Temperance prize essays / By Drs. Mussey and Lindsly.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance prize essays / By Drs. Mussey and Lindsly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    167/210 (page 161)
    ad hd ’ wri Sim be AS REGARDS STRENGTH. 161 The gradual mode consists in employing sleep, rest, and food, or in other words accumulating the vital principle: the rapid mode is by the applica- tion of diffusible stimuli, 2. e., calling into action the vital principle which remains; as in syncope we apply ammonia, or any other pungent odor, to the nostrils. Now the question is, which of these modes, the rapid or the gradual, is most likely to answer the purpose? Noone can doubt a moment as to the answer. ‘The one is the order of nature—the other is artificial—the one, although more dilatory in its operation, is unattended by any unpleasant consequences ; while the other is sure to be fol- lowed by lassitude and depression exactly pro- portioned to the amount of excitement and stimulus applied and felt. In the beautiful and expressive language of another, the stimulant restoratives may be com- pared to a ‘stream which nourishes a plant upon its bank, and causes it to flourish and blossom to the sight, while at the same moment it is under- mining it at the root.’ Rest, sleep, and food, are amply sufficient to re- pair the fatigue and restore the exhausted energy of all animated existence—‘ they are sufficient for the tribe in the branches of the forest, and for the deer which range below, for the flock on the mountain’s side, and for the herd in the pasture of the valley. They are sufficient for the elephant, for the tiger, and the lion’—but man, poor deluded man! not satisfied with nature’s ample provision for the restoration of strength, and the preservation of health, must have recourse to alcoholic stimulants. 14*