REPORT 
OF THE 
COMMITTEE, 
APPOINTED BY THE 
PHILAUELPHLI MEDICAL SOCIETY, 
JANUARY 24, J, 
TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE PROPRIETY OP THAT SOCIETY 
EXPRESSING THEIR OPINION WITH REGARD TO THE USE OP 
Spirit** 
AND TO FRAME SUCH RESOLUTIONS AS THEY MAY DEEM PROPER. 
Published, with permission, by the Pennsylvania Society 
for discouraging the use of Ardent Spii'its. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED BY JOHN CLARKE, 
No. 7, Franklin Place. 
1829. Report, &c. 
The Committee appointed January 24th, 1829, to take into con- 
sideration the propriety of this Society expressing their opinion 
with regard to the use of Ardent Spirits, and to frame such reso- 
lutions as they may deem proper, 
Respectfully Report, 
That they have given their earnest attention to the subject en- 
trusted to their consideration ; and hope, in addition to those reflec- 
tions which naturally arise in a medical mind, from the contempla- 
tion of this important public evil, to furnish some interesting esti- 
mates from the labours of others. In so doing, they hare been in 
part compelled, from the very nature of the undertaking, to pro- 
ceed upon the traces of those of their fellow citizens who are now 
engaged in similar inquiries ; but they hope to be able to present 
the matter in some points of view, and to glean from some docu- 
ments and other sources of information, which have, a3 yet, es- 
caped the search of their immediate predecessors. 
Your Committee, in inquiring into the destructive effects of 
drunkenness, and the deep stake which society has in preventing 
them, have not felt any great room or necessity for an enlarged 
discussion. The disastrous consequences of this degrading prac- 
tice are, unhappily, but too apparent to every one who witness- 
es, with a human interest, the good and evil fortunes of his fellow 
creatures. We behold them in the destruction of health, strength, 
riches and respectability, and, according to the views which religion 
has given us of the counsels of the Supreme, in the future misery 
of an immortal soul. 
To no class of men is this dreadful concatenation of distresses 
more visible and more forced on the attention, than to physicians. 
The ordinary course of our engagements, which brings us so per- 
petually in contact with disease and poverty, obliges us likewise to 
see, in the production of these evils, the prevalent and steady influ- 
ence of spirituous liquors. Besides a numerous class of maladies, 
of frequent occurrence, to which their use obviously and in a pe- 
culiar manner gives rise, they are unquestionably the indirect 4 
cause of a still larger number. Their direct effect in exciting to 
action an existing tendency to gastric and hepatic disorders, or in 
creating a disposition to them among individuals exposed to the 
other causes of these morbific derangements, has often been com- 
mented on by writers of authority. Nearly as large a share may, 
with safety, be ascribed to intemperance in the production of dis- 
eases of the brain. Although, from the best authorities, it would 
now appear, that the agency of this cause in producing insanity has 
been over-rated,* yet, in epilepsy, apoplexy, palsy, hypochondria- 
sis and hysteria, its destructive effects cannot be mistaken ; while 
it has exclusively to itself the responsibility of creating that peculiar 
and frequently mortal affection, known by the names of delirium 
tremens, or, less properly, mania & potu. Beyond comparison 
greater, too, is the risk of life undergone in nearly all diseases of 
whatever description, when they occur in those unfortunate men 
who have been previously disordered by these poisons. In at- 
tempting to judge of the probability and proximity of death, besides 
age, strength and general constitution, the physician who wishes 
to avoid the probable sources of error, always finds it necessary to 
inquire into the temperance of the subject. The intoxicated are 
also incomparably more exposed to the ordinary causes of disease, 
from the imprudence to which their privation of reason and judg- 
ment so uniformly gives rise. Thus they suffer from simple expo- 
sure to the weather, from falling asleep in improper situations, and 
from the want of food. In times of pestilence, those who indulge 
in intoxication are more severely affected, and retain less stamina 
to resist the onset of the malady; and to all this may be added the 
deep and powerful influence which mental anxiety, remorse and 
mortification, during their calmer hours, unquestionably exert, in 
sharpening the pangs of disordered nature, and exhausting the vi- 
tality intended to support them. 
One of the most destructive examples of the aggravation cf mor- 
tality from this source, is the liability of persons of intemperate 
habits who meet with fractures and other severe hurts, to the dis- 
ease called delirium tremens, or mania & potu. Great numbers of ac- 
cidents annually occur among the labouring classes, of which those 
who are temperate in their habits regularly recover, while their intern- 
* Fodere. Also, vide the facts collected by Pinel and Esquirol. 5 
perate mates, with equal original injury, sink under a complication 
of the latter with that affection which arises from their use of spir- 
ituous liquors. For the truth of this remark, it is enough to appeal 
to the experience of any one of those who attend our hospital and 
alms-house. It will there be found an observation familiar in the 
mouth of every one, that the intemperate perish of diversified in- 
juries in a ratio altogether disproportionate to the mortality of the 
other sufferers ; a remark which ought to have peculiar terrors for 
the intemperate among the poor ; as the labourer thus finds him- 
self unexpectedly deprived of the safeguard of that strong constitu- 
tion upon which he depended for his power of supporting hardships, 
and for his recovery from those accidents to which, from his way 
of life, he is peculiarly exposed. 
This catalogue of destruction may be wound up with those rare 
and dreadful events, so full of wonder and horrour that credulity 
seems tasked to believe their actual occurrence, the inslances of 
human combustion. So strange and incredible do these narratives 
appear, that the reader may well be excused from lightly yield- 
ing credence to their reality ; though evidence, the most authen- 
tic in appearance, has accumulated to such an extent that we feel 
constrained to admit them true. From such various quarters do 
the accounts reach us, so independent are they of each other, so 
free, in many cases, from visible motive for deception, so public 
in the inspection of the scorched remains, and accompanied, in one 
instance, with such authentic judicial forms, that we cannot avoid 
considering it as proved that the bodies of those who have indulged, 
through a long life, in habits of intoxication, are liable to become 
food for the destroying element, and to be consumed while yet 
alive. While, in our investigations of physical causes, we are 
bound to adhere, as closely as possible, to the comparison of 
facts with others previously known, we can hardly refrain from 
tracing, in this terrific form of death, the direct and avenging in- 
terference of an insulted Deity.* 
If such be the truly distressing amount of morbid evils to which 
the unhappy propensity alluded to exposes its victims, its agency 
in the production of poverty and dishonesty is not less obvious to 
* See Appendix, Art. I. 6 
the members of the medical profession. We have frequent and 
melancholy opportunities of witnessing, in the abodes of the unfor- 
tunate, the manner in which pecuniary difficulties are generated; 
and we believe it is the universal sentiment of those who possess 
such means of information, that the greater portion of the existing 
distress in this country, is the result of the employment of ardent 
spirits. To make good this strong assertion, it is only necessary 
to recount the poverty which is the result of diseases produced by 
intemperance, the actual loss of time consumed in spirituous pota- 
tions, the money expended on them, which, small in each single 
instance, amounts, by its thousand repetitions, to a heavy draught 
on the funds of the labouring poor, the loss of character and conse- 
quently of employment, the destruction of punctuality in pecuniary 
engagements, and, as a necessary result, of credit, and the domes- 
tic quarrels and waste of the household. Against the combined 
action of all these causes no human industry can successfully con- 
tend ; and we accordingly find the habitually intemperate unable to 
discharge their engagements, always in want, and, if they do not 
either yet possess a fund to expend, or receive assistance from 
their friends, always in actual suffering. 
Your Committee are far from willing to cast reflections upon the 
poor. There is no station in life which is more entitled, intrinsi- 
cally, to our high respect, than honourable poverty. Yet, though 
poverty be the infliction of Providence, and the natural condition 
of the whole human race, it is notorious in the moral world, as the 
crudest thing of misfortune, that it subjects us to temptation ; and 
it cannot be doubted that we meet with that species of moral of- 
fence which consists in incurring obligations beyond the power of 
the individual to discharge them, most frequently as the result of 
pecuniary distress, and that distress, very often, if not generally, 
as the consequence of the use of spirituous liquors. 
