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Pcuotcb to Citcrotuvc, Science, anb 3.rt, t!)c Sons of temperance, ©fti> JTcUojcosjih), ittasonrn, anil (Scneral
VOLUME I
ADDRKSS
Delivered before the Grand Division of the S. of T.
of the State of Georgia, at their Annual Session in
}{acon, Oct. 24 th 1849, by the Rev. Brother A
Means, A. M. 3/. D. Prof. Phys. Sc. Emory Col
lege, Oxford. Prof. Chcm. und Pharm. Medical
College of Georgia..
Ladies and Gentlemen :
I rise to-day as the authorized organ of the
Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of
the State of Georgia, commissioned to extend a
heart-warm and universal welcome to the crowd
ino thousands who have honored our annual jubi
lee with their enlivening presence, and to express
before earth and heaven, our sense of devout
gratitude for the brilliant and unexampled moral
acheivments which have thus far marked the re
sistless career of our prosperous and wide spread
ing Order.
We cannot but survey therefore, with unalloyed
pleasure, the bright and attractive scene before us.
No rival aspirants for civic honors have swept the
chords of popular feeling, aroused the jealous
ambition of political sectaries, and marshaled
their multitudes for the noisy campaign. No
thundering artillery has heralded the triumphs of
our national flag, and summoned the purity and
the patriotism of the land to public rejoicings.—
What means then, tlie convocation of this vast
and intelligent assembly ? What powerful and
prevalent motive has poured out from their remote
lnmes the anxious masses which to-day throng
the thorough fares of your beautiful city? Exul
ting virtue proclaims the answer to the echoing
winds, and crippled vice, dragging its foul and
slimy length away to escape impending doom,
reluctantly hisses, responsive to the glorious truth :
A great moral movement has stirred the founda
tion of society—a ground swell has heaved the
great deep of the public tnind, and surrounding
continents must feel the shock of the agitated
waters. The mental and moral illumination of
the nineteenth century has revealed the heinous
ucss of a great national curse, and aroused into
life the spirit of a vigorous and invincible resis
tance.
The demon of drink has for centuries past,
spell bound the energies of mankind, but the sor
did supineness which has too long succumbed to
its remorseless vampyrism, has at last been glori
ously succeeded by the sleepless activity and
death-dealing blows of a powerful and organized
aggression. In the Providence of God we are
thrown upon eventful times. Mind, stimulated
by the triumphs of the past and the hopes of the
future, has taxed its utmost capabilities, and now
successfully grapples with the difficulties of
science and the tyranny of vice, which a centurv
ago would have repulsed theeffiortsof the stoutest
spirit. What intelligent observer can survey the
wonderful developments which characterize the
current history of the present age, without the ac
companying reflection, that the vast intellectual
and moral momentum which now so effectually
movesthe complicated machinery of the political
and religious world, must not only be sedulously
maintained, but to prevent retrogression and keep
pace with the progressive economy of the times,
should be largely accelerated by the introduction
ot new elements of power from every available
( partcr. Again, what philanthropist can contem
plate the political degredation and social curses
unavoidably entailed upon anv nation bv a relaxed
un 'l feeble public virtue, and its natural and nec
tary concomitant, prevalent and presumptuous
popular vice, without feeling, that to the patronage
an d prosperity of such institutions as tend to the
jdevation of public morals and the promotion of
‘■uman happiness, the interests of posterity and
die weal of coming generations, should solemnly
pledge him.
Passing by all minor and subordinate agencies,
“e reverentially recognize our holy Christianity as
t ,e . parent and pioneer of all the generous and
,lell y e philanthropy of the age. The power and
P mt y of her morals, are gradually pervading
population. .The loftinessof her pur-
I °'°’ anil the freedom of her principles, are im
rh^ r t e i’'ll lly , c ? ntrollin! ? ths rnind, and impressing
th' C ( r T tof l^e world’s millions ; —silently unset
on?” t{le antiq uat ed dogmas of a sensual philos-
P *>% and prompting to the nobler and purer pur-
f 1 dignified Imd refined humanity. Her-
’ die impersonation of the Divine Mercy, she
°\eswith melting eye and bleeding heart amid
f n elancholy ruins of fallen human nature,
her palms the houghs of that apoca
lh; llc tree , “whose leaves are for the healing of
Y a,,on s.” The deaf and the dumb ; the lame
j n j! lh * blind ; the leper and the lunatic, rejoice
and j 1 ’ a bundance of her outpoured charity, and
‘fe tolerable in the asvlums which her mu
jCence has erected.
t a J ll greater triumphs are yet ahead, and nis
j a wait her onward progress. The whole
‘ h4l s to be the arena of her bloodless victories*
The loathsomeness of vice must be transformed
into the loveliness of virtue, or fly before her
reign and meet the bolt that dooms it. Earth
must be purified from her blood and robed in her
beauty to shout the welcome advent of the “ lat
ter day glory.’* For the consummation of this
high destiny however, no single instrumentality in
earth or heaven has been exclusively consecrated.
