Nicolas Leon
Walsh, James J.
May 29, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL IOI NICOLAS LEON By JAMES J. WALSH T HE revolution in Mexico ought not to be allowed to eclipse altogether our recognition of the death of that distinguished...
...The only modification consistent with the Eighteenth Amendment would be an in-crease in the alcoholic content of beer...
...Ryan's admission, a lesser amount of alcoholic content is morally admissible, no valid reason can be adduced "ex ratione objecti" which would render a larger amount inherently evil and subject to absolute prohibition...
...but whatever is inherently evil, or as he puts it quite succinctly, "never had a shadow of validity in morals," does not permit of a parity of matter, as a dis-qualification of this kind affects the substance irrespective of degree of content, be it 4 percent or 40 percent...
...rarely do they any longer prosecute for these offenses persons who are known to refrain from selling liquors to others...
...Dr...
...Of course these tyrannical provisions never had a shadow of validity in morals...
...Jones, surgeon-general of the Revo- lutionary army, and was meant to be carried in the pocket of the surgeons of Washington's army so that there might be a certain harmony in their treatment of wounds...
...There are well above a hundred of these distinctions and some of them carry a special prestige...
...I. The reason advanced for this statement is to the effect that such a measure is tyrannical...
...The second medical book printed in Mexico was Father Farfan's volume for the use of the missionaries...
...A beverage of that nature containing not more than 4 percent alcohol might be construed by the Supreme Court as non-intoxlcatlng, and it would probably satisfy the thirst of many thousands of drinkers...
...Leon was a striking type in the modern time of the scholars of Mexico's early days...
...He was the president of the National Academy of Medicine in Mexico in I92I-I922...
...Leon that four years ago he issued in bibelot form the bibliography of his many and varied writings from x874 to 1925...
...As a physician, he was also very much interested in the history of medicine and surgery in his native state, and he published a series of monographs on these subjects...
...Leon would have been very much interested in this, not for financial reasons but because he would have been glad to know that the precious early Mexican books to which he had been so zealously calling atten- tion had finally come into their own due mead of recognition among bibliophiles...
...He wrote a series of other papers on medical subjects...
...He was organizer and director of the Museum of Michoacan, from which he passed to the directorship of the department of anthropology in the National Museum of Mexico City...
...Later, as he came to know more about the many books that had been published in Mexico long before the English came to this continent, he took up bibliography as a special hobby...
...There are other reasons of a biological, sociological and economic character which justify reasonable legal restriction but never absolute prohibition as now existing...
...He published various articles on Michoacan antiquities and then boiled them down for the Smithsonian into Studies of the Archaeology of Michoacan...
...Anti-trust laws may be enacted to hinder restraint of trade and revenue and customs taxation may be imposed for fiscal benefit...
...Gradually Dr...
...John A. Ryan on prohibition entitled: Who Shall Obey the Law...
...Leon than to anyone else...
...on vesical lavage...
...While one must admit that his treatment of the question is very interesting and pregnant with constructive thought, yet upon close ex-amination the distinguished author's course of reasoning does not seem to be quite convincing...
...One of these is in Spain in private hands and has been lost to sight for some time...
...Ad...
...Of course whisky and all other spiritous liquors have sufficient alcohol to intoxicate...
...4. This deduction which Dr...
...Leon has given a list of the scientific societies of which he was a member and the public commissions which he was asked to undertake...
...Leon, however, in spite of the great prestige he enjoyed among those who have the best interests of Mexico at heart...
...It is precisely this sort of legislation which marks prohibition as a reversion to the taboo system of primi- tive peoples...
...2. Prohibition of manufacture, transport or possession of intoxicants for home use having an alcoholic content of 4 per- cent or less has validity in morals...
...COMMUNICATIONS T THE AMENDMENT AMENDED Washington, D. C. O the Editor :--In a recent issue of your esteemed publi- cation there appeared an article by Dr...
...In his later years he was particu- larly interested in the printing that had been done in Mexico, and it was on this subject that I had a number of letters from him...
...Ad...
