numerous
works which have come from his prolific pen; it was entitled, "A Lecture
on the Effects of Alcoholic Drinks on the Human System, and the Duty of
Medical Men in Relation Thereto." This lecture was delivered in Rush
Medical College, Chicago, on Christmas, 1854. An appendix to the work
contained a full account of the series of original experiments which the
author had been conducting in relation to the effect of alcohol upon
respiration and animal heat, and gave the same conclusions as those
presented before the A. M. A. several years previously. These
experiments laid the foundation for the scientific study of the
physiological effects of alcohol; and their bearing upon the study of
the temperance question can even yet scarcely be appreciated. They were
the first experiments which showed conclusively that the effect of
alcohol is not that of a stimulant, but the opposite.

In 1855 Prof. R. D. Mussey, of Vermont, read an able paper before the
American Medical Association upon "The Effects of Alcohol in Health and
Disease," in which he said, "So long as alcohol retains its place among
sick patients, so long will there be drunkards."

In England as early as 1802, Dr. Beddoes pointed out the dangers
attendant upon the social and medical use of intoxicating drinks, laying
stress upon "The enfeebling power of small portions of wine regularly
drunk." In 1829 Dr. John Cheyne, Physician General to the forces in
Ireland said:--

"The benefits which have been supposed from their liberal use in
medicine, and especially in those diseases which are vulgarly
supposed to depend upon mere weakness, have invested these
agents with attributes to which they have no claim, and hence,
as we physicians no longer employ them as we were wont to do, we
ought not to rest satisfied with the mere acknowledgment of
error, but we ought also to make every retribution in our power
for having so long upheld one of the most fatal delusions that
ever took possession of the human mind."

Dr. Higginbotham, F. R. S., of Nottingham, a keen and able clinical
practitioner, abandoned the prescription of alcohol in 1832, saying:--

"I have amply tried both ways. I gave alcohol in my practice for
twenty years, and have now practiced without it for the last
thirty years or more. My experience is, that acute disease is
more readily cured without it, and chronic diseases much more
manageable. I hav