The universe of means is under her control, and
a thousand auxiliaries may be legitimately taxed
for the accomplishment of the grand event. The
mammoth obstacles which have heretofore ob
structed her career of glory, must be broken down
by the appliances of a great preparatory move
ment. In obedience to that high injunction from
prophetic lips : “ Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our
God,” science discloses her wonders to the eye
of philosophy, and art appropriates them to the
improvement of our race. At one time embank
ing plains and cleaving hills, closing chasms, and
tunnelling mountains for the passage of the
bounding locomotive and its thundering train
bearing far away into the heart of continents the
light of intelligence and the faith of Christendom,
and strengthening with iron legaments the bonds
O O u
of social intercourse. And at another, swinging
its wiry throughfares in the air, mounting mind
upon the lightning’s wing, and annihilating time
and space, interlocking whole stales and king
doms in the intellectual embrace of a national
brotherhood, and by the powerful pleaof interest
and prosperity, subduing the belligerent spirit of
mankind and opening the way for millenial peace,
when the “sword shall be beaten into the plough
share and the spear into the pruning book.”
The moral world too obeys the high behest and
plies a thousand levers to rid the earth of crime
and herald the approach of the world’s redeemer.
Amid the countless evils which have provoked
the reformatory efforts of the wise and good, one
tyrant, kingly curse, more treacherous arid deadly
than the rest, presumptuous by the undisputed
dominion of nine centuries, and gloating over the
godless groans of its victimized millions, annually
red with the life blood of thirty thousand Amer
ican citizens, and daily rioting upon the spoils of
blasted immortality, could not otherwise than
arouse the heroic benevolence of the nineteenth
century to an outlay of combined power, such
as never before periled the sceptre of the baccha
nalian despot, trippie throned as he has been upon
the appetites, interests and predjudiccs of his duped
and submissive devotees. But the God-like spirit
of a Christian philanthropy, sanctioned by wis
dom and guided by grace, has at length dared to
arrest its damning reign, and the brilliant pageant
which I this day behold, spreading far and wide
around me, is but the triumphant vindication of
its diffusive charities revealed in the last great or
ganization of the age, an organization last em
bodying the moral sympathies of the nation, and
rapidly encircling the American continent. Lei
the eye of reason and the soul of truth inspect
the imposing array of these gathering multitudes
of badged and bannered brothers. They covet
the scrutiny of an honest incredulity. No tame
less ambition has leagued their laboring hosts, no
political enginery moves their massive columns,
arid n ) mercenary meatiness contaminates the purity
of their angelic enterprise. “4 he weapons of
their warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strong holds.” No
Damascus blades gleam along their ranks; no
yawning artillery is unlimbered in their lines ;
peace, halcyon peace, sits upon their banners and
smiles upon their brows. Their clustering laurels
are unempurpled by human gore, while the
“ wilderness ” in their rear, “ buds and blossoms
as the rose,” and the hills and valleys as they pass
feel the power of a moral resurrection, and echo
to the loud pean of parental love* swelled by the
chorus of a thousand tongues, “This my son
was dead and is alive again, was lost and is
found.** It is true that the “ shibboleth ” of their
mystic tie may not be pronounced by uninitiated
lips, but the bold sunlight exhibitions of this joy
ousgala day, proclaim to the world, by lip and
badge, and banner, by the tear and smile of the
redeemed inebriate, and the ringing song from his
happy home, the undisguised purposes and un
paralielied progress of the Sons of lemperanee.
They seek no ignoble concealment of their mo-
their tri-colored pennons are flung upon the
winds radiant with the mottoes arid emblazoned
with the heraldry of their noble Order. Bowing
to the infallible criterion of heaven’s great teacher,
“by their fruits ye shall know them,” they hum
bly' 7 but confidently point to the rich harvest of
virtue and peace that waves and ripens in their
rear. No verily, and could yourspeaker transcend
for a time the earthly artists’ sphere, and gild the
azure canvass of yon orient heaven with the rain
bow's gorgeous dyes, he would strike with the
boldness of its prismatic arch the whole glowing
circle of their plans for the enquiring gaze of the
nations.
SAVANNAH, GA.. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12,,
But on an occasion like the present the claims
of our Order, and the reasons which sustain them
in the prosecution of their enterprise, demand at
our hands some special consideration.
