THE GROWTH AND POWER OF APPETITE.
One fact attendant on habitual drinking stands out so prominently that
none can call it in question. It is that of the steady growth of
appetite. There are exceptions, as in the action of nearly every rule;
but the almost invariable result of the habit we have mentioned, is, as
we have said, a steady growth of appetite for the stimulant imbibed.
That this is in consequence of certain morbid changes in the physical
condition produced by the alcohol itself, will hardly be questioned by
any one who has made himself acquainted with the various functional and
organic derangements which invariably follow the continued introduction
of this substance into the body.
But it is to the fact itself, not to its cause, that we now wish to
direct the reader's attention. The man who is satisfied at first with a
single glass of wine at dinner, finds, after awhile, that appetite asks
for a little more; and, in time, a second glass is conceded. The
increase of desire may be very slow, but it goes on surely until, in the
end, a whole bottle will scarcely suffice, with far too many, to meet
its imperious demands. It is the same in regard to the use of every
other form of alcoholic drink.
Now, there are men so constituted that they are able, for a long series
of years, or even for a whole lifetime, to hold this appetite within a
certain limit of indulgence. To say "So far, and no farther." They
suffer ultimately from physical ailments, which surely follow the
prolonged contact of alcoholic poison with the delicate structures of
the body, many of a painful character, and shorten the term of their
natural lives; but still they are able to drink without an increase of
appetite so great as to reach an overmastering degree. They do not
become abandoned drunkards.
NO MAN SAFE WHO DRINKS.
But no man who begins the use of alcohol in any form can tell what, in
the end, is going to be its effect on his body or mind. Thousands and
tens of thousands, once wholly unconscious of danger from this source,
go down yearly into drunkards' graves. There is no standard by which any
one can measure the latent evil forces in his inherited nature. He may
have from ancestors, near or remote, an unhealthy moral tendency, or
physical diathesis, to which the peculiarly disturbing influence of
alcohol will give the morbid condition in which it will find its
disastrous life. That such results follow the use of alcohol in a large
number of cases, is now a well-known fact in the history of inebriation.
During the past few years, the subject of alcoholism, with the mental
and moral causes leading thereto, have attracted a great deal of earnest
attention. Physicians, superintendents of inebriate and lunatic asylums,
prison-keepers, legislators and philanthropists have been observing and
studying its many sad and terrible phases, and recording results and
opinions. While differences are held on some points, as, for instance,
whether drunkenness is a disease for which, after it has been
established, the individual ceases to be responsible, and should be
subject to restraint and treatment, as for lunacy or fever; a crime to
be punished; or a sin to be repented of and healed by the Physician of
souls, all agree that there is an inherited or acquired mental and
nervous condition with many, which renders any use of alcohol
exceedingly dangerous.
The point we wish to make with the reader is, that no man can possibly
know, until he has used alcoholic drinks for a certain period of time,
whether he has or has not this hereditary or acquired physical or mental
condition; and that, if it should exist, a discovery of the fact may
come too late.
Dr. D.G. Dodge, late Superintendent of the New York State Inebriate
Asylum, speaking of the causes leading to intemperance, after stating
his belief that it is a transmissible disease, like "scrofula, gout or
consumption," says:
"There are men who have an organization, which may be termed an
alcoholic idiosyncrasy; with them the latent desire for stimulants, if
indulged, soon leads to habits of intemperance, and eventually to a
morbid appetite, which has all the characteristics of a diseased
condition of the system, which the patient, unassisted, is powerless to
relieve--since the weakness of the will that led to the disease
obstructs its removal.
"Again, we find in another class of persons, those who have had healthy
parents, and have been educated and accustomed to good social
influences, moral and social, but whose temperament and physical
constitution are such, that, when they once indulge in the use of
stimulants, which they find pleasurable, they continue to habitually
indulge till they cease to be moderate, and become excessive drinkers. A
depraved appetite is established, that leads them on slowly, but surely,
to destruction."
A DANGEROUS DELUSION.
