ALCOHOL: 
Its Combinations, Adulterations 
AND 
Physical Effects. 
BY 
Col. J. G. DUDLEY. 
"The laws of health are the laws of God, and as binding on man as the 
Decalogue."-Willard Parker, M.D., Ex-President Academy of Medicine. 
"Among the evil institutions that threaten the integrity and safety of a state, 
the liquor traffic stands preeminent."'-Hon. John Bright. 
NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 4th Avenue and 23d Street. 
1874. ALCOHOL: 
Its Combinations, Adulterations 
AND 
Physical Effects. 
BY 
Col. J. G. DUDLEY. 
"The laws of health are the laws of God, and as binding on man as the 
Decalogue."-Willard Parker, M.D., Ex-President Academy of Medicine. 
"Among the evil institutions that threaten the integrity and safety of a state, 
the liquor traffic stands preeminent."-Hon. John Bright. 
NEW YORK : 
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 4th Avenue and 23d Street. 
1874. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 
J. G. DUDLEY, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
Lange, Little & Co., 
PRINTERS, ELECTROTYPERS AND STEREOTYPKBS. 
108 to 114 Wooster Street, N. Y. INTRODUCTION. 
The following pages have been compiled from the 
writings and lectures of the most celebrated chemists, 
physicians, and physiologists of the present age, and 
due credit has been given to them in the body of the 
work. 
The writer believes that the true way to promote 
the Temperance Cause is, to kindly and truthfully 
teach the people the true nature of alcoholic bever- 
ages, and to expose the system of adulterations and 
frauds that are practised to such an alarming extent 
by the dealers in them. 
The Hon. John Bright has said, "Were men but 
properly informed on this question, and were our 
legislators not blinded by custom, appetite, and inter- 
est, we should not need to ask them for a Permissive, 
Prohibitory Liquor Law, for, without delay, by an im- 4 
INTRODUCTION. 
perial enactment, tire liquor traffic would be anni- 
hilated at a stroke." 
With the hope that this treatise may help to check 
the swelling tide of intemperance that threatens to 
overwhelm our country, it is respectfully submitted to 
all classes of society. 
J. G. D. 
New Yobe City, 1874. Alcohol: 
ITS COMBINATIONS, ADULTERATIONS, AND PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 
" If alcohol were unknown, half the sin, and a large part of the 
poverty and unhappiness of this world would disappear." 
Professor Edmund A. Parkes, M.D., F.R.S. 
No student of history can doubt that our country is 
destined to take a controlling part in the affairs of this 
world. In the war for Independence and the one for 
the preservation of the Union, our success has been 
brilliant and decisive, and there appears to be nothing 
so likely to check or endanger our future progress as 
the wide-spread and inveterate habit of using alcoholic 
beverages. The teachings of history prove that the 
enemies of a nation most to be dreaded are those 
harbored within its own borders. 
One of the most learned physiologists and eminent 
surgeons of our time, declares, " that drunkenness 6 
ALCOHOL. 
is one of the mightiest evils God ever tolerated on 
this earth; that cholera and yellow fever are harm- 
less compared with it; and that thirty-three and 
a third per cent, of all the deaths in the City of 
New York are the direct, or indirect, result of the use 
of alcohol." 
One of the ablest thinkers and writers of England, 
writes, "it is the curse of that country; a curse so great 
that it eclipses every other calamity under which Eng- 
land suffers, and it is impossible," he says, "to ex- 
aggerate the evils of intemperance." 
Careful study and observation have convinced mo 
that these statements are the truth, and I have felt it 
to be my duty to do all that I possibly can to instruct, 
not only the young, but all classes of society, concerning 
the true nature of alcoholic beverages, and the danger 
we are in from their continued use-a danger so great 
that, if it is not arrested and put down, it is certain to 
end in national demoralization and ruin ! 
The use of fermented liquors has been known from 
the earliest times, and the custom prevailed in the time 
of our Saviour and his Apostles, but the man who at- 
tempts to draw arguments from the Scriptures to up- 
hold the drinking customs of the present day is either 
reckless or ignorant. There is no sin denounced with 
greater force in the Bible, or in stronger terms, than 
the sin of drunkenness. ALCOHOL. 
7 
The 11 Text-book of Temperance" states, p. 119, "that 
about sixty texts of the ' authorized version ' refer to 
wine (or what is supposed to be wine) with approbation, 
where the context shows or implies it to be a natural or 
unfermented product. Not more than fifty-two texts 
can be proved by the context to refer to intoxicating 
wine, and not one of these is connected with the Divine 
blessing. On the contrary, one-half of them describe 
it as an evil, a mocker, and a stupefier, or else prohibit 
it, either in general or special terms." 
All of these discussions as to what was the nature of 
the wines used in Scripture times, or in the remote 
ages of antiquity, are alike unsatisfying and unprofit- 
able. We know, both from sacred and profane history, 
that most of them were intoxicating. Where it is 
recommended in the'Bible, it is generally as a medicine 
or a condiment, and its excessive or habitual use is 
always denounced. 
From profane history we learn that the drunken 
habits of the people produced national degradation 
and ruin. Babylon was conquered not so much by the 
Medes and Persians as by drunkenness and revelry. 
Persia fell not so much by the energy and valor of the 
Greek army as by the drunkenness of her kings and 
people. Greece, in her turn, not so much by the 
prowess of the Roman arms as by her own discord and 
infamy. Rome fell not so much by the hordes of 8 
ALCOHOL. 
Goths, Huns, and Vandals descending on her plains, 
and assaulting her cities, as by the careless ease and 
sottishness of her people. Wine and spoil took away the 
heart of that great empire, and unnerved its mighty arm. 
We know these facts, and no one is ignorant of the 
baneful effects of the drinking customs of our time, and 
instead of perplexing ourselves with the questions as to 
whether the miraculous wine of Cana of Galilee, or 
that given by our Saviour to his disciples at the Last 
Supper, was fermented or unfermented, intoxicating or 
not intoxicating, let each person, individually, ask him- 
self, when the liquor is before him, this question, If I 
drink this what will it do to me ? and judging by what 
we know of its effect upon others, let the decision be ; 
I will not drink it ! for its use involves so great a 
chance of incurring drunken habits, that total abstinence 
is the wisest and safest course. 
I have carefully and conscientiously studied this sub- 
ject for a long time, and have had the advantage of the 
discussions, experiments, and investigations of the most 
learned chemists, physicians, and physiologists of the 
present age, and I shall state plainly only what has 
been decided to be the truth by the careful scientific 
investigations of the ablest men in this country and 
in Europe. 
" Alcohol is an Arabic word, and originally signified 
anything very fine, thin, much divided or separated ALCOHOL. 
9 
from the grosser portions of a substance. The word 
was first applied to an impalpable powder, but it is now 
applied to the principal quality found in intoxicating 
liquors, upon which their poisonous nature chiefly de- 
pends." * 
The art of distillation was discovered about the 
tenth century, by an Arabian alchemist, while searching 
for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life, but it 
was not introduced into the medical practice of Europe 
until the thirteenth century, and was supposed at first 
to be a universal medicine that would preserve life, and 
prevent or cure all diseases ; and the extravagant praises 
lavished upon it by Arnoldus de Villa, and Raymond 
Lully, and afterwards by Theoricus, and other phy- 
sicians of that age, were eagerly believed by all classes 
of society; and those who feared the plague, or any 
other disease, eagerly sought the new ether, or liquor, 
for safety, restoration, or protection. 
From this fatal error sprang the social custom of 
drinking it, and the daily use of its compounds; and 
the habit of using these drinks became common all 
over Europe, and drunkenness, with increased misery 
and crime, was the result. Alcoholic liquors, and the 
errors with regard to their effects, were brought to this 
country by its first discoverers; the teachings of 
* Wetherbee's " Toxicology." 10 
ALCOHOL. 
De Villa, Lully, Theoricus, and others of the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries, were accepted, with 
but few exceptions, by both learned and unlearned; 
and in the fashionable dwellings of the rich, as 
well as the humblest abodes of the poor, not to 
offer some kind of liquor to the friend, acquaintance, 
or stranger when he called, was considered an act of 
inhospitality. 
It was believed to be nourishing, to create strength, 
and to be either some kind of food or to supply the 
place of food, and it was not until the great advance in 
chemical science in the present century that its true 
nature and poisonous effects were fully explained and 
demonstrated, and it is now settled by the concurrent 
opinion of the ablest toxicologists of our time that it is 
a poison-compound in its nature, belonging to the 
class of narcotico-acrid poisons. 
It is also known that its effects upon man are differ- 
ent from those of any other poison, for it not only 
produces disease and death, like other poisons, but it 
changes the whole moral nature of man, and destroys 
all that civilization, education, and Christian instruction 
have done for his moral elevation and improvement. Its 
action upon the brain and nervous system appears to 
paralyze the will, lull conscience to repose, and stupefy 
the moral perceptions, and at the same time it arouses 
and lets loose all the savage and criminal proclivities of ALCOHOL. 
11 
man, and the most atrocious, revolting, and unnatural 
crimes are the common result. 
As its effects are rapidly diffused through the sys- 
tem, it acts as a diffusive stimulant when given in 
medicinal doses; but if taken in larger doses, it is an 
irritant, and afterwards a narcotic. In treating of this 
part of this subject, it is well to understand the dif- 
ference between an irritant and a stimulant. A stimu- 
lant increases the use of given force; it makes none, 
nor adds to power. An irritant may cause the undue 
expenditure of force like a stimulant, but it begins an 
organic lesion (i. e., a derangement or disorder). As 
many of the symptoms of the diseases produced by the 
use of alcoholic chinks are gradual in coming on, it is 
cumulative in its effects. 
" The distilled product of fermented liquors forms the 
ardent spirit of commerce. When obtained from the 
fermented juice of grapes or other fruits, it is called 
brandy, which signifies burnt vine ; from fermented 
molasses or sugar, rum, from the last syllable of 
saccharum, the Latin of sugar; from corn, rye, wheat, 
barley, oats, potatoes, etc., whisky, originally meaning 
water, and also more appropriately called in Celtic 
language, Buil-Caeun, meaning madness in the head ; from 
rye, barley, and other grains, rectified from turpentine 
and juniper, gin ; from rice, palm juice, etc., airack, an 
East Indian name. 12 
ALCOHOL. 
" These liquors contain, in their first distillation, from 
50 to 60 per cent, of alcohol, some of them with fusil 
oil, and all with some acids and other impurities. "When 
redistilled or rectified, it contains about 85 per cent, of 
alcohol, which is the common alcohol of commerce. If 
redistilled the third time, it is so nearly free.from im- 
purities as to be called pure spirits, containing about 
90 per cent, of alcohol."* Absolutely pure alcohol can- 
not be obtained without careful, skillful manipulation, 
and is so volatile that it cannot be kept except in an 
air-tight vessel, and then with great difficulty. 
