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.

    37/210 (page 31)
    ty-five years; much broken down ase of and decayed however, under occa- frmer. sional attacks of gout, which he called rheuma- tism. At this period he broke off suddenly and wholly from the use of spirit; and within two years, that is, at the age of seventy-seven, he was so much recruited as to appear several years younger, and he assured me that in the last two haying seasons he had accomplished more person- al labor than in any other two haying seasons for ~ tne last ten or twelve years. He expressed him- self in the most decisive and energetic manner when remarking upon the effects, in his own case, of total abstinence from spirituous drinks ; he had not only not been injured, but had been an un- speakable gainer by the change. This case, and others like it, show the futility of the opinion that it is unsafe for persons of any age suddenly to break the habit of spirit drinking, and that those advanced in life should either not attempt to discontinue it, or should do itin the most cautious and eradual manner. The truth is, that the ef- fects, whether immediate or remote, of alcohol, whenever they are so distinct as to be estimated, are always those of an unnatural, unhealthy, or poisonous agent; and soon after the daily poison is withdrawn, the vital powers, relieved from their oppression, rally, the organs act with more freedom and regularity, and the whole machinery of life exhibits something like a renovation. Spirit has been erroneously supposed to afford a protective influence against the effects of severe cold. A sea captain of Boston, Massachusetts, in- formed me that ina memorable cold Friday in the