In this chapter, our chief purpose is to show the growth and awful power
of an appetite which begins striving for the mastery the moment it is
indulged, and against the encroachments of which no man who gives it any
indulgence is absolutely safe. He who so regards himself is resting in a
most dangerous delusion. So gradually does it increase, that few observe
its steady accessions of strength until it has acquired the power of a
master. Dr. George M. Burr, in a paper on the pathology of drunkenness,
read before the "American Association for the Cure of Inebriates,"
says, in referring to the first indications of an appetite, which he
considers one of the symptoms of a forming disease, says: "This early
stage is marked by an occasional desire to drink, which recurs at
shorter and shorter intervals, and a propensity, likewise, gradually
increasing for a greater quantity at each time. This stage has long been
believed to be one of voluntary indulgence, for which the subject of it
was morally responsible. The drinker has been held as criminal for his
occasional indulgence, and his example has been most severely censured.
This habit, however, must be regarded as the first intimation of the
approaching disease--the stage of invasion, precisely as sensations of
_mal-aise_ and chills usher in a febrile attack.
"It is by no means claimed that in this stage the subject is free from
responsibility as regards the consequences of his acts, or that his case
is to be looked upon as beyond all attempts at reclamation. Quite to the
contrary. This is the stage for active interference. Restraint,
prohibition, quarantine, anything may be resorted to, to arrest the
farther advance of the disease. Instead of being taught that the habit
of occasional drinking is merely a moral _lapsus_ (not the most powerful
restraining motive always), the subject of it should be made to
understand that it is the commencement of a malady, which, if unchecked,
will overwhelm him in ruin, and, compared with which, cholera and yellow
fever are harmless. He should be impressed with the fact that the early
stage is the one when recuperation is most easy--that the will then has
not lost its power of control, and that the fatal propensity is not
incurable. The duty of prevention, or avoidance, should be enforced with
as much earnestness and vigor as we are required to carry out sanitary
measures against the spread of small-pox or any infectious disease. The
subject of inebriety may be justly held responsible, if he neglects all
such efforts, and allows the disease to progress without a struggle to
arrest it.
"The formative stage of inebriety continues for a longer or shorter
period, when, as is well known, more frequent repetitions of the
practice of drinking are to be observed. The impulse to drink grows
stronger and stronger, the will-power is overthrown and the entire
organism becomes subject to the fearful demands for stimulus. It is now
that the stage of confirmed inebriation is formed, and _dypso-mania_
fully established. The constant introduction of alcohol into the system,
circulating with the fluids and permeating the tissues, adds fuel to the
already enkindled flame, and intensifies the propensity to an
irresistible degree. Nothing now satisfies short of complete
intoxication, and, until the unhappy subject of the disease falls
senseless and completely overcome, will he cease his efforts to gratify
this most insatiable desire."
Dr. Alexander Peddie, of Edinburgh, who has given twenty years of study
to this subject, remarked, in his testimony before a Committee of the
House of Commons, that there seemed to be "a peculiar elective affinity
for the action of alcohol on the nervous system after it had found its
way through the circulation into the brain," by which the whole organism
was disturbed, and the man rendered less able to resist morbid
influences of any kind. He gave many striking instances of the growth
and power of appetite, which had come under his professional notice, and
of the ingenious devices and desperate resorts to which dypsomaniacs
were driven in their efforts to satisfy their inordinate cravings. No
consideration, temporal or spiritual, had any power to restrain their
appetite, if, by any means, fair or foul, they could obtain alcoholic
stimulants. To get this, he said, the unhappy subject of this terrible
thirst "will tell the most shameful lies--for no truth is ever found in
connection with the habitual drunkard's state. He never yet saw truth in
relation to drink got out of one who was a dypsomaniac--he has
sufficient reason left to tell these untruths, and to understand his
position, because people in that condition are seldom dead drunk; they
are seldom in the condition of total stupidity; they have generally an
eye open to their own affairs, and that which is the main business of
their existence, namely, how to get drink. They will resort to the most
ingenious, mean and degrading contrivances and practices to procure and
conceal liquor, and this, too, while closely watched; and will succeed
in deception, although fabulous quantities are daily swallowed."
Dr. John Nugent gives a case which came within his own knowledge, of a
lady who had been
A MOST EXEMPLARY NUN
for fifteen or twenty years. In consequence of her devotion to the poor,
attending them in fevers, and like cases, it seemed necessary for her to
take stimulants; these stimulants grew to be habitual, and she had been
compelled, five or six times, to place herself in a private asylum. In
three or four weeks after being let out, she would relapse, although she
was believed to be under the strongest influences of religion, and of
the most virtuous desires. There had been developed in her that
disposition to drink which she was unable to overcome or control.
