Including: Booklet "A Few Practical Reflections upon the Grog Ration of the U.S. Navy, by an Old Officer of That Service" (William Maxwell Hood), no publisher, 1849, original wraps, 8 1/2" x 5 1/4", 16 pps. Signed on front "Hon. Stephen H. Douglass" (may not be signed by Douglas himself, who had dropped the second 's' from his name in 1846). First Edition. Usually found in his collected "Shoulder to the Wheel of Progress", Buffalo, 1853. Wood (1809-1880) entered the Navy as an assistant Surgeon in 1829, was commissioned Surgeon early in 1838. From 1838-1841 he served in Florida during the Seminole War, and was appointed fleet surgeon to the Pacific fleet in 1843. There had been a failed vote in the prior Congress to abolish the grog ration, and Wood here writes in an attempt to revive the move for abolishment. He quotes from a number of medical sources, but writes as well from his own experience. A fine association, Douglas became Senator in 1847. PLUS a Letter from Cony Foster (1801-1875), wealthy Orono, Maine Lumberman and River Driver, who was the Chairmen of the Board of Selectman, Assessor and Overseer of the Poor, and Tax Collector for Orono, which was one of the first towns to abolish alcohol in 1843 (the State of Maine did the same in 1846, first in the nation); written from Orono on April 20th, 1844, he ends a business letter by stating "Our pauper bills have here fallen off one half at least since we prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquors in town".