Pick Your Poison

An inquiry into the effects of spirituous liquors on the human body: to which is added, a moral and physical thermometer

In this famous work, noted physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush discusses the increase in diseases resulting from the abuse of alcoholic beverages and introduces the “Moral and Physical Thermometer,” a chart showing the relationship between alcohol consumption, temperament and character, disease, and life circumstances. The message was hugely popular at the time and enlivened the first temperance movement in the United States.