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VOLUME 11.
fflrrtrii
THE MEADOW LILIES.
“ Consider the Lilies
Found we lilies in the meadow
Where they made the hay,
Blowing in the July weather
On a sultry day.
Hung they there, like crowns of crimson
Studded well with gems,
Flashing through the silken grasses
From their glossy stems.
Glad were we to fill our aprons
With the bright boquefs,
Sitting where \ on maple’s shadow
On its carpet plays.
Talked we of the Lilies’preaching—
Preached so many years,
Ere the:r great Interpreter
Opened human ears, —
Talked we gaily ’mid the clover,
Sisters, side by side;
Heartsunfolding, like those lilies
In the summery pride.
Sate when we would gather lilies
In the July weather,
Slow our pace is, for no longer
Go we all together.
One’s afar among green hills
Where the Lehigh flashes,
And another sweet young rose
Slumber in Death’s ashe3.
Father, let Thy lilies bright
To our hearts come preaching !
Lifr us up from dust and night
’Neath Thy spirit’s teaching?
Show us that Thy ways are right
In all kinds of weather—
That in Thee we may unite
And seek flowers together?
Emily Herrmann.
THE GARDEN GATE.
“ Stand back, bewildering politics!
I’ve placed rnv fences round ;
Pass on, with all your party tricks,
Nor tread my holy ground.
Stand back —I’m weary of your talk,
Your squabbles, and your hate :
You cannot enter in this walk—
I’ve closed my garden gate.
‘ Stand back, ye thoughts of trade and pelf;
I have a refuge here ;
I wish to commune with myself—
My mind is out of gear.
These bowers are sacred to the page
Os philosophic lore;
Within these bounds no envies rage —
I’ve shut my garden door.
“Stand back, Fri ’olity and Show,
It is a day of Spring ;
I want to see my roses blow,
And hear the blackbird sing.
I wish to prune my apple trees,
And nail my peaches straight;
Keep to the causeway, if you please—
I’ve shut my garden gate.
“I have no room for such a you,
My house is somewhat small;
bet Love come here, and Friendship true,
111 give them welcome sll;
They will not scorn my household stuffs,
Or criticise my store.
Uasion—the world is large enough—
Ive shut my garden door.
Stand back, ye Pomps! and let me wear
T.’ie liberty I feel.
1 Lave a coat at elbows bare—
-1 love its dishabille .
‘Within these precincts let me rove,
nature, free fiom state;
There is no tinsel in the grove —
l ‘e shut my garden gate.
hat boots continual glare and strife ?
cannot always climb :
w °uld not struggle all my life—
need a breathing time.
P °
ass on—l’ve sanctified these grounds
friendship, love and lore:
cannot come within the bounds—
*'c *but my garden door.
t he use of alcohol.
lc Use and Abuse of Alcoholic
Uf juvrs in Health and Disease:
Prize Essay. By William B.
Carpenter, M. D., F. R. S., F. G.
Examiner in the University of
Condon, Professor of Medical Ju
risprudence in University College
and Author of Principles of Hu
man Physiology, etc. Phila.:
Lea & Blanchard.
We have given the title entire
\t may be seen that the distin
author is no quack or indi-
L Peking, by a treatise on a
popular topic, to bring himself into
L Served notoriety. The work
L as Written in consequence of a
1* hundred guineas’ prize being
for the best essay on this
Drunfrii tii jCittrntttrr, null Slrt, tjj? irniis us dMiit /dlntnsjitp, Jllnsnnnj unit iGrnrrnt
topic. This is the successful pro
duction. As it is calmly and tem
perately written, and probably most
of the real arguments (except the
moral ones) against the use of alco
holic beverages are plainly given,
we propose, in a condensed form,
to present them to our readers, di
recting them to the work itself for
particulars.
W hat are the effects, corporal and
mental, of alcoholic liquors on the
healthy system ?
“ We shall commence (says Dr.
Carpenter) by examining the influ
ence of alcohol upon the yhysi'eal,
chemical and vital properties of the
several components of the animal
labric. The most important physi
cal change which the contact of al
cohol effects in the softer animal
tissues, is that ot corrugation —or a
shrinking of the animal substance ;
the chemical change is the coagula
tion of soluble albumen. Alco
hol applied to the living skin pro
duces irritation, inflammation and
dealh.”
