OCR Text |
Show CURES FOR INTEMPERANCE. .. Of late years temperance workers, as well as the majority of medical men, have iven more thaii' a little credence to the theory that the addiction addic-tion to alcoholic stimulants; originally a habit reformable by an effort vt the will, becomes in its ultimate development develop-ment a disease oyer which the will hasf. practically little, if any, control. The physical rather than the moral treatment of confirmed drunkards has been a. distinctive feature of the total abstinence movement during the past decade. The number and variety of the "cures" alleged to be effective in destroying the appetite for 'strong drink can leave small doubt that, though many of them are probably worthless, some few at least are genuine gen-uine remedies. The evidence adduced in favor of several, indeed, is sufficient to overcome the most rooted incredulity. incredu-lity. In this connection there is much of interest in the following paragraph from a popular magazine: "There is but one sure cure for the drinking disease or habit, and that is the simplest of all. The cure consists in eating fruits. That will cure the worst case of inebriety that ever afflicted af-flicted a person. The two tastes are at deadly enmity with each other, and there is no room for both of them in the human constitution. One will certainly cer-tainly destroy the other." The reader who is familiar with the comparative records, for sobriety, of the northern and southern European nations may discover in the foregoing statement one reason why the fruit-eating fruit-eating populations of the south are so much more temperate. In the meantime, mean-time, eating fruit is commendable on other grounds than its effectiveness as a cure for the drinking evil, and the habit is accordingly well worth while encouraging. |