The nature of alcohol has been carefully studied by 
the most eminent chemists and physicians, in order to 
determine its true character, and to learn its influence 
on the animal economy. 
The first question to be asked is, What is alcohol ? 
Is it food ? It has been regarded as a kind of food by 
some chemists and physicians, but their opinions have 
been theoretical, and not borne out by facts. It was 
claimed as a kind of respiratory food, and that its use 
was to develop animal heat, consequently eliminating 
more carbonic acid. This conclusion is not sustained 
by observation and experiment. 
Food is that which repairs some waste of the system. 
Now, in the human system there are w*ater, fat, starch, 
* Wetherbee's " Toxicology." ALCOHOL. 
13 
sugar, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, potassium, chlorine, 
etc., etc., etc., but no alcohol is found. It has no ana- 
logue in the system ; hence there is nothing it can re- 
pair, and it cannot be ranked as food. 
Is alcohol a poison ? The best chemists and toxi- 
cologists all agree that it is. It answers to all the de- 
scription of a poison. It possesses an inherent deleteri- 
ous property which, when introduced into the system 
in sufficient quantity, destroys life, and it has its place 
with arsenic, strychnine, prussic acid, etc. Like these, 
it is to be employed as a medicine, and has its true 
position in works on materia medica. It is therefore 
both a poison and a medicine. In the last capacity, it 
has, like opium or arsenic, its definite characteristics; 
and in some cases as a medicine it is indispensable, as 
it is also in some of the arts and in chemistry; but it 
has no place at the table or as a beverage, either in dis- 
tilled or fermented liquors. 
Professor Christisson (p. 22, " Treatise on Poisons ") 
states two general laws in regard to the influence of 
the chemical combination of poison. " One is, that poi- 
sons which only act locally have their action much 
impaired or even neutralized by their chemical combina- 
tions. Sulphuric acid and muriatic acid on the one hand, 
and the two fixed alkalies on the other, possess a violent 
local action ; but if they are united, so as to form sul- 
phates or muriates, they become merely gentle laxatives. 14 
ALCOHOL. 
But the case is altered if either of the combining poisons act 
by entering the blood. For the second general law is, that the 
action of poisons which operate by entering the blood, al- 
though it may be somewhat lessened, cannot be destroyed or 
altered in their chemical combinations." 
Now, if alcohol is a poison, and acts by entering the 
blood, and cannot be destroyed or altered in its chem- 
ical combinations, it is impossible that it can act as 
food. When used at all, it should be under the advice 
of a competent physician. 
Toxicologists divide poisons into three classes-irri- 
tants, narcotics, and narcotico-irritants. Alcohol, as I 
said before, belongs to the latter class. In its effects 
upon the living system in larger doses than is required 
for medicinal purposes, it acts at first as an irritant, and 
afterwards, when it has entered the circulation, it be- 
comes narcotic. Were alcohol a stimulant or an irritant 
only, a man would as soon poison himself with arsenic 
or aquafortis. The narcotic element is the syren that 
leads him on to ruin and to death. 
There are appetites implanted in the system, and 
when wisely managed, they help to keep the system in 
health. They express themselves in hunger and thirst. 
These are natural appetites, while the cravings of the 
system for alcohol is the result of disease produced by 
its use, and more or less marked, depending upon the 
injury it has caused the nerves or tissues. ALCOHOL. 
15 
The condition of the inebriate is fearful. He is in a 
state of unrest throughout the whole system, and the 
urgency for relief is so great that very few have suf- 
ficient power of will to resist. What is denominated 
appetite is therefore a state of suffering consequent 
upon disease, to which medical science has given the 
name of Dipsomania (thirst madness). It is as certainly a 
disease, as fever or pleurisy, and the cravings for relief 
are almost beyond human power to resist. 
I pity the poor drunkard who, without knowing the 
true nature of alcohol, has brought this fearful disease 
upon himself, for which there is no cure to be found, 
except total abstinence from every kind of intoxicating 
liquor. If he will do this he will soon find the shackles 
by which he is bound, broken; but if, regardless of 
consequences, he persists in the use of the poison, dis- 
ease, disgrace, and death will soon finish his course. 
But now that the demonstrations of science have 
proved the true nature of alcoholic drinks, a man who 
has not become a victim of the " thirst mania," but con- 
tinues to be a moderate drinker, under the delusion that 
he is in no danger, is doing an injury to society. The 
bad example of one respectable moderate drinker on 
the rising generation is worse than that of twenty con- 
firmed drunkards. 
If the moderate drinker would abandon his cups, it 
has been calculated that drunkenness would be all but ALCOHOL. 
16 
annihilated in twelve years. We should only behold 
here and there a solitary victim, holding out by virtue 
of a strong constitution. 
These few and rare examples are used by the advo- 
cates of temperate drinking as proofs that alcohol is 
not injurious. Did these advocates of temperate drink- 
ing ever reflect how much longer these old inveterate 
drinkers might have lived, how much happier they 
might have been, and how much more useful they would 
have been to themselves, to their families, and to society 
if they had been abstemious all them lives. 
But against this kind of argument I can quote more 
examples of vigorous old age and remarkable longevity 
of men who never indulged in the use of alcoholic 
liquors. It is estimated that in this country more than 
seventy-five thousand drunkards die every year, but the 
grand army of drunkards is kept constantly full, re- 
cruited from the ranks of the temperate drinkers. Why, 
a temperate drinker is only a recruit drilling for the 
grand army of drunkards, and the chances are that he 
■will stagger into the ranks and keep step to the music of 
the toddy-stick before he is aware of it, and then there 
will be another man lost! Yes, lost to himself, lost to 
his family, lost to society-a living corpse. 
But to return to the physical effects of alcohol, we 
find that beyond the point where it can be useful as a 
medicine, it first induces a diseased condition of the ALCOHOL. 
17 
nerves, wnich is manifested by the general symptom of 
craving for alcoholic stimulants, or a depraved appetite. 
In the second place, entering the system unchanged, it 
impairs the vitality of the blood. Careful examinations 
of the blood have been made in order to determine 
what becomes of alcohol when taken into the system. 
When more is taken than can be employed as a proper 
medicine, it passes into the blood, and circulates in all 
parts of the body, deranging the action of the heart and 
capillaries, confusing the brain and impairing the vital 
force. It has been decided by careful investigations 
that a large portion, if not all, of the alcohol drank 
undergoes no change in the blood, but that it exists 
there a foreign substance, like a mote or grain of sand 
in the eye, and that which is denominated stimulation 
is, in fact, irritation; and the excitement caused by the 
effort to throw off the irritating substance wastes the 
energy and life of the system. 
Its cumulative effects are to produce disease of the 
stomach, and a depraved appetite ; it next expends its 
force upon the neighboring organs, inducing either dis- 
ease of the liver, fatty or fibroid degeneration of the 
stomach, heart, etc., Bright's disease of the kidneys, 
and various other diseases which are fatal to health if 
not to life ; the brain also is often diseased in function 
and at a later period in structure, and paralysis, insan- 
ity, delirium-tremens, apoplexy and death are the 18 
ALCOHOL. 
result; at last the alcohol is expelled from the system by 
the kidneys, from the lungs, and through the pores of the 
skin. In the brains of men who died drunk, it has 
been found in as pure a state as when taken into the 
stomach, it has been distilled from the urine, tissues, 
brain, spinal cord, nerves, etc., all tending to prove that 
most of it undergoes no change while it remains in the 
system, and does not give any permanent nourishment, 
or create any strength. 
It acts as a stimulant or an irritant, and excites for 
the time greater activity in the power already existing, 
hut it creates no new strength or power; acting like a 
whip or spur applied to a horse, to produce greater ex- 
ertion and speed for the moment, but by these undue 
efforts the horse suffers in the end, and so does the 
man. The Popular Science Monthly, one of the ablest 
publications in America, conducted by E. L. Youmans, 
teaches that, " In the scientific education of the people 
no fact is deserving of more special comment than the 
fact, that excitement is roasted force, the running down of 
the machine before it has served out its time of motion." 
There are those who boast of the amount they can 
drink without suffering from inebriation if the liquor is 
pure. Such persons do not understand that alcohol, 
however pure, is itself a poison, and that they are in 
greater danger than those who complain that it flies to 
the head when they drink it. This last class are more ALCOHOL. 
19 
likely to be restrained when the consequences may be 
so serious or disgraceful. Not only do the special or- 
gans become involved through the effects of the poison, 
but the whole living organism is impaired and life is cut 
short. 
It has been demonstrated on all sides, at the forge, 
in the work-shop, in the field, on the march, in the Arc- 
tic regions, and in the torrid zone, in physical and in- 
tellectual labor, in training for athletic combats, and in 
trials of skill, that the liquor drinker fails to cope with 
the total abstainer. 
I have said that life is cut short. The table given 
below which Professor Parkes uses as an illustration of 
this fact in his great work on Hygiene (p. 270), is taken 
from " Neison's Vital Statistics." All these deductions 
are drawn from observations on three hundred and 
fifty-seven persons, and he says, the facts connected 
with these persons are well authenticated. 
A Temperate Person's 
Chance of Living is, 
At 20 - 44.2 years. 
„ 30 - 36.5 
„ 40 - 28.8 
„ 50 - 21.25 „ 
„ 60 - 14.285 „ 
AnIntemperate Person's 
Chance of Livingis, 
At 20 - 15.6 years. 
,,30 - 13.8 
„ 40 - 11.6 
„ 50 - 10.8 
„ 60- 8.9 
Professor Parkes further remarks that, " very striking 
evidence in favor of total abstinence, as contrasted 20 
ALCOHOL. 
with moderation, is given by the statistics of the United 
Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institu- 
tion (a kind of Life Insurance Company of London). 
One section consists of total abstainers, another of per- 
sons selected as not known to be intemperate. The claims 
for five years (1860-70) anticipated in the Temperance 
section were <£100,446 ; but there were only claims for 
£72,676. In the general section, the anticipated claims 
were £196,352 ; and the actual claims were no less than 
.£230,297." 
There is the eloquence of truth in these figures, which 
no arguments in favor of temperate or moderate drink- 
ing can get round or overthrow. 
The influence of alcohol is also seen on the masses 
of the people, in the fact that it fits them to become 
the prey of epidemics, as the constitution poisoned with 
alcohol cannot resist the poison of cholera, fevers, etc. 
