THE
TRUE  TEMPERANCE PLATFORM;
                                         ''■7
                     OB AN
      EXPOSITION OF THE FALLACY
ALCOHOLIC  MEDICATION;
                   BEING THE


BUBSTANCE OF ADDRESSES DELIVEEED IN  THE QUEEN'S CONCERT
   BOOMS, HANOVER SQUARE, AND IN EXETEE HALL, LONDON,
       DURING THE SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL
           TEMPERANCE CONVENTION, SEPTEM-
               BER 2, 3 AND 4, 1862.
IB~X" It- T- TRAIL, Is/L. ID.
1-0 WHICH IS ADDED A DISCUSSION BETWEEN DR. TRALL AND REV.
   J. C. HURD, M. D., G.W.P., OF FREDERICTON,-N. B. ON THE
            MODUS OPERANDI OE» ALCOHOL.
»!M
/  6 / %7 $
              New TorIk :
R. T. TRALL & CO., PUBLISH!
        NO.  15 LAIGHT STREET.
     LONDON : -WILLIAM TWEEDIE, NO. 337 STKAND.
                1864. 
ft  V» vi  ^
             Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1864, by


                          R. T. TRALL  &  Co.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District
                                of New York. 
PREFACE.
   I have long been of opinion that the drug-shop is the pa-
 rent of the dram-shop;  that so long as alcoholic medication
 is prescribed by physicians, alcoholic beverages will be dealt
 out by rumsellers.   But the question which underlies this ar-
 gument is: Is alcohol useful as a medicine ?  And the primary
 premise of  all is, What is the rationale of the effects of alco-
 hol? involving of course what  is  commonly termed its mo-
 dus operandi.  And on learning that the relation of alcohol to
 the living organism, involving  what is called its action, but
 more properly the rationale of its effects on the human system,
 was likely to be a prominent topic in the discussions of the
 International Temperance Convention, I could not resist the
 temptation  to meet the friends of the Temperance cause  in
 London, and endeavor to aid them in settling the vexed ques-
 tion which underlies our reform, and which must be disposed
 of before we can ever have a rational basis on which to pred-
 icate final success.
   Many of the details and illustrations contained in the paper
 I had prepared to present to the Convention were omitted  in
 the addresses for want of time; but the principles, as affirmed
 in this work, were there very fully presented, and, I am very
 happy to say, were very warmly applauded by the people, al-
 though  they were very coolly disregarded and evidently dis-
 liked by most of the medical gentlemen present.
   A hasty sketch of my remarks being published in the Jour-
 nal of the American Temperance Union, attracted the atten-
 tion of a reverend  and medical gentleman, Dr.  J. C. Hurd,
 of Fredericton,  New Brunswick, who offered himself as the
 champion of alcoholic medication,  and  volunteered  to refute
»the positions I had advanced.  I was very glad of the oppor- 
IV
Author's Preface.
 tunity to discus^ this subject with  a capable  opponent, and
 more especially with Dr. Hurd, as he occupied the honorablo
 and influential position  of Grand Worthy Patriarch  of tho
 order of the Sons  of Temperance, for the Province of New
 Brunswick.   A discussion was therefore commenced between
 us in the columns of a temperance paper published in Fred-
 cricton, called The Philanthropist, and continued until such a
pressure was brought to bear upon the editor as to induce him
 to bring it  abruptly  to a close.  Determined,  however,  that
 the world shall have the  benefit of the arguments pro and con,
 I have added the whole discussion as an appendix to this work,
 with my reply to the last article of Dr. Hurd, which  I was
 not permitted to publish in The Philanthropist.
  That the medical profession and the  world are laboring
under a most terrible delusion  with regard to the remedial
uses and modus operandi of. alcohol, I have no shadow of doubt;
and that this  work will  assist the  friends of  temperance to
see  the truth  as it is  in Nature and Science, is the earnest
prayer of                                       E. T. T
       Hygienic Institute,      }
  iVb. 15 Laight street, New York. $ 
                        THE

TRUE  TEMPERANCE   PLATFORM.
                    ADDEESSES
DELIVERED IN THE QUEEN'S CONCERT ROOMS, AND IN
        EXETER HALL, LONDON, SEPT. 2, 3, AND 4, 1862.

  Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel that I have a duty
to perform which no one else is likely to perform ; a message
to deliver which is vital to the success  of the Temperance
cause.  In the good Book we are taught to lay the axe to the
root of the tree of that which we desire to remove or destroy.
This has not  yet, I think, been done in relation to this dark
and overshadowing Upas  of Intemperance.   But  I believe
the time has at last come when this can be done effectually;
and here and now seem to  me the auspicious place and op-
portunity.   And if I have any special mission to the World's
Temperance Convention, I am sure that  it is to direct atten-
tion more  particularly to the root of the evil we deplore, that
the axe of truth may at once sever its connection with the
earth it has so long cursed and despoiled.
  Good  men have indeed long and faithfully warred upon
this mighty tree of evil.   They have stripped off many of its
poisonous leaves; they have crushed its malignant flowers;
they have curtailed its hideous  branches,  and  diminished its
venomous trunk.   But they have not destroyed it;  they have
not touched its vital spot.  It still grows rank and heaven-
defying, and sends its blighting blossoms and withering influ-
ence over all the nations of the earth.
      (5) 
6            The True Temperxce Platfokm.
   The great Temperance Army has achieved many and  glo-
 rious triumphs.  It has done incalculable good.  Its apostles
 and its martyrs and its living heroes have  their names  em-
 balmed in the hearts of grateful and admiring millions;  and
 their name and fame are like " stars of the  first magnitude "
 in the moral firmament.  They  have agitated thought; they
 have lessened the streams of dissipation;  they have  saved
 multitudes from drunkards'  graves; and they have restored
 health and happiness to many desolated homes.
  But still the tide of intemperance rolls on, gathering here,
 swelling there, destroying everywhere.   Why is this ?
  Have we not had many and mighty agencies in the field
 to oppose it for half a century?  The labors of the philan-
 thropic, the treasures of the benevolent, the prayers of Christ-
 ians, have been liberally and earnestly bestowed.  Kings and
 queens, princes,  lords,  presidents,  governors, legislators,  and
 statesmen, have  given  their names, their influence, their au-
 thority, and their statutes for Temperance.   Our reformatory
 machinery has been world-wide and immense.
  I am of opinion that there has been already power enough
 expended — power  of  heart, of brain, of  muscle,  and of
 money—to have utterly exterminated the rum-fiend from the
face of the earth, if it had all  been applied to the best advan-
tage.   Most of it has been directed to the fruit of the tree in-
stead of its root.  We  have  aimed,  chiefly, to mitigate  the
consequences, rather than annihilate the causes of  intemperance.
  But, has  our cause made any real  progress ?   Let us con-
template the subject in all of  its aspects—its worst as well as
its best.

           reforming and deforming influences.
  Have the reforming influences at work in society gained on
the deforming, so far as our question is concerned?  As I read
the signs of the times, and interpret the lessons of history,
the adverse agencies have never  been so fearfully preponder-
 ant since the  day when the  simple-minded Puritans  of an
American colony raised their voices against the  landing of a 
The True Temperance Platform.
7
 whole hogshead of rum on their shores, lest it should corrupt
< and debauch the people !
   True, temperance agencies and organizations have become
 established institutions all over the civilized  world; and in
 some localities they are now doing a good work.  And it is
 true that, in seasons of excitement, when a Gough or a Mat-
 thew has arrested  the public mind, men  have come up to the
 pledge, as the rushing winds gather at the call of the storm-
 king ; but in a Httle time they have fallen away like the leaves
 of autumn.
   It is true, too, that  there  is in many places, much less of
 the grosser manifestations of drunkenness; but in hundreds,
 if not in thousands of  places, intoxication and debauchery ex-
 ist  more generally, and  in  a more insidious,  and, therefore,
 more dangerous form.
                        SUBSTITUTES.
   And the very worst of all is the fact that so many of those
 who renounce alcoholic beverages, resort to tobacco or opium
 as a substitute, thus sanctioning the principle that artificial
 stimulus  of some  kind is useful or necessary.  Now, alcohol
 should stand or fall on its own merits or demerits.  If it is a
 good thing, let us  have it; but have nothing to do with sub-
 stitutes.  The substituted poison is often worse than the alco-
 holic.  Why should any one think of a substitute for an evil?
 It only needs to be let alone.  The  person who is addicted to
 profane  swearing,  or accustomed to indulge  in lying or steal-
 ing, might as well  ask us, what he could do or have, as a sub-
 stitute, if he should abandon either of those vicious habits!
 We cannot build enduringly on a false basis.
   In New York, we have measurably, in a twenty years' cam-
 paign,  diminished the use of rum, brandy,  wine, and  cider;
 but "dietetic gin," endorsed, too, by medical men, has found its
 way into all the apothecary shops and  corner  groceries; im-
 mense  breweries,  not  insignificant rivals of your far-famed
 "Burton ale " establishment, are  springing up all around us,
 like mushrooms of  a night;  and  the  detestable "lager"
 threatens to deluge the land. 
8           The True  Temperance Platform.
               EXTENT OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC
   It has been estimated that a tax of six cents on each barrel
 of " lager " retailed in the city of New York, would give the
 Liquor Dealers' Society a fund of one thousand dollars a week
 with which to  hire lawyers,  manufacture voters, and operate
 on courts and legislatures.
   And how are you in London ?  How does your metropolis
 —your moral center of the intellectual world—compare with
 ours ?  I read in a late Journal of the American Temperance
 Union, an extract from one  of your Journals,  stating that
 London contains and entertains  18,853  gin and beer shops—
 1 to every 160 of its 3,000,000 inhabitants, including women
 and children; while there are of baker's and butcher's shops
 only 1  to 96G persons.   You have six groggeries to one bread
 arid meat shop.   When was it ever worse with you ?  Can  it
 be that the habit of liquor drinking is diminishing, either in
 New York or London?  The figures I have adduced certainly
 indicate an opposite tendency.  If straws show which way the
 wind blows, I may remark, wherever I travel,  liquor-drink-
 ing seems to be the rule, and abstinence the exception; and
 I must add. that,  more than three-fourths, and probably
 seven-eights, of the cabin passengers on the " City of Man-
 chester," on our trip across the Atlantic, drank liquor at tabic,
 and many of them between meals.   Some drank in the even-
ing as a somnific ; and  in the morning as an eye-opener ; and in
bad weather  as  an anti-fogmatic; and in good weather as  a
stomachic.   Some drank with unusual frequency to prevent sea-
sickness ; and when they became sea-sick, they drank exces-
sively to cure it.  And then  they felt themselves obliged to
smoko cigars to  mollify the effects of the liquor; and  this re-
quired  them to season their victuals enormously with pepper,
salt, mustard, vinegar, etc., and this created more  thirst, ne-
cessitating extra grog; and the extra grog demanded  more
cigars, and thus the circuit, therapeutical or toxicological, was
complete
  And as though all this was not enough, I saw a  dish
brought to the table (third course) in a flame of burning: al- 
The True Temperance Platform.
9
cohol.  It was called  "Yorkshire pudding."   I  know not
how it tasted, for then and there as everywhere and always, I
" kept the pledge."
  So far from alcohol  preventing sea-sickness, I noticed that
no one of the few teetotalers on board complained  of " nau-
sea and vomiting" at all, while those who drank the most lib-
erally were the first to "lie around loose" when the weather
became rough.  For myself, I can truly  say that I did not
have  the slightest symptom of sea-sickness, although it was
my first appearance on the stage of " Old  Ocean."
  "Alcohol replaces a given amount of food," say the chemi-
co-dietetico-physiologists; but it was proved, as it had been be-
fore, that those who took the greatest variety and quantity of
victuals—who went nearly the entire round of the five courses
—were those who  drank the most liquor.  Those persons also
drank a great deal  more water than we teetotalers  had any
occasion for, thus unduly distending the stomach and provok-
ing sickness—a principle ocean travelers will do well to make
a note of.
  The destruction of food-material, consequent on the manu-
facture of intoxicating drinks, is immense.   The waste of
bread, from this  source, can  scarcely be  imagined  by  those
who have not closely studied the subject.   In our grain-grow-
ing Western States,  the whisky distilleries are numerous and
extensive.  I  saw, a few months since, on  the banks of the Il-
linois river, at Peoria,  a mile of distilleries, where bread-ma-
terial  enough to  supply two or three such cities as London,
and to feed and even feast every pauper on the earth, is an-
nually converted into alcoholic  poison.  But the evil does not
stop here.  Immense droves of swine are fed and fattened on
the offal at these establishments, and the scrofulous  pork  re-
sulting therefrom is sent  to the  cities to engender disease,
and sow the seeds of diptheria, tape-worms, putrid fevers, ca-
hexies, and premature death.
          1* 
10          The  Teue Temperance Platform.
                THE CUESE OF THE NATIONS.
  Statistical data show that the four leading powers — Great
Britain, France, Eussia, and the United States—expend an-
nually one billion dollars for that triune demon—alcohol, to-
bacco,  and opium.  This is only the direct expense ; the indi-
rect  is certainly  as much more.  Two thousand millions of
dollars a year worse than thrown away !   Need we wonder at
the degradation  of the toiling millions?   Should  we  not
rather wonder that "war, pestilence, and famine" are not more
frequently their lot ?  What would this sum accomplish, what
could it not accomplish, if applied to useful purposes, to pro-
ductive, instead of destructive industry?  It would  educate
every child, provide for every pauper, reform every sinner,
and furnish  an  independent home for every being on earth.
It would  soon  make the whole world what Eden  once was,
and in a few generations at most, work out the problem of
"Paradise Eegained."   It would payoff your national debt
in two or three years; and it would pay off the national debt
wo are now incurring in consequence of the gigantic civil war
now raging in our land, in less time than it takes to create it.
Applied to internal and  international improvement, what mag-
nificent results might be expected!  You might soon cleanse
all the cities, dry up all the swamps,  drain all the marshes,
destroy all the miasms, and abate all the sources of  pestilence
throughout the world.   You might in a short time construct a
tubular bridge from Dover to Calais; you might in  a single
life time almost level Mount Blanc, and tumble the Alps into
the Mediterranean.  You might in less time than Methuselah
lived take the  Highlands of  Scotland on your side, and the
Eocky Mountains on ours, and fill in the Atlantic so as to build
a turnpike from New York to  Liverpool, one hundred miles
wide, with a railroad  and a row of  villages  extending the
whole length!   And last, but  not least, you might so cultivate
Australia, or Africa, or Asia,  or  India,  as to  raise  cotton
enough to supply all Lancashire, and then you would not have
to mind our little affair with the rebels! 
The True Temperance Platform.           11
   The  Dean of Carlisle  has  calculated that  human  beinga
consume two  million tons of tobacco, annually, in chewing,
smoking, and snuffing.   This, at $0.25 per pound—the retail
price is much more—costs over $1,000,000,000; and the ad-
vocates of tobacco-using claim that there are already one hun-
dred million of smokers.   This is " advancing backward " at
a rapid rate.   In three hundred years more, if this thing goes
on unchecked, the whole  human race—men, women, and chil-
dren—may become tobacco-smokers, and the road to ruin will
be quick and sure.   Already tobacco is used by ladies  in  our
large cities, in the form of snuff and cigarettes, to an extent
that would astonish, if not appal the public mind, if it could
but see and understand it.
   These statistics, taken  in connection with the facts that, the
use of tobacco is rapidly increasing among the youth, and
even among the children  of the rising generation, * and that
alcoholic medication, under the auspices of the medical pro-
fession, is now rapidly on the  increase,  show that, however
much we  have  accomplished,  King Alcohol  still  holds  the
vantage ground.
   The root of this evil is alcoholic medication.  The stronghold of
intemperance is in the false doctrines of the medical profes-
sion.   There is the Africa into which I propose to carry  the
war.   It is there that the final battle must be fought, whether
we come off victors or vanquished.   You can never stop alco-
holic drinking,  until you stop alcoholic  medication,  never,
NEVER.
                     A POSITION DEFINED.

  I have no  quarrel with  medical men, nor with physicians of
any school, at least not here.   I respect the profession; indeed,
I am  a medical professor myself.  My issue is a scientific one ;

 * One month after attending the International Temperance Convention I  attended
the annual meeting of the British Scientific Association, at Cambridge, England.
Among the papers read in the sub-section on Physiology, was one against the use of to-
bacco, and in the discussion which followed, every medical gentleman present, who
spoke on the subject, advocated the use of tobacco, pretended that its moderate employ-
ment was hygienic, and promotive of bodily comfort, mental vigor, clearness of ideas,
&c, &c. If such is British Medical Science, need we wonder that tobacco shops in
London are as numerous as liquor shops, and even more so 1 
12           The True Temperance Platfokm.
it is with the false  doctrines promulgated by  the  medical
schools of the civdized world.  And in the discussion of this
subject, I shall allege nothing against the  popular  medical
system that is not essential to my argument, and that  is not
sustained by all the scientific data applicable to  the  subject,
and also  by the testimony of the best medical authorities in
the world in general and of Great Britain in particular—your
Gregorys, your Coopers,, your Eeids, your Goods, your Baileys,
your Abernethys, your Evans, your Eamages, your  Franks,
your Marshall Halls, your Wakleys, your Bostocks, Jamiesons
and Johnsons.
  And I  take this position:  All of the facts, argument, logic,
theories,  assumptions and experiences,  which are adduced in
favor of alcoholic liquors, as medicines, may be adduced, with
equal cogency and equal propriety, in favor of alcoholic liquors
as beverages.  Alcoholic medicine and alcoholic  drink must
be proved  or disproved,  rise  or fall,  go or stay, together.
Like Satan and Sin, they are " one and indivisible."
  The  effects of intemperance may all be summed up in few
words—vice, crime, pauperism, individual debasement,  social
corruption, and national decline—and they are all plain and
palpable, all see them alike and feel them alike.  There  are
no two opinions with regard to them.
  But the causes—I mean the primary causes—are more ob-
scure.  They have never been fully recognized by the leaders
of the Temperance Eeformation.
  We trace, of course, the evils of intemperance to  the  use
of intoxicating drink;  and we trace  the use of  intoxicating
drink to  morbid appetite; and we trace morbid appetite to
unphysiological habits; and we trace unphysiological habits to
fashion;  and we trace  fashion to public sentiment;  and we
trace public sentiment to----
  We must go one step farther:  What is the cause of public
sentiment?  The rumseller?   0, no;  he merely panders to
it.  So far as mere liquor-drinking is concerned, he rather in-
fluences popular feeling against it.  His nefarious traffic is ev-
erywhere regarded as odious and execrable.  His very victima 
The True Temperance Platform.          13
regard his occupation as disreputable, abominable.   Pauper-
ism, midnight brawls, wife-murders, starving and  freezing
children, the prison, and the gallows, are always and insepa-
rably associated with the idea of liquor-selling.   Probably
there is not a single human being on the earth, of mature age
and ordinary intelligence, who thinks of the rumseller at all,
who does not think his character depraved and  his manhood
belittled  by his calling.  His most intimate associates despise
him to a degree, however much they may, in  yielding to their
perverted instincts and morbid appetences, encourage and pat-
ronize his trade.  The most degraded sots that hang around
his door, abhor both him and his traffic, even while, with
bloated face and trembling hand,  begging for "one  glass
more."   The rumseller does not even respect  himself.  He
make public sentiment!   Does the man, who takes the image
of his God — his fellow-beings,  as  they  "walk erect with
face upturned to heaven," and transforms them into vaga-
bonds, maniacs, devils, make public  sentiment?  And then
his miserable horde of customers, as they stagger to and fro,
and swagger around his  groggery, serve rather as  frightful
examples to educate the people to loathe and abhor his bu-
siness.
  Yesterday, I walked through your magnificent Exhibition
building, covering more than twenty acres of ground, where
are collected the things of use and  beauty from all  the na-
tions.  Every trade, every art, with one exception, was there
represented.  Every person who has made anything new, or
improved anything old, gratifies his just pride, and subserves
his true interest, by displaying  to the public gaze the inven-
tion of his brain or the  workmanship of  his hands.  Yet
there was one exception.   There was no place found in that
wondrous temple for the rumseller.  He has not  there  ex-
posed his work to approval and criticism.  He has taken out
no  patent for a new principle in drunkard-making.   He has
applied for no caveat for an improved method for manufac-
turing sots and vagabonds; no "model" maniac stood there
to advertise the place where others could be had; no case of 
14          The True  Temperance  Platform.
delirium tremens was there securely chained to the floor or safely
locked within  iron bars, reminding the spectator of the  hor-
rid visions of the raving madman as described by Dickens:—
   "There were insects, too, hideous, crawling things,  with
eyes that stared upon him, and filled the very air around, glis-
tening horridly amid the thick darkness of the  place.  The
walls  and ceilings were alive with reptiles—the vault expand-
ed to  an enormous size—frightful figures flitted to and fro—
and the faces  of men he knew, rendered hideous by gibing
and mouthing, peered out from among them; they were seiz-
ing him with  heated irons, and binding his head with cords
till the blood started;  and he struggled madly for life."
  0, no;  do not blame the demented and maddened creature,
if  he  murders wife or child, when all his powers and faculties
are possessed  and infuriated by the alcoholic demon.   Pity
him, and blame the rumseller, who has made him so, or rather
blame society  which tolerates  and even authorizes the rum-
seller to thus make fiends of men.

             THE REMEDY AND THE DIFFICULTY.
  It is a favorite saying with the temperance orators, that if
men will  not drink liquor, they will never become drunkards.
Very  true;  and  the all-sufficient remedy, " total abstinence
from  all that can intoxicate," I trust we all appreciate. Well,
apply the remedy.  Here is just the difficulty.   Men do drink,
and do become drunkards; and  those who drink and do not
become drunkards, become more  diseased,  more  degraded,
more  sensual and selfish than they otherwise would be.
   We preach abstinence well,  but the majority of the people
do rot practice it.   The practical problem before us is,  How
shall  we  induce all persons to abstain ?  We  sing beautiful
temperance songs, but the people do not step to the tune of
the music.   We raise the laugh with our anecdotes, start the
tears  with our pathos, thrill the soul with our  eloquence, and
convince the judgment with  our  argument,  yet  Behemoth
still laughs us to scorn.  Our  prescription is absolutely infal-
lible,  provided the  patients will take it.  It is as sure as the 
The True Temperance Platform.           15
well-known remedy  for sin,  "Cease to do evil."  But why
will not the sick drunkard, or the invalid moderate drinker,
adopt our remedy ?   I think we do not satisfy his reason; we
do not convince his judgment; we do not rightly explain the
modus operandi. .
  The liquor-drinker knows that there is some danger of be-
coming a drunkard;  and he knows that there is a probability
that he will not.  The majority who drink intoxicating liquor
do not become drunkards.  Indeed, there are many who drink
habitually, and yet have the reputation of being temperate
and sober; hence, the chances are in his favor.  He verily be-
lieves that its use is, to a certain extent, really advantageous,
although he knows  he  is in danger of injury.  He believes
that liquor has both useful and injurious properties;  or, in
other words, that it  is good or bad, not according to its in-
trinsic properties or its absolute relation to the vital tissues,
but according to the time, occasion, and circumstances under
which it is employed; and if he consults the standard works
on chemistry, physiology and medicine,  he finds that this is
the general opinion of men who claim to be learned  and sci-
entific.  He resolves to secure the good, and accept the hazard
of  evil consequences.
   Can we condemn his decision?  I cannot.  I lament his
error: but for this he is not to be blamed.  He has sought
information in the only direction where he could reasonably
expect to find it, and his conclusion is just and honest, though
unfortunate.  The error is with  the standard authors.  His
conduct is consistent with his theory.   He does as I should
do, if I believed as he believes;  and he believes as I should
believe, if I did not look  to nature, instead of the schools
for instruction.   He has come honestly by his opinions, and
ho cannot  help them.   They are taught by all the leading
medical men of his acquaintance, and in all the medical books
and schools of which he has any knowledge.  How is he to
know that these teachings are not true ? 
16  '     The True Temperance  Platform.
                  THE  MEDICAL PROFESSION.
   You will now understand why and how I arraign the med-
 ical profession—not medical men, but medical doctrines.  I
 charge the false doctrines of the medical profession with be-
 ing the chief obstacle in our pathway; and I shall be able to
 show that the doctrines of the medical profession, so far as
 the medicinal employment of  alcohol is predicated on them,
 are not only false, but  absurd.  Yet I do not blame medical
 men for entertaining these doctrines.   They, too, have come
 honestly by them.  These doctrines  are  taught in the  ap-
 proved text-books on chemistry and  physiology.   They are
 made prominent on almost every page of the standard works
 on materia  medica and therapeutics.  Every reputable work
 on theory and practice echos  them from  beginning to end.
 They are impressed upon his mind during his whole curricu-
 lum ;  and he is so thoroughly indoctrinated into them during
 his professional course of study, that he seldom or never
 doubts their truthfulness or suspects  their absurdity after-
 wards.  And  I do not accuse the chemists and the physiolo-
 gists with intentionally misteaching the medical profession;
 but I shall show that they have made a very serious mistake,
 and that they have given a false philosophy of the relations
 of living and dead matter; and that it is on this fundamental
 error that they have built all their arguments, accumulated all
 their facts, based all their statistics, rested  all their logic,  ex-
 plained all their observations, and interpreted all their expe-
riences in favor of alcoholic medication.

                   THE PRIMARY ERROR.
  The  advocates of alcoholic medication set out with a false-
hood, which most unfortunately the temperance men have ad-
mitted  as truth.  Their  fundamental premise is wrong. The
primary fact is a fallacy.  They have assumed to begin with,
that dead matter acts on living matter ; that alcohol acts on the liv-
ing organism, for example; and  the medical profession has
taught this fallacy nearly three thousand years, and carried it
 through their pathology and  therapeutics.  Physicians have 
The True  Tempernce Platform.           17
even built their so-called medical soience and their healing
art upon it.
  What would you think of the astronomer, who should un-
dertake to calculate the problems of his science on the primary
premise, that the sun revolves round the earth once in twenty-
four hours ?  Would you not expect that he would make bad
work in calculating the tides, predicting the eclipses, explain-
ing the comets, and expounding the revolutions of the planets?
Yet such was once the opinion of astronomers; and appear-
ances, as they explained  them, proved its correctness.   They
had the science of all preceding ages  and sages, and the evi-
dences  of their own  senses, in favor of the theory.  Could
they not see with  their own eyes, that  the sun "rose in the
east" every fair morning, and "set in the west"  each pleas-
ant evening ? And could they not feel with their feet,  that
the earth, in its relation to the sun,  stood still ?   The logic
was good, but the  premise was wrong.   They had mistaken
their  ingrained errors for established principles.   They had
mistaken an optical illusion for a law of nature..   But when,
in after ages, they came to apply the law of gravitation to the
phenomena, they discovered that " appearances are sometimes
deceitful."
   The medical philosophers of to-day,  in relation to each of
the primary problems of their  science, and in  relation to all
the fundamental  rules of their healing art, are in a predic-
ament precisely similar  to that of the  ancient astronomers.
They have not recognized the law of  vitality, and thus when
they have brought living and dead matter in contact, they have
placed the action on the  wrong side.  They have  perpetrated
the unparalleled scientific blunder of regarding dead, inert,
inorganic matter as active;  and living, vitalized, organic mat-
ter, passive,  in their  relations  to  each  other;  and thus they
have  subverted the order of nature, filled their  books with
the "incoherent  expressions of incoherent  ideas,"  written
whole libraries of technical gibberish, and given the world a
medical system based on fundamental fallacies. 
18       The True Temperance Platform.
               MODUS OPERANDI OF MEDICINES.
   They teach that medicines—alcohol among the rest—act on
the living body;  and they have written many ponderous vol-
umes in vain attempts to explain how they act.   They have
given us twenty or more classes of medicines, one of which is
stimulants, each acting in a different manner  from all of the
others, while each drug of each class "exerts an influence"
or "makes an impression"—in a word,  acts—differently from
all of its associates or class-mates; and these wonderful ac-
tions—they would be wonderful if true—are said to result in
virtue  of a certain inherent " special" or " elective " or  " se-
lective " affinity which each particular drug has and exercises
for some  particular part, organ or structure of the living
body.
   Medical men do not profess to know how medicines act, and
do not pretend to explain the rationale of their effects.  They
confess that the subject of their modus operandi is a profound
mystery;  yet  they are always administering them  on  the
theory that they do act in some way.
  Now, the simple truth is, they do not act at all.   Alcohol is
said to have a " special affinity " for the brain.  The truth is,
it  has no affinity of any kind  for any living tissue.  But, on
the contrary, the vital powers  have an  inherent  and eternal
repugnance to  it, as they have to all extraneous, poisonous,
and non-usable substances.  The relation between  alcohol
and all living things is that of antagonism instead of affinity,
as we shall see presently.  There is as much affinity between
growth and decay, between formation and retrogradation, be-
tween life and death, between  sobriety and intoxication, be-
tween love and aversion, as there is between alcohol and any-
thing that has life.

                    NATURE OF DISEASE.
  The same fundamental error has been applied to disease.
The medical profession has wholly misapprehended its  na-
ture.   They tell us that diseases " attack " us, " run a course "
are "self-limited," have "laws of  their own," etc.; and in all 
The True  Temperance Platform.           19
of the standard works, diseases are represented as entities or
forces—things—at war with the life-principle, and in antagon-
ism to the "vis medicatrix natural."  The truth is precisely the
contrary.  Disease and the vis medicatrix naturae are one and
the same thing, as I think I shall be able to make  appear.
   "Alcohol acts on the living organism."  This is the almost
universal opinion.  Its manner of acting is a mystery, which
no one pretends to understand.  It is said  to have stimulant,
narcotic, and nervine properties; and the same  is said of tobacco,
and the same may be said of the rattlesnake's virus with equal
truth.   It is said also to be caustic and  irritant, while  tobacco
and the rattlesnake's virus are the opposite—sedative and anti-
irritant.  But how or why alcohol produces the effects which
take place from a half dozen classes of medicine, no  one can
comprehend.   It occasions different effects on different per-
sons, and opposite  effects on  the  same  person at different
times, and in different doses.   A given quantity seems to en-
ergize the whole  vital domain;  another dose stupefies the
brain, and another paralyzes the muscles.  But why and how
medical men cannot tell;  they cannot even  advance a theory.
   I think I can explain all of these problems;  and in the ex-
planation I find the  condemnation, not the justification, of
alcoholic medication.
   I repeat, alcohol does not act at all.  The manner in which
the living system acts on the alcohol, to resist or to expel it,
affords us the  key to the solution of all the  problems con-
nected with its supposed action or modus operandi.
   What is alcohol ?  What is there in it or of it that it should
act in the vital domain, any more  than it acts in the demijohn,
.or in the apothecary shop ?  Why should it act on tne human
stomach any more than it acts on a tumbler, or a decanter, or
a barrel ?  Does change of place change its nature ?   There
is no greater fallacy beneath the sun, there never was a more
disastrous error in science, there  never was a more  pernicious
blunder on earth, than this doctrine that dead things act on living
things.  It has given the world a false medical science, and a
destructive Healing Art.   It has sent more human beings to 
20           The True Temperance Platform.
premature graves than has war, famine and pestilence  com-
bined.  But  I am anticipating.
   Do not suppose, I beg of you, that, because I deny the action
of alcohol entirely, that, because my theory of its modus operandi
in a mere negation, there is nothing in it.   I assure you there
is everything in it, so far as my argument is concerned.  And if
you will adopt this premise and study the subject for a whole
year, you will find more and more in it every day.   You will
see new applications of this doctrine continually.

                  THE ACTION OF ALCOHOL.
  This is the great question—the mystery of mysteries.  How
does it act ?   What is the rationale of its effects ?   This prob-
lem has baffled the investigations of medical men for three
thousand years, and they now seem  to regard it as without
the pale of human comprehension.  And what is singular, no
one who has written a book on the subject has ever looked in
the right direction for a solution of the problem.  One might
as well gaze at the moon to find out tjie whereabouts of Beau-
regard, as to seek "affinities" between dead and living matter,
in order to discover the modus operandi of alcohol.  We have
had the mechanical, the dynamical and the chemical theories;
the food theory, the medicine  theory,  and  the  poison theory.
It has been supposed to act by "reflex action;" by "sympathetic
influence;" "through the circulation," "through the medium
of the nerves," by  "special affinity,"  &c,  &c.  But none of
these hypotheses are satisfactory, even to its author; and oer
tainly none of them are true.
  But this question of the  modus operandi of alcohol must be
solved, or the temperance cause can never have a scientific ba-
sis ; and I propose to solve it.   It was for this purpose I came
to London. It was to do this in a World's Temperance Con-
vention, from which truth  may have  a world-wide  influence,
that I broke  away from urgent and  engrossing professional
duties, and crossed the rolling ocean.
  And allow me to say, that I believe I have been, although
unconsciously, preparing my address for this occasion  for 
The True Temperance Platform.           21
the last twenty years.  More than twenty years I have been
engaged in the investigation of that intricate and perplexing
problem of the medical world—the modus operandi of medicine;
and I profess to have discovered its true solution; and its so-
lution affords me a scientific basis on which to predicate the
solution of all the complicated and hitherto mysterious prob-
lems of medical science.

                 THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.
  The temperance cause has long had the conceded moral ar-
gument, and the social argument, and the economical argument,
and  the scriptural argument in its favor.   I know that it is
said  that  Christ turned water  into wine;  but that was the
genuine hydropathic article.   If you will make wine  of the
same wholesome material, you may drink all you please, and
be as merry as you can.  If you will drink nothing but wine
made of pure water, all the  blood of your body will becomo
the real "wine of life"—the veritable uelixir vita;," which  so
many have not found in the various forms of " spirituous and
malt liquors, wine and cider."
  But while we have had so many arguments in our favor,
the adversary has wielded one argument  against us more
potent than all of them.   He has had the Scientific argument
__not of right but of usurpation.  He has assumed that science
is in favor of alcoholic medication; and all  the disasters  and
reverses which the temperance cause  has  ever sustained, as
well  as its present crushed and paralyzed condition, are attribu-
table to the employment of this weapon against us, in the
hands of medical men.
  And now, if I can demonstrate that the scientific argument
is really on our side; that it is only false science which is ar-
rayed against us;  and then wrest this tremendous missile from
the hands of our enemy, and even turn it against him, shall
I not accomplish the one thing needful for the final triumph
of our cause ?
  This false medical science, which temperance men have ad-
mitted to be true, is the impediment which has so frequently 
22          The True Temperance Platform.
checked our progress; and it is this, and this alone which has
enabled the rumselling fraternity to control our judicary, direct
our legislation, declare our prohibitory laws unconstitutional,
and thwart all of our efforts to enforce  such license laws as
we have, and often by some unexpected  coup d'etat, undo, in
one day, through the courts and legislatures, the work it has
taken us years to accomplish.
                  REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM.
  Medical men have reasoned most strangely on this subject
of the effects of alcohol.  And I am reminded of an anecdote
which serves  to illustrate the process of ratiocination.
  Something less than a hundred years  ago, when Western
New York  was a wilderness, its principal inhabitants being
wolves and Indians, there occurred an  eclipse of the  moon.
A tribe of the red men,  living on the banks of the Genesee
Eiver, not far from Portage Falls, looked at the phenomenon
in alarm.  All at once  they saw  the  pale, placid Queen of
Night, become obscure and dark;  and in a little time longer,
no light at all was reflected from her veiled face.   What did
it mean, and  what was to be done?  The sages and chiefs—
the doctors and astronomers—were called upon to divine the
mystery and  indicate the remedy.
  The case did not seem  to admit of but one practical solution,
and they were so lucky as to find  it.  One of their  chiefs,
Shongo, had, a few  days before,  gone to  his new "hunting
grounds" in the  "Spirit  land."  Shongo  had lived to be very
old; and for many years he had been very infirm; and it was
rumored abroad  that his near and  dear relatives, on whom
devolved the  burden of  his support,  had  treated him in such
a manner as to expedite his journey to a better world.  The
conclusion arrived at was, that Shongo, in revenge for the
maltreatment he had received from his kindred on the earth,
had placed himself between them and the moon,  to obstruct
their light.   Well, the Indians at once loaded their rifles and
commenced firing at the old fellow, who  soon began to move •
and the more they fired the more  he "pushed along;"  and in 
The True Temperance Platform.           23
a  few hours  Shongo was  completely  dislodged.  He had
" skedaddled."

                   DIAGNOSIS BY  RESULT.
   This is what the  doctors call "diagnosis by result."  If a
person is sick  of some very obscure disease, and the physician
cannot precisely make out the case, he assumes some disease,
and gives the  remedies for that.  If the patient recovers, the
diagnosis is, of course, proved;  but if the patient does not
recover,  then the diagnosis is not proved!   Some persons might
be disposed to suspect, that, in the cases wherein the result
disproved the  diagnosis, the remedies had something to  do
with  the death of  the patients;  but this is out of my line of
argument.
   The fact that the shooting removed  the  difficulty, proved
that the eclipse was—Shongo!  I apprehend that all the logic
we shall find  in medical books, in relation to alcoholic medi-
cation, and its action on the living system, will be of the char-
acter of  diagnosis by result.
   A distinguished member of the Sons of Temperance in the
city of New York,  a few years ago, was, as a consequence of
gross food and unphysiological  habits, very much  troubled
with  boils and pimples, for which he resorted to  one of the
quack compounds  of alcohol and sugar, called "Townsend's
Sarsaparilla."  In  a few weeks, as the weather became cooler
in the fall, his skin disease disappeared, and he was eulogistic
of the remedy, not  only as an efficacious medicine, but also as
very  pleasant to take.  I reminded him that nature might
have performed the  cure in spite of the medicine, and also
that I regarded liquor-drinking, in the shape of "Townsend's
Sarsaparilla," as a  violation of  the total abstinence pledge, as
much as I should  the  drinking  of sweetened  "Schneidam
Gin Schnapps." He replied in a scripture quotation, " 'where-
as I was once sick, now I am  well,' and  that is enough  for
me."  "Diagnosis  by result"  again.   Had this  gentleman
understood the relations  of alcohol to the living organism,
would he  have been thus deluded? and would his example 
24          The True Temperance Platform.
and his patronage have been thus in favor of the empiric and
the rumseller ?
  The day before  I left New York,  I met a  distinguished
friend of temperance in the street, with whom I had been as-
sociated, in various temperance organizations, for more than a
dozen years; and  he was certainly a  faithful  and zealous
worker and advocate for the cause, according to the light that
was in him.  Said  I:  "I am going  over to the World's Tem-
perance Convention.  I want to hear and take part in a dis-
cussion on this alcoholic  medication  question.   This is the
great point now.   We can never  get along  until this  is
settled."
  "Well," he replied, "I am glad you are going.  It is a
very important matter.  I have  had some experience.   Last
spring I was sick.   I  had been laid up with the rheumatism
for three months.   I took a great deal of medicine, and got
very low.   My physician said I must take  brandy.  I did not
like the idea of taking it;  still  my feelings seemed to demand
something of the kind; and as I thought the Doctor  knew
best, I consented to take it;  and I thought it benefited me."
  My temperance friend supposed, that, being a physician, I
should of course be on the alcoholic side  of the controversy
and  he was very kindly endeavoring to help me to an argu-
ment with the benefit of his experience.
  I rejoined: "My friend, I am sure you are laboring  under
the common delusion on this subject;  and  it is to help to ex-
pose that  delusion that I am going all the  way to London."
  My friend looked a little surprised;  said he hoped the truth
would be made to appear, whatever that was;  wished me a
pleasant  journey, and bade me, "Good morning."
  His "feelings" called for stimulus;  so do the feelings of the
semi-intoxicated person call for "more of the same sort."
The  feelings of the midnight debauchee, so soon as he begins
to stir abroad the  next day,  clamor  for liquor.  My  friend
needed rest, not stimulation; nor would he have resorted to
alcohol in any event, unless it had been  prescribed and  in-
sisted on by the temperance  physician.  Left to himself, the pa- 
The True  Temperance  Platform.          25
tient would either have got along without stimulus of any
kind, or he would have found something beside alcohol to an-
swer his purpose.

              THE INFLUENCE OF  MEDICAL  MEN.
  The influence of medical men, in relation  to the temper-
ance cause, is almost omnipotent.   If their doctrines were in
harmony with the teachings of nature, and if medical men
practiced the healing art according to the laws of nature, al-
coholic medication would be abandoned at once, and alcoholic
beverages would very soon be  among the things that were.
It is, therefore, in the power  of the medical profession to
achieve this  glorious reform at once, and confer on humanity
a boon exceeded by nothing since the creation, except the re-
demption ;  or it is in their power to perpetuate the curse indefi-
nitely, perhaps forever.   And I ask nothing of the profession
but to teach the world the exact scientific truth of the relation of al-
cohol to the living organism.

                THE ALL-IMPORTANT PROBLEM.
  In this problem, simple as the statement may seem, are in-
volved all the philosophy, all the mystery, all  the difficulty of
our subject.  Its solution, as I have said, is a vital prerequi-
site to  the  success of our cause.  Take your temperance
orders, your  leagues and alliances, your pledges, Maine laws,
and prohibitory statutes, your  tracts, journals, and  prize es-
says, and give me  the  plain, unambiguous and truthful  de-
claration of the relation of alcohol to the  living system, or of
the modus operandi of alcohol, endorsed by the  medical profes-
sion as a body;—give me, I say, this one  weapon, and I will
gladly give you, in exchange, all the others  I have named,
provided I can not have the whole. I would  even  throw in
your Goughs, Chapins, Beechers, Cheevers, Carpenters, Grin-
drods and  Lees, whose noble deeds, and  able writings,  and
powerful logic, and thrilling eloquence have been the admira-
tion and the  inspiration of the whole civilized world.
  I am not unmindful that, it  is stated in a  late number oi
         9. 
26       The True  Temperance Platform.
your Weekly Record, that some  two thousand of your physi-
cians have been cured of the delusion that alcohol is either
necessary or useful as a medicine; but this is less than one in
ten.  Where are the remaining twenty or thirty thousand ?
  I repeat, give me the  simple declaration of scientific truth
on this subject from this source, and our cause needs little
else; and although I have strong attachments for the temper-
ance organizations, and  would love to hear  those  glorious
men talk temperance forever, yet I would cheerfully dismiss
them with  the  blessing, and say to them, " ' well done, good
and faithful servants,'  but your further labors in this direc-
tion are unnecessary.   This temperance business is now doing
itself; and, when done,  it will stay done."
  Believing this,  you will pardon my earnestness, and you
will understand my anxiety to have my professional brethren
see this matter  in its true light.

         WHERE THE PEOPLE LOOK FOR  INSTRUCTION.
  To whom shall the world apply for instruction in this mat-
ter ?  Where do people look, where must they go for guidance
and direction, except to the medical profession ?  It has the
doctrines which concern health and life peculiarly in its keep-
ing; and if the  professors  of  science, if the acknowledged
conservators of  the pubhc health, mislead the people, how can
they help themselves ?
  Alas! who cannot recall to mind instances of physicians
who were themselves confirmed inebriates, and who were re-
puted to be men of remarkable skill, provided they could be
found when sober ?  Who is not familiar with the melancholy
history of beloved and eminent  clergymen, degraded  from
their high calling because of drinking habits, which habits
were the consequences of alcoholic medicine prescribed by
the physician ?
  Prof. Barker, of the  New York Medical College, said to his
medical class, in a lecture, recently:  "I have  known several
ladies to become confirmed drunkards, the primary  cause be-
ing a  taste for stimulants, which was acquired by alcoholic
drink being administered to them as medicine." 
The True Temperance Platform.
27
  In 1845, during the palmy days of  the Washingtonian
movement, an intelligent and talented printer, who had been
for several years a " gutter drunkard,"  and whose wife and
children were reduced to the lowest stage of degradation and
misery, was reformed and restored to himself and his family.
He became earnestly engaged in the work of reforming others;
he was an active member of several temperance societies; be-
came editor and publisher of a temperance paper; and at the
end of three  years his  family were once more enjoying the
comforts of home, and he had accumulated five hundred dol-
lars in the Savings Bank.  Over-work at length occasioned a
slight indisposition, for which his temperance physician ad-
vised porter.  The patient demurred, pleading his pledge, and
fearing evil consequences.   The Doctor insisted; the patient
yielded, drank the medicine, and in less than a week he was a
drunkard  again!  In one month he had  expended at the
groggeries every cent of his five hundred dollars, and his wife
and children  were again beggars.  The  last time I saw him
he was staggering out of one of the lowest grog-shops in an
obscure street.  Eecognizing me, he gibbered out: "Doctor,
wont you lend me a shilling; havn't  had nothing to eat in
two days."
  A man who had kept one of the most extensive restaurants
and liquor-saloons in the city of New York, and who was
himself one of the " brands plucked from the  burning," by
the Washingtonians in  1840, and who was for ten years there-
after an active and efficient worker in the temperance cause,
became seriously affected with chronic rheumatism.  In the
course of  two years he  had employed eleven temperance phy-
sicians, every one of whom, as he assured me, recommended
brandy!   He peremptorily refused to take it.  He knew too
well the history of such  cases.  He was aware that the first
dose of the maddening poison might arouse the slumbering
demon within, and the awful word, drunkard, be again written
against his name.
  When a youth, I was taught to love liquor and use tobacco:
and for both habits, which I can now only look back upon 
28          The True Temperance Platform.
with horror, I am indebted to the advice of the family physi-
cian, who was also a temperance man.  And when I recol-
lect that a mere accident, trivial in itself, turned my mind un-
alterably against the use of liquor, and, in all probability,
prevented me  from becoming  a drunkard, I feel that I owe
the temperance doctors a word  of  advice in return; and I
shall endeavor to render "good for evil."
  Oh! I could tell you the names of many noble persons,
some of them " holy men of  God," whose  lives were pure,
whose  aspirations were  noble, whose gifts were exalted, and
who stood in  the foremost rank among the good, until the
temperance physician prescribed the insidious medicine, " which
spares not the high nor the humble."