In order to enable the members of this society to judge, at a 
glance, of the extent of physical evil, in the shape of disease, in- 
duced by intemperance, your Committee have thought it proper to 
refer, for this purpose, to the last annual bills of mortality for the 
City and Liberties of Philadelphia. Your Committee are well 
aware, that, in order to execute this task with (he best approxima- 
tion to accuracy of which the case admits, it would be necessary 7 
to induce a number of physicians, practising among diversified clas- 
ses of society, to keep a register with this especial object. Each 
individual so employed should carefully note down the whole num- 
ber of deaths occurring under his care during a year; and desig- 
nate that proportion of them which may, in his opinion, be fairly 
referred to the cause alluded to. Such a register should be care- 
fully made to embrace those who have passed out of his charge dur- 
ing the continuance of their last illness ; unless where the physi- 
cian who succeeds him is engaged in preparing a similar record. 
For reasons easily apprehended, this course is indispensable to the 
formation of a just numerical average. Documents thus obtained 
would possess a character for accuracy truly valuable ; not that 
they would obtain that absolute certainty which, in this case, is 
really impracticable, but that they would furnish the nearest ap- 
proach to it. Your Committee, therefore, would respectfully but 
earnestly press upon the members of this society the formation, 
individually, of such a register. 
In the mean while, in the absence of such more authentic ma- 
terials, your committee have thought it advisable to offer those 
judgments and opinions which they have been induced to form 
from their experience as practitioners, of the proportion of the 
deaths enumerated in the bills of mortality which may be reasonably 
ascribed to intemperance. In doing this they have experienced 
great difficulty , and they are well aware that their conclusions 
must necessarily possess a character highly conjectural. By run- 
ning over the diseases mentioned in the bills, and making an esti- 
mate of each, the total amount averages about one sixth of the 
whole ; or 700 deaths in 4292. A very large proportion of accidents, 
such as burns, fractures, &c. are referrible to this cause ; as also 
are an equally large share of the diseases of the head, as apoplexy, 
epilepsy, &c. The deaths reported as from drinking cold water, are, 
your committee believe, not unfrequently really produced by drink- 
ing spirituous liquors; which are often given as a remedy w’here 
the disease in fact is apoplexy, or at least, congestion in the brain. 
A considerable share of the fever cases dre, they apprehend, owing, 
directly or indirectly, to the same cause, as well as various in- 
flammations named in the bills. In this estimate are included 
those cases which were not originally occasioned by intemperance, 8 
but which owe their aggravation and mortality to that source; and 
it is also believed that a portion of the still-born children receive 
their death from the intemperance of the mother, or from violence 
and other mal-treatment received by the latter and produced by the 
same cause. 
To confirm the impression that these opinions and estimates are 
not exaggerated, by exhibiting an extent in the operation of the 
cause which may appear adequate to such an effect, your committee 
take the liberty to abstract a statement of the number of houses in 
which distilled liquors are sold, from papers which have been 
already laid before the public. In Iheir opinion, the results are 
surprising and alarming; they cannot be too often presented to 
view, and are quite applicable to the subject of their present inquiry. 
By tables collected under the direction of the Temperance Society 
of this city, and published in Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania, 
of the 7th of February, 1829, it appears, from an actual enumera- 
tion made in the Summer of 1S28, that the City of Philadelphia, 
the Northern Liberties, Penn Township, Kensington and South- 
wark, estimated from the taxables at a population of 159,480 indi- 
viduals, contained no less than 1239 houses in which spirituous 
liquors were sold ; or one for about every 129 persons of all ages 
and both sexes. In one section, the proportion runs as high as 
one to every 79 persons, or, of individuals above 18 years of age, 
one to every 39. That is, there are no 39 persons grown up in 
the district who have not a tavern to support; or there is a tavern 
to every twenty men ! 
Corresponding impressions with regard to the extent of the evil 
may be gained from the replies to one of the queries circulated by 
the committee of superintendance appointed by the Citizens of 
Philadelphia, at a town meeting held Feb. 17th, 1817, “ to devise 
measures for the relief of the poor and the prevention of pauperism.” 
Circulars were sent, on this occasion, to those individuals who 
were engaged in the management of the various public and private 
charitable institutions in the city ; as well as to such other persons 
as were deemed capable of imparting the desired information. 
Public attention being, at that time, strongly directed to this impor- 
tant subject, replies were very generally obtained from the individ- 
uals so addressed ; no less than thirty out of thirty-three guardians 9 
«sf the poor alone responding to the printed letters. From the offi- 
cial abstract of the replies thus obtained, we extract the following 
query, and its general answer. 
“Query 10. Is, or is not, the use of ardent spirits the cause of 
poverty; and do, or do not, those who receive, expend the means 
afforded for their subsistence in purchasing that article?” 
“ Answer. All the reports, excepting in one or two instances, 
reply to the former part of this query in the affirmative. The fol- 
lowing extracts, written by different persons, will exhibit, at one 
view, the almost universal sentiment upon this subject.” 
The authors of the abstract alluded to, then proceed to insert 
nine extracts from different reports, all strongly inculcating the pre- 
valent agency of this cause of poverty.* 
Your Committee, in order to correct or confirm their views on this 
subject, resolved to make an application to the members of the 
late commission appointed, under a law of Pennsylvania, to investi- 
gate the causes of pauperism. Some of their number accordingly 
waited on Messrs. Yaux and Pettit. From these gentlemen it is 
unnecessary to state that they met with every politeness, and the 
strongest disposition to favour their inquiries. The documents 
collected by the commission are in the hands of individuals amply 
competent to the task, for the purpose of forming an abstract, 
which we hope will be soon laid before the public in a most valua- 
ble weekly journal, to which we have already had occasion to refer. 
The members of the Commission above named, in their private 
capacity, fully concurred in the views which we have expressed in 
the preceding paragraphs ; and this testimony is the more valuable 
from the very enlarged advantages which they possessed for form- 
ing a judgment on this highly important subject. In the mean time, 
we were allowed to inspect a large mass of documents, furnished 
by the secretaries of various charitable associations in this city. 
Many of these omitted, in their reports, to reply particularly to that 
query which related to the causes of the distress which the societies 
were intended to relieve ; and some of the latter appear, by their 
regulations, to exclude the intemperate from the benefit of their 
funds. The reports of nearly all the others mention ardent spirits 
among the principal causes of poverty; and several of them in 
very strong language. 
* See appendix, Art. II. 10 
Having become thus impressed with a sense of the enormous 
extent of the evil they are investigating, your Committee propose 
next to consider the means which we possess for its discouragement 
and prevention; intending to conclude by some remarks which 
appear naturally to flow out of the peculiar situation of members of 
the medical body. 
The means of preventing intemperance have been recently the 
subject of considerable public attention and some discussion. They 
naturally divide themselves into the medical and the moral. 
Of those means afforded by the art of medicine for the cure of 
that unhappy propensity but little was known till of late years. A 
few scattered and isolated cases, frequently resting on doubtful 
authority, are all that can readily be found prior to the inquiries of 
Dr. Cramer. This physician published, in Berlin, in 1819, an es- 
say on the passion for intoxicating liquors ; which he found accom- 
panied by so many morbid symptoms, as, in his opinion, to justify 
the considering and treating it as a disease. Other cases were col- 
lected by Dr. G. Adersbach ; and Dr. Hufeland, the editor of a 
German Medical Journal, of high character, has given the malady 
the name of dipsomania ;* which may be paraphrased by “ insane 
thirst,” or “thirsting insanity.” The catalogue of symptoms, most 
of which, indeed, can be recognized in many of our own drunkards, 
your committee will not abstract. Drs. Cramer and Adersbach 
found this affection varying in duration from a few days to several 
weeks, and, in different cases, either continued or intermittent, mild 
or severe, mortal or terminating in recovery. They combated it 
with bleedings of various amounts, with warm baths, the semicupi- 
um, and acidulated watery drinks. They found it the most success- 
ful practice not suddenly to deprive the patient of the whole of his ac- 
customed stimulus, but to make the change gradually; and they de- 
rived advantages from replacing itby substances capable of deceiving 
the taste ; such as potions made with a combination of alcohol and 
ether, or ether itself, administered on lumps of sugar, to be held in 
the mouth. Opium was frequently found necessary during the cure. 
