AN INQUIRY

INTO THE EFFECTS

OF

SPIRITOUS LIQUORS ON THE HUMAN BODY

By spirits I mean all those liquors which are obtained by distillation from the fermented juices of substances of any kind. These liquors were formerly used only in medicine; they now constitute a principal part of the drinks of many countries. Since the introduction of spirituous liquors into such general use, physicians have remarked that a number of new diseases have appeared among us, and have described many new symptoms as common to old diseases. Spirits, in their first operation, are stimulating upon the system. They quicken the circulation of the blood, and produce some heat in the body. Soon afterwards they become what is called sedative; that is, they diminish the action of the vital powers, and thereby produce languor and weakness. The effects of spirituous liquors upon the human body in producing diseases are sometimes gradual. A strong constitution, especially if it be assisted with constant and hard labour, will counteract the destructive effects of spirits for many years, but in general they produce the following diseases:

1. A sickness at the stomach, and vomiting in the morning. This disorder is generally accompanied with a want of appetite for breakfast. It is known by tremors in the
hands, insomuch that persons who labour under it are hardly able to lift a tea-cup to their heads till they have taken a dose of some cordial liquor. In this disorder a peculiar paleness, with small red streaks, appear in the cheeks. The flesh of the face at the same time has a peculiar fulness and flabbiness, which are very different from sound and healthy
fat.

2. An universal dropsy. This disorder begins first in the lower limbs, and gradually extends itself throughout the whole body. 1 have been told that the merchants in (Charlestown, in South Carolina, never trust the planters when spirits have produced the first symptom of this second disorder upon them. It is very natural to suppose, that industry and virtue have become extinct in that man whose legs and feet are swelled from the use of spirituous liquors.

3. Obstruction of the liver. This disorder produces other diseases, such as an inflammation, which sometimes proves suddenly fatal; the jaundice; and a dropsy of the belly.

4. Madness. It is unnecessary to describe this disease with all its terrors and consequences. It is well known in every township where spirituous liquors are used.

5. The palsy, and 6, the apoplexy, complete the group of diseases produced by spirituous liquors. I do not assert that these two disorders are never produced by any other causes; but I maintain, that spirituous liquors are the most frequent causes of them; and that when a pre-disposition to them is produced by other causes, they are rendered more certain and more dangerous by the intemperate use of spirits.

I have only named a few of the principal disorders produced by spirituous liquors. It would take up a volume to describe how much other disorders natural to the human body are increased and complicated by them. Every species of inflammatory and putrid fever is rendered more frequent and more obstinate by the use of spirituous liquors.

The danger to life from the diseases which have been mentioned, is well known. I do not think it extravagant, therefore, to repeat here what has been often said, that spirituous liquors destroy more lives than the sword. War has its intervals of destruction; but spirits operate at all times and seasons upon human life. The ravages of war are confined to but one part of the human species, viz. to men; but spirits act too often upon persons who are exempted from the dangers of war by age or sex; and, lastly, war destroys only those persons who allow the use of arms to be lawful; whereas spirits insinuate their fatal effects among people whose principles are opposed to the effusion of human blood.

Let us next turn our eyes from the effects of spirits upon health and life to their effects upon properly; and here fresh scenes of misery open to our view. Among the inhabitants of cities they produce debts, disgrace, and bankruptcy. Among farmers they produce idleness, with its usual consequences, such as houses without windows, barns without roofs, gardens without inclosures, fields without fences, hogs without yokes, sheep without wool, meagre cattle, feeble horses, and half-clad dirty children, without principles, morals, or manners. This picture is not exaggerated. I appeal to the observation of every man in Pennsylvania, whether such scenes of wretchedness do not follow the tracks of spirituous liquors.

If we advance one step further, and examine the effects of spirituous liquors upon the moral faculty, the prospect will be still more distressing and terrible. The first effects of spirits upon the mind show themselves in the temper. I have constantly observed men, who are intoxicated in any degree with spirits, to be peevish and quarrelsome; after awhile, they lose by degrees the moral sense. They violate promises or engagements without shame or remorse. From these deficiencies in veracity and integrity, they pass on to crimes of a more heinous nature. It would be to dishonour human nature only to name them.

