went into ope- ration on the 17th February, 1827. At that time there were not less than ten grog-shops in that vil- lage, at one of which twelve hogsheads of rum were annually drank. " The success attendant on our exertions," says the Secretary of that Society, " has vastly exceeded the expectations of any of its friends. The whole number now belonging to this Society, and who wholly abstain from the use of ardent spirits at all times, and under all circumstances, except for medi- cinal uses, is about ninety; the number brought under the influence of the Society, in town and out of it, is much greater; the number of drunkards wholly reclaimed is ten. There are now but two grog-shops in the place, and after September next, there will not be a single licensed retailer in the town. It is already unfashionable to keep any kind of spirits in the house, to drink or invite any friend to drink, even among those who do not belong to the Society. All the principal traders have pledged themselves not to import any more ardent spirits. The lumbering 15 business is now carried on, in all its branches, by night and by day, connected with all the principal mills, without the aid of spirits. One fine saw-mill was built last spring; the foundation was laid when the weather and the water were extremely cold, and the mill completed, without the use of any ardent spirits. The number of men employed was from ten to twenty, headed by two carpenters and millwrights, who had been reclaimed from intemperance by means of this Society. Two masters of vessels, belonging to this place, have set a noble example this summer. They have ventured to sea without providing any kind of spirits. They have the best employment, and make decidedly the shortest and most profitable trips."* As proofs that the Temperance cause has taken extensive effect throughout our country, we adduce a few miscellaneous facts. About 500 associations for the promotion of temperance already exist in our land. The reports on the state of religion and morals made at the annual ecclesiastical meetings and con- ventions of nearly every denomination, evince their attention to the subject. Resolutions to abstain from ardent spirits have been passed by twenty-five militia companies, and by the officers of four regiments, by ten medical societies, and by all the lawyers in the counties of Essex and Morris, N. J., and the county of Berkshire, Mass. The House of Representatives of New-Hampshire passed a resolution of like absti- nence during their late session. Many merchants have ceased to vend the drink of drunkards, and * Second Annual Report of the American Temperance Society, presented January 28.18?Q. It. every month brings report that the force of princi- ple has brought some distiller to the resolution, that he will no more multiply the bitter waters of death. These and other facts are convincing indications of the progress of the Temperance reformation, and has led those who have had the amplest means of information, to conclude, that already the consump- tion of distilled liquors is diminished one-half through- out New-En^ land, and one-third through the United States ! The result of the measure of total abstinence, on the part of the temperate, has established the fact, that the reformation of drunkards—though that was an object not directly contemplated by the Tem- perance Society—is far less hopeless than was sup- posed. Formerly, when the temperate almost uni- versally drank, the condition of the unhappy inebriate was truly deplorable. If he resolved on reforma- tion, the temptation, in every inviting form, met his eye, and courted his sense in every company. If he abstained where all partook, it amounted to the mortifying confession, " I am the man who dares not touch liquor, or my appetite will conquer my reason." The only means of his safety, were formerly the marks of his infamy. Thus, like the leper, was he driven from social life ; but not lest he should com- municate, but contract the fatal infection. No won- der that the permanent reformation of the drunkard, was in such circumstances rare. But now, in places where the principles of the Temperance reform are adopted, it is far otherwise. The temptation is less frequently presented, and his total abstinence is no longer deemed an opprobrious singularity. Informa- tion received by the General Agent of the American 17 Temperance Society, warrants him in believing, that no less than five hundred habitual slaves of intem- perance have, within two years past, been reclaimed from the servitude of this vice. If the plan we propose, for the prevention of so formidable a disease, (for you will, Sir, agree with us in denominating drunkenness a disease, with its symp- toms as distinct, and consecutive, as any other morbid affection,) be attended with the success which we have detailed, then doubtless—apart from all the important considerations which might be urged by the moralist, the politician, and the divine—you will consider the subject as worthy of your professional attention. Large sums are expended, and much inconvenience is incurred, in the enforcement of quarantine regulations, to guard our population against the introduction of infectious disease; and yet more persons die of intemperance throughout the land in one year, than have died of the yellow fever m all past years together. We hope it will receive your attention and sanction, by way of atonement for the injury, which the daily example of but too many medical men, in indulging in drink, has done to the community. For your example acts with all the force of law on the conduct of many, who accord- ingly go, and do likewise. The community too, it is believed by many enlightened practitioners, has been an extensive sufferer from the adoption of the Bru- nonian theory of medicine, and the large exhibition of stimulants by the advocates and abettors of that system. The doctrines of John Brown were certainly very gratifying to human pride and vanity, and their beautiful simplicity eclipses all the mysticism of medi- Itt cine that is to be lound in other authors. VV hatever may be said in favour of its ability «« to build up physi- cians rapidly, without the usual aids of study and reflec- tion, or the labour of practice and observation, and whatever may be urged in its defence, in respect to the increased boldness and energy it may have imparted to the practice in some diseases, its immediate and inevitable tendency is to beget habits of intemper- ance. Indeed it may reasonably be suspected, that it has been productive of more mischief, both physi- cal and moral, than all the theories which the history of any science has ever furnished."