Of a date subsequent to the above is the following paragraph, 
quoted from Johnson’s Medico-Chirurgical Review for September 
1324 ; and in this is contained all the information which we possess, 
* From dipsa, thirst, and mania, insanity. 11 
from a foreign source, relative to the particular use of sulphuric 
acid as a cure for intemperance: “In one of the foreign Journals 
it is stated that a German physician, M. Bruhl Cramer, has dis- 
covered that the exhibition of diluted sulphuric acid, with occasion- 
al bitters, causes, at length, such a disgust towards brandy and 
other spirituous potations as to eradicate the disposition to inebrie- 
ty.” This brief hint was sufficient for our inquiring and indefatiga- 
ble townsman and fellow-member of this society, Dr. Brinckle. 
What indeed appeared “like bread cast upon the waters,” became, 
in his hands, productive of fruitful results. In his essay on the sub- 
ject, contained in the fourth volume of the North American Medi- 
cal and Surgical Journal, published in this city, he gives the highly 
successful results of a number of cases in which he administered 
the acid with this view. Your committee early felt that they could 
not do justice to the subject of their inquiries without requesting of 
Dr. Brinckle the inferences afforded by his further experience. Ac- 
cordingly, one of their number addressed him a note, to which was 
promptly returned the polite reply which they have inserted in the 
Appendix to this Report.* 
In addition to the remarks of Dr. Brincklfe, your committee have 
collected but little. Some of their number have made trials of the 
sulphuric acid ; and success has appeared, in a part of the cases, to 
crown their efforts ; while the event was, in other instances, doubt- 
ful and disappointing. The general impression which they have re- 
ceived from all which they have seen and read on this subject, is, 
that the sulphuric acid is well worthy of further trials in cases of 
habitual intemperance ; while, on the other hand, its usefulness is 
greatly diminished by the frequent unwillingness of patients to take 
it, by the difficulty of disguising it, and by its occasional failures. 
They are happy to state that they have met with no instance in 
which this remedy appeared productive of injury. It is hardly ne- 
cessary to add that they repose every confidence in the accuracy and 
candour of Dr. Brincklb’s statements. On the whole they will con- 
clude with recommending the members of this society, to make 
further trials of the acid in conjunction with the other medicines' 
advised by Drs. Cramer and Adersbach. 
* See Appendix, Art. 111. 12 
With regard to those remedies, the obvious and undeniable ope- 
ration of which takes place by the production of nausea, you com- 
mittee find themselves in nearly the same situation. They are ob- 
liged, as before, to draw a large share of their information from Dr. 
Brinckl6. They have heard of one or two successful and corrobo- 
rative cases ; and they can adduce trials from their own practice, 
in which, however, the effect was doubtful. The administration of 
nauseating remedies for the purpose of producing an aversion to 
spirituous liquors, would seem to harmonize well with that practice, 
highly recommended by some, of treating delirium tremens by the 
same articles. Your committee have only to add, as before, the 
expression of their anxious wish for the collection of additional 
facts. 
In the class last mentioned is generally ranked the popular reme- 
dy of Dr. Chambers. Of this your committee have learned but 
little. It is generally sold from shops to individuals who employ it 
without the presence ef experienced and scientific men. They are 
disposed to view a medicine composed of such active ingredients, 
and empirically used, with great mistrust. It is believed that the 
principal beneficial effects of this compound are owing to the pre- 
sence of emetic tartar. One of their members states that two or 
three cases are known to him in which death followed the adminis- 
tration of this remedy as rapidly as it succeeds that of a dose of ar- 
senic. It cannot be denied, on the other hand, that the use of this 
article has, in some instances, been followed by an aversion to 
liquor enduring for a more or less considerable interval of time. 
With regard to the moral means of diminishing intemperance, the 
first and most obvious course, the institution of such public mea- 
sures as are calculated to raise the price of spirituous liquors, would 
appear to be forbidden by the political state of the country. It is 
understood that a majority of our fellow citizens have expressed 
their opinions in opposition to the proposed plans, in such a manner 
as effectually to prevent any reasonable expectation of their speedy 
adoption. We apprehend, then, that those are in the right who aim 
at the suppression of intemperance by acting, in a gradual and per- 
severing manner, upon public opinion ; that the friends of sobriety 
should exert their private influence in their proper sphere, and en- 
deavour thus to increase their numbers, in hopes, by this means, to 13 
accelerate the approach of a period, when a decided and overwhelm- 
ing majority of the people shall agree with them in their sentiments 
on this subject. The government of this nation is emphatically one 
of the people; and when the opinion of the community is once dis- 
tinctly expressed, the legislature will follow it of course. It is 
therefore to the private and personal influence of each individual 
that your committee think the task should be referred ; and upon 
physicians it seems peculiarly imperative, both from their frequent 
opportunities, their knowledge of the case, which is unquestionably 
greater than that possessed by any other class of citizens in the 
community, from the respect attached to their character, and from 
the wide extent of their influence. Every member of the nation, 
and, in particular, every physician, aware of the magnitude of the 
evil, and of the existence of a simultaneous effort to reform it, has 
it in his power to exert a salutary influence among his acquaintance, 
by precept, where that is admissible, and universally by example. 
It is, however, to the latter that we conceive it particularly impor- 
tant, at the present time, to direct the attention of the members of 
this society. Physicians unquestionably possess greater opportu- 
nities for bestowing useful advice on this subject than most other 
citizens. It is frequently their solemn and imperative duty to fore- 
warn the individual, who tempts the fatal bowl, of the danger he is 
incurring to his health and his existence; and where their character 
is calculated to command high personal respect, they are enabled 
sometimes to give moral and prudential admonition. Yet to the 
physician these opportunities are frequently, perhaps generally, for- 
bidden by that proud feeling of independence which must be respect- 
ed, as it forms a necessary ingredient in the character of a high- 
spirited and honourable population. While the moral adviser, then, 
finds his arguments always augmented in their influence by a cor- 
responding example, in a variety of other instances, the example is 
the only means which he can employ. 
It is, indeed, surely tobe hoped, that the great body of the profes- 
sion do, at the present moment, discharge this obligation, by refrain- 
ing from the intemperate use of alcoholic liquors. Yet it is the la- 
mentable fact that instances exist in which this is not the case; and 
mortifying and distressing are the occurrences to which these ex- 
ceptions have given rise. But it is not with the unfortunate victims, 14 
as your committee apprehend, that labour can he employed with ad- 
vantage. The instances of recovery from habits of intoxication, 
though such sometimes occur, are unhappily so rare as to leave but 
little encouragement for efforts in these quarters. The united force 
of all the moralists, and the concentrated voice of numerous friends 
are too commonly unavailing to arrest the degrading practice. It 
is then to those who are as yet free from this unfortunate propensity 
that we are to appeal. With these it may be said that our labour is 
unnecessary, and that they already furnish the example of which we 
speak. Yet we apprehend in this point a still more complete and 
impressive effect is to be desired ; and that those of our fellow-citi- 
zens are in the right who, at various times, and particularly at the 
present moment, endeavour to effect the entire disuse of intoxica- 
ting liquors. Between the moderate and the immoderate employment 
of these substances, there is no clear dividing line. They are only- 
separated by insensible and ambiguous gradations; to slide through 
which is the natural propensity of every one who indulges in them 
in any degree. Originally adopted for the purpose of producing a vivid 
impression on the nervous system, and one which forms no part of 
the gratification of any natural appetite, ardent spirits are notorious 
for the facility with which the human frame becomes familiarized 
to them ; and, in order to renew the sensations enjoyed at first, it 
becomes indispensable to increase the dose. This change takes 
place by such slow degrees that the patient is seldom aware of the 
fact, and finds himself subjected to an imperious craving, where he 
fancied he was only enjoying an indulgence capable of being regu- 
lated by a proper discretion. It is desirable, therefore, in order to 
effect a salutary reformation in this respect, to disuse spirituous 
liquors altogether. It has been well remarked that no man ever be- 
came a drunkard without first using intoxicating liquors moderately. 
On those who consume them immoderately, efforts are generally 
wasted; and it is only among those who are as yet temperate in their 
employment that benefit is to be expected. 
These arguments, or a part of them, have been extensively used 
among our fellow citizens ; amidst whom physicians have frequent- 
ly been considered as holding the same stake and incurring the 
same responsibility with men of other professions. Yet there exist 
considerations which may well induce the question whether we do 15 
really stand on the same ground with others. Are not physicians 
in various ways the means of introducing habits of intoxication ? 