I cannot omit to speak of the offspring of the ine- 
briate. The inheritance is a sad one. A tendency to 
the disease of the parent is induced as strong, if not 
stronger than that of gout or consumption, and with 
this tendency he must wage perpetual warfare or be- 
come a drunkard. The tendency referred to, has its 
origin in the nervous system. The unfortunate children 
come into the world with a defective organization of the 
nerves, which ranges from the inherited tendency 
through all grades to idiocy. In an institution near ALCOHOL. 
21 
Boston, Dr. Howe reports that of three hundred idiotic 
children under his care, one hundred and forty-three 
were the children of drunken parents. The Divine 
edict that, " The sins of the parents will be visited upon 
the children until the third and fourth generation," is 
here strikingly verified. 
These are the effects of the improper but common 
use of alcoholic liquors in their purest state, but the 
dealers in them in this and other countries, have resort- 
ed to the most fearful adulterations to imitate the pure 
article and increase their profits. So common has this 
become, that it is now almost impossible to procure 
distilled or fermented liquors pure, even for medical 
purposes. 
Dr. Draper, Professor of Chemistry in the Medical 
College of the University of New York, sometime since 
analyzed thirty-six samples of brandy, whiskey, etc., 
mostly taken from the bars of first class hotels and 
restaurants in the city of New York, where liquors are 
retailed at the highest prices and supposed by the 
drinkers to be pure, and he found only four samples 
that did not contain fusil oil and coloring matter of 
some sort. In the lower and second class bars he 
found not only fusil oil, but cayenne pepper, salt and 
other substances. These mixtures were sold for pure 
full-proof liquors, when the analysis showed but about 
thirty-two per cent, on the average; it should have 22 
ALCOHOL. 
given fifty per cent, of alcohol, or in fact thirty- 
six per cent, below proof of spirits, but the deleterious 
chemicals with which the liquor was adulterated would 
produce the effects of intoxication, and the drinker was 
deceived, for instead of solacing himself with pure 
liquor, he was impregnating his system with compound 
poisons. 
Fusil oil, or amylic alcohol, as it is called in chemis- 
try, is one of the products of distillation obtained from 
all substances containing starch-like corn, potatoes, 
wheat, etc.-and more or less is found in all these alco- 
hols according to the method of distillation and rectify- 
ing. Dunglison, one of the highest authorities, says it 
is an acrid poison and destroys the mucous membrane 
of the stomach. It is nearly worthless by itself, and 
is produced as the last product of distillation, and 
if mixed with the ethylic alcohol, it greatly reduces the 
cost of the liquor. Much more water can be put in the 
liquor where the amylic alcohol or fusil oil is allowed to 
remain in it, and is not removed by the process of recti- 
fying. In fact some of the manufacturers of imitation 
liquors recommend adding it to inferior liquors, in order 
to " reduce them " or " lengthen them out," as they 
term it. But it means, to enable them to add more 
water and still keep up the intoxicating quality of their 
liquor. 
The immense amount of whiskey made in this country ALCOHOL. 
23 
furnishes the basis for most, if not all, of the imitation 
liquors and wines, and the presence of so much fusil 
oil invariably found in them is due, first, to the fact, 
that the distillers have discovered methods by which 
they can get a much larger quantity of alcohol out of a 
given quantity of grain than formerly. By adding blue 
vitriol and an extra quantity of yeast to their mash, 
they hasten the process of distillation by inducing a 
fermentation in about twenty-four hours that formerly 
required seventy-two. By thus artificially .hastening 
the distillation, more fusil oil and other impurities 
are mingled with the whiskey, and its dangerous and dele- 
terious qualities are greatly increased. And, further, to 
get the largest amount of alcohol possible out of a 
given quantity of grain, they carry the process of distil- 
lation to the farthest possible extent, thus getting into 
the last portion of the product, most, if not all the 
amylic alcohol or fusil oil. 
The only way to purify these whiskies and to get rid 
of the fusil oil is by rectifying. When this is done, the 
whiskey is sold at various degrees of strength, under 
the different names of French spirits, pure spirits, or 
Cologne spirits, and these are used for making the imi- 
tation liquors, and the reason why so much fusil oil is 
commonly found in the rum and 
wines is, that the whiskey which is used in making 
them has not been properly rectified, and possibly not ALCOHOL. 
24 
rectified at all. If a large portion of the fusil oil re- 
mains in the whiskey the stronger it will be for intoxi- 
cating purposes, and the manufacturer can increase his 
profits by putting in more water ; and mixing in some 
kind of drug to make it bear a bead, and the drinker, 
when he feels the intoxicating effects coming on, will 
be satisfied that he has been furnished good, pure, 
strong liquor, when in fact it is many degrees below un- 
adulterated alcoholic drinks. 
Whenever there is a failure of the grape crop in 
France, there is always a large demand for raw whiskey 
from that market, which comes back to us in due time, 
mixed, and which is sold here in the shape of pure French 
brandies and wines. We also import large quantities of 
cognac oils and liquor essences, flavoring matters, and 
other drugs to be used by American manufacturers of 
counterfeit liquors. Many of these preparations are 
made in this country, and to add double-refined rascality 
to villainy, some of them are adulterated, so that the 
compounder of these mixtures does not know himself 
exactly what quality of devil's broth he is brewing. 
The amount of adulterated liquors is enormous ; and 
with a few exceptions the entire liquor traffic of the 
world is not only a fraud, but (perhaps without all of 
the dealers being aware of the fact) it also amounts to 
a system of drugging and poisoning. 
The business of making adulterated liquors has been ALCOHOL. 
25 
so simplified that any novice who knows enough to 
make a punch or a cocktail can learn in a short time 
how to make any kind of liquor that will pass muster 
with nine-tenths of the drinking community. The oils 
and essences are within the reach of any dealer, whole- 
sale or retail, and, with the chemical preparations, he 
can procure the directions for making a large or small 
quantity in a short time. 
Many books have been published in England and 
this country giving instruction on this subject. The 
dealers in these articles observe secresy and caution. 
In some of their circulars they say to their customers 
that, " goods ordered to be forwarded by express and 
collected for on delivery, are sent with the amount only 
on the collection bill, giving no indication of the nature 
of the articles, and a detailed bill of items sent by mail." 
They also say, for the purpose of encouraging the com- 
pounders in this country that, " The wine growers of 
Europe make use of compound ethers and oils to con- 
vert the grain spirit into brandy of superior quality, 
and that the liquors prepared with their flavors mix 
with the foreign in most economical proportions." 
If the oils, essences, and other chemical preparations, 
are wanted for converting corn whiskey into any other 
kind of liquor, they can easily be obtained. You can 
procure brandy oil enough to change eight barrels of 
corn whiskey into eight barrels of French brandy for 26 
ALCOHOL. 
sixteen dollars, and enough chemicals to convert six- 
teen barrels into old Holland gin, London cordial gin, 
Old Tom gin, or Schnapps, for twelve dollars; to 
make old Bourbon, malt, Monongahela, rye or wheat 
whiskey, enough of these chemical compounds can be 
purchased for eight dollars to make four barrels; and 
to make four barrels of Irish or Scotch whiskey, the 
chemical materials can be procured for ten dollars. 
Then there is the cost of the coloring matter, and what 
the dealers call " age and body preparation." By using 
these drags new whiskey is converted into any kind of 
liquor, of any age or color, in a short time. Some of 
these materials are known to be deadly poisons. The 
more highly the imitation liquor can be charged with 
the cheap poisonous drags, to supply the intoxicating 
properties of alcohol, the more water can be added, 
thus reducing the cost, and keeping up the intoxicating 
power of the liquor. These preparations can be pro- 
cured in any quantity. A small retailer can purchase 
a small quantity, sufficient to convert a gallon or two 
of whiskey into brandy, gin, or rum, as his daily wants 
may require, but they are generally used for larger 
quantities. 
In addition to the foregoing there are an immense 
number of receipts for making all kinds of intoxicating 
liquors. From various authentic sources I have pro- 
cured a large number of these, which have been made ALCOHOL. 
27 
use of at different times, or are in use now. For the 
benefit of moderate drinkers I will give a few; and as 
cider is generally considered a very wholesome bever- 
age, they can always procure a sufficient quantity of it, 
even in those years when the apple crop fails. 
To make sweet apple cider : 
20 pounds of brown sugar, 
1 pound of cider flavor, 
20 gallons of water, 
1 pint of good brewers' yeast. 
Add to each ten gallons of this mixture one quart of 
rectified spirits. 
To make Cognac brandy: 
40 gallons of French spirits, 
i pound extract of chicory, 
I pound of green tea, 
pound black currant leaves, 
1 quart of burnt sugar or lime water, 
A small quantity of simple syrup, to soften and give 
it age, caramel or burnt sugar to color. 
Before the war, when real French brandy could be 
imported for $2.50 per gallon, and corn whiskey was 
cheap, this imitation of brandy could be made for less 
than 37-£ cents per gallon. 
To make French brandy that can be sold for Cognac, 
Sazarac, or Martell's by varying the coloring: 28 
ALCOHOL. 
97 gallons pure spirits, 
7 pounds red argolls, 
3 pounds acetic ether, 
3 gallons wine vinegar, 
7 pounds bruised raisins, 
1 ounce bruised bitter almonds. 
Distill this mixture, and add oak shavings, catechu 
and caramel to color, then throw in a few bits of old 
Dussia leather, to give the flavor of age. 
To make an imitation of pirne old Monongahela 
whiskey: 
40 gallons high-proof corn whiskey, 
3 gallons tincture Guinea pepper, 
40 gallons water, 
1 quart tincture pellatory, 
2 ounces acetic ether, 
gallons strong tea. 
This will produce from the forty gallons of corn 
whiskey, about eighty-four gallons of what will be sold 
for pure old Monongahela. The fusil oil not being recti- 
fied out of the whiskey, the intoxicating quality will be 
superior; and, aided by the tincture of pellatory, dis- 
guised with pepper, ether, and strong tea, enables the 
dealer, to add largely of water, and also to use cheap 
whiskey. ALCOHOL. 
29 
To make Holland gin : 
15 gallons proof spirit, 
1 gallon gin essence, 
1 quart white syrup. 
Mix thoroughly, and filter if necessary. This is sim- 
ple, but there is no gin in it, so it is a pure fabrication, 
as almost every one of the imitation liquors are. 
Real imported Holland gin sometimes has sugar of 
lead added to it, to give it a peculiar roughness and 
flavor, which is much esteemed by some gin drinkers. 
The following is a favorite receipt for making a very 
high-flavored Holland gin, which is much admired by 
some gin drinkers, and it is no wonder so many have 
Bright's disease of the kidneys : 
80 gallons French spirits, 
1 pint oil of turpentine, 
3 ounces oil of juniper, 
1 drachm essential oil of almonds. ( This is almost 
prussic acid.) 
