sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but
wounds and bruises and putrifying sores."

In this view, the inquiry as to increase or diminution, assumes the
gravest importance. If, under all the agencies of cure and reform which
have been in active operation during the past fifty years, no impression
has been made upon this great evil which is so cursing the people, then
is the case indeed desperate, if not hopeless. But if it appears that,
under these varied agencies, there has been an arrest of the disease
here, a limitation of its aggressive force there, its almost entire
extirpation in certain cases, and a better public sentiment everywhere;
then, indeed, may we take heart and say "God speed temperance work!" in
all of its varied aspects.


HOPEFUL SIGNS.

And here, at the outset of our presentation of some of the leading
agencies of reform and cure, let us say, that the evidence going to show
that an impression has been made upon the disease is clear and
indisputable; and that this impression is so marked as to give the
strongest hope and assurance. In the face of prejudice, opposition,
ridicule, persecution, obloquy and all manner of discouragements, the
advocates of temperance have held steadily to their work these many
years, and now the good results are seen on every hand. Contrast the
public sentiment of to-day with that of twenty, thirty and forty years
ago, and the progress becomes at once apparent. In few things is this
so marked as in the changed attitude of the medical profession towards
alcohol. One of the most dangerous, and, at the same time, one of the
most securely intrenched of all our enemies, was the family doctor.