CEMPERANCE CHI PINGS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9337, 30 January 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

CEMPERANCE CHI PINGS.

MODERN SCIENCE AND ALCOHOL,

On alcohol as a food and a boiliiy bsneflecnco science speaks, as -it i.s wont, in no inicei-taiu symbol*. Take decaying fruit and allow it t>> stand nmjiiil certain coucliti'ju;!. Swarming myritids of microbes invest it. 'L'iiey devour the glucose of lh>! mixture, and i:i !!ie proi'es:; of i!s digestion ivlej'.iol is forinud. Alcohol is the c.rcremail ~/t',c:ir,;-,!,e. Tiiat's modem scienc,.-. Take four hogsheads of beor and hi^ip them S-iycthiT; do'.vti lic-Milo tlii-'in jilaco :i loaf ol biVad. 'l.'U.it single lxif of bread contain? S)i-.)L\! jjuiriij.iii than theenlire. four hogshead." uS lr.-ei-. That's mo-A:-r!i science.

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Tula' food into the stomach. Digestion, and dinnge begin. It is tuJtt'ji up by the absorbents and hurled into the blind ; ami out of this river of i\:d rises the body wiili its force, thought, and life. Ail f'.sive, thought, and movement comes from food. Take alcohol into the stomach. When it his become sufficiently diluted with iluids from thu walls of the stomach it is taken up by the üb.-sorbents, unchanged n>:d undigested, carried to the blood' and thence throughout ilia bod/ —not as blood, but as. pure alcohol. It exists in the body as foreign substance, producing fever and inflammation, ;>:inic, and consternation, theso and nothing more. It cannot make an ounce of force, nor siourish to the, smallest degree.

That's modem .science,

'JY.ko the v.'liite of an egg, put it into a glass, and p:r.'.r en it an ounce of alcohol. After a few minutes pour <_{!' lh« alcohol, and the egg is cookoil—cookfil .li: though fried in fire. A large part cf the blood is albumen, identical with the white of the egg. When alcohol comes in contact with this, it cooks and coagulates it us lire does the egg-white. The cinders from this burning clog up the capillaries, and form the blistered face and proboscis of the ] toper. Not only this, but it bloats the body with the accumulated ashes of the burnt body itself. It deadens and destroys the stomach till food itself is nause.iting. It curdles the grey matter of the brain, and produces delirium and insanity. It deforms the abdomen by enlarging the liver to seven times its size. It eats up the vitality of the body and prepares it for pestilence. It blunts the sensibilities and makes man a fiend. It consumes the intellect, and leaves him a fool, lium is a great quenchless conflagration, ragii;g throughout every nook of the human Icing, licking up the noblest elements of body r.nd soul, and converting man, made in the mould of his Maker, to a heartless, simpering beast.

That's modern science,

But latter-day apologists for rum prate of the boneiicjuce of stimulation. They ignore the fact that alcohol taken tit all creates a craving, and leads quite inevitably to inordinate consumption, ta:,c of. the beneficence and wisdom of its uso in uniform quantities.

This is ignorance or infamy

Now, whao is stimulation ? Whence comes this quickening and additional force 'i It does not come from tho alcohol, nor does it drop from the cluud-:. It has but one source, the body itself. Adipose or muscle is the fuel. It is simply the body on tire.

But why does alcohol kindle this commotion ? Ay, that's the query. That's the sledge that demolishes the drivel of " moderationists."

Alcohol when poured into the stomach produces fever and inflammation, for the same reason that a thorn in the llesh produces inflammation. Alcohol in the stomach causes coinmotion and convulsion, for the same reason that ipecacuanha taken into the stomach produces paroxysm..

All foreign inimical substances when taken into the body cause inflammation and convulsion.

It is the effort of the body to throw off and vid itself of an invading and hostile substance. This is the philosophy of all stimulation.

Alcohol is a foreign drug. It is a poison and an enemy to the body. This tha body recognises from its innate nature. And whenever it is poured into the body, the body begins its fight to expel the intruder ; and this war is waged till the drug enemy is driven beyond its dominion. This war we call stimulation. A mustard plaster, the virus of the rattlesnake, or a red-hot stove will stimulate as well as alcohol.

What must be said of the practice of daily pouring into the body some inimical drug, some poison, for the excitement of its expulsion? It is the climax of madness. What must be said of a human being who, made in the mould of God, persists in defiling himself -with periodic pollutions of a nauseous and deadly poison ? Sense and science have but one answer — ignorance or infamy.—Wit and Wisdom, January 17.