...Neither does a greater amount of alcoholic content justify bsolute prohibition for the reasons stated above, although it is not to be denied that greater stringency of regulatory inhibi- tion is eminently advisable...
...Having admitted that liquor with an alcoholic content of less than 4 percent is not inherently evil, no valid reason can be offr ed for proscribing such liquor for the purpose of sale...
...When Sahagun died at the age of ninety-one, his body was followed to the tomb by almost the whole city of Mexico, and his funeral was the occasion for a great outpouring of admiration and respect for the man who had done so much for the natives of Mexico...
...He studied what might be called the incunabula or cradle books of printing in Mexico--those published before 16ox--with the most ardent devotion...
...The idea of scholarship in Mexico is so little present in the American mind north of the Rio Grande, that it is well to say at the beginning of this sketch of Dr...
...He was the delegate for Mexico for the eighteenth session of the International Congress of Americanists held in London, January, 1912...
...He was persona non grata to the present administration, and while as a student he continued to devote himself to his scholarly work and avoided polities, he had shown his lack of confidence in the politicians who are ruling Mexico for the benefit of a small and exclusive group and not at all for the benefit of the entire population...
...2. There is no explanation given for drawing the line of maximum alcoholic content at 4 percent...
...The book is Francisco Bravo's Opera Medicinalia, a volume of some four hundred pages which contains four medical monographs, one on Typhus Fever, the second on Venesection in Pleurisy, a third on Criti- cal Days in Disease, and a fourth on Sarsaparilla as a Remedy...
...Now as, according to Dr...
...Ad...
...Dr...
...3. Prohibition of such liquors for home use but containing alcohol in excess of 4 percent has no validity in morals...
...on pelvimetry and other phases of obstetrics and gynecology...
...However, it could only be seriously considered on the assumption that liquor in excess of 4 percent of alcoholic content is inherently evil...
...4. Prohibition of such liquors for the purpose of sale con-taining alcohol in excess of one-half of one percent has no validity in morals...
...His first book was a collection of photographs with biographical notes on its distinguished men and writers...
...He was very much interested in the printing press in Mexico and his bibliography shows that, as the years went on, he wrote more and more about it...
...Those provisions of the Volstead Act which forbid a person to manufacture, transport or possess liquor for his own use have been virtually repealed by the enforcement officers...
...He studied, too, the native languages of Mexico, and wrote particularly with regard to the Tarascos, the Co-manches and the tribes of Lower California...
...The fallacy of the whole argument rests on the assumption that the ethical evaluation of intoxication is to be based exclusively on the nature of the object without taking cognizance of the human factor and the set of circumstances modifying every form of human activity...
...Hence his series of monographs on archaeol-ogy, anthropology, ethnology, botany...
...A critical analysis of the citation will disclose that the following statements are either explicitly or inferentially con- tained therein : I. A line of demarkation is drawn between intoxicating liquors for home consumption and for purposes of sale...
...The Volstead Act as a whole could, of course, be repealed or modified by a majority vote of Congress...
...He was granted his diploma by the government of Michoacan for his writings on his native city...
...Ryan writes" "What is the legal situation respecting these two enactments...
...Leon was born in Michoacan, and devoted himself to the study of its history, ancient and modern...
...This wide recognition of his scholarship makes it perfectly clear that here was indeed a distinguished scholar to whom the world looked for authoritative information on subjects with which he was familiar...
...He gave besides, the names of over a hundred authors, some of whose works had been published through his influence and assistance, a number of them printed for the first time...
...on catarrh...
...These, however, were not under consideration in the article reviewed...
...We owe the proper appre- ciation of it more to Dr...
...At the same time, however, it is conceded that it is not an absolute one, but as it is by its very nature a public transaction, it becomes amenable to reasonable regulation by the civil power which assumes the obligation of protecting and not prohibiting such a right...
...Outright repeal without any substitute legislation is obviously impracticable...
...Dr...
...May 29, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL IOI NICOLAS LEON By JAMES J. WALSH T HE revolution in Mexico ought not to be allowed to eclipse altogether our recognition of the death of that distinguished Mexican scholar and bibliophile, Dr...