              THE  QUESTION A. SCIENTIFIC  ONE.
  The question before us is purely a scientific one, and as such
I shall discuss it.  I allege that medical men, in their books
and schools, teach a doctrine, in regard to the relation of  al-
cohol and the  living system, which is not true, which is in op-
position to nature, and which is contrary to common sense.   I
shall take the ground that nature is right, and that the doc-
tors are wrong.  I assert that  all the data of science, applica-
ble to  the subject, rightly understood, go to vindicate nature
and refute the doctors.   The issue is exceedingly simple.   It
is plain yes, or no.
  Medical men tell us that alcohol is a " caustic and irritant
poison," and also a "supporter of vitality;"  that it "inflames
the blood and exhausts the nerves," and yet " imparts energy
to the living fiber."   They tell us that it " hardens the brain,
and decomposes the membranes," and that it is " respiratory
food."  They tell us that it is inimical to every thing that has
life, animal or vegetable, and that it is, nevertheless, a "re-
storative" to the life-principle.   Is not this a marvelous mud-
dle?   There are no such facts  alleged of,  there is no such
logic applied to any other thing in all the universe.  Alcohol
is the only agent that God ever made—no, God never made it
for it cannot be found  in  anything living or organic, while 
The True Temperance Platform.          29
that thing maintains its normal condition—alcohol is the only
thing that Diabolus ever fabricated, which physicians have
ever supposed  to have such contradictory relations to that
crowning work of the Divine Architect, the  being  "created
a little lower than the angels."
  It is both a destructive and a constructive agent; a nerve-
exhauster and a vital  supporter;  a blood-inflamer  and  a
blood-nutriment; a poison and a food.  Is  there not some
mistake  somewhere?  I trust I shall be able to show that
here is a delusion which has no parallel  in the annals of sci-
ence, and which has destroyed more lives and ruined more
nations than "war, pestilence and famine."
  I must go back  to first principles.  Alcohol is or is not a
"supporter of vitality;"  it is or is not " respiratory food."  If
the affirmative is true, then is teetotalism, indeed, in the lan-
guage of the Westminster Review, "a physiological error;" and
then is this World's Temperance Convention not only a phys-
iological  error, but a teetotal absurdity.  But if the negative  is
true, let us  understand it, and put the physicians right, so that
their immense and powerful army, of half a million strong,
shall be for us, and not against us.
   Here, as everywhere, in this erring and wicked world, we
shall find "ignorance the evil, knowledge the remedy."  My
faith and my hope for temperance are,  in placing before the
 world the exact truth on thiS subject.  And what is true ?
   Go to the standard authors,  and you will find them all
against  me.  So  far as medical authorship is concerned, I
have to  this hour stood alone on this issue as I shall  present
it.   But I know I am right.  Noah knew he was right, when
 in  the days of the flood, he stood in the minority—one against
 the world.
   The authors of our text-books  on chemistry, physiology,
 materia medica and dietetics, with the illustrious names  of
 Liebig,  Carpenter, and Pereira at their head; and the authors
 of our standard works on therapeutics, pathology, and prac-
 tice, with  the  scholarly Dunglison, Copeland, Eokitansky,
 Paine, Watson,  and Wood, among them, teach the absurd 
tfO          The True Temperance Platform.
non-commonsensical, chemico-physiological vagary, that alco-
hol possesses inconsistent, opposite, incompatible, and conflict-
ing relations to the living system.
  Is this doctrine true or false ?  Has nature blundered, 01
have the doctors made a  mistake ?
  I undertake to say, in the light of all the scientific data ap
plicable to the subject, that alcohol is not, in any sense, nor
in any manner, nor under any circumstances, a " supporter of
vitality," but always the contrary; that it is  never, in any
sense, nor under any circumstances, " respiratory food," but
always the opposite—a pure poison, and nothing else.  I say,
and I know, and I can prove that physicians, and chemists, and
physiologists are  mistaken on these points.   They have mis-
taken the relations of living and dead matter; they have mis-
interpreted the language of vitality; and they have entirely
misconceived the rationale of the effects of alcohol.  And this is
why it is that the influence of the medical  profession, as a
whole, is thrown into the scale against our cause.
  As Jefferson said of American slavery, " We have got the
wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold  him nor let go."
Until we settle the scientific argument, we shall have the al-
coholic wolf by the ears.   We cannot hold on as a beverage,
and we cannot let go as a medicine.  The remedy I propose
is, to cut off the wolf's tail just behind his ears!
  I said this is a question of science;  and I call upon scien-
tific men to investigate it; not in the light of old traditions—
which light is really darkness — but in the light of  the laws
of nature ; for there is no true science that is not based on
the laws of nature.
  Before I present the scientific  argument, let us see how this
false doctrine of the medical profession works practically, and
how it is reasoned professionally.  The temperance physician
—and if there is any physician who is not a temperance man,
I think he has mistaken his calling—when his patient has had
a fever of two or three weeks' duration, and has become pale,
weak and emaciated, prescribes wine, brandy, ale,  porter etc!
Why?  He says, " to keep the  patient up,"  to " obviate de 
The True  Temperance Platform.           31
bility," to " sustain the vital powers," etc.  The indication is,
to give his patient life and  power, and he prescribes alcohol.
  Ask him, "What is the relation of alcohol to the living sys-
tem?"  He will answer, "A poison, of course."
  "How can a  poison "support vitality?"
  " 0, by developing the nervous energy."
  " But, do not your  books say that it exhausts the nervous
energy, and diminishes the powers of life ?"
  " That is when it is used as a leverage;  when administered
as a medicine the case is different."
  " How different ?"
  "Why, as a beverage, it is a narcotic-stimulant, but as a med-
icine it acts as a tonic."
   " Suppose you label one glass of brandy leverage, and an-
other medicine, will the effects of each be different ?"
   " 0, no, I don't mean that.  In health, it acts as a poison;
but in disease it operates as a remedy."
   " Then, the relation of alcohol to the  living organism de-
pends on the condition of health or disease ?"
   "Precisely.   That's it."
   " Was your patient sick when you prescribed the brandy?"
   " Certainly.   He had just passed through a long course of
fever."
  • "Passed through a fever?"
   "No, I mean the fever passed through him—run its course."
   " Where did the fever go, or what became of it, after it
 had  'passed through' your patient, or run its course?"
   " That question is entirely irrelevant.  It is mere ridicule;
 and  ridicule is not argument."
   " Very true ; I raised the point just to give you a hint that
 the idea of the nature of a fever, as entertained by the med-
 ical profession, is not only erroneous, but absurd, if not ridic-
 ulous.   But never mind;  was your patient convalescent ?"
   " To be sure, he was—passed the crisis finely.   His disease
 was fairly subdued with  antiphlogistics  and  alteratives, and
 all he required was a little artificial support."
   "You say he liad had a fever.  Did you prescribe the brandy
 for the fever he had had ?" 
32           The True Temperance Platform.
  "No, that was disposed of."
  "Did you prescribe the brandy for the convalescence ?"
  " Not exactly that, but for the debility."
  "Is debility sickness?"
  "No;  it is the effect of disease."
  " Suppose the patient had been weak from any other cause,
would not the brandy be just as appropriate ?"
  " Well, perhaps it would."
  " Suppose a child had been weak, or had inherited a feeble
constitution from its mother, or had a frail organization because
of a father who was addicted to the use of intoxicating drink,
or suppose  a man should feel weak after a hard day's work,
would you recommend brandy ?"
  " Ah, well, perhaps, probably.  I might, and then I might
not.   It would depend entirely on circumstances."
  " What, then, becomes of the principle you advanced, that
alcohol is remedial only in disease ?"
  " Never mind the theory;   Observation and experience are
my guides   I go for facts."
  " One question more : Did it never occur to you that 'nerv-
ous energy,' 'vital power,' and  'living strength,' do not exist
in brandy,  and that brandy cannot impart what it does not
possess?"
  " 0, that's all theory.   I go for facts."
  " But,  now, Doctor, let us refer for a moment to first prin-
ciples.  You said  that  alcohol, though a  poison,  developed
nervous energy.  Sow does it do this ? "
  " 0, that is going into the modus operandi.   That we don't
know any thing about."
  "Then, how do  you know that it does develop  nervous
3nergy?"
  " Because it increases sensibility and circulation."
  " Would not the application of boiling water, or a red hot
iron, or a blister plaster, or a touch of aquafortis, or a dose
of arsenic,  increase sensibility and circulation?"
  " Yes."
  " Would they also develop the nervous energy ?" 
The True Temperance Platform.           33
  " I suppose they would."
  " Can you explain how they do it ?"
  " Of course not.  That's modus operandi again."
  "And if you could explain the modus operandi, you would at
once renounce the practice."
  "Why so?"
  " You would then understand that, what is called " devel-
oped nervous energy," is merely vital resistance — the struggle
of the vital powers against the poison—an effort of the living
system to expel it."
  "You mean, then, that the alcohol does not act at all?"
  " I mean that,  exactly."
  " How, then, do you explain its effects ?"
  " I have just told you."
  " But if  alcohol does not act itself, it superinduces an action;
and what's the difference ?"
  "The difference is in the kind of action.   If the action is
simply defensive,  it is war; it  is waste; it is desolation ;  and
this action  only develops the expenditure of vital power."
  Such is substantially the argument I have had with many
physicians.
  A medical gentleman in a  Western  village, where I  lec-
tured on the modus operandi of medicines, asked me this ques-
tion:  "Provided  the effect is the same, What is the difference
whether the medicine acts on the system, or the system  acts
on the medicine?"   He thought I was making a great  ado
about nothing.
  I assured  him  that, admitting his premises, his conclusion
was unanswerable.   "Provided the effect was the same," it would
make no sort of difference, whether a man ate his dinner, or
 is dinner ate him;  whether the whale swallowed Jonah, or
Jonah swallowed  the whale.
  But whether  a  dead thing acts on a living thing, or a living
thing acts on a dead thing—whether alcohol acts on the  sys-
tem, or the system acts on alcohol—is all difference, as a scien-
tific or a practical question.
  During the prevalence of cholera in New York, in  1854,1 
31          The True Temperance Platform.
met, one day on the street, one of our ward physicians, with
whom I was in the habit of having little argumentations oc-
casionally, on the medico-alcoholic controversy.   There was a
dispute among the physicians of our various hospitals, whether
the cholera ought to  be treated on the stimulating plan, or the
antiphlogistic plan, or the alterative plan, or the mixed plan, or the
promiscuous  plan.  But it was all  the same to the patients.
About one half of all of them died.
  "Well, Doctor," said I, "have  you found out what  is the
nature of the cholera, yet?"
  "0," said he, "I  haven't  any theory.  I just  treat the
symptoms.   I go for facts.  But," said he, " there is one thing
I am satisfied about: Whenever there is excitement or inflam-
mation, I always find it good practice to reduce it."
  I asked him what he thought of dysentery; if that was not
an inflammatory disease ?
  " Certainly; inflammation of the mucous membrane of the
bowels."
  " And how do you treat it ?"
  " Why,"  said the Doctor, "the best remedy I ever found for
it, is a powder of opium, ipecac, sugar of lead, and cayenne"
pepper."
  "What!" said I, "what has become of your theory?  A
moment ago you had always found reducing treatment the best
for all cases of inflammation, but  now your best remedy is a
combination of powerful stimulants !"
  " 0, darn the theory," said he ;  "I go for facts."
  And I could never talk with a medical man who prescribed
alcohol, in any case, who was not always darning  his theory
with his facts, and always  darning his facts with his theory,
and making a darnation muddle of the whole business.
  A little more than a year ago, a young man—a theological
student—came to my Institute in New  York, from the Uni-
versity, violently sick of typhoid fever.  He expressed a wish
to be  treated according to the Hygienic system; soon be-
came delirious, in which condition he remained for three or
four days.   On  the third day of  his illness, the Principal of 
The True Temperance Platform.           35
the Theological department, who felt a degree of personal re-
sponsibility for the welfare of the patient, having ascertained
his whereabouts, called to see  him, and brought  along his
family physician, who proceeded at once, secundem artem, to
prescribe brandy and  other stimulants.  This, of course, I
could not allow.  I informed the Doctor that the patient was
mine, and must and should be treated according to my sys-
tem, that being the system of his own choice; but that, as I
professed to be a reasonable, or  at least, a reasoning man, if he
could give me any reason why the patient should have brandy,
I would certainly order it, and then the following dialogue
ensued:
   " The patient is very low."
   " Very true."
   " His case is very precarious."
   " I am aware of  that."
   " He needs supporting treatment—something to keep him
 UP-"
   " So he does; and that is just what  we are giving him."
   " Are you giving him stimulus or tonics of any kind—wine,
 quinine, beef^tea, chicken broth, etc. ?"
   " No, nothing of the sort.  Don't believe in them."
   " I should recommend him to take brandy."
   "Why?"
    " To keep him up."
    " How can brandy keep him up ?"
    " By imparting temporary strength."
    " By imparting it ?   Is the strength in the brandy ?"
    " It stimulates the vital powers."
    " Then  it wastes the vital  powers.  Stimulation does not
  impart strength; it wastes it.  Vital power does not go out of
  the brandy into the patient, but occasions  vital power to be
  exhausted from the patient in expelling the brandy."^
    The Doctor declined any further controversy, and his friend
  suggested that he  came there  to prescribe, not to discuss; but
  I had the pleasure of informing him,  before he could get out
  of my office, that I had not, for fifteen years, given a particle 
36           The  True Temperance  Platform.
 of stimulus of any kind in any case of fever, and that of hun-
 dreds of such patients, I had not lost one.
   Medical men tell us that alcohol "exalts " the vital prop-
 erties.  But Dunglison, in his Dictionary, declares that a high
 degree  of  exaltation is actual inflammation.  This  is " exalt-
 ing to kill."
   When the medical profession and the world learn to regard
 stimulation, irritation, inflammation,  and fever, as essentially
 the same pathological idea, we shall have a very different sys-
 tem of  medical practice.
   But here is the gist of our controversy.  If alcohol can im-
 part the life principle to a person who has been reduced by a
 fever, why not also in all cases of debility ?   Why not in cases
 of fatigue ?  Why not give alcohol in  cases of indigestion ?
 Why not apply it  to the skin when cutaneous depuration is
 feeble ?  Why not administer it for inability of any kind ?
   Some of the schools of medicine have a theory that disease
 consists essentially in the inability of the part affected to per-
 form its normal functions.   If this is true, and if it is also true
 that alcohol can impart ability, then we have at once a univer-
 sal panacea in the " fire-water," and we may as well go back
 at once  to the days of Paracelsus and elixir vita.
  I repeat, if alcohol is good for debihty in one case, why is
not alcohol good for debility in  all  cases ?  Let the advocate
for alcoholic medication make this distinction when there is
no difference, if he can.
  If  alcohol will give strength, why not make it the grand
specific  for all weakness ?   This would be reasonable. The
logic is  irresistible ;  and this is just what physicians are doing.
Where  shall we draw the line of demarkation between health
and disease, suppose we agree to limit alcoholic medication to
cases of actual disease ? If the sick man requires alcoholic
 stimulus, so does the laboring man.   There is no avoiding this
 conclusion.  Disease  is itself labor.  And now, as I have gone
 bo far into medical doctrines, I must go to the starting poinl
 of all, or I shall not be understood. 
The True  Temperance Platform.           37
                 THE UNSOLVED PROBLEMS.
  The nature of disease, and the modus operandi of medicines,
have always been among the unsolved problems—the myste-
ries of medical science.  Medical authors  do not pretend to
understand them.  They know disease only by its phenomena,
—its forms, and features; they know medicines only by their
effects,   The rationale  of either  is  confessedly unknown.
They know that diseases assume a great variety of forms, and
that medicines occasion a great variety of effects, and that is
all.  The why, or how, or wherefore, is a profound mystery.
  But I claim to have discovered  the true solution of all of
these problems.  I  think I have  ascertained  the  intrinsic
nature  and essence  of disease — of all  diseases; and  I  be-
lieve I can explain the rationale of  the effects of medicines—
of all medicines, alcohol included.   And when medical men
do understand the essential nature of disease, and when they
can explain the modus operandi of medicines, I am entirely sure
they will never more prescribe alcohol, either as a beverage,
or as a medicine, neither in health nor in sickness.
  I could never understand this awkward  and perplexing al-
coholic muddle, this poison-medicine-food puzzle— "three in
one, and one  in three"—this "pragmatical prevarication"
logic, until I had solved the other problems.   And since then
I have succeeded in convincing some four  or five hundred of
the forty thousand physicians in the United  States, that my
yiews are correct;  and they are now thorough teetotalers,
theoretically, practically, dietetically, and medically. You need
not have any fears that any of them will ever break the pledge,
for with them total abstinence is not a constraint, a privation,
but a physiological principle — a part  of themselves.  Nor
will these persons stop  their work  of reform with the mere
disuse of alcoholic beverages; they  will  apply the same prin-
ciple to the reformation of other bad habits.  Nor will they
go from Scylla to Charybdis, by resorting to opium, or tobacco,
or any other narcotics or stimulants, as substitutes for alcohol.
  Total abstinence  a privation!  How many there are who
really so regard it!   How many regard abstinence from in 
38       The True Temperance Platform.
toxicating drinks as a self-denial, rather than a privilege!  A
distinguished temperance man, and president of a State tem-
perance organization, said to me, in New York,  three years
ago, as we were on the way to a temperance meeting, in view
of the unusual efforts we were then making to suppress the
liquor traffic:  "What  a magnificent  spectacle we are  now
presenting to all the nations, denying ourselves all indulgence
for the sake of a great moral principle!"
  Indulgence ?  "Magnificent nonsense!  Total abstinence is
no privation, but pleasure to all who understand and Hve its
philosophy.
  The true definition of disease is remedial effort; and on this
doctrine that disease is just the contrary to what is taught in
medical schools and books, may be  predicated the world's re-
demption, not only from alcoholic poison, but from disease it-
self.  When people .understand that disease is a vital struggle
in self-defence—an effort to protect and defend the organism
—that it is not a thing or entity, foreign to the system, but an
action of the  system itself which seeks  its preservation, not
its destruction—they will cease  to  fear it.   They will  only
fear its causes.  They will not then send  for the physician to
stop it, to Ireak it up,  to repress or subdue it, to counteract or neu-
tralize it.   They will  see that such " cures" are delusive;  that
they are  subjugations of the remedial effort.   They will  then
aim to remove the causes, not to suppress the symptoms;  they
will seek to  "aid and assist nature," not by subduing the vital
strength with potent drugs, but by providing  her the  best
conditions and facilities for accomplishing her work of purifi-
cation.                       *
                    RATIONALE OF FEVER.
   A fever is the simplest form of disease, and the type of all
diseases.  What is a fever ?  Simply  a process of purification.
It is an effort to rid  the body of obstructing material—impu-
rities. It is labor unusual and extraordinary; and when the
fever has completed its task of purifying the organism, like
an army after a long campaign, or  a man after a hard day's
work, the system is  weak and fatigued, and  the vital powers 
The True Temperance  Platform.          39
want, what ?  Alcohol ?  No; rest, rest.   The body needs
quiet, not stimulation.  The alcohol only kindles up a new fever,
and occasions a still greater expenditure and waste of vital
power.   Eecollect I have said that  stimulation and fever are
identical.
  It is during sleep, when the external senses are in repose,
that the  vital powers build up and replenish the tissues ;  and
nutrition goes on best when the abnormal disturbance, which
we call stimulation, is least.  Stimidation and nutrition are an-
tagonistic actions. Medical men have made a disastrous mis-
take in confounding excitement with  strength.
   The physician who prescribes alcoholic  stimulus  after a
fever, to raise the patient, or during a fever, to sustain him, or
previous to a fever, to prevent it, commits a grave, and, also,
a grave-filling error.  He imagines  that if he withholds stim-
ulus, his patient will run down; but the truth is, the stimulus
is one of the things that runs him down.
   The late Prince Albert was " kept up " for six days on stim-
ulus, as  the story came to us over the waters; and where was
he on the seventh ?  I shall return to his case presently.
   Now,  I have tested this question of  stimulation both ways.
For many years I gave stimulants to keep my patients up.
Many a time has my patient taken one quart of wine, and
even brandy, per day.  I watched the pulse closely, and as
often as it evinced the  least tendency to sink, I repeated the
dose, and brought the circulation up again, to what ?  To the
normal standard ?  No ; to the fever standard.  I did not then
understand, as I now do, that I  was only prolonging the fe-
ver, and lessening the chances of final recovery.   I lost about"
the usual proportion of cases; but since I have seen the "er-
ror of my ways," I have treated hundreds of cases of all the
forms of fever incident to New York and its vicinity, and,  as
I have already said, without stimulus  of any kind, and with-
out losing one patient.  I do not regard the ordinary acute
and febrile  diseases, of which so many die every day in the
year, and whose mortality is about equal to that of all other
diseases combined, as not intrinsically dangerous, however vio- 
40          The True Temperance Platform.
lent they may be, provided the doctor does no harm.  And I
regard physicians, as a general rule, as vastly more  destruc-
tive than fevers, especially the alcoholic "respiratory-food"
physicians.
  When I made the statement not long since, during  a course
of lectures I was delivering in Boston, Massachusetts, that I
did not consider the fevers, of which so many were dying all
round us, as at all dangerous, when left to themselves,  and
that I had not,  nor had any one  of my associate  physicians
lost a case in fifteen years, a venerable gentleman  of some
three score years and ten, arose in the audience and remarked,
" Sir, your  statements are perfectly astonishing!"  I could
only reply, " there is nothing more astonishing, on medical
subjects, than simple truth and plain common sense.

       THE STRONGHOLD OF  THE ENEMY--THE rROVINGS.
  And now  let us go to the very bottom of our subject.   Let
us storm the chief citadel of the enemy.  Let us look into the
provings of alcoholic medication.   How do medical men prove
that alcohol possesses medicinal " virtues ?" or that it is a " sup-
porter of vitality," or that it is "respiratory food," or that it
is remedial in disease ?
  Here is the very magazine  of the alcoholic defence.   Lei
us  apply the torch of truth and see if it will  not  explode
Here is where the adversary has been securely entrenched
during the " war of four thousand years " against him.
  Medical men have employed alcohol more extensively than
any other drug,  and they have experimented with it on men,
on animals,  and on plants, with the view of determining  pre-
cisely its nature, action, and remedial  indications.  I propose
to subject their experiments to the ordeal of a  scientific ex-
amination, to see what they really do  prove.   It is by these
experiments that physicians prove  to  their own satisfaction
that alcohol is a medicine ;  and if I can show that  they prove
just the  contrary, the testimony becomes important to the
cause  of  temperance  as  well as to the  cause of medical
science. 
The True Temperance Platform.          41
  Let us commence with the experiments at the lowest plane
of organic life, and ascend.  I shall  quote only the standard
authors.
  "On plants," says Pereira, in his Materia Medica, "alcohol
acts as a rapid and fatal poison."
  This is rather poor encouragement to begin with, so far as
the remedial properties of alcohol are concerned.  Can a thing,
which is a " a rapid and fatal poison " to the whole vegetable
kingdom, be  a good medicine to the  animal kingdom ?  Let
us see.
   Says our author: " Leeches, immersed in spirit, die in two or
three minutes."   Mind you, it  is not stated the  leeches get
well,  or have their vitality increased, but they die—a distinc-
tion with a difference.
   Fontana found that " when half the body of a leech was
plunged into spirit, this part lost all of its motion, whilst the
other half continued in action."
   This is important, no doubt, as it shows that a leech, as well
as a man,  may be half killed with alcohol.  But enough of
the leeches.
   We go from leeches to frogs.  " The same experimentalis;
observed that spirit killed frogs."   Mark, again;  the spirit
did not cure frogs ; it killed them.   This distinction must not
be lost sight of, for  we shall find it  run through our whole
course of experimentation.  But, then, we must recollect that
these animals—the frogs—were not sick; so far as we are in-
formed,  they were in the  enjoyment of the best of health up
to the very moment when  they  were subjected to the medi-
cine.  Suppose Fontana had immersed a leech which had just
experienced  a course of typhoid fever, and was now suffering
of nervous debility and weak digestion, in spirit;  or if  he had
administered the article to some poor frog, while suffering of
a paroxysm  of retrocedent gout, do you not imagine that the
medicine would have^ operated very differently ?   Perhaps,
then, it would have acted as "respiratory food,"  instead of a
 "rapid and fatal poison."
   Well, we  have  sent the frogs after the leeches, and now let 
42           The True Temperance Platform.
us pursue the experiments.   But it may be well to notice in
this place that,  in the language of our experimentalist, Fon-
tana,  " the same result (death) happened to the frogs, whether
the spirit was administered to the stomach, inserted beneath
the skin, or  applied to the brain,  or spinal  marrow."
  Outside or inside, it was all the same.  If the drink, or food,
or medicine,  or whatever form of alcohol it may be, touched
the frog in any place, the frog died.  But we  have not yet
done  with these interesting frogologieal illustrations.
  " Plunging the  heart of this animal  (the  frog) into alco-
hol, caused its  motion to cease in  just twenty seconds."
  Admirable precision!  And this experiment seems to come
very nearly  to  the point; for I  think this frog  must have
been  an invalid.   Its  heart  was dissected out, and this can
hardly be  considered a wholesome  operation,  certainly not
a physiological  process.  I  take it  for  granted, therefore,
that the frog before us was really sick, and seriously "heart
sick," too.  But this fact, so far as the experiment proves
anything, did not in any  way change the relation of alco-
hol to its vital organism.   It stopped the  heart's motion;
but whether the frog still lives  without a heart, or with a
motionless heart (which has been  replaced),  we are not in-
formed.  But greater  marvels are  to come.
  " Applied to  the  right crural nerve of a frog, alcohol de-
stroyed  the power  of the  animal to move its right foot."
  Wonderful are the demonstrations of science!   The remedy
damaged the side  of the body to  which it  was applied,
instead  of the  opposite !
  Again, " Monroe observed  that  alcohol,  applied to the
hind legs of a frog, rendered the pulsation of  the part less
frequent,  and  diminished  the  sensibility  and  mobility."
Strange  that it was not tried on the fore legs also!
  Sensibility and mobility  are  the  vital  properties of the
nervous  and muscular  tissues.   The^y,  with  the  irritalility
of the organic nervous system, constitute the life principle—
vitality itself.  Alcohol diminislies these vital properties.   Is it
not, then, a queer " supporter of vitality."  But our subject of 
The True Temperance Platform.           43
experimentation is only a frog.  It may be different with the
higher animals, or with man.   Do not let us anticipate our
conclusions, lest it should detract from the interest of  our in-
vestigations.  But I cannot help throwing out the suggestion,
in this place, that alcohol " supports vitality " precisely as the
lash supports the jaded  horse.  It will  cause the animal to
increase his efforts, it will "develop his nervous and muscular
energy," but the vitality, instead of being whipped into him,
is whipped out.
  A correspondent of the New York Herald, in writing from
the Union army in the vicinity of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi,
states that the negroes there will work well " under the com-
bined stimulus of whisky, tobacco, and whipcord."
  The tobacco probably supplied the inducement; the whisky
furnished the power, and the whipcord provided the  "military
necessity."
  But does any one seriously imagine that whisky, or tobacco,
or whipcord, or all together, really added to Sambo's ability to
labor, or to his power of endurance ? Would any rational per-
son work his horse on that principle, unless he was willing to
work him to a speedy death ?   We return to the experiments.
  And now, having satisfactorily disposed  of the plants, the
leeches, and the frogs, we come to the turtles.
   "Fontana states that turtles were (cured? I beg pardon,)
killed by spirit administered through the stomach, or injected
beneath the skin."
   Certainly this result ought to convince every reflecting tur-
tle that alcohol is a first rate-medicine for man!  If there is
a single  one  of these  conchological  reptiles carrying " the
house he lives in " on his back, in all the mud-bottoms of the
coast, who cannot appreciate  (when subjected to the  experi-
ment), the force of this illustration, he ought to be sent to a
medical school!
   "Before  death,"  says our  author, "the animals  became
motionless."  This fact corresponded with the theory that alco-
nol diminishes vitality, and shows a remarkable coincidence in
the manner  in which alcohol occasions the death of  frogs and 
44           The True Temperance Platform.
leeches.   The animal became " motionless lefore death."  H
it had continued in motion after death, it would have been at
least presumptive evidence that alcohol is really a " supporter
of vitality."
   Our author continues: " Applied to the heart of a turtle,
alcohol destroyed the contractility of that  viscus."
   You recollect the fate of the frog's heart ?  Well, it served
the turtle's heart in the same way.   It killed them both.   Isn't
this a remarkable coincidence ?  Is not alcohol  an excellent
" cardiac " and " stomachic " restorative ? and  are not these
experiments surpassingly grand and beautiful ?
   The alcohol,  the poison, the  medicine,  the food, has  been
applied to the lodies,  extremities,  stomachs, skins,  brains,  spinal
cords, crural nerves, and hind legs of certain lower  animals with
one uniform result.  They each and all " gave up the ghost."
Is not the inference logical that if alcohol kills  all the lower
animals, it must be a grand medicine for all the higher ani-
mals?
  Let us go on with the experiments.   And next, the birds
of the air are laid under contribution to the cause of medical
science.
   " M. Flourens administered a few  drops of alcohol  to  a
sparrow,  whose Irain he had laid lore.  In a few minutes the
bird began to be unsteady, both in walking and flying."  Won-
der of  wonders ! and this was a sick lird,  that is, if taking off
the skull is a pathological performance !
   " In some other very interesting  experiments,  Flourens ob-
served that alcohol produced the same effects on the movements
of birds as the  removal of the cerebellum," with this difference,
" that when alcohol was administered the animal lost the use
of its senses and  intellectual faculties ;  whereas, when the
cerebellum was removed, no alcohol being given, it preserved
them."
  Alcohol has a worse effect on the  senses and  intellect than
removing a part of the brain does!  Would not a moderate
drinker, or an immoderate drinker, be offended if we should
tell him that his senses and intellect are in a worse condition 
The True Temperance Platform.          45
than they would be if he was a teetotaler, and had all the
cerebellar portion of his brain taken out of his  head ?  But
this is medical science.
  We go from the birds to the fishes, which are also made to
suffer some for  the cause of suffering humanity.
  Says Pereira: " The effect of  alcohol on fishes is analagous
to that on other animals."
  Who could have suspected this, a priori?  Fishes, birds and
reptiles in the same category ?  Let us have the particulars.
  "Ha little spirit be added to water in which  minnows are
confined, the little  animals make a few spasmodic leaps, and
become incapable of retaining their position in the water, but
float on their sides or back."
  This is an insinuation that the minnows are drunk!   Who
has not known specimens of  the genus homo, after swallowing
water to  which a little spirit had been added, make spasmodic
demonstrations  pn the sidewalk, and  become  incapable  of
maintaining the perpendicular out of water ?
  It seems to me that a vast amount of cruelty to animals
might be saved by trying alcohol on the largest instead of the
smallest creatures—an elephant or a whale, amammoth, or leviathan
himself.   By ascertaining  the   exact quantity of liquor  it
requires to send him to the " future state," we  can, by easy
arithmetical calculation,  determine the  exact  proportion
required to  dispose of an animal of any given dimensions.
  A very pretty sum for cyphering would be :  If one gallon
of alcohol will  kill a whale, one  quart destroy a horse, one gill
finish a turtle, one drachm paralyze a frog, one scruple  dement
a sparrow, and one drop  extinguish a  shrimp, how much will
be required to  vitalize an infant, restore  a child, strengthen a
youth, or cure an adult ?
  Ascending in the scale of being, from the fishes, the do-
mestic animals come  up for experimentation and martyrdom.
  Says Pereira:  " The mammals on which the effects of alco-
hol have been tried, are dogs, cats,  horses, rabbits, and guineapigs."
The principal  experimenters have been Courten, Fontana,
Viborg, Brodie, and Orfila. 
46          The True Temperance Platform.
  But now it is the "effects" of alcohol that are to be tried
not the alcohol itself.   What are the effects ?  Ask the plants,
and the leeches,  and the frogs, and the turtles, and the birds,
and the fishes.   The effects are, paralysis, debility, intoxica-
tion, spasms, death.   Is it these that are going to be tried on
dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, and guinea pigs ?  Mark you ; we
are dealing with science, and we must be  precise with our
technicalities.
  But let us pursue the record :  " Four drachms of alcohol,
injected into the jugular vein of a dog,  coagulated the blood,
and " (cured him immediately ? 0, no,)   " caused instant death."
  Poor growler! what an awful dispensation of Providence !
The dog died of apoplexy,  of course.  When human beings
die suddenly of apoplexy, after having got  so much alcohol
into their veins that the blood suddenly coagulates, the ver-
dict of the Coroner's jury is always,  " Visitation  of God."
Who  ever heard of a  death of " coagulation,"  or of " alco-
holosis," or of " respiratory food ?"
  But it is the alcohol  itself, after all, and not its "effects,"
that we  are experimenting with.  The language was ambigu-
ous.  We resume the narrative.
  " Introduced into the stomachs of cats,  dogs, or rabbits,  it
produces apoplectic conditions."
  So it did when introduced into the jugular vein.
  " On examining the bodies of  animals that have been killed
by introducing alcohol  into the stomach, this organ has been
found in a state of inflammation."
  So much for the animal kingdom.  Perhaps there will be
a change of programme, when we  come to human beings.
  Pereira says :  " The  effects of alcohol on man are those of
a powerful caustic and  irritant poison."
  The same old tune, with very slight variations!  To plants
alcohol is a " rapid  and fatal poison."  To man it is a " caustic
and irritant poison."  To both it is directly Mllative under all
conditions and circumstances. Why should it not be at the very
head of the materia medica ?,  It is.
  Suppose some amateur farmer,  who  does business in the 
The True  Temperance  Platform.          47
city, and has his country seat a few miles  out, should have a
sick plant, a dear little rose, it might be, or a favorite plum
tree, or a promising  grape-vine, and in his anxiety to save ii
he sends a hundred miles for some learned graduate of the
schools?  Do you think the doctor  would prescribe alcohol?
  If the rose buds looked wan and drooping, and the plum-
tree leaves were pale, yellowish, and the vine was mildewed,
would not the physician, especially if he were both a chemist
and physiologist, recommend a little " spirit" to invigorate its
circulation and  " support its vitality ?"
  And why not ?  The laws and conditions  of organic life
are the same in plants and animals, and if alcohol is good for
a sick child or a sick man, it is equally good for a sick flower
or a sick tree.
  If it is a sick plant, the physician and the farmer will treat
the case alike.   Both will  loosen the earth, aerate the roots,
regulate water,  light, air, sun and shade; in a word, supply the
conditions the plant  requires for self-restoration.   But if it is
a sick child the farmer can do nothing, and the physician can
only think of  ale, beer, wine, porter,  &c.  Yet say the authors:
" On plants, alcohol acts as a rapid and fatal poison."  " The
effects of alcohol on man are those  of  a caustic and irritant
poison."
  Pereira continues :  "To whatever part of the body (of man)
alcohol is applied, it causes contraction and  condensation of
the tissue, and gives rise to pain,  heat,  redness, and other
symptoms of inflammation."
  Well,  this " developed nervous  energy," and  this " aug-
mented vitality," are  inflammation, after all!  And here we
have  the positive  demonstration  that stimulation and in-
flammation are one and the same thing.   If a person is stung
by a wasp, the  injured part becomes  painful, hot, red  and
swollen; it is inflamed.  If  he applies alcohol to the part,  it
becomes painful, hot, red, and swollen;  it is stimulated.  Is it
not marvelous that, in the light of these familiar facts, medi-
cal men can be  so deluded ?
  And now we  have got ourselves in the category with plants, 
£8          The True Temperance Platform.
 feeches, frogs, turtles, birds, fishes, dogs, cats, horses, rabbits,
 and guinea pigs.  Are we to be disposed of in the same way ?
   Pereira divides the remote or constitutional effects of alco-
 hol on man, into three stages or degrees:
   1, Excitement; 2, Intoxication;  3, Coma or true apoplexy.
   In plain English this means:
   1, Slightly  fuddled; 2, Decidedly delirious:  3, Dead drunk.
   Pereira names several diseases which  are especially attrib-
 utable to the habit of using  alcoholic  liquors,  and  among
 these are :
   Mania, Delirium Tremens, Insanity, Tubercles of the liver,
 Inflammation of the stomach, scirrhus of the stomach, Gran-
 ular disease of the kidneys, Apoplexy, etc.

               WHAT THE EXPERIMENTS PROVE.
   And now, where are the remedial virtues of this alcoholic
 medicine?  We have  been through  all the "provings," and
 have found nothing but disease and death.   I cannot see that
 these cruel and useless experiments prove anything except the
 particular manner in which the animal operated on  sickens
 and dies—the modus optrandi of giving up  the ghost.  And
 these symptoms  of disease, and these  processes of dying are
 called "physiological effects."  And all the medical authors
 telj us of the physiological action of alcohol!  Can there be a
 more  absurd use of language?  I should think its action was
 in every sense pathological, if it really had any action at all,
 which, by the  way, it has not.  Its effects are pathological. It
 occasions nothing but  morbid conditions.  It is purely and
 simply a toxicological agent.  No one  would so misuse lan-
guage and stultify himself as to speak of the physiological
effects of the bite of a rattlesnake, or the physiological action
of the virus of a mad 4og, yet such language  would be just
 as consistent, just as scientific, just as  proper, and just as
truthful as are the phrases, the physiological effects and the
physiological action of alcohol. 
The True Temperance Platform.           49
                         A MUDDLE.
   And now having demonstrated that all of the therapetical
virtues of alcohol are toxicological properties  or pathological
consequences—morbid actions and conditions—Pereira tells
us that it is employed medicinally as a " stomachic stimulant,"
as a "restorative,"  and as "a powerful excitant to support
the vital powers."
   Was there ever any reasoning like unto medical reasoning ?
He has proved alcohol to be a powerful debilitant, and so he
recommends it as a powerful restorative !
   He informed us to begin with, that alcohol is an "irritant
poison."  An irritant is a disturber.  To irritate is to occasion
disorder.  Irritation in the domain of organic life means dis-
turbance, or  an abnormal state of vital action.  Disease  is
nothing more nor less than disturbed or abnormal vital action.
Alcohol occasions  irritation, hence alcohol produces disease.
When applied locally alcohol occasions irritation of the part,
local irritation, local  inflammation, local fever, local disease.
When taken into the system alcohol occasions irritation of the
whole system—general irritation, general stimulation, general
fever, general disease, and  this is called stimulation.  Irrita-
tion,  inflammation,  fever,  and stimulation  are convertible
terms.   Technically, irritation  and stimulation differ only in
the extent of the disturbed vital action.  Local stimulation is
irritation, and general irritation is stimulation; a high degree
of irritation is inflammation, and a high degree of stimidation
is fever.  Hence the idea that irritants or stimulants can "sup-
port vitality " is as absurd as is the idea that inflammation or
fever, or disease can support vitality.  Irritation and inflam-
mation are,  indeed, manifestations of vital  action, but it  is
destructive action.   Constructive or  restorative  vital  action  is
quite a different thing.  And it would be healthful for these
patients  if medical men understood this.
  If  we turn to the Lexicographers for information to help
us out of the  difficulties in which Pereira and the " provings "
have  left us, we find that the medical  dictionary places alco-
hol in the list of inorganic poisons, to which class it belongs, as 
50           The True Temperance Platform.
well as " brandy, wine, and spirit of every kind."  These
are therefore placed in the category with lead, mercury, anti-
mony, arsenic, vitriol, etc.
   It is true that both Leibig and Pereira give us an " alco-
holic alimentary principle," and that they  place "brandy,
beer, wine, and spirits in the list of foods; yet when it is
shown in what manner  an inorganic poison nourishes -an ani-
mal tissue, it may perhaps be with some show of reason con-
cluded that alcohol supports vitality.

                THE ROOT OF THE DIFFICULTY.
  But the root of this false logic is here :  Medical men have
assumed—and this false doctrine which originated in the dark
ages, has prevailed ever since,  nobody having disputed it—
that alcohol acted  on the living system, and thereby forced it to
perform some functional duty.  This I say is  the primary,
the grand fundamental error of the medical profession;  an
error which applies equally to all drugs, medicines and poisons,
and on which they have reared a vast superstructure of false
principles  and misarranged  facts, and which applied  to the
treatment  of  diseases,  has been vastly more injurious than
useful to the world.  It is indeed the parent source of all the
false doctrines and erroneous practices which have ever pre-
vailed in the medical profession.

               ALCOHOL  DOES  NOT ACT AT  ALL.
  Instead of alcohol acting on the living system, the  living
system acts against the alcohol.   The living system does not
act on alcohol, as it acts on food, to digest, to appropriate, to
use it;  but it acts  against it, to resist  it, and  to expel it, as it
does all other poisons.   And the doctrine that any medicine,
or any thing, acts on the living  system, in virtue of a  " spe-
cial affinity," on some one of its organs, or structures, "is one
of  the egregious fallacies of medical men.  There is no such
thing in nature, whatever may be found in medical books. 
The True Temperance Platform.           51
             THE  MYSTERY OF STIMULATION.

  Alcohol is said to be a stimulant, and, as a stimulant, it is said
to support the  vital  powers.  But if a person take several
supporting doses  of the drug, he becomes very suddenly
" powerfully weak," utterly prostrate; all at once the stimu-
lant has become a depressant.  How is this ?  The profession
cannot understand it.  It is one of the mysteries of medical
science.
  Now, in the light  of vitality, this subject is as clear as sun-
shine.   What is stimidation ?   Not, as I have already explained,
the action of a poison on the living system, but the action of
the living system in its efforts to expel a poison.   This is why
stimulation is always an exhausting, and never a supporting
process.   This is why "keeping a person  up" on stimuli is
a sure method of sinking him down.   Stimulation, inflamma-
tion, and fever, as I  have said, are all morbid conditions, and
are  all  occasioned by  poisons  or impurities of some kind.
Pure food, pure water, and pure air, do not  stimulate in the
least.
                      PRINCE ALBERT.

  Allow me to  refer to a single case to illustrate the positions
I have  advanced—that  of the  late Prince Consort.   A few
months ago the whole civilized world was  shocked by intel-
ligence of his  sudden and unexpected death.  Why did he
die ?  In the prime  of life,  of vigorous constitution, temper-
ate and regular in his personal habits, and unusually intelli-
gent on physiological subjects, he had just  reached the age
when, with a mind well stored with knowledge and disciplined
by the experiences of youth and early manhood, his best and
his truest life should have begun ; when he was just prepared
for his highest usefulness, and when his family, his  country,
and humanity  peculiarly needed his living  presence on  the
earth.
  The story came across the waters that the Prince had "gas-
tric fever."  But why should a strong, hale man die of a Httle
fit of indigestion?  It was also stated that the illustrious pa- 
52          The True  Temperance Platform.
tient was kept up for six days on stimulus.   But where was
he on the seventh ?   AVe are told that after six days his sys-
tem  " refused to respond" to the stimulus, and that then he
died !  Why did his system refuse to respond to the stimulus ?
I answer,  because  all of his vitality had been stimulated
away.
  When I  read the  announcement of the death of Prince Al-
bert, I was in Washington city.  I had gone there to deliver
some lectures, and to save, if possible, some of the officers and
soldiers of our armies from  dying of alcoholic medication,
when they had pneumonia, typhoid  fever, measles,  etc.   And
I have the  satisfaction to know that my mission there was not
wholly in vain ;  and I feel something like a presentiment that
my mission here will not be entirely fruitless.
  I stated  to a large audience in the Smithsonian Institute—
that magnificent temple of science for which we are indebted
to the munificent philanthropy of a  generous and  loyal sub-
ject of your good Queen, that our soldiers were dying of grog-
rations  and grog-medicines faster than they were dying of
confederate bullets  and rebel bayonets.   I said this  in the
presence of men of science, members of Congress, and mili-
tary surgeons.  And nobody publicly disputed any of the prop-
ositions I  advanced there, and I think no one will publicly
controvert  the positions  I advocate here.
   When I read the story of the death  of Prince Albert, I
exclaimed  involuntarily;  " Oh! this awful delusion; how
long, how long, before medical men  will understand that stim-
idation is not nutrition ?   When will  the world learn that stim-
ulus  causes disease and waste, instead of imparting  health
and vitality ?
   I watched the medical journals for an explanation of his
case, and for the particulars of the treatment.   But I found
nothing on the subject except a couple of brief articles in the
London Lancet, for February, 1862.
   From these I learn that on Sunday, December 8, 1861, the
Prince Consort, according to the official bulletin of his four
distinguished medical advisers, had a " feverish cold."  On 
The True Temperance Platform.           53
Wednesday and Thursday following, there were no unfavor-
able symptoms.   On Friday, he was worse.  On Saturday, he
died.  The death was certified to be of typhoid fever I
  A remark or two made by the Lancet, has more significance
than would appear to the careless reader; perhaps more-than
the writer intended.
  The Lancet is evidently puzzled for a satisfactory theory of
the  unexpected death,  and resorts to what seems to us as
special pleading in the case.  It says of typhoid  fever:  "This
is a disease which has inevitably proved far more fatal to suf-
ferers of the upper class than to patients of the poorer kind."
   Why should a wealthy person be more liable to die of typhoid
fever than a poor person ?  If there is any virtue  in superior
hygienic conditions, and in the most eminent physicians, the
difference should be the other way.
  In the light of the premises I have advanced, the answer
is not difficult.  The richer the patient, and the  higher his
position in life, the greater will be the effort to  save him ; the
more  numerous the physicians,  and the stronger the medi-
cines ; and if alcohoHc stimulus be  the leading  remedy, of
course, the greater quantity of that.  The Prince had  four
physicians.
  The Lancet remarks again, in allusion to his case: "Even
the least sanguine had no anticipations of the slowly, but surely
increasing debility, resisting all efforts  to stay its progress,
under which the Prince gradually sunk."
   What were  these efforts to stay the progress of  the " in-
creasing debiHty?"  Stimulants, of course.  I  am of opinion
that it was the stimulus which occasioned the fatal debility.
  But, if the  untimely death of Prince Albert could be the
means, under Providence, of leading the scientific world to  a
thorough investigation  of the nature of alcohoHc stimulus,
and dispel, forever, from the minds of medical men, this most
fatal delusion, that stimulus is a substitute for, or  in any way
gives strength—although I should respond from  my inmost
soul to that universal wail that  went up to Heaven from the
national heart of hearts, and which expressed  itself in those 
54          The True Temperance Platform.
sweetly tender words of womanly love  and sympathy, " Oh !
the poor Queen ;" and while I should pray God to console and
comfort Her Majesty, still I should almost rejoice that His
providence had thus afflicted the Queen, and the nation, and
the world—God grant that such terrible lessons be not always
lost upon His children.
   Shade of the immortal bard!  I find myself, for the first
time, in the land of him who drew the portraiture of human
nature to the Hfe, and I am reminded of his testimony con-
cerning that "enemy which men take into their mouths to
steal away their brains."  And these fearful words seem almost
to be blazoned on the walls before my eyes.
   " 0, thou invisible spirit of wine ! if thou hast no name to
be known by, let us caU thee devil."  And if this thing is
devil, as a beverage, is it not doubly devilish as a medicine ?  CaU
the maddening draught when it " giveth its color in the cup,"
fire, fury, fiend or demon ;  but devil, and double devil damn-
ed, are feeble epithets to express the infernal nature of alco-
holic medicine,  0,  if alcohol must be administered to God's
image, for  any purpose, give it to the well, and not to the sick.
The weU man can better resist its effects; he  may have time
and opportunity to break the spell of the murdering basilisk.
But do not take the sick man in his extremity, when life and
death are  trembHng in the balance,  and when a feather's
weight of adverse influence, though he be in the full maturity
of manhood,  may extinguish the vital spark forever, as the
red lightning flashed from  His thunder-throne in the  far off
clouds, in an instant, blasts the tall pine, or shivers the stal-
wart oak.
   Is the Bible right when it declares  that " strong drink is
raging ?"   Is that portion of the  Bible inspired, which says,
of the alcohoHc bane,  " at the last it biteth Hke a serpent, and
stingeth like an adder?"  Does the Bible make an exception
in favor of  alcoholic medicine in those  fearful interrogatories,
" who hath wo ? who hath sorrow ?"
   The time will surely come, it must come, when medical men
wiU wake from this unfortunate and fatal delusion, that alco- 
The True Temperance Platform.           55
hoi is in any proper sense remedial.   And then they will look
back through the long vista of centuries of alcoholic medica-
tion as upon a dream of horror; as they would survey a bat-
tle field covered with mangled and the dying, where human
beings meet on purpose to destroy each other.  And they will
then see that, when they supposed themselves to be practicing
the " Healing Art Divine," they were really warring on hu-
man constitutions, and sending their feUow-beings in  droves
to premature graves.  God wiU forgive them, for  they  knew
not what they were doing.