2 ounces creosote. (This is a deadly poison for 
which no antidote is known.) 
Simple syrup enough to soften, and give the ap- 
pearance of age. 
To make a very rich flavored French brandy : 
100 gallons pure spirits, 
2 quarts acetic ether, 30 
ALCOHOL. 
4 ounces cassia buds, 
2 ounces bitter almonds, 
6 ounces orris root, 
1 ounce cloves, 
2 quarts white wine vinegar, 
1 pound catechu, 
2 gallons Jamaica rum, 
ounces cayenne pepper, 
1 quart caramel for coloring. 
Let it stand two weeks, occasionally stirring it. 
To make old London cordial gin of the highest 
quality: 
Ninety gallons of gin, oil of almonds one drachm; 
oils of cassia, nutmeg and lemon, of each two drachms; 
oils of Juniper, caraway, and coriander seed, of each 
three drachms; essence of orris root, four ounces; 
orange flower water, three pints; lump sugar, fifty-six to 
sixty pounds. The oils and essences must be dissolved 
in a quart of spirits of wine, and the sugar in three or 
four gallons of water. The essences must be added 
gradually to the gin, until the requisite flavor is pro- 
duced, when the dissolved sugar must be mixed in 
along with sufficient quantity of soft water, holding four 
ounces of alum in solution, to make up one hundred 
gallons. When the whole is perfectly mixed, tw'o 
ounces salts of tartar, dissolved in two or three quarts 
of water, must be added, and the liquor again well ALCOHOL. 
31 
rummaged or stirred up, after which it must be tightly 
bunged down, and allowed to repose. In a week or 
ten days it will have become brilliant, and ready for 
sale, or racking off and bottling. Many persons use 
this pretty freely for the benefit, as they suppose, of 
their kidneys; and such a compound of compounds 
must produce an effect not only on their kidneys, but 
also on every other organ of the body. 
To make brandy which can be sold for pale or dark 
brandy: 
40 gallons pure spirits (common proof), 
1 drachm Cognac oil. ( This is a deadly poison.) 
1 pint spirits of raisins, 
1 pint spirits of prunes, 
1 drachm tannin powder, 
1 ounce acetic ether, 
3 drops oil of neroli, dissolved in 90 per cent, 
alcohol. 
Color to make dark or light brandy, according to the 
market you are preparing it for. Fusil oil is found in 
nearly all the imitation brandies, showing that the 
whiskey used for the basis of them has been very im- 
perfectly rectified. 
When real brandy is first distilled from wine it is 
quite colorless, but after being kept some time in oak 
casks it becomes of a pale amber color, the color being 32 
ALCOHOL. 
derived from the wood. Very dark brandies owe their 
color to caramel, or burnt sugar. The characteristic 
taste of brandy is due to the presence of a volatile oil 
obtained from the skin of the grape. 
To make old Bourbon whiskey : 
40 gallons pure rectified spirits, 
I pint of brandy coloring, 
| pint of concentrated essence of Bourbon, 
1 pound age and body preparation. 
Absinthe is one of the most deadly poisons, never- 
theless they make a counterfeit absinthe as follows : 
2 ounces of essence of absinthe, 
4 ounces green coloring, 
1 gallon of simple syrup, 
4 gallons of rectified spirits. 
Here we have about 5 gallons of absinthe cordial, 
which contains 2 ounces of deadly poison, and 2 gallons 
of pure alcohol. 
To make Santa Cruz rum: 
45 gallons N. E. rum, 
5 gallons Santa Cruz rum, 
4 drachms vanilla essence. 
To make Jamaica rum : 
60 gallons proof spirit, 
1 pound rum essence. ALCOHOL. 
33 
This is simple and easy, but when we think we are 
drinking good old Jamaica rum, we are served with 
corn whiskey. 
Wines are as universally and as badly adulterated as 
the distilled liquors. In fact, prepared chemicals can 
be found in the stores of men who deal in these articles 
to make every kind of wine, with directions how to mix 
them. Whiskey is used as the basis for nearly all wines, 
and upon chemical analysis fusil oil is almost always found 
in counterfeit wines. What was sold by one of our re- 
spectable New York hotels for fine old port wine was 
analyzed, and found to contain 25 per cent, of alcohol, 
some fusil oil, extracts of cherry and elderberry, and 
some kind of coloring matter. This is a fine medicine 
to give sick persons to strengthen them. 
Receipt for making Madeira wine : 
20 pounds of figs, mashed up, 
50 pounds raisins, 
20 ounces linden or tilla flowers, with the leaves on, 
3 drachms of Turkish rhubarb, 
10 grains of cloves, 
3 gallons of sugar syrup. 
Infuse the above for ten days in 30 gallons of spirits, 
then add 90 gallons of water, and filter, and you have 
nearly 130 gallons of what is sold for pure old Madeira 
wine, without a drop of grape juice in it, but, upon 
analysis, fusil oil will sometimes be found. 34 
ALCOHOL. 
To make sherry wine : 
100 pounds sugar, 
40 gallons spirits, 
200 gallons water, 
70 gallons sherry wine. 
Color according to the kind of sherry you wish to 
imitate. Agitate and stir this mixture up for several 
days, and we have 230 gallons of what is sold for pure 
old sherry wine. 
" A portion of the so-called champagne wines con- 
sumed in this country is composed of the expressed 
juice of turnips, apples, and other vegetables, to which 
sufficient sugar of lead is added to produce the neces- 
sary sweetness and astringency. The terrible head- 
aches and depression of spirits that follow fashionable 
champagne suppers are attributable to the united 
poisons of lead and alcohol."* 
" Logwood is the great coloring matter for wines. 
Blackberries, elderberries, and bilberries are also used. 
Wines are adulterated with distilled spirits, lime salts, 
tannin, alum, lead, copper, cider, perry, etc. Port wine, 
as sold in the market, when not entirely counterfeit, is 
usually a mixture of pure port, or Marsala, Bordeaux, 
and Cape wines with brandy. Inferior port is still more 
* Wetherbee's " Toxicology." ALCOHOL. 
35 
highly adulterated with logwood, elderberries, catechu, 
prune juice, sandalwood, and alum."* 
Many people suppose if they go to the Custom- 
house, and buy liquors in bond, under Custom-house 
lock and key, they will get them pure, but in this they 
are mistaken, for the liquors are as badly drugged 
in other countries as they are here. Professor Parkes 
gives an analysis of between forty and fifty of the dif- 
ferent kinds of wines made in Europe. He says it has 
been stated that the fermentation of the grape, when 
properly done, cannot yield more than 17 per cent, of 
alcohol, and that anything beyond this has been added, 
and that some of the finest wines do not yield more 
than from 6 to 10 per cent. He found, upon analyzing 
the port, sherry, and Madeira wines in London, that 
the port ran from 16§ to 23| per cent, alcohol; the 
sherry from 16 to 25, and the Madeira from 16| per 
cent, to 22, and champagnes from 5f per cent, to 13. 
The other wines averaged from 6| to 19 per cent. 
Mulder on " Wine " (p. 186) quotes Guijal to the effect 
that pure port never contains more than 12| per cent., 
but Mulder doubts this. Dr. Gorman stated before a 
Parliamentary Committee that pure sherry never con- 
tains more than 12 per cent, of alcohol, and that from 
6 to 8 gallons of alcohol is added to every 108 gallons 
* Parkes' " Hygiene." 36 
ALCOHOL. 
of sherry. Some port used in the Queen's establish- 
ment contained but 16| per cent., the highest was 18f ; 
and the sherry only 16, and the clarets from 6g to 7 per 
cent, of alcohol. These were the purest wines to be 
found in London. Upon comparison we should find 
that the foreign wines in our market would show a 
much larger per cent., and as the corn whiskey they ob- 
tain from the United States is the cheapest form of 
alcohol they can procure, it is used for this purpose ; 
and when not perfectly rectified, fusil oil will be found 
in the foreign wines. 
Thudichum and Dupre (on " Wine," p. 682) state 
that natural wine may contain 9, while the maximum 
limit is 16 per cent, of alcohol (of weight in volume). 
They also state that a pipe of 115 gallons of port wine 
has never less than three gallons of brandy added to it, 
and the rich port wines have from thirteen to fifteen 
gallons added. 
I have not space to say more of the adulterations of 
wines and ardent spirits, but it is a system of fraud and 
deception the world over. Ales, porter and beers are 
as badly adulterated in this country and England as 
other liquors are. 
Professor Gallatin, of the chemical department of the 
Cooper Institute, has analyzed many samples of the 
best ales from the largest breweries in New York and 
vicinity, and others of the best reputation, and found ALCOHOL. 
37 
none free from adulteration. He did not find as deadly 
drugs as the English brewers are said to use, or as 
the English books recommend, but he found that salt, 
alum, and lime are extensively used. " The substances 
added to give ' head ' to beer are alum, salt, and ferrous 
sulphate."* The effect of these adulterations on the 
consumer is very injurious. The cumulative effect of 
alum is to produce a general derangement of the diges- 
tive organs, and the diseases which grow out of it. 
The English works recommend coculus indicus, sweet 
flagroot, grains of paradise, alum, capsicum, absinthe, 
nutgalls, potash, and several other drugs. Dr. Beck, in 
his work on " Adulterations," asserts that they use 
strychnine, opium, and hyosciamus, all deadly poisons. 
Keeping new ales until they are old is quite expensive, 
and they are converted into old ales cheaply and hi 
a short time by adding oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid), 
and the new ale acquires almost immediately the fla- 
vor of hard old ale, so much admired by beer drunk- 
ards. 
Coculus indicus is largely imported into England, 
ostensibly for tanners' use, although it is never used 
by them, but finds its way into the brewers' hands, in 
spite of a severe law against its use, and is used by 
them to give greater intoxicating effect to their beer, 
* Parkes. 38 
ALCOHOL. 
and by adding water they reduce its cost and retain the 
intoxicating properties. It is also imported into this 
country, and it is said that it is used by some of the 
American brewers for the same purpose. It is obtained 
from the seed or fruit of a shrub growing in the East 
Indies, and is imported in various sized packages. The 
trade-mark is " B. E.," meaning Black Extract. It is 
an acrid-narcotic poison. Dr. Taylor, one of the high- 
est authorities on the subject of poisons, experiment- 
ed with coculus indicus, and killed a rabbit with two 
drachms in two hours, three drachms killed one in an 
hour, half an ounce in a quarter of an hour, and one 
ounce killed one in four minutes. It is also sometimes 
called fishberry, as fishermen use it to cast into the 
water, and all the fish within reach of its influence be- 
come paralyzed, and float on the surface of the water, 
where they can be easily taken. Its poisonous effects 
more nearly resemble those of alcohol than any other 
known substance. 