Intoxication (as its etymology de
notes) is poisoning. A single mod
erate draught of alcoholic beverage
excites the pulse ; the appetite
and digestive powers are increased,
and the secretions of the skin and
kidneys augmented. The mind is
also enlivened,and the natural qual
ities made manifest. Another close
and the voluntary control of the
thoughts and muscles is completely
destroyed. The third stage is one
ot coma, which differs little from apo
plexy, and not unfrequently is fol
lowed by death.
The rapidity with which alcohol
enters into the circulation is remark
able. It could scarcely 7 be more
rapid were it injected into the veins.
“In one of Dr. Percy’s experiments
the animal fell lifeless to the ground
immediately that the injection of
alcohol into the stomach was com
pleted, (the respiratory movements
and pulsations of the heart entirely
ceasing within two minutes.) the
stomach was found nearly void,
•j
whilst the blood was strongly im
pregnated with alcohol.” Alcohol
seems to possess a natural affinity
for the brain, and the blood of this
organ is found to contain a larger
proportion of alcohol than that in
other parts of the sy’slem.
Nature soon carries off the poison,
and leaves only the disordered
condition it has produced. The
skin and kidneys emit large quanti
ties, the lungs exhale it, and still
more is carried off by its combustion
in the blood, changing it, bv com
billing with oxygen, into carbonic
acid and water, which arc speedily
exhaled by the lungs.
The remote results of the excess
ive use of alcoholic liquors are
Delirium Tremens and Insanity—
in ninety eight asylums in England
and Wales, of 12,007 cases, 15 per
cent were from Intemperance. In
the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum at
least one fourth. In nine provincial
asylums the proportion was 32.02
percent. In an asylum in the East
Indies the per centage was 41.07.
At the Richmond Hospital, Dublin,
one half owed their madness to
drinking.
Another common form of insanity
is called Oinomania : “it is the lrre
resistible propensity to swallow
stimulants in enormous doses when
ever and wherever the} 7 can he pro
cured. The poor victim derives no
pleasure from the taste, tor he gulps
down the liquor, of whatever kind
it he ; or from society, for he gen
erally avoids it; hut he only de
rives a temporary satisfaction from
the gratification of an insane im
pulse.” The disease is what many
possess who seem compelled by
some demon, at periodical intervals,
to “go on a spree,” as it is here
commonly expressed. It is seldom
cured, even after years ot confine
ment, this disease returns with a
power the poor victim cannot re
strain .
The mental debility of the off
spring is one of the most painful
consequences of this vice—idiocy,
insanity, and mental debility’. Plu
tarch long ago said, “one drunkard
begets another;” and Aristotle’s re
mark has come down to us, that
“drunken women bring forth chil
dren like unto themselves.” In the
Report on Idiocy 7 , by r Dr. Howe, to
the Legislature of Massachusetts,
he says , “ The habits of the pa-
SAVANNAH, GA.. SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1850.
rents of 300 idiots were learned;
and 145, or nearly half were known
to be habitual drunkards. The pa
rents of No. 02 were drunkards,
and had seven idiotic children.”—
Paralysis and epilepsy are also fre
quently caused by liquor.
Besides these there are many dis
eases directly originating from the
constant and excessive use of alco
holic drinks. Among many others,
ihese are enumerated : irritation
and inflammation of the mucous
membrane of the stomach and in
testines ; dyspepsia and various
diseasesof the liver, some forms of
which are known as the “drunkard's
liver,” many affections of the kid
neys, &c. Every one has observed
probably the tendency to diseases
of the skin, which is more or less
manifest among alt frequent drink
ers. The liability to epidemic dis
eases is made manifest, and the
causes of spontaneous combustion,
which many think improbable, are
also given.
A note under tfie head of “Di
minished power of sustaining inju
ries by disease or accident,” gives
this anecdote, showing the enormous
powers both of strength and endu
rance to which man can, by long
and severe training, he raised. It
is a statement made by one of the
coal heavers employed on the
Thames. “I was a strict tee-total
er for many years, and 1 wish I
could be so now. All that time I
was a coal-whipper, at the heaviest
work,’and I have made one of a
gang that has done ISO tons in a day.
I drank no fermented liquors tlie
whole time. I had only 7 ginger
beer and milk, and that cost me Is.