                  MR. BUCKLE'S CASE.
   The late Mr. Buckle's case is also instructive.  He was
seized with  typhus  fever at Damascus, April 21, 1862, and
died on the 29th.  Says his traveling companion, Mr. Glennie :
" The stimulants applied  by the American physician, Dr.
Barclay, who went up from Beyrout, expressly, had only the
effect of producing the partial and very temporary return to
consciousness, which preceded his disease."  Thus we learn
that he was stimulated—the presumption is, severly—but how
long and to what extent we are not informed.

                 THE VITAL PREREQUISITE.
  I have long been of opinion that, until alcohoHc medication
is abandoned by the medical profession, the use of intoxicat-
ing drink will never be relinquished by the people. Nor can
I understand why it should be ; for precisely the same  argu-
ments which justify the one approve the other.  And I am of
opinion that temperance physicians, who talk " cold water as a
beverage," and prescribe alcohol as a medicine, are doing a
great deal more harm by their practice than they are  doing
good by their preaching.

                TEMPERANCE  QUACK  DOCTORS.
  A physician in New York has realized  a large fortune, and
built a gorgeous  palace, from the proceeds of a medicine whose
essential ingredients are alcohol and sugar, and which he sells 
56       The True  Temperance Platform.
under the name of " compound syrup of Sarsaparilla."  He is
a temperance man, a high official in a state temperance organ-
ization,  and gives Hberally to the temperance cause—perhaps
he contributes to the cause one-tenth of the profit he makes
in selling sweetened alcohol to the temperance people.  He is
also a strenuous advocate for some other reforms, and no doubt
he expects to get to heaven on the  principle of

             " Compounding for sins he is inclined to,
             By damning those he has no mind to."

  And  all of the empirical  nostrums which flood the land,
under the names of " Nervous Antidote," "Invigorating Cor-
dial," "Plantation Bitters," "Purifying  Syrups," etc., etc., and
swindle the deluded people of millions  annually,  owe  all of
their  power to charm to their alcohoHc Constituent, while the
quacks themselves are indebted for all of their power to hum-
bug and rob the people, to the false doctrines of  the  medical
profession in relation to alcoholic stimulation.
  Obliterate these  false doctrines from medical  schools and
books, and the pestiferous race of empirics will soon run out.
Teach the people the simple truth in relation to the nature of
disease,  the modus  operandi of remedies, and the theory of
stimulation, and we shall have a basis on which to prosecute the
temperance and health  reforms.

                 where  the blame lies.
  Curse the rumseUer, who has thus robbed a man  of him-
self, a wife of her husband, and children of their father, would
I?  Wherefore?  No;  curse rather the pubHc sentiment which
has made him a rumseller.  Punish him?   No.   Punish soci-
ety, which authorises  his trade, or at least, tolerates him.
Blame the miserable victim?  Apply opprobrious epithets to
the poor degraded sot?  Oh, no!  Not until you have reform-
ed the false doctrines of the medical profession.
  Of  course I do not mean to accuse the medical profession,
nor any medical man,  with intending to  oppose  the  temper-
ance cause.  They are  honestly deluded.  They are conscien- 
The True Temperance Platform.
57
 tious, but in error.  They act consistently with their doctrines,
 as I do with mine.   I do not blame them, but I deplore their
 mistake.  Their influence is against temperance, simply be-
 cause their  doctrines are false.

              a national medical  convention.
   A few years ago, the American Medical Association  con-
 vened in St. Louis, Missouri, and as usual when a great many
 great men  from great distances assemble in a great city on a
 great occasion, they hada great dinner;  and they had a great
 amount of grog with it.  A friend sent me a printed copy of
 the bill of fare, on which I counted precisely forty kinds of al-
 coholic liquor!   But I do not censure the doctors for such prac-
 tices.  I only  blame the theory which  leads  to them.  No
 doubt,  after having  performed their arduous  duties,  they
 wished to "support vitaHty," and so they went rather exten-
 sively into "respiratory food!"

                     the higher law.
   Now I hold it to  be the duty, as well as the privilege  of hu-
 man  beings, to act out their convictions.  I beHeve  in the
 "higher law"  of conscience.  Whatever conscience declares
 to be right,  men should do.  But they should have enlighten-
 ed consciences, and to this  end  they should seek to know the
 exact truth on  all subjects.  I do not blame some of the mem-
 bers of the Medical Convention for becoming a "Httle elat-
 ed," nor others for getting uproarious,  breaking tumblers,
 smashing decanters, and having a joUy time generally, as
 they are reported to have done,  if they really believe that al-
 cohol is so  redolent of remedial virtues.  I do not find fault
 with the consequences; I blame the cause.
   I cannot hold any person responsible for his conduct, while
• he is in a state of intoxication.   He is delirious and dement-
 ed.  He is insane.  He is a maniac.  He knows not what he
 is doing.  He  cannot  control  his conduct.  The blame is in
 drinking the Hquor.   Whether, after he has  swaHowed the
 "supporter  of vitality," the "respiratory food," or the "caustic 
58           The True Temperance Platform.
and irritant poison," as the case may be, he talks amusingly,
gibbers nonsensically,  assaults his neighbor,  or murders hia
wife or child, it is all the same, so far as responsibility is con-
cerned.  I would no sooner hang a drunken man for killing
his fellow-being, than I would hang a sane man for drinking
intoxicating liquor, or his neighbor for seUing it.

                     is alcohol food?
   What are the scientific facts, with regard to this supremely
ridiculous  nonsense of the "alcohoHc alimentary principle?"
It will not bear the ordeal of a moment's scientific  examina-
tion.   When the data are analyzed, this notion will  be found
quite as absurd as its twin-postulate, that alcohol is a support-
er of vitality.  When Liebig announced to the world that al-
cohol is "respiratory food," and used in the system as a "heat-
forming "material, he put the temperance reform back, at least
a quarter of a century.   But if this doctrine be true, I desire
to abide by it, be the consequences what they may.   I cannot,
I will not, knowingly oppose any truth.   I do not controvert
science.  I am not warring  upon the intelligence of the age.
I am only exposing error, refuting falsities, and opposing the
absurd vagaries which  have come down  to us  unchaUenged
and  uninvestigated from the dark ages.  I am not  disputing
facts, but explaining them.  I am not denying correct princi-
ples, but controverting false assumptions.  It is the business
of the true physician to  interpret the book of nature—to
explain the laws of God as revealed in and through the vital
organism.   Nature's outspread volume is my only  text-book
of authority.  Whatever it teaches, I do  most  implicitly be-
Eeve.  And  if the professors of science  mistake the  teach-
ings  of this book—if they pervert or misapply the data of
science—I have the right, and it is my duty to expose the er-
ror and disclose the truth if I can.
   Alcohol is not food, in any sense whatever.   In  the Hght
of true science, the assumption is a  self-evident absurdity.
What is food? The correct answer to this question settles this
part  of our controversy.   Food is that which is convertible 
The True Temperance Platform.          59
into the substance of an organized body.  Food is whatever
can be used in the formation of the bodily organs and tissues.
Alcohol cannot be so used.

              THE FALLACY OF  LIEBIG EXPOSED.
  How  came the great Liebig to make this great blunder ?
Just as chemists, and  physiologists, and physicians, are con-
tinually making  blunders.  They take morbid appetites in-
stead of the unperverted instincts as their rule of  judgment.
They take fickle and depraved human habits as their criterion
of truth, instead of the fixed and unalterable laws of nature.
Their philosophy comes from the kitchen and the cook, more
than it does from nature and the Author of nature.
  Liebig noticed that  there was  extant, an appetite for alco-
holic drink, and  that this  propensity was indulged.  Liebig
seems never to have doubted the propriety of drinking liquor
—or perhaps we should say, of eating it, as adults do not drink
food.  It seems never to have occurred to Liebig, that appe-
tites may become morbid or perverted, and may crave things
which are neither useful nor usable in any sense—tobacco for
example.   Liebig is a  chemist; and as an analytical  chemist,
is, perhaps, unsurpassed.

          relations of chemistry and physiology.
  But chemical data  can  never explain physiological prob-
lems.   These sciences are as different as life and death.  As a
chemist, Liebig sought to ascertain what use the Hving system
makes of alcohol.  He never conceived, that it is not used at
all, and in the very nature of things cannot be.  From the
data, that there is, in many persons  at least, a desire for alco-
hol, that alcohol  has no elements capable of becoming proxi-
mate constituents of the tissues, and that the system experi-
enced a sensation  of warmth  after  taking it, Liebig had  an
easy  jump to the conclusion, that alcohol is employed in the
vital organism as a " heat-forming " material; and thus was
born the pseudo-scientific monstrosity of " calorifacient" diet-
The same reasoning would make cayenne pepper "heat-form 
60          The True Temperance Platform.
ing " food; the same logic would make the bite of a serpent,
a "supporter of vitality," the sting of an adder, "respiratory
food," and the swallowing of a spider, a "stomachic restora-
tive."
  Another simple fact settles the whole controversy.  Alcohol
passes through the system unchanged.  Unless it is in some way al-
tered, decomposed, diminished, changed or transposed, it can
impart nothing.   It cannot be used.   It  can supply neither
the element of combustion nor of tissue.   It can neither give
substance nor heat.   Food proper, undergoes decomposition;
its elements are  rearranged;  it is  actually transformed.   An
apple, a  potato,  a piece of bread or beef, when  subjected to
the digestive process, is formed into blocd, bone, muscle, nerve,
brain, etc.  It is then used as force-material and reduced to
ashes; and the  ashes—the debris of the disintegrated tissues
—are expeUed  by the excretory organs in the form of sweat,
bile, urine, feces and carbonic acid gas.
  Alcohol is not digestible.   It is taken  into the system as
alcohol;  it is carried through the system as alcohol, and it is
expelled from the system as alcohol.   If  a potato,  an apple,
a piece of bread, or beef, was expelled from the system as po-
tato, apple, bread, or  beef, no one  would think it acted or
served the part of food.  Why must learned men, who  can
reason rationally  on all other subjects, talk  nothing but ab-
surdity and nonsense when alcohol is mentioned ?
  Is it not strange that physicians,  who confess they cannot
tell in what manner alcohol is used in the organic economy, still
persist that it is used in some way ?  Is it not passing strange
that medical men will  confess that alcohol passed unchanged
through  the system, and yet insist  that in  some marvelous
and incomprehensible  manner, it does  something,  or  imparts
something ?
  The blunder,  however, in relation to alcohol, has been ap-
plied to other remedies, particularly, the preparations of iron.
Not understanding the rationale of the effects of alcohol, they
have prescribed  many other poisonous agents—most disas-
trously, too—for their patients, on the hypothesis, that  they 
The True  Temperance  Platform.          61
also imparted some useful or necessary tlernent or constituent
to the organs or  tissues.  Iron  is extensively employed as
"blood-food," and as a tonic in cases of impoverished or defi-
cient blood, impaired nutrition, debiHty, anemia,  cachexias,
etc.; and most people  seem to think it is perfectly harmless.
The delusion is analagous to  that concerning the medicinal
effects of alcohol.   Iron in all its forms and preparations, oc-
casions a feverish condition of the system, and an inflammato-
ry state of the blood.  It is an irritant, a stimulant, a blood-
destroyer, a nerve-exhauster, a poison, as is alcohol.

           distinction between food and  poison.
   The Law  of Organic  Life, which appHes to the solution of
the problems before us,  is this:  Whatever the living system
cannot use, it must reject. And here is the distinction between
foods and poisons, which, by the way,  we do not find in med-
ical books.   Whatever the living system cannot appropriate
as food, it must expel as effete matter, as foreign matter, or as
poisonous matter.
   And here  is the doctrine of use and abuse in the vital domain,
so much talked about and so Httle understood.   Here is the rule
by which we are  to determine whether a given substance is
useful or injurious.   And  by this rule we learn at once, that all
use of alcohol, or of the preparations of iron, is abuse.  An
 animal organism  cannot digest, cannot assimilate, cannot use
inorganic substances,  to which category iron and alcohol be-
 long.
                ALCOHOL AS A CALORLFACIENT.
   But does  not alcohol  in some way impart heat to the body?
 I answer, no.   It imparts nothing.  If it did, it  would be
 changed, and would not pass out as alcohol.  H it nourished
 the tissues,  it would  be decomposed, and pass off as excre-
 ment.  If it imparted heat, it would  be consumed, and pass
 off as smoke, vapor, or ashes.  But  if it simply passes un-
 changed, and does nothing, and imparts nothing, how can it
 "give tone," "restore strength," or "support vitality?"  No-
 body  will pretend that  strength, or vitality exists in alcohol: 
62           The True Temperance Platform.
and if it does not exist in it, how can it be obtained from it?
"But alcohol occasions heat."  So it does.   So does arsenic,
mercury, antimony,  nitre,  and  all the most  deadly agents
of the materia drugica.  But who suspects  any poison that
was ever swallowed,  except alcohol, of being "heat-forming"
food ?  Call them all, alcohol included, heat-occasioning poi-
sons, and we can understand the language.
  " Heat-forming " food!   What is heat ?  It is not settled
that heat is a substance to be imparted.  It is not a substance
to be created.  It is  not a thing to be formed.   According to
the best  authorities, heat is motion.  The sensation of heat, is
our recognition of the degree or intensity of the motions of
the particles of matter.  If a body imparts to us the sensa-
tion, or  rather, if we recognize in a  body the  sensation of
high temperature—if it be hot—it is because its molecular
particles are  in rapid motion—the consequence of some  dis-
turbing  agent  or influence.   Alcohol  occasions  preternatural
heat in the vital domain, only as a disturbing agent, and aU
heat thus produced, is of the kind properly termed fever or
inflammation.
                 THE MUDDLE UNMUDDLED.

  We see  now where the error is with the learned men.
They have mistaken vital  resistance for a physiological process;
they have mistaken morbid action for normal function; they have
mistaken inflammation for  nutrition ; they have mistaken fever
for food; they have  mistaken the expenditure and waste of the
Hfe-principle, for its accumulation and  supply;  in  short,  they
have mistaken disease for health.
  This mistake, and the doctrines and practices which neces-
sarily grow out of it, are the chief  sources of all the dissipa-
tion and debauchery in the world,  and much of the vice and
crime.   It is an error which utterly confounds all distinctions
between foods, poisons, and medicines.  In fact it makes a ra-
tional distinction impossible.  Must I tell you that medical au-
thors do not give us any definition of the word food ?
   This faUacy which mistakes stimulation for strength, under- 
The True Temperance Platform.          63
lies aU the false doctrines and erroneous practices of the medi-
cal profession, which are so effectually paralyzing the temper-
ance cause, and so rapidly destroying the human race.

                A FALSE THEORY  OF  DISEASE.

   Because of this primary error, that stimulation is strength—
that external objects act upon the living system, involving the
Brunonian fallacy that  "life is a forced state"—the medical
profession has an entirely erroneous theory of the nature  of
disease, and of the action of remedies, and  I am perfectly
certain that they will never treat diseases very successfully,
until they experience a radical change  of opinion.  I do not
believe it is possible to predicate a successful practice of the
healing art upon a false medical science.  Common sense has
never yet been applied to the investigation of medical  prob-
lems, as it has to all other subjects.

                DISEASE IS REMEDIAL EFFORT.

   Disease, I have said, is just the contrary of what is taught
in medical books.  It is remedial effort.  "But how," it may
be objected, " can a remedial effort  occasion loss or waste of
vital power ? "
   I answer, just as a nation wastes its resources in war.  War
is remedial effort.  It is national disease, although it may be
necessary.  Disease is  an action to cast out impurities.  It
wastes the vital power, just as a man would expend his strength
in ejecting a thief from his premises.
   If a thief or a mad  dog should get into your  house, and
you should go to work with aU your might to expel it, and if,
while so engaged, a friend who intended to " aid and assist"
you, should come up behind your back, and burn you with a
red  hot  poker, or if he should  throw  cayenne pepper into
your eyes, he would cause you  to  let the thief  or the dog
alone, and go  to fighting the poker or the pepper.   He would
arrest your remedial effort in one direction, by inducing it in
another.  He would thus "cure one  disease by producing 
6-1          The True Temperance Platform.
another."   But the thief or the dog would remain.  And this
is a perfect illustration of the manner in  which drugs cure
diseases, and in which alcohol " supports vitality."

                  STIMULATION AND FEVER.
  Let us return for a moment to the nature and relations of
stimulation and fever.  What is  fever?   Simply, as I have
said, a  process of purification.  Fevers are not intrinsically
dangerous.  Nearly  all of the danger results from the erro-
neous manner in which they are ordinarily medicated.  The
terrible typhus or typhoid fever, of which so many people are
said to be dying  continually, is  not in itself dangerous.  No
person can have  a fever, unless there are  obstructions in his
system which ought  to be removed; and  the fever is the at-
tempt to remove them.  So far, therefore, from being danger-
ous, it is dangerous not to have a fever, provided the causes
exist.  There may be circumstances  or complications which
will render the remedial struggle unsuccessful;  but  the  dis-
ease is a remedial effort nevertheless.  And when this princi-
ple is recognized by the medical profession, we shall very soon
have a great, indeed, a complete revolution in  the manner of
treating fevers.
  No one would allow himself to  be stimulated in a fever, or
as a restorative process at any time, if he understood  the
rationale of stimulation.  No physician would ever prescribe
alcohol as a medicine, if he could explain its  modus  operandi.
No person would ever think of taking alcohol into his system
during the presence of a fever, if he  knew what a fever was.
If he knew the true nature of a fever, he would fear to "break
it up," as much as he would fear  to Ireak down his constitution.
He would be as unwilling to have his fever " subdued," as he
would  be unwilling to incur a worse chronic disease.  And if he
understood the manner in which  alcohol "supports  vitality,"
or " develops nervous energy," he would regard the alcoholic
treatment of fever, like curing a disease by lulling the patient.
   H a fever is a process  of  purification,  certainly it should
not be "suppressed," "subdued,"  "counteracted," "opposed " 
The True Temperance Platform.           65
nor killed nor cured, in the ordinary sense of these terms.  It
should be aided, assisted, and regulated.  A fever is not a sub-
stance, but an action.  It is not an entity, but a disturlance.  It
is not an enemy, but it is defensive war.   It is not a thing to be
destroyed, but a process to be directed.
  Medical journals are discussing, to this day, the nature and
seat of  different fevers.  Fevers have no " seat."   Medical
books  teU us  that fevers "attack" us; "go through" us;
" run their course ;" and that some of them are " self-limit-
ed," etc.; they "set in,"  "supervene," etc.; they  come in, run
out,  travel aboid,  locate,  emigrate and immigrate, advance, retreat,
capture or capitidate,  as though they were independent exist-
ences,  imps,  spooks, ghosts, or gobHns.  How absurd!   Did
it ever occur to our medical philosophers to imagine where a
fever was when no one had it?   Where was  it before it "at-
tacked " the patient?   Where did it go after it had left the pa-
tient ?  In what form, shape, condition, or place,  does a fever
exist outside of the living  organism ?   What has the profes-
sion been doing for three thousand years that it has never
thought of these things ?
   On  the theory that fever is a thing, which must of neces-
sity run a certain course, and which, in the language of Dr.
Bigelow, of Boston, " derives laws  from  its  own  nature,"
physicians  predicate the  use  of stimulants.  And since the
doctrine of  the self-limitation of disease has come in vogue,
the use of alcoholic stimulants has greatly increased.
   The tendency of fever is to depress and weaken the patient,
and alcohol is given to  "support vitality "—to "keep him up,"
until the disease has run its course.   But once admit the prin-
ciple, and where are you going to stop?   There is no stopping-
place  this side the  grave.   Persons are weak and depressed
in many ways, and from various causes.   Why not resort to
 alcohol ?  WeU, they do and there's just the mischief.   And
 so the principle is  established, that  alcohol is a universal
 panacea.
   But we do not stop here.   If alcohol will  cure  disease, why
 wiU it not prevent  disease?  H it wiU make sick folks well. 
66          The True Temperance Platform.
why will it not make well folks better?  If it will obviate the
effects of debility, why not prevent debility?   The logic  is
sound, and alcohol is employed as a preventive of disease.

                      GROG RATIONS.
  The grog  and spirit rations of navies and  armies have
caused a fearful amount of drunkenness and insubordination.
The Scotts, and the WelHngtons, and the Havelocks, have
testified that intoxicating drink is the chief scourge  of the
sailors and soldiers.  During  our impending war, the rum-
fiend has everywhere followed our armies like a pestilence,
and although the military authorities have often testified
against it, and sometimes banished the sutlers, and smashed
the  heads of their whisky barrels, the  evil is not  stayed.
Why, our BuU Eun disaster, of which  you have heard  so
much, was a liquor-panic.   And no sooner did our army of the
Potomac  find itself in the swamps of Chickahominy, than
double rations of whisky were issued; not to cure  fever,  but to
prevent it.
  We see again how effectual, how all-potent is  the influence
of medical men on this question.  And why should it not be?
It is  their business to determine aU questions which  in any
manner concern the cure .of disease and the preservation  of
health.   For this they are employed, and paid, and for this
they have been educated.  From their decision there is no
appeal.   And  if they are  mistaken in their doctrines, the
people must be killed  by their practices.   There is no alter-
native.
  On this subject there is a power behind  the throne stronger
than the throne itself.   There is a secret, invisible influence, an
aU-potent something, which defeats aU  sanitary measures,  so
far as alcohol  is concerned, overrides  science, disregards the
lessons  of experience, and perpetuates the reign of the " de-
mon of the glass."   And this  is nothing  more nor less than
the false doctrine of the medical profession, that alcohol is a
" supporter of vitality." 
The True Temperance Platform.           67
              STIMULATION AND INTOXICATION.

  And on this theory it is claimed that stimulation, short of in-
toxication, is useful.  Ah!  but where does stimulation end and
intoxication begin?  Here  is another  perplexing predica-
ment, which, like a mathematical  point,  has "neither length,
breadth, nor thickness."   And how this problem has bothered
the brains of learned men, and puzzled philosophers and con-
founded courts, and astonished juries !

                SWILL-MILK  AND  LAGER-BEER.

  In the courts of New York we have  had the question under
judicial investigation, whether swill-milk is wholesome, and
whether lager-leer is intoxicating? And medical men were
found to have very different opinions—did you ever hear of
doctors disagreeing ?—on  these subjects.   Experienced lager-
beer drinkers came forward  by the score and swore that there
was nothing intoxicating in the article; and  one ponderous
German testified that a  whole  keg of lager only made him
feel " goot and shleepy."
   A chemist of Columbia College was  employed to analyze
some of the milk which  was manufactured at  the New York
distilleries, and  he certified that it was  as good, if not better
than the pure country article.  And  a physician—a member
of the  New York Academy of Medicine—testified that the
alcoholic ingredient in the  swill-milk, was an advantage to
feeble  children.  He  regarded  it as  more  nutritious  and
strengthening on account of its alcoholic quality!

                   A MEDICO-LEGAL POINT.

   And so our judges of the courts have been obHged to de-
 cide__aild surely they could not contemn the experience of a
 man who takes forty glasses of lager a day, nor despise the
 analysis of a Professor  of  Columbia  College,  nor ignore the
 opinion of a member  of the Academy  of Medicine—that, up
 to a "certain point," alcoholic liquors are a "refreshing bev-
 erage;" although beyond a  certain point, they  become an "in- 
68           The True Temperance Platform.
toxica.ting poison."  But where the " certain point" is to be
found, is, to say the least, very uncertain; for some will carry
twenty, or thirty,  or forty  glasses with as little unsteadiness
of gait, as others will one,  five, or ten.

                SIR GEORGE GREY  ON EXCESS.

  Sir George Grey, in the British ParHament, recently, oppos-
ed the principle of "prohibitory statute " against beer, because
alcoholic beverages which,  in his language, " are no doubt in-
jurious when taken to excess, are,  when taken in moderation,
wholesome and invigorating."  What is excess ?   One might
as well caU  extensive  lying very wicked, and moderate lying
eminently proper and  moralizing!

          DISCUSSIONS  IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

  In all the discussions in  the  British ParHament, of which
I have seen a report, on the subject of the beer-traffic, the op-
ponents of prohibitory legislation have invariably based their
argument on the  ground,  that beer is actuaUy a  nutritious
and useful  drink.  "The  laboring  man," say they, "should
not be deprived of his necessary refreshment."
  But how  happens it, let us ask, " My Lords and  Gentle-
men," that those who labor the hardest drink the least, and
vice versa ?  How comes it that the British medical men testify
that  beer-drinkers are  so  difficult  to  cure when  attacked
by disease,  because of their gross  blood, frail tissues, and
foul  secretions ?  And why do British  surgeons  remark the
difficulty with which  wounds and injuries, even of a trivial
character,  heal, in the bodies of beer-drinkers ?  In the Cri-
mean campaign, the British surgeons testified to the remarka-
ble facility with which the Eussian non-beer-drinking sol-
diers recovered of  the most formidable wounds.

           THE DEAN OF CARLISLE  ON STIMULATION.

  The Dean of CarHsle, in a temperance speech,  deliberately
affirmed that " there is not a greater falsehood in physics, or in 
The True Temperance  Platform.          69
fact, than  that stimulants in any degree, are necessary for
men, except as a medicine."
  " Except as a medicine!"  Here is the fatal rock on which
we  are continually being wrecked.   I do most deliberately
affirm—and on this issue I will be glad at any time, to meet
the good Dean in a friendly discussion—that there is not a
greater falsehood beneath the sun, than that stimulants  are
necessary for man, or useful as medicines.   And on this issue
I am willing to meet all the medical men on the earth.   On
this question I have thrown down the gauntlet to  the Facul-
ties of  the Medical CoUeges in places where I have lectured—
in Washington, Boston,  Chicago,  Toronto, Baltimore  and
New York—but no one has yet signified a wiUingness to de-
bate this question before the people.
  In all the discussions which I have heard or read between
the advocates for  moderate drinking, and  the advocates of
total abstinence, the former have always got the best of the
argument;  and this  because the teetotalers have always con-
ceded the main premise—that alcohol is useful as a medicine.
With  this  admission,  the  rumseller  has all  the  science  in
his favor, and the temperance man can only base his argument
on considerations of prudence, or " the least of two evils."

            DR. MUZZEY ON  ALCOHOLIC  MEDICATION.
  Well did Dr. Muzzey,  of Boston,  in a Prize Essay pub-
Hshed in 1835, declare that the sick chamber was the last hid-
ing place of the demon, intemperance.   And truly did he say
that medical men had the power, and it is their duty to exor-
cise it from its usurped retreat.  And now, after studying the
subject for  nearly thirty years longer, he reiterates his former
statement, that alcohol is not a supporter of vitality.
  But Dr. Muzzey objects to alcohol as a medicine, because it is
a poison.  Are not all medicines poisons ?  He objects to alco-
hol as a beverage, because it induces disease.   Does not  the
best food, or the purest water, induce disease if improperly
used ?   And here we are again involved in the old dilemma of
"use and abuse." 
70          The True Temperance Platform.
  Dr. Muzzey does not  place his objection  to alcohol as a
medicine on the right ground.   He  has no  philosophical
basis.  The objection to alcohol speciaUy as a medicine, is not
because it is a poison, for this would apply as well  to all the
contents of the apothecary shop; it would embrace the whole
popular materia medica.   The real and the only objection to
alcohol as a medicine is, it is not usefid.   Other medicines or
other poisons may be one thing or another—good, bad, or in-
different.   Let them stand or fall on their own merits.   And,
ditto with alcohol.
  Dr. Carpenter entitles his prize book,  "The Use and Abuse
of Alcohol."  We can never do much to suppress its  abuse,
until we cease commending its use.   And this point of use has
been singularly overlooked.  All of the temperance advocates,
orators, and authors concede its usefulness, as a medicine.  Is
it not time that this, the primary question, should be investi-
gated?  I  deny its usefulness, utterly  and teetotally in all
cases, under aU circumstances.
  Hundreds of eminent physicians have testified to  the world
that alcohol  as  a medicine,  is wholly  unnecessary.  Why ?
Because they can find substitutes.  While they confess that
they can get along without it, they admit that it is good to use.
It is  useful, but other things will answer.  These medical
gentlemen condemn the act of alcoholic medication, while they
endorse the principle of alcohoHc medicine.  And in this way
their teachings have been of more advantage to the rumseUer,
than to the cause of temperance.  So long as the people are
taught that alcohol is useful as a medicine, and so  long as it
is convenient to  obtain  and pleasant to take, they will not
greatly trouble  themselves to find  substitutes.  Many who
leave off liquor-drinking, find a substitute in tobacco-chew-
ing, or tobacco-smoking, and many of these only make  a bad
matter worse.  I am of the opinion that  tobacco is a greater
curse to human society than alcohol.   It is,  I verily beHeve,
hurrying  the human race to perdition much faster  than is
alcohol. 
The True Temperance Platform.
71
               THE ERROR AND THE  REMEDY.
  The error and the remedy He further back.   Our temper-
ance authors, orators, and prize-writers, have not yet touched
the root of the evil.   They have not  even named it.  And
surely they can never apply the ax to the root, until they see
where the root is, and what it is.

               A FALSE  DOCTRINE  OF  VITALITY.

  Medical men teach a false doctrine of vitaHty.  This is the
starting-point of all the errors which prevail in relation to the
nature of disease, the modus operandi of medicine, and the action
or effects of alcohol.   Uproot this false doctrine and our work is
done.  The temperance cause will then achieve its own tri-
umph.  Plant the seeds of scientific  truth beside this  root,
and the tree of Intemperance dies.  Teach this generation the
true relations of Hving and dead matter, and the  next gener-
 ation wdl  sing  the song of a new redemption.   Teach them
 to  prevent disease by avoiding the  causes, rather than to at-
 tempt to cure it by administering the causes of other diseases;
 teach them that disease is war, and that war is waste; teach
 them that stimulation is disease, and that every dose diminishes
 the inherent vitaHty of the patient; that vitaHty once lost can
 never  be  regained; teach them that every drop of alcohol
 taken into the Hving system under  any circumstances, wastes
 a  given amount of the unreplenishable fund of life, and that
 the  only means which can ensure  health  and longevity, are
 purity of  blood and cleanHness of body, and you will lay the
 true  foundation for temperance reform, for health  reform,
 for  aU reform, and for all  enduring progress among men.
    Medical men teach that external objects of all kinds—foods,
 medicines, poisons,  etc.,—act on  the vital machinery and
 thereby keep it in motion.   And diseases, and causes of dis-
 ease—morbific  agents—are said also to act on the Hving or-
 ganism.
    The truth is exactly the contrary.  It is on this false doc-
  trine that dead objects are said to be active,  and the  living 
72
The True Temperance Platform.
system, passive, in their relations to each other, that medical
men have adopted the absurd  dogma that "life  is a forced
state," and thereon fabricated a theory that all diseases are
owing to excessive or defective stimulation, one class requir-
ing the tonic or stimulant, and the other the depletent or an-
tiphlogistic plan of treatment.  Both methods have been as
pernicious as the  theory is  false.   Liebig's theory of disease
embodies the same essential faUacy.

              THE GREAT FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH.
  The great fundamental  truth  is, the living system is not
acted on at aU by dead, inorganic matter—by food, medicines,
nor poisons.   They are wholly passive, and the Hving system
alone is active.  Health expresses the sum or aggregate of the
vital actions which nourish and develop the bodily organs and
structures; and disease is vital action in the process of expel-
ling poisons or impurities from the system, or in removing ob-
structions, and repairing  damages.

                 REVOLUTIONARY SENTIMENTS.
  I know that these views are radical.  They may be revolu-
tionary, so far as the popular  medical system is concerned.
Indeed, they are so.   But this  I  cannot help; and I do not
feel that I have any disposition to help it.  I know  they are true;
and my only wish about the matter is, to have them under-
stood. And if their recognition should damage the profession
ever so seriously, so far as its emoluments are concerned—even
if it should reduce nine-tenths of all the physicians of the
civiHzed worid to the necessity of seeking some other vocation
than  poisoning people because they  are sick, I shall not be
among the  mourners.  If ever, in "the good time coming,"
physicians become unnecessary, it will be because the people
have  become more intelHgent and more healthy.

       TESTIMONY OF PROFESSORS GREGORY AND WAKLEY.
   And yet  I  do not disparage the  doctrines of the medical
profession any more than its own standard authors have been
doing for fifty years. 
The True Temperance Platform.           73
  Prof. Gregory of Edinburg, declared to his medical class,
that medical doctrines were, for the most part, "stark, staring
nonsense."
  And the late Dr. Wakley, who died in June last, who held
the office of  coroner  in London  for twenty years, and who
was foiemost in many plans for improving his profession and
benefiting mankind, has left the following sentence on record:
" How Httle do we know of disease  compared with what we
have to learn!  Every day develops new views, teaching us
that many of what we before thought immutable truths, de-
serve duly to  be classed  with baseless  theories; yet dazzled
with the splendor of  great names.   On these theories, which
have usurped the  place of truth, a system of  routine,  em-
pirical practice has grown up, vascillating, uncertain,  and
often pilotless, in the  treatment of disease."

          the avestminster review on teetotalism.
  A few years ago, there appeared in the Westminster Review,
an  elaborate  article, which I suppose you have  all read, en-
titled, "The Physiological Errors of  Teetotalism."  It was, in
vulgar parlance, " a knock-down argument." Teetotalers read
it and began to doubt. Eumsellers read it and were jubilant.
Eum-drinkers read it and felt  easier in their consciences.
Neutrals read it and  went  over  to the enemy.   Newspapers
aU  over the  land  noticed  it, and most of them commended
it.  Medical journals applauded it.  Scientific men approved
it.  Some of the leading journals declared its premises sound ;
others asserted that its logic was irresistible; and still others
maintained that its conclusions were conclusive.   Temperance
journals replied feebly and ineffectuaHy, and totally  failed to
meet the issues it presented.
  The author proved absolutely—to a demonstration from the
premises—that alcohol is "respiratory food;" a "supporter of
vitality;" a useful leverage; a good  medicine; and that teeto-
talism was indeed, a very great blunder.
  But what about the premises ?  Why, the premises were
these false doctrines  of the medical profession which I have
         4 
71        The True Temperance Platform.
been refuting.  Admit these, and there is an end of the case
It mast be decided against us.   Deny these, and all that in-
genious and plausible superstructure of facts, statistics, argu-
ments, hypotheses, and logic, becomes but " the baseless fabric
of a vision."  The author  of anti-teetotal  physiology had  a
most formidable array of authorities on his  side.   He  had all
of the text-books of all of the Medical Schools;  he had all
of the standard works on Chemistry and Physiology;  he had
even the authors of Prize Essays on Temperance, from which
to select  his data to disprove the principle and confound the
philosophy of total abstinence from intoxicating beverages.
  A few years later, in January, 1861, the same Westminster
Review pubHshed an article refuting,  not the "physiological
errors of teetotalism," but the physiological errors of  its for-
mer article, acknowledging its fallacy, so  far as "respiratory
food " is  concerned, and proving its fallacy, so far as a " sup-
porter of vitality " is concerned.
  It has been said that " error wiU travel a hundred miles
while truth is putting on its boots."   The article in the Re-
view, proving that "grog is good," had a rapid run over the
country.   The article proving that grog is lad, has hardly yet
got fairly started.  I have seen no notice of it in any periodi-
cal  except the notice I wrote myself.   Nor has the medical
profession, so far as I can learn from its journals—and I have
watched  them closely on this subject, ever since the advent of
Liebig's "respiratory food "nonsense-—in any practical manner
taken any notice of the demonstration of the Review  against
alcohoHc food, although it was swift to circulate and endorse
aU of the arguments in its favor.

       EXPERIMENTS OF LALLEMAND, PERRIN,  AND  DUROY.
  And this, too, notwithstanding the Academy of Sciences of
Paris, has awarded the Montyon prize of twenty-five thous-
and francs to Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin, and Duroy, for their
work on " The Action of Alcohol and of Anesthetic  Agents
on the System," in which it is shown by a series of carefully
conducted and absolutely conclusive experiments, that  alcohol 
The True Temperance Platform.          75
is  neither respirable, oxidizable, nor digestible, nor  in  any
manner usable in the organic economy,  but that  it passes
through  the system unchanged,  being  eliminated by  the
lungs, skin, and kidneys.
   In Braithwaite's Retrospect for July, 1862, is a summary of
the conclusions at which Messrs. LaUemand, Perrin, and  Du-
roy arrived, as the result of their investigations.  I  commend
the article to the attention of the medical profession.
   These authors—Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin, and  Duroy,—I
should remark in this place, still retain the prejudice of three
thousand  years;  still adhere to the  dogma of the dark ages,
and think that alcohol acts in some way on the system, although
they are unable to tell how it acts.  They say, in conclusion of
their experiments, " The real action  of alcohol on the organ-
ism has yet to be shown."
   How near a person may come to the truth and stiU miss it!
These authors  have  never suspected the real truth—that al-
cohol has no action at all.   They prove that it has no action,
and then they wonder how it acts!   They  have demonstrated,
that in passing through the system, it is entirely passive ; yet
blinded by  the hypotheses into which they have  been  edu-
cated they still believe in its action.  How hard it is to exer-
cise common sense  when  one  has been  educated  out of it.
A world of faUacy underHes this false doctrine of the action of
alcohol.
   The Academy of Sciences has  given 25,000 francs for a
work on the action  of alcohol  on  the system, when the work
itself confesses that it knows nothing about it.   I wonder
what appropriation  the Academy will vote me, or the Tem-
perance  Societies—for  giving  the rationale of the subject—
for explaining that alcohol has  no action  at all! and for
 calling attention to  that primary law in physical and natural
philosophy, and to the true starting-point of all physiological
 science,  that the property of inorganic and dead  substances
 is inertia, and  that inertia, so far from being a power to act,
 is simply a property to keep still and do  nothing !  True, we
 are taught in some medical books, that inertia is a power. 
76           The True Temperance Platform.
Thus,  for example, Dunglison speaks of the living tissue, as
having a "power to be acted upon !"  A stone may be said
to have the power to be thrown by the  Hving hand, but the
phrase would not be scientifically correct.

                      ABRAKADABRA.
  So long as the idea is entertained by scientific men, and by
the medical profession, that alcohol  acts in any manner on  the
Hving  system, so long will it be the great alrakadabra of the
materia medica.  This word, pronounced and repeated in va-
rious ways, was once the charm, the amulet, the incantation,
to prevent diseases and cure fevers; as alcohol,  pronounced
"respiratory food," and  "vital supporter," by Liebig, Pereira,
Carpenter, Dunglison, and  repeated  as  rum,  Irandy, gin, whis-
ky, wine, cider, ale, porter, lager, etc., by the  medical  profession,
is, according to modern necromancy, the remedy for  prevent-
ing and curing all the " ills that flesh is heir to."
  We  shaU never be able to exorcise the fiend from the drug
shop, until we make the people understand  that it  does not
act at aU ; but that the living system acts and wars upon it as
an enemy to the vital domain.   And when this truth is clearly
recognized and fully understood by the  people, alcoholic med-
ication win be buried so deep in the  Sea of  ObHvion, that
there will be no resurrection for it until civilization recedes to
barbarism, and another age of  ignorance  and superstition
overshadows the earth.

        DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES  OF  FALSE DOCTRINES.
  Next to the " respiratory food" discovery of Liebig, nothing
has ever had a more disastrous influence  on medical practice
than the  first article in the Westminster Review,  to which I
have alluded.   That article gave a new impetus, not only to
alcoholic  drinking, but to alcohoHc medication.   It led the
way to another most pernicious method of medical practice,
the oleaginous or  hydro-carbonaceous  treatment of diseases.
Invalids are not only kept semi-intoxicated with alcohol, but
stuffed and befouled with fats, greases, gravies, butter, lard, 
The True Temperance Platform.
11
cod-liver oil, etc.  And while the doctors are feeding the peo-
ple on these miserable effete and excrete matters under the
name of " calorifacients," the keen-witted quacks have been
quick to see commercial advantages in these  doctrines, and
they are coining money by seUing numerous preparations
under the taking title of " blood-food."

         CALORIFACIENT DIET FOR FATTENING CATTLE.
   And  the English farmers even carried the doctrine of hy-
dro-carbonaceous or respiratory food so far, as to feed cod-
Hver  oil to their cattle and sheep, in order  to fatten them
more economicaUy.   " Alcohol is respiratory food ;" " alcohol
saves tissue;"  "alcohol yields itself to oxygen, and  thus re-
places a given amount of food."   Such were the doctrines an-
nounced to  the world by Liebig,  endorsed by Pereira, and
circulated far and wide by the Westminster.  The medical pro-
fession accepted them without question or qualification.  And
why should not the farmers apply to  their domestic animals
the doctrines which the  physicians were applying  to human
beings ?
   Cod-Hver oil is also "respiratory food;" ergo,  cod-Hver  oil
replaces a given amount of alcohol.  It would have been a
somewhat ridiculous attempt to fatten animals on  alcohol, as
we have seen  by the experiments on leeches, frogs, turtles,
birds,  fishes,  cats,  dog3,  horses, rabbits, and  guinea-pigs.
   What farmer would tolerate a drunken beast on.his prem-
ises,  even a moderately-drinking animal ?  Would not such a
 spectacle be disgusting to all feUow-animals, and the example
 a dangerous one for the morals and manners of every kind of
 cattle,  and  all sorts of pigs and poultry ?   Oh! it is  bad
 enough to  have drunken  human  beings—drunken men,
 drunken women,  drunken children—without having the
 "brutes that  perish " become addicted to habits of  intoxi-
 cation !
   And  is it not strange that man is the only "animal"—the
 only living creature in aU God's Universe—that will get drunk
 and not be ashamed of himself for it ?  It is said of monkeys 
78           The  True Temperance Platform.
and  donkies, of hogs and  dogs, of apes  and baboons, that
when by some accident or indiscretion they have  become in-
toxicated,  " after  the manner  of men," they never show any
disposition to repeat the experiment.   But man, " the higher
animal," dehghts in it.  I have heard the story of a hog who,
in consequence of partaking of some cherries which had been
steeped in rum, became so " tight" that he could not, for an
hour or two, maintain the steadiness of gait and dignity of de-
portment that become a respectable quadruped, and he felt so
mean about it that he could never afterwards be driven under
a cherry tree!
   But cod-Hver oil would do the fattening without making the
animal drunk ; and so  the  British farmers tried that experi-
ment.   The medical profession had taught them that cod-liv-
er oil would increase the adipose matter  of their domestic an-
imals ; and mistaking obstruction for development, mistaking
the retention of effete matter for the production of something
useful, they fed their sheep, and cattle, and pigs, on the filthy
excrement, until they found by experiment that it produced a
rancid condition  of the fat, and a hemorrhagic state of the
flesh.*  And cod-liver  oil, butter, lard, grease, fat pork, and
fish-oils of various kinds, are extensively prescribed by the
medical profession,  for the treatment of scrofula, consumption
anemia,  debility,  marasmus, and   many other  complaints
whose prominent symptoms are deficient  breath and impure
blood.  Prof. Hooker,  of Yale  College, testified, at a Nation-
al Convention of the American Medical Association, that fat,
grease, oil, alcohol, etc., were the preventives as well as the
  * Surgeon General Hammond, of the United States Army, in a late
work on " Military Hygiene," details certain experiments which he
tried on himself, with the view of testing the vexed question, whether
alcohol is  food.  After taking the alcohol for a few days, he found his
health disturbed, his weight increased, and his excretions diminished;
and he came to  the conclusion that alcohol is food!  The experiments
prove exactly the contrary; hut the Surgeon  General  is so blinded by
the dogmas of the Schools that he cannot see  it. 
The True Temperance Platform.          79
curatives of consumption, tuberculosis, and kindred maladies ;
this statement, as emanating from high authority, was echoed
aH over  the  land by the  newspapers and magazines, thus
knocking dietetic and  temperance reforms on the  head with
the same blow.   And  this abominable teaching is endorsed
by a foreign celebrity—Eokitansky—" the greatest living pa-
thologist," who  teaches in his scientific lectures, and in a
standard medical text-book, that venous blood and foul secre-
tions  are the remedies and the preventives of consumption.
And thus medical practice is more than ever before, becoming
a promiscuous jumble of gross alimentation and alcohoHc  in-
toxication.
            "RESPlRATORr  FOOD " PRESCRIPTIONS.