The excessive use of malt liquors produces softening 
of the brain, and many other diseases. "When it is 
adulterated its effects are always injurious, and it is noio 
so generally adulterated that the only safety is in letting it 
alone. 
With regard to its value as a diet when it is pure, 
authorities differ. Dr. E. Lankester says " beer con- 
tains but one per cent, of nutritive matter, and is not a ALCOHOL. 
39 
thing to be taken for nutrition at all." Professor Lyon 
Playfair says 100 parts of ordinary beer or porter con- 
tains 9g parts solid matter, of which only about one-half 
part consists of flesh-forming matters ; in other words, it 
takes 1.666 parts of ordinary beer to obtain one part of 
nourishing matter. Baron Liebig informs us that 730 
gallons of the best Bavarian beer contains exactly as 
much nourishment as a five-pound loaf of bread or 
three pounds of beef."* Professor Parkes says " that 
in beer there appears to be five ingredients of impor- 
tance, viz., the extractive matters and sugar, the bitter 
matters, the free acids, and the alcohol. The first, no 
doubt, are carbo-hydrates, and play the same part in 
the system as starch and sugar, appropriating the 
oxygen, and saving fat and albuminates from destrac- 
tion. The bitter matters, he says, are supposed to be 
stomachic and tonic, though it may be questioned 
whether we have not gone too far in this direction, as 
many of the highest-priced beers contain now little else 
than alcohol and bitter extract." 
The danger to those who use these adulterated and 
imitation liquors is fearfully augmented, even those 
made with whiskey, which has been rectified so as to be 
free from fusil oil, are extremely deleterious. Those 
who drink these mixtures are taking into their blood, 
* " Bacchus Dethroned," p. 92. 40 
ALCOHOL. 
brains, spinal cord, nerves, and other organs of their 
bodies, diluted alcohol mixed with other poisons, color- 
ed and flavored with oils and essences. These produce 
congestion of the brain, ending in delirium-tremens. 
One of the worst features about these drinks is, the in- 
jury is permanent. Those who suffer from then- use, 
especially those who have had mania-a-potu, it is said, 
are left with the functions of the brain partially para- 
lyzed and never fully recover ; their continued use in a 
short time produces death. 
Until within a late period, it was believed that alco- 
holic drinks warmed the system, but by repeated ex- 
periments made in Germany, France and this country, 
it is now established that their invariable action is to 
lower the temperature of the body. Professor N. S. 
Davis, M.D., of Chicago, claims to have established this 
remarkable fact by experiments which he performed 
himself in 1850 and repeated in 1867. Dr. Anstie says, 
the first decided demonstration was made by Frolich 
and Litchenfels in 1852. Other eminent men have re- 
peated the experiments and found the same results. A 
centigrade thermometer was used, and a small glass of 
Hock wine or a small glass of brandy lowered the tem- 
perature of the body from four to six-tenths of a degree 
in a few minutes, and in a poisonous dose administered 
to a dog, there was a fall of from four to five degrees in 
one or two hours. Experiments prove that alcohol has ALCOHOL. 
41 
the same effect on the lower animals as it has on 
man. 
If you saturate a piece of rag in alcohol and apply 
it to the arm, preventing evaporation by means of an 
oil silk bandage, in a short time the part becomes hot, 
painful and inflamed, so that you are compelled to re- 
move the rag. This proves that alcohol is an irritant 
and has the power of inflaming. 
When taken into the stomach a similar effect is pro- 
duced upon the mucous membrane, the blood flows to 
the part in contact with the alcohol and the surface be- 
comes congested; mucous is also thrown out by the 
membrane to lubricate the inflamed parts and preserve 
it from irreparable damage, the increased flow of blood 
to the surface acted upon by the alcohol, induces a sen- 
sation of warmth. This is the real meaning of that 
warming and comforting of the stomach after a glass of 
spirits which beguiles the drinker. That alcohol thus 
affects the stomach has been proved by ocular demon- 
stration in the case of Alexis St. Martin, operated on 
by Dr. Beamont. 
Professor Parkes, from whose great work on Hygiene 
I have already quoted, after giving the most impar- 
tial, exhaustive and learned dissertations upon the phys- 
ical effects of alcohol, and its physiological and moral 
effects, sums up the whole subject with this conclusion, 
and says (p. 294): " Looking back to this evidence, it 42 
ALCOHOL. 
may be asked, Are there any circumstances of the sol- 
dier's life in which the issue of spirits is advisable, and 
if the issue at any time lies between the issue of spirits 
and total abstinence, which is the best ? To me there 
seems to be but one answer. If spirits neither give 
strength to the body, nor sustain it against disease, are not 
protective against cold and wet, and aggravate rather than 
mitigate the effects of heat-if their use even in moder- 
ation increases crime, injures discipline, and impairs 
hope and cheerfulness-if the severest trials of war have 
been not merely borne, but most easily borne, without 
them-if there is no evidence that they are protective 
against malaria or other diseases-then I conceive the 
medical officer will not Rejustified in sanctioning their use 
under any circumstances." 
Dr. Carpenter quotes from Dr. Knull a statement that 
the Russian army on the march in cold weather not 
only use no spirits, but no man who has lately taken 
any is allowed to march. In tropical climates the best 
authorities condemn the use of alcoholic beverages. 
The records show that both on common tropical ser- 
vice, and on march in India, the teetotallers were more 
healthy and vigorous and far better soldiers than those 
who did not abstain. 
Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, one of our eminent army 
surgeons who served in the Union Army during the re- 
bellion, says, " In our own mind the conviction is estab- ALCOHOL. 
43 
lished by the experience and observation of a life, that 
the regular routine employment of alcoholic stimulants 
by men in health is never, under any circumstances 
useful. We make no exception in favor of cold, or 
heat, or rain, nor, indeed, in favor of old drinkers, when 
we consider them as soldiers." 
If alcohol is not food and takes no part in nutrition, 
many will be ready to ask, Why habitual drinkers of 
spirits, wine and beer grow fat, and increase in weight. 
Professor N. S. Davis, says, the presence of alcohol in 
the blood, not only retards atomic changes in tissue, 
but diminishes the amount of oxygen taken in through 
the lungs. Consequently, the carbonaceous elements 
of the blood and tissues do not become oxidated as 
rapidly as when the alcohol is not present, and they 
accumulate in the form of fat. And this process is some- 
times carried so far that the heart, Ever and kidneys 
undergo more or less fatty degeneration, constituting 
incurable forms of disease. 
The increase of bulk and weight in these cases is not 
from an increase of natural nutrition, but a slow accu- 
mulation of hydro-carbonaceous material from retarded 
metamoi'phosis. The individual fattened under such 
influences, invariably diminishes in physical activity 
and power of endurance, in proportion to the increase 
of weight. Those who imagine that to diminish the 
waste of the tissues by diminishing atomic changes, is 44 
ALCOHOL. 
equivalent to the actual assimilation and addition of 
new atoms, forget that all the phenomena of life in the 
physical organization are the direct result of such atomic 
changes, and that whatever diminishes these actually 
diminishes physical life, and to stop them is to stop 
life. 
I have now given in as condensed a form as possible, 
what is believed and taught by a large majority of the 
scientific men who have written on this subject in the 
last fifty or seventy-five years. These opinions and con- 
clusions have been collected from the writings of Orfila, 
Christisson, Dr. Taylor, Pereira, Professor Binz, Dr. Lal- 
lemand, Perrin, Dr. Willard Parker, Professor Ed- 
mund A. Parkes, Professor Duroy, Dumorel, Magnus, 
Dunglison, Dr. James Edmunds, Powell, Professor N. 
S. Davis, Dermarquay, Wetherbee, Burns, Dickenson, 
and others.* 
Some eminent men hold opinions that differ in some 
respects from those that I have advocated, and as my 
only desire is candidly and impartially to state nothing 
but the truth, I will state that Dr. Anstie says, " The 
first thing that claims attention is the question, whether 
alcohol is destroyed within the body," and opposes the 
doctrines of Lallemand, Perrin and Duroy, and he 
avers that on this subject he is supported by Dr. Dupre 
and Professor Binz, and denies that alcohol is " largely 
* See note page 68. ALCOHOL. 
45 
expelled by the excretory organs in an unchanged con- 
dition." 
" The next question (he says), is, whether alcohol can 
actively subserve the functions of life and thus deserve 
the name of food ? The time is not ripe, he avers, for 
a complete inquiry into the possibility of alcohol being 
utilized for the construction of certain varieties of tis- 
sue and he adds, "I am free to allow that the evidence 
so far, on the whole supports the belief that with certain 
exceptions, alcohol is active rather in the direction of re- 
pressing than of forwarding the growth of new tissues." 
Dr. Edward Curtis, teacher of Materia Medica and 
Therapeutics in one of the leading New York Colleges, 
adopts the doctrines of Professor Anstie ; he says that, 
" in ordinary amounts alcohol is wholly consumed, 
transformed in the system, and, by the nature of its 
chemical composition is capable, like certain elements 
of ordinary food, of thus yielding force, which can be 
used by the economy, to do life work, etc. And thus 
within certain limits of dose, alcohol is transformed 
like ordinary food in the system without producing any 
injurious effects, and yielding useful force for the pur- 
poses of the economy, must be considered as afood in 
any philosophical sense of the word. And he says, " an 
important point to know, and one little understood, is, 
that this food-action is attended with no exciting or in- 
toxicating influence, but the whole effect, like that of 46 
ALCOHOL. 
ordinary food is seen in the maintenance or restoration, 
according to circumstances, of that balance of function 
called health." 
" But, if taken in greater quantity than can be utilized 
as a force-yielding food, the excess of alcohol acts as a 
poison, producing a well-known train of perturbations 
of function." And again-a point not well understood- 
" all signs of departure from the natural condition in the 
drinker, from the first flushing of the cheek, brighten- 
ing of the eye, and unnatural mental excitement, to the 
general paralysis of complete drunkenness, belong 
equally to the poisonous effect of alcohol." That is (he 
remarks), for I wish strongly to insist upon this point, 
" even the early phases of alcoholic disturbance, which 
are often improperly called ' stimulating,' are part and 
parcel of the injuriously disturbing influence of over- 
dosage, and must be put in the same category with the 
more obviously poisonous effects of pronounced intoxi- 
cation." 
" Alcohol has thus a two-fold action. Birst, it is 
capable, in proper dose, of being consumed and utilized 
as a force-producer; in which case there is no visible 
disturbance of normal function. Such action cannot 
be distinguished, either by the drinker or the physiolo- 
gist, from that of a quickly digestible fluid food, and is 
no more an ' excitement,' or ' stimulation,' followed by 
a 1 recoil,' or ' depression,' than is the action of a bowl ALCOHOL. 
