“We are in the midst of an epidemic of crime,” was the statement made in an editorial of a New York daily a year ago. That this epidemic still prevails, may be seen by glancing through the columns of any of our daily papers. In fact, reports of murder, suicide, divorce, and crime are so common that they receive only a passing comment, and no longer create alarm. Even the newspapers of our large cities give but a partial and incomplete report of the crimes actually committed.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.8

Alcohol is unquestionably in a great measure responsible for this sad social state. The evils which to-day are so apparent proved the ruin of nations of the past. Babylon’s downfall was due to alcoholism. It was when Belshazzar, the king, made that great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand, that the prophetic words which struck terror to his heart appeared, “Thy kingdom is divided, and give to the [more temperate] Medes and Persians.” “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.9

The prevalent use of intoxicants afterward resulted in the disintegration of the Medo-Persian empire. The same causes resulted in the downfall of Greece and Rome. Before the flood, drunkenness was the cause of the immorality and the sad social condition that existed. Every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart, we are told, was only evil continually. The marriage vow was lightly regarded; for “they took them wives of all which they chose.” Corruption prevailed, the earth also was corrupt, “and the earth was filled with violence.” There existed, as to-day, an “epidemic of crime.” That which inflamed and maddened the minds of men before the flood, is dethroning reason to-day, and is almost wholly responsible for the houses of prostitution, insane asylums, hospitals, almshouses, prisons, etc. It is responsible for many of the modern diseases, for premature old age, and the increasing number of sudden deaths, and the constantly decreasing birth-rate.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.10

Sir Andrew Clark said, “Out of every one hundred patients I have charge of at the London Hospital, seventy percent directly owe their ill health to alcohol.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.11

According to the testimony of judges who legally sever the matrimonial band in court, “more than two-thirds of the divorces are occasioned by the use of intoxicants.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.12

One judge says, “There is not one case in twenty where 2 man is tried for his life, in which alcohol is not the direct or indirect cause of the murder.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.13

A district attorney of Boston declares, “Ninety-nine out of one hundred of the crimes in our commonwealth are produced by intoxicating liquors.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.14

We see the same condition in semi-heathen and heathen lands. The Maoris of New Zealand were described by Captain Cook, at the time when he first visited the island, as almost perfect in physique. Skin diseases were unknown. Men at the age of ninety possessed the endurance of youth. They possessed such vitality that bullet wounds filled with moistened clay readily healed. They numbered at that time more than 120,000. Unfortunately, alcohol and tobacco found their way to this innocent race as the island became inhabited by the white man. To-day, not only men, but women and children, drink and smoke, and as a result, among few races are the marks of physical and morel degeneracy more pronounced than among the Maoris. In numbers they have been reduced from 120,000 to 41,000. The Maori race is a dying race.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.15

Chief Justice Stout, of New Zealand, in passing sentence on a drunken Maori a few years ago, said: “If this drink is not stopped among the Maoris, we are in a measurable distance of the time when the Maori race, the noblest race with which civilization has been brought in contact, will be exterminated.” The same results may be witnessed among other island races.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.16

A Honolulu paper, in an editorial, remarked a few years ago, “There are now living men of voting age who will witness the death of the last full-blooded Hawaiian.” The Hawaiian, like the Maori, spends his time in eating, drinking, and smoking. This is not confined to men as in civilized lands, but children are encouraged to use alcohol and tobacco.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.17

The decreasing birth-rate in civilized lands finds a partial explanation in the increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages by men and women. The number of children born in these countries no longer suffices to continue these races. We were startled a few months ago to learn that France for the year 1907 showed a death-rate exceeding her birth-rate of 19,000. This shortage in births is not confined to France. The first generation of Americans had families of from ten to twelve. Gradually the number has been reduced until at present we have an average of probably not more than three. If the former birth-rate had continued, America would have a native-born population of more than her present population, which includes probably fully thirty-five millions of foreigners and their children.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.18

Professor Cottrell, in taking the census among the poor of New York, in 22 apartment houses, found only 54 children distributed among 485 families, that is, one child to every nine families.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.19

Among the upper classes a similar condition exists. The same authority says: “The Harvard graduate has on an average seven tenths of a son, and the Vassar graduate has one half of a daughter.” This lowering in births is no doubt in part due to preventive measures; but among the Maoris and the Hawaiians no preventive measures are employed, and yet the same condition exists. The diminished birth-rate is due chiefly to degeneracy, resulting from alcoholic poisoning.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.20