Are they not, in too numerous instances, instrumental in leading 
their patients into this destructive practice, by the long continued 
use of these substances as a medicine, and by speaking of them and 
recommending them as restorative? IIow many deplorable ca- 
ses of intemperance, in men of previously irreproachable charac- 
ters, trace their origin to a long course of stimulation for the cure 
of typhus fevers and the recovery of strength! There was a 
time when this evil existed to a far greater degree than it does at 
the present moment. We allude to the epocha of the Brunonian 
theory. Never, probably, was there an instance where the hy- 
potheses of a single man produced such powerful effects upon the 
minds of his cotemporaries, in disorganizing useful science, and 
leading the wise into error, as in this celebrated, but ill-starred 
medical doctrine. After suffering mortification and persecution 
during his lifetime, Dr. John Brown was destined, after his death, 
to exert a splendid but destructive influence upon the great mass of 
the medical profession. By this strange aberration of unfortu- 
nate genius, it was taught, that inflammatory affections of differ- 
ent parts of the body, wrere, comparatively, of but little impor- 
tance. Pleurisy, pneumonia, phrenzy, &c. derived almost all 
their severity and danger from the general affection of the whole 
body with which they were accompanied. This affection was pro- 
nounced to consist, in nine cases out of ten, in director indirect 
debility; and this debility was to be met with powerful stimulants. 
The practice corresponded with the theory ; and the wild, though 
ingenious pages in which the latter is disclosed, but too much ex- 
hibit the sincerity of the candid author. Stimulation, to the most 
extravagant extent, was often the notorious consequence; and at 
last the patient was not unfrequently landed in habitual drunken- 
ness. Among those diseases in which weakness was most con- 
spicuous was typhus fever ; and Brown introduced a habit of pour- 
ing strong liquors into patients suffering with that malady, which is 
thought by many physicians to have left a perceptible effect upon 
the usages of the present day. Your Committee are inclined to 
the opinion that more stimulation is even now occasionally resort- 
ed to than conduces to the patient’s speedy recovery ; such a prac- 16 
tice being liable to increase and prolong inflammations of the brain, 
stomach, lungs and other parts of the body, some of which affec- 
tions occur so generally in fevers. They decline embarking in 
any pathological or therapeutical discussion ; which course they 
conceive not adapted to the furtherance of their present duty. 
They take the occasion, however, to remark that what has been 
called the physiological medicine, goes still farther than any former 
doctrine to discourage the unnecessary employment of spirituous 
liquors. 
Whatever be the practical impression of the physician, and 
wherever he may be disposed to draw the line at which he would 
limit the employment of stimulants, your Committee are strongly 
impressed with a sense of the moral duty of avoiding the unneces- 
sary use of these substances ; and, in particular, of employing the 
weight of personal character to discountenance the future repeti- 
tion of it. This is alike obligatory for the sake of the patient’s 
health, prosperity and moral character. If the physician recom- 
mend spirituous substances, and particularly if he characterize 
them as a strengthening remedy, calculated to relieve the popular 
fear of weakness, it is the more incumbent on him to obviate, as 
far as he can, the mischievous consequences of what he has done, 
by direct cautions to his patient. He should never leave in the 
hands of those who entrust him with the care of their health and 
lives, a poison, equally destructive to their moral and physical na- 
ture, but bearing an unqualified recommendation upon medical au- 
thority. Yet even here, in the opinion of your Committee, his ob- 
ligation does not end. It is not sufficient that he should himself 
avoid the needless employment of these substances in his prac- 
tice, and, where he is obliged to prescribe them, afterwards make 
his patient aware of the danger he has incurred; the medical at- 
tendant should, where possible, see his patient safely to the end of 
his stimulating course. Without this, he incurs the blame of hav- 
ing led a human being who has asked his advice into serious dan- 
ger, and forsaken him before the peril was over. 
The importance of these precepts has been fully appreciated by 
several of those wise and good men who have preceded us in the 
profession of medicine. The late Dr. Fothergill informed an 
American physician, then in London, of the success with which he 17 
had treated a slow typhoid fever by means of brandy. He, softid 
time afterwards, took pains to converse particularly with the samei 
individual for the purpose of cautioning the latter against the remedy 
Dr. Fotherglll had himself recommended ; as all the patients who 
had thus taken it by his advice had subsequently become habitually 
intemperate. This fact we have upon the authority of the physi- 
cian himself alluded to—the venerable Dr. 1 hornas Parke ; who,- 
through his long and useful life, has steadily continued to inculcate 
the duty of physicians to discourage spirituous liquors; In the same 
list may be included our lamented Rush, Wistar, and Griffitts. 
There exists a class of cases in which stimulants appear to be 
really necessary; and in these your committee conceive a sound 
discretion will frequently discover opportunities of substituting those 
ot another character to the seductive agents which are the source 
of so much vice and misery. Red pepper, hartshorn, and, where 
action on the nervous system is required, opium, assafcetida, and 
camphor, will frequently render these articles entirely unnecessary; 
while, in other cases, they may be equally superseded in their re- 
storative effects, by pure or aromatic bitters, preparations of iron, 
and acids, by nourishing food, or, again, by fermented liquors, whicb 
contain alcohol in a less concentrated and safer form. 
The principles we have above stated relative to the use of crdi* 
nary distilled liquors, are in every respect as applicable to the em*' 
ployment of tinctures; the spirituous nature of which alone forms 
a strong objection to them as a class of remedies. There is no“ 
doubt that many cases of intemperance have owed their origin par- 
ticularly to the use of bitter tinctures. Considering the small 
amount of useful medicinal matter which enters into these latter com- 
pounds, and the large proportion of alcohol they contain, it appears 
to admit of a fair inquiry whether they would not be better expunged 
from the pharmacopoeia. To attempt to cure intermittent fever by 
the unaided powers of tinctures of bark and quassia, would be con- 
sidered unwise by any one; while, at the same time, these are' 
abundantly sufficient to produce a habit of intemperance, and, not 
very unfrequently, are really its efficient cause. One of your com- 
mittee has met with a case where an individual of the most correct 
and delicate deportment, actually acquired habits of intemperanofy 18 
and was brought to the brink of the grave, by the means, unsus- 
pected by herself, of the compound spirits of lavender. 
A powerful means of counteracting intemperance consists, as 
your Committee apprehend, in promoting the use of such innocent 
substitutes for spirituous stimulants as are calculated to restore the 
natural feeling of health in persons exhausted by fatigue. One of 
these, which has had, as they believe, a very great and beneficial 
influence, consists in the cheap and generally diffused luxuries of 
Seltzer and Soda-waters. In very many cases, it is thought that 
coffee might be advantageously employed with this object. Ano- 
ther substitute, to which the industry of our citizens has shown our 
climate to be well adapted, is the lighter wines. The remark has 
been often made that the countries in which these are raised in 
large quantities do not abound with instances of intemperance; and 
it is to be hoped that such will soon be much more than at present 
the condition of the hills of Pennsylvania, Maryland and New-Jer- 
sey; a change which, it is believed, may take place without any 
injury to our agriculture. The stronger wines, and particularly 
Madeira, are known to be combined with so large a proportion of 
brandy that they are in this respect rather objectionable than ad- 
vantageous. 
In the discharge of the duty to which we invoke their attention, 
physicians are obliged to encounter various popular prejudices, 
which greatly tend to the perpetuation of intemperance, and the 
abolition or correction of which is therefore much to be desired. 
These, in common with many other opinions, entertained both by 
the ignorant and the educated, are the result of the medical theories 
of the last age ; and it therefore seems peculiarly incumbent on 
physicians to do their utmost to remove them ; both as a debt due 
from the medical profession, and for the purpose of demonstrating 
to an incredulous world that our doctrinal opinions, instead of a 
succession of mere fluctuations, have undergone a real advance- 
ment. One of these prejudices, and perhaps the most important, 
is the idea that spirituous liquors have a powerful and useful ten- 
dency to increase strength. 
Immediately after swallowing a spirituous draught, the functions 
of the mind undergo a lively and irregular excitement; the imagina- 
tion is quickened, in a majority of persons cheerful emotions are 19 
produced, and the individual is so occupied with his internal sensa- 
tions that he loses a portion of his consciousness to impressions 
received from without. His passions, which constitute the impulse 
urging him to exertion, are increased in their force and vivacity ; 
while his reasoning powers, partaking in the general jubilee, be- 
come more quick and less accurate in the execution of their task. 