* Aside from the evils which must be in systematic operation, where a theory so pernicious is professionally acted upon, is it not worthy of your consideration whether practitioners of more enlightened views, are not unconsciously perpetuating the evils, which we de- plore, by the unnecessary exhibition of alcoholic stimulus! You recollect the instance adduced by Dr. Rush, of an English physician of great eminence, and uncommon worth, who, in taking leave of a young man who had finished his studies under his patronage, impressed upon him the necessity of caution on this subject, with peculiar force, " and lamented at the same time, in pathetic terms, that he had innocently made many sots, by prescribing brandy and water, in stomach complaints." The indulgence of patients in the use of their favourite beverage, and the continued exhibition of tonics, in the form of bitters, present a temptation before which * Valedictory Address of Dr. Watta, President of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, delivered at the spring commencement, New-York, April. 1829. IH many have fallen, and often result m consequences. from which all your benevolence would recoil. Many are the instances on record of persons who, by total abstinence, had been long recovered from habits of inebriation. Under the imposing sanction of a phy- sician's prescription the stimulus of spirit was at length, on some unnecessary occasion, administered, and it proved like the letting out of waters which soon carried away all the barriers, which resolution had so long maintained. Does not the caution dic- tated by such melancholy occurrences, and the duty of helping forward the great reformation already begun, demand of the profession, that in all cases where distilled spirits are merely convenient, but not neces- sary, they should be entirely dispensed with? The application of this rule would extensively diminish their exhibition, and supersede many a popular pre- paration of the Pharmacopoeia. A little thought will suggest many instances, in which such a substi- tution might be effected, without the sacrifice of one single advantage afforded by the Materia medica. In almost all cases of disease, wine is undoubtedly to be prescribed in preference to any alcoholic prepa- ration, and unless it is in the case of some drunkards who have lost their sensibility to every other species of stimulus,—and where indeed it is not a question of life and death, but of speedy death by the use of ardent spirit, or by its disuse—the disease is not yet named, which demands the employment of distilled liquor. We leave the claims of the Temperance princi- ples, thus briefly and imperfectly developed, to your serious consideration, hoping, that you will feel it 20 your duty personally to adopt, professionally to apply, and extensively to diffuse them. To you, we look as sentinels over the health and morals of the commu- nity, to oppose by the example of your lives, and all the influence of your opinions, the wide-spreading desolations of Intemperance. Did physicians gene- rally, in all their intercourse with society, manifest their practical conviction of the truth and importance of the adage of the Greek poet. did they take opportunities of correcting prevalent errors on the subject of the use of stimuli, and im- press upon their friends, that ardent spirit to a man in health is always useless, generally injurious, and uniformly dangerous to virtue; did they rebuke those practices by which the very fountains, kindly opened by nature, for the infant subsistence are poisoned, and other ways in which the foundation of intemper- ance is laid in the nursery itself; were the habitual drinker, when his medical attendant approaches his bedside, told that his previous habits have very much diminished the probability of his restoration, and did the medical instructers of the young men who arc annually coming forward to fill up the profession; take such pains rightly to form their views of per- sonal and official duty, as the responsibility of Jheir station calls for,*—in a word, were the influence * We have already quoted a few remarks from the late Valedictory Ad- dress of Dr. Watts. We are gratified to find that, at almost the same time, similar sentiments were inculcated on a like occasion, in pnother pert'.on of &ur country, as appears from the following:— 21 of the physicians of our land universally, and de- cidedly in favour of total abstinence from ardent spirit, they would prove the greatest benefactors of their country by speedily effecting its reformation. There is scarcely a family in the community without its physician, who has a frequent and confidential access to its members. Your opinion on matters of this kind has unquestioned authority, and were that Extract from an Address, pronounced before the Medical Graduates of the University of Maryland, April 6,1829,% Nathan R. Smith, M.D. Professor of Surgery and Dean of the Faculty. But I would by no means omit to direct your attention, on this occasion. to another object of philanthropic interest, which, at this time, addresses itself with peculiar force to the hearts of all the benevolent. I allude to tho desolating vice of intemperance. Excess in the use of intoxicating liquors has been charged upon our country as a national and characteristic vice—a vice, indeed, which springs directly from the abuse of our peculiar blessing?;. We fear there is too much justice in the imputation. How few there are who realize that while the sword is sleeping in its scabbard, while plenty smiles upon our land, and pestilence withholds its arrows, there is still abroad among us a destroying demon " more fell than hunger, anguish, or the sea." It is ascer- tained that more than thirty thousand lives are, in our own country alone, annually destroyed by this suicidal excess. The poisoned chalice is filled at the expense of more than three times the revenue of the nation. What waste of treasure is here, without even the poor recompense of case and pleasure? What destruction of human life, without one wreath of that mistaken honour, for which it is bartered in the field of blood ! Of use do I say ? This obscene idol demands the immolation of the soul, and in hei horrid orgies tramples upon all which is great, or good, or godlike, in our nature. Well then may war, pestilence, and famine, drop for an instant their weapons of destruction, and look on, with astonishment and envious admiration, to behold their own havoc so far outdone. Who better than a physician can appreciate the magnitude of this wide- spread evil ? and who can accomplish more, in arresting its career, than he who goes forth as the sworn enemy of disease and vice, and whose allies are temperance and virtue ? Such, then, gentlemen, being the character of your profession, and such the noble objects of your ambition, let me entreat that your exertions may cor- respond. If you are enlightened by science, if you are stimulated by a virtuous ambition, and if you discharge your duty with the alacrity of be- nevolence, fear not that your efforts will bo otherwise than happy, p. 2J. 2v. k>-> opinion extensively expressed in behalf of Temper- ance measures, we are confident the result would be equally creditable to your influence, and gratify- ing to your benevolence. With much respect, we subscribe ourselves, the Executive Committee, in behalf of the New-York City Temperance Society, ELEAZAR LORD, ANSEL W. IVES, ARTHUR TAPPAN, JOSHUA LEAVITT, JOSEPH M. SMITH, JOHN TORREY, RICHARD T. HAINES. New-York, April, 1829. i \