47 
of hot soup or a glass of milk. The second action is 
the poisonous influence of an excess of alcohol circu- 
lating in the blood, which makes itself sensible to the 
drinker by peculiar sensations and disturbances, and is 
not only followed by ' depression,' but is itself a form 
of depression-that is, a disturbance of balance ; an 
unnatural perturbation of the normal working of the 
functions." 
Professor Curtis then says (with great significance) : 
" Every reader of these lines will at once ask, What is 
the limit as to quantity within which alcohol exerts 
only a food-action, and beyond which it begins to 
poison by excess ? This question cannot be answered 
categorically, for it so happens that the 1 poison line,' 
as it has been aptly called, is a shifting one. Even in 
health it varies according to age, sex, individual pecu- 
liarity and habit, and even in the same person, accord- 
ing to his physical condition for the time being. When 
fatigued by bodily or mental work, when suffering from 
emotional agitation, as anxiety or when worn by 
loss of sleep, etc., etc. And in more formal morbid states, 
as in many diseases, the poison-line often shifts to an 
astounding degree." 
These are all the strong points Professor Curtis 
advances to support the doctrine that alcohol is food, 
and accepting them as true, it is certainly a most dan- 
gerous kind of food, and is no more to be called food 48 
ALCOHOL. 
by the teachers of men than arsenic should be 
called food in any sense, " philosophical " or otherwise. 
We know that medical men prescribe arsenic in small 
doses for cutaneous diseases, and as a tonic and altera- 
tive. We know also that " in Lower Austria, Styria, 
and the hilly country towards Hungary, arsenic is used 
to considerable extent under the name of " Hidri," and 
that its effect is to produce clearness of the skin, fresh- 
ness to the complexion, and plumpness to the figure; 
and also that it improves the breathing and gives long- 
ness of wind, so that steep and continuous heights can 
be climbed without difficulty, and also that upon animals 
the effect is similar to those produced upon man. It 
fattens and plumps out the horse, gives a bright and 
glossy skin, and an appearance of high health and con- 
dition."* These are facts known to every medical man, 
and yet we never hear them call arsenic anything else 
but poison, either in large or small doses; and through 
their influence its sale is regulated by law, because it is 
a poison 1 Yet every chemist knows that alcohol is as 
deadly a poison as arsenic is, and every man of com- 
mon sense knows that if alcohol was unknown, and the 
same number of deaths were occasioned every year in 
New York by the use of arsenic as is now occasioned 
by the use of alcohol, the consequences to society would 
not be one-tenth as demoralizing as the effects of alco- 
* " Chemistry of Common Life." ALCOHOL. 
49 
hoi are now. For, although arsenic kills the same as 
alcohol, it does not brutalize and deprave men as alco- 
hol does. 
Professor Curtis fails to point out the dangerous fact, 
that the habitual use of this kind of food, as he calls it, 
is almost certain to produce a diseased appetite that 
will lead the poor victim to a drunkard's grave. If the 
"poison line" is so shifting and uncertain, can any one 
but a skillful physician be trusted to prescribe alcohol 
with any more safety than any other poison can be 
prescribed ? And he also fails to warn those he seeks 
to instruct, that, of every article that can be called 
food in any sense, " philosophically " or otherwise, 
there is no one that is so universally and dangerously 
adulterated as alcohol is, and no one that is so difficult 
for the habitual consumer to know is adulterated. 
William A. Hammond, M.D., recently elected Presi- 
dent of the Neurological Society of New York, stated 
in his inaugural address that alcoholic drinks in exces- 
sive doses are not only injurious to the individual who 
takes them, but are also in the highest degree ruinous 
to society, although, in judicious doses, they may serve 
the purposes of food, and giving force by lessening or 
the waste of the tissues, may thus supply mate- 
rials for the generation of force. He did not account for 
this, or tell how it was done, but simply assumed it as a 
fact. How much a judicious dose was he did not state. 50 
ALCOHOL. 
His lecture was very able and instructive; lie exhib- 
ited samples of alcohol he had in his experiments dis- 
tilled from the brain, spinal cord, and nerves of a rabbit 
which he had largely fed on bread soaked in whiskey 
for ten days.* Experiments hitherto had not shown 
that the nerves and spinal cord absorbed alcohol. He 
then gave the following list of diseases and disorders of 
the nervous system, produced by the excessive use of 
alcohol. The catalogue, he stated, was made up from 
his note-books, and is based upon cases occurring in 
his private and hospital practice. 
OF THE BRAIN. 
Cerebral congestion. 
Cerebral hemorrhage, with its consequences, apo- 
plexy and paralysis. 
* This was one of the most convincing and successful experi- 
ments ever demonstrated before a scientific audience, and reflects 
distinguished credit on Dr. Hammond. Now, if alcohol is found 
unchanged in the brain, nerves, spinal cord, etc., of the animal sys- 
tem, after using it ten days, may it not also be found in every other 
part of the body, and does not this satisfactorily account for what 
becomes of that portion of alcohol which has been taken into the 
system, and has not been fully proved to have been expelled by the 
excretory organs, (as we know a very large part of it is,) and does it 
not overthrow the " fluid food " doctrine, and confirm the chemical 
law laid down by Christisson, that " poisons which operate by enter- 
ing the blood undergo no change in the system," and consequently 
cannot be called food ?-J. G. D. ALCOHOL. 
51 
Meningeal hemorrhage. 
Cerebral thrombosis. 
Softening of the brain. 
Aphasia. 
Acute cerebral meningitis. 
Chronic cerebral meningitis. 
Abscess of the brain. 
Multiple cerebral sclerosis, one of those diseases of 
which tremor is a characteristic symptom. 
Every variety of insanity, including general par- 
alysis. 
OF THE SPINAL COED.' 
Spinal congestion. 
Antero-lateral spinal sclerosis. 
Posterio-spinal sclerosis (Locomotorataria). 
CEREBRO-SPINAL DISEASES. 
Epilepsy. 
Chorea. 
Multiple cerebro-spinal sclerosis, another of those 
affections characterized by tremor. 
Athetosis, a remarkable disease which he was the first 
to describe, and which is now well recognized both in 
this country and in Europe. The case on which his 
description was based was one in which the patient was 
in the habit of drinking an immoderate quantity of gin 
daily. 52 
ALCOHOL. 
OF THE NERVES. 
Anaesthesia. 
Paralysis agitans. 
Neuralgia in all situations. 
Neuritis. 
Neuro-sclerosis. 
It will be noticed that sclerosis or hardening is a 
condition of all parts of the nervous system which 
alcohol probably often produces. It is doubtless the 
result of the direct action of alcohol on the nervous 
tissue. 
In addition to being the exciting cause of many dis- 
eases of the nervous system, alcohol probably predis- 
poses to various others in which no direct relation can 
be traced. Neither does its action stop here, for the 
descendants of persons addicted to the excessive use of 
alcohol are liable to various disorders of the nervous 
system, and there is some evidence to show that off- 
spring generated during a fit of intoxication of either 
parent are often born idiotic. 
He also stated that he thinks it probable that the 
impurities of alcoholic beverages add to their baneful 
properties, and advises discriminating legislation in 
favor of wines and malt liquors and against spirituous 
liquors." 
There is a fearful responsibility resting upon the 
medical profession in this matter. It is to them we ALCOHOL. 
53 
look for correct instruction and advice. They know 
the idiosyncrasies of the family, are admitted to its 
inmost privacy, and possess its confidence. And if in 
familiar conversation with their patients they condemn 
the use of all distilled liquors, because they are " merely 
flavored alcohol, and do not possess the ingredients 
that give dietetic value to wine and beer; " * and 
instead of encouraging the idea that to a certain extent 
they are harmless and nutritious "fluid food," impress 
upon their minds the scientific fact that it is as danger- 
ous for them to tamper with alcoholic drinks as it is to 
tamper with any other medicine, and that the "poison 
line " which carries them to danger and to death is so 
easily and imperceptibly passed that they should not 
dare to use them without their express direction; this 
change of phraseology at the family fireside would help 
to produce a corresponding change in the common con- 
versation and literature of the day, and would aid 
immensely to discourage dram drinking, and the social 
drinking customs of society. 
With regard to the theory of Dr. Anstie, which is 
endorsed by Professor Curtis, that alcohol is not elim- 
inated from the body, Professor Parkes states, (p. 277,) 
that " From experiments made by Dr. Anstie, an 
amount of one fluid ounce and a half caused the 
* Parkes. 54 
ALCOHOL. 
appearance of alcohol in the urine, which Anstie re- 
gards as a sign that as much has been taken as can be 
disposed of by the body." But, however much doctors 
may disagree on this subject, every uneducated man 
who has ever taken care of a drunkard during one of 
his fits of complete intoxication, knows that he can 
smell the liquor he has been drinking in his breath, in 
his urine, and in his perspiration. In fact, the alcoholic 
odor of his underclothes is sometimes as strong as if 
they had been saturated with diluted alcohol. Now, 
where does this unmistakable evidence of alcohol 
come from, if it is not eliminated in an unchanged con- 
dition from the poor drunkard's body by the excretory 
organs ? And would not every fit of complete intoxica- 
tion result in death, if it was not for the peculiar vola- 
tile nature of alcohol, which enables the system to free 
itself from its poisonous effects by eliminating it un- 
changed by the excretory organs ? 
But dangerous and alarming as the physical effects 
produced by the habitual use of alcoholic beverages 
and their adulterations are, the financial and moral 
dangers and consequences are no less fearful. J. N. 
Stearns, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the National 
Temperance Society of New York, has estimated the 
retail value of intoxicating beverages consumed in the 
United States in the year 1872 at six hundred and six- 
teen million eight hundred and fom'teen thousand four ALCOHOL. 
55 
hundred and ninety dollars (1616,814,490). Merely to 
count this sum (at $20,000 a day) would take a man 
one hundred years; or, in one dollar notes, it would 
cover 20,466 acres of ground. If in gold, and loaded in 
wagons, it would fill 1,045 ,of a ton each, and make a 
procession six miles long; or, if in silver, it would re- 
quire 14,230 wagons, and the procession would ex- 
tend seventy-five miles ; and all this represents but one 
year's consumption. It is true that our Government 
receives many millions 'of dollars revenue annually 
from the duties and taxes levied on intoxicating liquors; 
but a fair statesman-like calculation will prove that 
every dollar received by the Government costs the 
country five or six dollars, to say nothing of the sick- 
ness and suffering, demoralization, pauperism, and 
crime which are the direct result of the liquor traffic. 
