THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.

CHAPTER I.

A BRIEF STUDY OF ALCOHOL.

Alcohol as a Superstition-Its Place among the Gods and the Devils of Imagination-The Doubtful Origin of Wine and Ancient Traditions Concerning It-Discovery of Distillation in the Twelfth Century-How Webster and Worcester Define Alcohol-Dr. Richardson's Statement of its Chemical Properties-The Nature of Alcohol and its Relation to the Elements of our own Organism-The Foods that Nourish the Body and the Food Properties of Alcohol Compared-The Process of Fermentation-The Process of Distillation-Name and Strength of Various Alcoholic Preparations-Alcohol the Product of Man's Ingenuity and not of Nature.

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HERE is no thing of his own manufacture which has such power over the body and soul of man as the mysterious substance to which has been given the name—alcohol. Indeed, so subtile and canny are its methods of asserting its influence, so commanding is its control over the spiritual as well as the physical structure, and so direct do its relations appear to be with the eternal essence, as well as with the material parts of human nature, that from time immemorial this strange drug has maintained a personified existence in the imaginations of men.

From whatever source, and by whatever process derived, and by whatever name the preparation containing it has been known, ever since fermentation evolved the substance which has been the one common principle of intoxicating beverages, in all ages and among all the inhabitants of the earth, even to our own times, superstition has placed it among her gods and her devils; poetry has celebrated its qualities with her choicest numbers; religion has appropriated its powers to her sacred

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rites; war and peace, joy and sorrow, all ranks and conditions of men, in all the events of life, including its origin and its catastrophe, have associated with themselves the fascinations. of alcohol.

The discovery of vinous fermentation, which is supposed to be the earliest manifestation of this spirit in the economy of human life, is lost among the impenetrable clouds that forever settle over prehistoric times; but it must have been considered a wondrous event, which, no doubt, was carried from the place of its origin to surrounding tribes and nations as a new art and marvelous instrumentality.

We are told that when first civilization developed society into nations, and these new organizations concentrated their aggressive powers in the form of armies and navies to place. the yoke of power upon the neck of savage tribes, or sought by peaceful commerce to stimulate and appropriate the productions of nature, and of savage or barbarous men in other regions of the earth, "the wine god, the wine cup and wine" were everywhere unknown. The art of its manufacture spread from some common center by the agency of commerce and war. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, all claim that wine, the earliest known beverage of intoxication, was the invention of one of their own particular line of gods.

The discovery, as it spread from tribe to tribe and land to land, impressed itself as a landmark upon universal mythology. It must have produced an effect similar to the discovery of artificial fire. If Prometheus brought the one from heaven, Bacchus, who was the god of intoxication, and held full rank with the celestial representatives of love and war, must have brought his withering flame from the hottest regions of Tartarus.

Alcoholic drinks are the work of man. They are a part of the history of the human race. When in the twelfth century the discovery of distillation greatly increased their potency, and a few centuries later the process was appropriated by all civilized nations, intoxicating beverages assumed an importance and asserted a destructive power in the affairs of mankind, which has grown with the progress of civilization and spread with enlightenment, as the night follows the day, until now they fill the world, and no problem

DEFINITIONS OF ALCOHOL.

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of superior consequence or difficulty confronts the Christian, the patriot, or the lover of mankind, than how to remove them from the face of the earth. Whatever may be the differences among men as to the necessity, the usefulness or at least the innocence of alcohol in the economy of life, it is conceded by all that great evils arise from its abuse, and that its record on the whole is one of calamity-some say with mitigation, others without.

It is now as active as ever, and its use is increasing with great rapidity. Owing to the rapid colonization of the world by civilized and commercial nations which are its chief producers and hitherto have been its principal consumers, it can be but a few years before every man, woman and child of the whole fifteen hundred millions of the race, at least four-fifths of whom are as defenseless as little children against its Circean power, will find the bottles of Christendom at their lips.

If cursed is he who putteth the cup of intoxication to his neighbor's lip, then it becomes necessary for those engaged in the foul work to examine the nature of their occupation for their own good. I propose in this book to investigate the subject as fairly and thoroughly as possible in the brief time and with the facilities at my command. I have no desire to exaggerate or intensify. The subject is broad, and high, and deep. But it is upon the American people and compels the attention of the whole world. It cannot be evaded. Postponement even is no longer possible, and, if it were, would but aggravate existing evils and multiply the difficulty of their removal. The operation must be performed.