  Let us see how these erroneous and absurd doctrines work
in medical practice.  I must give you statistics from the New
York Hospitals, but I have no  doubt that similar examples
are quite familiar to London medical students.
  Prof. Parker, of the New York College of Physicians and
Surgeons, recently prescribed,  in a cHnical lecture,  for a frail,
scrofulous child,  cod-Hver oil  mixed with  Irandy.  For a can-
cerous patient, he recommended ale, cod-liver oil, and brandy.
  Prof. Wood, in a clinical lecture, prescribed for a little boy,
very much emaciated, iron, blood-gravy, wine, porter, ale, and
gin.   " The chief indication," said the Professor, " is to make
good, pure blood."  And as a proper sequel to, or commentary
on his prescription, the Professor remarked to the  Medical
class, "these youngsters will soon get to love it."
  Such are the horrid fruits of the absurd theory of  calorifa-
cient diet.  Alcohol, animal excretions, and effete  accumula-
tions, are grouped together as victuals, drink, and medicine.
  Yes, the youngsters will soon get to love it, and become can-
didates for the poor-house, the penitentiary, or the  gaUows.
Do you not see that the root of this devastating evil is in the
keeping  of the medical profession ?  In vain will you organ-
ize the Cadets of  Temperance,  and extend Juvenile Total Ab-
stinence Associations; in vain will you have Leagues, Orders, 
80          The True Temperance  jtlatform.
and  Alliances, througheut the world; and in vain will you
hold International  Temperance Conventions in this mighty
city—this " World of Wonders "—so long as the physicians
teach the children to love the alcoholic bane.   Thousands of
infants  are poisoned in their cradles—their pure instincts
perverted, their appetites  depraved,  and their  whole organ-
isms debauched for life—by alcoholic medication.   Here is
laid  the sure foundation  for millions of cases of  vagrant
children, disorderly youth, dissipated adults, and criminals of
all ages.
  One of the most active,  zealous, and successful temperance
reformers in  the United States, who resides in Chicago, 111.,
Eolla A. Law, Esq., and who  is doing more, probably, than
any other individual in our country to enrol the youth of our
land under the banner of the pledge, and the "long" and the
"strong" pledge, too, tells me that  everywhere he finds al-
coholic medication the chief obstacle in  his pathway; every-
where the  medical profession is the  stronghold of intemper-
ance.  The people  are everywhere indoctrinated with the
"respiratory-food" and "vital-supporter" fallacies, and the
practice of the physicians  keeps up the delusion.  This gen-
tleman informs me, that for many years he has been convinced
of the  utter  impossibility of  any  enduring progress in the
temperance reform,  until it is  placed ou the physiological or
scientific basis;  and, to use his own  graphic language, he al-
ways "pitches into  the doctors" when  lecturing on temper-
ance.  Do you imagine that you can educate your children to
" touch  not,  taste not, handle  not," the alcoholic beverage,
while your physicians are fixing in them the maddening ap-
petite for it,  by  administering alcoholic medicine?  Do you
imagine that the rising generation will grow up pure, sober,
healthful, while their physicians are poisoning them through
and through ?  If the strong man cannot resist the goadings
of the morbid appetite, why should we expect it of the feeble
child?   Prof. B. F.  Barker, M. D.,  of the New York  Med-
ical CoHege, said  not long since to his medical class, " I have
known several ladies to become habitual drunkards,  the pri. 
The True Temperance Platform.           81
mary cause being  a taste for stimulants which was acquired
by alcohoHc drink being 'administered to them as medicine."

                    AD CAPTANDUM LOGIC.

   Having now disposed of the scientific arguments of medical
authors and books, let us glance for a moment at the ad cap-
tandumvulgus style of logic which abounds in the current med-
ical journals   Says your Medical Times and Gazette:
   "The fundamental error of the teetotal advocate is, that
looking away from matter of fact, and  resorting to a feeble,
pedantic,  a priori style of argument, in a matter which ought
to be dealt with by  demonstration and  experiment."
   Have we not  had " demonstration and experiment" ample
and  complete ?  How about the plants, and the leeches, and
the frogs, and the reptiles, and the birds, and the fishes, and
the cats, dogs, horses,  and guinea-pigs ?  The Medical  Times
and Gazette continues:
   " While some persons abstain, and are better, or no worse,
the daily experience of most  conscientious and abstemious
persons proves them to be the better for an habitual allowance
of fermented liquor.*  Whether it be food or medicine, eHmi-
nated or transformed, whether it ought to do good or not, on
reasonable grounds of argument, are questions little to the
purpose.  It does  virtually comfort the stomach,  aud give
quiet to  the brain, and  enables  hard-working  and anxious
men to work harder and rest better.  That it lifts up the sick
from the very doors of death, must be palpable to every one
who has seen a case of hemorrhage; and  that it is greedily
  * Fermented liquor!  How few seem to understand that fermentation
is a rotting process!  And medical men talk, and write, and prescribe,
as though fermented and distilled liquors were radically different.  Al-
cohol is produced by fermentation, and in no other way.  Distillation
merely separates it from other ingredients; and the " virtue " or vice,
as the case may be, of all  distilled and fermented liquor, depends on
the quantity of alcohol contained in it, and the other  ingredients-
drugs, chemicals, and dye-stuffs—mingled with it. 
82
The True Temperance Platorm.
swallowed in immense quantities by patients during exhaust-
ing illness,  who  feel  its beneficial effects, is indisputable.
With these facts before us, it ill becomes the profession to be
coquetting with the teetotalers.  We do not want to become
slaves to definitions, nor to resort to scholastic subtleties when
we deal with matters so important as life and death."
  The author ignores theory and goes by experience.  Is not
the experience of a million of drunkards worth  something ?
What is experience without theory ?   What are facts without
a principle  of interpretation ?  Just what  a ship is without
rudder  or compass.   Just what impulse  is without reason.
Experience may prove anything, and  everything, or nothing,
according  to the rule  by which it is interpreted,  as we have
seen.  The physician may kill nine out of ten patients, and his
experience convinces him that he has saved one out of the ten!
He may give alcohol in one hundred cases of  cholera, pneu-
monia, diptheria,  or typhoid fever, and one half of the  pa-
tients recover,  and the other half die, and he may reason
from  his experience,  that alcohol has saved  fifty patients;
and yet  the  truth may be  that alcohol has destroyed, twenty-
five of those fifty patients.

               A HYDROPHOBIC  ILLUSTRATION.
  A few years ago, when hydrophobia was very prevalent,
the medical journals were discussing  the  question, whether
a case had ever been cured.  Braithwaite's Retrospect pronounc-
ed  the  prognosis " uniformly fatal."   Several  writers in the
medical journals which came under  my notice, declared that
we had no well-authenticated  record of  a case  ever having
been successfully treated with medicine.  A physician in the
New York Hospital reported a case in which the use of ice
was very beneficial.  It was beneficial because it enabled the
patient  to swallow, so that the physician could get some bran-
dy into  his  stomach!   This was the  great advantage, accord-
ing to the Doctor's " experience."  The patient died ; but the
ice was exceUent because it enabled the  patient to swallow
brandy!                                 • 
The True Temperance Platform.          83
  Still the newspapers were  full of infallible specifics, and
among other nostrums which  were about that time pubHshed
in the papers as a "sure cure in all cases," was that of M.
Levachoff,  a Eussian, who had cured seventeen hundred and
ninety one cases, without a single failure.  The cure consisted
in abstaining from tobacco, alcohol, animal food, condiments,
and  aU things  which had  a  tendency to inflame the blood,
and  the  administration of a  pill whose  composition was of
course a  secret.  M. Levachoff cured dogs and other animals
as well as men.  And the case of a remarkable dog, or rather
the remarkable case of a dog, is related.  I quote from the
New York Tribune:
   " A mad dog that had bitten several other dogs, was shut
up with  his victims in a barn ; M. Levachoff went in among
them, only armed with a pair of tongs, holding out the piU.
The dog was the first to approach, foaming  with rage, but no
sooner was the piU presented to it, than it swallowed it  at
once, moved by  an instinct  of self-preservation which even
madness had been unable to  destroy."
   Such  is  the story as originally published in the Morskci
 Shornik,  under  the direction of a  Scientific Committee of Ma-
 rine at St. Petersburg!  And now whether the dog snapped
 at the end of the tongs because it appreciated the pill,  or be-
 cause it  felt itself insulted—whether  the dog swallowed the
 pill by accident or design—and  whether the benefit of the
 plan of treatment introduced  by M. Levachoff is to be ascribed
 to the nostrum, or to  abstinence from alcoholic and other stim-
 ulants, are questions admitting, perhaps, of some discussion.

               THE MUDDLE OF ALCOHOLIC LOGIC.
   How  hard it is for an educated  person to let go a theory
 with which he was born, as I may say, and into which  he has
 been Hterally baptized.  From a text-book of Chemistry, by
 John Darby, A.  M., Professor of Chemistry and Natural Sci-
 ence in  East Alabama CoHege, pubHshed in 1861, by John M.
 Cooper  & Co.,  Savannah,  Georgia,  and   A.  S. Barnes  &
 Burr, New York,—the latest work on Chemistry which I have 
84
The True Temperance platform.
seen—there is  the  foUowing  comminglement of sense and
nonsense, on the relation  of alcohol to the living organism.
(Page 312.)
  " Its various combinations, forming the multitude of alco-
hoHc drinks, give it an importance to the human race, that
can be claimed by  no other besides bread and meat.   If its
importance in this relation, like them, was for good, it would
be well.  But of all the " iUs that flesh is heir to," there are
none that can equal those  inflicted by alcohol.  The  suffering
and ruin that  have been caused by it, are perfectly beyond
calculation.   Its excessive use, in any of its multitudinous forms,
turns man  into a brute, takes from his heart every human
sympathy, and plants in their place the worst passions of our
nature.   Under its influence he can trample on every interest
of a once-loved family.  He can murder the wife of his bosom.
He can  be  deaf to  the entreaties of his  own offspring, and,
brutalized by the burning curse, send the pleading child to
eternity by his  murderous hand.
  Ruin is the legitimate  result of its continued and excessive
use.   Nevertheless, we have no  doubt it can be used, and
rightly used.  One of the great uses of food is to afford heat,
and when ordinary food is taken, it must be digested before
it can furnish heat.   Now, when the digestive powers are en-
feebled by sickness or old  age, alcohol, in some of its forms of
wine, beer,  or brandy, may in this respect supply the place of
food in yielding heat, as alcohol does not undergo digestion.   It
burns at once, or it makes direct impression on the nerves.   It
affords heat  with no effort on the part  of the vital powers, which
ordinary food will not do.  In this  respect  alcoholic Hquors
might be used beneficially;  and  for which they were intended
by their Creator ; and such use is sanctioned by the Bible."
  Such is a fair specimen  of alcoholic ratiocination as we find
it in the medical journals,  in the standard  authors, in  the
medical  text-books, in the newspapers, and in quack adver-
tisements.   Such reasoning would not be tolerated on any
other subject;  but  nothing  seems too absurd, inconsistent 01
contradictory, for learned men to say relating to alcohol. 
The True Temperance Platform.
85
         PHARMACEUTICAL EMPLOYMENT OF ALCOHOL.
  The employment of alcohol  in  pharmacy, aside from its
own supposed medical virtues, is a source of extensive mis-
chief, and is doing much to cultivate the appetite for intoxi-
cating drink.  It is employed as a menstruum or vehicle for
more than one hundred and fifty officinal preparations of the
pharmacopoeias; and is in fact, more extensively employed at
this time, both as a menstruum and as a leading remedy,
than ever before.

            INDICATIONS AND CONTRA-INDICATIONS.

  Alcohol is now becoming a leading medicine in the treat-
ment of many febrile and inflammatory diseases, for which it
has long been regarded as contra-indicated; for examples, in
the eruptive fevers, as  measles, erysipelas, and in smaU-pox,
in pneumonia,  diptheria, etc.   A few years ago,  the  idea
of stimulation in these  and similar diseases, would have been
regarded as unpardonable heresy on the part of the physician,
if not  sure death on the  part of the patient; but under the
auspices  of the calorifaeient-diet dogma,  it is becoming the
prevailing treatment.   And if it should  prove less fatal than
the antiphlogistic drugs and bleeding processes for which it
has been substituted, this fact would not prove that alcohol is
good, but that the other things  are worse.

              professor clark's experience.

  Prof. Alonzo  Clark, of the  New York CoHege of Physi-
cians and Surgeons, stated in  a lecture to his medical class
three years ago, that brandy had been the means of saving
the Hves of many typhus-fever patients, and  that without it
they surely would have died.   After his lecture one  of my
students  asked him if  he had  ever treated his patients any
other way ?  He said,  " No."   He then asked the Professor
if he had ever known any fever patients treated without stim-
ulants by others ?  He repHed  that he never had; but he
Inew they would die if they did not have the brandy! 
86           The  True Temperance  Platform.
  There's experience for you!   All of his patients take bran-
dy.  Some die, and the rest recover;  ergo, aU who recover are
saved by the brandy!  The logic would work just as weU the
other way—aU who  die are killed by the brandy.
  For a dozen years I have been trying to get a discussion on
the subject of  alcoholic  medication in the medical journals,
but thus far I  have  not succeeded.  Medical journals appear
to ignore it as in some sense  " contraband."   They seem to
shun it as they would an explosive magazine.   They seem to
fear it as they would a masked battery.  They seem, indeed,
to regard it as in some way revolutionary.
  A few years ago, I wrote a small book, "The  AlcohoHc
Controversy," in  reply to the Westminster Review's  "Physio-
logical Errors of TeetotaHsm," which work I took particular
pains to send to the  medical journals, but none of them took
any notice  of it.

             DR OILMAN ON ALCOHOLIC STIMULUS.
  A few years  since, a Dr. Gilman of New Hampshire, pub-
lished an article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, in
which  he took the ground that the medical profession  had
always been mistaken in supposing  that alcohol in  any man-
ner sustained the powers of life ; and he showed conclusively
that the supposed "supporting" action of alcohol was nothing
more nor less than a fever induced by the poison,  which, so
far from sustaining the patient, only prostrated him the more.*
This article was replied to.  Dr. Gilman rejoined, and demol-
ished his opponent most effectually.   His opponent surrejoin-
ed, but not being able to meet Dr. Gilman's argument, he in-
  * As an indication of the retrograde tendency of modern medical sci-
ence, Prof. Chapman, of the Long Island Medical College, has recently
published an article in the American Medical Times, on the nature and
treatment of diptheria, etc. He theorizes to the conclusion that alcohol
is both a remedy and an antidote, a curative and a preventive, and that
it should not only be administered to patients who have the diptheria,
but to well persons to prevent them from having it! 
The True Temperance Platform.           87
timated that Dr. Gilman's views savored strongly of heresy if
not of outright empiricism, gently admonishing him at the
same time, that if he did hot stop writing such revolutionary
sentiments, he would have to take a place very soon among
the anathematized of the profession.  The short Saxon of the
matter was, that if Dr. Gilman wrote anything, whether true
or false, which tended  to damage the drug trade, or lessen 01
discredit the established business of the profession, he would
be cried  down  as a quack.  And  thus ended the  discussion,
the Journal refusing to aUow any further controversy in its
columns on so dangerous and delicate a question!  But there is
one point—the main one too taken by Dr. Gilman's opponent
—which is-significant, to say the  least.  He asked, "If Dr.
GHman can sustain his  proposition that alcohol, instead of im-
parting strength to the system, only caUs out and wastes  some
portion of  the inherent vitality, might not the same objection
be made to other stimulants, and might not the same principle
be applied to aU medicines?"
  And thus it is distinctly admitted that the great, grand ob-
jection to dispensing with alcohol as a medicine, is  because, if
alcohol is thrown overboard, other drugs might be sent after it.

              PROFESSOR HOLMES ON  DRUGGERY.
  WeU, there is something significant of progress—which is
refreshing  in these days of a retrograding heaHng  art—in the
right direction in an address delivered not  long since before
the Massachusetts Medical Society, by Professor OHver Wen-
deU  Holmes, the  celebrated anatomist and poet.  " Man-
kind," said the Doctor, "have been literally  drugged  to
death; and the world  would  be infinitely better  off, if the
whole apothecary  shop, with  some  slight  exceptions,  were
emptied into the sea, though I should pity the fishes."
  The poet must be a progressive anatomist, or the anatomist
a progressive poet, and here is a specimen of his poetry :
                 " God gave his creature light,  air,
                   And waters open to the skies,
                 Man locks him to a stifling lair,
                   And wonders why his brother dies." 
88           The True Temperance Platform.
  It is due to the Massachusetts Medical Society, to say that
it refused to endorse  the  sentiments  of Professor  Holmes'
address.
           THE MEDICAL PROFESSION  AND SOCIETY.
  The principles I have all along endeavored to estabHsh may
be radical; they may be revolutionary.   Indeed, they are so
But  truth is always ultra, always radical.   True science can
speak but one language.  Nature can never compromise; and
if we can revolutionize old and time-honored  errors  out  of
existence, who  is there to object ?   The medical profession ?
Does society exist for the benefit of the profession, or does the
profession exist for the benefit  of society?   Must people be
kept sick, that  doctors may have a profitable  caUing?  Or
should we aim to estabHsh correct practices and  health condi-
tions in the world, and so be enabled to dispense with  physi-
cians' entirely ?
                        CONCLUSION.
  There are many other problems growing  out  of the prem-
ises  I  have advanced, which I  would Hke to explain, or  at
least to mention; but I cannot longer detain you.  In conclu-
sion, if the propositions I have  laid down are true, are they
not great and important truths ?  Are they not essential?   Is
not their recognition indispensable to the success of our cause ?
I know they are true.  It has been the work of my life to ascer-
tain  and demonstrate their truthfulness.  No other medical
man, so far as  I know, has ever attempted to investigate the
primary premises of medical science.   No other person,  so far
as I  have ever heard or read, has ever traced the principles of
the healing art to their proper foundation in the very  consti-
tution of organic life—to their legitimate basis in the Laws of
Nature.   And  I call upon men of  science  generaUy,  and  I
caU upon medical philosophers particularly, to meet the issues
I have presented.  If I am.in error, they  can  show  it.  If
they are in error, they should be willing to know it.  If there
is a  better way, they should rejoice to find it.  It is their sol-
emn duty to decide this matter,  yea or nay.  True science de< 
The True Temperance Platform.          89
mands it.  The  true healing art requires it.  Crushed  and
bleeding humanity claims it.   Sick and  suffering multitudes
urge it.  Degraded and dying millions appeal for it.  Or-
phans' groans and widows' tears entreat  it.  WaiHng men
and weeping wives implore it.  Half a milHon of grog-shops,
and  many millions of tiplers need it.  God's image, marred
and scarred, deformed and debased, calls for it.  Human pro-
gress depends on it.
  Not only the  temperance reform, but all of the  reforms
among men are involved  in the issue which I present; and
this issue is exceedingly simple.   It is plain yes or no.  One
of two things is true :  Dead matter does or does not act on
Hving matter.  Scientific men have always taught the affirma
five.  I say no;  and if I am right, aU of the medical doctrines
on which the use of alcohol, either as a beverage or a medi-
cine, can be predicated, are  disproved.   Is  not this subject
worth investigating ?   Should it not be thoroughly understood,
and  its truth  absolutely demonstrated by every temperance
man ?   I am wiUing to go to the ends of the  earth, and to
submit to any possible inconvenience and expense, to be con-
vinced of my error, if I am in error.  But,  resting in the
deep conviction and most  abiding faith that  I am right, I am
wilHng to answer objections and reply to criticisms from any
source.  I  would gladly go before the Eoyal  CoHege  of
Physicians  and  Surgeons of London,  than whom  a more
reputable body of learned men does not exist, and there more
fidly explain the points I have here but briefly indicated.   I
would rejoice in an opportunity to present and  defend the
views I have advanced  here, before that body of men, which
has  claimed to be, and with good reason for aught I know to
the  contrary, the most learned association  of men on the
earth—the Academy of Medicine of Paris.
   I would  have the medical profession adopt these truths,
 and become true teachers, and exemplars, and reformers, and
 not longer be  the " blind leaders of the blind."   I would
■have them teach the world the  doctrine of physiological sal-
vation, that health is only to be  found in obedience to physio 
90           The True Temperance Platform.
logicol law;  that there is no law of cure in all the universe,
except the condition of obedience; that disease is not a devil
to  le east out, but the vis medicatrix which defends and restores.  I
would have them teach the world that there is no virtue, and
no action  in  alcohol, nor in poisons  of  any kind, nor in any
thing outside of the vital organism; but that aU virtue, and
aU action, is  inherent in the Hving system.  If I can hope to
succeed in causing  such an investigation, as  shaU eventuaUy
put the medical profession right on this subject, I shall return
home with that consolation, which in the dying hour, is worth
more than all the  treasures of earth—the happy reflection
that the world will be the better because I have Hved in it.
And should it be my fate, or my fortune, to be wrecked on my
return trip to New  York, and to be buried deep  beneath the
ocean waves,  as the howling winds chant a requiem over the
turbulent waters, I  believe, that in my last moment of consci-
ousness, I shaU ascribe praise and  thanksgiving to  "Him
who doeth aU  things  well," that He had permitted  me  the
great privilege of attending the World's Temperance Con-
vention,
• 
AL COHOLISMUS.
  In further illustration of the doctrines advocated in the
foregoing pages, I cannot do better, perhaps, than to subjoin
the foUowing article from a late number of the Boston Medi-
cal and Surgical Journal, being a paper read before the Boston
Society of Medical Observation, by Geo. C. Shattuck, M. D.
   The word AlcohoHsmus having been introduced into nosol-
ogy, and there being a question as to what cases it is appHca-
ble, it is proposed at this time to analyze the histories of three
patients whose symptoms were mainly referable to the poison
known as alcohol.
   A large, fat man,  forty-seven years of  age, came under
treatment (in the Massachusetts  General  Hospital)  in  the
month of December.   His friends described him as  a high
Hver, and said that for the last twelve or fifteen years he had
indulged freely in vinous and alcoholic drinks.   He had spent
twelve years in  the East Indies;  had good uniform health
there, and during three subsequent years, spent in this city,
when he took but Httle exercise,  indulged freely in  eating,
drinking,  a»id smoking, but still caUed himself a well man,
and was not regarded as an invaHd by his friends, tiU within
the last five months, when weakness and loss of appetite were
prominent symptoms.  Five days before coming to  the Hos-
pital, he noticed  his legs and beUy as swoUen, and on that ac-
count consulted a physician for the first time, and went to the
apothecary to get the  prescription.  He was so helpless, ner-
vous, and querulous, that his friends sent him to  the Hospi-
tal.  He was found with a light complexion, a countenance
       (91) 
92        The  True Temperance Platform.
 pale and troubled, so weak that he needed assistance to get
 out of bed, general anarsarca, marked ascites, dullness and de-
 ficient respiration over lower backs, but with no cardiac symp-
 toms,  except  a feeble impulse;  the pulse regular, though
 weak, anorexia, the tongue moist and  flabby, with a white
 coat.   The urine  scanty, high  colored;  bile  and albumen
 were  found in it, but no casts.  Diuretics and stimuli were
 administered  as he could take them,  but his unfavorable
 symptoms continued.   He lost strength rapidly, was dull, in-
 disposed to exertion, and did not complain of pain.   The ab-
 domen was so distended as not to  admit of a satisfactory ex-
 ploration of the hepatic region.  The  bowels were kept open,
 the discharges loose, not remarkable in color, and involuntary
 during the last two days.   Somnolence and increasing weak-
 ness were then the prominent symptoms.   His respiration was
 embarassed, and he died, unexpectedly, thirteen days  after
 coming to the Hospital, and eighteen days after first seeking
 medical advice.
  At  the autopsy,  by Dr. EUis, the lungs  were  noted  as
 healthy; the lining membrane of  the heart stained by con-
 tents.   Just within the edge of the  annulus ovalis was a direct
 opening, one fourth of an inch in diameter.  The substance of
the heart soft and of a pale lemon  color.   On microscopic ex-
amination, the strise were generaUy invisible, and, when seen,
were very faint.  The fibers contained much granular matter.
Peritoneum contained eighteen pints of serum.  Liver weigh-
ed more than eight pounds, everywhere streaked with granu-
lations of a bright yellow color, and varying in size from one
to three  lines.  Tissue quite dense, resisting  the» knife more
than usual.  Microscope showed  it to be very fatty. Spleen
large ; weight, fourteen and a haK ounces.   Kidneys  both
quite  large; weight of right,  thirteen ounces;  that of left,
eleven ounces and a half;  cortical substance thick and of loose
texture.  Microscope showed the tubuli to  be composed in
 great measure of granular matter and minute globules.   Mu-
 cous membrane of stomach  somewhat grey.  Other organs
normal. 
The True Temperance Platform.          93
  This man had undoubtedly overtasked his kidneys and Hver
by taking too much food;  stiU the hydro-carbonaceous mate-
rial had  been converted into fat and stored away.  We must
beHeve alcohol to have been the  main agent in causing  his
disease.  We find fatty degeneration of the heart, and death
resulted  immediately from the failure of this organ  to dis-
charge its  duties.   We may  note that a feeble  impulse and
pulse were the only cardiac symptoms.   There was no mur-
mur,  notwithstanding  the communication between the two
hearts.   The  size of the  heart was not modified.  To what
shall we attribute  the  somnolence; to uraemia or cholesteree-
mia ?  There was grave structural disease of both liver and
kidneys; neither of these organs could  have  properly dis-
charged its duties of excretion, nor could the liver have per-
formed its part in  assimilation.  No disease of  the stomach,
and anorexia such a prominent  symptom, and  that organ a
recipient of so much alcohol! We mus|; note,  also, the pa-
tient's not complaining of  pain, and not being aware of being
a sick man tiU within  three weeks  of his death, whilst the
diseased processes must have been going on for years.
   Another case is that of a widow, a laundress, forty-six years
of  age, who  had borne seven living and two dead children,
but had not had much sickness, and considered  herself well,
till within five months of  entering the hospital, when she no-
 ticed anarsarca, and, soon after,  ascites.  She admitted that
 appetite and strength had been faiHng for two years or more,
 and  that she had  been addicted to the free use of alcoholic
 stimuli  for many years.   She was in bed when first seen,
 which she kept, getting up  only to have it made.  She was
 decidedly fat, her countenance pale and puffy ;  decubitus on
 left side preferred; the  tongue  but little coated, moist; the
 appetite very smaU; digestion difficult; the abdomen much
 distended, fluctuating; the pulse ninety, regular, its stroke
 and that of the heart feeble.  Nothing remarkable on explo-
 ration of the chest.  She had been imbibing spirituous drinks
 freely just before entrance.  The urine was of a brown color,
 acid; specific gravity, 1.012.  No abnormal ingredients dis- 
94          The True Temperance Platform.
covered on chemical examination; a few tube casts and epi-
thelium under the microscope.
  The bowels were kept quite free by laxative medicine; she
took the tincture of the muriate of iron, gallic  acid and tan-
nic acid in succession, as she was able to bear them;  but the
stomach was easily disturbed, and she had occasional attacks
of biHous vomiting.   She had pain in the lumbar region, and
two or three  times  of great severity.   The appetite and ca-
pacity for food small; a Httle bread, or gruel,  or broth, con-
stituted her nourishment.  The abdomen became so  much
distended, and she was so uncomfortable, that she was tapped
after  being in the Hospital five weeks, and a  pailful of yel-
low, viscid  fluid removed.  A soft, movable  tumor, of  about
the size of a hen's egg, was found just below the angle of the
right ribs on exploration, which may have been the gall-blad-
der, the liver being felt in the epigastric and left hypocondri-
ac region.  She was more comfortable, slept better, and took
more food; the reHsh and digestion much improved.  At the
end of  four days she was again running down; weakness,
loss of  appetite,  somnolence, were the principal symptoms.
She died one week  after  being  tapped, and six weeks after
entering the Hospital, very easily, and when for twelve hours
the respiration and circulation were  gradually fading.  No
autopsy was allowed.
  Now what shall we say this woman died of ?   Is there much,
is there any doubt  of fatty degeneration, extending to the
heart, liver and kidneys ?   If, with Dr. Austin Flint, Jr., we
regard  cholesterine as the excretory product of the liver, did
she die from cholestersemia ?  Was there not also  uremia ?
No albumen was discovered in  the  urine, but neither the
chemical nor the microscopical examination was repeated often
enough to make one sure of the condition of the kidneys.
Two or three examinations were made, and  no albumen dis-
covered.  The three organs, the heart, the liver and the kid-
neys  being the seat of decided structural lesions, we cannot
be surprised that dropsy was a  prominent symptom.  The
dropsy  did not kiU her, although it contributed to a fatal re- 
The True Temperance Platform.           95
suit.  If we say that she died of chronic alcoholismus, do we
not designate the  principal point in etiology, and  is not this
one of those cases where it is best to  give the name of the
disease from the cause ?
  A pale, thin man, twenty-nine years of age, a waiter in a
hotel, was under observation in January last for fifteen days.
He had had diminished appetite, difficult digestion and occa-
sional vomiting for several years, during which time he had
taken alcoholic drinks frequently, at short intervals during
the day, and had  smoked  freely.   He had never had delir-
ium tremens, never got drunk.  He had done no work for ten
weeks, and kept his bed  for ten days.   He  had no head-
ache, but was weak; pains and  soreness of trunk and limbs,
and  occasionally  sharp  pain in  epigastric  region.   Had
vomited a sour liqiud frequently  for two days;  anorexia; pal-
pitation ; dyspnoea;  constipation;   occasional  fluttering  in
cardiac  region.  Pulse  ninety,  quick,  smaU,  and regular.
Nothing  remarkable on exploration of thorax and abdomen.
Urates in large amount at entrance, but the renal secretion
not otherwise  remarkable.   Bowels kept free by medicine;
dejections not remarkable.
  Under a regulated diet and the administration of laxatives
and tonics, the nausea, vomiting, constipation and anorexia
disappeared;  he gained strength,  but still had  occasional
pain and indigestion, and was weak when he left the Hospital.
We might call  this man's disease dyspepsia, but the free use
of alcohol  and tobacco were the  only causes to which his
symptoms could be attributed.  The alcohol, apparently, was
not determined to the brain.  Were not the liver and kidneys
suffering ?   Had fatty degeneration commenced iu the heart ?
Should we not caU  this a case of alcoholismus,  perhaps of
nicotismus ?
  We still  have much to learn of the effect of these  poisons
on the economy.  We  had no evidence in this case of struc-
tural changes in the  Hver and kidneys, but both were imper-
fectly performing  their functions;  and although we  had no
satisfactory evidence of the failure of the Hver to excrete, we
should accuse it of not performing its office in assimilation. 
96
The True Temperance Platform.
  These cases, which have thus been analyzed from histories
with many details, are not very satisfactory as to diagnosis,
prognosis, or treatment,  but  questions are raised by them
which are frequently presented, and to which we have not as
yet, satisfactory answers.
  The recent researches of Ludger, Lallemand, Maurice Per-
rin, and J. L. P. Duroy, have thrown much light on the effect
of alcohol on the economy.  Liebig's idea of its being decom-
posed and its hydrogen  set  free, seems no  longer  tenable.
The alcohol itself is  in  the  blood, comes  into  contact with
nervous tissue and  with secretory and excretory cells, and
subserves nutrition  only as  it stimulates  nervous  action.
How it favors fatty formation or degeneration we do not as yet
know, but we cannot deny the fact.  The most recent re-
searches confirm long established  ideas of mischief  done to
the Hver, alcohol itself being  found in the  gland.  Its pres-
ence in the urine is estabHshed, and disease of the kidneys in
those addicted to alcoholic drinks,  whose kidneys  are called
upon largely for eliminative action, is to be  expected.  We
need more careful study of symptoms and lesions in those ad-
dicted to  alcohoHc drinks, where the  poison is not especiaHy
determined to the nervous centers.   Drunkenness and deliri-
um tremens are  comparatively well known.   And is not a
great deal to  be learned from the free use of  alcohol as a
therapeutic agent in phthisis ?  Unfortunately, we have am-
ple opportunities of studying  this  subject, and aU interested
in the practice of medicine must welcome all anatomical and
physiological results  which throw light on  affections often
compHcated and obscure.
                  REMARKS BY DR. TRALL.

  I commend the above article to the careful consideration of
those medical gentlemen of  the International  Temperance
Convention, who read learned essays on the effects of alcohol, 
The True  Temperance Platform.          97
and  who could not  get along without alcoholic  medicines
unless they were in the immediate vicinity of a  drug-shop,
where substitutes could be had.   One  physician read a long
argument, aiming to prove that alcohol could not be useful as
a medicine because it did not stimulate the nervous  system!   He
seemed to  entertain no manner of doubt, indeed, he took it
for granted, that alcohol would be a good  medicine if it did
stimulate the nervous system.  The key which I  have given
him, wiU, I  hope, enable  him to understand that alcohol is
objectionable, because  of contact with the living  organism,
and  not because it does or does not stimulate any particular
organ or tissue.  Its presence is aU that is necessary for it to
occasion injurious effects.

                    end  of  part  first.
5 
 
APPEIDIX.
   ALCOHOLIC MEDICATION:






                BEING A






DISCUSSION BETWEEN DES. TEALL AND HUED,





         through the philanthropist,





  PUBLISHED AT FREDEEICTON, NEW  BRUNSWICK 
 
APPENDIX.
ALCOHOLIC   MEDICATION.
                 From the Philanthropist of Oct. 23,1862.

  The World's Temperance Convention, recently held in London, must
have been a grand affair, judging from the published accounts 01 the
proceedings, by which we learn that over one hundred papers were read,
and many of them discussed.   Thrilling  speeches were  delivered fresh
from the hearts of earnest and tried friends of the cause.  The Conven-
tion was divided into three sections, to which the respective papers were
referred.
  1. Political and Legislative.  2. Educational and Religious. 3. San-
itary and Medical.                              „,■..-.      i
  Owing to special efforts which are now being put forth by the people
of Great Britain to get an Act  through Parliament, permitting them to
regulate or prohibit the traffic  in ardent spirits, wherever they desire to
do so, the first  section seemed most interesting to the majority, and
much time was doubtless profitably spent upon it.  But the medical
section, on account of the difficulty which was found in  dealing with it,
perhaps was not so freely discussed as either of the other two.  The
"medical representatives present, were divided into two classes. 1. Those
who believe alcohol useful as a medicine, but not necessary.  2.  Those
who regard it as neither necessary nor useful.  Dr. R. T. Trael, of New
York, the only representative  from the United  States, took the latter
side, and as I am quite sure that his speech will not fail to interest and
benefit your readers, I propose to present them with the following syn-
opsis of it, taken from an article written by himself, while in London,
to the Journal of the American Temperance Union.  Being called upon,
Dr. Trall arose and said:
   " Mr.   President, Ladies,  and  Gentlemen :  I  have listened with
great pleasure and deep interest to many of the papers which have been
read  here ; but the  most important practical truth which has yet been
uttered in this plac^is, to  my mind, that of  the President now in the
 Chair (Dr. M'Culloch, of Dumfries) on the opening of the Medical Sec-
 tion of the World's Temperance Convention.  He said, 'The last fort-
 ress which the temperance army will have to storm, and the last  strong-
 hold which the enemy will yield, will be the medical question—the use
 of alcohol as a medicine.'
                                (101) 
102          The  True Temperance Platfoem.
  Sir, this is most true; but if we would direct our energies and our
missiles at this stronghold at once—demolish it now—our work would
Boon be done, and the success  of our cause achieved.  You can never
Buppress alcoholic beverages, until you stop alcoholic medication.
  To whom do the people look for instruction ?  Where must they go
for guidance and direction, except to  the medical profession P   And if
the professors of science,  and  authors of our text-books on chemistry,
physiology, and medicine mislead the  people, how can they help them-
selves ? Alcoholic medication is now on the increase all over the United
States, and the inevitable consequence is, intoxicating beverages follow
in its wake.
  The temperance people have by common consent the moral, the polit-
ical, the social, and the economical arguments ;  and our veteran friend,
Dr. Lees, has just proved, in his most admirable paper, that the Bible
is a teetotal book from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revela-
tion.   But we lack the scientific argument.  This is in the hands of our
opponents, not of right,  but  of usurpation.  I propose to wrest this
weapon from the hands of our adversaries and turn it against them.
Jefferson said of American Slavery,  ' We have got the wolf by the ears;
we can neither hold on, nor let go.'   The temperance people have got
the alcoholic wolf by the ears.  They cannot  hold on as  a beverage,
and they cannot let go as a medicine.  The remedy I propose is very
simple.  It is to cut  off the wolf's tail just behind his ears!  Howf
That is what I came across the ocean  to tell you.
  Now the doctrines and theories of medical men, and of chemists, and
of physiologists, and of the therapeutists, on which the use of alcohol
as a preventive, or curative of disease, is predicated, are false ! They are
all contrary to the teachings of nature.  However specious and plau-
sible they may appear in the  ambiguous technicality of medical books,
they are in opposition to nature and common sense, and simply absurd.
  Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin, and Dufor, have demonstrated that alco-
hol passes through  the system unchanged, being eliminated as alcohol
by the skin, kidneys, and lungs.  Of course, this settles the  question
that it is indigestible; that it imparts nothing; that it is  non-usable,
and that it cannot be  either an alimentary principle nor a heat-forming
material;  and these  gentlemen have received  a  premium of 25,000-
francs for a work on alcohol  and anesthetic agents.  But they confess
they cannot explain the modus operandi of alcohol.  They say, ' The
action of alcohol on the human body has yet to be shown.'
  Here is the great mystery—the action of alcohol.   I propose to solve
this mystery before I sit down.  Pereira calls alcohol a ' caustic and
irritant poison,' but  he  cannot explain its  action, and he  calls it a
' stomach restorative,' but he cannot tell how.   He says it  is employed
to ' support the vital powers,' but he does not tell us why.  Alcohol has
been employed in medicine far more  extensively than any other drug,
and is the  menstruum for more  than one hundred and fifty prescriptions
of the pharmacopoeia, yet medical men confess to a profound ignorance
of its modus operandi.  For three thousand years this problem has baf-
fled the investigations of medical men, and for #ie reason that they
have always looked in the wrong direction  for a solution.   They have
always been seeking an  explanation  in  the actions of dead matter.
They should seek it in the laws of vitality.
   And for this reason it is that medical men have not yet discovered the
essential nature of any disease, nor the rationale  of the action of any 
The  True Temperance Platform.           103
medicine.   And they never will till their investigations are  directed in
a very different channel.
  All these problems are as plain as sunshine, in the light of correct
premises.  From  the stand-point of the laws of nature, as  manifested
through the vital organism, they become self-evident truths.  Where
is the mistake ?  It lies at the starting-point of life.  It is  in a misap-
prehension of the relations of living and dead matter.   And to present
this subject intelligibly to you, I must go back to first premises.
  Medical books and  schools  teach  that diseases ' attack us,' ' run a
course,'  ' pass through us,' become  ' seated'  in us, &o., &c.; that they
are entities  or forces at war with the vis medicatrix natural.  Nature
teaches  the  contrary.   She  teaches that disease  is a remedial effort, a
process  of purification, or of reparation. In fact, this mysterious thing
called disease, and this mysterious remedial process, vis medicatrix nature,
are the same, one and identical. A fever is the simplest form of disease,
and  a type of all  diseases.   What  is a fever ?   Medical books  can
neither explain it, nor satisfactorily define it.  They know its form  and
features—its phenomena—but its essential nature is confessedly a mys-
tery.  I think the mystery is easily solved.   A fever is  an effort to ex-
pel impurities from the system,  if you take alcohol, you are feverish.
Why ?  Because alcohol stimulates  you.   But  what  is stimulation ?
Not the action  of an inorganic substance on the  living system, but the
action of the living system, to get rid of something injurious.  Hence
a stimulant does not impart vitality to, but abstracts vital power from,
the system.  There is a world of delusion here. After a person has had
a course of fever—a process of purification—he is pale, weak, emaciated,
fatigued.  He needs, what ?  Alcohol ?  Stimulation ?   No, rest,  rest.
The stimulus only provokes another fever, and protracts convalescence,
occasions a still greater waste of vital power,  and lessens the chance of
final recovery.  I have tried this question both ways.  For ten years I
gave  alcoholic  stimulants in low fevers, and after the  crisis, to ' keep
the patient up.'   I  lost the usual proportion, and I am now fully per-
suaded that the stimulus only helped them to go down.   During the  last
fifteen years I have treated hundreds of cases of fevers of all kinds,  and
I have not given a particle of stimulus of any kind, and I have not  lost
one patient.
  The late Prince Albert was ' kept up,' as the story came to us across
the waters,  for six  days 'on  stimuli.'  But where was he  on the sev-
enth ? I have no shadow of  doubt that if he had taken no alcoholic
stimulus, he would  not then have died.  And I am willing and pre-
pared to go  before the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons,  and
all the scientific men of London, and prove the proposition  I advance,
if they will give me the opportunity.   The official report of  his medical
attendants was, that on Monday he had a ' feverish cold;' on Tuesday,
Wednesday,  and Thursday there were no  alarming  symptoms;   on
Friday he was worse;  on Saturday he died.   The death was certified to
be of 'typhoid fever.'   People do not die  so easily of mild cases of
typhoid fever, nor of '  feverish colds,' nor of ' gastric fever,'  as his case
was reported in some of the newspapers.
  The London Lancet says, in  allusion to the sudden  and  unexpected
turn of his case, ' Even the  least sanguine had no anticipations of the
slowly, but  surely increasing debility, resisting all efforts  to  stay its
advance, under which the Prince gradually sunk.'  What  were  those
efforts to stay the increasing debility ?  Alcoholic  stimulants.  In my 
104          The True  Temperance  Platform.
opinion, it was  the  stimulants which occasioned the fatal debility.
When you understand what a fever is, you will not fear it.  You will
fear rather not to have it when the causes exist.  And when you under-
stand that fever  and stimulation  are one and the  same thing, you will
never willingly take  alcohol in any form, either to prevent a fever or
cure it, or to restore you after you have had a fever.
  But how does  alcohol act ?  I assert that it does not act at all.  Do
not, I beg of you, imagine that  because I deny that alcohol has any
action, my subject has nothing in it.  I assure you there is everything
in it, so far as the scientific argument is concerned.  Medical men have
in all ages mistaken the relations  of  living and  dead matter, and all
their problems respecting the nature of disease and the action of reme-
dies, are founded on  a fundamental error on a reversed order of nature.
  Medical books and  schools teach that medicines act on the living
system in virtue of  certain inherent, special, elective, or selective affin-
ities, which  each has  and excites for  some part,  organ,  or structure.
The truth is exactly  the contrary.   Dead matter does not act on living
matter, but living acts on dead matter. Alcohol is  said to have a special
affinity for the brain.  The opposite idea is  true.  The living  system
has an organic and vital repugnance to it.  The relation of alcohol and
all living tissues is that of antagonism, not affinity.   There is no more
affinity between  alcohol and the brain than there is between life and
death, or between two lovers who hate each other with a perfect hatred.
  This false doctrine, that alcohol acts  on the vital organism—that dead
matter acts on living — is the parent source of  all that is  erroneous in
medical science,  and pernicious  in medical practice.  It is the fountain-
head  of all dissipation and debauchery in the world.   Erase this false
doctrine  from medical books,  and  you will have the  whole army of
medical men—half a million strong—on the side of temperance. Dis-
possess the minds of medical men of this error, and you will do more for
this glorious cause in five years, than I fear you  will do  in five hun-
dred while they entertain it.   Give us the simple declaration of scien-
tific truth on this subject, endorsed by the medical profession as a body,
and the temperance reform will soon achieve itself.   I  repeat, I ask
nothing for the speedy extermination of the rum fiend from the face of
the earth, and the complete triumph of teetotalism, but the declaration
of truth, of the relations of living and  dead matter, emanating from the
medical profession.   This is a  matter which concerns life and death,
health and  disease,  victuals, drink,  and  medicine; and  hence their
teachings  and influence are all powerful.
  When living and dead matter come  in contact, what happens ? Ac-
tions  result, effects occur.  But how ?  And why  ?  The  living  thing
recognizes the dead  thing to be useful or  injurious.   If it is usable it
is useful, and belongs to the category of  food;  and it will  be appropri-
ated to the formation of the bodily structures.  If it is not usable it is
a poison, and will be expelled in every manner, and in  any channel by
which the system can best get rid  of  it.  Here is the doctrine of use
and abuse.  Alcohol is non-usable and  hence only abusable.  And so
far from  ' supporting vitality,'  by its action on the  system, the system
is obliged to expend and waste a portion of its inherent stock, or vitality,
in repelling it from the organic domain.
  The rationale  of the simple process of sneezing, gives us the key to
the solution of all the problems involved in this discussion.  Why,  and
how do you sneeze ?   When your streets are dry  (if they ever are dry)
v 
The True Temperance  Platform.               105
and an unusual quantity of dust is blown into your nose, what happens ?
Sneezing.   But what is sneezing ?  Does the dust act on the nose (this
is  the doctrine of medical men), or does the nose act on the dust, as
nature teaches ?
  Some months ago I read in the papers of a boa constrictor, on exhibi-
tion in one of the Paris theatres, swallowing a bed blanket.  The vora-
cious reptile was two or three days in getting the article into his stom-
ach.   But  after retaining it some four weeks, and finding no progress
made in the work of digesting it, the animal, after a struggle of  two or
three days, succeeded in  ejecting it.  Did the bed blanket act on  the
serpent ?  Or did the serpent act on the bed blanket ?
  ' The action of alcohol has yet to  be shown,' say Messrs. Lallemand,
Perrin, and Dufor.  ' That medicines do act,' say all the learned Materia
Medicas, ' we know, but  exactly how they act is entirely unknown.'  I
dispute both propositions.  They do not act at all.  Why should alco-
hol act in the human stomach any more than it acts in the  demijohn,
or the apothecary^ shop ?  Does change of place change its nature ?
  What would you think of the astronomer who  should undertake to
calculate the problems of his science on  the primary premise that the
sun revolves around the earth once in twenty-four hours ?  Would you
not expect that he would make  bad work in calculating the tides, pre-
dicting the eclipses, managing  the comets, and explaining the revolu-
tions of the planets ?  Yet such was once the opinion of astronomers,
and appearances proved it.   They had the experience of all  preceding
ages, and the evidence of their own senses in favor of the theory; could
they not see with  their own eyes  that  the  sun arose in the east every
fair morning, and set in the west each succeeding evening ?  And could
they not feel with their own feet that the earth, in relation to the sun,
stood still ?  The logic was good; but the premise was wrong.  They
had mistaken an optical illusion for a law of nature.   But when they
came to apply the law of gravitation to the phenomena, they soon dis-
covered that ' appearances are sometimes  deceitful.'
   Medical philosophers are now in a predicament similar to that of the
ancient astronomers.  They have not recognized the controlling law of
vitality.  They have  undertaken to explain the problems of life on
chemical and mechanical principles.  They might as well undertake to
demonstrate the principles of music by the laws of conic sections. They
have brought living and dead matter into contact, and placed the action
on the wrong side.  They have  committed the unparalleled blunder of
making dead, inert, inorganic matter active, and living, vitalized matter,
passive, in their relation to each  other, and thus they have subverted
the whole order of nature, and  filled the  world with innumerable falsi-
ties.   The  root  of this  Upas of intemperance, I repeat,  is  alcoholic
dedication. This is the Africa into which we must carry the war.  It is
there that the final battle must  and will be fought, whether we come oft1
victors or are vanquished."
   Such, Mr. Editor, are the views  of Dr. Trall as embodied in his paper
read at the World's Temperance Convention, and repeated in his speech
before a London  audience.  I commend them to the careful considera-
tion of your readers, without^ however, endorsing his novel theory as  a
whole, notwithstanding the shrewdness and ability which  he has dis-
played in his argument.  With your permission I will, in a future
number of your paper, show wherein  I  consider his position entirely
untenable.                                          J.  C. Hurd.
              5* 
106          The True  Temperance  Platfobm.
           ALCOHOLIC   MEDICATION.