This estimate is made, I suppose, from official sources, 
but if the amount was but one-half as much, it is 
enough to make us tremble for the safety of our country 
and its institutions. But remember that this is going on 
every year, and statistics prove that the percentage of 
increase is greater annually than the increase of popu- 
lation. The political economist, the statesman, and the 
philanthropist may well ask with astonishment, Where 
is this to end ? It has been well said, that, " Should a 
foreign army land on our shores to levy such a tax as 
is caused by the consumption of alcoholic poisons, no ALCOHOL. 
56 
mortal power could resist the swelling tide of indigna- 
tion that would overwhelm it." 
Of the moral consequences I need not speak. We 
have only to go to the licensed retail liquor shops, and 
also the shops of the unlicensed dealers, and then go to 
the homes of the drunkards, and see the vice, poverty, 
and misery there; then visit the prisons, alms-houses, 
lunatic asylums, and hospitals, and look through the 
records of the criminal courts, and they w'ill speak to 
us with an eloquence and pathos greater than tongue or 
pen can equal. 
With the positive proofs of science, and the conclu- 
sive evidence everywhere before our eyes, no one, un- 
less he is blinded by ignorance, a diseased appetite, or 
interest, can doubt that the liquor traffic is the great 
curse of our times, and that to do away with it, would 
do away with much of the sin, and a large part of the 
vice, crime, and poverty of our country. 
No great reform which has benefited the human 
race has had more formidable obstacles to overcome 
than the temperance movement. First, there is the de- 
praved appetite acquired or inherited by a large por- 
tion of our people; then the ignorance on this subject, 
the result of the false teachings of the present and past 
ages ; also the literature of the past, with its bacchana- 
lian songs and poetry in praise of drinking, and finally 
the power and influence of combined capital. ALCOHOL. 
57 
Already we have a " "Wine and Spirit Traders' So- 
ciety of the United States," composed of men of great 
ability and immense wealth, with its president, two 
vice-presidents, a council composed of twenty members, 
secretary, treasurer, eminent legal counsel, four stand- 
ing committees, besides a committee on legislation! ! 
The ramifications of this society extend throughout the 
United States; and there is a provision in the by-laws 
for the admission, as honorary members, of persons 
and firms having their principal place of business else- 
where than in the United States of America, by the 
payment of one hundred dollars; and . many of the 
largest manufacturers of intoxicating liquors in Europe 
have been admitted as members, determined not only to 
keep up, but to increase the consumption in the United 
States, of their brandies, wines, etc., which they can 
supply to an unlimited extent, " though the vine should 
not blossom," provided they can get a supply from this 
country of raw whiskey! There are, undoubtedly, 
some as high-minded and honest men engaged in the 
spirit and wine business, as well as among the brewers, 
as are to be found in any other branch of trade, who 
'would not manufacture or sell counterfeit or adul- 
terated liquors, wine or beer, and they have as great an 
interest hr putting down the system of frauds and 
adulterations as the rest of the community. 
The struggle is a great one. But we know that we 58 
ALCOHOL. 
are working in the cause of truth and humanity, and 
for the good even of those who through ignorance or the 
love of gain are opposing this great movement; but with 
the truth in one hand and the law of Christian love in 
the other, we shall succeed. It has only been by per- 
forming great deeds that our country has attained its 
present rank among the nations. The more powerful 
and numerous the forces arrayed against us are, the 
more firm and determined should we be to press on to 
final victory. 
The reform may not be accomplished in one genera- 
tion, but we must continue the agitation of the subject, 
and by prayer, by organized societies, and public meet- 
ings, continue to educate the people. The children in 
our schools should be correctly instructed on this sub- 
ject by teaching them scientific truth. In order to do 
this I have prevailed on Dr. Wetherbee, a learned 
Toxicologist, and professor of chemistry in one of our 
New York colleges, to prepare an elementary work on 
Toxicology, in which alcohol and its compounds will be 
treated scientifically, and its poisonous effects demon- 
strated. The work is nearly ready for the press, and 
we hope to have it in the schools and among the people 
in the course of the coming year. 
By thus impressing upon the minds of the young, 
with their other studies, the scientific knowledge of the 
true nature of alcoholic drinks, and their classification ALCOHOL. 
59 
with other poisons, there will be prepared a class of in- 
telligent, educated men and women, to carry forward to 
final and complete success this righteous cause, which 
their fathers commenced under so many discourage- 
ments and difficulties. 
The social customs with regard to drinking must be 
entirely changed, and it must be made unfashionable 
and disreputable. A grave responsibility rests upon 
the leaders of fashionable society in this matter, whose 
example has great weight and influence with all classes 
of the community. And in this work our pure minded 
and accomplished American women can render a special 
service. 
The ill success of many of the temperance movements 
of the last fifty years has been clearly shown in a very 
able paper recently written by the Hon. Thurlow Weed, 
and published in the JYeio York Tribune. 
After reviewing the extraordinary and successful 
movement that originated in Baltimore some forty years 
ago, in which " reformed drunkards " were the principal 
actors, and showing how this really auspicious move- 
ment was seized upon by a different class of reformers, 
who not only " twisted " it out of its original channel 
and purpose but soon ran it off the track and into the 
ground; he says that, in the " Reformed Drunkards," 
labor, the laws of kindness, charity, and affection were 
observed, but that the ultra temperance men concerned 60 
ALCOHOL. 
themselves very little about the thousands who were 
poisoning themselves with bad rum and worse whis- 
key. 
That in the warfare against temperate drinkers a 
spirit of bitterness and denunciation was resorted to; 
and that the chairman of the executive committee of 
the State Temperance Society, in 1832, boldly and 
recklessly charged that every victim, of either sex, to 
that fearful scourge, cholera, was either an intemperate 
or temperate thinker of alcoholic liquors. This un- 
founded and cruel accusation was soon followed by a 
step which brought discord and strife into our churches. 
The executive committee of the State Temperance So- 
ciety, avowed its determination to exclude wine from 
the communion table. But, as was foreseen by the 
thoughtful and reflecting, the warfare upon the tem- 
perate drinkers, the crusade against sacramental wine, 
and the cry for prohibitory liquor laws came either to 
an ignominious end, or are but feebly and spasmodic- 
ally urged. All these extreme measures were carried 
forward at the expense of real temperance. 
The zeal, persistence, and expenditure which has 
been devoted to the extreme and impossible, if practically 
and wisely directed, would have immensely mitigated 
the evils and averted the miseries of intemperance. 
But meanwhile intemperance is making hearts and 
households-sad and desolate, so much so as to provoke ALCOHOL. 
61 
a movement by the women of our country, alike spon- 
taneous, magnetic, and extraordinary. 
Of that movement, emanating from the highest and 
purest sympathies and emotions of the human heart, 
he says, that he can neither think nor speak but with 
profound and intense respect and admiration. It is a 
movement of those who are happily described as 
" Heaven's last best gift to man "-a movement in de- 
fense of their children, and with the hope of reclaiming 
their husbands, their fathers, and them brothers. It 
was nobly conceived, has been courageously prosecuted, 
and he would rejoice to see it crowned with success. 
Nor can he bring himself to utter a syllable calculated 
to embarrass or discourage the generous women who 
are endeavoring to rescue them homes and their 
hearths from the blight of intemperance." 
A question of such momentous consequences to our 
country, imperatively demands an investigation by the 
general Government, and it is encouraging to know 
that a movement has been made in that direction by 
eminent and influential friends of the cause. 
We should have a committee appointed by Congress 
composed of men of known ability and unquestionable 
integrity, whose duty it should be to thoroughly investi- 
gate the adulterations of liquors and wines in our own 
and other countries, and make a full and correct report 
of the financial effects of the liquor traffic, and the 62 
ALCOHOL. 
amount of pauperism, crime, disease and death caused 
by the indiscriminate use of alcoholic beverages. Such 
a report having the official endorsement of Government, 
and scattered broadcast among the people, would have 
great weight with them, and would materially aid them 
in acquiring a correct knowledge of this subject. 
Experience has proved, that making the question a 
political one before the people are sufficiently instruct- 
ed and prepared for it, has not checked the consump- 
tion of intoxicating liquors, for statistics show that the 
quantity consumed is steadily increasing. 
If the people get an idea that any party or set of 
men are trying to dictate to them what they shall eat 
or drink, they will be disposed to consider it an interfer- 
ence with their rights, and act in opposition to them, 
and the prohibitory liquor law becomes a dead letter 
on the Statute book. But if they understand, and are 
kindly taught the scientific truth with regard to the 
effects of alcoholic drinks and their universal and dan- 
gerous adulterations, a law will as naturally be enacted 
to restrict and regulate their sale, as has been done 
in regard to the sale of prussic acid, arsenic or opium ; 
and the constitutional right and the necessity to enact 
such laws, will no more be questioned than the right 
and duty of our law-makers to protect the public health 
by wise and wholesome quarantine laws ; and a prohibi- 
tory law would be enforced as faithfully and rigorously ALCOHOL. 
63 
as the quarantine laws are now, for the people would 
know that a prohibitory liquor-law was more impor- 
tant for the protection of health and life than all the 
quarantine laws we have ever had in this country, and 
the sale of alcoholic liquors would, by common consent, 
be confined to respectable licensed druggists for use in 
the arts, for chemical purposes, and as medicines.. 
There has been no time since the temperance move- 
ment commenced, that the prospect of final success 
has been as encouraging as it is at present. The 
people are receiving correct instruction on the subject. 
The most eminent chemists and physicians of our own 
and other countries have, after thorough investigation, 
decided that alcohol belongs to the class of narcotico- 
acrid poisons, and defined its true nature and charac- 
teristics so clearly, that no man can engage in its 
manufacture or sale to be used as a common beverage, 
without sinning against light and knowledge. 
The great advance in the temperance literature of the 
day is as able and brilliant as it is gratifying. The 
publications of the National Temperance Society and 
Pubheation House are steadily improving and increas- 
ing. " Bacchus Dethroned," by Powell, the " Basis of 
the Temperance Reform," by Burns, and some other 
pubheations by this house, are equal in point of ability 
to any pubheations on any subject that have emanated 
from any press for years. The crusade, as it is called, 64 
ALCOHOL. 
by the women of our country is significant and extraor- 
dinary, and instead of being sneeringly called a crusade 
by " strong minded women," it should be called a move- 
ment by sincere tvomen who have the faith to pray 
and the courage to attempt to rescue their fathers, hus- 
bands, brothers and children, from shame, ruin and 
death. 