It is in this state of things that the intemperate labourer delights: 
he executes his toil or converses with his friend with a cheerful 
mind and a disregard of actual hardship or future calamity; he 
feels nothing but his present strength, and leaves care till the mor- 
row. These halcyon moments, however, are soon followed by a 
change. The acquisition of strength is found to be only temporary; 
dullness, both of the passions and intellect succeeds, together with 
a diminution of the muscular power ; a tendency to sleep ensues ; 
and it is seen that the subsequent exhaustion is in reality proportion- 
ate to the previous excitement; in short, that the drinker, instead of 
increasing, has only used up his vital powers, and is now weaker 
than before. Hence it is that, although spirituous liquors create a 
temporary energy, which many, under some circumstances, possibly 
enable him who drinks them to accomplish more than at another 
period, yet the reverse is the case in the long run; and, both as 
regards a consecutive series of daily labour, and the prolongation of 
life, alcoholic drinks are a real disadvantage. The experience of 
all those who have employed numerous workmen, and who have 
made comparative trials, is decidedly confirmatory of what we here 
allege. It is, we believe, uniformly found that those individuals 
who have refrained from spirituous potations have actually done 
more work than they themselves had performed at a time when they 
indulged in this injurious practice. Along with this come corres- 
ponding improvements in health, order, neatness, and domestic com- 
fort ; advantages, which, though they preach loudly in favour of ab- 
stinence, yet do not immediately bear upon the question at present 
before us. Not only, however, is there a greater absolute amount 
of work done, under equal circumstances, by those who abstain, but 
the work which is done displays marks of a superior condition of 
the mental faculties of the labourer—it is not simply more in quanti- 
ty, but better adapted to the purpose in view. Thus it appears that 
although spirituous liquors may excite to greater exertions in a 20 
(ask which requires but little assistance from the intellect, and 
may thus the better enable men to carry some particular points, yet, 
in the course of time, they really occasion a waste of strength, while, 
even in the sudden and temporary effort, the range of their appli- 
cability is confined within narrow limits. They may augment the 
headlong and unthinking courage which flings the horseman upon 
the bayonet; but wo to the array whose directing heads are under 
such influence. They may encourage and assist the writer to bold- 
er flights of imagination ; but his temulent efforts will betray the 
Hippocrene from which he derived his inspiration. In all the arts 
which benefit the human race, whether by accumulative toil, inge- 
nious fancy, or grave and profound reflection, your Committee be- 
lieve that stimulating potations will always be found to produce a 
heavy diminution of usefulness. In mechanical strength, in the 
capability of enduring hardship and fatigue, in the force and 
clearness of the intellectual powers, the intemperate can stand no 
comparison with individuals endowed with the same natural advan- 
tages, who abstain totally from the use of ardent spirits. 
Similar results are also met with as regards the effects of spirituous 
liquors on the prolongation of life ; and, in general, popular opinion 
sufficiently bears us out in the assertion. We sometimes, however, 
hear it said, when physicians would proscribe the stimulating 
draught, that facts may be produced in direct opposition to this 
opinion ; and that hundreds have been known, who, though almost 
daily intoxicated for year after year, have yet arrived at a great age, 
and enjoyed the same good health as those who have followed the 
strictest rules of temperance, or who even, like Cornaro, have lived 
by weight and measure. Some, but very few, instances of this 
kind we grant might be adduced ; but they form no proportion to 
the number who fall early victims to what they may perhaps have 
considered a moderate indulgence. Exceptions are said to prove 
the correctness of a rule. A seaman has been known to fill from 
the mast-head of a ship, and to be taken from the deck with his 
limbs uninjured. To attempt to infer, from the instances above 
alluded to, that spirituous liquors are not unfavourable to longevity, 
would be exactly as rational as to conclude, from the sailor’s es- 
cape, that it was equally safe for his ship-mates to repeat his des- 
perate experiment. It is the unanimous experience of every records 21 
3d age that temperance in all our actions is the only probable means 
)f insuring a continuance oflife and health, and of prolonging to an 
ldvanced period our physical strength and the integrity of our men- 
tal powers; and in no respect is this more emphatically true than 
is regards the use of alcoholic liquors, 
The question might here be asked, “to what extent may the use 
of distilled spirits be indulged in without injury to the constitution, or 
what is the smallest quantity capable of producing pernicious ef- 
fects?” This query is very readily answered. Under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, ardent spirits, in any quantity, whether great or small, 
are injurious to the health of the system. Pure water is confes- 
sedly the most natural and most proper drink of man; but if one 
more stimulating is required, it should be sought in the less perni- 
cious class of fermented liquors. Your committee would not wish to 
be understood as classing among the intemperate those who are in 
the habit of occasionally making use of moderate quantities of ar- 
dent spirits. Nevertheless, they cannot avoid remarking that such 
a practice is productive of bad effects, to a less extent, it is true, 
and more slowly, but not less surely, than when the quantity is 
sufficient for the production of intoxication. The individual who 
indulges in this habit, is also exposed, let his resolution and strength 
of mind be what they may, to the danger of gradually falling into 
the excessive use of a daily beverage, subversive of the health of 
his system, both corporeal and mental. He resembles, indeed, 
the traveller who prefers a dangerous path along the brink of a 
precipice, trusting in the strength of his brain and the accuracy of 
his eye, and neglecting the safe and ample road in the valley be- 
neath. 
A class by no means inconsiderable in their numbers become 
drunkards from an absolute persuasion that stimulating liquors are 
in some degree necessary, or at least that they contribute to the 
well-being of their constitutions. To these, ardent spirits are what 
the pretended Panacea or Elixir Yitoe was to the older chemists. 
They guard their votaries from the effects of cold and damp on the 
one hand, and from those of excessive heat on the other ; and when 
not required as a shield against these evils, they are frequently 
taken from a vague idea of their benefiting the stomach. It is well 
known to physicians that cold and dampness have a more perni- 22 
cious influence upon the bodies of drunkards than upon those of the 
temperate. The abuse of alcoholic liquors acts in different ways 
in subjecting the patient to the attacks of disease from the influence 
of cold. Although, when under the immediate excitement of the 
intoxicating draught, they may perhaps expose themselves with im- 
punity to a degree of cold and moisture which would be injurious 
under other circumstances, yet, when the effects of the liquor have 
passed away, their systems are left in a condition far more liable 
to suffer from these causes than those of individuals habitually so- 
ber. At the same time, from the neglect of person and clothing 
invariably attendant upon a state of inebriety, the drunkard is al- 
most constantly exposed to circumstances peculiarly favourable to 
the production of disease. In regard to rheumatism, in particular, 
that scourge of the labouring classes, an eminent physician* has 
laid it down as a general rule that those who live a life of sobriety 
and drink water only, are but rarely affected with it. We have al- 
ready alluded to a truth daily experienced by medical men, that all 
morbid affections occurring in the body of a drunkard are less readily 
managed and more frequently fatal than when they occur to the 
same extent in the temperate. Similar statements may be made in 
relation to the supposed effects of ardent spirits in obviating the 
injurious consequences of extreme heat. They may, by benumb- 
ing or obscuring the sensations, diminish the inconvenience actu- 
ally felt at the time ; but so far are they from a real protection that 
directly the reverse is the fact. Every year, during the summer 
months, numbers fall victims, in this and other cities, to the effects, 
direct and indirect, of the solar heat. Many of these deaths are 
ascribed to drinking cold water; and though this might appear to 
furnish an argument in favour of tempering the latter fluid with an 
admixture of spirits, yet the result of experience, both in New-York 
and Philadelphia has been, that by far the greater part of these are 
in reality instances of apoplexy, caused by the heat and augmented 
by spirits given as a remedy ; while, on the other hand, the majority 
of cases actually caused by cold water have occurred in the intem- 
perate. The latter are also more exposed to the diseases of warm 
climates ; which in them, are more unmanageable and more fre- 
qently fatal than in the temperate. 
