By BENJAMIN W. RICHARDSON, M.D.
What has science said and what is she saying in more modern times on the
question of fact in relation to strong drink and its effect on the world
of life? Let us take some of her more salient teachings first.
In the year 1725 she spoke to the government of this country, stating
that “the fatal effect of the frequent use of several sorts of distilled
spirituous liquors upon great numbers of both sexes is to render them
diseased, not fit for business, poor, a burthen to themselves and
neighbors, and too often the cause of weak, feeble, and distempered
children, who must be, instead of an advantage and strength, a charge
to their country.” Twenty-nine years later, she spoke again through
the mouth of one of her most approved servants, the first inventor of
ventilators, Dr. Stephen Hales. Through this illustrious philosopher she
explained that strong liquors, though called spirituous, are so far from
refreshing and recruiting the spirits, that, on the contrary, they do, in
reality, depress and sink them, and extinguish the natural warmth of the
blood.
You will see from these evidences, which could be largely multiplied,
that long ago science spoke strongly by her best speakers on matters of
fact relating to the use of strong drinks. You will note, moreover, that
her utterances in that respect are very urgent against strong drinks. At
the same time you will with fairness reply, “All that is true; but the
argument is so far against excessive use.” We all admit that argument;
doctors admit that universally; statesmen admit it; statisticians prove
that; clergymen who are not abstainers express that; nay, the very
sellers of strong drinks, the gentlemen who sell wholesale, and the
publicans who dispense for the gentlemen, they, too, admit the solemn,
unanswerable truth, that strong drink kills. We therefore need no sphinx
to inform us of what is universally admitted. This, however, we do want
to know. We desire to be informed what is to be said by science on the
moderate use of these agents. Let abuse of them go to the wall; let use
stand forth alone, and let us hear what place this strong drink holds in
relation to man and animals—what place it holds in nature—what good it is
for man—what bad, when it is used in moderation. Let us have the for and
against.
The request is justice itself. There can be no objection whatever to put
the answer of science to the “for” as well as the “against.”
Let us begin by looking at the interpretations of science in her latest
teachings as to the nature of strong drinks. On this point all are now
agreed who speak scientifically. For many ages wine was looked upon as a
distinct drink, as a something apart altogether from water. Strong wine
will take fire; water will quench fire. Wine has a color and sparkles in
the glass; water is colorless and clear as crystal. Wine has taste and
flavor and odor; water is tasteless and odorless. Wine is the blood of
the grape, and in some respects seems akin to the blood of man; water is
of all things least like blood. Wine when drunken makes the face flush,
the eyes sparkle, the heart leap, the pulses sharp, the veins full;
water when drunken does none of these acts, and seems to do nothing but
respond to the natural wish for drink. Wine makes the lips and tongue
parched and dry, the drinker athirst; water keeps the lips and tongue
and stomach moist, and quenches the thirst of the drinker. Wine when it
is taken, sets all the passions aglow and dulls the reason; bids men
enjoy and reason not; water creates no stir of passion, and leaves the
reason free. Wine makes for itself a first and second and third and
fourth claim on the drinker, so that the more of it he takes the more of
it he desires; it is overwhelming in the warmth of its friendship; water
sates the drinker after one draught; makes no further claim on him than
is just consistent with its duty; leads him never to take more and more;
and has no seeming warmth in its friendship. Wine multiplies itself into
many forms, which appear to be distinct; it is new, it is old; it is
sweet, it is sour; it is sharp, it is soft; it is sparkling, it is still;
water is ever the same. Wine must be petted and cherished, stored up in
special skins and special caves, styled by particular names, praised
under special titles, and heartily liked or disliked, like a child of
passion; water, pshaw! it is everywhere; it has one name, no more; it
has one quality; it hurries away out of the earth by brooks and rivulets
and rivers into the all-absorbing sea, where it is undrinkable; or it
pours down from the clouds as if the gods were tired of it; it is no
child of passion! Let the cattle, and the dogs, and the wild beasts alone
drink water. Let the man have the overpowering drink, the blood of the
grape—wine!
Alas! for this poetic dream. Science, poetic, too, in her way, but
passionless, destroys in those crucibles of hers, which men call
laboratories, this flimsy dream. There she tells that, when one or two
disguises are removed, even blood is water; as to wine, that is mere
dirty water—sixteen bottles or cups or any other equal measures of water,
pure and simple, from the clouds and earth, to one poor bottle or cup of
a burning, fiery fluid which has been called ardent spirit, or spirit of
wine, or alcohol, with some little coloring matter, in certain cases a
little acid, in other cases a little sugar, and in still other cases a
little cinder stuff.
It is a pitiful fall, but it is such, and science not only declares it,
but proves it so to be. A pitiful let-down, that men throughout all
ages who have called themselves wine-drinkers have been water-drinkers
after all; that men who have called themselves wine merchants have been
water merchants; that men who have bought, and still buy, wines at
fabulous prices have been buying, and still are buying, water. A dozen of
champagne, bought at a cost of five pounds ten shillings, very choice—I
am speaking by the book—consisted, when it was all measured out, of
three hundred ounces, or fifteen pints of fluid, of which fluid thirteen
pints and a half were pure water, the rest ardent spirit, with a little
carbonic acid, some coloring matter like burnt sugar, a light flavoring
ether in almost infinitesimal proportion, or a trace of cinder stuff.
Science, looking on dispassionately, records merely the facts. If she
thinks that five pounds ten shillings was a heavy sum to pay for thirteen
pints and a half of water and one pint and a half of spirit, she says
nothing; she leaves that to the men and women of sentiment and passionate
feeling, buyers and sellers and drinkers all round.