THE FALLACIES OF TEETOTALISM.

Evening Star, Issue 3201, 24 May 1873, Page 3

THE FALLACIES OF TEETOTALISM.

To the Editor.

Sm,—l was not a little amused in reading the review of Mr Robert Ward’s treatise on “The Fallacies of Teetotalism,” contained iu the Times of this morning ; some of the propositions mentioned as bei'-g stated by Mr Ward being really so absurd, as to bo more calculated to evoke the. risibility «f thinking men, than to lead them to a judgment favorable to the writer’s views. For example, take his fifth proposition : “ Since the Creator has endowed alcohol with the property of being pleasant to the taste, its moderate use is essentially beneficial.” While reading it, nay mind was directed to some other things which are “ pleasant to the taste,” but which even llr Ward would scarcely conclude are therefore necessarily beneficial to his own individual constitution ; for I presume he must mean that alcohol, for the reason given, is beneficial not only to society at large, but also, if not principally, to the person using it. Take arsenic, for instance, which, I am credibly informed, is “pleasant to the taste.” I really don’t know what Mr Ward’s views may be on the beneficial nature of its moderate use in the same manner as we use alcohol, though, I am told, there are some countries where the inha' itants are accustomed to eat arsenic; but I am also informed, that the people there who do so use it are always short-lived and generally die suddenly. I hope these are not among the benefits Mr Ward sees in the use of alcohol Then, again, there is chloroform. I am inf f.ned by those \ybp have used it, that it also is “pleasant to the taste.” Will Mr Ward advise us to use this also in any qther manner than under medical advice ? If so, 1 am afraid his arguments won’t go to induce many to follow his advice. I may he answered that these articles are beneficial in their moderate u?e, and under proper djreo-

tions. Granted—so may alcohol be, if by moderate use wo are to understand a simila f use to this ; l.ut if these arc uot to be used in the same way' as I understand Mr Ward to mean we should use alcohol, then I am afrai I his argument, if not good for one, won’t do much for the other. Bye the-bye, new I think of it, rats and other vermin must be somewhat of Mr Ward’s opinion, for see how eagerly they snatch up the tit-bifc‘ so daintily prepared for them by our kirnfriend?, who desire to enable us to rid ourselves of the nuisance. But lam afraid th • rats now and then find they are wrong, and that all that’s sweet is not good. But, Sir, this proposition seems to me a most presumptions petitio principii. Is it an ascertained, and undoubted fact that alcohol is “pleasant to the taste?” lam afraid not. Speaking individually, 1 say that it is uot : and I think that if anyone will just offer a little—say brandy—to a child who has never seen a'cohol used, and who does* not know what it is, he will find that the child does not like it; indeed, the taste is wholly an acquired one, and men tolerate alcohol only because it is fashionable to use it, and they accustom their palates to its use till “ use becomes second nature,” and, indeed, till tbeir palates crave the unnatural indulgence, which craving, by the way, seems an additional proof that the love of it is not natural.—l am, &c., Rational. Dunedin, May 24.