* Poinsart. 23 
One source of intemperance in this city yet remains to be noticed, 
and may enter here. Your committee allude to the custom of serv- 
ing out liquor, and that without measure, to the individuals engaged 
in extinguishing fires. Many young men and even boys are, on 
these occasions, induced to partake of it to a great extent, and, in 
not unfrequent instances, have to date.from that moment the com- 
mencement of intemperate habits. The fatigue and exposure to 
cold and heat to which our high-spirited youth subject themselves 
in their praise-worthy efforts to fctop the progress of destruction, the 
thirst engendered by their muscular exertion, the forgetfulness of 
self with which they frequently sacrifice their health to preserve the 
property of others, the light, the clamour, and the example of their 
comrades, all unite to prevent them from being really aware of the 
quantities which some of them too frequently consume. Your com- 
mittee would earnestly press upon their fellow-citizens, in these 
alarming and spirit-stirring emergencies, the use of coffee, as a 
grateful and efficient substitute for spirituous liquors, and one much 
better calculated to preserve that clearness of the intellectual facul- 
ties, for the want of which much valuable property is occasionally 
lost, or even actually destroyed. 
Never did man commit a more gross mistake than when he had 
recourse to ardent spirits as a strengthener of the stomach—an 
agent to excite his appetite for food, and augment his power of di- 
gesting it. When the stomach is in a state of health, the smallest 
quantity of distilled spirits is productive of a proportionate diminu- 
tion of appetite and derangement of the digestion. When diseased, 
almost any thing can be introduced into that organ with more impu- 
nity than alcoholic liquors. The majority, perhaps the great majori- 
ty of the chronic affections of that part of the body owe their origin 
to intemperance in eating and drinking, particularly the latter. 
Another popular impression, which occasionally has considerable 
influence in furnishing the drunkard with an excuse for continuing 
the habit he has already incurred, is the medical precept that it is 
dangerous suddenly to break off from the established use of ardent 
spirits. Your committee cannot deny that there exists some founda- 
tion for this doctrine. Yet they conceive that it is true in so small 
a number of cases, that far more mischief is done by the remark 
than it is capable of preventing. They apprehend it may be in some 24 
measure disarmed of the injurious consequences occasionally drawn! 
from it by a depraved ingenuity, if tho practitioner, by the silent 
force of ocular example, will make the spectators of his operations 
aware of the extent to which other stimulants can be substituted for 
these more destructive ones. Your committee have already enu- 
merated some of the former;* and, without embracing any therapeu- 
tical discussion, will recommend their adoption, so far as the judg- 
ment of the physician shall approve, in the gradual diminution of 
the temulent excitement, and the treatment of its frequent conse- 
quence, delirium tremens. 
It is perhaps sufficient to allude to the numerous other instances 
in which, from popular habit and opinion, alcoholic stimulants are 
employed for the cure of various diseases, as cholic, recent catarrhs, 
&c. in some of which, articles of an analogous class may be substi- 
tuted, while, in others, all irritating matters ought to be avoided. 
Few errors are more commonly met with than to see the domestic 
practitioner either doing to the health of his patient an unmitigated, 
unmodified injury by the imprudent use of these articles as a medi- 
cine, or purchasing the partial stupefaction or the perspiration which 
they produce, and which might be much better obtained with other 
remedies, at the heavy expense of seriously increasing the malady 
he wishes to relieve. 
To the observations which have been offered in the course of this 
Keport, your committee hope that much need not now be add- 
ed to place in its proper light the large share of responsibility which 
rests upon the members of the medical profession with regard to 
discouraging the use of spirituous liquors. At the present moment 
a great and powerful effort is in progress to promote this desirable 
purpose, by a very large number of cur fellow-citizens, who have 
associated themselves under the title of Temperance Societies. 
Similar and persevering efforts have been made for many years by 
several religious bodies; among whom it is an act of justice to 
name, for old and long continued exertions, the society of Friends. 
Yet at no period has there been so large a portion of the communi- 
ty interested in this subject, and so hopeful a prospect afforded of 
producing a considerable change in public feeling respecting it, as 
at the present time. While we earnestly wish success, then, to the 
efforts of our philanthropic fellow-citizens, your committee cannot 25 
help deeply feeling that this is no time for physicians to remain irreso- 
lute, or to pass with indifference a labour in which they are called 
upon to interfere by so many considerations. They stand implicated 
in this duty by their peculiar knowledge of the evil, by their widely 
extended opportunities of aiding in its correction, and, in a particu- 
lar manner, by the fact, that, as practitioners, they are unavoidably 
the frequent though innocent cause of its further dissemination. 
And, while we leave to other bodies of men that sanctity and so- 
lemnity of appeal which belong to the cbararter of the public offi- 
cers of religion, it is our most imperative duty to forewarn the im- 
prudent of the evils which impend over their physical systems; 
and, at the same moment, it is equally our obligation, as men, to 
alarm them, wherever the case admits it, for their safety from the 
other and multifarious disasters attributable to tho unhappy practice 
of drinking spirituous liquors. 
Your committee, therefore, respectfully beg leave to propose for 
the consideration of this Society the following 
Resolutions: 
Resolved, That this Society earnestly advises its members to em- 
ploy their personal and private influence for the suppression of 
the moderate use of spirituous liquors,' and that, for this pur- 
pose, the members are advised themselves to abstain from the 
use of spirituous liquors under any circumstances, except as a 
medicine. 
Resolved, That the members are advised to diminish the employ- 
ment of ardent spirits in their practice as far as is compatible 
with a careful and prudent consideration of the welfare of their 
patients. 
Resolved, That the members residing in the city and liberties of 
Philadelphia are particularly requested to preserve an annual re- 
cord of the whole number of deaths occurring in their practice, 
and also of the proportion of these occasioned, in their opinion, by 
the use of spirituous liquors. 
CH. D. MEIGS, 
D. FRANCIS CONDIE, 
R. M. HUSTON, 
EDW. JENNER COXE, 
B. H. COATES. 
The above Report was read and ordered published, and the 
Resolutions adopted, July 11th, 1829. APPENDIX. 
ARTICLE I. 
CASES OF HUMAN COMBUSTION. 
1. Mary Clues, aged 50, of Coventry, England.—Philosophical 
Transactions, vol. 64, p. 340. 
2. Case mentioned by Yicq JVAeyr, aged 50 years. 
3. A female at Paris, mentioned by Henry Bohanser. 
4. The wife of Millet, at Bheims, in 1725, related by Le Cat. 
This curious case was the subject of a legal investigation, and may 
serve to show the necessity for legal and medical men being aware 
of the occurrence of human combustion. 
“ In 1725, the wife of a man named Millet, an inhabitant of 
Rheims, perished, the victim of a spontaneous human combustion. 
Her remains were found in the kitchen, a foot and a half from the 
fire-place. Some portions of the head and of the inferior extremi- 
ties, and'some of the dorsal vertebrae, were the only parts that es- 
caped destruction by the fire. Millet had a young and handsome 
servant girl; and the most shocking suspicions were raised against 
him. He was subjected to all the rigour of a criminal prosecution; 
from which he appealed. An examination was had by professional 
men, who recognized it as a case of spontaneous human combustion. 
Millet, thus proved innocent, escaped from opprobrium and a public 
execution.”—(Marc.) He did not escape, however, from the ruin 
of his health and fortune; and he ultimately died in a hospital,— 
See Beck’s Medical Jurisprudence, vol. n. p. 89; where the case 
is related more at length. 
5. Mary Jauffret, at Aix, in Provence; the case related by M. 
Muraire, in the Journal de Medicine. 
6. Mademoiselle Thouars, at Caen, in 1782; the case related 
by M. Merrlle, in the same work. 
7 & 8. Two anonymous cases at Caen, mentioned by M. Lair, 
in his work on this subject. 
9. A case of a female at Paris, in 1779, mentioned by Foderb. 
—Med. Leg. vol. in. p. 207. 
10. The case of the priest Bertholi, near Fenile, in Italy; rela- 
ted by M. Battaglia, surgeon, of Ponte-Bosio. 
This case is highly interesting from the circumstance of the pa- 
tient surviving nearly four days, and being able to give an account 
of his sensations. 
It is not mentioned that he was intemperate. On arriving from 
a journey at the house of his brother-in-law, he immediately re- 
quested to shown to his room. Here he passed a handkerchief 27 
between his shoulders and his shirt, and then betook himself to his 
prayers; the rest of the company leaving the room. In a few min- 
utes a singular noise was heard in his room, and the cries of the 
priest were distinguished. On the family entering, they found him 
stretched upon the paved floor, and surrounded by a light flame, 
which receded as they approached, and was finally extinguished. 
