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    Critics are not tte legislators , tut the judges and police of literature . They ao not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Jtcvteio .

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    It is an old remark , that men professing the mo st ardent desire for the moral reform ation of others are singularly unscrupulous in their employment of wramoral means . " To lie for God " they do not think unworthy ; it is a pleasant way of indulging malevolence , and at the same time forwarding their own views . The weapons of fanaticism are wielded with a fury winch , by calling itself virtue , shuts out all remorse . The weapons of fanatical polemics are such that the combatants would blush to wield if unsanctified by a " purpose . " Religion , however , is by no means the only instigator of fanaticism . Political rancour is almost as unscrupulous . Any opinion which aims at bettering the moral condition of the race may become a cruel watchword . Even a theory so far removed from theolog ical doctrine as Teetotalism becomes , in some fanatics who accept it , and in many quacks who live by it , a crusade against all opponents as rancorous as Methodism : the same foolishness is envenomed with the same unscrupulousness ; in both

    the exercise of reason is imputed to bad motives . fk Teetotalism has advocates and followers to whom these observations in no sense apply ; men as sincere as they are benevolent , as charitable as they are sincere . But the paid advocates , the ranting lecturers and pamphleteers are as reckless and intemperate as they are absurd- In America the doctrine has become an instrument of tyranny . In England , if we judge from the writings we have seen , the same spirit is at work . The Teetotal doctrine was examined in the Westminster Review for July , it * an article entitled " The Physiological Errors . of Teetotalism / ' which , to judge from the uproar it created among Teetotalers , must have made them very

    uncomfortable . When a man howls , we presume he is hurt . When public meetings are convened in the country , and Exeter-hall is hired in London for the express purpose of answering an article , we may suppose the article to have some importance in the eyes of Teetotalers ; yet , if we are to judge from the Exeter-hall Manifesto ( sent to us , we presume , for notice ) , all this hubbub has been about a very weak and ignorant production . The principal speakers at Exeter-hall appear to have been Dr . Carpenter , whose arguments the article exposed , and Dr . Lees , a Teetotal lecturer . We have read the speeches with surprise and pain : surprise that so poor a defence was all they could make , pain at the thoroughly unscrupulous tone .

    Dr . Lees is altogether beneath notice . Dr . Carpenter came forward , and boldly told the meeting that the " Reviewer , whoever he may be , is certainly no scientific physiologist . " Such an assertion , publicly made , and by a man claiming to be " a representative of physiological science , " demanded some evidence . All the evidence he thought proper to adduce was confined to two illustrations , which , on examination , turn , out to be blunders of his own . Here is the first : — " The Reviewer alleges that his ( Dr . Carpenter ' s ) argument , that alcohol carbonises the blood , would be unanswerable but for one little oversight—that the supply of oxygen to remove the carbon is really «« limited . Truly the supply of oxygen in the air is unlimited , but the supply in the Hood is limited , as the Reviewer will learn wliou lie shall study the ABC of physiology . "

    Had Dr . Carpenter , in his other writings , manifested less inaccuracy and confusion of thought , we sliould wonder at such a misconception of the Reviewer ' s argument as is implied in the foregoing criticism . The Review lies open before us , and , if we understand the English language , the meaning of the passage does not point to the blood , which is never mentioned , and which , indeed , could not have ; been alluded to in that argument : indeed , that a limited quantity of blood could not contain an unlimited quantity of oxygen , we suppose must be patent even to a logician of Dr . Cahi'entek ' h calibre , who nevertheless actually undertakes to prove this self-evident propos ition ! He adds :

    " The quantity taken in through the lungs is uh striotly regulated by the ? dogreo in whioli the external temperature in below that of tho body , as tlio draught of Dr . Arnott ' n hLovo i . s restricted by it * regulating thomiomotor . Thin ia how it eoino . s to piisn that—as Lho general experience of fouurtrytuoii , gluasblowors , and other men working in vory hot plaoori fully proved—if they drink of alooholiis liquors while Iheij arc at work they soon pay tho penalty m a lo . ss of muscular energy ; their supply of oxygon , already curtailed by the high temperature , being further reduced by tho amount taken away by tho aloohol for its own combustion . "

    It is singularly unfortunate for Dr . Cabpbntek that , m trying to prove n self-evident proposition , he lms committed himself to a statement inaccurate in respect of fact , and to a deduction from that statement at which physiologists will smile . It is inaccurate to say that the quantity of oxygen ubiiorhcd by the blood depends solely on a simple relation of temperature ; every physiologist knows that it depends on the state of the organism ( its temperature being one state ) : for example , less oxygen is absorbed during the hours of ( ligctitioM than during hunger , less oxygen is absorbed if an extra quantity of sugar be present in the blood , and so on . Moreover , the question of temperature has no place in the dispute : between him and his Reviewer na to whether alcohol carbonises the blood ; and to cite glassblowers in illustration of the normal cil ' ects of alcohol , is ns logical aa to cite the Black Hole of Calcutta to prove that breathing carbonises the blood .