The power of this appetite, and the frightful moral perversions that
often follow its indulgence are vividly portrayed in the following
extract, from an address by Dr. Elisha Harris, of New York, in which he
discusses the question of the criminality of drunkenness.
"Let the fact be noticed that such is the lethargy which alcoholism
produces upon reason and conscience, that it is sometimes necessary to
bring the offender to view his drunken indulgence as a crime. We have
known a refined and influential citizen to be so startled at the fact
that he wished to destroy the lives of all persons, even of his own
family, who manifested unhappiness at his intemperance, that seeing
this terrible criminality of his indulgence, instantly formed, and has
forever kept, his resolutions of abstinence. We have known the
hereditary dypsomaniac break from his destroyer, and when tempted in
secret by the monstrous appetite, so grind his teeth and clinch his jaws
in keeping his vows to taste not, that blood dripped from his mouth and
cold sweat bathed his face. That man is a model of temperance and moral
power to-day. And it was the consciousness of personal criminality that
stimulated these successful conflicts with the morbid appetite and the
powers of the alcohol disease that had fastened upon them. Shall we
hesitate to hold ourselves, or to demand that communities shall hold
every drunkard--not yet insane--responsible for every act of inebriety?
Certainly, it is not cruel or unjust to deal thus with drunkenness. It
is not the prison we open, but conscience."
The danger in which those stand who have an
INHERITED PREDISPOSITION TO DRINK,
is very great. Rev. I. Willett, Superintendent of the Inebriate's Home,
Fort Hamilton, Kings County, New York, thus refers to this class, which
is larger than many think: "There are a host of living men and women to
be found who never drank, and who dare not drink, intoxicating liquors
or beverages, because one or both of their parents were inebriates
before they were born into the world; and, besides, a number of these
have brothers or sisters who, having given way to the inherited
appetite, are now passing downward on this descending sliding scale. The
greater portion of them have already passed over the bounds of
self-control, and the varied preliminary symptoms of melancholy, mania,
paralysis, ideas of persecution, etc., etc., are developing. As to the
question of responsibility, each case is either more or less doubtful,
and can only be tested on its separate merits. There is, however,
abundant evidence to prove that this predisposition to inebriety, even
after long indulgence, can, by a skillful process of medication,
accompanied by either voluntary or compulsory restraint, be subdued; and
the counterbalancing physical and mental powers can at the same time be
so strengthened and invigorated as in the future to enable the person to
resist the temptations by which he may be surrounded. Yea, though the
powers of reason may, for the time being, be dethroned, and lunacy be
developed, these cases, in most instances, will yield to medical
treatment where the surrounding conditions of restraint and careful
nursing are supplemental.
"We have observed that in many instances the fact of the patient being
convinced that he is an hereditary inebriate, has produced beneficial
results. Summoning to his aid all the latent counterbalancing energies
which he has at command, and clothing himself with this armor, he goes
forth to war, throws up the fortifications of physical and mental
restraint, repairs the breaches and inroads of diseased appetite,
regains control of the citadel of the brain, and then, with shouts of
triumph, he unfurls the banner of 'VICTORY!'"
Dr. Wood, of London, in his work on insanity, speaking on the subject of
hereditary inebriety, says:
"Instances are sufficiently familiar, and several have occurred within
my own personal knowledge, where the father, having died at any early
age from the effects of intemperance, has left a son to be brought up by
those who have severely suffered from his excesses, and have therefore
the strongest motives to prevent, if possible, a repetition of such
misery; every pain has been taken to enforce sobriety, and yet,
notwithstanding all precautions, the habits of the father have become
those of the son, who, never having seen him from infancy, could not
have adopted them from imitation. Everything was done to encourage
habits of temperance, but all to no purpose; the seeds of the disease
had begun to germinate; a blind impulse led the doomed individual, by
successive and rapid strides, along the same course which was fatal to
the father, and which, ere long, terminated in his own destruction."
How great and fearful the power of an appetite which cannot only enslave
and curse the man over which it gains control, but send its malign
influence down to the second and third and fourth generations,
sometimes to the absolute
EXTINGUISHMENT OF FAMILIES!
