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peals to resume his place at the head of an afflicted family.

Nor can the purposes of prohibitive legislation be furthered by compromise measures. We must banish alcohol from the sick-room as well as from the banquet-hall. Dr. N. S. Davis, ex-President of the American Medical Association, confesses to having found "no case of disease, and no emergency arising from accident, that could not be treated more successfully without any form of fermented or distilled liquor than with." Dr. James R. Nichols, editor of the Boston "Journal of Chemistry," records his convictions that "the banishment of alcohol would not deprive us of a single one of the indispensable agents which modern civilization demands." "In no instance," he adds, "of disease in any form, is it a medicine which might not be dispensed with and other agents substituted." Then why, for mankind's sake, not confine ourselves to such substitutes? Have the experiments of homœopathy not abundantly proved that the disorders of the human organism can be cured, not only as well, but more easily and more permanently, without the use of any drastic stimulants whatever? Is it not mere mockery to prohibit the sale of small beer, and permit any enterprising distiller to deluge the country with poison by selling his brandy as a "digestive tonic," and elude the inconvenience of the Sunday law by consigning his liquor to a drug-store? Wherever the laboring-classes find a chance for healthier recreations the army of topers would die out from want of recruits, if the causes of intemperance were limited to the temptations of the

rum-shop, with its garish splendor and its sham promises of social pleasures. But the tempter comes in more subtle disguises. The elixirs of death are sold as panaceas. "Brandy-doctors," as Benjamin Rush used to call them, abuse the confidence of their patients by inoculating them with the seeds of a lifeblighting vice. Thousands of topers owe their ruin to a prescription of "tonic-bitters." In many of our smaller cities drug-stores, rather than coffee-houses and beer-gardens, have become the preparatory schools of the rum-shop.

Taught by the logic of such experiences, the friends of reform will at last recognize the truth, that the "temperate use" of alcohol is but the first stage of a progressive and shame-proof disease, and that, moderation and repudiation failing, we must direct our blows at the root of the upas tree and adopt the motto of "Eradication." Truce means defeat in the struggle against an evil that will reproduce its seed from the basis of any compromise. The removal of the cause is easier than the suppression of the symptoms, by just as much as abstinence is easier than temperance.

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TALLULAH, GA., October, 1886.

FELIX L. OSWALD.

CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE COSTS OF INTEMPERANCE.

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Increase of the poison-habit-Statistics of intemperance-Suicidal vices-Rum and crime-A political economist's estimate-Turning breadstuffs into poison-Stimulants and narcotics-New poisons-Nature's ultimatum-" Tolerance "-The indirect costs of the poison-habit-Lager beer-Startling facts-The poison-habit in all its forms an unmixed evil-Sophisms of the compromise plan

CHAPTER V.

ALCOEOLIC DRUGS.

Obsolete doctrines-Theory and practice-Untenable dogmas-Our medical text-books-Practical tests-The lessons of homoeopathy -A medical dilemma-Obstinate facts-The safest way-An ugly alternative-Dr. Sewall's argument-Medical prescriptions as a cause of alcoholism-Rekindling smothered fires-Isaac Jennings's appeal-Dr. Mussey's case-A last resort-Alcohol dispensable-Safest substitutes-A crucial test-The physiological action of alcohol-Dr. N. S. Davis's definition

CHAPTER VI.

PROHIBITION.

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The problem of ages-History of the temperance movement-Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Mohammed-The sphere of legislation-Vices and crimes-Varying definitions of crime-Prevention easier than suppression-Magnitude of the evil-The poison-traffic not a self-correcting abuse-Lesser evils-Efficacy of prohibitive legislation-Prohibition in Sweden-Local experienee-Mayor Hamlin's testimony-The price of success

CHAPTER VII.

SUBJECTIVE REMEDIES.

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Educational reforms-Futility of half-way measures-Total abstinence-Temperate nations-Spain under the Saracens-Instruction-Temperance text-books-Lecture bureaus-Chances of cooperation-Pamphlets and tracts-Conditions of Success-Proscription-A social remedy--Healthier pastimes-A lesson from history-The Olympic games-The pleasure resorts-A lesser evil-Reform fallacies-Saturday afternoon - Half-holidaysTemperance gardens-Gymnasia-Physical education-A suggestion-Health the means, as well as the end, of temperanceProspects--Regenesis

APPENDIX

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THE POISON PROBLEM.

CHAPTER I.

THE SECRET OF THE ALCOHOL HABIT.

66 Consistency is the test of truth."— Wilberforce.

AMONG the strange legends of the middle ages there are certain traditions which have evidently a figurative significance, and whose origin has often been traced to the allegorical mythology of an earlier age. An allegory of that sort is the legend of the "Marvel of Nikolsburg," near Vienna; a miraculous image that appeared always an inch higher than the person standing before it. "It overtopped a giant, and all but condescended to the stature of a dwarf," says the tradition.

That image is a symbol of Nature. The lowest savage must dimly recognize the fact that man can not measure his cunning against the wisdom of the Creator, and the highest development of science has only revealed its own incompetence to imitate, or even comprehend, the structural perfection of the simplest living organism. The Author of life deals only in masterpieces; the marvelous fitness of his contrivances

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