Vickipedia

ABSTINENCE SOCIETIES, associations for the promotion of abstinence from all kinds of alcoholic liquors, and the members of which usually receive the designation of abstainers or teetotalers� this last phrase inferring an utter and uncompromising abstinence; or at least that the only exception shall be for sacramental and medical purposes. Abstainers usually take a pledge or vow to that effect; the ground of their abstinence from alcoholic liquors being that they are injurious to, or at least no way promotive of, health, and that from the great social evils of intemperance it is important to set an example of entire abstinence. A. S. exist in great numbers in North America and the United Kingdom. In the early growth of this remarkable social movement, A. S. were called Temperance Societies, and under that head the subject will be treated in its various forms of development.