Morel, a Frenchman, gives the following as the result of his observation
of the hereditary effects of drunkenness:
"_First generation_: Immorality, depravity, excess in the use of
alcoholic liquors, moral debasement. _Second generation_: Hereditary
drunkenness, paroxysms of mania, general paralysis. _Third generation_:
Sobriety, hypochondria, melancholy, systematic ideas of being
persecuted, homicidal tendencies. _Fourth generation_: Intelligence
slightly developed, first accessions of mania at sixteen years of age,
stupidity, subsequent idiocy and probable extinction of family."
Dr. T.D. Crothers, in an analysis of the hundred cases of inebriety
received at the New York Inebriate Asylum, gives this result: "Inebriety
inherited direct from parents was traced in twenty-one cases. In eleven
of these the father drank alone, in six instances the mother drank, and
in four cases both parents drank.
"In thirty-three cases inebriety was traced to ancestors more remote, as
grandfather, grandmother, etc., etc., the collateral branches exhibiting
both inebriety and insanity. In some instances a whole generation had
been passed over, and the disorders of the grandparents appeared again.
"In twenty cases various neurosal disorders had been prominent in the
family and its branches, of which neuralgia, chorea, hysteria,
eccentricity, mania, epilepsy and inebriety, were most common.
"In some cases, a wonderful periodicity in the outbreak of these
disorders was manifested.
"For instance, in one family, for two generations, inebriety appeared in
seven out of twelve members, after they had passed forty, and ended
fatally within ten years. In another, hysteria, chorea, epilepsy and
mania, with drunkenness, came on soon after puberty, and seemed to
deflect to other disorders, or exhaust itself before middle life. This
occurred in eight out of fourteen, extending over two generations. In
another instance, the descendants of three generations, and many of the
collateral branches, developed inebriety, mental eccentricities, with
other disorders bordering on mania, at about thirty-five years of age.
In some cases this lasted only a few years, in others a lifetime."
And here let us say that in this matter of an inherited appetite there
is a difference of views with some who believe that appetite is never
transmitted but always acquired. This difference of view is more
apparent than real. It is not the drunkard's appetite that is
transmitted, but the bias or proclivity which renders the subject of
such an inherited tendency more susceptible to exciting causes, and
therefore in greater danger from the use of alcoholic drinks than
others.
Dr. N.S. Davis, in an article in the _Washingtonian_, published at
Chicago, presents the opposite view of the case. The following extract
from this article is well worthy to be read and considered:
"If we should say that man is so constituted that he is capable of
feeling weary, restless, despondent and anxious, and that he
instinctively desires to be relieved of these unpleasant feelings, we
should assert a self-evident fact. And we should thereby assert all the
instincts or natural impulse there is in the matter. It is simply a
desire to be relieved from unpleasant feelings, and does not, in the
slightest degree, indicate or suggest any particular remedy. It no more
actually suggests the idea of alcohol or opium than it does bread and
water. But if, by accident, or by the experience of others, the
individual has learned that his unpleasant feelings can be relieved, for
the time being, by alcohol, opium or any other exhilarant, he not only
uses the remedy himself, but perpetuates a knowledge of the same to
others. It is in this way, and this only, that most of the nations and
tribes of our race, have, much to their detriment, found a knowledge of
some kind of intoxicant. The same explanation is applicable to the
supposed 'constitutional susceptibility,' as a primary cause of
intemperance. That some persons inherit a greater degree of nervous and
organic susceptibility than others, and are, in consequence of this
greater susceptibility, more readily affected by a given quantity of
narcotic, anæsthetic or intoxicant, is undoubtedly true. And that such
will
"MORE READILY BECOME DRUNKARDS,
"if they once commence to use intoxicating drinks, is also true. But that
such persons, or any others, have the slightest inherent or
constitutional taste or any longing for intoxicants, until they have
acquired such taste or longing by actual use, we find no reliable proof.
It is true that statistics appear to show that a larger proportion of
the children of drunkards become themselves drunkards, than of children
born of total abstainers. And hence the conclusion has been drawn that
such children INHERITED the constitutional tendency to inebriation. But
before we are justified in adopting such a conclusion, several other
important facts must be ascertained.
"1st. We must know whether the mother, while nursing, used more or less
constantly some kind of alcoholic beverage, by which the alcohol might
have impregnated the milk in her breasts and thereby made its early
impression on the tastes and longings of the child.