From the melancholy experience of the past,
then, for nearly four thousand two hundred years,
aided by all the lights of modern science and the
startling and impressive facts, furnished by the
history of the present generation, we are con
strained to enteroui solemn and irrevocable pro
test :—lst, as a Physician, 2ndly, as a Citizen, and
3dly as a Christian, to the ordinary use of all intox
icating beverages. Under these three heads,therefore.
allow- us to classify some of the reasons which
control us, and to submit them lo the calm and I
unprejudiced attention of the; enlightened World.
A review of the whole, would tax too heavily the
time of the auditory and ihe strength of the ora
tor, and abbreviations and omissions must there
fore, be indulged, as prudence may suggest.
Ist, then, as a Physician, we assume the only
clear and satisfactory postulate which a sound
physiolgy sanctions, viz: that in its normal condition ,
the human system is well ballanccd in the action of all
its organs , and the performance of all its functions ,
without the aid or use of alcholic stimulants. The ali
ment taken into the animal stomach, it is irue,
must meet with an appropriate diluent and solvent,
but neither requires nor is dependent upon the
uncertain and nauseous impregnations from the
brewer’s vat, or the foul and fuming elaborations
of the distillery, but demands tlu; agency of that
bland innocence, and widely diffused menstruum
which breaks from earth’s fountains and pours
along its plains. Every draught of intoxicating
liquor, therefore, lodging upon the delicate and
sensitive mucous coat of this great central organ,
tends to destroy the vascular and nervous equilib
rium, so indispensable to physical well being, and
to propagate far and wide, in proportion to the
force of the abnormal impression, functional de
rangements or organic lesions.
When disease has supervened, however, from
other causes, we cheerfully admit that prescribed
under the direction of a discriminating judge
ment, and guarded by the imposition of suitable
restraints, these stimulating liquors may be
made subservient to the purposes of the profes
sion, yet in accordance with the expressed view
of some of the ablest and best physiologists and
chemists of the age, wc cannot but regard every
fluid of alcoholic impregnation to be unnecessary or ab
solutely pernicious in a state of health, its dietetical use
therefore, as calling for the discouragement of the
profession, and even when medicinally employed,
as requiring much care and circumspection, lest
greater evils be entailed upon the patient than it
purports to cure. In that terific malady of drun
kards, Delirium Tremens, the phisician’s judge
ment has perhaps too frequently yielded to the in
satiate cravings of the miserable inebriate, and
he lias continued to prescribe, though in more lim
ited potions, the same fiery excitant which lias al
ready turned bis stomach into a furnace and his
brain into a bedlam, under the apprehension that
without it, a dangerous collapse would supervene,
and the wretched sufferesr sink. Such fears, how
ever, we regard as withoot sufficient foundation,
and in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred
which occur, we believe with Prof. Dugalison,
that alcholic excitants “ arc by no means indis
pensible, and the disease admits of cure without
the use of anv of them.” Hundreds of those
who within the last ten years have been safely
rescued by the temperance pledge, from the vor
tex of ruin, and who ceased their stimulating po
tation suddenly and forever in the midst of the hor
rible sequel of a debauch, with a blazing
stomach and a frenzied brain, amply sustain the
correctness of this-professional opinion.
The decided and powerful impression, made
by alcohol upon the living tissues, both by its dy
namical and chemical action, cannot but arrest the
attention of the philanthropist, as well as the physi
cian indeed it wages a perpetual war with life,
whether under animal or vegetable forms—arsenic
itself, being scarcely less speedy and fatal in its
effects upon animals, than alcohol upon the vital
ity of plants. Its action, like that of hodrocyanic
acid, is prompt and distinctive, but while in an
experiment, reported by Mr. Griffith of the med
ical college of St. Bartholomew’s hospital.
“ Beans were killed by that violent poison in the
course of a single day; and deadly nightshade in
four days—the spirits of wine evinced stiff more
rapid devitalizing power, killing the plant whose
rootlets absorbed it in a few short, hours. We must
however, confine ourselves to a brief notice of its
pathological effects upon the animal organism.
Stomach. —The healthful action of this great
central viscus is soon disturbed by repeated flota
tions of alcholic stimulants Its nervous sensibili
ties become obtunded ; the capillary vessels of its
interior, or villous coat, engorged with an abnor
mal quantity of blood ; a sub-accute inflammation
supervenes, and its organic structure is at length
altered. Asa necessary result of these pathologi-
| cal derangements, even in their earlier stages, di
gestion is impaired, and larger draughts are re
quired to whip up the crippled energies of the
abused organ to the performance of its accustomed
function, until, at length, worn down and exhaus
ted, like the jaded steed under the relentless lash
and rowel of his merciless rider, ii hopelessly sink*
under the curse ; disease is propagated to gurro.tra
ding organs, and outraged nature “gives signs of
woe that all is lost.”