Next morning, M. Battaglia examined the patient. He found 
the whole integuments of the humeral portion of the right arm, and 
the skin of the fore-arm, almost entirely detached from the flesh, 
and hanging down. Nearly the same was the condition of the 
space between the shoulders and the thighs. The most terrific 
symptoms followed ; general mortification of the wounds, burning 
thirst, “horrible convulsions,” continual vomitings, fever, delirium, 
a putrid bilious diarrhoea, and finally a state of stupor continuing for 
two hours, in which he died on the fourth day. The smell was in- 
tolerable ; the nails separated from the fingers, and worms were 
produced in the ulcers. 
The patient stated that he had felt a stroke like that of a club on 
the right arm ; and that he then saw a spark of fire attach itself to 
his shirt, which was immediately reduced to ashes, with the excep- 
tion of the wristbands, which remained uninjured. The handker- 
chief on his shoulders was uninjured, as well as his drawers; 
but his cap was entirely destroyed, though the hair escaped.- 
The night had been calm, and the air pure—No smoke nor empyreu- 
matic or bituminous smell was discerned in the room; but the 
lamp, which had been full of oil, was now empty, and its wick re- 
duced to ashes. 
11. A female at Paris, aged 68, in 1804; the case related by 
Dr. Vigne, and noticed by Fodere. 
12. A female, aged 28, in France; case related by Dr. Prouteau, 
in Leroux’s Journal of Medicine. 
13. Madame Laire, at Saulieu, in France, aged 60 years, in 
180S; published by M. Ballard. 
14. Ignatius Meyer, aged 48, in the village of Waertelfeld, in 
Schwalenberg, Germany, in January, 1811; related by Dr. Scherf, 
of Detmold, and noticed in the London Medical Repository, vol. 3. 
15 & 16. Two cases mentioned by Smith, as having occurred 
lately in France; perhaps the same with Nos. 11 & 12. 
17. The Countess of Cesena, in Italy, aged 52, in 1763; related 
by Bianchini and other writers.—See Lair, referred to below, and 
also the Annual Register for 1763, and the Philosophical Transac- 
tions, vol. 43. 
18. Grace Pett, of Ipswich, England, aged about 60, in 1744.— 
Philosophical Transactions, vol. 43. 
19. Madame de Boiseon, of Plerguer, nearDol, in France, aged 
80 years, in 1749; related by M. Boinneau, the curate of the par- 
ish, and published by Le Cat. 28 
20. An elderly woman in Massachusetts, in March, 1802; rela- 
ted by General William Shepherd, and published in Coxe’s Empo- 
rium of Arts, vol. i. p. 326; where it is quoted from Tilloch’s Philo- 
phical Magazine, vol. xiv. p. 96; also published by Fodere, vol. ui. 
p. 208. 
21. A young woman, admitted into the General Hospital at Ham- 
burg. A case of partial combustion. 
While working at her needle, she perceived a “ sudden and ex- 
traordinary heat pervade her whole body, attended by a violent 
burning heat in her fore-finger, which became encircled with a blue 
flame to the extent of an inch and a half.” Water had no effect in 
extinguishing the flame; but it was quenched in some milk. She 
recovered in the hospital.—Hecker’s Annals, 1825, vol. 11; quoted 
in Johnson’s Medico-Chirurgical Journal; and again in the North 
American Med. and Surgical Journal tor 1826, vol. n. p. 423. 
22. Case related by Professor Rudolphi, in the Journal de Phar- 
macie, of a man who suddenly perceived a pain in the arm as if he 
had received a blow from a stick, and immediately observed, at the 
same spot, a small flame which burned his shirt.—North American, 
&c. for Oct. 1828, quoting from The Lancet of May 17th, 1S2S. 
23. Case of combustion of both hands, in a temperate subject, 
who survived.—North American, &c. Oct. 1829, vol. vm. p. 403, 
from the Archives de Med. 
We have compiled most of the above catalogue from Beck’s 
Medical Jurisprudence, vol. ii. pp. 84—90, where a fuller account, 
of a highly interesting character, will be found. The narrative 
sketches which we have inserted are from other sources; nos. 4 
and 10 from the French. Dr. P. A. Lair’s very curious memoir on 
this subject is translated, and may be found in Dr. J. Redman 
Coxe’s Emporium of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 161. 
Most of the persons found subjected to those living combustions 
have been advanced in life, and had been for long periods habitua- 
ted to excessive indulgence in spirituous liquors. A considerable 
majority were females; and they are said to have been nearly all ex- 
cessively fat, while a few were excessively lean. The body has 
never been found entirely consumed; portions of the head, hands, 
and feet always escaping, while the trunk generally suffered most. 
A little ashes was left, together with a small portion of fetid, fatty 
matter, a fetid, greasy, and penetrating moisture, frequently infect- 
ing the clothes and other articles contained in closed drawers, &c. 
with a light unctuous coal, and sometimes a few pieces of bone. 
The flame was light and bluish, communicating fire to but few of 
the surrounding combustibles, and apparently incapable of being ex- 
tinguished by water. These are qualities of an inflammable gas con- 
taining hydrogen; such as the combinations of that substance with 
carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus. They have likewise some resem- 
blance to those of the vapour of alcohol. This latter fluid is well 
known to contain hydrogen in large quantities. 29 
Physicians differ in regard to the question whether these com- 
bustions are capable of being spontaneous or not. Most of the suf- 
ferers were found near lamps, hot coals, or other bodies in a state 
of ignition. Those who incline to the former opinion cite the well 
known fact of the frequent emission of electrical sparks from our 
inner clothing in hard frosty weather. Our 10th case seems to fa- 
vour this opinion. 
ARTICLfc: II. 
Extracts from the various replies to queries distributed by a Com- 
mittee of a Town Meeting, he'd Feb. \lth, IS 17, to devise mea- 
sures for the relief of the poor and the prevention of Pauperism. 
“ Wo believe the use of ardent spirits is the principal source of 
poverty, depravity and wretchedness.” 
“ The use of ardent spirits is probably, in nine cases out of ten, 
the cause of poverty.” 
“ The use of ardent spirits appears to be the primary cause of 
the poverty and distress which prevail among the lower class; and 
a large proportion of their earnings, as well as the sums distributed 
for their relief, is expended in tippling houses.” 
“ It is a melancholy fact that the excessive use of ardent spirits 
is the cause of poverty of a very large proportion of those who re- 
ceive public charity, probably two-thirds; and there is no doubt but 
the alms which are bestowed on such are frequently expended in 
purchasing this article. We believe more money is expended, in 
the course of a year, by the poor, for this destructive article, than 
would be sufficient, if husbanded, to provide for all their wants dur- 
ing an inclement winter.” 
“ We have no doubt but the immoderate use of ardent spirits is 
the principal cause of poverty, at least in seven cases out of ten ; 
and many of those who receive public charity expend a part in pur- 
chasing that article.” 
“ It cannot be doubted that ardent spirits are a principal cause of 
poverty; and it is to be feared that many who receive charity ex- 
pend the means in purchasing that article.” 
“ Habitual intoxication of the husband, sometimes of the woman, 
is the most fruitful cause of pauperism : in fact, it is generally to 
be traced, in some ramification, to this vice. There is no doubt of 
the frequent abuse of public charity in appropriating it to the pur- 
chase of spirituous liquors.” 
“ A great portion bring on their poverty by a too free use of ar- 
dent spirits; and a part sometimes apply the means afforded for 
their relief to the purchase of that article.” 
“ The great cause of suffering is the intemperate use of ardent 
spirits.” 
Report of the Library Committee, of the Pennsylvania So- 
ciety for the Promotion of Public Economy. Philadelphia, 1817, p. 
17,—a document drawn up, as we understand, by the indefatiga- 
ble Mr. Samuel Hazard. 30 
ARTICLE III. 
Letter from Dr. W. D. Brinckle to a member of the Committee, on 
the use of sulphuric acid as a remedy Jor Intemperance. 
Dear Doctor, Palmyra Square, Feb. 4, 1829. 