Gd. It was in the summer time. I
didn’t huff it that day; that is I
didn’t take my shirt off. Did ibis
work at Regent’s Canal, and there
was a little milk shop close on shore
and I used to run there when I
was dry. I had about two quarts
of milk and five hollies of beer, or
about three quarts of fluid altogeth
er. I found that amount of drink
necessary. 1 perspired very vio
lently 7, my shirt was wet through, 1
and my flannels wringing wet with
ibe perspiration over the work.—
The rule among us is. that we do
28 tons on deck and 23 tons filling
in the hold. We go on that way
during the day 7 . The perspiration
in the summer streams down our
foreheads so rapidly 7 that it will of
ten get into our eyes before we have
time to wipe it off. This makes
them very sore. The perspiration
is of avery r briny nature. We are
often so heated over our work that
the perspiration runs into our shoes,
and often from the dust and heat
jumping up and down, and the feet
being galled with the dust, 1 have
had my shoes filled with blood. —
The thirst produced by the work is
very excessive. It is completely as
if you had a fever on you. The
dust gets into the throat and near
ly suffocates. You can scrape ihe
coal dust off the tongue with the
teeth ; and do what you will, it is
iimpossible to get the least spittle into
ihe mouth. I have known the coal
dust lo he that thick in the hold of a
ship that I have been unable to see
my mate, though only two teet
from me. Your legs totter under
you. Both before and alter 1 was
a tee-lotaler i was one of the strong
est men in the business. 1 was able
to carry 7 7 cwt. on my hack for fifty
yards, and I could lift nine half hun
dreds with rnv right arm. After
finishing my day’s work, I was like
a child for weakness. Then there
is the coal to he carried up a nasty
ladder twenty feet—and a sack of
coals weighs two cwts. and a stone
at least ; the sack itself heavy and
thick. Isn’t that a strain on a man?
No horse could stand it long. The
sweat runs into ihe bools, and I
have felt it run down me for hours as
I had to trudge along.”
Another say 7 s : “It is food only
that can give real strength to the
frame. 1 have hacked GO ions in a
day since 1 took the pledge, and
have done it without any intoxica
ting drink, with perfect ease to my
self, and walked five miles to a
temperance meeting afterwards.—
Coal-hacking from the ship’s hold is
the hardest work that man can do.
Going up a ladder sixteen feet high,
with 238 1 Us. weight on a man’s
back is sufficient to kill any one ;
indeed it does kill the men in a few
years ; they’re soon old men at that
work.”—Surely, on reading such
statements we must exclaim, “there
were giants in those days.” And
this incredible labor is done better
and easier without ihe use of alco
hol ! What labor then requires it?
It is pitiful to think that these men,
so powerful in other respects, are
prostrated by the slightest attack of
disease; surgeons shrink from tri
vial operations upon these bulky
and strong men, with constitutions
destroyed by liquor.
Statistics of Insurance Compa
nies, Army Reports, and Hospital
Accounts, prove the facts that the
duration of life is much shortened
by the excessive use of liquors with
the important corrollary—‘lntem
perance is the chief cause of crime.”
In answer to the serious question,
“Does Physiology or Experience
teach us that Alcoholic liquors
should form part of the ordinary
sustenance of men, particularly un
der circumstances of exposure lo
severe labor or extremes of temper
ature ?” Theory is given to prove
the negative, and facts from actual
experience of shipwrecked sailors,
those who have wintered in Green
land, and been exposed to the
heats of Africa, that such drinks are
plainly deleterious. Neither is any
more necessary for the fatigues con
sequent upon mental exertion. “It
is the testimony of general experi
ence, that when men of genius have
habitually had recourse to alcoholic
stimulants for the excitement of
their powers, they 7 have died at an
early age, as if in consequence of
the premature exhaustion of their
nervous energy. Mozart, Burns,
and Byron (Lamb and Goldsmith)
may be cited as remarkable exam
ples of this result.” We might
easily enlarge ihe list by additions
from this country. Practised Gam-
J
biers are remarked, when about to
engage in contests requiring sagac
ious calculations, lo “keep them
selves cool.” The greatest part of
that intellectual labor that has ex
tended the domain of human
knowledge, has been performed by
water drinkers. “Under this last
category are enumerated Demos
thenes and Haller. Dr. Johnson,
in the latter part of his life, took
nothing stronger than tea, whilst
Voltaire and Fontenelle used coffee;
and Newton and Hobbes were ac
customed to solace, not to excite
themselves, with the fumes of to
bacco. In regard to Locke, whose
long life was devoted to constant
intellectual labor, ‘his diet was the
same as oiher people’s except that
lie usually drank nothing hut
water.’ ” As an assistant to endu
rance of cold, the proof is conclu
sive that it is injurious. When the
stomach is empty, liquor is better
than nothing. Food, especially of
an oleaginous nature, is best. The
reaction of the system alter the ef
fect of the drink is over, is especial
ly pernicious. This is proved by
the experience of arctic voyagers,
Ihe hunters of Charnouni, and many
oiliers leading exposed lives. “In
1019 ihe crew of a Danish ship of
GO men, well supplied with provis
ions and ardent spirit*', attempted
to pass the winter at Hudson’s Bay;
but 58 of them died before spring;
while in the case of an English
crew of 52 men, in the same cir
cumstances, but destitute of distill
ed spirit, only two died !” Many
other similar cases are given. As
an aid to endurance ot heat, and
that it is necessary to support the
system under the excessive loss by
perspiration, at high temperature,
it seems lo be thought because
water is drawn off’ from the blood
through the pores of the skin, alco
hol must be taken in to replace it,
a most egregious absurdity.