"2d. We must know whether the intemperate parents were in the habit of
frequently giving alcoholic preparations to the children, either to
relieve temporary ailments, or for the same reason that they drank it
themselves. I am constrained to say, that from my own observation,
extending over a period of forty years, and a field by no means limited,
I am satisfied that nineteen out of every twenty persons who have been
regarded as HEREDITARY inebriates have simply ACQUIRED the disposition
to drink by one or both of the methods just mentioned, after birth."
The views here presented in no way lessen but really heighten the perils
of moderate drinking. It is affirmed that some persons inherit a greater
degree of nervous and organic susceptibility than others, and are, in
consequence, more readily affected by a given quantity of narcotic,
anæsthetic or intoxicant; _and that such "will more readily become
drunkards if they commence to use intoxicating drinks."_
Be the cause of this
INHERITED NERVOUS SUSCEPTIBILITY
what it may, and it is far more general than is to be inferred from the
admission just quoted, the fact stands forth as a solemn warning of the
peril every man encounters in even the most moderate use of alcohol.
Speaking of this matter, Dr. George M. Beard, who is not as sound on the
liquor question as we could wish, says, in an article on the "Causes of
the Recent Increase of Inebriety in America:" "As a means of prevention,
abstinence from the _habit_ of drinking is to be enforced. Such
abstinence may not have been necessary for our fathers, but it is
rendered necessary for a large body of the American people on account of
our greater nervous susceptibility. It is possible to drink without
being an habitual drinker, as it is possible to take chloral or opium
without forming the habit of taking these substances. In certain
countries and climates where the nervous system is strong and the
temperature more equable than with us, in what I sometimes call the
temperate belt of the world, including Spain, Italy, Southern France,
Syria and Persia, the habitual use of wine rarely leads to drunkenness,
and never, or almost never, to inebriety; but in the intemperate belt,
where we live, and which includes Northern Europe and the United States,
with a cold and violently changeable climate, the habit of drinking
either wines or stronger liquors is liable to develop in some cases a
habit of intemperance. Notably in our country, where nervous
sensitiveness is seen in its extreme manifestations, the majority of
brain-workers are not safe so long as they are in the habit of even
moderate drinking. I admit that this was not the case one hundred years
ago--and the reasons I have already given--it is not the case to-day in
Continental Europe; even in England it is not so markedly the case as in
the northern part of the United States. _For those individuals who
inherit a tendency to inebriety, the only safe course is absolute
abstinence, especially in early life._"
In the same article, Dr. Baird remarks: "The number of those in this
country who cannot bear tea, coffee or alcoholic liquors of any kind, is
very large. There are many, especially in the Northern States, who must
forego coffee entirely, and use tea only with caution; either, in any
excess, cause trembling nerves and sleepless nights. The susceptibility
to alcohol is so marked, with many persons, that no pledges, and no
medical advice, and no moral or legal influences are needed to keep them
in the paths of temperance. _Such persons are warned by flushing of the
face, or by headache, that alcohol, whatever it may be to others, or
whatever it may have been to their ancestors, is poison to them._"
But, in order to give a higher emphasis to precepts, admonition and
medical testimony, we offer a single example of the enslaving power of
appetite, when, to a predisposing hereditary tendency, the excitement of
indulgence has been added. The facts of this case were communicated to
us by a professional gentleman connected with one of our largest
inebriate asylums, and we give them almost in his very words in which
they were related.
A REMARKABLE CASE.
A clever, but dissipated actor married clandestinely a farmer's daughter
in the State of New York. The parents of the girl would not recognize
him as the husband of their child; rejecting him so utterly that he
finally left the neighborhood. A son born of this marriage gave early
evidence of great mental activity, and was regarded, in the college
where he graduated, as almost a prodigy of learning. He carried off
many prizes, and distinguished himself as a brilliant orator. Afterwards
he went to Princeton and studied for the ministry. While there, it was
discovered that he was secretly drinking. The faculty did everything in
their power to help and restrain him; and his co-operation with them was
earnest as to purpose, but not permanently availing. The nervous
susceptibility inherited from his father responded with a morbid
quickness to every exciting cause, and the moment wine or spirits
touched the sense of smell or taste, he was seized with an almost
irresistible desire to drink to excess, and too often yielded to its
demands. For months he would abstain entirely; and then drink to
intoxication in secret.
