4. Appeal to _the medical profession_ of the country, and ask them to
correct the false idea which so extensively, I may say, almost
universally prevails, viz., that ardent spirit is sometimes necessary in
the treatment of disease. This opinion has slain its thousands and its
tens of thousands, and multitudes of dram-drinkers daily shelter
themselves under its delusive mask. One takes a little to raise his
desponding spirits, or to drown his sorrow; another, to sharpen his
appetite, or relieve his dyspepsia: one, to ease his gouty pains;
another, to supple his stiffened limbs, or calm his quivering muscles.
One drinks to overcome the heat; another, to ward off the cold; and all
this as a medicine. Appeal, then, to the medical profession, and they
will tell you--every independent, honest, sober, intelligent member of
it will tell you--that there is no case in which ardent spirit is
indispensable, and for which there is not an adequate substitute. And it
is time the profession should have an opportunity to exonerate itself
from the charge under which it has long rested, _of making drunkards_.
But I entreat my professional brethren not to be content with giving a
mere assent to this truth. You hold a station in society which gives you
a commanding influence on this subject; and if you will but raise your
voice and speak out boldly, you may exert an agency in this matter
which will bring down the blessings of unborn millions upon your
memory.
5. Much may be done by guarding the _rising generation_ from the
contagion of intemperance. It is especially with the children and youth
of our land, that we may expect our efforts to be permanently useful.
Let us, then, guard with peculiar vigilance the youthful mind, and with
all suitable measures, impress it with such sentiments of disgust and
horror of the vice of intemperance, as to cause it to shrink from its
very approach. Carry the subject into our infant and Sunday schools, and
call on the managers and teachers of those institutions to aid you, by
the circulation of suitable tracts, and by such other instructions as
may be deemed proper. Let the rising generation be protected but for a
few years, and the present race of drunkards will have disappeared from
among us, and there will be no new recruits to take their place.
6. Let intelligent and efficient agents be sent out into every portion
of our country, to spread abroad information upon the subject of
intemperance, to rouse up the people to a sense of their danger, and to
form temperance societies; and let there be such a system of
correspondence and cooperation established among these associations as
will convey information to each, and impart energy and efficiency to the
whole. "No great melioration of the human condition was ever achieved
without the concurrent effort of numbers; and no extended and
well-directed association of moral influence was ever made in vain."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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