Experience shows that sweating
is not exhausting in itself, for the
same fatigue is experienced when
the atmosphere is loaded with
dampness, even at a low tempera
ture. A person clothed in water
proof garments experiences the
same unpleasant results from the
inteiference with the customary in
sensible perspiration. The follow
ing chacteristic Address of Sir Chas.
Napier to the 96th Regiment in Cal
cutta, May, 1849, sums up whole
tables of army reports, and conden
ses the experience of thousands :
“Let me give you a bit of ad vice—•
that is, don’t drink. I know young
men don’t think much of advice
trom old men. They put their ton
gue in their cheek, and think they
know a great deal better than ihe
old cove that is giving them advice.
But let me tell you that you are com
ing to a country where, if you drink,
vou are dead men;ifvou be sober and
steadv, you will get on web ; but if
y r ou drink, you are done lor. You
will either be invalided ordie. 1
! knew two regiments in this country;
(one drank and the other didn’t,
j The one that didn’t drink is one of
I the finest regiments, and has got on
as well as any regiment in existence.
The one that did drink has been till
but destroyed. For any regiment
for which l have any respect (and
there is not one ofihe British regi
! merits that I don’t respect), 1 should
I always try and persuade them
to keep from drinking. I know
i there are some men who wili drink
| in spite of the devil, and their offi
cers- but such men will soon he in
the hospital, and very few that go
! in, in this country, ever come out
I again.’ The resistance to Morbific
! Agencies is, also, less with the spir
i it taker : the Cholera and other pes
i tilential diseases which are known
l to first attack the drinker, is proof
I of this.
The consequences of the habitu
al ‘moderate’ use of alcoholic li
quors, are quite extensive. Asa
stimulant to the stomach, it over-ex
cites it- which, besides weakening
that organ by too much use, has a
tendency lo produce a general state
of nlethora, which is favorable to
local congestions, and inflammatory
diseases ot . various organs, and
which especially disposes to hem
orrhages and the diseases of the
liver. The effect on the nervous
system, and on nutrition, have pre
viously been briefly noticed ; and in
a synopsis like this, the difference
between the effects of excessive and
moderate drinking are too slight to
be delineated. They differ mostly
in amount. The effects on nutrition
are most marked. A slight cut in a
healthy water drinker, if the incised
edges oe placed together, will usu
ally unite as it were, and the wound
be entirely healed in a few days.
No such action takes place in similar
injuries of the drinker. The wound
becomes a ‘sore,’ and goes through
a tedious process of suppuration be
fore health is restored to the part.
Many people who complain that
‘their flesh does not heal quick,’ per
hapsdo not think that this habit is
frequently the (for it is not the only)
cause.