After graduating from Princeton he became pastor of a church in one of
the largest cities of Western New York, where he remained for two years,
distinguishing himself for his earnest work and fervid eloquence. But
the appetite he had formed was imperious in its demands, and
periodically became so strong that he lost the power of resistance. When
these periodic assaults of appetite came, he would
LOCK HIMSELF IN HIS ROOM FOR DAYS
and satiate the fierce thirst, coming out sick and exhausted. It was
impossible to conceal from his congregation the dreadful habit into
which he had fallen, and ere two years had elapsed he was dismissed for
drunkenness. He then went to one of the chief cities of the West, where
he received a call, and was, for a time, distinguished as a preacher;
but again he fell into disgrace and had to leave his charge. Two other
churches called him to fill the office of pastor, but the same sad
defections from sobriety followed. For a considerable time after this
his friends lost sight of him. Then he was found in the streets of New
York City by the president of the college from which he had first
graduated, wretched and debased from drink, coatless and hatless. His
old friend took him to a hotel, and then brought his case to the notice
of the people at a prayer-meeting held in the evening at one of the
churches. His case was immediately taken in hand and money raised to
send him to the State Inebriate Asylum. After he had remained there for
a year, he began to preach as a supply in a church a few miles distant,
going on Saturday evening and returning on Monday morning; but always
having an attendant with him, not daring to trust himself alone. This
went on for nearly a whole year, when a revival sprang up in the church,
which he conducted with great eloquence and fervor. After the second
week of this new excitement, he began to lock himself up in his room
after returning from the service, and could not be seen until the next
morning. In the third week of the revival, the excitement of the
meetings grew intense. After this he was only seen in the pulpit, where
his air and manner were wild and thrilling. His friends at the asylum
knew that he must be drinking, and while hesitating as to their wisest
course, waited anxiously for the result. One day he was grandly
eloquent. Such power in the pulpit had never been witnessed there
before--his appeals were unequalled; but so wild and impassioned that
some began to fear for his reason. At the close of this day's services,
the chaplain of the institution of which he was an inmate, returned with
him to the asylum, and on the way, told him frankly that he was
deceiving the people--that his eloquent appeals came not from the power
of the Holy Spirit, but from the excitement of drink; and that all
farther conduct of the meetings must be left in other hands. On reaching
the asylum he retired, greatly agitated, and soon after died from a
stroke of apoplexy. In his room many empty bottles, which had contained
brandy, were found; but the people outside remained in ignorance of the
true cause of the marvelous eloquence which had so charmed and moved
them.
We have already extended this chapter beyond the limit at first
proposed. Our object has not only been to show the thoughtful and
intelligent reader who uses alcoholic beverages, the great peril in
which he stands, but to make apparent to every one, how insidious is the
growth and how terrible the power of this appetite for intoxicants; an
appetite which, if once established, is almost sure to rob its victim of
honor, pity, tenderness and love; an appetite, whose indulgence too
often transforms the man into a selfish demon. Think of it, all ye who
dally with the treacherous cup; are not the risks you are running too
great? Nay, considering your duties and your obligations, have you any
right to run these risks?
And now that we have shown the curse of strong drink, let us see what
agencies are at work in the abatement, prevention and cure of a disease
that is undermining the health of whole nations, shortening the natural
term of human life, and in our own country alone, sending over sixty
thousand men and women annually into untimely graves.
[Illustration: Satan sends his trusted servants, Alcohol and Gambling,
out upon a mission.]
[Illustration: Alcohol meets a bright young man and cultivates his
acquaintance.]
[Illustration: Alcohol introduces the youth to his old-time friend,
Gambling.]
[Illustration: The mutual friends relieve the youth of his cash.]
[Illustration: Alcohol and his victim have a jolly time.]
[Illustration: The young man comes to grief, but Alcohol sticks by him.]
[Illustration: They suggest an easy method for replenishing his
exchequer.]
[Illustration: The mutual friends determine to follow him to the inmost
cell of the prison.]
[Illustration: Alcohol and Gambling incite their victim to murder.]
[Illustration: They mock him when upon the scaffold.]
[Illustration: Alcohol and Gambling bury their victim in an untimely
and dishonored grave.]
[Illustration: They report their success to Satan and receive his
congratulations.]