Men of science are constantly enlightening the pub- 
lic through the leading scientific publications of the day, 
in regard to the nature and effects of alcohol. And 
our gifted sons and daughters of song are giving us 
poetry that while it conveys the truth, may well 
be compared in beauty to the bacchanalian songs of 
Anacreon, Moore, Burns, and others. As a specimen I 
quote the following verses written by a young lady 
whose father, beginning as a temperate drinker, had 
by insensible degrees, as so frequently happens, be- 
come a drunkard, and consequently, reduced from afflu- 
ence and respectability to poverty, misery and vice. 
His daughter only recites in burning words what thou- 
sands upon thousands of others have felt, who were 
similarly conditioned, but who had not the power of 
language to express the anguish of their souls. ALCOHOL. 
65 
GO FEEL WHAT I HAVE FELT. 
(By a young lady who was told that she was a monomaniac in her hatred of 
alcoholic liquors.) 
Go, feel what I have felt, 
Go, bear what I have borne ; 
Sink 'neath a blow a father dealt, 
And the cold, proud world's scorn. 
Thus struggle on from year to year, 
Thy sole relief the scalding tear. 
Go, weep as I have wept 
O'er a loved father's fall; 
See every cherished promise swept, 
Youth's sweetness turn to gall ; 
Hope's faded flowers strewed all the way 
That led me up to woman's day. 
Go, kneel as I have knelt; 
Implore, beseech, and pray, 
Strive the besotted heart to melt, 
The downward course to stay ; 
Be cast with bitter curse aside- 
Thy prayers burlesqued, thy tears defied. 
Go, stand where I have stood, 
And see the strong man bow ; 
With gnashing teeth, lips bathed in blood, 
And cold and livid brow ; 
Go, catch his wandering glance, and see 
There mirrored his soul's misery. 
Go, hear what I have heard- 
The sobs of sad despair, 66 
ALCOHOL. 
As memory's feeling fount hath stirred, 
And its revealings there 
Have told him what he might have been, 
Had he the drunkard's fate foreseen. 
Go to my mother's side, 
And her crushed spirit cheer ; 
Thine own deep anguish hide, 
Wipe from her cheek the tear. 
Mark her dimmed eye, her furrowed brow, 
The gray that streaks her dark hair now, 
The toil-worn frame, the trembling limb, 
And trace the ruin back to him 
Whose plighted faith, in early youth, 
Promised eternal love and truth, 
But who, forsworn, hath yielded up 
This promise to the deadly cup, 
And led her down from love and light, 
From all that made her pathway bright, 
And chained her there 'mid want and strife, 
That lowly thing-a drunkard's wife ! 
And stamped on childhood's brow, so mild, 
That withering blight-" a drunkard's child !' 
Go, hear and see and feel and know 
All that my soul hath felt and known 
Then look within the wine-cup's glow; 
See if its brightness can atone ; 
Think if its flavor you would try, 
If all proclaimed-' Tis drink and die. 
Tell me I hate the bowl- 
Hate is a feeble word: ALCOHOL. 
67 
I loathe, abhor, my very soul 
By strong disgust is stirred 
Whene'er I see, or hear, or tell 
Of the DARK BEVERAGE OF HELL ! 
And the following verses by the gifted young poetess, 
Miss Sara G-enevra Chafa, taken from a beautiful little 
volume entitled " Napoleon, and other Poems." 
THE ROSY WINE CUP. 
O, touch not the rosy wine cup, 
Though its brilliance should charm thine eye, 
For he who shall drink its contents 
Has opened a way to die. 
Not die as the world might call it, 
But die to the good and true, 
And blunt all the fine perceptions, 
That ever ennobled you. 
There is power in the rosy wine cup 
To send through the heart and brain 
Bewildering thrills of pleasure, 
Dispelling the bosom's pain. 
But 'twill only return more sharply 
When the fire of the wine has passed, 
For the dreams it may awaken 
Are only too bright to last. 
O, trust not your power of keeping 
Yourself from the shoals before 1 68 
ALCOHOL. 
Your strength, in an evil moment, 
May leave you forever more ; 
For the wine has conquered millions, 
And the loftiest minds of earth, 
Have sunk to the lowest level 
From a glass in an hour of mirth. 
There are desolate homes where the demon 
Of drink has destroyed the light, 
There are hearts that have loved too fondly 
And bowed 'neath the wine cup's blight; 
Put aside, then, the sparkling poison, 
For though danger seems far away, 
You will bless, in some happy future, 
The dawn of your Temperance day. 
Note to page 44. 
These eminent men do not agree in every respect with regard to 
what becomes of alcohol after it has been taken into the system 
but they all agree in deciding that it is a Narcotico-Acrid poison. REVISED EDITION. <C?l 
THE BEST READING; V V 
A CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR EASY REFERENCE, 
WITH 
Hints on the Selection of Books; on the Formation of Libraries, 
Public and Private; on Courses of Beading, etc., a Guide 
for the Librarian, Bookbuyer and Bookseller, 
The Classified Lists, arranged under about 500 subject-headings, in- 
clude all the most desirable books now to be obtained either in Great 
Britain or the United States, with the published prices annexed. 
New Edition, corrected, enlarged and continued to July, 1873. 12mo, 
paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.50. 
"The best work of the kind we have seen."- College Cauraiu. 
"We know of no manual that can take its place as a guide to the selector of a 
library."-N. Y. Independent. 
"For reference for the bookbuyer it is invaluable."-Fort Wayne Gazette. 
" Supplies a need that has long been felt."-Lyons Republican. 
" The anangement of the volume is excellent, and a vast amount of time and money 
may be saved, and a great deal of useless and hurtful trash may be avoided by con- 
sulting it."-American Historical Record. 
II. 
FOURTH EDITION. 
"VITHAT TO EAT. A Manual for the Housekeeper: 
giving a Bill of Fare for every day in the year. 
134 Pages. Cloth, 75 cts. 
"Compact, suggestive, and full of good ideas."-Many Housekeepers. 
" It can hardly fail to prove a valuable aid to housekeepers who are brought to their 
wits' end to know what to get for the day's meals."-San Francisco Bulletin. VII. 
HOW TO EDUCATE YOURSELF. A complete Guide 
for Students, showing how to study, what to study, and 
how and what to read. It is, in short, a " Pocket School- 
master." By Geo. Cary Eggleston (Editor Hearth and 
Home), umo, 151 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 
" We write with unqualified enthusiasm about this book, which is untellably good 
and for good."-N. K Evening Hail. 
"We cordially commend this work."-N. Y. School Journal. 
VIII. 
A MANUAL OF ETIQUETTE. 
A With Hints on Politeness, Good Breeding, &c. By 
"Daisy Eyebright." i vol., i2mo, cloth extra, 75 cents. 
IX. 
MOTHERS' REGISTER. 
J- Current Notes on the Health of Children. Part I, Boys. 
Part II, Girls. "The Mother records for the Physician to 
interpret." From the French of Prof. J. B. Fonssagrives, 
M.D., i2mo, cloth, 75 cents. 
X. 
J JINTS ON DRESS. By an American Woman. 
CONT ENTS: 
Outline Histoby of Dbess. Economy and Taste. 
Things Indispensable. What we Mean by Dressing Well. 
Estimates of Cost. Colob, Form, Suitability. 
How and What to Buy. 
I2mo, 124 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 
" This little volume contains as much good sense as could well be crowded into its 
pages."-N. Y. Hail. 
XI. 
THE HOME. Where it Should Be, and What to 
Put in It. Containing hints for the selection of a 
Home, its Furniture and internal arrangements, with carefully 
prepared price lists of nearly everything needed by a house- 
keeper, and numerous valuable suggestions for saving money 
and gaining comfort. By Frank R. Stockton (of Scribner's 
Monthly). i2mo, 182 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 
" Young housekeepers will be especially benefited, and all housekeepers may learn 
muth from this book."-Albany Journal. 
XII. 
THE MOTHER'S WORK WITH SICK CHILDREN. 
By Prof. J. B. Fonssagrives, M.D. Translated and 
edited by F. P. Foster, M.D. A volume full of the most prac- 
tical advice and suggestions for Mothers and Nurses. i2mo, 
244 pages, cloth, $1.25. 
" A volume which should be in the hands of every mother in the land."-Binghamp- 
ton Herald. |irtnnms' of popular jjanuals. 
Half-hours with the microscope. 
By Edwin Lankester, M.D., F.R.S. Illustrated by 
250-Drawings from Nature, izmo, cloth, $1.25. 
" This beautiful little volume is a very complete manual for the amateur micro- 
scopist. * * * The ' Half-Hours'are filled with clear and agreeable descriptions, whilst 
eight plates, executed with the most beautiful minuteness and sharpness, exhibit no 
less than 250 objects with the utmost attainable distinctness."- Critic. 
Half-hours with the telescope: 
Being a popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a 
means of Amusement and Instruction. Adapted to inexpen- 
sive instruments. By R. A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S. i2mo, 
cloth, with illustrations on stone and wood. Price, $1.25. 
" It is crammed with starry plates on wood and stone, and among the celestial 
phenomena described or figured, by far the larger number may be profitably examined 
with small telescopes."-Illustrated Times. 
Half-hours with the stars: 
A Plain and Easy Guide to the Knowledge of the Constel- 
lations. showing in 12 Maps, the Position of the Principal Star- 
Groups Night after Night throughout the Year, with introduc- 
tion and a separate explanation of each Map. True for every 
Year. By Richard A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S. Demy 
4-to. Price, $2.25. 
"Nothing so well calculated to give a rapid and thorough knowledge of the position 
of the stars in the firmament has ever been designed or published hitherto. Mr. Proctor's 
'Half-Hours with the Stars' will become a text-book in all schools, and an invaluable 
lid to all teachers of the young."- Weekly Times. 
Manual of popular physiology: 
Being an Attempt to Explain the Science of Life in 
Untechnical Language. By Henry Lawson, M.D. i8mo, 
with 90 Illustrations. Price, $1 25. 
Man's Mechanism, Life, Force, Food, Digestion, Respiration, Heat, the 
Skin, the Kidneys, Nervous System, Organs of Sense, &c., &c., &c. 
"Dr Lawson has succeeded in rendering his manual amusing as well as instructive. 
All the great facts in human physiology are presented to the reader successively; and 
either for private reading or for classes, this manual will be found well adapted for 
initiating the uninformed into the mysteries of the structure and function of their own 
bodies."-Athenaeum. 
A DICTIONARY OF DERIVATIONS 
El Of the English Language, in which each word is traced 
to its primary root. Forming a Text-Book of Etymology, with 
Definitions and the Pronunciation of each word. i6mo. $1.00. 
A HAND BOOK OF SYNONYMS 
El Of the English Language, with Definitions, &c. i6mo<, 
cloth. $1.00. 
**♦ These two Manuals are very comprehensive in a small compass