the same category, and on the
same level, as to the general injurious influence upon society: what may
be said against the latter may be said with equal truth against the
former.... Opium is probably more seductive and tenacious than alcohol;
and I should certainly affirm that it was not so frequently fatal to life,
nor so fruitful of disease and crime, as is the case with intoxicating
drinks in Great Britain."

Dr. Eatwell says: "Proofs are still wanting to show that the moderate use
of opium produces more pernicious effects than the moderate use of
spirituous liquors; while it is certain that the consequences of the abuse
of the former are less appalling in their effects upon the victims, and
less disastrous to society, than the consequences of the abuse of the
latter."

Sir Henry Pottinger says:[97] "I believe that not one-hundredth part of
the evils spring from it that arise in England from the use of spirituous
liquors."

These witnesses, and they might be indefinitely multiplied, will be enough
to show that there is no intrinsic difference between opium and alcohol
such as to justify exceptional legislation in the case of the one which is
not afforded to the other. What difference there is is wholly to the
advantage of opium. We may go further than Dr. Eatwell, and say that there
_is_ ample evidence to prove that the moderate use of opium--and
nine-tenths of those who smoke it use it in moderation--is _not_ more
injurious than the common use of wine and beer with us. Taken to excess,
its effects, even if the worst accounts of its opponents be literally
accepted, are no whit worse than, if they can be as bad as, the delirium
tremens of the confirmed drunkard. "Physically," says Sirr,[98] "the
effect of opium on the enslaved victim is almost beyond the power of
language to pourtray." "It is impossible," writes another author,
speaking of drink, "to exaggerate--impossible even truthfully to
paint--the effects of this evil, either on those who are addicted to it,
or on those who suffer from it." It would be easy, were it necessary, to
quote descriptions of the visible physical effects of opium and alcohol
upon their victims--so much alike that they could with very little verbal
and no essential alteration be applied to either indifferently. It will be
enough to point out where opium has the decided advantage over alcohol.
One point in which this advantage is manifest will be obvious to all, and
indeed is conceded b