e
author has exerted any salutary influence, in restraining young men from
falling into those habits which are inevitably followed by much physical
suffering, if not by absolute ruin, such a result would be to him an
ample compensation.

UTICA, MAY, 1830.

DISSERTATION.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:

The confidence of an enlightened community has assigned to you, as
guardians of the dearest interests of society, an elevated and highly
responsible rank among those who labor to promote the great cause of
human happiness. Your influence in the medical councils of this great
and flourishing State, gives a lasting effect to your deliberations, and
stamps a value on those productions which you are pleased to approve.
While the opinions of other men are often exhibited and forgotten with
the occasion which gave them birth, those of the physician continue not
unfrequently to affect at least the physical welfare of the world, after
his "dust has returned to the earth as it was, and his spirit has gone
to God who gave it." In view of this momentous truth, an humble attempt
will now be made, in discharge of the duty assigned me, to examine the
cause of some of the "ills which flesh is heir to."

I regard this principle as an axiom, that whatever conduces to augment
the sum of human happiness, must be an object of solicitude to the
conscientious and intelligent physician. He will be anxious that his
fellow citizens should be sober, peaceable, and virtuous; that they
should be industrious, frugal, and prosperous. Whatever will produce
such results should receive the decided approbation of every benevolent
member of the Faculty. It follows, of course, that whatever has an
opposite tendency should meet his frown. Pursuing this principle, you
have condemned the use of ardent spirits, unless sickness demands their
application as a medicine.

The physical evils resulting from intemperance were eloquently exhibited
in the address, presented by your committee, during the last year. That
address, with its accompanying resolutions, now exerts a beneficial
influence through a widely extended community. We are cheered by the
kind wishes and prayers of the friends of good order, in our efforts to
destroy that vice which has not only "walked" through our country "in
darkness," but "wasted at noon-day." But while we exult in the triumph
of correct principles on _this_ subject, do not other vicious
indulgences demand our attention?