Post mortem exanimation, under the inspection
of Orfila Brodie, and Christison, exhibit “a visi
ble inflammation of the organ : the villous coat of a,
“cherry-red color,” and in old drunkard,*, “often
injected and thickened ; while Dr. Jewett of the
U. S., found the stomach of the inebriate who died
with Delerium Tremens, engorged throughout its
mucous membrane, with blood of a deep venous
hue approaching to blackness—interfused with
patches of a dull red color.
Let us now briefly trace the action of our rco-e/u
----ble poison, (for Alcohol is classed as such both by
Orfila and Christison, two of the ablest lonicoln
gistsof the age,) upon a few other leading organs
of the animal economy.*
The Liver. —The maimed and disabled conditioti
of the grand assimilating organ of the human sys
tem, the stomach, could not otherwise than result
in the propagation of diseased action to llie more
remote organs; if from no other cause thau ties
defective chyrnifaction of its ingesta, and the con
sequent impoverishment of the blood. But more
than this:—the repeated draughts of ardent spir
its, swallowed by the dissipated—long faithfully
resisted by the laeteals and absorbants of the
stomach and duodenum, at length overcome th*-ir
declining powers of repulsion—breakover the har
riers which active vitality had opposed, and the al
coholic principle makes its way through thecuneut
of the circulation, and comes in contact with the
structure of every organ ; for in such cases the
circulating oxygen of the bio xl-globuler, cantr-t
decompose the whole of this burning tide, and it
has therefore been detected as unaltered Alcohol
in the various tissues and serous cavities, after
death. Under its stimulating contact, then, the
liver becomes first functionally deranged, elabora
ting a deformed thick, pitchy secretion, instead <f
healthy bile—then undergoes structural lesion, auJ
becomes tuberculous and enlarged in volume.
I was several years ago, permitted to examine,
after his death, the liver of a reputed drunkard ,
instead of presenting the smooth surface, and choc
olate lute of the healthy organ, and weighing 5, or
G lbs., the whole parenchymatous mass was disfig
ured by large bluish white protuberances,complete
ly disorganized and indurated, and weighing l
think, between 7, and 8 lbs.
The Brain , too, the grand cardinal centre of tla*
nervous system —the seal of intellect and the
earthly throne of immortality, is polluted by the
foul presence of this intrusive harpy. The spir
itual occupant is enfeebled and degraded —her
queenly power perverted or prostrated, and all
her beauty blasted, while weeping humanity lid*
the veil of despair over the hopeless ruins of the
noblest works of God. Supplied with large
blood-vessels and highly excitable, this presiding
organ, under the stimulus of intoxicating drink*
taken in large quantities, suddenly or within a short
space of time, is subjected to profound coma, en
gorgement of its large vessels —increased vascu
larity in the membranes—effusions of serum, and
the extravasation of blood into its ventricles, pre
senting every variety of functional aberration,
from the most stupid and revolting idioiisru, to
the most wild and furious paroxism of Delirium
Tremens: —while by long continued habits of in
toxication the whole medullary mass loses its soft
ness and elasticity. So indispensable to the high
est activity and loftiest efforts of mind, become*
more firm and unyielding, and if the unhappy
victim of his cups is not carried off’ in some drun
ken fit, corresponding mental and moral phenom
ena manifest themselves. A growing insensibility
to the drearest interests and kindliest sympathies
of life, and an evidently increasing languor and
imbecility in his intellectual operations, followed
by a soulless apathy, and a stolid indifference to
ail the claims of earth and Heaven —are the mis
erable sequel Is of his unrestrained sensuality.
To give plausibility to these deductions, let it be
remembered that the action of our agent upon the
entire cineritious and medullary matter of the
brain is so well understood by every anatomist, that
the organ when designed for dissection, is removed
from the cranium and immersed for a day or two
in a dilute solution of alcohol, to give greater
consistency and firmness, preparatory to the use
of the scalpel. Again, its stupifying, deadening
power upon the nervous tissue, imparing, or de
stroying its irritability and thereby preventing it*
*For the following sketch of organic and functional disease
effected by Alcohol, the reader is respectfully referred to au
article upon “ Alcohol,” written by the author for the South
ern Med. und Surg. Journal, aud published in the February
No. 1847, of that Foriodical.
NUMBER 45