While all are more or less familiar with the results of alcoholism, few have inquired into, or are familiar with, the physical causes which are responsible for it.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.21

Why do men and women desire alcohol? There is nothing desirable about the taste. It does not appeal to the palate. Of all creatures that exist, man alone possesses this desire for intoxicants and among mankind the craving is well-night universal.GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.22

Some after learning the deceptive nature of alcohol and the evils which arise from its use, have sufficient will power to regulate its use or to abstain from it altogether. Others satisfy the craving at any cost; these are known as mental defectives. It has been found that fully seventy-six per cent of inebriates are mentally defective. The fact that nearly all inebriates give clear evidence of being mentally defective, has led to the conclusion that only mental defectives become inebriates, but this forces upon us the question, “Why do we have in our midst so many mental defectives?”GCB May 30, 1909, page 215.23

Alcohol is a disturber of muscular activity and of mental energy. In fact, it interferes with the normal function of every cell of the body.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.1

Prof. C. E. Hodge, of Clark University, to ascertain its influence upon the brain and disposition, gave alcohol to kittens. He says it was remarkable how quickly and completely all the higher psychic characteristics of both the kittens “dropped out.” Playfulness, purring, cleanliness, and care of the coat, interest in mice, fear of dogs, while normally developed before the experiment began, all disappeared so suddenly that it could hardly be explained otherwise than as a direct influence of the alcohol upon the higher centers of the brain.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.2

The continued functional disturbance of any organ results, in time, in structural changes. Continued disturbance of the circulation puts its stamp upon the blood-vessels and the heart. The liver of the drinker undergoes organic changes. Continued disturbances of the brain also leave an indelible record on the tissues of the brain. These defects are transmitted from parents to children. For this reason mental defectives are usually found among those whose parents have been users of narcotics, and especially of alcohol.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.3

The reason for the instruction anciently given to the wife of Manoah, “Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine or strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing,” should be better understood. The sins of the parents are visited upon the children.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.4

Brain degeneracy probably exists to some extent in every child born of alcohol-using parents. In the second generation of alcohol-users the degeneracy is naturally more marked, while its full results are not witnessed until the third or fourth generation. Dr. Joffrey says, “Alcoholism begins with the father, and strikes down the children, and generally its action continues until in the fourth or fifth generation it has destroyed the family.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.5

The efforts put forth by temperance workers have proved a benefit, but chiefly to the moderate drinker, who is in possession of sufficient mental power to exercise restraint. It has failed to reach the class that most needs help,—the inebriate or mental degenerate, who lacks the power to abstain, even though fully conscious of its results.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.6

If inebriety is due to structural brain changes, is there any help for the inebriate? While I could not take the position that all cases of inebriety are curable, many of them may be cured by proper treatment.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.7

Treatments must, however, be directed chiefly toward the removal of the craving for drink, for only without the craving are the mentally defective secure against the use of alcohol.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.8

Dietetic errors, I believe, are largely responsible for the craving which exists for alcohol, and indirectly for the results of alcoholism. In describing the causes of violence that filled the earth in the time of the flood, it is stated, “They were eating and drinking.” One naturally followed the other. Errors in eating were responsible for the use of strong drink, and strong drink was the cause of domestic unhappiness, divorce, and crime. The command should therefore still be given to mothers, not merely to “drink not wine or strong drink,” but also to “eat not any unclean thing.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.9

A woman in Liverpool, who was an inebriate, said to me at the close of a temperance lecture, “My doctor recommended me to take some ale after giving birth to my second child. From the time I took the first drink, although I did not like the taste of it and it made me shudder to drink it, there has been present a craving for it, which I can not resist. I often,” she said, “go past a saloon as rapidly as I can, only to return and enter; and when one drink has been taken, all self-control is gone.” This woman, with a babe in her arms, asked me if I could help her. She was desirous of doing right, but was one in whom there existed a peculiar hereditary mental weakness. She would have been safe from drink, even though this mental disease existed, did she not in addition possess a craving which she was no doubt unconsciously cultivating in her home by the food she ate.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.10