Thus have I in a few words pointed out the effects of spirituous liquors upon the lives, estates, and souls, of my fellow creatures. Their mischiefs may be summed up in a few words. They fill our church-yards with premature graves — they fill the sheriff's docket with executions — they crowd our gaols — and, lastly, they people the regions — but it belongs to another profession to show their terrible consequences in the future world.

I shall now proceed to combat some prejudices in favour of the use of spirituous liquors. There are three occasions in which spirits have been thought to be necessary and useful.

1. In very cold weather.
2. In very warm weather, And
3. In times of hard labour.

1. There cannot be a greater error than to suppose that spirituous liquors lessen the effects of cold upon the body. On the contrary, I maintain that they always render the body more liable to be affected and injured by cold. The temporary' warmth they produce is always succeeded by chilliness. If any thing besides warm clothing and exercise is necessary to warm the body in cold weather, a plentiful meal of wholesome food is at all times sufficient for that purpose. This, by giving a tone to the stomach, invigorates the whole system, while the gentle fever created by digestion adds considerably to the natural and ordinary heat of the body, and thus renders it less sensible of the cold.

2. It is equally absurd to suppose that spirituous liquors lessen the effects of heat upon the body. So far from it, they rather increase them. They add an internal heat to the external heat of the sun; they dispose us to fevers and inflammations of the most dangerous kind; they produce preternatural sweats, which weaken, instead of an uniform and gentle perspiration, which exhilarates the body. Half the diseases which are said to be produced by warm weather, I am persuaded, are produced by the spirits which are swallowed to lessen its effects upon the system.

3. I maintain, with equal confidence, that spirituous liquors do not lessen the effects of hard labour upon the body. Look at the horse with every muscle of his body swelled from morning till night in the plough or the team, does he make signs for spirits to enable him to cleave the earth, or to climb a hill? — No. He requires nothing but cool water and substantial food. There is neither strength nor nourishment in spirituous liquors; if they produce vigour in labour, it is of a transient nature, and is always succeeded with a sense of weakness and fatigue. These facts are founded in observation; for I have repeatedly seen those men perform the greatest exploits in work, both as to their degrees and duration, who never tasted spirituous liquors.

But are there no conditions of the human body in which spirituous liquors are required? Yes, there are: 1 st. In those cases where the body has been exhausted by any causes, and faintness, or a stoppage in the circulation of the blood has been produced, the sudden stimulus of spirits may be necessary. In this case we comply strictly with the advice of Solomon, who confines the use of " strong drink" only to him "that is ready to perish." And, 2dly, When the body has been long exposed to wet weather, and more especially if cold be joined with it, a moderate quantity of spirits is not only proper, but highly useful, to obviate debility, and thus to prevent a fever. I take these to be the only two cases that can occur in which spirituous liquors are innocent or necessary.

But if we reject spirits from being part of our drink, what liquors shall we substitute in the room of them? For the experience of all ages and countries, and even nature herself, all seem to demand drink more grateful and more cordial than simple water.

To this I shall reply, by recommending, in the room of spirits, in the first place,
1. CYDER. This excellent liquor contains a small quantity of spirit, but so diluted and blunted by being combined with an acid and a large quantity of saccharine matter and water, as to be perfectly inoffensive and wholesome. It disagrees only with persons subject to the rheumatism, but it may he rendered inoffensive to such people by extinguishing a red hot iron in it, or by diluting it with water. It is to be lamented, that the late frosts in the spring often deprive us of the fruit which affords this liquor. But the effects of these frosts have been in some measure obviated by giving an orchard a north-west exposure, so as to check too early vegetation, and by kindling two or three large fires of brush and straw to windward of the orchard, the evening before we expect a night of frost. This last expedient has, in many instances within the compass of my knowledge, preserved the fruit of an orchard, to the great joy and emolument of the ingenious husbandman.

2. BEER is a wholesome liquor compared with spirits. The grain from which it is obtained is not liable, like the apple, to be affected with frost; and, therefore, it can always be procured at a moderate expense. It abounds with nourishment: hence we find many of the common people in Great Britain endure hard labour with no other food than a quart or three pints of this liquor, with a few pounds of bread a day. I have heard with great pleasure of breweries being set up in several of the principal county towns of Pennsylvania; and I esteem it a sign of the progress of our state in wealth and happiness, that a single brewer in Chester county sold above a thousand barrels of beer last year. While I wish to see a law imposing the heaviest taxes on whisky distilleries, I should be glad to see breweries (at least for some years) wholly exempted from taxation.