                 From the Philanthropist of Oct. 30, 18C2.

  In the speech of Dr. R. T. Trail, of New York, communicated in oui
last, by our friend Dr. J. C. Hurd, the former asserts and advocates the
position, that  " alcoholic medicine is neither necessary nor useful," and
from this the  latter dissents, and promises, in a future number, to show
wherein he considers Dr. Trail's position untenable.   We confess  to
some surprise  at this announcement of Dr. Hurd's, and  also to no little
curiosity as to the  arguments by which  he will justify it.  The argu-
ments of Dr. Trail are not simply elaborate, but logical and forcible  in
the extreme, and we have some apprehension that in endeavoring to re-
fute them, Dr. Hurd will only succeed in arguing himself over to the
other s'de.  But as  we are yet in  the dark as to Dr. Hurd's mode  of
reasoning, we  will be  content at present with an endeavor to strengthen
the position of Dr. Trail.  It  has  long  appeared plain  to us  that the
very nature of alcohol, as exemplified in  its effects when  introduced into
the bodies of animals,  was  sufficient,  -without further testimony,  to
prove its utter want of adaptation to  the purposes  of the medical
faculty.  That Dr. Trail is not by any means  alone in his opinions,
will be plain  to  any reader of the following sentiments of eminent
medical authorities: John Higginbottom, Esq., M. R. C. S., of Notting-
ham, says, " I have for the last seven years (this was in  1834) most con-
scientiously banished  intoxicating drinks from  my practice  as a medi-
cine, and I have never seen patients injured in their health  by the loss
of them."  If this  be so, how  can they be  either necessary or useful?
Thomas Beaumont, Esq., M. R. C. S., President of the Bradford Medi-
cal Association, gives  it as his opinion, formed upon long and extensive
practice, " that there are few diseases, if any, which cannot be success-
fully treated without  the aid of alcoholic drinks."  Still  more to the
point is the testimony of John Fothergill, Esq., M. R. C. S., of Darling-
ton, England.  " Of all  the articles of  popular Materia Medica, there
are none so frequently used, so seldom  required, or so dangerous to ad-
minister, as ardent spirits, wine, or malt liquors ;  and their total rejection
would be the means of preventing the ruin  of many constitutions, and
the loss of innumerable  lives, which are now sacrificed, directly or in-
directly, to their injudicious  employment."    And  again  he  says,
" About this time  last  year (1833),  I  was attending  a  considerable
number of parish  and dispensary patients  in  severe typhus  fever,  in
some of which my practice was closely watched by an intelligent clergy-
man, who would  have supplied wine at  the slightest  hint from me.
These  cases afforded  me very  great satisfaction, convalescence  being
steady and rapid."  We have numerous  other authorities on hand, and,
if necessary, will supply them by and by, but time and  space will only
admit of one more quotation this week.   Dr. Thomas Sewall, Professor
of Anatomy and Physiology, Columbian College, Washington, uses the
following plain and direct language in  condemnation of the ordinary
medical practice: " While we  are convinced that there is no case  in
which  ardent  spirit is indispensable, and  for which there is not an
adequate substitute, we are equally assured that so long as there is an
exception allowed, and men are permitted to use it as a medicine, so long
we shall have  invalids and drinkers among us.  Only let our profession
take a decided stand upon this point, and intemperance will soon vanish
from our country." 
The True Temperance Platform.           107
  There  are two bodies of men in every Christian land, upon  whom,
more than upon any others, depend the future prosperity of the temper-
ance cause:  they are the doctors and  the ministers.  The opinion
of the first is valued, because they are supposed to understand the ne-
cessities, of the  body ; and the second, because they are supposed to  be
able to guide in everything affecting the well-being of the soul. The
doctors should all acknowledge and proclaim, what they know is true ;
that alcohol is a subtile poison, and cannot be used with impunity; and
the ministers, as they must account to the Eternal Judge, for the souls
liable to be destroyed by their example and precept, should, fearlessly
and faithfully, proclaim its demoralizing tendency, and " drink no more
wine while the world standeth, lest they make their brother to offend."
We are aware that the strongest testimony will fail, when opposed to the
combined forces of appetite and prejudice.  Many men will stand by
the faith of their fathers, on this or any other subject in the face of the
most clearly revealed absurdity, when inclination seconds the power of
the parental precept and example.  A young  Scotchman was once ad-
monished by a friend to beware of the evil effect of liquor, of which he
was evidently becoming fond,  when he urged  that the severe nature of
his employment rendered additional nourishment necessary.  His friend
endeavored to persuade him that there was no nourishment whatever in
ardent spirits.  His reply was, " I dinna like, sir, to say you're  laein';
but—nourishment!—I've heard my mither say fifty times, that  a glass
o' whisky was just a perfect medicine."   Poor Sandy's "mither," with
the cravings of his ain stomach, were to him better evidence of the na-
ture of alcoholic drinks, than  the. most cogent reasoning of the whole
medical faculty; and Sandy was the type of a numerous class, whose
tribes are mighty upon earth.—Editor.]
  Your readers, perhaps, will expect me to state the grounds of my ob-
jection to Dr. Trall's views of alcoholic medication as given in a previ-
ous number of your paper.  I shall endeavor to do so in as few words
as possible.  And here at the outset, I wish to be perfectly understood.
That the use of alcoholic stimulants, as a beverage is highly injurious,
I most firmly believe.   Men in health have  no need of  it; it  can  do
them no goon.  They are better without it; and their only safety is in
letting it alone.  But that alcohol, when employed as a remedial agent,
is never  useful, but always injurious, I unhesitatingly deny, the very
plausible theory of  Dr.  Trall to the contrary notwithstanding.  But
what  is  the basis of  this theory ?  " Why," says Dr. T., " that alco-
hol is an inorganic substance ; that it is dead, inert,  and incapable of
action."  Very good, sir.   But that does not quite help us out of  the
difficulty.  When alcohol is introduced into the stomach, certain extra-
ordinary and peculiar effects are  sure to follow in  a very short time.
Now these effects are the result of some cause, and that cause is unques-
tionably the alcohol.  How ?  By its  specific action on the system, as
chemists, physiologists, and therapeutists teach ? "No," says Dr.  T.;
" they are all in error; it does not act at all; it cannot act." How, then,
I ask again, are these effects produced ?  Not  by the action of the sys-
tem itself; that would be mistaking the effect for the cause.  It is the
system which is excited to action—the object acted upon ; but for the
cause which produced the action, we  must look  in another direction,
viz.: to the alcohol.   And yet we are told that it does not act at all;—
that it is inert, and incapable  of action?   Very strange indeed,  Dr. T.!
But would the effect have been produced if the alcohol had not been ad- 
108           The  True Temperance Platform.
 ministered P  " 0, no ;  that is quite out of the question;  the  effect ia
 the natural result of the administration."   And still you contend that
 it does not act at all!  Here, certainly, to use the Doctor's own words,
 is a world of delusion.  An agent is introduced into the stomach, as the
 result of which the most decided effects almost immediately follow, and
 yet no part of these effects  are to be ascribed to the action  of the agent
 which produced them!  This is logic with a vengeance, and philosophy
 run mad.
   But Dr. Trall's objection proceeds on the alleged ground, that its
 "modus operandi is  involved in mystery, that it is not understood, and
 cannot be explained."  And because the precise manner  of its action
 cannot be explained, he  doubts that it has any action at all.   Are we,
 then, to deny, or  regard as fallacious, everything which we cannot un-
 derstand or explain ?   A wise man will hesitate before he adopts such a
 theory as that.  Why, how many things do we meet with in every-day
 life which are entirely beyond our comprehension, while the evidence of
 their existence and reality are too obvious to be repudiated or even
 doubted ? A seed is deposited in the earth, and a plant or tree is  the
 result of the process which it undergoes; but  I cannot understand its
 modus operandi, or explain the mysteries of its growth, and therefore re-
 ject it as a chimera, or fallacy.  That would be strange philosophy, in-
 deed !  And yet, I think it  is not a whit more unsound than that which
 denies to alcohol the power to act on the human system, because its mo-
 dus operandi cannot be explained.   The evidence is as clear in the one
 case as in the other.  The existence and growth of the plant is evidence
 enough that the seed underwent some mysterious process in the earth;
 and the excitement or effects produced on the system is evidence equally
 strong of the action  of  the alcohol to which the effects are due.   And as
 the plant would not have existed had the seed not been deposited, so we
 may conclude with equal propriety that the excitement or effects on the
 system would  not have been produced if the alcohol had not been ad-
 ministered.  Hence, to deny to alcohol— a most active and powerful
 agent—the power to act at all, on the mere ground of its being an inor-
 ganic substance, is nothing  more than a play upon words, or an attempt
 to establish a theory on principles utterly destitute of support.
  But  the Doctor asks again, " Why should alcohol act in the human
 stomach any more than it  acts in the  demijohn or in the  apothecary's
 shop ?  Does change of place change its nature ?"  Now such questions
 as these may look very well on paper, provided they be passed over has-
tily, but the slightest investigation will show that they are mere empty
 words.  '_' Does change of place change  its nature ?"  No, but it changes
 its situation and  power to  act very materially.  " But why does it act
 in the stomach more than in the demijohn ?"   Because, in  the one case
it is imprisoned, has its hands tied, and deprived of the power to act, as
well as of all suitable material to act upon ; in the other case it is free,
 and has  the whole living  system to  act  upon.  To ask  why alcohol
should act on the human system any more than on the demijohn, dis
plays about as much philosophy as to ask why a firebrand should act in
 a powder magazine any more than in a  heap of granite ; or why a man
should attend to his business, or visit his friends while enjoying all the
privileges of a free citizen, anymore than when incarcerated or held in
 absolute  bondage.
  It is a  fact universally acknowledged, and based on palpable and ir-
 resistible evidence, that alcohol does act, whenever it comes in contact 
The True Temperance Platform.
109
with the living organism ;  and that its action is specific and powerful.
When taken into the healthy system, its effects — the obvious result of
its action—are always  injurious, and fraught with the most dangerous,
and sometimes fatal consequences.   But when judiciously employed aa
a medicine its effects are often highly satisfactory and beneficial.  As a
beverage, it is useless, injurious, pernicious;  but as a pharmaceutical,
and a remedial agent, it cannot be dispensed with.  That some evil con-
sequences have followed alcoholic medication, I do not doubt;  but these
have resulted from the abuse, rather than the use of it;  and as long as
the latter can be proved to be valuable, the argument derived  from the
former is deprived of  its force.
  The temperance cause will never gain anything by extravagant as-
sumptions and baseless theories.  They can do no good, and may be the
means of great mischief.  They may deceive the unthinking; but will
be sure  to excite the contempt of the  more  intelligent  portion of the
community.  Our cause demands the truth, the whole truth, and noth-
ing but the truth.  Let us assail the enemy in every honorable way ;
but let us not injure him by unfair means or strive by misrepresentation
to make him out worse than he is.  Give even the devil his due, is my
motto, and even alcohol is entitled to no  less.   " Fiat justitia  a ruot
caelum."                                             «L C.  Hurd.
           ALCOHOLIC   MEDICATION.

                 From the Philanthropist of Nov. 13, 1863.

  In the communication of our  friend Dr. Hurd, which  appeared in
our issue of the 30th ult., he is pretty severe upon the sentiments of Dr.
Trall, as expressed at the late " World's Temperance Convention."
Now if Dr. Trall were on hand to plead  his own cause, we would be
much better satisfied to leave it in his own  hands than to take it up our-
self.  As such is not the case, however, we deem the subject one of too
much importance to be allowed to rest in its present position.
  It would be of little use to follow Dr. Hurd through the different
paragraphs of his communication, because, with all due respect, we see
very little argument in what he has advanced.  He  takes up the asser-
tion that " alcohol is an inorganic substance;  that it is dead, inert, and
incapable of action," and without attempting to deny its truth, he seeks
to evade its force by a question, which in  order to be of any value,
would require that  he should first prove that alcohol was not " an in-
organic substance," etc.  He  says, " When alcohol  is introduced into
the stomach certain peculiar and extraordinary events are sure to follow
in a very short time;" and he wants to know how these effects are pro-
duced.  Now it certainly appears to us that Dr. Hurd's  first duty in the
case was to affirm or deny the  assumption of Dr. Trall, for unless he
can prove  that alcohol is an organic substance, in contradistinction to
the declaration of its inorganic nature, all his reasoning, if such it can
be  called,  goes  for  nothing.  We would like Dr. Hued to answer the
following questions by a simple yes or no: Is alcohol an organic sub-
stance ?  And can an inorganic substance act ? 
110        The True  Temperance  Platform.
  It is to be presumed that what Dr. Trall means by the term " inor-
ganic substance," is  a substance  which is incapable  of assimilation
with any living substance—one which has  none of the elements essen
tial to the nutrition of vegetable or animal fibre or tissue.   Will Dr.
Hurd deny that alcohol is of that nature ?  If such be its nature, is  i1
unfair or presumptious to ask how it can be rendered serviceable to the
human body, or is it  any wonder that intelligent men should shrink
from its use, while no intelligible answer can be given to that question ?
Dr. Hurd's illustration of the seed placed in the ground, and producing
a plant, by an unexplainable process, is not to the point, because we
know that the seed is an organic substance, having in  itself the germ
of vegetable life, and hence we do not wonder that it produces a living
vegetable.  But that an inert, dead substance should contribute to ani-
mal vitality is quite another and very different idea.
  The question of Dr. Trall, "  Why should alcohol act in the human
stomach  any more than it acts in the demijohn, or in the apothecary's
shop ?" appears to have been regarded by Dr. Hurd with singular con-
tempt, and he regards this and all such questions as " mere empty words."
Now, it appears  to us, that the Doctor  would have hit the point more
nearly, by simply explaining what he is fully competent to explain, that
when this foreign, inert, inorganic poison  is brought into contact with
the nerves of  the stomach, the  outraged sensibility  of  that organ
calls into active operation all its forces to  eject the base intruder.  Its
multitude of  absorbent vessels open wide their tiny mouths to facilitate
its passage, unchanged and undigested, to  the blood-vessels of the sys-
tem, and through them it rushes, or rather, we should say, it is rushed,
to the brain, to the heart or lungs, and extremities, producing disorder
and discomposure everywhere ; regarded by eveiy organ as an intruder
and an enemy, with which no organ of the  human body will consent to
even the briefest  truce, nothing will  satisfy the invaded part but its
expulsion.  If the demi-john possessed the sensibility of the stomach  it
would  eject if took;  and this is  the simple  answer to the question, and
proves, we think,  conclusively, that it is not the alcohol that  acts, but
the forces of the living system that act upon it.
  We will  neither pursue Dr. Hurd's theory nor our own any further
for the present, but will add one or two  medical opinions in confirma-
tion of our own view of the case.  Dr. E. Johnson says :—" I assert that
they (spirits, wines, and strong ales) are in every instance, as articles  of
diet, pernicious ; and as medicines, wholly unnecessary, since we possess
drugs which will answer the same intention in at least an equal degree."
  Dr. Morgan, President of the  Bath  District Branch of the Provincial
Medical and Surgical Association, gives the following unequivocal tes-
timony to the utter uselessness of alcoholic agents in medical practice:
" Having  been engaged in  practice for more than  twenty-six years,
sixteen years sole Physician to Whitworth Fever Hospital, Dublin, and
twenty years one  of the Physicians to  the Dublin General Dispensary, I
have had pretty extensive experience, not only in acute,  but chronic dis-
eases, and not among the higher  classes only, but also among the poorest
of the  poor.  The Materia Medica furnishes us efficacious and  far more
potent stimulants  than any we possess in the form of  intoxicating beve-
rages.   I am utterly ignorant of any disease, acute or  chronic, which
cannot be  cured  without intoxicating drinks.   Medical men contend
that they are an agreeable and convenient form for the exhibition of stim-
ulants, but that there is any disease incurable without their aid, is  an
assertion that I never yet have heard." 
The True Temperance Platform.          Ill
  Without quoting the  Doctor's motto in the concluding paragraph of
his communication, we can assure him and our readers that, at our
hands, alcohol shall have its due.   We want to see the indescribably
abominable and destructive business of distillation universally outlawed,
and we don't intend that its productions shall find a refuge even upon the
apothecary's shelves.  We have hitherto only treated the subject in a ne-
gative or defensive style, attempting only to prove its uselessness in medi-
cal practice ; but at another time we intend to attack it on the ground of
its injurious nature—its positive tendency to destroy the lives  which it
is so often used to save.
"PHILOSOPHY EUN  MAD."—THE  ACTION

                      OP   ALCOHOL.

                 From the Philanthropist of Nov. 20, 1862.

To the Editor of the Philanthropist :
  An esteemed friend of Temperance has called my attention to youi
issues of October 23rd and 30th, containing a report of my remarks in
the International Temperance  Convention,  at London, and a reply
thereto  by Dr. J. C. Hurd.   There are several inaccuracies in the re-
port as printed;  but as they do not very materially affect the argument,
I will not stop to notice them, but proceed at once to the issue involved.
Dr. Hurd has characterised my logic as " philosophy run mad;" but if
I can show  that  there is a " method  in this madness," and that the
method is according to truth and nature, I may, perhaps, benefit both
my opponent and the cause which he, as well as myself, professes to love.
  Whether my philosophy be true or false, it has been deliberately
adopted after long and patient investigation ; it is what I have publicly
advocated for  many years ; it is what I have taught in a medical school
for more than ten years; and  it is what I have professed my ability to
maintain against all possible objections ; and I have made these state-
ments,  not only in London, but in public lectures in New  York, Boston,
Baltimore, Washington City, Chicago, Toronto,  and  various other
places where there are Medical Colleges, and medical men capable of
exposing my error, if I am in error.  No one that I know  of, except Dr.
Hurd, has offered to meet the issue I have presented; and I cannot now,
consistently with my professions and pretensions, refuse  the controversy.
And there is nothing that I more desire, for the sake of the Temperance
cause,  ban to have a discussion with  a competent man of the medical
profession on  this  subject;  believing, as I do, that a recognition of
the truth of my leading proposition is vital  to the success of the tem-
perance reform , and most sincerely desire, if I am in error, to have that
error exposed and refuted.
  I have long said and believed that, so long as alcohol is prescribed as
a medicine by medical men,  so long will it be used by the people as a
beverage.  And I have  yet  to learn  of  a single fact or argument that
can be adduced in favor of its medical use, that  will not apply with
equal pertinency and cogency in favor of alcoholic beverages. 
112          The True  Temperance Platfobm.
  But I do not place my objections to alcoholic medicine on the ground
of philanthropy or benevolence.  I place them on the scientific basis.  I
do indeed believe that, if there was enough of the spirit  of  Him who
" went about doing good," some eighteen hundred years ago, among the
leading members of society at the  present day, alcohol would  be very
soon  excluded from the drug-shops, while the dram-shops would bo
summarily closed.   But my business with alcohol is as a physician, and
physiologist may deal with it.
  Let me be  distinctly understood.   I do not here object  to alcoholic
medication for the sake of the Temperance cause, however much this
cause might be advantaged by its disuse.  But I object to  the employ-
ment of alcohol as a medicine because it is bad per se ; because it is in-
jurious  to  the sick person  who  takes  it.    I  take the position that
alcohol is not in any sense a supporter of vitality; and that in all cases
of depression, debility, exhaustion, etc., in which it is deemed useful by
medical men, it is positively pernicious.  I do not take the ground that
physicians  can dispense with alcohol because other stimulants or other
remedial agents can be substituted for it.   My objection is to the alcohol
itself, without reference to anything else. It is good or it is bad.  If its
administration benefits the sick; if in any manner or to any extent, it
contributes to the restoration of health, I am for its medicinal employ-
ment, let what will become of the Temperance  Cause.  I  cannot deny
any truth to  promote any cause.   I go hand in hand with Dr. Hurd,
for  " the truth, and the whole truth."  And I am for " giving the
devil his due," if I can find out what is due that most unworthy and
diabolical personage;  yet I confess it perplexes  me  exceedingly to
imagine how anything can be due to such a character.  I do not, how-
ever, wonder that persons who regard alcohol—a physiological  or toxi-
cological devil—as useful in the work of purification and restoration in
the organic domain, should think of  ascribing due praise to it; and I
do not see why they cannot as well think of employing his satanic
majesty in the work of moral reform and spiritual medication.   But I
am of opinion that the devil toxicological, and the devil theological had
better be " let alone severely," in the work of bodily renovation or spir-
itual salvation.
  For the profitable discussion of scientific principles, three conditions
are necessary :   1st. The disputant must understand the premises of his
opponent.  2nd. He must have a clear conception of  his own premises.
3rd.  His logic must be consistant with itself.  I think  Dr.  Hurd's
article is defective  in each of these particulars.  He has totally mis-
conceived my positions, and entirely overlooked  the first premise on
which they are predicated; and  he has strangely confounded causes,
actions, and effects,  as  all medical men do who reason on  this subject
from false stand-points.
  My whole theory of the relation of alcohol to the  living organism,
and of its effects, whether good or bad, as a medicine or as a beverage,
starts from the fundamental  proposition that,  alcohol does not act on the
living system,  but that, on the contrary, the living system acts on the
alcohol.   My doctrine is precisely the reverse of that which is generally
believed, and which chemists and physiologists teach, and on which the
medical profession has  practised for three thousand  years.  I  do most
distinctly charge that the whole world has been mistaken,  and that the
rationale of the effects of alcohol can never be explained or understood
until this primary truth is recognised. 
The  True Temperance Platform.
113
  With what Dr. Hurd "firmly believes," or "unhesitatingly denies,
or with what is  " universally acknowledged,"  or " based on palpable
and irresistible evidence," and other glittering but unmeanmg gene-
ralities and assumptions, I have no concern.  With his facts, and data,
and arguments, and logic, I have a controversy.
  Says Dr. Hurd, " when alcohol is introduced into  the stomach cer-
tain extraordinary and peculiar effects are sure to follow in a very short
time."  All right.  What next ?   "  These effects are the result of some
cause and that cause is the alcohol."  True.  Go on, and tell us how the
alcohol produces the said effects.   This Dr. Hurd does not pretend to
do  Yet the whole gist of our controversy lies in this little monosylla-
ble.   How does alcohol act?  In other words, what is the rationale oi
its effects ?  I say it does not act at  all.   Dr. Hurd says it does.  Ihe
issue is direct and palpable.   It is plain  yes, or simple no.   Which is
true ?   I say the effects of alcohol are attributable to the action ot the
living system against the alcohol.  Dr. Hurd says the effects of  alcohoJ
are owing to the action of  the alcohol on the living system.   Let us
meet the issue fairly and squarely without dodging.
   One more word, however, as preliminary.  If it can be be proved that
alcohol acts on the living organism in any manner, I  am willing to con-
cede that such action may be useful in disease.  But  if  I can show that
the effects of alcohol are the efforts of the vital  powers to rid the isystem
of its presence;  and that alcohol is not the acting principle, but that its
presence in the vital domain is the  occasion of  an action, self-defensive
and remedial, which  contemplates the expulsion of alcohol because, as
a poison, it has  no business, no use,  and cannot be tolerated within the
domain of vitality, then I have a scientific basis for rejecting its employ-
ment, either as a beverage or as  a  medicine.  And now what  is  the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, which our cause

   Dr  Hurd's words are—"The effects of alcohol are not produced by the
 action of the system; this would be mistaking the effect for the cause.
 Not exactly, Dr. Hurd. You are in a sad muddle to begin with. What are
 the effects of alcohol ?  Pain, heat, redness, swelling, inflammation, iever,
 spasms, delirium, &c., &c, according to quantity.  Can  any one of these
 symptoms (effects) exist, if the living system does not act ? Try alcohol on
 a dead person and see if you can produce any one of these effects (symp-
 toms).  There is no  action at all.  Why ? Because there is  no lite-
 principle—nothing to act.   Each one of these symptoms (effects), is a
 manifestation of action, not alcoholic, but vital.                 >(
   Says Dr. Hurd—" It is the system which  is excited to  action.   Ut
 course it is.   How could any thing act  if it was not excited to action?
 How  can there be an effect without a cause ?   WiU you  please tell us
 in what manner alcohol can be " excited  to action."  Place a hot iron
 within an inch of alcohol.   The alcohol will not move.  Why?   Be-
 cause, being a dead, inert, inorganic thing, it  cannot be excited to action.
 When  Dr. Hurd allows that alcohol excited the  system  to  action, he
 concedes the whole argument, and I marvel that he  does not see it._  _
    But  I did not quote the whole of  Dr. Hurd's sentence.  Here it is.
 __« it is the system which is excited to action—the object acted upon.'
 The last clause renders the whole statement nonsensical, and flatly con
  tradicts the first clause. The system is in a state of  action and yet is
  the " object acted upon."  Ergo,  it  acts uponpitself.   Where, then, is the
  action of the alcohol ?  Verily,  the alcohol is the  object acted upon, 
114           The  Tbue Temperance Platorm.
But  Dr.  Hurd's  confusion becomes worse confounded  as he  proceeds.
He says—"But,  for  the cause  which  produces the  action we  must
look to the alcohol."   So we must.   All actions have causes, and all
actions produce effects ; and to reason logically, we should distinguish
between causes, actions, and consequences.
  Dr. Hurd  asks — "Would the  effect (he means action), have been
produced, if the alcohol had not been administered ?  To which I reply,
in all possible seriousness, by no  manner  of means.   If there is  no
occasion for an action, there will  not be  any action.  If alcohol is not
put into the system, (mind you it does not go there itself,) the system
will  not  expel it.  If you should  not eat  a potato, you would never
digest it.  If you should never  take  an emetic,  your stomach would
never vomit it out.   In one of the Paris theatres, a Boa Constrictor, on
exhibition, swallowed  a bed  blanket,  and after four weeks vomited it
up.  And I candidly confess that, if the bed blanket had not been " ad-
ministered," the effect—vomiting—would not have occurred.
  Says Dr. Hurd again—"An agent is introduced into the stomach, as
the result of  which the most decided effects almost immediately follow,
and yet no part of these  effects  is  to  be ascribed to the action of the
agent which produced them."
  He will, perhaps, understand this " logic with a vengeance," better,
if we vary the language a little.  The effects which fhepresence of alcohol
in the living system occasion, are  owing to the action of the living system
in its efforts to expel the alcohol, being  perfectly passive, whether
within or without the organic domain.
  Try a simple experiment.  Place a drop of alcohol in your  eye, or in
the eye of a dog or a cat.   In a moment the eye  is inflamed, and inflam-
mation is action, not of  alcohol, but of the blood vessels.   There is
cause, action,  and effect.  Alcohol  is  the cause  of the  action; and the
action is the determination of blood to the part, and  this is the disease,
the remedial effort, which we term inflammation.   Now apply the  alcohol
to the eye of  a dead animal, and see  if it will produce inflammation.
Who will say that  inflammation is not vital action ? True,  alcohol
was the occasion of this action, but a thing whose presence occasions an
action, and the action itself, are  very different things, according to my
" philosophy run mad."
  Let me give Dr. Hurd a still plainer  illustration.  > Catch a live dog,
put a stone "as large  as  a piece of chalk," into its mouth, and with a
probang or a poker force  the stone down the poor creature's oesophagus
into  its stomach.  Watch the dog and  see what becomes of  it.  Soon
the animal will be straining, cramping, retching, vomiting.  What is
the matter?   Is the stone, think  you,  acting  on the  dog's  stomach?
Is the stone trying to get out of  the dog ?   Is the stone afraid of being
digested ? Is the stone displeased with its new locality ? Is the stone rais-
ing a tremendous tumult in the intestinal tube ?   Is the stone  endeavor-
ing to " skedaddle" by way of the bowels ?  Or  is it working its way to
daylight through some other channel P   And if no stone had been admin-
istered,  would these " extraordinary  and  peculiar effects" have  been
produced ? What is the trouble ?  What the rationale ?  What is the
cause ? and what the  action ?  Is  the stone acting  on the dog ? or is
the dog acting on the stone P or are they mutually acting on each other ?
If the stone had been placed on the dog's  back—on the outside—and
the dog had shook it off,  nobody would  have suspected that  the stone
acted on the dog, although it " excited" the dog to  action.   Not even 
The  True Temperance Platform.
115
Dr. Hubd would regard the dog as " the object acted upon/   But now
the stone is within the dog.  " Does change of place change its nature r
  But alcohol is not a stone, and a human being is not a dog; and Dr.
Hurd may not see that those cases are parallel.
  Dr. Hurd continues—"Dr. Trall's objection proceeds on the alleged
ground that the modus  operandi of alcohol is involved in mystery, that
it is not understood, and cannot be explained."
  I beg  to be  excused from any such "proceeding."  My objection
" proceeds" on the ground that I do understand the rationale of  the
effects of  alcohol, and that the modus  operandi  of alcohol, and of all
other agents, be they foods, medicines, or poisons, can be  explained on
the premises I have laid down, and in  no other way.   I go further and
say that, all of the fundamental problems in medical science, which
have baffled the investigations of medical men  in all ages, and which
are to this day regarded as profound and inexplicable mysteries,  are
explainable on the theory I am advocating, such as the essential nature
of disease; the modus operandi of medicines; the rationale  of the differ-
ent forms of disease; the rationale of the different classes of medicines ;
the doctrine of the ris medicatrix nature ; the theory of vitality, &c, &c.
   Again, says Dr. Hurd,  "To  deny to  alcohol the power to act on the
mere ground of its being an inorganic substance is  nothing more than a
play upon words."  It is a little different, I think.   It is a statement of
a law of nature.  It is a declaration of the relations between living  and
dead matter.  The very term,  inorganic, implies inaction, inertia, pas-
sivity.  An inorganic thing has no  action except in the mechanical or
chemical sense.   Dead things do not act on living.  The medical profes-
 sion has entertained this primary fallacy quite too long already.  It has
practiced  a " healing art," based  on  a fundamental error for nearly
 3,000 years, and  its success has been precisely what  might be a priori
 expected to result from a fake dogma.   If the medical profession can
 once be  made  to realize this great primary truth, it will soon relieve
 itself of a world of error and delusion, and  it will become a leader in
 health and temperance reform movements,  instead of being,  as now,
 the greatest obstacle in their pathway.
   Let me repeat.   Inorganic things do not act on organic.   The reverse
 is  true throughout all the domain of vitality; in  all the  realms of the
 universe; apply this principle where you please, to what  you please, it
 will hold good.  And until this principle is recognised by medical men,
 medical science will continue to be the " incoherent expressions of in-
 coherent ideas,"  and  the practice of the healing art " blind experi-
 ments on the vitality of the patient."
    To my question, " Why does alcohol act in the human stomach any
 more  than it acts in the demijohn," which  he characterises as "empty
  words," Dr. Hurd replies, "No, but it changes its situation.  It changes
  its power to act."  Let us analyze this little "it."  "It" (alcohol)
  changes its situation.'  Does it (alcohol) go from one place to another
  of its own accord ? Does it travel, or is it carried ?  Does it change
  itself, or is it put nolens volens ?  " It (alcohol) changes  its (alcohol's)
  power to act."  Then it  changes itself.  It acts upon itself.  And in
  " changing" its  power to act, it has acquired a power to  act.   There is
  nothing in all the universe (alcohol excepted) that has the power  to
  create itself!   Are not these phrases something worse  than " empty
  words ?"  Are they not arrant nonsense ?  And yet they are a fair speci-
  men of the general reasoning of medical men on this subject.  I hav« 
116           The True Temperance Platform.
many times listened to the arguments of medical men, who have under-
taken to prove that alcohol acts on the living system, and they are all
quite as self-stultifying as Dr. Hurd's.  Did not the stone in the dog's
stomach " change its power to act," or take to  itself new and wonder-
ful powers the moment  it was put there ?  Suppose you try again to
answer the  question: " Does change of place, change the nature of
alcohol ?"
  But now comes the cap of the climax of ratiocination.  In answer to
my question: " Why does alcohol act in the stomach any more than it
acts in the demijohn ?" he replies, " Because in the one case it is impris-
oned,  has its hands tied, and deprived of the power to act, as well as of
all suitable  material to  act upon."  If  this is not " philosophy run
mad," it is metaphor let loose, or simile gone crazy.  If alcohol were a
live animal, the reasoning would be excellent.  If  alcohol were a cat,
a dog, an ox, a horse, or even a  man, the logic would be unanswerable.
If alcohol were anything in the world but " a dead,  inorganic, inert
substance," the argument would be as impregnable as the everlasting
mountains.  But alcohol is alcohol, and this stubborn  fact reduces the
rhetorical flourish to" empty words."              _         #
  Let us demonstrate, their " emptiness," by putting the  argument of
Dr. Hurd to the proof.  Let us untie the "hands" of the  alcohol.
Let us disimprison it, and see what it will do.   Take the stopple out of
the demijohn.   The alcohol remains quiet.   Shake  it  a  little.   It
settles down to quiescence as soon as you let it alone.   Turn it out on
the floor.  It runs (not of its own power, for the force of gravitation
drags it,) into the  cracks and then refuses to stir.  Pour it on the street,
giving it the freedom of all out-door. It will not budge  an inch.  It may
be evaporated by the sun, but mark  you! it does not evaporate itself.
Manipulate  the  thing as you please; it  will do  nothing.   It only
suffers.  It is only done unto.  And so the first clause of your statement
fails.  It is  not  for  want of freedom that alcohol  does not act on a
demijohn, (and by the way, why can't it act on  the inside of  a demi-
john) ?_
  But it wants " suitable material."  And, strangely enough, the suit-
able material always happens to be something that possesses the prin-
ciple of action within itself.  Alcohol can act on the whole living or-
ganism, outside or inside, or any part thereof, but it can act on no part
of a demijohn !  Can you not see that the whole living system, or any
part of it, so long as it has life, acts upon  the  alcohol ?  To settle the
question  forever, you have only to try the  experiment, as I have said,
on a dead person.
   But I have already extended  this communication to a much  greater
length than I intended, when I commenced it.  If Dr. Hurd, or  any
other medical or scientific man, is  now disposed to  meet the issue as I
have J resented it, I am ready to go on with the discussion.  I  can en-
tertain no doubt that he is anxious to have  the exact truth established.
I know that I am, and perhaps a frank and free discussion may tend to
that result.
                                           E. T.  Trall, M. D.
    No. 15 Laight Street, New York. 
The True Temperance Platform.           117
DE.  E.  T. TEALL  vs. THE  ACTION  OE  ALCOHOL.

                 From the Philanthropist of Nov. 27, 1863.

  Mr. Editor :—I saw in the last number of the Philanthropist  a long
and cleverly written article from Dr. E. T. Trall, of New York, in
reply to some observations which I ventured to publish in opposition to
his views of the action of alcohol, and its use as a medicine.  Perhaps,
you will regard it as  little short of presumption, on my part, to combat a
theory based  on professedly scientific  principles,  and  supported by
most  unquestionable ability.  And  I assure you that I  do not very
ardently covet the almost inevitable consequences of a necessarily un-
equal contest with such  an  antagonist.   Besides, there is much in the
Doctor's article with which I agree, and much that I admire.   There
is a noble frankness in his  style; a bold and dashing independence in
his statements;  a singular  aptness  in making illustrations;  a heroic
disregard of all  opposition,  and an unbounded confidence in the infal-
lible  correctness  of  his views and opinions.   Add to this his age, his
position as a teacher in a medical school, his superior advantages  as a
medical  practitioner,  and  last,  but not least, the popularity of his
views amongst a respectable proportion of your readers, and then, surely
it would be no matter of  surprise, if, in a controversy with Dr. Trall,
on  points so delicate as those involved in. the issue he has presented, I
should be subjected  to a mortifying defeat.  Still, I am not so much
alarmed for the result as you might imagine, and while I regret my in-
ability to do the subject the justice which its actual importance demands,
I think I will be able to support the position I have assumed in relation
to the question at issue, on a basis which will require, to overthrow it,
something rather more to the point—a little more logical and conclu-
sive than the learned Doctor has yet thought proper to produce.  Dr.
Trall objects to alcoholic  medication, " not for the sake  of the Tern-
perance  cause ;"  but because, in his opinion, " the employment of al-
cohol, as  a medicine, is  bad per se; because it is injurious to the sick
person who takes it."  In his opinion, " it is in no sense a supporter of
vitality, and in  all  cases  of depression, debility, exhaustion, &c,  in
which it is deemed useful by medical men, it is positively pernicious."
This is certainly a most marvelous discovery, and if it could be proved
to  be  anything more than  a mere fancy in  the mind of its ingenious
author, he would certainly  be crowned with laurels of enduring fame.
But on what does this new discovery  rest; on what does it base its
claim  to  our acceptance or belief?  "Why," says  Dr.  Trail, "On
the fundamental proposition that, alcohol does not act on the living system ;
but that the living system acts on the alcohol."
  This the Doctor asserts is precisely the reverse of what has been " gen-
erally believed  and practiced  by  the  medical  profession for three
thousand years."  "The whole world," he says,  "has been mistaken,
and the rationale of the effects of alcohol  can never be  explained nor
understood until this primary truth is recognized."   Such is the basis
of Dr. Trall's theory. I think he will not now charge me with " totally
misconceiving his positions," or with " entirely  overlooking the first
premise  on which they  are predicated."  I may,  therefore, consider
myself tolerably safe as it regards the first" condition of a profitable dis-
cussion."  Of the remaining two " conditions," the reader may form 
118           The  True Temperance Platform.
his own opinion when I am done with  the  question.  I think  Dr.
Trall has " totally misconceived" his own position, or, at least, has
mistaken the principles on which his theory professes to be based.  He
contends that alcohol has no action at all—that it has no power to act,
and clinches this " fundamental proposition" with the  fact that it (al-
cohol) is an inorganic, dead, inert  thing.  Now, that alcohol as an in-
organic substance, has not the power to act in the ordinary sense of that
term, that is, in the sense in which  it is applied to living beings, im.
plying the power to move from one place to another, to walk, leap, run,
lift, &c, &c, is a simple fact, which no sensible man  will attempt to dis-
pute.   But when the term is  employed  in a scientific, chemical, or
medical sense, a widely different idea is involved.  In this sense, then,
and in this alone, do we claim for inorganic substances the power to act,
and  that, in  such sense, they are  capable of  action, and do act, is  a
" fundamental proposition" highly susceptible  of proof.  To deny it is
virtually to ignore the established usages of scientific language, and to
strike a blow at the whole  science  of chemistry as taught  at every
school or college on the  face of the earth.   For if you expunge the
word action from the chemist's vocabulary; if you deny to inorganic
substances the power to act in the chemical sense of the term, you throw
the science into confusion, and set aside the only principles on which
it  is possible to explain the chemical changes and operations which
many of these substances are known to undergo, wnen placed in contact
with each other in the laboratory or elsewhere.   Here we see two or
more substances brought together, and a change instantly or gradually,
according to circumstances, ensues; and the change  is so complete, that
not a vestige of the original substances, as to  form or  appearance, re-
mains, and one or more new substances result from  the  process.  How
is all this brought about ?  How are  these changes to be understood or
explained ? On the principle laid down by Dr. Trall, that inorganic
substances hare no action at all ?   No, but on  the principle that under
the operation of chemical laws one substance acts upon another, or two
substances combine, forming an entirely new substance by mutual re-
action on each other.
  But, to  come nearer to the point at issue, if,  as  Dr.  Trall so con-
fidently asserts, the results produced by the introduction of inorganic
substances into the living system are  due solely to the action of the liv-
ing system on those substances, why is it that different results follow
the administration of different substances ? Why is one class of symp-
toms or effects produced by  one substance, and another by another ?
Why are  different parts of the system affected by the  introduction of
different agents ?  Why, for example, does strychnine take effect on the
spinal chord ;  oil of tobacco on the heart; arsenic on the mucous mem-
branes of the alimentary passages;  mercury  on the salivary glands;
tantharides on the renal organs; chromate of potash on the conjunc-
tiva ; iodine  on the lymphatic glands; manganese on the liver,  and
lead on the muscles of the wrist ?   And on this difference of effect, pro-
duced by different substances, is based the whole arrangement or  sys-
tematic classification of remedies described in  the pharmacopoeias, and
employed in the hands of physicians for the cure of  disease.   If, there-
fore, their effects are due to the action of the living system alone, as
Dr. Trall assumes, and not in any sense to the physiological and ther-
apeutical action of  the remedies  themselves, as hitherto taught by
scientific chemists, physiologists, and therapeutists the world over; then, 
The  True Temperance Platform.          119
I ask again, in all sincerity, why does the living  system not act upon
them all in the same fashion ?  Why does one affect the stomach, ano-
ther the heart, another the liver, another the kidneys, and  so on ?
And why does Ipecacuanha produce the effect, or to use the obnoxious
word, as far more convenient and expressive—act as an emetic ;   oleum
tiglii, as a cathartic, spiritus setheris nitrici, as a diuretic ;  eupatorium
perfoliatum, as a diaphoretic; myroxylon,  as an expectorant; hydrar-
gyri chloridum mitis, as a sialagogue; hyosciamus, as a narcotic, &c,
&c. ?  Or why does one substance produce the effect of sedative, another
that of stimulant ?  Why does one substance elevate, and another de-
press the spirits ? How are all these different effects produced ? " By the
action of the  living system upon  these  substances," says  Dr.  Trall,
" and not in any sense by their action on the living system."—But here, to
use  the Doctor's own words, he is in a  " sad muddle," to get out of
which he will require the aid of philosophy a  little more profound
than he has yet brought to the support of his " fundamental proposi-
tion."   The only rational method of explaining the matter is, that each
of these various substances has  a  specific physiological and therapeu-
tical action of its own, according to  its nature,  the quantity adminis-
tered, and the condition of the living system into which it is introduced.
  Any other explanation with which  Dr. Trall may furnish  us will
receive the most candid and careful consideration.   In the meantime I
am compelled  to regard  the  Doctor's new theory in general,  and its.
" fundamental  proposition" in particular,  as utterly  untenable,  and,
destined to pass away " like the baseless fabric of  a vision."
  The mere fact that Dr. Trall has held these views with regard to
the action of alcohol for ten or twenty years, and openly avowed them in
various States  of the Union, in Canada, and Great Britain, and even
taught them in a medical school, is nothing to the point whatever.
Time may do many wonderful things, and work great  changes; but  it
never has, and never will, of itself, make wrong right, or change error
into truth.
  Dr. Trall charges me with being the first who has offered to meet
the issue he has presented ; but I can assure the Doctor that I  am not
the only one who has written in opposition to his views of alcohol as  a
medicine.  I can furnish testimony in abundance emanating, within
the last two years, from the pens of physicians, and teachers in medical
schools, of acknowledged reputation, in favor of alcoholic  medication,
and that too, based on the fact of its physiological and therapeutical
action. I  regret that the length to  which this article has  already
grown, must prevent me from going further into this part of the subject
at present; but let Dr. Trall,  to  use his his own rather expressive
language, meet his objections to  his " fundamental proposition" as
stated above, "fairly and  squarely, with  no  dodging," and then we
will see " what next."
                           I am, sir, very truly yours,
                                                     J. C. HUBD.
   Fredericton, Nov. 25, 1862. 
120          The  True Temperance Platform.
      THE  ALCOHOLIC  CONTEOVEESY.

