THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3751, 2 March 1875, Page 3

THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.

To the Editor. Sir,—ln complying with “ Amachos’s ” request, I shall give the briefest extracts from medical and other evidence, as a newspaper’s columns are rather limited for full reports. Sir Henry Thompson, F.R.C.S., says: “I have long had the conviction that there is no greater cause of evil, moral and physical, in this country than the use of alcoholic beverages. I do not mean by this that extreme indulgence which produces drunkenness. The habitual use of fermented liquors to an extent far short of what is necessary to produce that condition, and such' as is quite common in all ranks of society, injures the body and diminishes the mental power to an extent which, I think, few people are aware of. Such, at all events, is the result of observation during n:ove than twenty years of professional life, devoted to hospital practice and to private practice.” Again: “ That there is no single habit in this country which so much tends to deteriorate the qualities of the race.”—(See his letter to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.) Again: “The celebrated Dr Trotter, so long ago as 1802, says: Intoxicating liquors, in all their forms, and however disguised, are the most productive cause of disease with which I am acquainted.” Again : Drß. W. Richardson says ; “ All alcoholic bodies are depressants, and, although at first, by their calling injuriously into play the natural forces they seem to excite, and are therefore caked stimulants, they themselves supply no force at any time, but take up force, by which means they lead to exhaustion and paralysis of power.” Again; Dr E. Smith, F.It.S., says; Alcohol is probably not tnvnsformed, and does not increase the production of heat by his ow^ chemical action. It interferes with alimentation. Its power to lessen the salinary secretions must impede the digestion of starch. It greatly lessens muscular tone and power. Alcohol is not a true food; it neither wanna nor sustains the body by the elements of which it is composed.” Space prevents my giving, on the present occasion, more than the following: “ We, the undersigned, are of opinion, first—that a very large portion of human misery, including poverty, disease, and crime, is induced by the use of alcoholic or fermented liquors as beverages. Second, that the most perfect health is compatible with total abstinence from all such beverages, whether in the form of ardent spirits, or as wine or beer, ale, porter, and cider. That total and universal abstinence from alcoholic liquors and beverages of all sorts would greatly contribute to the health, the prosperity, the morality, and the happiness of the human race,” I give a few of the hundreds of signatures to the above : —Dr x’r» a Carpenter, F.R.S., Sir B. C. Brodie, JB-SVSir J. Clark, M.D., F.R.S., Dr Robert Fergusson, physician to the Queen, &c., Amachos ” will call upon me person?rv r-. w jp show him hundreds of testimonies of this kind. In furnishing my clerical testimony, l™ fe * Amchos” to the Rev. Dr Stanley felt wfe- P °t Nor T£ h > Rev - John Wesley Rev ‘ JohnAngei James Rev. Albert Barnes, the American commentator, and a great number of others Again I give the names of many who were them

country’s pride, and from whom I am prepared to quote in favor of the temperance cause : Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, 'William Oobbett, Dr Darwin, Milton, and a host of others. It is not for me to prove that this “cloud of witnesses” were or are teetotallars, but it is sufficient for my purpose to show that I have no “ little game,” that I am not for “ fencing,” that I have on my side “ the greatest minds that ever were.” “Amachos” attempts to “ draw a herring across the scent,” but it won’t do “Amachos”! I have not yet committed myself, so far as I am aware, in attempting to “force down the national throat;” I have not yet “courted legislative interference,” although I may yet do so ; but until I do, Amachos ” has no right to charge me with it. “ One thing at a time ”is my motto, and that is to show that teetotallers are on the right side. “ Amachos ” admits this when he says: “The two subjects--religion and abstinence have certainly so much in common,” » 8 ’ *’Amachos”! Do I hear thee say, Almost thou persuadest me to be a teetotaller”?—l am, &c., _ W. Hooper. Dunedin, March 2. [As we think both Mr Hooper and “Amachos” have pretty well exhausted their subject, the correspondence must now cease, — Ed, ‘E.S.