I remember hearing one of England’s leading temperance lecturers say, at a public gathering, that she had great sympathy for the woman who is a slave to beer; “because,” she said, “although it is fifteen years since I touched it, I still possess the same desire for it I did then.” To hear this remark by an advocate of temperance seemed strange to me. But recently I heard a noted American temperance lecturer say, “No man or woman in this audience is fonder of the taste of cocktails and wine than I am. The taste has been handed down to me, but I hate the stuff.” She hated the stuff, and so did her English sister. In what respect do these temperance advocates differ from their more unfortunate sister who also hated the stuff? In common with her, they possessed a craving for drink, but while they were mentally well balanced, their sister was not.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.11

Again we ask, What is the cause of this craving? If we can ascertain this, we shall accomplish much toward solving the drink problem.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.12

Saloon-keepers have, by experience and observation, been taught that there are certain foods which create an unnatural irritation and thirst that water fails to quench. They keep a lunch-counter for their patrons, not because they have compassion on the unfortunate poor. Experience has taught the saloon-keeper that the lunch-counter aids him in culling out his victims. This table is not laden with oranges, peaches, and other juicy and luscious fruits. It has on it highly seasoned meats, cheese, sausages, etc., foods which create a craving for something stronger than water.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.13

The sad feature about this is that many a good wife and mother is supplying her husband, sons, and daughters with the same kind of food that is found on the table in the saloon, and is thus unconsciously cultivating in the members of her family a craving which drives them to the saloon for relief.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.14

Too much can not be said about the evils of strong drink, and the need of doing away with the saloon, which affords such an alluring temptation, but the time has come when more should be said about the unnatural thirst which these poor drunkards have, and how it may be gotten rid of, for after all, it is this thirst, and not the existing mental defect, that makes the inebriate. Drunkards are made in our homes; the saloon calls them out. I believe, with Dr. Lauder Brunton, that schools of scientific cookery, conducted for the benefit of the wives and mothers of the laboring classes, would do more to abolish strong drink and close our saloons than any number of teetotal societies; for as long as the craving for drink exists, the mental defectives will satisfy it, if not with alcohol, with some drug more injurious. In the South, where alcoholic beverages have been prohibited, the use of cocain and other narcotic drugs, I am informed, is becoming universal.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.15

We have no way of determining in whom, and to what extent, this mental defect exists, until the saloon’ weeds them out. It is right, therefore, that the saloon should be closed to all, in order to protect the weak. With the closing of the saloon there should be carried forward an educational effort in dietetics. The warning is still to be given: “Drink not wine or strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing.” There can be no doubt that the flesh foods served so abundantly at our modern tables may be classed as an “unclean thing.” They are laden with normal and abnormal body wastes which, when introduced into the human body are responsible for much of the feverish state or craving which causes drunkenness. For this reason, in countries where flesh foods are freely used, alcohol is also freely resorted to. Alcohol antidotes, for a short period, the effect of the uric acid taken with the flesh. Uric acid not only acts as an irritant, but it causes high blood-pressure, a condition which is becoming extremely common. Temporarily, the blood-pressure may be lowered by the use of alcohol, and the person find relief from the unpleasant symptoms resulting therefrom. But there is always a reaction from the use of alcohol. The latter state will be found worse than the first.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.16

The meat eater finds it necessary, therefore, in order to counteract the effect of the uric acid, and to maintain this feeling of well-being, to keep in a mild state of alcoholic intoxication all the time. This is without doubt responsible, in part, for the free use of alcohol. We see why the admonition is given, “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine [nor indulge in any other evil], nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” The eating of flesh weakens mentally, making men less able to resist the use of alcohol.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.17

Prof. Gauther, by carefully conducted experiments covering a period of many years for the purpose of ascertaining the influence of various foods upon the disposition of animals, discovered that white rats, as long as they were fed on breads and grains were very gentle; but when given flesh to eat, they became quarrelsome and destructive. This is no doubt partially due to the local irritation caused by the excessive production of a highly acid gastric juice, and partially by the direct influence of the urates and other unoxidized products, found in meats, upon the system. Gauthier’s conclusion is that “a flesh diet is a more important factor in determining a savage or violent disposition in any individual than the race to which he belongs.” We may probably have here an explanation why families, and often members of the same family, differ so widely in disposition; and why some are given to drink, while others are not. It would certainly be of interest in studying this matter, to note the food each is especially fond of. Let the experiments which have been so successfully conducted by scientists in laboratories, upon animals, be carried into the home. Should this be done, we would appreciate the necessity of having intelligent and scientific cooks, instead of trusting so important a matter as the preparation of our food to the most ignorant and illiterate class, as we now do.GCB May 30, 1909, page 216.18

