Select Temperance Tracts

This collection brings together a series of mid‑nineteenth‑century temperance pamphlets that examine the impact of distilled spirits on body and mind. Written by a physician for the American Tract Society, the opening tract offers a methodical inventory of the immediate, almost theatrical, symptoms of drunkenness— from sudden loquacity and quarrelsomeness to the chaotic, animal‑like outbursts that follow. The author’s clinical eye is paired with moral commentary, painting intoxication as a disease that turns respectable citizens into caricatures of beasts.

Listeners will be drawn into the vivid, almost theatrical, descriptions of how alcohol can warp speech, posture, and behavior, and how the aftermath leaves a person drained, trembling, and hostile to even basic comforts. The language is strikingly direct, reflecting the era’s earnest drive to warn society about the hidden costs of excess while offering a window into the public‑health concerns and moral fervor of the period.