                   DE.  TEALL TO DE. HUED.

              From the Philanthropist of DecemberN 18, 1862.

   In the Philanthropist of November 27th, Dr. Hurd signifies his wil-
 lingness to accept  and discuss the issue as  I have presented it.   I am
 glad of the opportunity it affords me to explain more fully what I be-
 lieve to be the true philosophy of the healing art, and what I also deem
 to be the scientific basis of the Temperance reformation.   No language
 can exaggerate the importance which I attach to this subject, for the
 leading principle involved in this controversy underlies all the problems
 which concern life, health, diseases, and remedies.
   Why is it that medical men who declare alcohol to be a " caustic and
 irritant poison," and who,  in all  of their  experiments, find it to be
 inimical to everything that  has life, and who declare in their temper-
 ance speeches that  it has filled the world with vice, crime,  pauperism,
 madness,  disease,  and death, and who point to an army of ruined
 mortals on the verge of drunkards' graves,  and who see a larger army
 of moderate drinkers  marching on to  take their  places, and who are
 eloquent in describing  widows'  tears  and orphans' groans, broken
 hearts and desolated homes, all the results of liquor drinking; and yet,
 who cannot be called to the bedside of a sick person without adminis-
 tering the  same  " caustic and irritant poison" to  give the patient life
 and health ?  I know there is  delusion  here.  I have ascertained pre-
 cisely in what this delusion consists.   Whether I can make the medi-
 cal  profession recognize and  understand the error they are laboring
 under remains to be seen.  I am  acquainted with  a  few medical men
 who have  seen  this error,  and abandoned  Alcoholic  medication.  At
 the late International Temperance Convention, several medical gentle-
.men stated that they had for five, ten, and twenty years disused al-
 cohol as a medicine, and their uniform testimony was, better success in
 the treatment of disease.  A clergyman from Wales  made a remark to
 the effect that " if all who signed the pledge had only kept it, the  tem-
 perance cause there would now have been  nearly achieved." How can
 people keep the pledge, or why should they keep it, when the medical
 profession  is teaching them  that alcohol will " support vitality ?"   And
 every temperance man I am acquainted with who had labored long in
 the field tells me that he finds the doctors, aye the temperance doctors,
 the chief obstacle in their pathway everywhere ; and to the precise ex-
 tent that alcohol is prescribed as  a medicine, men fall away from the
 pledge.  And why should they not ?
   If I believed that alcohol is a good medicine I should regard the pledge
 as a childish farce.  The idea that you can  pledge men to abstain from
 alcohol while you teach them  that it possesses marvelous and unequal-
 ed remedial properties, or restorative virtues, is not founded on a prac-
 tical appreciation  of "human nature  as now constituted."  I  am of
 opinion that  every temperance physician who prescribes alcohol as  a
 medicine, does the temperance  cause more damage  than his teetotal
 preaching can possibly do it good.  But the question is, is alcohol as  a
 medicine useful or injurious P  I say it is injurious in  all cases. 
The  True Temperance Platform.           121
  The objections which Dr. Hurd has raised to my fundamental pre-
mise, though irrelevant, are quite natural to one who has been educated
into the falsities of the popular medical system, and I must do him the
justice to say that he evinces a disposition to discuss the whole subject
frankly and fairly, which is  a good deal rrfore than I can say of some
of our professional  brethren.  That he  asks me  half  a column of
questions, instead of replying to my one question, I do not complain.  I
do  not expect impossibilities.  He can ask questions; but  answer my
question, " how does alcohol act?;; he cannot.
  He has not adduced the shadow of a shade of evidence that alcohol
acts in any manner on the living system.  This is the first thing to do ;
but, instead thereof, he " changes his base  of operations" and brings in
the whole subject of the modus operandi of medicines.  For this " flank
movement" I was  quite prepared.  It was inevitable on his part.   But
I shall be very sure to  prevent him from getting between me and my
first premise, so as to cut off my communication with the laws of nature
and capture my supplies of facts and logic.  This discussion always did
and always must take this direction.  The rationale of the effects of all
medicines is inseparably  connected with  the question of the  modus
operandi of alcohol;  and whatever theory will explain the modus oper-
andi of one medicine or one poison will explain that of all.  This is why
some physicians, with a shrewd eye to business, ignore the discussion
on this subject.  They reason that, if alcohol be proved to be  bad as a
medicine in all cases, and if it be shown that physicians are mistaken in
this matter, and if people are made to believe that what physicians re-
gard as " supporting vitality" is really an  expenditure  and loss of
vital power, the same reasoning may be applied to other medicines,  and
finally the whole materia medica will be disproved or discredited, and then
what will become of " Othello's occupation ?"  I hope and trust no such
reflections will be  entertained by my present opponent.  Let  us have
the exact  truth, let what will become of  the temperance cause, or the
medical profession.
  Dr. Hurd thinks my assumption that " alcohol is not in  any sense a
supporter of vitality," a " marvelous discovery" if true.  When he under-
takes to prove that it does support vitality he will probably marvel that
the discovery was  not made a thousand years sooner.   But, marvelous
or otherwise, there is one thing a thousand times more marvelous,  and
that is the  fact that any scientific person should, in  this enlightened
age, entertain for a moment  the  self-evident absurdity that alcohol is
in any sense a supporter of vitality.  It is only to  be accounted for by
the fact that medical  men, in being educated into  certain absurd dog-
mas and false premises, have been, in relation to those subjects, educated
out of the exercise of their common sense.   And here let me whisper to
Dr. Hurd, in view of what may come  before us, " before I have done
with this  question," that I claim a great  deal more than he  has
given me credit for claiming.  I claim to have  ascertained the exact
truth of all the  fundamental problems  in medical science, which have
baffled the investigations of the medical profession for three thousand
years, and to have solved all  of the secondary problems growing out of
them.  Among these discoveries are the True Theory of Vitality; the
Essential Nature of Disease;  the Nature of the Vis Medicatrix Natural;
the  Eelations between Organic and Inorganic matter; and the most
perplexing of all  medical problems, which to this day the profession
confesses its entire ignorance of, I mean the Modus Operandi of Medi-
         6 
122           The True Temperance Platform.
cines.  And it is precisely because of this discovery that I am onabled
to do what has never been done before, viz.: explain the rationale of
the effects of alcohol;  and on this explanation I predicate tho opinion
that it is never useful, but always injurious, either as a beverage or a
medicine, and that it cannot in any sense " support vitality. '
  I am very ready to admit that Dr. Hurd can furnish any quantity
of testimony, so far as  the opinions and  assertions of medical men and
text-books of medical schools are concerned, that " grog is good," that
"gin  schnapps'' is a "wholesome dietetic  beverage,' that lager is a
beautiful "refreshment," and that "rum, brandy, whisky, wine, are
very nice and fine," not only as medicine, but as victuals  and drink.
I am  aware that  Liebig, the greatest of chemists, regards alcohol as
" respiratory  food."  I  know that Pereira, the  first of therapeutists,
terms alcohol a "stomachic restorative."  I have learned that Carpen-
ter, who stands at the head of physiology, denominates alcohol a " sup-
porter of vitality."   And if our  disputation  only concerned what
learned men say or think, I-should be silenced at once.   The " author-
ities''  are all on his side.  Where would be my discovery if I  only
echoed the prevailing theories ?  But the issues between me and Ds.
Hurd are what is true ? who is right ?
  Those who recommend alcohol as a medicine confess, without a single
exception, that they cannot explain its action ;  that  they know nothing
of its modus operandi.  They do not pretend to understand the rationale
of its effects.   On the contrary, I claim to have solved this problem;
and surely it cannot be  so very " bold," and " dashing," nor presump-
tuous for a  person who  professes to understand a particular subject, to
oppose his opinions and  his  reasonings to those who confess that  they
know nothing about it.  But,  I charge the profession in general, and
Dr. Hubd in particular, with worse than simple ignorance.   They are
in error.  They teach a false doctrine.   " A principle in science is a
rule in art," say the dictionaries.  If the principles of so-called medical
science are false, how can the rules deduced therefrom be applied suc-
cessfully to  the practice of  the Healing Art ?  It is because medical
men entertain a false theory of the relations of living and dead matter,
that their " remedies " kill  so  many of their patients.   It is because
physicians entertain a false doctrine  of the relation of alcohol to the
living organism, that  alcoholic  medication kills its thousands every
year.   Medical men must  and  should prescribe  according to  their
theories.
  But I do not propose  to rest this  argument on  a mere clashing of
opinions.  It is a  matter of fact;  a question of science.   It involves a
principle in philosophy,  and a law of nature.
  Dr.  Hurd informs us that, the testimony of medical men in favor of
alcohol as  a medicine,  is " based on the fact of its physiological and
therapeutical action."  Suppose  the  fact does not exist 1  I deny that
any poison  can  act physiologically.   I deny that alcohol acts on the
living  system at all.   In the above statement  Dr. Hurd has assumed
the thing yet  to be proved.  The effects of poisons (not actions) are
pathological.    If medical men  reasoned from  correct premises  they
would never murder the Queen's English nor shock the world's common
sense, by telling us of the physiological actions of toxicological substances.
They might as well prate of healthy disease, or morbid  health, or vi-
cious virtue, or true falsehood, or infernal goodness, or good diabolus. I
am aware that all of tho  standard works  on Materia Medica, Therapeu- 
The True Temperance  Platform.          123
tics, Toxicology, and Medical Jurisprudence, term the symptoms of dis-
ease,  which are occasioned by poisons, " physiological effects;" but
much  nonsensical phraseology can only  come  of  absurd premises.
Says Professor Paine (Institutes of Medicine), " All of our remedies are
essentially morbific in their operation."   And again, "We do but cure
one disease by producing another."   The Allopathic system is based  on
the idea of curing a primary disease by producing a remote or dissimi-
lar drug disease—" Contra/it  Contrariis Curantur."  Homoepathy pro-
fesses to cure the original malady by inducing a similar drug disease—
" Similia Similibus Curantur."  Says Professor Alonzo Clark, M. D., of
the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons,  " All of our cura-
tive agents  are poisons, and, as a consequence, every dose diminishes
the patient's vitality."  Does this sweeping word  " all " include alco-
hol 1   If so, how does alcohol " support vitality '?"   If an invalid takes
a dose of alcoholic medicine three times  a  day for thirty-three and
third days, he will have diminished his vitality just one hundred times.
And here is a beautiful sum in arithmetic—" Eule  of Three Direct "—
which I will leave my adversary to cipher out  at his convenience.  If
one hundred diminutions of vitality will "support vitality" immensely,
how much of such "support " will be required to kill an individual of
ordinary or extraordinary dimensions 'i
  If medical men, even those of " acknowledged reputation," teach one
doctrine, while  nature teaches the opposite,  I  am disposed to regard
nature as the " higher law."
  Whether alcohol  does or does not act at all, is the primary issue be-
tween me and Dr. Hurd ; and this is just the point which  he continually
evades.  I gave a  variety of illustrations in support of the negative:
but instead of meeting them he has bombarded  me with half a column
of interrogations concerning the effects of other drugs and medicines.
Well, it is easier to ask questions than to answer them ;  and besides, it
is a very convenient method for changing the issue when the argument
comes too nearly to the point.
  I do not, however, regret this course, for I am prepared to answer  all
of his questions, and glad of the opportunity, even if he does not answer
a single one of mine.   Dr. Hurd has not yet fully comprehended the
import of my fundamental proposition,  simple as its statement may
Beem, or he would  never have " skedaddled " into the domain of  chem-
istry to prove or disprove a physiological problem.   He might  as well
have  quoted delirium tremens as  an   illustration  of  physiological
habits ; or referred to that physical commotion we term an earthquake,
as an  illustration of the vital process of digestion.  He refers to the
chemical change in which two inorganic substances combine and form
one, to prove that alcohol acts on the living system.  I shall show that
the fact proves just the contrary.  I am free to  admit, what everybody
knows to be true,  and what no one ever thought  of disputing, that
chemical elements act chemically, mechanical things act mechanically,
and inorganic substances act inorganically; in other  words dead matter
acts on dead matter, in  the physical, mechanical, or chemical  sense.
But all this is nothing to our purpose.   Our question is : Does alcohol
act on the living system 1
  What  is chemistry 1  And what is physiology 1  Chemical action is
the accretion and separation of  the atoms of dead matter.  Vital ac-
tion is the transformation of matter into living forms—a different thing
entirely.  Chemistry takes cognizance of the combinations and decom- 
124         The True  Temperance Platform.
positions of dear! matter.  There is no chemistry in the living organ*
ism. Were alcohol or any other drug or medicine to act chemically upon
the living system it would combine with  it, and that would certainly
be  the death  of it.   The  evidence would " prove too much " as tho
lawyers sometimes say.  Dr. Hurd would have the action  of alcohol
explained on the principle that " two  substances combine  and form an
entirely new substance."  Nothing could more effectually demolish the
argument he is  endeavoring to sustain.  Alcohol is said to act on the
brain by a special affinity.  Does  it combine with  the brain and form
a new substance '?  If so we should amend the chemical nomenclature
by adding  thereto an alcoholate of encephalon !   Chlorine and mercury
will combine and form  a  new substance called calomel, and then the
calomel may be decomposed and the chlorine  and mercury reproduced.
Nothing like this happens in the domain of organic life.  Air does not
combine with  the lungs ; light does not combine with the eyes ;  water
does not combine with the mouth; a  potato (or a beefsteak if you pre-
fer  that article—I am a vegetarian), does  not combine with the stom-
ach ; a poultice or a  blistering plaster does not  combine with the skin,
nor does alcohol combine with any part of the living organism.  Dead
things combine with dead things,  and this is chemistry. Living matter
acts on dead  matter, and this is vitality.  Living matter transforms
usable things—food,  air, water—into its own substance,  and this is
physiology.  Living matter resists  and expels poisons—calomel, alcohol,
&c,—and this is pathology.
  It is true that the chemico-physiologists and the whole medical pro-
fession teach,  absurdly enough,  that  drug medicines have  " special
affinities" for the organs on which they are supposed to act.  But nature
and all true science, as I think I can demonstrate, teach the contrary.
Which is the best " authority V
  Food is digested and formed into  tissue, and  the debris or ashes of
the tissues are expelled in the form of excrement.  The food can never
be  reproduced by chemical manipulation.   Poisons  are  non-usable;
they cannot be transformed into blood, flesh, bone muscle, nerve, brain;
hence, they must be expelled.  Alcohol is not used in the organic econ-
omy.  It is simply carried (it does not go, mind you!) through the
system,  and expelled without being, in any manner, changed.
  I have said that alcohol is  not, in any sense, a supporter of vitality,
and professed my readiness to defend this  position  against all that can
be alleged  on  the other side, by all the scientific men of all the earth,
and I mean all that my words imply.  That alcohol is not a supporter
of vitality in any sense, nor under any circumstances,  is proved by the
simple fact that  it undergoes no change in passing through the system.
Who would pretend that a potato or a beefsteak, which was passed
straightway through the alimentary canal, and was  expelled in the
state in which it was taken into the stomach, could  impart nourish-
ment to the body ?   The proposition would be so self-evidently absurd
that a child would laugh at it.  And  yet there is nutrient material in
the potato or steak.   Alcohol is passed through the system unchanged.
What then can it impart 1  It is said to impart vitality.  Does vitality
exist in alcohol 1  And  can alcohol impart what it does not possess l
Was there ever such a  marvelous muddle  as this alcoholic one 1  The
theory on which alcoholic medication is predicated is, in every scientific
point of view,  a non-common-sensical vagary.  All the facts upon which
its employment is justified are all false assumptions.  And yet temperance 
The  True Temperance Platform.           125
physicians can see no better way of restoring the diseased organism to
health than to poison it with alcohol.
  Will Dr.  Hurd please tell us what alcohol does to the system that is
remedial, and how does it support vitality 1   Let him name any disease
he pleases, and  then explain  if he can, in what manner alcohol will
benefit his patient.   This will bring us at least to one practical point.
I suspect that it will tax his ingenuity to the  utmost to put words to
gether so as to make an explanation that will bear the ordeal of scien.
tific examination for one moment.  Talk of this " demon of the glass,"
this " serpent of the still," which " bitethlike a serpent," and " stingeth
like an adder," which does not exist normally in any living thing, which
is denounced in the Bible, abhorred of nature, condemned in science, re-
pudiated by experience, and execrated by all history, and whose effects
are uniformly and always  debility, disease and death — talk of this
thing " imparting" or " supporting vitality!"  Is it not a most strange
delusion 1    Is  not  the blunder unparalleled 1   Was  the  scientific
world ever so muddled on any other subject 1   Is  this chemical com-
pound of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, which we term alcohol, an ex-
ception to all laws of nature, to all principles of philosophy, to all de-
ductions of science, and to all  conditions of physiology, or are medical
men laboring under one grand mistake 1  Medical men hare  mistaken
stimulation  for   strength ; they  have  mistaken  inflammation  for
nutrition; they have mistaken fever for a heat-forming principle ; they
have mistaken vital waste for vital supply ; they have mistaken poison
for food;  they have  mistaken disease for health.  Is it not time that
this error was corrected 1
  And now  to the modus operandi of medicines.  Dr. Hurd seems to
have a presentiment that his illustrations of chemical action are  not
exactly to the purpose, and  so he " comes nearer," by asking me a long
series of questions, all which, I  am happy to  inform him, were many
years ago answered and explained in my public works.  The sum of all
his questions is, why do different drugs  occasion different effects, if it
is  only the one  living system which acts, and  not the several  drugs 1
He might as well ask me  why, if  all  human beings are formed and
fashioned in God's image, do they look and act so differently 1 or why, if
animals and vegetables are controlled by the same laws of organiza-
tion, do they divide and subdivide into so many species and varieties 1
or why, if minerals, and mountains, and rocks, and precious stones, are
constructed  by the same physical  forces, are they not  all of  the same
shape, size, and color 1
  " Why  does strychnine ' take  effect' on the spinal cord V   " Why
are different parts of the system effected (affected 1)  by the introduction
of different  agents 1"   "Why does ipecacuanha  act as an  emetic?"
" Why does one  substance elevate and another depress the spirits 1" &c.
When Dr. Hurd fully comprehends either his own language or my
primary premise, he will cease to talk in this nonsensical, but custom-
ary and approved style.  Such language is not sufficiently precise for a
scientific discussion.  In fact it has no meaning  at all; and  all tho
language of medical books,  in relation to the  modus operandi of medi-
cines, is mere technical gibberish.
  " Why  does ipecacuanha act as an emetic 1"   It don't  act as  an
emetic—for the simple reason that  it does not act at all.  How  does an
emetic act 1  Answer this if you can (I  know  you  cannot); but do not
assume the very thing to be proved. To prove that an emetic acts, you 
126           The True  Temperance Platorm.
must  make it "stay on  the  stomach."  But then will come another
difficulty : If it stays on the stomach will it be an emetic 1
  Dr. Hurd  should have asked, why different drugs occasion different
effects 1  This is what he means, if he means anything.  And this is
precisely what my theory enables me to explain, and what never was
explained, and never will be, on any other theory.
  Dr. Hurd says, truly, that the whole materia medica is arranged and
classified on the basis of the different effects of different medicines ;  and
he might have gone a little further and told us that the whole medical
profession, with the exception of a few physicians of my school, believo
and teach that  the various articles of the apothecary shop act on the
various organs, parts or structures of the living body, in virtue of cer-
tain inherent properties,  termed " elective" or " selective  affinities,"
which they possess and  exercise for such organs, parts, or  structures.
It is on this theory that medicines are classified into emetics, cathartics,
stimulants, narcotics, nervines, cholagogues, diaphoretics, diuretics, &c,
as they are supposed to act specifically on the  stomach, bowels, blood-
vessels, brain, nerves, liver, skin, kidneys, &c.  If this doctrine can be
shown to be true, I yield the argument in relation to alcohol at once.
But if I can show it to be false, it will be the duty of my opponent to
confess himself  vanquished.  Well, this doctrine  is false, and I  shall
prove  it, and, therefore, my worthy brother may prepare to  succumb
with the best grace he can manifest under the circumstances.
  Then again, the doctrine of medical books  and schools is not the
doctrine  of nature.   This notion of an  " affinity" existing between
poisons and living matter is not only contrary to common sense, but
absurd in science, untrue in philosophy, and false in every sense.  And
when Dr. Hurd and the medical profession fully realize  the great
truth that the relation between living and dead matter is that of antag-
onism, instead of affinity, they will  see that there is a better way of
curing diseases than that ot poisoning a person because he is  sick.
   What is  affinity ?  I refer  you, most respectfully, to Webster's Dic-
tionary, to the various medical lexicons, and to all works on termin-
ology.  Dr. Hurd  has not improved the general  misuse of words in
changing the phraseology to " take effect."  Why do certain drugs
" take effect" on certain organs ?  No wonder that Professor Gregory,
of Edinburgh, said to his medical,class: "Gentlemen, ninety-nine of
every hundred  medical facts are medical lies;  and medical doctrines
are, for the most part, stark, staring nonsense."   Dr. Gregory did not
mean, nor do I  mean, that medical men are liars.  O, no!  I regard
them very much as I do the " generality of mankind in general."  We
mean that as all of the fundamental premises of what is called medical
science are erroneous, the problems which  grow  out of them are of
necessity false also.
  The medical  profession does not pretend to explain why different
drugs  occasion  different effects.  They are  content with the seeming
fact that it is so.  Why ipecac/'operates" on the stomach ; why calomel
acts on the liver; how  jalap purges ; wherefore  arsenic specially affects
the skin;  why, how, or wherefore alcohol has an "affinity for the brain,"
&c, they offer no explanation.  All of these essential questions are re-
garded as profound mysteries, and instead of seeking an elucidation in
the laws of organization, medical men  have been, so far, content to re-
gard them as without the pale of human comprehension. 
The True Temperance Platform.           127
    I deny that any medicines  act or "take effect."  The phrase " take
  effect" is only a very awkward substitute for the better word, act.   And
  how are  different effects (not actions)  to be explained 1  I answer, the
  living system rejects, resists, and expels all poisonous and injurious sub-
  Stances in the best manner it can, under the circumstances, and with as
w little wear and tear to the organic structures as  possible.  Some it ex-
  pels by vomiting, and they are called emetics ;  some by purging, and
  they are termed cathartics; some it sends off through the skin, and they
  are called diaphoretics, &c.  Alcohol, for example, is expelled through
  the various outlets simultaneously (read experiments of Messrs. Lalle-
  mand, Perrin, and Dufor),  and is  termed a stimulant.  The process
  of stimulation  is  precisely analagous to  that process  induced by
  malaria,  and which we diagnosticate fever or inflammation.  Indeed
  fever, inflammation, and stimulation are all conditions, and identical in
  pathological character.
    I have made this article too long, perhaps, to be readable, although
  I have but  reached the threshold of the philosophy which underlies our
  subject.  In conclusion, I must again  call the attention of Dr. Hurd to
  the primary premise.  I will answer hereafter, if I have not already,
  all of his questions, and as many more pertinent ones  as he may be
  pleased to ask, on  condition that he will answer one of mine:  " How
  does alcohol act on the living system l'\  As he has the affirmative, it
  belongs to  him to do this at the outset, or his  case must go by default.
                                                E. T. Trall, M. D.
    Hygienic Institute, Dec. 8, 1862.
           ALCOHOLIC  MEDICATION.

                 From the Philanthropist of Jan. 8, 1863.

  Owing to the  pressure of other duties, I was unable last week to no-
tice the very long article of Dr. Trall which appeared in the two pre-
vious issues of the Philanthropist.  And no reasonable  man will now
expect me  to wade through three columns of matter, more  than  two-
thirds of which is entirely irrelevant to the  point at issue.  The Doc-
tor starts off with a most pathetic appeal to the consciences of those
physicians who profess temperance and practice Alcoholic Medication;
and not only charges them with inconsistency and  delusion,  but as be-
inj the chief obstacle in the way of the Temperance Eeform.  All this
is certainly very charitable; and may be regarded by some as very con-
clusive.  It is not difficult, however, to  perceive Dr. Trall's object in
resorting to such measures to support  his cause.  He acts very much
like other men with a " shrewd eye to business."  He seems determined
to promulgate his novel theory by some  means;  and if he fails to make
a satisfactory impression upon the "deluded" doctors, and incorrigible
" chemico-physiologists," by such logic  or scientific argument as  he is
able to command,  he will resort to another expedient—usually an un-
failing one—an appeal to the passions and prejudices of the people, and
thus invoke to his aid the all-powerful support of the vox populi.  Such 
128           The True Temperance  Platform.
a course might be regarded  in  some circles as a very " clever dodge;"
but it must be acknowledged a very unfair method of  discussing a sci«
entific question, or of meeting the issue involved in the present con-
troversy.
  I profess to be a friend and advocate of Temperance, and an unyield-
ing opponent of the drinking usages of society.  I believe alcohol to be
a poison, and that for men in health, it is never useful, but always in-
jurious.  As a medicine, I believe it may be, and often is employed
with advantage, as are also other  poisons, as opium, arsenic, strychnine,
etc.  No man with a knowledge of the  nature  of these substances
would recommend their  habitual use amongst persons in health.   The
consequences of such indulgence would be pernicious and fatal  as in
the case of opium-users in  China.  But will  any man  assume that be-
cause thousands are annually destroyed by unnatural and excessive in-
dulgence in the use of opium, therefore, as a medicine, it cannot be  bene-
ficial in any case;  that because, when used to excess by men iu health
it produces pain, disease, and death; it cannot under any circumstan-
ces  be used with propriety or advantage to relieve pain, or diminish tho
suffering of the afflicted and the infirm ?  There  is scarcely a recog-
nized physician in Christendom, who has not, at one time or another, in
the course of his practice, administered opium in some form ; and has
done so with his eyes open to the fact, that in itself it is a poison, and
that the habitual  use of it would be destructive to a healthy constitu-
tion.  But when given properly as a medicine, he has seen its operation
attended with the most satisfactory results, and thus his experience co-
incides with that of thousands more, in confirming the high value that
has long been attached to  it as an article of the  Materia Medica. On
precisely the same grounds, do we defend and justify the use of alcohol
as a restorative agent.   Drank to excess it inflames the stomach and
liver; deranges the nervous system, and gives rise to  an endless  train
of diseases.   But when employed in medicine it has proved a most val-
uable agent.  It is one of the best and most powerful  diffusible stimu-
lants we possess.   " It quickens the vital energy when sunk by disease,
animates the vital spark when all but extinguished by faintness, pro-
duces warmth, raises the pulse, and cheers the spirits.   It gives strength
in less time  than it can be  produced by any other  substance.  For this
reason it is often given in low fevers, and diseases of debility." And I
assert not only the result of my own experience, but the experience of
scores of wiser men, when I say that the use of alcohol, in one form or
another, has had the effect  of reviving the sinking energies of the sys-
tem, quickening the  appetite,  etc., and  that,  too, when other means
had failed.
  Such stubborn facts as  these, such palpable and evident results occur-
ring continually under the  intelligent observation of experienced  prac-
titioners, and confirmed  by the uniform testimony of thousands of the
most candid, skillful, and  eminently successful physicians in Europe
and America, are  worth more to me, than fifty  columns of brilliant
logic such as Dr. Trill  has employed in support  of his novel theory.
When I am called to a patient laboring under  general debility—a loss
of appetite,  feeble pulse, suspension of vital energy, etc., if I can by
the judicious use of iron, bismuth, quinine, and last of all, even alco-
hol; or by any other class of remedies employed  for such purpose—I
care not under what head they may be described, whether tonics,  stom-
achics, restoratives, stimulants, or any other  name or  classification__J 
The  True Temperance Platform.              129
say, if I can succeed by the use of any such substances, in correcting
these  symptoms, or restoring the  disordered function of the vital or-
ganism, am I not justified in the employment of them,  even though I
may not be able  to comprehend the precise rationale of their effects,
nor explain in a perfectly clear and intelligible manner, their modus op-
erandi ?  If the desired effect  is produced—if the appetite is restored,
the quality of the vital fluids improved, the strength increased, and the
patient is raised, to resume in health his occupation, or calling, I am
satisfied.  I have done my duty.   My conscience is at rest.  This  with
me, is the primary consideration.   Every other consideration concern-
ing the matter is secondary to  this.  Compared with this,  all specula-
tions  with reference  to  the " chemico-physiological" aspects of the
question, are of little  importance.   I am content if the result is satis-
factory,—if the end justifies the means.  It would, of course, be  very
gratifying to me,  if I  were capable of outstripping all my predecessors,
and of extending my  investigations beyond the highest point hitherto
attained by  scientific observers in this, or any other age.  It would
certainly place me in  a most enviable position if I were able to compre-
hend  and explain what has baffled the researches of the most profound
philosophers, physiologists, and therapeutists of every age  and clime ;
and that is precisely  what I should arrogate to myself,  in an attempt
to account for all the  results which follow the introduction of  inorganic
substances into the living system ; to explain the modus operandi of all
remedial agents, or define the  rationale of their effects.  All this Dr.
Trall  professes  to have  accomplished!  The goddess  of Wisdom—
most capricious goddess—has opened her hand  and  lavished upon  him
her choicest favors; she has unlocked her treasures, and laid them all
at his feet; she has unfolded  to him all the deep mysteries of nature,
and revealed to him secrets which the world's wisest  and most worthy
men have sought and implored in vain!  Well may he boast of the
proud eminence of his position, and the lofty grandeur of his achieve-
ments !   No marvel that  he should charge his present  humble oppo-
nent,  and "the profession in general" with "worse  than ignorance,"
and politely designate all that is advanced in opposition to his views as
"nonsense,''  "delusion,"  &c,  &c.; and  pronounce  the  "language of
medical books, in relation to  the modus operandi of medicines,  mere
technical gibberish .'"  No matter of surprise that he glories in the an-
ticipation of a triumphant victory over his present opponent, and affec-
tionately forewarns me to be in readiness  to " succumb  with the  best
grace I can manifest under the circumstances." I fully  appreciate the
kindness of my worthy brother, and under other circumstances might
be induced to act upon his  advice;  but for the present I beg, most re-
spectfully, to decline any such procedure.   Time enough  to retire from
a contest when one is  deprived of all the means of successful resistence,
or when, by an overwhelming  charge of the enemy, he is thrown hors
de combat.  But, strange to say, nothing of the kind has happened to
me dui ing the present campaign.   The missiles of my adversary have
proved as harmless as the summer's breeze.   He has failed to drive me
from  a single position which I have yet assumed.  And so  it seems to
have  been with him  from the beginning.   For ten years  or more his
heaviest artillery has  been in full  play against the whole medical pro-
fession, and so far as we  can learn, no serious impression has as yet
been produced.  Most incorrigible dupes of " ignorance," " error," and
 'delusion,"  they still cling to their cherished "fallacies,"  and  ob« 
130           The True Temperance  Platform.
 stinately  persist  in promulgating their " nonsensical" theories,  and
." (echnical gibberish," in the midst of all the light which has emanated
 from the  " New  York Hygienic Institute," and without so  much as
 turning aside from the even tenor of their way to notice the astonish-
 ing discoveries of the profoundly eminent philosophers of this modern
 school.
  The reason why the "profession" has not "succumbed" is readily
 perceived. It is not because we are all so intensely stupid as  to be un-
 able to comprehend the height and breadth of Dr. Trall's philosophy,
 or because we are so seriously concerned for the fate of " Othello s oc-
 cupation;" but because the whole system advanced by Dr. Trall, as
 the "primary premise'' on which it is predicated, bears a palpable ab-
 surdity on the  very face  of it.   Dr. Trall holds that inorganic sub-
 stances cannot act on the living system; that they cannot  in any way
 impart strength,  or  support vitality.  And, therefore, the  only effect
 that can follow their use  as a medicine, is that of arousing the living
 system to action  for the  purpose of  expelling them from the organic
 domain, and thus waste or diminish its  own strength or vitality in the
 attempt.  All this he gravely assumes, takes place whenever inorganic
 substances are introduced into the living system, and nothing else can
 happen.
  Now we might  all  be carried away with a theory so plausible as this,
 if it did not happen to be repudiated by all  the evidences of experience
 and observation.  Suppose I am called to a patient suffering from gen-
eral debility;  there is evident exhaustion of the vital energies.  There
is derangement of function, loss  of appetite, &c, &c.  Now what am I
to do in such a case ?  Leave the patient to nature ?   Or endeavor by
the employment of such  means as my skill or experience may suggest
to restore him 1  The latter course is preferred.  But  how is it  to be
effected ?  If I employ drugs,  medicines, they  are inorganic, inert;
they cannot act, they cannot support strength, or impart vitality; and
besides, if I administer them, the system will act upon them, and exhaust
its remaining energy in its  efforts to  expel them.   Such is the conclu-
sion to which I must inevitably be led by an adherence to Dr. Trall's
philosophy.   But my experience and observation  teach  me a very
different thing. I take a patient " in hand" in the reduced state above
described.  I commence  a  course of treatment  with the use of such
medicines as  are  described under the head of tonics and stimulants;
ten to one if alcohol  is not mixed up with them in some form.   In a
few  days  a marked  change  is  apparent.   The  symptoms are  more
favorable.  The appetite  is improved; pulse becomes stronger ; eyes re-
sume there lustre; countenance its natural expression, the  vital  ener-
gies are aroused, and to use the common expression, the patient is " on
the mending hand."  And this is by no means a solitary case; but one
which  is  constantly recurring under the management of candid and
skilful physicians.  And  what is strange in the matter, and what, in
my opinion, completely overthrows the philosophy of Dr. Trall, is,
that from  the very first, in  all such cases, when  the patient is in the
weakest possible condition,  these drugs, alcohol and all, were  adminis-
tered, and instead of the vital energy being exhausted by the efforts of
the system to expel  them, those energies  were constantly improved
while the  medicines continued to be taken.  To deny that such results
follow  the proper use of  medicines in thousands of cases, is to deny
what we have seen  and know.  It rests on evidence as  plain and demon- 
-The True Temperance  Platform.           131
Btrative as that the sun shines at noonday, or that the stars glimmer in
the heavens at night.  What though  I may not be able to account in
all respects for these results ; what though I may be unable to compre-
hend the peculiar modus  operandi of these substances; what  though 1
may be in the dark as to  the precise manner in which these medicines
operate ; or as to whether the iron acts on the vital fluids, or the vital
fluids   act on the  iron;  whether the alcohol acts on the system, or
the system on the alcohol, or whether they mutually react on each
other ?  I know that the  effects are produced, and I know that they are
the result of action.  And, as I explained  in a previous article, it is only
reasonable to trace these effects to the action  of the agent that produced them
  Fredericton, January 6, 1863.                      J.  C. Hurd.
            ALCOHOLIC  MEDICATION

                  From the Philanthropist of Jan. 15, 1863.

  We feel  not a little embarrassment in reference to the controversy
which has been proceeding in  our columns on the above  subject.  It
has assumed dimensions, and taken  a direction which we  did not ex-
pect ; and we very much fear if it should be continued by the respective
controversialists, that it will not advance the temperance  cause.  Al-
though not a medical practitioner, we claim to be competent to form a
common sense opinion upon the question at issue, and we are sorry to be
compelled to say that while a  great deal of the difference between the
doctors is mere play upon words, -the heat of the controversy has led them
both to the use of  a vast number of irrelevant words, and. to the utter-
ance of extreme sentiments, which we think they would scarcely like to
pursue to their legitimate results.  If we could believe all Dr. Trall's
views, we certainly  would entirely abandon the  whole faculty to
deserved  contempt;  and if we could hold with Dr. Hurd, we would
trouble the  world no  more on the  Total Abstinence question.   We
mean, in both cases, to refer only to what they have written.
  Dr. Hurd, in his last communication, has  also  given us a very un-
pleasant impression of the glorious uncertainty of medical practice; and
indeed we quite agree with him on that point.  It is too  true that a
great deal of  the treatment of  suffering humanity is mere experiment,
and without assuming the  responsibility of an adviser, we cannot but
think that if people would leave nature, even when diseased, to its own
recuperative energies, there would be fewer fatal results from the com-
mon diseases which prevail.
  As for the administration of alcohol to persons in a weakly condition,
resulting from whatever cause, we don't believe in it, although we have
submitted to it occasionally, in the cases of friends,  because we would
not interfere with the responsibility of the doctor.  But we have per-
sonally known more  than one instance in which  the patient himself
stoutly refused to accept the prescription, and that after being assured
that he must take it or die, and these parties are now alive and well
without the aid  of alcohol.  We are compelled to say that we  canno*
publish anything more on the subject at present, beyond half a colurnu
at a time.—Editor. 
132    '      The  True Temperance Platform.
           ALCOHOLIC  MEDICATION.

                  From the Philanthropist of Feb. 5, 1863.

  [This controversy, the  publication of which has been the theme o\
much comment, and diversity of opinion, has been, as  our readers will
perceive, reopened in the present number, by the publication of a por-
tion of another letter from Dr. Trall.  We have been induced to con-
sent to this by the representations and requests of some of our subscrib-
ers.  We know not whether good or evil is to arise out of it, but having
yielded so  far we  have no objection to its proceeding on both  sides.
Dr. Trall, although only attaining equality with his antagonist in the
number of communications, by the publication of this letter, is certainly
very far in advance in quantity of matter.  We need hardly say that
Dr. Hurd will have the privilege of our columns co-extensively, if he
chooses to avail himself of it.
  It has been hinted to us that we are to be made the subject of a pro-
secution or persecution, for some offence, not clearly specified, growing
out of  this matter, before the approaching session of the Grand Divi-
sion.   We  can only say, in reference to this, that if there be in human
minds  a capability of  utter indifference on any subject of  a  personal
nature, that  climax of unconcern  is ours.  We  have  not  given any
cause of offence.  We  claim no more than man's inalienable right to
think,  for ourself, and  to speak or write as we think, and so  long as we
think,  speak, and write at all,  so long will we do it, independently and
unequivocally.—Editor.]

                  DE. TEALL TO  DE. HUED.