    I But this inaccuracy and confusion lead him to the assertion that glassblowers lose their muscular energy if they drink alcoholic liquors while at work , because they thereby curtail their supply of oxygen . Anyone bui a Teetotaler would suspect that the loss of muscular energy was owing tc quite other causes . The glass-blowers , already over-heated , add more heal in the shape of alcohol ; already over-stimulated , they add extra stimulus ; and pay the penalty , just as a man who has already sat up one night will pay the penalty for sitting up the night following , or one who having fatigued himself with a twenty-mile walk adds ten miles to it . But the idea of the glass-blower " limiting his supply of oxygen" by drinking alcohol is absurd . The oxygen is supplied from the air , where it is in unlimited quantity ; for , although the temperature of the air being raised , each cubic foot will be less dense , and therefore contain less oxygen , still there is a constant rush of fresh oxygen to fill up the place of what is abstracted . From the , air this oxygen is absorbed by the blood , in exchange for carbonic acid . This exchange is incessant , as long as the oxygen in the air is present in sufficient amount . Nothing that the alcohol burns in the organism affects this exchange . The oxygen taken up may burn alcohol , or fat , or enter into any other combination , but it cannot affect the supply constantly renewed from the air ; and althoug h when it burns alcohol , the Teetotaler may say it spends on alcohol an amount which mig ht have been spent on other substances , the physiologist will reply that these other substances are thereby saved , and are ready for the next rush of oxygen , precisely as oil cast on the tire in burning saves the coal , which is burned immediately after the oil is consumed . Thus the first of the two instances upon which Dr . C . founds his assertion respecting the incompetence of his Reviewer turns out to be a misconception of his own , illustrated by inaccurate physiology and bad reasoning It is , doubtless , very convenient and consolatory when we are . refuted , to tel the public our antagonist is an ignoramus , but Dr . C . would have acted more prudently if he had confined himself to the assertion , and not betrayed his weakness by citing proofs . He has rested the assertion on two cases the first we have just seen ; the second is simply a definition of food which Dr . Carpenter opposes by a very confused statement of his own , ending with a point-blank assumption of the matter in dispute . We need waste no space on it , being attracted by another example of Dr . C . ' s power of-misstatement . After referring to the luminous distinction which has been established by the researches of Mwldkb and Liebig ( and which we observe the Reviewer insists on ) namely , that food is of > o kind , Plastic , or tissuemaking , and Respiratory , or heat-making , Dr . C . adds , " Now , in the progress of physiological science it had become apparent that alcohol had no claim to be regarded as belonging to the nutritive class , since it was destitute ot nitrogenous matter : and as regards the other ( i . e . the Respiratory ) ^ experience had shown that alcoholic liquors diminished the power of the body to endure cold . " This statement can have had but one object—to prove that alcohol had no claim to rank as food ; because if alcohol will neither nourish nor warm , it has no quality of food . Exeter-hall , doubtless , cheered the demonstration . And yet Dr . Caiumcntek knows very well that alcohol is one of the heat-making substances ; knows very well that it is food , and that he has classed it as such in his Human Physiology ; knows very well that the body requires about five times as much of respiratory as of plastic matter , and also knows that alcohol , to use the words of Liisuig , << stands high as a respiratory material . " But of all this he said vo word ia Luoeter-haU . He was there as the " representative of physiological science , " declaring that the writer who had exposed his logic was an ignoramus , and not , therefore , worth attention . He was there to triumph over his antagonist , and he did so , as we have seen . ,. ~ It will be acceptable news to . ill readers when they learn th-. Mrs . Gaskill has undertaken to write the » Life of Charlotte Bronte , that fervent genius too soon snatched from us . Janr Evub deserved to fall into the hands of a woman , and what woman was better fitted for the task than Mary Bakton ? We understand that both father and husband have desired Mrs . Gasket to execute this work , ami have placed all materials at her disposal . Among the minor dialogues of IM . ato none surpass the " PhileW' in m , terest , and scholars will be thankful to Dr . IIauham for the edition he hai just published : a careful and well-printed text ,-notC 8 brief , and to the purpose , unencu mbered by the du » t of erudition , the dreariness ol erudite display -and a brief explanatory introduction make this edition very acceptable This is hardly the place for critical discussion ; the rapid newspaper rc-adcr would hurry past , and throw no glance at things ho remote from the noisy interests of the day . Yet ono point wo may touch in l * "f " *' Uauiiam . referring to Puto ' b argument , that wh at w inBllo # c " ^' , J || " , same as that which makes , but must alwayH bo » j N . «» j'J , ^ this passage and the one at the commencement ot Mi « ' ehu-Jo against the prete . ee that IWo w « » ^ < - *• *« ^ so well-read a Plato ,. i » t as Dr . Baimiam "'"^ 'X ' ,, Ij 0 A ) un ( f in passage in any dialogue can be conclave agon *««» ^ . „ po - ofter dialogue ; for , " ^ ' ^ "r ^ io ^ Jict . d iu Homo Jone except , perhaps , his view of Method , wlueh i * not couuwu of his unquestioned dialogues

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    tw ™«; i » 1 _ . iftK / i / l THE LEADER . 1155

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 1155, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2117/page/15/