Your note of the 2nd inst. was received yesterday. I am exceed- 
ingly pleased to find that the medical society has taken up the sub- 
ject of intemperance, and appointed a committee so well qualified, 
in every respect, to do justice to the investigation. There is proba- 
bly no vice which leads to more melancholy results than that of in- 
temperance. Whether we view it in its relation to temporal, or 
eternal concerns, we find the same disastrous consequences fol- 
lowing in its train. Dispensing wretchedness, pauperism, infamy, 
and depravity, in abundant profusion, to its deluded devotees ; im- 
pelling them too often to the commission of crimes, to expiate 
which they are doomed to suffer an ignominious death ; it finally 
consummates the ruin of its debased and infatuated victims, by ex- 
cluding them from the felicity of a future world. 
Moral remedies* having been administered for ages past un- 
availingly, the only hope of success, save in the fiat of the omni- 
potent ruler of the universe, is in physical remedies. Knowing as 
we do, that other propensities have been subdued by physical means, 
analogy would lead us to repose a degree of confidence in similar 
measures for the relief of intemperance. What might thus be in- 
ferred from analogy has been confirmed by observation and experi- 
ence. 
The facts which have come under my personal notice, since the 
publication of my paper on the subject in the North American 
Medical and Surgical Journal for October, 1S27, are amply suffi- 
cient to satisfy me that intemperance is by no means incurable. 
But alas! how few, comparatively, are there, who are willing to be 
cured. The more I meditate on this subject, the more firmly am 
I persuaded of the propriety, and indeed necessity, of establishing 
an asylum for the intemperate. Even could the managers of the 
Alms-House be prevailed on to appropriate a ward to the reception 
of those who are so unfortunate as to be addicted to this deplora- 
ble vice, and allow them to be subjected to proper medical treat- 
ment, much benefit, I have reason to believe, would result from 
such an arrangement. To render the plan, however, completely 
effective, some legislative enactments might perhaps be required. 
* Though moral remedies cannot be advantageously employed in eradica- 
ting the habit of intemperance, they can do much towards its prevention, 
which is assuredly a matter of primary importance. It is in this way, the 
beneficial operation of the society for the suppression of intemperance is 
mainly to be expected ; and we sincerely trust that the result will be so en- 
couraging as to lead to the formation of other associations for a purpose so 
laudable. 31 
With regard to the cases detailed in the paper just now alluded 
to, only one has relapsed. This patient has refused to take the 
acid again, fearing, I am inclined to think, that it would again 
deprive him of the enjoyment of the fascinating beverage. The 
others, so far as I can learn, continue to abstain from the use of 
spirituous liquors. Since the publication of those cases, frequent 
opportunities have been embraced by me of giving both the sul- 
phuric acid, and the Ipecacuanha, and I am happy to say, that 
they have, in most cases, when properly taken, accomplished the 
object for which they were given. They have not, however, suc- 
ceeded in every instance ; though this may have been owing as 
much to their use not being persisted in for a period sufficiently 
long, as to any real inefficiency of the medicines. The desirable 
impression made by these remedies, as might very naturally be 
imagined, sometimes becomes obliterated after the lapse of weeks, 
months, or years ; and the patient regains a desire for his former 
indulgences. But when we see so many individuals become ad- 
dicted to inebriation, to whom the practice previously had always 
appeared extremely odious, and about which to them there never 
was any thing enticing or alluring, we certainly ought not to be 
surprised at seeing those, who have been emancipated from its 
thraldom, occasionally become again subjected to its fascinating 
control. Nor do I consider this circumstance a very material objec- 
tion to the remedy, since its administration can be resumed with 
the original prospect of success. With quite as much propriety 
might we object to the use of Sulphate of Quinine in intermittent 
fever, because, on exposure to the exciting cause, the disease 
sometimes returns. Those who have been intemperate, it should 
be recollected, are commonly exposed to the continual operation 
of temptation. 
Respecting the modus operandi of the sulphuric acid, I am una- 
ble to offer any thing authoritatively. It may be conjectured, that 
it probably acts Ijy occasioning an unpleasant sensation in the mor- 
bidly sensible and irritable stomach, which sensation is associated 
by the individual with the presence of the spirituous liquor. This 
medicine sometimes causes sickness and vomiting, while in other 
persons no such effects are manifested ; and yet in both instances, 
I have known it to occasion the desired disgust to spirituous pota- 
tions. But the ipecacuanha, to prove effectual, must always ex- 
cite nausea. In a few instances, where its impression on the sto- 
mach was not sufficiently powerful, I have succeeded by adding a 
small portion of emetic tartar, not more than a grain or two to each* 
drachm of ipecacuanha. The tartarized antimony alone is not so 
well suited to popular practice; since its violent operation on the 
stomach, unless given in doses judiciously regulated, would render 
its exhibition extremely hazardous. In giving it, and indeed the 32 
ipecacuan also, the main intention should be to excite and keep 
up constant nausea ; vomiting, though not absolutely necessary to 
their successful operation, materially tends to promote it. 
The production of nausea is the main principle to be kept in view, 
in the treatment of these cases. Whatever, therefore is calculated 
to produce this gastric uneasiness, promises to be serviceable in re- 
moving intemperance. We are all familiar with the powerful impres- 
sion which is made on our appetites by the association of ideas. 
Articles which have been regarded by us the most pleasant and 
agreeable, may be thus made to appear completely disgusting. In- 
deed there are few of us who have not experienced in our own per- 
sons, at some period of our lives, the force of this remark ; and in 
our patients we have all witnessed it. But in order that the inebri- 
ating draught may be inseparably connected with the nauseous im- 
pression that may be produced, it has appeared to me indispensable 
that the remedy should be administered in some description of ar- 
dent spirits. A case, however, which apparently has an unfavoura- 
ble bearing on this point, has occurred to me, and ought perhaps to 
be mentioned, especially as the result was quite different from what 
I had anticipated. A lady called at my office in the spring of 1828 
for the purpose, if possible, of having her husband cured of intem- 
perance. She had not consulted him respecting her intended ap- 
plication to me, knowing that he would be averse to taking any 
thing that would deprive him of his favourite potation. As it would, 
on this account, be necessary to administer the remedy clandes- 
tinely, it was of course impracticable to get him to take the sulphu- 
ric acid. I therefore advised the Ipecacuan to be given, and gave 
the necessary directions respecting its administration. But she in- 
formed me that it would be impossible for her to give it to him in 
any kind of spirituous liquor. She then made the inquiry whether 
it would not answer as well if given in coffee. I mentioned to her, 
that I thought it very probable she might give him a dislike to the 
vehicle in which the medicine was taken, without affecting in the 
least his inclination for ardent spirits. Perceiving that she was ex- 
tremely desirous of giving this mode of exhibiting the medicine a 
trial, I directed a small emetic of Ipecacuan and tartarized antimo- 
ny to be taken daily in coffee. It was ordered more with the view 
of creating nausea than of exciting vomiting. She pursued this 
course for some days, and had the satisfaction of finding, contrary 
to my expectation, that it had the desired effect. His disgust for 
ardent spirits continued until about a month or six weeks ago. The 
wife then returned to inform me that his intemperate habits were 
again beginning to be manifested. She was, however, fully im- 
pressed with the belief that the former mode of treatment would 
prove as successful as it had done on the preceding occasion. The 
same plan was accordingly prescribed, but with what result, I am 33 
unable to say. I cannot help thinking, however, that she would 
again have called on me had it failed to benefit him. The name 
and residence of the patient are unknown to me. There is usually, 
in these cases, so much reluctance manifested to give the name of 
tho individual, that delicacy has prevented me from requiring it. 
Thi3 is the only instance in which the same mode of exhibiting the 
remedy has been adopted by me. Where it proves successful, I 
feel disposed to attribute the success to the circumstance of the 
person resorting to spirituous potations before and during the time 
the stomach is nauseated with the emetic. This explanation seems 
to me the only plausible one, and is reconcilable with the principle 
of cure; which require that the ingestion of ardent spirits, and the 
nauseous impression should be intimately associated in the mind of 
the patient. 
Having already encroached too much on your time and patience, 
I will only beg leave in conclusion, to refer you to the paper in the 
North American Journal, for the mode in which I am in the habit 
of administering the remedies I have employed, and for other in- 
formation respecting them. 
I have the honour to be, 
My dear sir, 
Your obedient servant, , 
W. D. BRINCKLE. 
B. H. Coates, M. D.