the brute. This is the essence of the vice, what constitutes its
peculiar guilt and woe, and what should particularly impress and awaken
those who are laboring for its suppression. Other evils of intemperance
are light compared with this, and almost all flow from this; and it is
right, it is to be desired that all other evils should be joined with
and follow this. It is to be desired, when a man lifts a suicidal arm
against his higher life, when he quenches reason and conscience, that he
and all others should receive solemn, startling warning of the greatness
of his guilt; that terrible outward calamities should bear witness to
the inward ruin which he is working; that the handwriting of judgment
and woe on his countenance, form and whole condition, should declare
what a fearful thing it is for a man, "God's rational offspring, to
renounce his reason, and become a brute."

CHAPTER V.

NOT A FOOD, AND VERY LIMITED IN ITS RANGE AS A MEDICINE.

The use of alcohol as a medicine has been very large. If his patient was
weak and nervous, the physician too often ordered wine or ale; or, not
taking the trouble to refer his own case to a physician, the invalid
prescribed these articles for himself. If there was a failure of
appetite, its restoration was sought in the use of one or both of the
above-named forms of alcohol; or, perhaps, adopting a more heroic
treatment, the sufferer poured brandy or whisky into his weak and
sensitive stomach. Protection from cold was sought in a draught of some
alcoholic beverage, and relief from fatigue and exhaustion in the use of
the same deleterious substance. Indeed, there is scarcely any form of
bodily ailment or discomfort, or mental disturbance, for the relief of
which a resort was not had to alcohol in some one of its many forms.

It is fair to say that, as a medicine, its consumption has far exceeded
that of any other substance prescribed and taken for physical and mental
derangements.

The inquiry, then, as to the true remedial value of alcohol is one of
the gravest import; and it is of interest to know that for some years
past the medical profession has been giving this subject a careful and
thorough investigation. The result is to be found in the brief
declaration made by the Section on Medicine, of the

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS,

which met in Philadelphia in 1876. This body was composed of about six
hundred delegates, from Europe and America, among them, some o