  In the Philanthropist of January 8th, Dr. Hurd devotes a column and
a half  to me and only a sentenoe and a half to the question.  I regret
that he has not employed  his pen more worthily.   I do not  feel myself
entitled to such " distinguished consideration," while the real issue is
deserving of all the attention he will be able to bestow upon it.   After
discussing matters and things in general, and his humble opponent in
particular,  through  a  long  article, he reaches the point at which he
should have commenced;  but  then, instead of recommencing at the be-
ginning, he makes the fortunate discovery that his article is " already
tco long,"  and so finds it  very  convenient to " come  abruptly to  a
closo."  As he signifies no disposition to say anything further, I am left
in doubt whether I am to regard the article before me as a finality on
his part.  I hope not,  as Dr.  Hurd seems to be entirely familiar with
the literature and theories of his profession, as these are taught in his
books and schools, and capable of sustaining his side of the controversy
as well as such an erroneous doctrine can be sustained by any one.  I
should be grieved if he should now retire from the field, and thus de-
prive me of an opportunity for advancing a great and important truth.
I had flattered myself that the real battle was yet to be fought; that we
had thus far done little  more than throw out our  pickets, skirmish
along the borders, unmask our respective batteries, and ascertain each
other's positions.  And I  shall be very sorry if this debate,  commenced
with such  a flourish of trumpets on both sides, and with so  confident
predictions of victory  by each of us, shall come to so inglorious a ter- 
The True Temperance Platform.            133
mination.  I desire a " death or victory" contest.   If my positions are
wrong I want to have them demolished.  If Dr. Hurd s positions are
false I wish to annihilate them.
  The chief difficulty in all discussions  of this kind, is in want of pre-
cision in the definition of technical words and phrases, or in not having
a clear understanding of premises.  No argument of this nature can be
either scientific or profitable, unless the  parties thereto distinctly state
their premises and  rigidly adhere to them.  Thus far I have confined
myself mainly to statements with brief illustrations of premises and
principles, and explanations of the grounds on  which I proposed to
sustain the propositions which I have advanced.   As  my premises are
new and "novel," never having  been  written in medical books nor
taught in medical schools, and being, moreover, in direct opposition to
the general belief, it was due to my  opponent that I should apprise him
of them, before asking him to bring forward his affirmative argument.
This I have  done,  fairly,  frankly, fully, truly.   And  now what does
Dr. Hurd propose to do about it ?  He  asks me no more questions.  He
does not attempt to  answer my one question.  Instead of defending any
one of his own positions, or controverting a single one of mine, he very
" abruptly" skedaddles.
   As I anticipated when he brought forward the  modus operandi objec-
tion, no sooner did I silence that battery by showing that his formidable
phrases were only " technical gibberish," than he abandons teetotally
the scientific argument and entrenches himself behind the fortifications
of "observations and experience," from which secure retreat he hurls
at me certain epithets and insinuations which, to say the least, do him-
self injustice.   Such is not unfrequently the last desperate expedient of
a  discomfited party  who is " defeated but not subdued;" conquered but
unwilling to " own  up."  But I shall pursue this discussion  into the
very citadel of my opponent's " observation and experience," where if he
does not "surrender at discretion,"  I shall storm his stronghold.
   I am accused of having a " shrewd eye to business," and of appealing
to the "passions and prejudices "  of the people.   This reminds me of
the fable of the wolf and the lamb.   Both were drinking at the brook-
let, when the wolf  accused the lamb of muddying the water.   " This
cannot be," said the lamb, " for? look you! I am lower down the stream,
and the water runs  from you to me, so that  you must muddy the water
which J have to drink."  "Nobody shall say the opposite to what I
say," replied the wolf.  " He may have told the truth, but he  shall die
for his presumption."  Is there a rumseller this side of pandemonium,
or a worse place, who would take my side of the argument ?   Did Dr.
 Hurd ever hear of a rumseller being opposed to  alcoholic medication ?
Is there " a devil with devil damned" in the infernal regions, or a fiend
in human or inhuman shape, on the earth, who would not side with
Dr. Hurd in this controversy ?  Dr. Hurd is " opposed to the drinking
usages of society," so  is the rumseller professedly. But the  rumseller
declares and the medical profession teaches that the p>i'oper use o/rum is
healthful, restorative, remedial, refreshing, an indispensable stimulus,
 a supporter of vitality, a dietetic beverage, a respiratory food, &c, and
 so he sells it to be drank as a medicine.   The drug-shop is the parent of
 the dram - shop.   The temperance physician is often the patron of the
 groggery.  Dr. Hurd must be strangely oblivious of history, and unac-
 countant of "society as now constituted," if he does not know that in-
 terest, passion, and prejudice are all on  his side.   Shrewd business men 
134           The True Temperance itlatform.
the world over, gratify their greed of  gold, and subserve  their selfish
purposes best by deferring to public sentiment, not in opposing it; by
pandering to morbid appetites, depraved instincts, perverted propensi-
ties, and blind prejudices of the people, not in reforming them. Where
one man can earn necessary bread in teaching and  practicing the total
abstinence from intoxicating drinks, or in organizing anti-tobacco asso-
ciations, a hundred will  get rich in  selling liquor and tobacco.  For
four thousand years  the world  has been acquiring a more general and
more inveterate passion for alcoholic drink ; and for many centuries the
medical  profession has been mis-educating the people into the  belief
that alcohol is not only a good  but an  indispensable medicine.  Alcohol
is mingled with more than one  hundred and fifty officinal preparations
of the pharmacopoeias ; in a variety of cordials, syrups, tinctures,  pana-
ceas, etc., etc., it is free to all classes of invalids, and to infants in their
cradles ; and I verily believe the doctors are doing ten times as much as
the dram-shops  in engendering  the appetite  for  intoxicating liquor.
No wonder that staunch advocate of temperance, the Dean of Carlisle,
eays, "generally speaking, the doctors are no great friends of ours."
No wonder J. Higginbottom, F. E. S., said in a paper, lately read be-
fore the British Medical Association:  " During my long practice I have
never known  a disease cured  by alcohol.  On the contrary, it  is the
most terrible producer of disease, and may be considered the  bane of
medicine and the seed of disease."
  In the large meeting of the International Temperance convention, in
Exeter  Hall, London, September 3,  1862, a  venerable, white-haired
clergyman,  of three  score years  and ten, made a most  earnest and
touching appeal to his clerical brethren, to give the influence of their
names and positions to the Temperance Cause.  He plead the cause of
humanity, as one might the life of a  loved one, of those who had the
power, and only lacked the disposition, to save.  He assured hi3 breth-
ren that if  their united voice  could  be had  in favor  of Total Absti-
nence, the tide of dissipation would be stayed  at once, and the world at
once relieved from three-fourths  of its miseries and crimes, its diseases
and deaths.  He told them plainly, that they had the power to insure
the speedy triumph  of the Temperance Cause all  over the world, and
that, if  they would exercise this  power, the work would soon be done.
And why will they not do it?  Alas !  they cannot.  And why can they
not do it ?  Because  the medical profession has taught them that alco-
hol is a valuable medicine, and  an indispensable restorative, a supporter
of vitality;  and that when they are sick, weak, fatigued, and exhausted,
disordered, alcohol, in the language of Dr. Hurd, "has the effect of re-
viving the sinking energies of the system."  And so we have the mor-
al weight of the clerical added to the intellectual  weight of the medi-
cal  profession, against the Temperance Cause.  The clergy are  right.
If they believe what the  doctors teach, they can not and should not
take sides with the  teetotalers.  And  so  thoroughly is this doctrine,
that alcohol is, in some mysterious and incomprehensible manner, a sup-
porter of vitality, false though it is, ingrained with the masses  of the
people, high and  low, educated and illiterate, that the few who teach
the opposite doctrine, true though it  be, are  generally stigmatized as
crazy fanatics, visionary enthusiasts, or " mad philosophers."   Says  a
writer in the very number of the  Philanthropist in which  Dr. Hurd's
last article appears—" Nay, we have sufficient  evidence continually be-
fore us  to show, that he who undertakes to propel, in these days, tho 
The  True Temperance Platform.
135
car of Temperance, has a herculean task."  Well may the task be her-
culean,  when the judgment of the medical profession, and the con-
science of the clerical profession, are practically against it.   And surely
the person who undertakes  to " propel" the reform  against  alcoholic
medication, as well as against alcoholic beverages, has a doubly-hercu-
lean task before him.
  While ten  persons agree with the opinions which I entertain and ad-
vocate, ten thousand subscribe to the doctrines which Dr. Hurd teaches
and  practices.  To  get power, position,  influence,  wealth,  and this
world's applause, one must be on the popular side.  And this certainly
is not my side.  A few years ago, I was  in a minority of one, as was
Noah in the days of the flood.  Yet Noah was  right.  Who does not
know the fate of reformers, especially those who advance theories which
are revolutionary in relation to  business pursuits and personal distinc-
tions,  and subversive of established  dogmas and  confirmed habits.
They have ever  been  the  victims, not the  beneficiaries, of " interest,
fashion, and  prejudice."  Nor is the medical profession any exception
to this common infirmity of  human nature.  When Harvey discovered
the  circulation of the  blood—a problem,  whose solution his predeces-
sors had sought unavailingly for seventeen hundred years—he was vil-
ified and persecuted because his discoveries did not agree with precon-
ceived opinions;  and it is recorded in medical history, that not a single
physician who was more than forty years of  age, would ever, to his dy-
ing  day, admit the truth of Harvey's discovery.  (I hope my worthy
brother is not on the conservative side of forty.)  When Priessnitz, the
 Silesian peasant, announced the doctrine that  the true method of  cur-
 ing diseases  was in getting " bad stuff" out  of the system, and not by
 putting poisons into  it, his "novel" notion  was  not controverted, but
 he was  persecuted and imprisoned by the medical  profession.   When
Dr. Oilman, of New  Hampshire, a few years since, in an article pub-
 lished in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, proved that alcoholic
 medicine,  so far  from imparting vitality to patients in " low fevers and
 cases of debility," actually aroused vital resistance, and wasted the vital
 energies, and thus retarded or endangered, rather than promoted, the
 cure, his professional brethren did not seriously argue against his doc-
 trine, but insinuated that if he persisted in such heresies  he would  be
 denounced as  a  quack.  And although it is not precisely relevant  I
 cannot  quite resist the temptation of informing Dr. Hurd, that a few
 years a°-o, the Medical Association of the United  States, assembled  in
 National  Convention at St. Louis, Mo., and when they sat down to
 " The  feast  of reason and  the flow of soul,"  the  table was  graced, or
 disgraced, with/or^ kinds of alcoholic liquor!  Would these "conser-
 vators of the  public  health" have done this, if they had  not believed
 that in cases  of fever, debility, bodily fatigue, mental labor, over-ex-
 citement, under-excitement, heat, cold, exercise, rest, work,  play, con-
 viviality  sickness, or health, alcohol was useful to  take, either as vic-
 tuals, drink, or  medicine ?  Professor Wood, of New York, ma clinic
 before his medical class not long since, recommended for a feeble, scroi-
 ulous child, " wine, porter, ale, gin, and brandy."   "The chief  indica-
  tion " said Dr. Wood, " is to make good,  pure blood.   And m relation
  to  the  alcoholic  part of his prescription, the Doctor remarked, " these
  youngsters  will soon get to love it."  Would Br Wood have sown the
  seeds of drunkenness in that young child, if he had not regarded  alco-
  hol as a supporter of vitality?   I wonder if any  one ever recovered 
136           The True  Temperance Platform.
from sickness before  alcohol was known ?  The time may come when
Dr. Hurd will look with horror, as I do now, on this awful delusion
which  mistakes stimulation, inflammation, fever, waste,  disease, and
death,  for vitality, energy, functional duty, sustenance, health, and life.
This mistake is the parent source of all the debauchery and dissipation
in the world, and of all the mal-practice in the medical profession, and
has sent more persons to premature graves, than have war, pestilence,
and famine, combined.
  But where are we in this discussion ?  I claim to have ascertained a
scientific truth,  which  has baffled  the investigations of medical men,
for three thousand years.   I deem the  recognition of this truth  as of
vast importance to mankind.  I regard this truth as the only scientific
basis of temperance, and as vital to its ultimate success.  I profess my
willingness to explain to any person, sincerely desirous of  understand-
ing it,  and to maintain this truth against all that can be urged by the
medical profession, and to meet all possible objections  and criticisms
which  all the scientific men of all  the earth can allege  against it.  la
there anything blameworthy in this ?  How can I make  a new truth
known, except by proclaiming it ?  I have not patented this truth.   I
do not propose to sell it.  I am only anxious that people shall have it,
because it wiLl benefit them.   I  want medical men to adopt it, because
it will  enable them to be vastly more successful in the treatment of dis-
eases, and because  its application would, under their auspices, speedily
exterminate the rum-fiend from  the earth.  Is it not passing strange,
that Dr. Hurd, instead of calling  on me for more information, or for
the explanation, exerts all his talent and ingenuity, to mystify the sub-
ject and evade the truth ?   All the desire I have  in relation to this
truth, is to give it away.  Its reception by the people, I am well aware,
and perhaps Dr. Hurd begins to see, will be very damaging to our pro-
fessional business.  But this sacrifice, if sacrifice it be, we ought to
make for the public good.  Does  society exist for the benefit of the
medical profession, or does the medical profession exist  for the  benefit
of society?
  I have said that all of the  fundamental problems of the  medical pro-
fession are false, and necessarily false, for the reason that  the primary
premise on which they are predicated  is erroneous.  The medical pro-
fession, as I have said, teaches a false doctrine of the nature of disease
—a false doctrine  of the modus operandi of medicines—a false doctrine
of vitality, and a  false  doctrine of the law of cure.   Why ?   Because
its first premise, on which this doctrine is predicated, is false.  What is
this first premise ?  It is the assumption, that in the relation between
living and dead matter, the dead matter acts on the living. The truth
is exactly the contrary.   The living matter acts on the  dead.   This is
my discovery.  If it was wrong  in me to make it, I can only apologize,
with the girl in the.play—" I couldn't help it."   And in the matter of
announcing it to the world, and commending it to the notice of medical
and scientific men,  " I could  not help it if I would, and I  would not if
I could."  I should feel self-condemned, as recreant to  God,  and false
to humanity, did I not seek, in all practicable ways, to commend this
great and saving truth to the attention of the human race, and especially
to the medical profession, whose  influence  on  the  temperance bear-
ing of  this subject, pro or con, is well nigh omnipotent.
  My discovery is either true or false.  If true,  all of the  fundamental
doctrines of the so-called medical science are false.  If my discovery ia 
The  True Temperance Platform.         137
not true, why does not Dr. Hurd show its  falsity, or  acknowledge ha
cannot?  This discussion commenced with Dr. Kurd's attempt to show
that.my positions were " untenable.". But in his last article, he boasts
that I have not " driven him from any of  his positions."   True, I have
not. The moment I apprise him how I am  going to attack any of his
positions, hp retreats on the " double quick," so that I have no opportu-
nity to drive him; well,—

                    "He that fights and runs  away,
                    May live to fight another  day."

  If my discovery enables  me to explain  the effects of alcohol, and of
pll other poisons or medicines, while the medical profession (Dr. Hurd
included)  cannot, on the common theories, explain any of the effects of
alcohol, nor those of any other medicine or  poison, then  it follows as a
logical sequence,  that all the language employed by medical writers
(Dr. Hurd not excepted) in treating of their modus operandi,is "techni-
cal gibberish." And all of the specious pleading and pragmatical pre-
varication of my learned friend cannot make it otherwise.
  Why should not I call  things by their right  names ?   Why should
my brother M. D. be offended because I speak truth in plain words ?  I
do not prove  his language to be nonsensical, in order to ridicule him,
but to show the error of his premises.  I do not show that his language
is ridiculous, to  impeach his motives, capacity,  or intelligence, but  to
demonstrate the absurdity of the positions from which he reasons.  I
do not dispute his conscientiousness, when  I say that Alcoholic Medica-
tion is  the foster-parent of rumselling.   I do not call him an ignora-
mus, when I  charge the profession with being worse than ignorant on
the questions in issue;  I only mean, his system is erroneous.   If he were
simply ignorant, I  could write  the  truth I wish  to establish, on his
mind at once. But how to dispossess his mind of inborn prejudices
and venerable falsities, is  the difficulty.  It is not  his ignorance, but
his error which is worse, (as a  lie is worse  than nothing at  all)  that
causes him, instead of hailing  the advent of the new truth I  have an-
nounced, with exceeding joy, to resist it  with fossilized  stubbornness,
and oppose it by all the ingenious expedients which men resort to when
they wish to "make the worse appear the  better reason."
  And now the question arises, " are the effects of  alcohol useful or in-
jurious, when it is employed as a medicine ?"  Cannot  the reader see
at a glance, that the answer to this question must depend entirely on
the rationale of the modus  operandi of alcohol ?  Before we can under-
stand whether the effects of alcohol are remedial, or otherwise, we must
know what the action  is.   This, I repeat, is the issue  between me and
Dr. Hurd ; and this, I repeat, is what he should settle before he under-
takes anything further  ; and this, I repeat, is the point  he runs away
from continually.
  I cannot give him credit for fairness or  candor, when he says: " If I
can succeed, by the use  of  such  substances, (iron, bismuth, quinine, al-
cohol, etc.,)  in restoring the diseased functions of the vital organism,
am I not justified in the employment of them, even though I may not
be able to comprehend the  precise rationale of the  effects, or to explain
in a perfectly  clear and  intelligible manner their modus operandi ? "
  Certainly you are, and you would be criminal if you did not.   But
in the sentence I  have quoted, you have both begged the question an(J 
138        The True Temperance Platform.
misrepresented the facts.  Whether alcohol does or does not  assist  in
restoring the disordered  functions is the very point in issue—the thing
to be proved.  He assumes that alcohol is a restorative, and then aska
if he is not justified in using it.  He might as well assume that a stone
is bread, and then ask me if he is not justified in feeding it to a hun-
gry person.   The language of the medical  text-books, and of the liv-
ing teachers, is:—" Of the modus operandi of medicines we know noth-
ing."  Dr. Hurd's perversion is, "if I cannot comprehend the precise
rationale, nor explain in  a  perfectly clear  manner."   Such subterfuges
evince the ingenuity of the second-rate  attorney, but are not in charac-
ter  with the rigid reasoning  and stern  truthfulness of  the man  of
science.
  The question before us  is one of principle, not of detail.  We are
wide as the poles apart.  One of  us must  be wrong.   The language of
Dr. Hurd implies the falsity he dare not openly assert.   On the theory
entertained  by the medical profession, and advocated  by Dr.  Hurd,
that drugs and diseases act on the vital organism, no one can explain
the essential nature of any disease, nor the effects of  any medicine.   On
the theory which I advance, which  I claim as a discovery, and which
Dr.  Hurd  is pleased to  compliment ironically  as " novel," " astound-
ing," etc., (was there ever a discovery that was not novel, or a new
truth that was not astounding  to somebody ?) that drugs, diseases, and
the causes of disease, do  not act  on the vital organism at all,  but that,
on the contrary, the vital organism acts on the drugs, and on the causes
of disease, and that disease itself is vital  action, I can explain the es-
sential nature of all diseases, and the modus operandi of all medicines.
Is not here a pretty considerable  of a difference 1  Is there not some-
thing in this issue worth discussion, and worthy of the profoundest in-
vestigation 1   My statements,  if true, are of incalculable importance,
for they must  revolutionize  the  popular physiology, pathology, and
therapeutics.   If false,  they are the most preposterous humbuggery
that  was  ever  uttered  by mortal  man.   If  Dr.  Hurd  wants
more information, more  facts,  statistics,  principles, or illustrations of
the truth of my "novel," and  plausible theory, I will very cheerfully
furnish him  with any quantity;  for all of the laws of nature, rightly
understood, all of the operations of the universe, correctly comprehended,
and all of the data of science,  truly interpreted, prove  all of my posi-
tions, and disprove every one of his.
  The medical profession  has  devoted ages of time, and expended a
world of talent, in fruitless attempts to solve the problems we are now
debating.  I believe, indeed I know, that I have solved them ; and why
should I not say so 1  And why should  not Dr. Hurd rejoice at my
discovery, especially when I assure him that its practical recognition
by the  temperance leaders would ensure the speedy triumph of  their
cause, while  its adoption by the medical profession would, in  the prac-
tice of the Healing Art, render the treatment of the  most prevalent and
fatal diseases comparatively simple, safe,  intelligible, inexpensive, and
successful.  I challenge  any man to show that the theoretical recogni-
tion and practical application of my discovery would work any evil to
any human being, unless damaging the business of  the medical profes-
sion be an evil.
   But what of "observation  and experience!"  This  is  De. Hurds
last refuge.  But I  shall " drive" him from that before I have dona
with him, if he is not too fleet-footed in running. I too have had  ex 
The Tbue Temperance Platorm.           139
perience ;  and I have been observing the philosophy of our subject for
twenty years, while Dr. Hurd never had his attention called to it until
a few weeks ago.   If he wishes to introduce in evidence the experience
of the whole medical profession, I am ready to " try conclusions" on the
issue.  But as he  has thus far only introduced his own, and that only
as broad and sweeping statements without rule, law, principle, or  par-
ticulars, it will for the present be sufficient for me to. offset his experi-
ence with mine.  And here it is :  For several years after graduating as
an M. D. I prescribed alcoholic stimulants in " low fevers and cases of
debility."  I lost about the usual proportion of patients ; that is to say,
of mild cases, one in fifteen  or twenty, and of severe cases, one in  four
or five.   In due time I became skeptical as to the benefit of stimulants,
used them less, and had  better success.  Finally, I  came to the same
conclusion that Sir John Forbes, M. D., F. E. S., arrived at by a some-
what different process of reasoning, viz., that " more patients recover in
spite of the medicine, than with its assistance."   It  is  now more than
fifteen years since I prescribed a  particle of stimulus of any kind, and
although I have treated hundreds of cases of all the febrile diseases in-
cident to New York and its vicinity, including measles, scarlatina, ery-
sipelas, small-pox, remittent, typhus,  typhoid,  congestive,  and  ship
fevers, pneumonia, influenza, diptheria, childbed  fever, dysentery, etc.,
etc., I have not lost one.  And this statement  I  have repeatedly  pub-
lished in this city, where the facts,  if otherwise than as I represent, can
be easily ascertained.
   Can Dr. Hurd, with his use of stimulants, show a better record 1
 Can any advocate of alcoholic medication, from Hippocrates to Hurd,
boast of equal success 1
   I do not, however, regard either his experience or mine as conclu-
 sive, nor  as very  important.  Experience may prove or disprove  any-
 thing or nothing, according to  the rule by which it is interpreted.
 Persons may be sick, take alcohol, and recover health, and yet the al-
 cohol hinder  instead of help  the  cure.  A  child may take a  small
 quantity of poison into  its system every day (nearly all children do),
 and grow up to maturity.  But would any one suppose that the poison
 assisted in the process of growth  and development 1   Common sense,
 which is better than false  science, would say that the child grew in
 spite of the poison, but would have a better development if he had not
 taken it.   I know a lawyer in this city who has used tobacco  since five
 years of age.   It did not kill him.  It  did not prevent his growing up
 to manhood—to the ordinary size.   But  he  has less vitality, and will
 die many years sooner, because he has expended so much of the life-force
 in expelling the poisonous tobacco.  In October last, I heard the medi-
 cal members of the British Scientific Association, in one of the halls of
 the seventeen colleges  in  Cambridge, England, gravely argue  that
 cigar-smoking was a wholesome performance!  Could  any man come to
 such a conclusion, let his observation and experience be what it might,
 without reasoning from Dr. Hurd's stand-point 1  The principle which
 underlies this discussion enables us to understand why it is that  all
 who drink intoxicating liquor do not  immediately  become drunkards,
 and  that all  who take  alcoholic medicine are not  killed outright, al-
 though they do not recover so soon nor so well as they would have done
 if  the alcohol had been  emptied into the  sea, instead of the human
 stomach. 
140           The True  Temperance Platform.
  There is an easy and effectual method of settling th is muddle of ex-
perience.  Let Dr. Hurd state his case ; name the disease; describe the
leading symptoms ; give a list of all the remedies he employs, includ-
ing, of  course, the  alcoholic, and state the result.   When  Dr. Hurd
will do this  the subject will be fairly before us, and I will attend to my
side of the argument.
                                               E. T. Trall, 31. D.
  New York, January 22, 1863.
           ALCOHOLIC   MEDICATION.

                From the Philanthropist of Feb. 19, 26, 1863.

  If the readers of the Philanthropist have been as  much edified as I
have been amused by the perusal of Dr. Trall's last, longest, and least
attempt to support his singularly fanciful theory,  they will certainly
not begrudge the time and effort devoted to it.   Almost the  entire
article consists in a vehement repetition of ideas advanced—not sup-
ported—in former communications.  Utterly  failing in the " scientific
argument," unable to bring forward a single new idea, or to support by
a semblance of reasoning, the rickety fabric tottering in  the region of
his fertile imagination, he again has recourse to his old fort—his strong-
hold in the day of trouble—his only available means of saving his craft
from ruin.   Instead of doing himself what he so imperatively demands
of me—meeting the issue " fairly and squarely with no dodging,' ho
abandons the " scientific argument," " dodges" the  whole question in-
volved in the controversy, and sets up  an imploring ap"peal for publio
sympathy.   And most ingeniously does he employ this potent and ever-
efficacious weapon.  How industriously does he strive to awaken some
tender emotion in the minds of the people  at large,  by representing
himself as an injured  and persecuted man,  almost a martyr to the cause
of truth and humanity.   He  has discovered  and exposed the per-
nicious errors of the medical profession, and warned the people against
these blinded dupes of " technical gibberish,"  these perverse and obsti-
nate disciples of Hippocrates, these wily dispensers  of physic, who

                  Resort to the trick of deceiving the sick,
                    "With their poisonous powders and pills,
                  Cathartics, emetics, and diaphoretics,
                    Hydrargyrum, jalap, and pills!

  But alas! the people have not heeded his warnings ; they have not
received or believed his doctrines, and consequently they have not spread
his fame abroad, or awarded the praise which he thinks is due  to his
self-sacrificing and philanthropic efforts to protect them from the impo-
sitions of medical practitioners.   This, doubtless, is very hard—exceed-
ingly ungrateful.  But yet, indefatigable man,  he will  not give up in
despair ;  he will still  pursue his cherished  object; and to gain that, he
must win the people to his side.   If that can be  accomplished he will be
all right, " Othello's occupation," 'will then be secure.  What would he
care for the doctors, or their "technical gibberish," if the people were 
The  True  Temperance Platform.
with him ?  His position would then be secure, his triumph complete,
his fortune achieved!   Oh yes, to him the voice of the people is every
thing :—" Vox pop idi, vox Dei."  And to accomplish an object so desir
able, he will resort to any means in his power.  He will even endeavor
to disparage his opponent  by representing him in the worst possible
light, by imputing the most unworthy motives, and by placing him on
a level with the meanest and  basest of characters.  And he would ex-
pose all this in a still more glaring light, by exhibiting it in contrast
with  his  own  unsophisticated purity, innocence, and humanity.  He
would ransack  the archives of fabled antiquity to strengthen his im-
ploring appeal, and by a far-fetched and incomprehensible illustration,
endeavor to appropriate to himself the quiet and amiable qualities of
the " lamb"—praiseworthy, immaculate emblem of innocence—and at-
tribute to his opponent the viciousness and perfidy of the " wolf."  He
would have the world believe, that as regards himself, he is entirely
disinterested, that his efforts have been put forth solely for the benefit of
others, that on his banners are inscribed in glowing capitals, Prp Bono
Publico, and with all this  he is  still alone.  Nobody seems ready to
adopt his views, or aid his projects ;  and there is  not even " a rum-
seller this side  of pandemoniun, or a worse place, who will take his side
of the argument, or assist him in opposing alcoholic medication. '   But
his opponent—oh horrible!   What a position  he has taken !   How
absurd, inconsistent, and dangerous to the well-being of society!  He
is the victim of an " awful delusion," on which Dr. Trall looks with
" horror," and pronounces  " the parent source of all the debauchery in
the world," and " of all the mal-practice in the medical profession."  And
to put the climax on the whole,  to complete the full  and shocking in-
famy into  which I have fallen,  he politely and charitably insinuates
that  there is not " a devil in the  infernal regions, or a fiend in human or
inhuman shape on  earth, who would not  side with me in this contro-
versy !   Now, if this does not produce a profound impression upon the
minds of the people, it is difficult  to imagine  anything that will. If
this does not procure him the victory which he so  confidently antici-
pated from the first, and about which he  has so loudly and frequently
boasted, he will be likely to abandon the field in despair.
   For myself, I care not a rush  for Dr. Trall's appeals for sympathy.
 If he feels uncomfortable, he  has himself only to blame.  Let him ac-
 knowledge and abandon his errors, and  all will  be right.  But  if he
persists in promulgating them, he must not be surprised if he is com-
 bated, and sometimes  even with his own weapons.   I would not have
 written in the style I have done, if he had not forced me into it. I have
 endeavored throughout  this controversy to avoid everything offensive,
 and to treat my opponent with  due respect.  He would have done him
 self and his subject far more justice if he had pursued the same course.
 And when he attempts to impute motives, and places  me on a level with
 "devils," "fiends," and "rumsellers," he must afford a little stronger
 proof that his own hands are  quite  pure.  With what a " flourish of
 trumpets" he proclaims his fancied victory, and exults in the delusion
 that his adversary has retired from the contest, bearing on his stricken
 colors the humiliating inscription " skedaddle !"  But he will awake
 from his fond  dream of conquest to find that,

                    The man he thought had run away,
                    Has quite another part to play ;
                    He scorns the timid, sleepy addle,
                    "Who fears to fight, or cry skedaddle 1 
142          The True Temperance Platform.
  Dr. Trall takes a great deal for granted   His opinions he  regards
as infallible ; his reasoning all sound and conclusive ; his illustrations
apposite and convincing.  All that is opposed to his views he sets down
as delusion and false assumption, and all  the  teachings of medical
books he styles " technical gibberish."   The profession he thinks is in a
" sad muddle" in reference to the modus operandi of drugs in general,
and of alcohol in particular.   We affirm that it acts, but we  know not
how.   He declares it does not act because it cannot, and illustrates and
enforces his view by a series of striking analogies.  In one of tho Paris
theatres a boa constrictor swallows a  bed blanket  The poor creature
writhes and struggles in great agony to get rid of it.  Strange to say,
he cannot digest it, and therefore he must eject it.  An action ensuea;
but the effect is produced by the action of  the serpent on the blankot,
and not by the action of the blanket on the  serpent.  And Dr. Trall
" marvels " that I cannot see the force of all this.  He wonders that I
cannot perceive the analogy between a  bed blanket and alcohol.  And
to overcome my obtuseness  he introduces another, which he thin Its
must make the matter quite clear to my understanding.   A stone—" as
big as a piece of chalk ' —is forced into the  stomach of a dog.  This,
after an unsuccessful effort to digest it, must be eliminated by a desper-
ate struggle on the part of the afflicted animal.   The stone could not act
on the dog, and so the dog must act on the stone to expel it.  But how
" passing strange,"  after all, that I cannot yet perceive the force of Dr.
Trall's illustrations.  I am quite as unable to see the analogy be-
tween the stone and alcohol as between the blanket and alcohol.  What
perplexes me in  the matter is, that the one is a solid, which  the  acids
of the stomach have no power to dissolve, the other is a liquid.   The
one is a heavy, unyielding mass, the other  is  volatile  and diffusible.
The one remains on the stomach, acting as a  local irritant, the other is
almost instantly absorbed, and carried by the blood to the most remote
parts of the system.  Strange indeed that I cannot see the analogy be-
tween them!  I do not claim  for alcohol or  any other drug the power
to act in the sense in which it is applied to a living animal—a " dog "
or a "boa constrictor."   Unlike these animals, it is not endowed with
a principle of organic life.   I employ and understand the term in a
strictly  scientific sense, and using it in such sense, I am justified by the
ordinary use of language.  Words may have various meanings accord-
ing to the subjects  to which  they are applied.   They  are the proper
vehicles of thought—the  only means of expressing ideas and enforcing
principles.   Take from  them their true and legitimate meaning—the
signification which custom has given them—and you convert them into
an unintelligible jargon, and scientific language becomes mere " techni-
cal  gibberish."   To describe  certain results,  we  employ  the terms
which are most expressive or best adapted to convey a clear and well-
defined conception of the subject under discussion.  In how many cases
do we apply the term act to inorganic substances, as more significant
and expressive than any other which  could be employed 1   When a
stone is  washed or worn on the beach, we ascribe the result to the action
of the water.  When trees wave in the forest,  or houses are hurled from
their foundations, we ascribe it to the action of the  ivind.  When an
effect is produced by an agent, we call it an active agent, it may be or-
ganic or inorganic.   When a remedy applied is  efficacious, wo give it
the name of an active remedy.   The term is the most  simple, the most
expressive,  and hence the most appropriate.  I can see no reason whj 
The  True Temperance Platform.           143 ■
we may not with equal propriety, apply the term to alcohol.  Immedi
ately on its introduction into the living system certain well-known results
follow, and that as the effects of the action of the alcohol—this is  the
primary cause, and it is absurd to attribute  it to any other.   Dr.
Trall ascribes it  to the "action of the living system on the alcohol,"
and thus mistakes the effect  for the cause.   The  system would not have
acted if the alcohol had not been introduced into it; but having been
diffused through the system, it acts as an excitant or stimulus to its
vital  energies, suspended by disease or exhaustion.   It acts on  the
system thus reduced, somewhat as the  spur does upon the jaded horse,
or the rod on the stubborn boy.  Both are  aroused  amazingly by the
application; but we need scarcely stop  to enquire whether the spur acts
on the horse, or the horse on the spur ; the rod  on the boy, or the boy
on the rod. Equally clear is the fact that the results which follow the
introduction  of alcohol into the system are due to  the  primary and
Bpecific action of the alcohol itself.
  No doubt  many others  besides the  Carleton Sentinel  question  the
prudence of the Grand Worthy Patriarch in presenting himself as the
" champion " of alcoholic medication.   But I cannot help what others
think of the position I have  assumed in  this controversy.  I cannot
sacrifice principle, or deny the truth to  please anybody, or to serve any
cause.  For any other explanation of my conduct, I,  most respectfully,
refer my friends to the columns of the Philanthropist in which I have
given my only reasons for the course I have pursued.
  But to  the  subject.  " It is  extremely  difficult," says  Dr. Hooper,
"to determine, with accuracy and precision, the mode in which any
agent affects the bodily tissues  and functions, but experience  and ex-
periment, induction and deduction,  chemistry and physiology, enable
us, in many cases,  to arrive at the truth, or an approximation to it, and,
consequently, there is at the present  day a tolerably constant and
unanimous belief respecting the modus operandi of a considerable number
of dietetical and medicinal agents."  Has  nothing, therefore, been as-
certained with regard to the action of alcohol  on the human system 1
Has no light been thrown upon the subject 1   Have no just or satisfac-
tory conclusions been  arrived at after all  the labor that  has been ex-
pended upon  it by the wise and  learned for hundreds of years  past 1
Are we all in delusion here, having no rational principles to guide us
in the use of alcohol in any form or quantity as a medicine 1  If Dr.
Trall is  correct, such is precisely our position.  But a  very different
thing is revealed  by some  of the ablest writers on the  subject.   Dr.
Hooper says :  " Alcohol appears to seek out and fix upon nervous matter
and to act directly and especially upon it, just as other agents localize
themselves in particular organs."  Dr. Todd regards alcohol as food to
nervous matter, and affirms that it acts  on the nerve-cell and  fibre
directly.  " So far, says Todd, " as it influences the nervous system, the
action of alcohol is that of a stimulant—an  unfortunate term, indicating
a  distinction without  a difference; other forms of  food  are  likewise
stimulant, but as they do not act directly and quickly upon the nervous
system, their exciting properties are not so apparent.  In  like manner,
alcohol possesses its stimulating property, because it is a form of aliment
appropriate to the direct nourishment of the nervous system, and to its
preservation ; its special adaptation to this system gives it an  immedi-
ate exciting power superior to any  other kind of food."   Such are the
effects  of  alcohol, and such its action, according to Dr. Todd,  only 
Ill           The True  Temperance  Platform.
when given in small quantities, as a medicine.   " When taken in excess,"
he says, " it does not produce  inflammation of any organ, but its bad
effects are shown  in the  nervous system; it damages the nutrition of
the nervous matter, poisons the nerve-fiber and nerve-cell,  and pro-
duces anaemia of the brain."   " The moderate, and  proper use of alco-
hol," he contends, " repairs and invigorates tho nervous system, that it
is its proper pabulum in the same sense as albumen is the appropriate
pabulum of the muscular tissue."   " If given beyond what is required
in the treatment of  disease," he says, it will be exhaled; and percepti-
ble in the breath ; not so if the quantity be  proportioned to the wants
of the system."
   The excessive use of alcohol  weakens, depresses, and wastes the sys-
tem ; but that is no argument  against its employment in small quanti-
ties  as a medicine.  " Tea, coffee, exercise, study, sleep, etc.," says Dr.
Hooper, " stimulate, strengthen, nourish, repair, within certain limits,
the nervous tissue, but  beyond those limits, they weaken, depress, and
waste it."  Why should alcohol form an exception ?  Dr. Trall would
agree with Dr. Carpenter, who argues that" alcohol cannot ultimately
benefit nervous matter,  because it is incapable of regenerating it—/. e.,
of becoming its proper pabulum, or food."   But neither of them will
question the benefit of  moderate study, exercise, sleep,  or perhaps, of
tea, or coffee, and yet it cannot be supposed that any one of them, or
the whole combined, can per se, and directly contribute a particle of
matter to the brain and nerves.  " In studying the physiological action
of alcohol on  the human body," says one of the writers above quoted,
" we must never forget that it is one of that large class of agents whose
influence varies, not  simply in amount, but in kind  or quality, accord-
ing to the quantity administered; so that  the effects of a large dose
will be,  not a mere multiple of those of a small one, but of a totally dif-
ferent character.  In some few  cases, as those of lying and stealing, for
instance, quantitative difference does not produce  qual itative difference ;
but in the majority of  cases it does.  A certain temperature produces
ice—a higher one, steam; a certain weight bends a spring—a heavier one
breaks it; a short  mountain walk invigorates the  body—a long one
weakens it; a few hours' study may /wnorvate the brain—a few hours
more will  enervate it.   And may not, also, a certain  amount of alco-
hol, tea, coffee,  etc., strengthen the nervous system, and a larger one
weaken  it ? Or is  alcohol mischievous  in  all proportions, whilst tea,
coffee, study, exercise, etc., are  not so ?   Cause must be shown why al-
cohol is to be excluded from the class of agents which do good in mod-
eration, and harm in excess."  " The end and aim of all food is force.
Hence, study,  exercise, fresh air, etc., may be regarded as food, for they
all give force,  though they probably do not directly, and per se furnish
any material pabulum to the brain and nerves.   Alcohol is more really
and strictly a food, than either  of them; for all material food is either
plastic, (tissue making,) or respiratory, (heat making,) and alcohol is an
excellent respiratory or calorific food, for it is far more digestible, and
far quicker in  its action than starch, fats,  and sugar, and is at once ab-
sorbed by the vessels on the walls of the stomach ; consequently where
time is an object, as  in cases of  fainting, or of collapse from accidents,
alcohol  possesses a manifest advantage over the more solid and slowly-
acting hydro-carbons."  Even  Dr. Carpentkr  admits,  that " Alcohol
is the quickest in its aotion of all the hydro-carbons  ;" " hut," be says,
" others would  be  equally and more permanently efficacious if only 
The True Temperance  Platform.           145
time were given them to act.  In some exceptional cases this time can-
not be  given, and then alcohol is indicated."  Carpenter also  says :
" Alcohol, by presenting itself first for combustion in the lungs, pre-
vents the other carbonaceous matter of the blood (supplied  from food
and  other  sources) from being burnt  off the lungs."  Most writers
agree with Moleschott, that " wine saves the tissuse from being burnt,
by offering itself for fuel."
  Eecent experiments by eminent  physiological chemists in Germany,
have  led  them to the  belief, that " alcohol  (in  common with tea
and some other agents,) by  preventing  the waste of  the tissues, is, if
not a real and material pabulum, at least an equivalent to it, a diminu-
tion of expenditure being, of course, tantamount to an increase  of in-
come."  " It is objected," says Dr. Hooper, " that alcohol is only a
temporary stimulus;  that the force generated by it is only temporary.
But this is not a valid objection, since all stimulus, all force is tempo-
rary; food,  fresh air, exercise, are all stimuli,  or generators of  force,
but are temporary in their action.   Life is only possible under incessant
stimulus.  Tea and coffee are called "refreshing" stimuli; why should
the stimulus of alcohol be called " noxious ? "
  Thus have I endeavored, by a few brief extracts from the works of
eminent medical men, to exhibit the basis on which rests my belief in
the use of alcohol as a medicine.  I claim nothing for it beyond that.
Its indiscriminate employment as a medicine has done great mischief,
and the same may be said of many other valuable agents.   But when
judiciously employed, it has  proved decidedly  efficacious in numerous
cases.  And before I abandon the position I have assumed with regard
to it, a stronger battery will have to be brought to bear upon me, than
my friend Dr. Trall has yet been able to erect.  The shots he has
hitherto fired have rather had a tendency to increase my belligerent
propensities, than induce an inclination to run.
                                                    J. C Hurd.
  Fredericton, February 18, 1863.
  [Our readers are aware that at the request of a few of our friends,
and at the solicitation of Dr. Trall, we were induced to permit a re-
newal of  the  " Alcoholic  Medication" controversy in our  columns.
Since then we  have published something near four columns on the sub-
ject, from the  pen of Dr. Trall, and nearly as much from Dr. Hurd.
We now state, for the information of our  readers, that the balance of
Dr. Hurd's  answer, which appears in  this week's issue, is the last we
can insert, and we respectfully inform the learned Doctors, that we de-
cline publishing  any further remarks  on this apparently interminable
discussion.—Editor.]
                 7 
146          The True Temperance Platform.
           DR.  TRALL'S   FINALITY.

  I am not very much disappointed at the manner in which this discus-
sion has terminated, although I had hoped for a better result.  The
merits or demerits of alcohol depend on the rationale of its effects—its
modus operandi.  This question cannot very well be discussed without
involving the general subject of the modus operandi of medicines;  nor
can this matter be understood without an exposition of the essential
nature of disease ;  and this, in  turn, involves the doctrine of the " vis
medicatrix naturce," and the theory of  vitality.   And thus the problem
of the action, or  effects, or medicinal uses of alcohol, unavoidably in-
volves a discussion of all the primary and fundamental problems in
medical science.
  And here is just the intrinsic difficulty of all controversies of this
kind.  I assert, most unqualifiedly, that all of the primary premises  and
fundamental dogmas of the medical profession, to wit, of the action of
medicines, of the nature  of disease,  of the vis medicatrix naturm, of
vitality, of the law of cure,  etc., are erroneous;  and that these errone-
ous doctrines  have led,   and do necessarily  lead, to an erroneous,
dangerous, and often fatal practice;  and, furthermore,  that all of the
false medical science and bad medical practice in the world, originate
from  a single primary error concerning the relations  of living  and
dead matter.  No great reform can  be  made  in the practice of  the
Healing Art, until these false doctrines are corrected, and they never
can be corrected until the primary and fundamental  truth — that living
matter is active,  and dead  matter passive,  in  their relations to each
other—is recognized.
  Will  Dr. Hurd have proof,  other than my assertions and  argu
ments ?  He shall have the best evidence the nature of the case admits
of—the deliberate declarations and  recorded testimony of the bright
and shining lights of the profession.
  Said that most accomplished medical scholar which the medical pro-
fession has ever produced, your own John Mason Good, M.D., F.E.S.,
" The language of the science of medicine is a barbarous jargon."
  Sir John Forbes, M. D., F. E. S., of London, has  testified: " Some
patients get well with the aid of medicines;  more without it;  and  still
more in spite of it."
  Dr.  Frank, an eminent  English  author and practitioner : " Thou-
sands are annually slaughtered in the quiet sick room."
  Professor Jameison, of  Edinburg:  " Nine times out of ten, our mis
called remedies are absolutely injurious to our patients."
  The great Dr. Bailie, of London: " I have  no faith whatever in
medicine."
  Dr. Evans, Fellow of the Eoyal College, London:  " The medical
practice of our day is at best a most  uncertain  and unsatisfactory sys-
tem ; it has neither philosophy nor  common  sense to  commend it to
confidence."
  Dr.  Bostock, author  of the History of Medicine: " Every dose  of
medicine given is a blind experiment on the vitality of the patient."
   Sir James Johnson, M.  D., F. E. S., editor of the  London Medico-Chu
rurgical Review^:  " I declare, as my conscientious conviction, founded
on long experience, and  reflection,  that, if there  was not  a  single 
The  True Temperance Platorm.           147
physician,  surgeon, man-midwife,  chemist, apothecary, druggist,  nor druy,
on the face of the earth, there would be less sickness and less mortality
than now prevail."
  These extracts from European authors, and similar ones from Ameri-
can authors, could be extended indefinitely; but I will add the follow-
ing confession and declaration deliberately adopted by the members of
the National Medical Convention, representing the elite of the profes-
sion of the United States, held in St. Louis, Mo., a few years ago:
  "It is wholly incontestible that there exists a wide-spread dissatis-
faction with what is called the regular or old allopathic  system of
medical practice.   Multitudes of people in this country and in Europe
express an utter want  of  confidence in physicians and their physic.
The cause is evident; erroneous theory, and, springing from it, injurious,
often—very often—fatal practice !  Nothing will now subserve the
absolute  requisitions of ah intelligent community, but a medical doc-
trine  grounded upon right reason, in harmony with and avouched by
the unerring laws of nature, and of the vital organism, and authenticated
and confirmed by successful results."
  At  the  International Temperance Convention,  many  able papers
were read on the action and effects of alcohol, but no one undertook to
explain its action.  I undertook to solve the mystery of 4,000 years, by
explaining that alcohol did not act at all, and that  its various and
strange effects were due to the action of the vital powers in expelling it
from the system.
  I well  knew the revolutionary  nature of  the  doctrine I had an-
nounced.  I knew that  if  it were received by the public, the disuse of
alcohol as a medicine  would soon  follow, and  then  the  dram-shops
would very soon  be  closed.  And  I  said to the immense audience in
Exeter Hall, " Let the temperance army inscribe just three words on its
banners:  ' No Alcoholic Medication,'  and the triumph of the tem-
perance cause will soon be achieved;" and this sentiment, I am  happy
to know, was much better received by the sea  of upturned faces which
filled the spacious room, than it has been by Dr. Hurd and his asso-
ciates in the Grand Division of the Order of the Sons of Temperance, of
Fredericton, New Brunswick.
  Dr. Hurd volunteered to prove that my position was untenable ; but
in his first article he did not meet my position at all, as the editor of
the Philanthropist very plainly told him.  Whether he has  since met
any one of the positions I have advanced, or successfully maintained a
single one of his own, the reader can judge for himself.
  I knew very well  in  the outset that our discussion  would soon in-
volve the theories of the  popular medical system; and I knew that
those theories were false.   I knew that they could not bear discussion.
And I was not surprised when I learned that an influence was at work
"behind the throne  " to stop the discussion, or suppress the paper—tha
Philanthropist.
  I do not think it generous nor just that Dr.  Hurd, after volunteering
to commence this controversy, should be allowed both to open and close
it.  I thought I was entitled to the last word as he had the first.  But
Dr. Hurd is  allowed to  have one first and two  last (pardon the false
grammar) articles.
  The why and wherefore  of this—the animus  or modus operandi—is
sufficiently apparent from the remarks of the editor of the Philanthro-
pist in relation to the discussion.  In his first article the editor expresses 
148         The True  Temperance Platform.
his surprise  that Dr. Hurd  should undertake  to refute my  argu-
ments.  In his next article he accuses  Dr. Hurd of avoiding the true
issue  entirely.  In  a third article he informs us that Dr. Hurd  has
given him "a very unpleasant impression of  the glorious  uncer-
tainty of medical practice."  And in a fourth article, he states that he
has been threatened with a prosecution in the Grand Division of the
Sons  of Temperance, on account of this discussion in his paper;  but
standing bravely on the platform of "free speech  and free press," he
declares that the discussion may go  on.  After this declaration of in-
dependence he allows Dr. Hurd to publish two articles, and then an-
nounces that he declines to publish anything further.
  Were it the Sons of Temperance in the Grand Division who threat-
ened  the editor of the Philanthropist, or were it the medical  men who
were members of the Order 1  What harm could the discussion do to
the Order I   What  soul  of them ever imagined for a moment that the
cause of temperance would be damaged by it ?  No, no.  No one feared
for that cause.  But some there were who feared for another cause—the
cause of drug medication.   No sooner did the medical profession see
the bearing  of this discussion on its false and absurd doctrines  and
murderous practices that it resolved to put a stop to it.
  I do not blame the editor of the Philanthropist.  He little knew or
dreamed what  the  profession  could  do  and. would  do.   Its  doctrines
could not bear the light; and they must not be  exposed.  The Philan-
thropist must stop the discussion or be suppressed.  It was a  matter of
life and death with  the paper, " and what will not  a  man give for his
life V  This is the rationale of the thing.
  And now a brief reply to Dr. Hurd's last two articles, and  I have
done.
  I am sorry to be obliged to entertain the  suspicion that Dr.  Hurd
has purposely turned our controversy into a personal quarrel, so as to
divert attention from the real issue.   But I cannot on any other suppo-
sition understand the meaning of  his irrelevant  insinuations.   By
taking fragmentary expressions from different paragraphs of my articles,
and by omitting the intermediate sentences and substituting language
of his own, he has, not very  cleverly  nor ingeniously, however, at-
tempted  to make it appear that I  had applied  to him  opprobrious
epithets, and that I had complained of want of public patronage, ap-
preciation, sympathy, etc.  There is neither truth nor decency in  this
miserable attempt at misrepresentation and prevarication.
  I have said that Dr. Hurd's side in this controversy is the side of all
the enemies  of the  human race.  Imagine,  if you can, a rumseller,
fiend, or  devil, preaching total  abstinence from alcoholic drink and alco-
holic medication!  What physician does not know that the employ-
ment of  alcohol  as  a  medicine is vastly more  injurious than useful?
Will Dr. Hurd pretend to deny that, if alcohol as a medicine  should be
at once and  forever disused throughout the world, mankind  would be
infinitely the gainer 1  And I  ask again, is there  a  rumseller, fiend, or
devil on  earth or elsewhere, who would  not, in  the  discussion between
us, take  the  side of Dr. Hurd 1  Principles, like men, may be known
by the company they keep.  But when  I say this, I do not say, nor
does my  language imply, that  Dr. Hurd is a rumseller, fiend, or devil;
nor do I put him on a level with them.  I put his doctrines, which are
false, on a level with their doctrines, which are also  false. A  good man
may be mistaken.  An honest physician may be  in error.   Dr. Hurd 
The True Temperance  Platform.           149
may mean well in administering alcohol as a medicine; and a rumseller
fiend, or devil may mean mischief when dealing out or commending al-
coholic beverages.   But the good motive in the one case, and the bad
motive in the other, do not place Dr. Hurd and the other personages
named on the same level in moral character, although their influence
may be  equally injurious  to society. God judges motives, men can
only judge of the consequences of actions.
  Nor have I complained, as Dr. Hurd has most indecently intimated,
of persecution, or want of patronage, or appreciation, etc.  Having no
occasion to complain, I was not aware, till informed by Dr. Hurd, that
I had intruded into this discussion any personal grievance of any kind.
I have all the professional  and literary business I  can possibly attend
to, and the pay for it as fast as I can do it; and the income thereof
affords me all that I have any desire  for of this world's goods, and en-
ables me to expend yearly, on the average, one thousand dollars of my
earnings to promote health, medical,  temperance, and other reforms.  I
have for twenty years contributed to the treasures of many temperance
and beneficiary orders, but have never drawn  one penny from them in
my life.  I have often attended temperance alliances, conventions, as-
sociations, orders, etc., involving days of  time and  hundreds  of dollars
of expense, which  I always paid out of  my own  pocket.  I went to
London to attend the International Temperance Convention, at an ex-
pense of five hundred dollars, without  asking, deriving, or receiving any
part of it from any person  or society.  And if Dr. Hurd will come to
New York and discuss with me the question of the medicinal use of al-
cohol, I will hire a public  hall and pay his expenses and all other ex-
penses resulting therefrom; or if he and all the physicians of the Prov-
ince of New Brunswick, who are members  of the Grand Division of the
Sons of Temperance,  will  discuss this question with me  publicly in
Fredericton, I will come there whenever it will suit their convenience,
and at my own  expense.
  These personal and private matters do not belong legitimately to our
discussion.  But, as Dr. Hurd has introduced them, I will avail myself
of the opportunity to place myself right on the record.
  So far as any attempt at argument is  concerned, I see but little in
Dr. Hurd's concluding articles, except a repetition of the statements he
made in his  opening articles.  And I cannot more fitly illustrate my
appreciation  of Dr.  Hurd's attempt to  make the worse appear the
better reason, than by quoting, for  his amusement as well as instruc-
tion, the following document which  I  copy from the Western Health
Journal.  The clerical reasoning in favor of tobacco, is strikingly simi-
lar to the medical reasoning in favor of alcohol, bating, of course, the
bad orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody:

  " We give  place to the following letter from a Minister to one of our
patients. Though said to be a man of influence—he raises tobacco and
has money—the style, the logic, and reasoning are befitting the cause he
advocates.  We give it verbatim et literatim. But more of him further on.
                                       S------, W------, Co., O.
  Dear Friend M-----■:  Sir :—Yours of the 4th July came to hand
and was red  with much intrust.  I  must acknowledg that there is a
small shade of plawsability connected with your arguments.
  I have been acquainted with William Graham upwards of 40 years,
and with his genualogy there  is not a singal weekely one among his 
150           The True  Temperance Platform.
numeous offspring all corpulent and harty and all follow the good ex-
ample of there Father.  So that your thery fales  in  this case, and if
fails in one case it is probable it may fale in more cases.  You say you
was once mad sick by tobacco this I beleve to be perfectly true.  I once
knew a man by the name of Hathaway that was made  sick even nigh
unto death by eating only  five dozen of eggs at one time.  Dos this
prove that eggs are poisonous.  I think not sir.  Perhaps you took too
large a doce of this valuable and preshous medisen for  your Constitu-
tion perhaps you was like the man with the eggs you took too largo a
doce.
  As it respets the oald man you speeke of in  your letter it is contrary
to the verey nature of things to suppose that tobacco was the cause of
the desaster in his  famaly.   becaus  the use of tobacco  will throw off
those unhelty morbed cecretions by the saliva  Just considder for a
moment a man that has been a regular chewer for the turm of 100 years
if all the unhealthy and nasty slabbers and filth cecretions ware gath-
ered to one place whi sir it would make a lake that a hog would disdain
to swim in.  Now talk of men and weoman produsing a  helthy geneal-
ogy with such a lake of filth in them  Sir it  is imposable.  It is true
that all persons do not  need this medison.  sum are so Constitionaly
made that those filthy and  unhelthy accumalations are carried  of by
the natureal draugh of coars they do not need the use of this exalent
preventive of dezese.  Now  when men and weoman propogate there
speces there offspring will partake more or less of there nature and de-
eeses.  this can be clerly proven by the negro and whites copulating
together.
  I will give you  a  history of my life so far as tobacco is concerned
this I do for your conviction and infeamation  I will give you facts as
they are whether you believe them or not it will not chage the truth.
  In 2 or three months after I was married my wife was taken with a
tickling cough  and it appeared to increase  I became  alarmed So I
took hur to our family physiton had hur examined and  he said that it
was his opinon that this tickling Cough was caused by the impure ce-
cretons of the  glans of the mouths and  throat.  He said that if she
would commence using tobacco that it would  relieve her  immediately
So I got some tobacco and  she  found immediate relieaf  in 4 months
our first child was  born and she is  the most weekely of our nine chil-
dren  O that my wife had only commenced the use of tobacco as soon
as we were married   I make no doubt poor Susanah would bes stout as
aney of the famaly.
  I was taken with the dropsey or to speak more correctly my musels
were filled with impure water or morbed secretions  I went to the doc-
tor  (he was a verey knowing  and skillful Physition) he said that the
best remedy that he  could recommend was  Chewing tobacco  I com-
menced and in one year I was purfectly restored to helth.  So I came
to the conclution that Chewing was  a nasty dirty bissness and I quit
for the turm of two years and I again comenced the use of tobacco  and
soon recovered my hlth.  So my wife chews about a 4 cent plug  and
soaks allmost incesantly each weeke.   I chew an 8 cent plug and smoke
of evenings each weeke.  now Sir under this influence of tobacco we
propogated all our children  and you may look at your mortheran  law
and you will see one of those tobacco children Mary McCarthy is about
an  average spesman  of  the  children except poor Susannah Odell.  I
will leave my best arguments untell  an other time pleas doo your best 
The True Temperance Platform.            151
against the use of tobacco  if our debdte Should prove interesting when
we are threw I expect to have it all printed in pamphlet form  I do not
wish you to think me your adversyry but your best friend
  pleas write soon and give me sum plawsable arguments
  there is not one of my tobacco children if they ware to assend up in
a baloon and come down any whare among human beings but what
could make a living and lay up money.
  My wife  is now 65 years of age and she can do more work than any
of your fine ladys that are a trade of being poisened by a tobacco leaf
becaus her musals and skin and bones are pure  of this nasty filth  I
wish you to consider me your affchtonate friend
                                              J-----S-----."

