"to describe how much disorders, natural to the human body, are increased and complicated by the use of spirituous liquors." Indeed, almost the whole catalogue of human disease might be included in this well-founded statement.

Illustrations in proof that intoxicating liquors do not possess those powers of prevention of diseases which have been so generally attributed to them, might be greatly amplified. The natives of hot climates almost universally abstain from inebriating liquors of every description. Fortunate indeed would it be for Europeans and others who visit these portions of the globe, did they imitate them in this prudential abstinence. Two or three examples in point, are now adduced. The army of Sir John Moore, during their retreat to Corunna, were by necessity, deprived of their usual allowance of wine. After this event, it was remarked that they improved very much in their health and appearance. The 45th regiment according to Dr. Rollo, during their residence at Grenada, were visited during the healthy season with an uncommon mortality, twenty-six out of ninety-six dying within a few weeks. On investigating the cause of this mortality, it was found. to originate in a custom which the men had contracted, of swallowing every morning a glass of raw spirits. An officer of high rank states, that in 1801, in the West Indies almost entirely from the use of rum, 450 men out of 1000 composing his regiment were buried in four months. +

Intemperance has a deteriorating influence, in respect to the physical energies and powers of the present generation at large. The experience of all ages has shown the injurious effects of intemperance, in prostrating the physical powers of man. Several causes, however, contributed to modify these effects on the ancients, and on our more proximate ancestors. The athletic exercises, the warlike habits and the agricultural pursuits in which they engaged, prevented very much the injurious effects of their intemperate habits. And hence, we may remark, that persons are less easily injured by drink, who labour hardly, and who reside in the country, than those who are of contrary habits, and reside in a confined and viti

+ Parliamentary Evidence, 1834.

ated atmosphere. The reasons are obvious: exercise, in addition to pure air and plain diet, forms an excellent counteracting influence on intoxicating drink. These individuals, in general, drink heavily for a day or two, and perhaps do not again become intoxicated for a length of time. Nature consequently, has, time in some degree, to recover her accustomed tone of feeling and power of action, before she is called upon to sustain another attack upon the citadel of her existence.

In large towns, the pale features and emaciated bodies of its victims present the most convincing proof of the influence of strong drink on the physical powers. The late Parliamentary Report alludes, in strong terms, to this fact. "The diminution of the physical power and longevity of a large portion of the British population, the loss of personal beauty, the decline of health, and progressive decay of the bodily and mental powers,” are enumerated as among the effects of intemperance, "which evils," it goes on to say, are accumulative in the amount of injury they inflict."

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Another dreadful effect of intemperance is witnessed in its entailing upon posterity physical debility and disease. Several of the most distinguished philosophers of ancient and modern times have remarked, in strong terms of reprobation the effect of intemperance in entailing its consequences upon posterity. Plato, in particular, alludes to the injurious effects of this fatal practice, in respect to the parent and child; and Plutarch expressed himself a believer in the same doctrine-" Ebrii gignunt ebrios." Aristotle appears to have been of the same opinion, for

*Parliamentary Report, p. 5. The following remarks of Smollett, on the effects of wine on the peasantry of France, are forcible and important. "It must be owned that all the peasants (i. e. of France) who have wine for their ordinary drink, are of a diminutive size in comparison to those who use milk, beer, or even water; and it is a constant observation, that when there is a scarcity of wine, the common people are always more healthy than in those seasons when it abounds. The longer I live, the more I am convinced, that wine and all fermented liquors are pernicious to the human constitution; and that, for the preservation of health and exhilaration of the spirits, there is no beverage comparable to simple water."-Travels through France and Italy, 1776,

he remarks, that "Drunken women bring forth children like unto themselves." Shakspeare also appears to have been convinced of the same lamentable fact, as we find in the expressions which he puts into the mouth of Falstaff.* Burton, in his humorous and quaint style, makes a similar allusion, and in another portion of his work, he speaks of "Tiberius, who was a common drunkard, because his nurse was such a one."+ Dr. Darwin thus expresses himself: "It is remarkable, that all the diseases arising from drinking spirituous or fermented liquors, are liable to become hereditary, even to the third generation, gradually increasing, if the cause be continued, till the family becomes extinct." Dr. Trotter remarks, that "whatever may be the truth of this doctrine, sobriety in husband and wife must give the best chance for a sober progeny."

The following statement is made in the Report of the Parliamentary Committee: "Intemperate parents, according to high medical testimony, give a taint to their offspring even before its birth, and the poisonous stream of ardent spirits is conveyed through the milk of the mother to the infant at the breast; so that the fountain of life, through which nature supplies that pure and healthy nutriment of infancy, is poisoned at its very source, and a diseased and vitiated appetite is thus created, which grows with its growth, and strengthens with its increasing weakness and decay." The celebrated Dr. Gall mentions a strong fact, as to the passion for intoxicating liquors being hereditary.T Dr. Caldwell of America, makes the following observations on the transmission of hereditary qualities :-"By habits of intemperance, parents not only degrade and ruin themselves, but transmit the elements of like degradation and ruin to their posterity. This is no visionary conjecture, the fruit of a favourite and long cherished theory. It is a settled belief, resulting from observation—an inference

* Vide Henry IV. Part ii. Act 4.

+ Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 16th ed. p. 218.
Botanic Garden, part ii. note on vitis.

S Trotter's Essay on the Effects of Drunkenness, p. 29.
Parliamentary Report, p. 5.

Sur les Fonctions du Curveau, i. 410.

derived from innumerable facts. In hundreds and thousands of instances, parents having had children born to them while their habits were temperate, have become afterwards intemperate, and had other children subsequently born. In such cases, it is a matter of notoriety, that the younger children have become addicted to the practice of intoxication much more frequently than the elder, in the proportion of five to one. Let me not be told, that this is owing to the younger children being neglected, and having corrupt and seductive examples constantly before them. The same neglects and profligate examples have been extended to all; yet all have not been equally injured by them. The children of the earlier births have escaped, while those of the subsequent ones have suffered. The reason is plain. The latter children had a deeper animal taint than the former."* On this subject in the present day, there exists little dif ference of opinion among medical men.

CHAPTER XIII.

STIMULANTS, THEIR NATURE AND OPERATION ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM.

The influence of a regulated and well balanced activity in the moral and intellectual faculties on the general health, compared with that of active and boisterous passions, is like the salutary effect of mild and wholesome nourishment, contrasted with the fiery potency of alcohol. The former is eminently conducive to life, health and enjoyment, while the latter is as imminently opposed to them all.-DR. ANDREW COMBE.

STIMULANTS, or excitants have been defined to be "substances that augment powerfully the motions peculiar to the different organs of the body by a primary impulse on the sensibility and irritability of the part to which they are applied, communicated by the nerves to the whole system.

In regard to their action on the system, stimulants may be divided into two classes, viz. natural and artificial. Thus, for instance, a proper proportion of nutritious and healthful food is a natural stimulant; it produces no other sensation throughout the system than that of pleasurable excitement, and, in a healthy person, it is not either accompanied or followed by any injurious consequences. Light also is the natural stimulant of the eye, and sound of the ear. The action of these organs when thus stimulated, is precisely analogous to that of the stomach. These feelings are implanted in our nature by the Creator, and when properly exercised are in perfect harmony with the healthy operations of the whole system. Artificial stimulants however, differ materially from the former class, inasmuch as they create an unnatural action on a part or parts of the system, and, in a state of health, do not in any degree assist the functions of nature, but on

* Mateira Medica and Therapeutics. By Professor Thompson, page 127.