...Leon had no idea of collecting books for the sake of the advancement in price that would come, and indeed until recent years there was comparatively little interest in books printed in Mexico...
...Early printed books from Mexico have gone up very much in price IO2 THE COMMONWEAL May 29, I929 in recent years, so that very probably if a copy of Francisco Bravo's Opera Medicinalia should come on the market, it would sell for more than $Io,ooo...
...It is interesting to compare with this the first medical book printed in what is now the United States...
...One of his best-known monographs was Mineral Waters of Miehoacan...
...A number of them are on obstetrics, his specialty...
...Apparently there seems to be no internal reason assignable, as persons may be found who are susceptible of intoxication by liquors of less than 4 percent of alcoholic content, and others are found who are not affected by a larger amount with greater content...
...A copy of this volume was sold not long since for about $2,ooo...
...In order to be at all suitable or desirable, wine would have to contain such a high content of alcohol that it could not honestly be interpreted as non-intoxicating by any court...
...The second is in the Public Library of Puebla, Mexico, and the third is in the New York Public Library...
...This was a little compend written by Dr...
...Ad...
...This was not the case with Dr...
...The most objectionable side to Dr...
...The date of this book was I775, 205 years after the publication of the first medical book in Mexico which is a serious contribution to medical science...
...A critical review of the article may aid in bringing about that adjustment of this impor- tant situation in which we are all genuinely and constructively interested--the making of America sober without making it dry...
...cannot be questioned that the right to barter, sell or trade .nything not inherently evil on the part of any individual con- ~titutes a natural right that is inalienable...
...Nicolas Leon...
...Now there is a mad scramble for them, so that even later editions of the first book printed in Mexico, Bishop Zumarraga's Doctrina Breve, printed as late as I57I, have sold for more than $3,000...
...The first of these was entitled Some Points in the History of Medicine in Mich- oacan from the Pre-Columbian Times (x886...
...as this is the only reason alleged, it must be placed in qualifying apposition to the accompanying phrase, "that [these provisions] never had a shadow of validity in morals," and this form of expression, in accordance with all the accepted canons of moral terminology is equivalent to saying "inherently evil...
...Ryan is careful in leaving to the discernment of his readers, but which he freely admitted in a rejoinder to the editor of the True Voice (May 3) is of like quality with the piz.w:se from which it is derived...
...He was given a bronze medal by the federal government of Mexico for his scientific publications in I92I, a gold medal from the Universal Columbian Exposition in Chicago, I893 and a silver medal for his scientific works at the Universal Exposition of Paris (19oo...
...The following year there was a corresponding monograph on The History of Surgery in Michoacan, and a third monograph on the his- tory of obstetrics...
...Leon pointed out, show a careful observation and a wide reading which are illuminating proof of the extraordinary interest that was being taken in scientific medicine in Mexico more than three and a half centuries ago...
...Evidently "amount" and "content" are two different realities which are persistently confused by the defenders of a peculiar kind of logic underlying the Eighteenth Amendment...
...This comprised over three hundred items, more than twenty of them books on various subjects, the rest articles, some of them rather lengthy monographs on special topics...
...3. This statement is also proposed seemingly as axiom- atic by Dr...
...Ryan...
...In the appendix to this bibliog- raphy, he listed further nearly a hundred articles which he had written but had not yet published...
...He traced the three extant copies of the earliest medical book printed on the American continent...
...Dr...
...He was entirely out of sympathy with the present regime in Mexico, though he had to keep his counsel to him- self both for his personal safety and for the protection of the scholarly institutions with which he was connected...
...All of these monographs, as Dr...
...He might well be compared with that distinguished historian and writer on Mexican eth- nology, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, who spent some seventy years in teaching the native Mexicans in connection with the famous college of Santa Cruz in Tlaltelolco, founded in 1536 --the oldest collegiate institution in America...
...on Indian medicine, and on various other purely medical subjects...
...Leon's interest shifted away from practical to pure science...
...Ryan's proposal consists in this, that its provisions would effectively close the only...
...As the appendix of his bibliography, Dr...
Vol. 10 • May 1929 • No. 4