It is important in the first place to obtain a clear idea of the thing itself, and of its action upon the body and soul.

Webster defines Alcohol as follows:

"Pure or highly rectified spirit, extracted by simple distillation from various vegetable juices and infusions of a saccharine nature which have undergone vinous fermentation; the spirituous or intoxicating element of fermented liquors."

Worcester thus:

"Alcohol.-The intoxicating principle of all spirituous liquors; highly rectified or pure spirit obtained by distillation of the fermented solution or infusion of any substance containing sugar,

and thus capable of undergoing vinous fermentation; the chemical name of ardent spirit; spirits of wine so called from having been first obtained by the distillation of wine."

Dunglison's Medical Lexicon thus:

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"Alcohol.-An Arabic word formerly used for an impalpable powder and signifying very subtile, much divided.' At the present day it is applied to highly rectified spirit of wine; .

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. In the

Ph. U. S. (Pharmacopoeia United States) Alcohol is rectified spirit of the specific gravity 0.835.'Alcohol is an inflammable liquor, lighter than water, of a warm, acrid taste, colorless, transparent, and of a pungent, aromatic smell. It is the product of the distillation of vinous liquors; is miscible (mixable) with water in all proportions and is the direct solvent of resins, balsams, etc. Various other vegetable principles are soluble in it and hence it is used in different states of concentration in the preparation of elixirs, tinctures, essences," etc.

The chemist has sought for the elusive essence of the article of commerce known as alcohol for centuries, and only in very recent times has he succeeded in stating it in the terms of his science.

Dr. Benj. W. Richardson, M. A., M. D., F. R. S., probably the highest European authority who has ever lived, on this subject, after reviewing the researches of the past, says in his Second Cantor Lecture, p. 42, "If, passing over the intervening hundred years, you asked the chemist of to-day, 'What is alcohol?' he would tell you that it was an organic radical called ethyl, combined with the elements of water. He would explain that water was no longer considered to be an element, but to be composed of two elements called hydrogen and oxygen, two equivalents of hydrogen being combined in it with one equivalent of oxygen. He would inform you that the radical he had called ethyl was a compound of carbon and hydrogen, and he would add that this radical in alcohol took the place of one of the equivalents of hydrogen of water.

He thereupon would give you symbols for water and alcohol, but symbols of a very different kind to those presented by his learned predecessor. He would express the names of the elements composing the water and spirit by the first letters of their names, and add their equivalents or parts by figures attached to the letters. Thus his symbols for water would

THE SCIENTIST'S ANALYSIS OF ALCOHOL.

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be H2 O; for the radical ethyl, C2 H5; and for alcohol (C2 H5) HO or C2 H6 O.

Then we are to understand that alcohol is not ethyl any more than alcohol is water, but a combination of the two, and that both ethyl and water are themselves compound substances.

When the ethyl and the water combine one of the parts of hydrogen disappears; for whereas the ethyl has five parts, hydrogen and the water two, mathematically there should be seven, and actually there are but six. What becomes of it the chemical deponent saith not, therefore we are at liberty to infer that it is the missing link which connects the whole thing with the devil.

I have examined the recent great work of Dr. William Hargreaves, published last year, "Alcohol and Science," and find these high authorities agreeing; and so we can assume that we know common alcohol when we see it.

It is ethylic alcohol which this book is about; the alcohol which has laughed at the puny ravages of war, pestilence and famine throughout the cycles of authentic history.

There are five others in the family, methylic, propylic butylic, amylic, and caproylic; but while these are of one blood with the ethylic and have the same innate capacity for mischief, they are less demonstrative in human affairs, and the plan of this book does not require their description. Some of them are very important and dangerous when used either by themselves or when mixed with the alcohol in common use, and the reader interested in their further study will do well to consult the above authorities and other recent writers, for many of the accepted ideas even of professional men are disproved by the late investigators.

We will, however, search for the nature of alcohol, and for its relation to the elements of our own organism a little further.

All vegetable forms receive their nourishment from the atmosphere; all animals feed either upon vegetables or upon other animals which have been nourished by vegetables, so that in the end animal as well as vegetable life feeds largely if not entirely upon the air.

Although the pure air, which is most favorable to animal life when appropriated through the lungs, is composed almost