Dr. Baron Liebig said, “The ingestion of flesh produces in carnivorous races a ferocious and quarrelsome disposition, which distinguishes them from non-meat eaters.” There can be no doubt that the products in meat which tend to make men ferocious and quarrelsome, also by the excitation which they produce, pave the way for strong drink, and that, other things being equal, the more flesh a man consumes, the greater will be this craving for narcotics, and the more serious will be the danger of becoming a drunkard.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.1

Even among the ancients, the intimate relation existing between the consumption of flesh and drunkenness was observed. The proverb reads, “Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh.” Again, mention is made of a class who were “slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine,” who said, “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” Wherever a careful study is made of the causes of drunkenness, it will be found that the use of flesh and alcoholic beverages is certainly very intimately associated.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.2

Daniel’s strength of mind to refuse the wine served at Babylon’s royal table may be in part attributed to the nature of the food of his choice, before and after coming to Babylon. Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s meat, nor with the wine he drank.” He said, “Let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.” Babylon’s meat called for wine; while the food which Daniel chose and had been accustomed to, called for no stronger drink than water.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.3

The work of redeeming man from drink and its results must include abstaining from the flesh of animals. The elevation of morals in any community or family depends upon this. For this reason, to help the Israelites physically and morally, they were taken away from the flesh pots of Egypt, and were given manna to eat, and water from the rock to quench their thirst.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.4

Man has gone astray. At the beginning he was placed in a garden and surrounded with trees pleasant to the sight and good for food. The command was, “Of every tree thou mayest freely eat.” Had man always continued to freely eat of fruits, and to live on the simple foods to which his attention was then directed, strong drink would be unknown. It is impossible for any one to cultivate a craving for strong drink and a taste for fruits at the same time; and furthermore, it is impossible for an inebriate, unless he is an utter degenerate, to live on these simple foods exclusively for six months without finding his craving for strong drink diminishing.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.5

The editor of the London Clarion some time ago related his experience, in an editorial. He said: “I have just turned vegetarian. My friends are surprised; so am I. But whereas they are surprised that I have adopted this diet, I am surprised that I did not do it years ago. In one way the effects of the diet have surprised me. I have been a heavy smoker for more than twenty years. If there was anything which I feared my will was too weak to conquer, it was the habit of smoking. Well, I have been a vegetarian for eight weeks, and I find my passion for tobacco is weakening.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.6

“Again, I have found I can not drink wine. Why do I write these confessions? Because these things have come upon me as a revelation; because I begin to see that the great cure for the evil of national intemperance is not a teetotal propaganda, but vegetarianism.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.7

It will be noticed that, in this man’s case, what his will was too weak to conquer while subsisting on a flesh diet, he had no difficulty in giving up after he had eliminated flesh from his dietary.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.8

The Salvation Army, in some of its homes for inebriates, has adopted a fleshless diet with good results. At a public gathering in England, Staff Captain Hudson, matron of the South Newington Inebriates’ Home, in relating her experience in the treatment of cases, said, “Speaking generally, the benefits of this diet are incalculable. Lazy, vicious, bloated, gluttonous women, who had hitherto needed weeks and even months of nursing and watching to my astonishment and delight, under this new treatment made rapid recovery.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.9

The majority of the Japanese live chiefly on rice and fruit, and they undoubtedly possess the best dispositions to be found among any people of the world, On the streets of Japan, fighting and quarreling are seldom seen, and drunkenness is said to be unknown. Courtesy is as common in rice-eating Japan as grumbling and beer-drinking are in beef-eating lands.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.10

Overeating is another cause of drunkenness. The confession anciently forced from the lips of parents. “This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he is a glutton and a drunkard,” explains the intimate relation that exists between over-eating and drunkenness. It is generally conceded that two thirds of the food consumed by the average civilized man would sustain him well, the remaining one third being superfluous. Nothing so quickly and effectively affords relief from the local and general irritation produced by the poisons formed and absorbed, as alcohol. Naturally, therefore, gluttony leads to drunkenness. “Blessed art thou. O land, when thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.11

A great variety, even of wholesome food, may cause similar symptoms. Both nature and science teach that the digestive organs are capable of digesting one or two simple foods, but when, as is often the case, potatoes, cabbage, milk, butter, pudding, fruit, pastry, etc., are taken at the same meal, indigestion, fermentation, autointoxication, and drunkenness are apt to result.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.12

