O.S. Fowler on temperance, founded on phrenology and physiology, or, The laws of life, and the principles of the human constitution, as developed by the sciences of phrenology and physiology, applied to total abstinence from all alcoholic and intoxicating drinks / by O.S. Fowler.

  • Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887.
Date:
©1842, 1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: O.S. Fowler on temperance, founded on phrenology and physiology, or, The laws of life, and the principles of the human constitution, as developed by the sciences of phrenology and physiology, applied to total abstinence from all alcoholic and intoxicating drinks / by O.S. Fowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on with utter irregularity and confusion, till themis erable tippler be¬ comes a besotted drunkard. No. 3, Or the Besotted Drunkard, whose vital organs are almost worn out, and thoroughly diseased and deranged by strong drink. (See pp. 21 and 22.) He looks as if he were old, weak, feeble, and most miserable. (See Proposition IX, p. 24, “ Alcoholic drinks shorten human life.55) He has violated both the physical and the mental laws of his being, (see p. 7,) and is now paying the dread¬ ful forfeit. (See bottom of p. 12.) He has become unable to hold up his head, and too indolent to attempt any kind of labor, and is utterly inefficient. His lungs have become thoroughly diseased, and even ulcerated, and his stomach is so chirrous or hardened that most of it has ceased to digest food, so that only that light, open space through its centre, is left capable of performing digestion. Henc-e he eats but little, (see pp. 25 and 26,) and that little is but imperfectly digested, so that with the prodigious exhaustion of his animal energies, caused by alcoholic drinks, (see p. 24, Prop. IX.,) and the cutting off of his re-supply of nutrition, he is too weak to labor, or even to hold up his head, and is obliged to support himself by leaning against a post. This is still farther evinced by his be¬ dimmed and half closed eyes, his tattered garments, and the general languor and shiftlessness of his appearance. His days are num¬ bered and almost finished. That inflammation of the internal or¬ gans and brain which characterizes the tippler, (No. 2,) has in part ceased, leaving him depressed in spirit, languid and thoroughly dis¬ eased throughout the whole body, the brain not excepted. No. 4, Illustrates Delirium Tremens—the last and most awful state of drunkenness. So often and so powerfully have the brain and nervous system been wrought up by strong drink to a pitch of action bordering on insanity, that they have finally given way to wild delirium, and the most frightful ravings of bewildered fancy have taken the place of the calm self-possession indicated in No. 1. This preternatural excitement of the brain and nervous system, without a re-supply of vital energy, by means of healthy lungs and a vigorous digestion, has wasted away his flesh till he has become a mere skeleton—a perfect wreck of a man, while his diseased brain is cungering up images the most horrid, and demonds the most frightful imaginable, exceeding in horror any thing which the healthy brain can ever conceive or experience. In this most awful condition, he dies—to appear before his God ! His lungs, stomach, heart, brain, and whole system have been burnt out and eaten up by stimulants, and are either so hardened and rigid (chirrous) as to be utterly insensible, or they are eaten up by ulcers, gangrene, &c. No. 5, is a drawing of a healthy brain, the relation of which to the stomach and internal organs, is most intimate, so that it is affected similarly with them—its base in particular. No. 6, represents a state of highly wrought inflammation, and this inflammation is im¬ parted to the brain, and especially to its base, producing that wild¬ ness and sensuality represented in No. 2, and p. 13.