‘Are there any special modifica
tions of the bodily or mental condi
tion of man, short of actual disease,
in which the occasional or habitual
use of Alcoholic Liquors may be
necessary or beneficial V
In the demand for extraordinary
bodily 7 exertion the author allows
that in cases which resemble the ef
forts of a race-horse, the spur may
he used if absolutely necessary ; but
it is necessary 7 to remember, that
ihe spur gives no strength in ad
vance to the laboring sailor or the
exhausted orator, but calls out the
vigorous exercises of the remaining
strength. The racer may fall dead
at the winning-post, and the over
exertion of the vital powers must
ultimately tell upon the fabric. Al
coholic beverages may be advan
tageous to resist ihe influences of
temporary exposure to damp and
wet (as in the case of a traveller on
the top of a coach,) but where the
exposure is daily or long-continued,
ihe result of its use is unquestiona
bly injurious. Where there is a de
ficiency of adequate sustenance, as
in the case of the Mutiny of the
Bounty, a teaspoonful of rum given
to each man by Capt. Bligh, every
morning, was undoubtedly of great
utility. In some cases of deficien
cy of constitutional vigor, it is not
uncommonly of use, but the great
number might take up with Aber
nethy’s advice, “ Live on a shilling
a day and earn it.’ Liquor will not
supply the place with p.oper food,
pure air, and sufficient exercise. In
cases of Pregnancy there are states
of irritability of the stomach where
distilled or fermented drinks are
useful ; but both in this and in Lac
tation, care should be taken not to
substitute a beverage for a medi
cine. ‘The regular administration
of alcohol, with the professed object
of supporting the system under the
demand occasioned by the flow o>
milk, is ‘a mockery* a delusion, and
a snare.’ ’ For alcohol nflords no
single element of the secretion, and
is more likely to impair than to im
prove i lie quality of the milk; and
stiil more, the milk secreted by sue!
stimulation is so modified in its
character, that it is not unfrequenl
lv unfit nourishment for the child.
‘The only cases,’ says Dr. Mucnish,
‘in which a moderate portion ot
malt liquor is justifiable, are when
the milk is deficient, and the nurse
unable or averse to putting anolhei
in her place.’
(The writer of this synopsis, in
the year 1543, made a series of ex
aminations of the various kinds ol
of cows’ milk generally found in
this city. In that produced by the
cows fed on ‘distillery slop,’ the re
fuse after distillation, the ‘epithelial
scales,’ or the small glands in
which the milk is formed, were
found to have been cast oft’from the
secreting membranes of the udder,
and were in a highly inflamed
and diseased stale. Such milk giv
en to delicate children produced al
most immediately vomiting, pur
ging, &c., although in usual health
before, and living on ordinary grass
fed milk. Perhaps the-milk of wo
men is similarly affected by similar
drinks ?)
In childhood it is supposed that
the habitual use of fermented drinks
is advantageous, especially in those
that inherit a scrofulous diathesis.
Cold water, sea bathing, exercise,
and air, are far better, if they are
to be used at all, they should resent
ble splints for a broken leg, to be
removed as speedily as possible, so
that nature may not he accustomed
to rely upon them for support.
In old age its use is far less fre
quent than is generally supposed.
As the waste of the body is far less
than in youth, a proportionably less
quantity of food is necessary to sup
port life. The stimulation of the
old, unaccustomed to these incen
tives, is most likely to effect a loss of
digestive power, which no treat
ment, medical or hygienic, can ever
completely repair.
‘ls the employment of Alcoholic
Liquors necessary in the practice of
Medicine : if so, in what diseases, or
in what forms and stages of disease,
is the use of them necessary or
beneficial V
This is not denied by the author
but it must be administered with
more care than is generally consid
ered useful. Alter a severe blow,
which lias apparently almost over
thrown the pow'ers of life, and more
particularly when ihe brain is the
part to which the injury has occur
red on account of the special deter
mination of blood to this organ : aft
er extensive burns; lliese stimu
lants are manifestly beneficial in
maintaining the heart’s action, and
keeping up the nervous excitability*
In the treatment of acute dis
eases, where the shock is tempora
ry, in some stages of fever, erysi
pelas, &c., in the recovery from
prostration when the vital powers
are not so much exhausted as de
pressed,in these and other forms
of acute diseases, alcohol is useful.
In chronic diseases but little good
can be expected from its adminis
tration. Its use is like raising the
wick when there is a deficiency of
oil; since it is procured not by the
re-animation of power which exists
in the body but has previously lain
dormant, but bv the rapid consump
tion of the ‘small stock of power left.’
We have given this work a
thorough digest, and endeavor to
state the views of the author clearly
and fully. ‘The author may seem
to be somewhat of an enthusiast on
the subject, and has, without doubt,
stated all that may be said in rela
tion to the physical effects of alco
hol on the human system. We
might not perhaps agree with every
statement therein contained, but we
consider it questionable if it would
be profitable at the present lime to
go into any extended examination
of them. In the main he is undoubt
edly correct, and il he errs does it
on the safe side. —Literary JVutld .
Cotton goods, manufactured in
Alabama, have been recently sold
in the Boston market, right next to
Lowell. This competition with the
North is much more sensible than
threatening disunjoq.
NUMBER 22.