The gradual absorption from the alimentary canal of the ptomains and narcotics, formed by putrefaction and fermentation of foods, as truly cultivates a craving for alcohol as if a man habitually partook of small doses of some narcotic. The only difference is that the one is fortunately unconscious of what his system craves, the other unfortunately is not.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.13

History furnishes evidences that among the races of people freest from alcoholic excesses, such luxuries as tea, coffee, and meat were rarely if ever used; a complicated dietary was unknown; they derived their nutriment chiefly from fruits and grains.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.14

The reason why the desire for drink is confined to the human family is that among all creatures, aside from man, a simple diet is the rule. The horse is content with his simple meal of unseasoned oats; no mustard or pepper need be added to give him a relish for his hay, and he craves no drink aside from water. If civilized man would exercise the same good sense in their eating, there would be as little desire for alcohol among them as there exists among horses.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.15

The free use of soft, starchy foods, and improper mastication, are other causes of drunkenness, since they favor fermentation. The free use of liquids with meals is also responsible for digestive disorders, fermentation, etc. Drinking with meals is wholly unnatural. Of all creatures, man alone drinks with his meals. Nature designs that the food should be moistened with saliva, not with drink.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.16

Condiments also create a desire for narcotics. Because food is not allowed sufficient time in contact with the nerves of taste located in the mouth to derive satisfaction from its delicate and natural flavor, pronounced artificial flavors have to be added to give an immediate twist to the palate. This has led to the use of pepper, mustard, and the free use of salt and sugar, and other substances which irritate the stomach, all of which create and help to keep up the thirst for narcotics.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.17

Professor Metchnikoff says, “The human system is poisoned in no way so frequently as by the innumerable microbes, which swarm in the large intestine.” Recognizing the evils resulting from the formation of these poisons in the colon, by the action of this innumerable host of microbes, he finds fault with man’s construction. He says, “This organ is not only useless in man’s present state, but positively harmful,” and predicts that in the future it may be successfully removed, with advantage to the individual. “Man,” he says, “is very far from being perfectly constructed.” But the difficulty lies in man’s inventions, in the unnatural food he eats, and not in his construction. So long as man feed on unnatural foods, and eats as he does, these poisons which create a thirst for alcohol will continue to be formed.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.18

Cheese is not a suitable food for man. While it contains desirable food elements these have associated with them undesirable substances which are irritating, and produce a feverish state of the system.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.19

The free use of butter retards digestion, and favors the cultivation of bacteria, and the formation of butyric acid, which is also a local and general irritant. The oil in nuts or olives is preferable to butter or any other animal fat, since it is free from bacteria, and does not ferment so readily.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.20

The aim in diet should be to make the intestinal culture media as unfavorable as possible for the existence and propagation of germs, or to secure as far as possible an aseptic or sterile condition of the alimentary tract. The foods which are best suited to bring this about are the simple grains, nuts, and fruits, taken in their most natural state.GCB May 30, 1909, page 217.21

From my study and observation I am forced to the conclusion that the food question, when given the attention it demands by physicians, ministers of the gospel, and temperance advocates, will not only remove the existing desire for drink, but will result in the removal of much of the crime and domestic unhappiness that at present exist, and I believe will materially aid in solving the divorce problem.GCB May 30, 1909, page 218.1

This is not a new theory. Sydney Smith, many years ago, in a letter to Arthur Kingslake, said, “I am convinced digestion is the great secret of life. Character, talents, and virtues are powerfully affected by beef, mutton, pie-crust, and rich soup. I have often thought,” said he, “I could feed or starve men into many virtues and vices, and affect them more powerfully with my instruments of cookery than Timotheus could formerly with his lyre.”GCB May 30, 1909, page 218.2

The fact that we are in the midst of an epidemic of crime, I maintain, may be attributed largely to the errors in eating which cultivate a craving, for strong drink. In the removal of drink, these causes can not be ignored; they must be recognized and removed. When this is done, when the craving for drink is removed, it will be a simple matter to close the saloon.GCB May 30, 1909, page 218.3

The relation that exists between a nation’s, or an individual’s, food and drink, will in the near future be better understood, and when it is, much more will be said from the pulpit and the temperance platform in regard to the need of eating to the glory of God, and not for drunkenness.GCB May 30, 1909, page 218.4

The Sermon - A LESSON IN HEALTH REFORM

BIBLE WORKERS’ COUNCIL