3. WINE is likewise a wholesome liquor compared with spirits. The low wines of France, I believe, could be drunk at less expense than spirits in this country. The peasants in France, who drink these liquors in large quantities, are a healthy and sober body of people. Wines of all kinds yield by chemical analysis the same principles as cyder, but in different proportions: hence they are both cordial and nourishing. It is remarked that few men ever become habitual drunkards upon wine. It derives its relish principally from company, and is seldom, like spirituous liquors, drunk in a chimney corner or in a closet. The effects of wine upon the temper are likewise in most cases directly opposite to those that were mentioned of spirituous liquors. it must be a bad heart, indeed, that is not rendered more cheerful and more generous by a few glasses of wine.

4. VINEGAR and WATER, sweetened with sugar or molasses, is the best drink that can be contrived in warm weather. I beg leave to recommend this wholesome mixture to reapers in a particular manner. It is pleasant and cooling. It promotes perspiration, and resists putrefaction. Vinegar and water constituted the only drink of the soldiers of the Human republic; and it is well known that they marched and fought in a warm climate, and beneath a load of arms that weighed sixty pounds. Boaz, a wealthy farmer in Palestine, we find, treated his reapers with nothing but bread dipped in vinegar. Say not that spirits have become necessary in harvest from habit and the custom of the country. The custom of swallowing this liquid fire is a bad one, and the habit of it may be broken. Let half-a-dozen farmers in a neighbourhood combine to allow higher wages to their reapers than are common, and a sufficient quantity of any of the liquors I have recommended, and they may soon abolish the practice of giving them spirits. They will in a little while be delighted with the good effects of their association. Their grain will be sooner and more carefully gathered into their barns, and an hundred disagreeable scenes of sickness and contention will be avoided, which always follow in a greater or less degree the use of spirituous liquors. Under this head, I should not neglect to recommend butter-milk and water, or sour milk (commonly called bonneclubber) and water. It will be rendered more grateful by the addition of a little sugar. PUNCH is likewise calculated to lessen the effects of heat and hard labour upon the body. The spirit in this liquor is blunted by its union with the vegetable acid. Hence it possesses not only the constituent parts, but most of the qualities of cyder and wine. To render this liquor perfectly innocent and wholesome, it must be drank weak in moderate quantities — and only in warm weather.
There are certain classes of people to whom I beg leave to suggest a caution or two upon the use of spirituous liquors.

1. Valetudinarians, especially those who labour under disorders of the stomach and bowels, are very apt to fly to spirits for relief. Let such people be cautious how they repeat this dangerous remedy. I .have known many men and women, of excellent characters and principles, who have been betrayed by occasional doses of gin or brandy to ease the cholick, into a love of spirituous liquors, insomuch that they have afterwards fallen sacrifices to their fatal effects. The different preparations of opium are a thousand times more safe and innocent than spirituous liquors, in all spasmodic affections of the stomach and bowels. So apprehensive am I of the danger of contracting a love for spirituous liquors, by accustoming the stomach to their stimulus, that I think the fewer medicines we1 exhibit in spirituous
vehicles the better.

2. Some people, from living in countries subject to the intermitting fever, endeavour to fortify themselves against it by two or three glasses of bitters made with spirits every day. There is great danger of men becoming sots from this practice. Besides, this mode of preventing intermittents is by no means a certain one. A much better security against them is to be found in the Jesuit's bark. A tea spoonful of this excellent medicine taken every morning during the sickly season, has in many instances preserved whole families in the neighbourhood of rivers and mill ponds from fevers of all kinds. Those who live in a sickly part of the country, and who cannot procure the bark, or who object to taking it, I would advise to avoid the morning and evening air in the sickly months — to kindle fires in their houses on damp days and in cool evenings throughout the whole summer, and to put on woollen clothing about the first week in September. The last part of this direction applies only to the inhabitants of the middle states. These cautions, I am persuaded, will be more effectual in preventing autumnal
fevers than the best preparations that can be made from bitters in spirits.

