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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 8

Ulcerated Appetite

Ulcerated Appetite

in the stead of natural tastes. Indeed there is nothing known within the whole realm of science that has the power to degrade men and women like alcohol. It is easy to see then how, surrounded by so many incentives, such multiplied temptations, those who wish to emancipate themselves from the cruel habit are drawn back into indulgence. And it is still easier to understand how having such fatal fascination for its victims it benumbs conscience and then leaves them open to any crime that may tempt. Thus both as a remote and as a proximate cause, the liquor traffic become the prolific parent of nearly all the crime which afflicts the State. This is established by statistics of large and varied embracement, which leave no room for any doubt. The literature of prohibition is full of such exhibits, and I might cite you abundant illustration, from the earliest testimonies of Sir Matthew Hale to the latest reports of the numerous boards of Public Charities. But the present is scarcely fit occasion for such review. Frederic Hill, Inspector of Prisons in England, declares that he was within the truth when stating "as the result of extensive and minute inquiry, that in four cases oat of five where an offense has been committed, intoxicating, drink has been one of the causes." Elisha Harris, in our own country, writing on prison discipline, says "full eighty-five per cent of all convicts give evidence of having in some degree been prepared or enticed to do criminal acts. Because of the physical and distracting effects produced upon the human organism by alcohol." Of 34 murders in one year, in Philadelphia, 30 came of drink. Of 32,775 commitments, 25.551 were traceable directly to intemperance. Of 75,692 arrests in New York City, 34,696 were for