  Dr. Hurd cannot see the analogy between the stone and alcohol;  and
the reason he assigns is :  " The one remains on the stomach, acting as
a local irritant, the other is carried by the blood to the remotest part
of the system. Strange  indeed that I cannot see the analogy between
them."
  Very strange, indeed, Dr. Hurd, that  you cannot see  that your lan-
guage  refutes your position.   A few sentences back you said, " we
affirm  that alcohol acts, but we know not how."   Now, in  comparing
the action of alcohol with the action of a stone you say, the alcohol " is
absorbed " and " is carried." A reference  to a few fundamental problems
in the  science of  grammar, may enable us to get through the difficulty
here.   "Is," is a verb neuter.   "To  be, to do, and to suffer," are the
functions of the  verbs neuter, active, and passive.   To be absorbed, is
not " to absorb."  To be carried, is not " to carry."   The thing which is
done unto, is not the thing which acts.   To be absorbed is  not to act,
but to  be acted on.  To be carried, is not to do anything,  but to be done
unto.   When Dr. Hurd harnesses his  horse to his  gig in order to visit
his numerous patients, he would, from the premise that the carriage acts
on the horse and pushes  it along, reason in this wise : " The carriage
being attached to  the  horse by the harness, certain  effects result.  The
carriage ' is carried '  along the road, hence it is reasonable to conclude
that  the carriage acts en the horse, although we cannot tell precisely
flow it acts."  No, Dr. Hurd, it is th.6 carriage which " is carried," and
the horse which acts, and we can tell precisely how he acts.   The car-
riage  is a dead,  inert, inorganic substance, and the horse  is a living,
vitalized,  acting machine.   The  editor of the Philanthropist  whose
organs of causality and comparison have not been sophisticated by a
medical education, was not so far out of the way when he told you that
your reasoning " placed the cart before the horse."
  " Alcohol is absorbed," says Dr. Hurd.  What absorbs it?  He says,
" the blood." " Alcohol is carried," says Dr. Hurd. What carries it ?
" The blood " again.  Where does  the blood  carry the alcohol after it
has absorbed it 1  " To all parts of the system," says our admirable lo-
gician.  And so  we have the " grammar run mad." "The blood ab-
sorbs and carries alcohol to all parts of the system," yet,  the blood does
not act on the alcohol, but the alcohol is a " volatile and diffusible "—
ahem!  Verily, " alcohol acts, but we know not how."   Such logic re-
minds  one of the Quaker in the  play: " Verily,  this  man  speaketh
foolishness."
  After this brilliant feat in ratiocination, Dr. Hurd tells  us, what
would, no doubt, be highly interesting to a school boy in the rudiments- 
152           The True Temperance  Platform.
that " words have various meanings, that we  say action when water
washes a stone ;  that we ascribe the waving of trees and the hurling of
houses, etc., to the action of the wind; that an active agent is  called an
active remedy," etc., all of which is very true, and all  of which is re-
spectfully commended to the  attention of all the abecedarians in the
land.  But the Doctor at length approaches the " fire-water " again,
and, as usual, burns his fingers.
  " Immediately on its introduction into the  living  system,  certain
well-known results follow, and that as the effects of the action of the
alcohol—this is  the primary cause, and it is absurd to attribute it to
any other."
  Here  is a case in the law of logic,  Hurd vs. Hurd.  Let  us try it.
" Alcohol, when taken into the stomach  is absorbed,  and is carried."
" Dr. Trall ascribes  it to the action of the living system on the alco-
hol."  What Dr. Trall ascribes, Dr. Hurd proves.
  Dr. Hurd's last logical demonstration is the most amusingly muddled
of all.  He seems to have wound himself into an inextricable entangle-
ment.  He says :  " The system would not  have acted if the alcohol had
not been introduced into it; [yes it would, but not on the alcohol]  but
having been introduced into the system, it acts  as an excitant or stim-
ulus to its vital energies, suspended by disease  or exhaustion.  It acts
on the system thus reduced, somewhat as the  spur does on the jaded
horse, or the rod does on the  stubborn boy.  Both are aroused amaz-
ingly by the application; but we   need scarcely stop to enquire
whether the spur acts on the horse, or the horse on the spur; the rod on
the boy, or the boy on the rod."
  To make the cases analogous the horse should take the spur into his
stomach, and the boy  should swallow the  rod.   Alcohol, we have just
been told, acts by being absorbed by the blood, and by being carried (mind
it does not absorb, it does not carry) to all parts of the system.  If the
spur,  and the rod, act  " somewhat" in the  same  way, they, too, must be
absorbed, and carried, to some extent, at least.  They must be " some-
what " absorbed, and " somewhat" carried.  But who supposes that the
6pur, or the rod, whether taken into the stomach, or applied to  the
skin, imparts strength, or " supports vitality," in states of disease or de-
bility ?   Who does not know that spurring a jaded  horse, or whipping
a stubborn boy, expends and wastes the vital energies ?   If Dr. Hurd's
reasoning is good,  and the action of these things is " somewhat" alike,
why not  apply the spur, or the rod, to excite or stimulate the vital en-
ergies, "suspended by disease or exhaustion 1" and why not apply alco-
hol to a jaded horse or a  stubborn boy? This is one of those rules
which will work both ways, if it will work at  all.  And why not in-
troduce  into  the  hospitals  the processes  of spurring  and rodding tho
patients,  as well as bleeding and blistering them ?  If Dr. Hurd's whip-
and-spur philosophy is carried to its legitimate conclusion, the practice
of pricking and castigating  feeble and depressed invalids, and  "rousing
them amazingly"  from their  states of "suspended"  and "exhausted
vital energies," may rival, if not supersede, the new Hypodermic plan of
treatment, which consists in introducing the medicines  into the system
through  the skin instead of, as heretofore, through the stomach.  He
may,  peradventure, run a  race  of popularity and  profit  with  the
" Lebenswecker " of the " Baunscheidtismus " system, and the spur-and-
rod of Hurd become the approved professional " Dermic Irritator," in-
stead of the " Dermatobiotikon "  of Firmenich !   No  doubt the sick 
The True Temperance  Platform.          153
man would be aroused more " amazingly " by the spur, or the rod, than
he would be by the alcohol;  but whether horse, boy, or patient, would not
be sent a little  faster to the graveyard by either spur, rod, or alcohol,
is just the question between me and Dr. Hurd.  I think they would.
He thinks they would not.
  But I must notice another defect in the physiology, pathology, and
therapeutics of his school.  " Alcohol acts as an excitant or stimulus to
the vital energies, suspended by disease or exhaustion."  A mistake, in
fact, Dr. Hurd.   When the vital energies are suspended the person is
dead, and alcohol will not excite him at all,  because there is no life to
be excited; and when the vital energies are exhausted the person is also
dead, and alcohol will not stimulate him at all, because there is no life
to be stimulated.
  And then we need- not stop to enquire whether the alcohol, the spur,
or the rod acts ; or whether the living system, the horse, or the boy
acts!  It makes no sort of difference, Dr. Hurd seems to think, whether
the whale swallowed Jonah or Jonah swallowed the whale, provided
something was swallowed—provided an effect was produced!  No matter
whether a man eats his dinner, or his dinner eats him, if only an effect
is produced—if  something is eaten!  Makes  no  difference!   I assure
Dr. Hurd that it makes all difference.  Between  truth and falsehood
there is always a choice.  If  alcohol acts  on the  living system that
action may be useful.  It  may impart  something.  Its effects may be
beneficial.  At least the question  would have two  sides.  But if the
living system acts, not to use but to expel the alcohol, then the action
must  be injurious, and the  effects of that action a loss of vital energy.
And the " amazing rousing " of the vital powers, under the stimulus of
alcohol, the spur, and the rod, are  but  the manifestations of the defen-
sive  struggle of the  vital powers.  Until, therefore, Dr.  Hurd can
settle this question of the action or non-action of alcohol, he has noth-
ing to talk about, and all his rhetoric is but " sounding brass and tink-
ling cymbal."
  The  last article of Dr. Hurd is made up of quotations from medical
authors in favor of alcohol as a medicine, which I cannot but think  is
a strange and rather  contemptible finale to an  attempt to prove that
my " position is untenable."
  Dr. Hurd  quotes the opinions of several medical authors, to corrobo-
rate  his opinions, that alcohol is a good medicine.   If the question be-
tween us had been, " Are the opinions of Dr.  Hurd in accordance with
the opinions  of his professional brethren ? " these quotations would have
been pertinent.  But as neither his opinions  nor mine,  are in contro-
versy, but the truth or falsity of a scientific proposition, such a subter-
 iuginous method of argument seems to me quite out of place.  It seems
 utterly impossible  for Dr. Hurd  to remember, except now and then,
vhat the question in issue  is.
  When Dr. Hurd quotes  Dr. Todd as saying, that alcohol, when given
as a medicine " acts as direct  nourishment to  the  nerves superior to any
other kind of food,"  does  he become suddenly oblivious of the experi-
ments  of Lallemand, Perrin, and Dufor,  who proved that  alcohol
passed (" was carried ") through the system unchanged ?  And when he
 quotes Carpenter and Moleschott to the  effect that alcohol  is an effi-
 cacious stimulant, does he  forget the experiments of alcohol on the
 plants and  on the leeches, and on the fishes,  and on the  birds, and on
 the reptiles, and on the frogs, dogs, cats, horses, and guinea-pigs, as de-
              7* 
'- 54           The True Temperance Platform.
scribed in Pereira's  Materia Medica?  One might suspect from his
style of argument, that his main object in this discussion was to fortify
his position before his customers, as a prescriber of alcoholic medicine ;
and not the investigation and establishment of  truth.
   There is one illustration of all of the principles involved in this con-
troversy, to which I will, in conclusion, call the attention of Dr. Hurd,
and to which I wish I could direct the attention of every thinking per-
son in the land.   There is an article, called  tobacco (which I hope Dr.
Hurd does not use), which is extensively used as a  luxury, stimulant,
excitant, etc.   This article possesses, according to the standard  medical
authors, many and important medicinal properties.   It has, indeed, a
much wider  range of " remedial virtues," if we may credit the books,
than alcohol.  It possesses all of the medicinal properties of  alcohol,
and several which alcohol does not possess.   Indeed,  in the number, ex-
tent, and variety of medicinal properties, " the filthy weed " stands  at
the  very head of  the  materia medica.  It belongs  to nearly  twenty
classes of medicine, while alcohol belongs to only four or five.  Alcohol
is stimulant, nervine,  narcotic, and  caustic; while tobacco is stimulant,
nervine, narcotic, errhinc, sternutatory, sialagogue, cholagogue, emetic, cathar-
tic,  alterative, diuretic, emmenagogue, parturifacient,  cjprctorant, diapho-
retic, antaphrodisiaq, antiparasitic, and anthelmintic.  Tobacco belongs to
a majority of all the known classes of medicines, while alcohol  belongs
to less than one-sixth of them.  And as tobacco possesses all of  the vir-
tues of alcohol, and several extra ones, why is not tobacco the  prefera-
ble  agent  to " support vitality?"   Why is not tobacco " respiratory
food ? '  So far as appearances go, and so far as any legitimate evidence
can  be had, a cigar is far more respiratory than  a glass of grog.   When
a cigar is lighted, one end placed in the patient's mouth, and the smoke
thereof drawn  into the lungs, held  there for a brief  space of time, and
then expelled through the mouth or nose—pervading all the circumam-
bient atmosphere with a grateful perfume, or a horrid stench, as one is
or is not addicted to its use—there is the evidence of fire, smoke,  change,
consumption, disintegration, etc., vividly suggestive of  " calorifacient,"
"heat-forming,"   or  "respiratory" food.    The thing  undergoes  a
change;  its elements  are variously decomposed and re-compounded ;
ashes, alkalies, acids, salts,  gases, etc., result from  the conflagration,
and there is at  least ground  for the presumption, that tobacco may im-
part something to the system ; that its elements may be in some way,
transformed and  used in the organism.
   But alcohol  is simply expelled.   It goes through  the system un-
changed.  There is no possibility of its imparting anything, or being
transformed  or used  in any manner whatever.  Yet medical  philoso-
phers call tobacco a poison, and  alcohol a food!  If tobacco were to be
taken into the system as tobacco, carried  the rounds of the circulation
as tobacco, and eliminated from the system  by the skin, kidneys, how-
els, and lungs,  as tobacco, would any person outside of a lunatic asy-
lum, suspect it of being ".respiratory food?"  Yet alcohol is called
" respiratory food " on evidence which can hardly amount to the shad-
ow of a shade of that which can be adduced to prove  that tobacco is
" respiratory food !"  And  alcohol  is called a good medicine on less
than one quarter  of the evidence that can be adduced to prove  that to-
bacco is a good medicine !
   There is another medicine which possesses  all of the properties of al-
cohol—stimulant, nervine, and narcotic,—which can in any manner ally 
The  True  Temperance  Platform.           155
it  with " respiratory  food."   I  mean opium.  Alcohol,  tobacco, and
opium, are very similar in their essential medicinal properties, and for
this reason they are so intimately associated in the work of depraving
human instincts, and destroying the human race.  Their effects, though
differing in several particulars, are remarkably similar.   Each in small
doses frequently  repeated,  will procure  a  pleasurable excitement
throughout the organic domain, attended with more or less mental ex-
hilaration.  This is the nervine effect—the nervine " operation," as the
books have it.   This is  the action of  the drug on the nervous system,
according to the  popular dogma, that medicines act on  the system.
Each in larger doses  less frequently repeated, occasions an excitement,
or disturbance, more especially of the circulating  system, with a fever-
ishness  of the  surface of the  body.  This is  the stimulant effect—the
stimulant " operation " of the books.  This is the  action of the drug on
the bloodvessels, according to the doctrine that dead things act on liv-
ing.  Each in  still larger doses at longer  intervals, occasions loss of
sensibility, stupor,  coma, apoplexy, anesthesia, dead-drunkenness, etc.
This is the narcotic effect, the narcotic " operation" of  the schools.   This
is the action of the drug on the brain,  according to the philosophy that
poisons act on  particular parts or  organs in virtue of inherent " selec-
tive " or " elective " affinities.
  Here are three  deadly poisons, each possessing essentially the same
medicinal properties, and each producing substantially the same effects
on the living organism.   Why is either one any  more a " supporter of
vitality,"—any more a " calorifacient food," than the other ?
  But we  can make our illustration of the absurdity of the  prevalent
doctrine  still plainer, our demonstration still  stronger and more pun-
gent, by a fact of peculiar significance.   The  odious secretion of that
odoriferous animal, called the skunk, has been  employed as a medicine.
Taken into the  stomach in small  doses, it is a  pleasant nervine ;  in
larger doses a moderate stimulant; in very large  doses, a decided  nar-
cotic.  It  ha» been highly recommended in cases of asthma, dyspnoea,
bronchial affections, etc.  It possesses the same " remedial virtues " as
alcohol, tobacco, and opium;  but who ever  suspected it of being " re-
spiratory food ?"
  Again, there   are several species  of spiders  whose bodies and webs
have  been proved  medicinal.  The effect is very similar, whether the
spider itself,  or its gossamer fly-trap  be swallowed.  They have been
made into pills, and administered, successfully we are told, in neural-
gia, headache, intermittents, nervous disorders, etc.   This medicine, too,
is  nervine, stimulant, or  narcotic, according to dose.  It  possesses  the
same "remedial virtues" as  alcohol, tobacco,  opium, and skunk; yet
no one has ever suspected it of being " calorifacient food," or a " sup-
porter of vitality."
  Yet again: the virus  of the rattlesnake—a  fluid  secreted in a little
sac at the roots of its fangs—has  been found to possess also nervine,
stimulant,  and narcotic properties.  It  has been prescribed in a variety
of asthmatic,  bronchial, nervous and neuralgic affections, and if we
can believe the  authorities, with excellent results.  And here it should
be noted, that the effect of the rattlesnake's virus—and the same is true
of all viruses,  and of alcohol itself—is very different,  in degree,  at
least, whether the agent  be inserted under the skin, or  taken into the
stomach, for reasons which will be  obvious to every intelligent physiol-
ogist.  This medicine, too, is nervine, stimulant, and narcotic, as are to. 
156           The True Temperance Platform.
 bacco, alcohol, opium, skunk, and spider.  Has any medical philosopher
"ever regarded it as a " supporter of vitality " or as " respiratory food ? '
   Finally, the venom of the mad dog, and the infection of tho venereal
 disease,  have  not only  been proposed, but  administered  as  remedial
 agents, by the medical  profession.   They, too,  are  nervine, stimulant,
 narcotic, according to quantity.   They have  been recommended as spe-
 cifics or antidotes for the very diseases which they induce, on the Homoe-
 pathic principle of " similia."  And these medicines possess the same re-
 medial properties as alcohol, tobacco, opium, skunk, spider and rattle-
 snake.   But what chemico-physiologist has ever  thought  of  prescrib-
 ing them as "  supporters of vitality," or as " respiratory food ? "
   There are other banes, venoms, and viruses, derived from the vegeta-
 ble and animal kingdoms—lobelia, assafetida, castor, musk, excrescences,
 morbid  growths, excretions, concretions, effete matters, etc., which,
 when taken into the stomach will occasion nervine, stimulant,  and nar-
 cotic effects, according to dose, like alcohol, tobacco, opium, skunk, rat-
 tlesnake, mad  dog, and syphilis.   But no physician that I know of, has
 ever suggested them as "supporters of vitality," or as "respiratory food ?"
   I will conclude my conclusion, with a specimen of medico-patholog-
 ical logic than which no better specimen of Dr. Hurd's method of rea-
 soning can easily be produced.
   " If nature  does not cure disease, it may be asked, why do some dis-
 eases get well without remedies ?  I answer, the poisons which are re-
 ceived  into the  system, take root, (so to  speak).  They grow, mature,
 decline, and die, running  a course of longer or  shorter duration,  in ac-
 cordance with their  inherent properties.  For  example, small-pox and
 measles have  a duration of some eight days, and mumps about a week."
 —Annual  Publication of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
   Nonsensical as this language is, it is of  such stuff that medical  books
 are made.   As is the case with Dr. Hurd, and as is the case with all of
 the authors of  his  school, the  author of the  above extract—H. W.
 Buxton, M. D.—fails to distinguish  between the causes of disease, and
 the disease itself, and thus all his talk is mere " technical gibberish."
   The poisons, we are told, " take root, grow, mature, decline, and die.''
 Let us see : Give a  patient a dose of any poison you can think of—ar-
 senic, calomel, tartar emetic, opium,  tobacco, or even alcohol.   What
 becomes of it?  Dr. Hurd say3 it acts.   Dr. Buxton says it " grows."
 Dr. Hurd says alcohol" is carried "to all  parts of the  system.  Dr.
 Buxton informs us  that  poisons ."run a course."  His  reasoning is,
 poisons run a course, therefore small-pox and measles have a duration of
 eight days!
   Is there not a little difference between poisons  and small-pox, or mea-
 sles 1   A  little touch of true science will place  this matter in its true
 light.   Poisons or impurities of a  particular  kind, are  the causes of
 small-pox or measles.  The small-pox or measles is the effort to rid the
 Bystem of their presence by expelling them through the skin.  The dis-
 ease is therefore the remedial action—the veritable "vis medicatrix na-
 turce."  Who can wonder that the great Magendie said to his medical
 class :  " Gentlemen, nature does a great deal; but doctors do very little
 —when they don't do harm ! " 
LETTER   TO   MR.DELAYAI.
•
  As this work is intended to be a " Permanent Temperance Document,"
I have concluded, at the request of several esteemed friends of the cause,
to add to it a letter which I addressed to Mr. Delavan soon after my re-
turn from Europe, through the columns of the Herald of Health, of
January, 1863.   I  am happy in being able to say that, the perusal of
the letter has satisfied several distinguished advocates of the Temper-
ance Eeformation (whose letters I have in possession), that the  only
basis on which this reform can ever be prosecuted to a successful result,
is the scientific or physiological basis, and this implies the total disuse
of all forms of  alcoholic liquor, except  for mechanical or chemical
purposes.

           TO  EDWAED  C.  DELAVAN.

  Pear Sir: The prominent position you have occupied for a quarter of
a century, and the world-wide reputation you enjoy as an advocate and,
in a large sense, benefactor of the cause of temperance, are my reasons
and my apology, if apology is needed, for addressing you thus publicly
on the cause dear to both of us.  I can think of no better plan for ar-
resting the  attention of the right class of persons, and  of interesting
them in certain propositions which I have to advance.  The object of
this communication is to show that the advocates of temperance re-
form have never yet placed their cause on the right basis; that until
they do, success is impossible, and that when they do so, success will be
speedy and complete.
  I am of the opinion that there has already been power enough ex-
pended—power of brain and of heart, of muscle and  of money—to  have
exterminated the rum-fiend from the face of the earth,  if it had been
applied in the right direction.
  Whatever importance may be attached to the moral, the  religious,
the  social, and the economical arguments in favor of total abstinence
from alcoholic beverages, there is yet one thing needful; this is the re-
cognition of the physiological  or scientific  basis.  You will  tell  me,
perhaps, that the most eminent scientific men of the world—chemists,
physiologists, physicians—have given their testimony in favor of  tem-
perance.  And so  they have ;  and at the same time given their science
in favor of the cause of intemperance.  You may refer me to the names
of two or three thousand medical men who have testified that alcoholic
stimulants are unnecessary, except as  medicines.  You may cite a  hun-
        (157) 
158          The True Temperance Platform.
dred  medical professors who  say that alcohol  is not necessary,  as a
medicine, provided there are suitable substitutes, etc.  Thus all of them
recognize the relation of alcohol to the living organism to be useful, re-
medial, restorative.  If this be true, where is the scientific basis of tem-
perance ?  How can we condemn alcohol as a thing inimical to the life-
principle in the temperance hall, and commend it as a " supporter of
vitality " in the sick chamber I
   The root of this overshadowing upas of intemperance is alcoholic medi-
cation.  So long as alcohol is  prescribed as a medicine, so long will it
be employed as a beverage.   And I undertake to say, that  each and "all
of the reasons which can be assigned in favor of its administration as a
medicine, will apply with equal cogency in favor of its use as a bever-
age.  I  make this statement  deliberately, and am prepared to sustain
it. At the present time alcoholic medication  is rapidly increasing;  and
at this time, too, the use of intoxicating drink is rapidly extending.   So
it ever has been, so it ever will be.  You can never accomplish the re-
form you seek  until alcoholic medication  is  abandoned—never, never.
There is the great, the  fatal obstacle, in  our pathway.   Can it be
removed ?
   Is  Alcohol useful as a Medicine 1   This  problem involves  the
truth or falsity, the success or failure,  of the temperance cause.  If al-
cohol is in any sense remedial, it should be employed, let what will be-
come of the temperance cause.  If it is not useful, it should not be  em-
ployed, let what will become of the medical profession, or the doctrines
of their schools and books.  If alcoholic medication is positively per-
nicious in all cases, and under all circumstances, it should be discarded
from  the  apothecary shop;  and when  this is done, it will  not long re-
main in the dram-shop.
   What  is  the Truth in this  Matter?  The question in issue is
purely a scientific one, and as such I shall treat it.  If the doctrines of
the medical  profession,  on which alcoholic medication is based,  are
true ; if they are  in accordance with  science, correct in philosophy, in
harmony with  the laws of nature, and in agreement with the vital con-
ditions of the living organism, then is teetotalism, in the language of
the Westminster Review, a " physiological error."  But if, on the  con-
trary, these doctrines can be shown to be false, if they are in  opposition
to nature, absurd in science, untrue in philosophy, and  contrary to
common sense, then teetotalism is a physiological truth, and the temper-
ance reform has a scientific basis.
   Alcohol is prescribed as a medicine in various conditions of debility,
prostration, exhaustion, fatigue, indigestion, atony, torpor, etc., etc., on
the theory that it  is a " supporter of vitality."  How it does this, none
of its advocates profess to know.  In what manner it sustains the vital
powers, none of them pretend to explain.  The rationale  of its effects is
confessedly not understood.   The why and wherefore of its strange
influence is an unsolved problem. Its modus operandi is a profound mys-
tery.  But that it does in some way support the powers of life, and  im-
part (temporarily,  at least) strength and energy to the enfeebled organ-
ism, is the almost undisputed theory of tho medical profession.
   I am prepared to. prove,  whenever and  wherever opportunity is
afforded me,  that, on this point, the medical  profession is  and always
has been mistaken; that all of its theories  and assumptions in relation
to the action, the effects, the modus operandi of alcohol are false.  And
all I ask, for the speedy triumph of the temperance cause throughout the 
The  True Temperance Platform.
world, is simply to dispossess the medical profession, and through them
the public mind, of the false theories on which the use of alcohol as a
medicine is predicated.  How can this be done ?
  I can think of no method except that of agitation, discussion.  But
can the medical profession—forty thousand strong  in this country—be
brought to a discussion of this question before the people 1  I  fear not.
For a dozen years I have been trying to get this subject before medical
and  scientific  men, I confess with  very poor success.   I  cannot even
succeed in engaging temperance physicians in  a conversation on the
subject.  I do not  feel disposed to  await the slow process  of educating
the masses of  the people, so that they can understand and correct the
errors of the scientific world, nor do I know that this is possible.
  But as the influence of  the medical profession is  omnipotent on this
question, I cannot consent to leave any method untried for having that
influence in favor of our cause, and not against it.   It is to the medical
profession that the people  look for  guidance  and direction in this
matter.  Where else can they go for instruction '?  If the medical pro-
fession  understood and taught the true doctrine in relation to what is
called the action of alcohol, there would be an end of alcoholic medi-
cation,  and  very soon  alcoholic  beverages would be among the things
that were.
  I said in the mass meeting convened in  Exeter Hall, London, before
an  audience of five thousand persons,  and in the presence of a large
mumber of  medical gentlemen,  " Give us the simple declaration  of
scientific truth, of the relations of alcohol and the living^ organism, emanat-
ing from the body of the medical profession, and it will accomplish more
for temperance in  five years than  can be  done  in  fifty, or perhaps  in
five hundred years, without it."   And in the International Temperance
Convention  I stood alone in advocating the disuse of alcohol, on the
ground that it is injurious per se.
  The  positions I took  there I am  prepared to defend  here.  Other
medical gentlemen could see their way clear to  dispense with alcohol,
if they could  have an apothecary shop at hand from which  to select
substitutes.   My position was and is that alcohol is bad in Itself, what-
ever may be said of other drugs ; that it does not in any case  assist the
patient to recover health ; that it is in all cases worse than useless ; and
that the medical profession and  the world are deluded in relation to its
supposed  "medicinal  virtues."   I offered  to  show,  if opportunity
were afforded me, by a just interpretation  of the testimony of his own
physicians,  and the statement of the London Lancet, that the late Prince
Albert  was' killed by alcoholic medication;  and to explain  how it is that
distinguished men, in the prime of life, of vigorous constitutions, are
dying°almost  daily, not of some  trivial disease, as is generally supposed,
but of  alcoholic medication.  I offered to go before any or all of the
Bcien iflc men of England, or before the Eoyal College of Physicians in
London if I could be  permitted so to do, and prove the positions I as-
sumed  and meet  all possible objections  from any source.    Nearly  a
year ap-o I made a similar offer in the Smithsonian Institute, Washing-
ton city • and I have repeated  this proposition, or challenge, in pres-
ence of medical men, and under the shadow of medical colleges in New
York  Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Toronto, and other places.  I allude
to these facts,' not so much, as I hope you will do me the  justice to be-
lieve to make an egotistical parade of what I have done  or said, as  to
Bhow' my absolute and abiding confidence that I have a basis of trutL 
160           The True  Temperance  Platform.
to stand upon. And the recognition of this truth, by the leaders of the
temperance army, I regard as vital to the success of their cause.
  How can this Vital Question be Settled 1  By experience 1  Oh,
no.  We have had quite enough of that.  Medical men have seen dissi-
pation and debauchery, vice, crime, pauperism, and misery, following
in the wake of the alcoholic bane for a period  of four thousand years,
and still their experience tells them it is a good medicine.  They have
tested it in all conceivable ways on  plants, on animals, and on man,
and they have  recorded  that  disease, debility,  disorganization,  and
death are the invariable results of its contact with living tissue of any
kind, animal  or vegetable, and yet they  regard it  as in  some way
restorative.
  Wherein is the Delusion 1  It consists in mistaking stimulation for
nutrition, excitement for strength, vital expenditure for renewed energy.
Alcohol is prescribed to a patient after he has had a course of fever, and
become weak,  emaciated, or during the fever, if it be of low diathesis,
because it stimulates.   The patient needs just the opposite—rest.
  What is Stimulation 1  It is itself fever, and nothing else.  To ad-
minister  stimulus after a patient has had a course of fever is to repro-
duce the fever; and can this be a restorative process 1  Give a well per-
son what are called moderate doses of alcohol, and he will have the con-
dition of fever.  He will be in that state of bodily  disturbance—" dis-
ordered  physiology "—which  is termed  feverishness.  He will have
the form of disease to which the term fever has always been applied by
medical men.  Can the alcoholic fever support vitality or prolong  life,
or " aid and assist nature," or promote convalescence, or favor nutri-
tion, any more than a miasmatic fever can, or any other fever induced
by any other poison'!   The " medical science "  of the world says, Yes.
Nature and common sense say, No.   Which authority shall we accept 1
Can the  cause of fever be the proper remedy for the consequences  of
fever  !  Can the poison which occasions fever sustain the organism
under a  fever occasioned  by other poisons, or obviate the debility re-
sulting from other morbific agents ?   In the light  of true science the
proposition is  simply absurd.  If this word stimulation were correctly
explained in medical books, or if it were employed in any precise and
definite sense, the world would see the fallacy at once, and medical men
would no longer perpetrate the monstrous and unparalleled  blunder of
administering  the causes of fever to cure the consequences of fever.
  •They would then see that stimulation is the condition and  action
which wastes the vital  power,  instead of  a  process which  supplies  or
restores it.
  And now let us see  how naturally and inevitably the medicinal em-
ployment of alcohol runs into its " dietetic " use.  When a person is
very much fatigued, as the result of a hard day's labor, he is in pre-
cisely the same vital condition that  he is in after a course of fever,  or
during the course of a low fever.   He wishes to regain his strength as
soon as possible, and he resorts to alcohol.   Why not  ?  If alcohol will
give power, impart energy, restore tone, support vitality, or act use-
fully  in any manner, in a  state of fatigue occasioned by fever, why not
also in the same condition occasioned by over-exertion ?  The logic is
irresistible.   The argument  is  unanswerable.   Thus the alcoholic
drink succeeds the alcoholic medicine; and thus alcohol becomes the
ever-convenient restorative and panacea in all conditions of the sys-
tem for which stimulus is  regarded as necessary or useful. 
The  True Temperance Platform.           161
  The whole controversy is thus resolved into the single issue: Whether
alcohol, employed as a medicine, " sustains " or wastes the vital powers I
Is not this subject of sufficient importance to be thoroughly investigated
by all scientific men, and by the friends of temperance '.  Suppose we
should have a convention—State, National, or Inter-National—on pur-
pose to discuss this question, with a platform free to all who have any-
thing to offer  on one side or  the other <   I will pledge myself that  one
side of this proposition shall be represented.
  The Primary Question. —The present source of the delusion which
has so long ruled the world,  and which  is sending  tens of thousands to
premature graves every year, and which is really the essential cause of
all the dissipation and debauchery  in the world, arises from a false the-
ory of the action of  alcohol.  How does alcohol act? What is the rationale
of its effects 1   What is its modus operandi ?   Until  these questions are
philosophically solved, and the solution clearly understood by the peo-
ple, the temperance cause must remain stationary on  the whole, with
fitful seasons  of progress, succeeded by reverses.  And these questions
I have  solved.  All that  is wanted now is some way to  get them into
the medical profession and before the world.   You may tell me that I
should,  on this subject, address the President of some Medical College,
instead  of the President of a State Temperance Society, and the Vice-
President of a Worlds Temperance Convention.  Alas! sir, this I have
done, " full many a time and oft"  during the last ten years, but una-
vailingly.  You may not know so well  as I do, the difficulty of intro-
ducing  new, radical, and revolutionary opinions into the medical pro-
fession.   It is not  easy for men to  reason against ingrained errors and
life-long prepossessions, nor to see  truths which conflict with the accu-
mulated prejudices of three thousand years.   Very few  persons, once
professionally educated, can  ever be wholly divested of the theories of
their schools.  If the doctrine I have briefly intimated be true, it dis-
proves all the teachings  of medical  books and  schools in relation to the
essential nature of  all diseases, and  the  modus operandi of all medicines,
and  places medical science  and the healing art on  a  very different
basis.  These, sir,  are the reasons why I address my arguments to the
medical profession  with the  same result that would  follow if I should
deliver an oration to the Eocky Mountains.
  All of the teachings of our standard  medical authors, and of all our
approved text-books on chemistry  and physiology,  not  excepting the
multitudinous " Physiologies for Schools," are, so far as these questions
are concerned, exactly contrary to truth and nature, and hence are mis-
educating and misleading the public mind continually.   This is why
the temperance physician so  frequently  prescribes alcohol  to his feeble,
or dyspeptic, or  nervous, or anemic, or  scrofulous, or cachectic, or con-
sumptive  patient,  as a "supporter of  vitality," or an "invigorating
cordial/' or a necessary stimulus, and thus gives the scientific argument
to the rumseller.  And so long as  the physician does this, I can have
no mind, no heart, no judgment, and no conscience to quarrel with,  or
war upon the  rumseller.   If his rum really possesses  these wonderful
virtues, let him sell it.
  This is why temperance  men, on  occasions of some trivial indisposi-
tion, resort to  alcoholic stimulus, and soon become the  regular patrons
of the dram-shop.   This is why, in  seasons of excitement,  men come up
to the pledge like the rushing of the winds,  but soon fall away like the
leaves of  autumn.   This is why the achievements of  the temperance 
162        The True Temperance Platform.
army are so surely followed by disaster and relapse.  This is why tha
rum-selling fraternity of the Empire State are now " having it all their
own way;" whereas six or eight years ago we seemed to have been on
the very eve of establishing temperance laws throughout the State.
This is why Maine laws are useless, why license laws are a sham, and
why rum-sellers rule our legislatures, our courts, and our municipal au-
thorities.  This is why " whisky rations," and sometimes double ra-
tions, are forced on our soldiers now in the field; why the officers of our
army are dying of grog-doctored  typhoid fever faster  than  they are
falling by rebel bullets and bayonets;  and this is why all the power of
our government cannot or does not prevent the mercenary sutlers from
robbing and  murdering our country's defenders  with the alccholic
poison.
  This is why I arraign the false doctrines of the medical profession as
being the chief, the fatal obstacle in the pathway of temperance reform.
Teach the world the exact scientific truth in relation to  the effects of al-
cohol on the living system,  and  the temperance cause will achieve
itself.  When physicians understand its modus, operandi, they will cease
to prescribe it as a medicine.  When  the people understand the ratio-
nale of its effects, they will  cease to drink it as a beverage. Physicians
and people  alike will see through the delusion of a feverish stimulation
to the terrible  waste of vital power.  Then we shall have no need of
Maine Laws, Prohibitory Statutes, Temperance Unions, Leagues, Alli-
ances, Sons of  Temperance, Temples  of Honor, Eechabite  and Cadet
Orders, nor Washingtonian Societies, for Total Abstinence from alcohol
will become a physiological principle, instead of restraint or a privation.
               Very respectfully yours,
                                             R. T.  Trall, M. D.
FINIS. 
                          THE

HYGIENIC  INSTITUTE
 NO. 15  L^IO-HT  steeet,  jste-w TTOIilC.
       E. P. MILLER, M. D.,
       A. L. WOOD, M. D.,
       ELLEN H. GOODELL, M. D.,.
         E. T. TEALL, M. D., Consulting Physician.

MILLEE  &  WOOD,  PROPRIETORS.
  This is one of the oldest Health Establishments in the country. More
 than ten thousand patients have been received, prescribed for and treat-
 ed, a large proportion of whom have been cured.  Our long experience
 and increased facilities enable us to make more rapid and permanent
 cures at the present time, than ever before.
  Dr. E. T. Trall is still consulting physician, but the Medical De-
 partment is under the control of Drs. E. P. Miller and A.  L. Wood.
 Dr. E. P. Miller, besides having spent a year in one of the largest
 Water-Cures in the country, was for three years connected with Dr.
 Trall in this Institution, and for the last two years has been attending
 lectures and clinics at Bellevue College, and studying disease in all its
 phases under the treatment of the best Professors and Physicians in
 Bellevue and Blackwell's Island Hospitals.  He has also taken a course
ft instruction in operative surgery, and the science  of accurate diag-
 nosis of disease by physical exploration, and is a graduate of the Hy-
 gaio-Therapeutic College, Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York
 Opthalmic College, and Dio Lewis' Normal School for Physical Educa-
 tion.  Dr. A. L. Wood, who  formerly had charge of the Providence
 Movement-Cure, New Gymnasium and Turkish-Bath Establishment,
 will have special charge of these Departments in this Institution, and
 devote his entire attention to them.
  We have for our lady physician, Miss  Ellen H. Goodell, M. D.,
 who has had seven years' experience in one of our best country Cures,
 and has also won a reputation as an able lecturer upon Health Reform.
 Her wide experience and extended observation have tended to make her
 perfectly familiar with the multiform phases of those diseases peculiar to
Resident Physicians. 
woman, and any lady who may place herself under her caro may bo as-
sured of receiving the most earnest attention and effectual treatment.
  Our location is pleasant, being but one  door from St. John's Park, to
which our guests have access at all times; and within a half hour's ride
of tho world-renowned Central Park, whose beauties arc beyond descrip-
tion.  We are in a measure removed from the din and bustle of tho great
city, and yet so near Broadway and the principal  trading marts, as to
render it at once an agreeable and convenient resort for all who visit tho
city for health,  business, or pleasure.  Our  proximity to River and Bay
ensures to us a healthful blending  of breezes from land and  sea.  The
opportunity for riding in the country by stages, cars and omnibuses, and
on tho water by row, sail, ferry, and steamboats, and the  facilities for
taking excursions  and short  sea voyages with perfect safety, and at  a
few cents' expense, visiting such places as Greenwood Cemetery, Elysian
Fields, Fort  Lee, High Bridge,  Statcn Island, the various Fishing
Banks, etc., are such as to afford not only  pleasure, profit, and amuse-
ment, but to aid materially in the recovery  of health.
  We are now  spending several thousand  dollars  in making most im-
portant improvements, among which are  Turkish  Baths, large and
entirely new Movement-Cure Rooms, and a large fine Dining Hall.
  Our Bath arrangements comprise all the  varieties of baths found in
other Cures with the vapor, Thermal,  and  Electrical  Baths,  the  latter
affording the most efficient means of applying Electricity for the cure of
Rheumatism, Paralysis, Dyspepsia, Constipation,  and chronic diseases
of the Liver.
  The Swedish Movement-Cure will in future be made one of the most
prominent features in our Establishment; a large  experience in its use
having convinced us that much more rapid and permanent cures can be
effected by its use, in a large class of chronic diseases, than by any other
means.   In  Consumption, Paralysis, Uterine  Displacements,  Spinal
Curvatures and deformities of every description, Imperfect Circulation
of the Blood,  Coldness  of the Extremities,  Constipation, Spermator-
rhoea, and diseases of the nervous  system, it is one of the most effectual
remedies known — being so adapted  to  each patient's needs that the
strongest are strengthened, while even the feeblest are greatly benefited
thereby, without the exhaustion attending  any other mode of exercise.
  The Turkish or Hot-Air Bath consists,  primarily, in the application
of  hot air (not steam) to the surface of the body, and, secondarily, the
application of  water and  various manipulations called  Shampooing.
It is particularly applicable in diseases of the skin, Rheumatism, and
Scrofula; for eliminating poisonous matter and purifying the system,
both  internally and externally.  Common Colds are promptly relieved
by it, and in chronic Catarrh and Neuralgic affections, it  is invaluable.
This  bath is not  only useful as a means of preserving the health and
removing disease, but is, at the same time, a real luxury.  This is the
first and only Turkish or Hot-Air Bath in New York.
  Our Table is  supplied with the best Hygienic food.   The fruits of
the season appear upon it in abundance, together with all other substan-
tial articles of diet which promote health.  We do not believe our table
is excelled by that of any Cure in the country; our facilities in the New
York market rendering it easy to  procure  desirable articles of food.
  In Surgery,  we give special attention to the treatment of Diseased
Joints, Tumors, Polypi, Cancers, Hermorrhoids,  Fistulas, Dicers, etc.
  Necessaries.—Each patient should be  provided with two blankets,
two comfortables, two sheets and several  towels, or these may be hired
at the Institution for $1.00 per week.
  Terms.—Consultation fee $5.00.  Full  board with treatment from
$9.00 to $20 per week.  Board without treatment, $6.00 to $15.00.  All
communications with regard to treatment,  etc.,  should be addressed to
Drs. Miller & Wood, N< 
 
NLM032750267