3. Men who follow professions that require a constant exercise of the mind or body, or perhaps of both, are very apt to seek relief from fatigue in spirituous liquors; to such, persons I would beg leave to recommend the use of TEA instead of spirits. Fatigue is occasioned by the obstruction of perspiration. Tea, by restoring perspiration, removes fatigue, and thus invigorates the system. I am no advocate for the general or excessive use of tea. When drunk too strong, it is hurtful, especially to the female constitution; but, when drunk of a moderate degree of strength, and in moderate quantities, with sugar and cream or milk, I believe it is in general innocent, and at all times to be preferred to spirituous liquors. One of the most industrious schoolmasters I ever knew, told me that he had been preserved from the love of spirituous liquors by contracting a love for tea in earlv life. Three or four dishes drunk in an afternoon carried oil' the fatigue of a whole day's labour in his school. This gentleman lived to be seventy-one years of age, and afterwards died of an acute disease, in the full exercise of all the faculties of his mind.

To every class of my readers, I beg leave to suggest a caution against the use of TODDY. I acknowledge that I have known some men who, by limiting its strength, constantly, by measuring the spirit and water, and who, by drinking it only with their meals, have drunk toddy for many years without suffering in any degree from it; but I have known many more who have been insensibly led from drinking toddy for their constant drink, to take drams in the morning, and have afterward paid their lives as the price of their folly. I shall select one case from among many that have come within the compass of my knowledge, to show the ordinary progress of intemperance in the use of spirituous liquors. A gentleman, once of a fair and sober character, in the city of Philadelphia, for many years drank toddy as his constant drink. From this he proceeded to drink grog — After a while nothing would satisfy him but slings, made of equal parts of rum and water, with a little sugar. From slings he advanced a raw rum — and from common rum to Jamaica spirits. Here he rested for a few months; but at
last he found even Jamaica spirits were not strong enough to warm his stomach, and he made it a constant practice to throw a table spoonful of ground pepper into each glass of his spirits (in order, to use his own expressions), " to take off their coldness." It is hardly necessary to add, that he soon afterwards died a martyr to his intemperance.

I shall conclude what has been said of the effects of spirituous liquors with two observations. 1. A people corrupted by strong drink cannot long be a. free people. The rulers of such a community will soon partake of the vices of that mass from which they are secreted, and all our laws and governments will sooner or later bear the same marks of the effects of spirituous liquors which were described formerly upon individuals. I submit it, therefore, to the consideration of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, whether more laws should not be made to increase the expense, and lessen the consumption, of spirituous liquors; and whether some mark of public infamy should not be inflicted by law upon every man convicted, before a common magistrate of drunkenness.

The second and last observation I shall offer is of a serious nature. It has been remarked, that the Indians have diminished every where in America since their connection with the Europeans. This has been justly ascribed to the Europeans having introduced spirituous liquors among them. Let those men, who are every day turning; their backs upon all the benefits of cultivated society, to seek habitations in the neighbourhood of Indians, consider how far this wandering mode of life is produced by the same cause which has scattered and annihilated so many Indian tribes. Long life, and the secure possession of property in the land of their ancestors, were looked upon as a blessing among the ancient Jews. For a son to mingle his dust with the dust of his father, was to act worthy of his inheritance; and the prospect of this honour often afforded a consolation even in death. However exalted, my countrymen, your ideas of liberty may he, while you expose yourselves by the use of spirituous liquors to this consequence of them, you are nothing more than the pioneers, or, in more slavish terms, the " hewers of wood," of your more industrious neighbours.

If the facts that have been stated have produced in any of my readers, who have suffered from the use of spirituous liquors, a resolution to abstain from them hereafter, I must beg leave to inform them, they must leave them oft suddenly and entirely. No man was ever gradually reformed from drinking spirits. He must not only avoid tasting, but even smelling them, until long habits of abstinence have subdued his affection for them. To prevent his feeling any inconveniences from the sudden loss of their stimulus upon his stomach, he should drink plentifully of camomile or of any other bitter tea, or a few glasses of sound old wine every day. I have great pleasure in adding, that I have seen a number of people who have been effectually restored to health — to character, and to usefulness to their families and to society, by following this advice.