to "the increased use of spirituous liquors, which produces insanity." *

By a statement of Dr. Crawford, (in 1830) it appears, that the following has been the result of an inquiry recently made at the Richmond Lunatic Asylum, Dublin: The number of patients then in confinement was 286; viz., 120 males, and 166 females; of these, there were no less than 115, whose illness was known with perfect certainty, from the acknowledgment of their relatives and friends, to have been occasioned by drinking of whiskey, 58 of whom are males, and 57 females. There is no doubt whatever, remarks Dr. Crawford, that a great many more might be added to the same number, as is evident, by the general appearance of many, and the character of their disease, although positive information concerning their habits of life, cannot always be obtained; the relatives being unwilling, from a sense of shame, to admit that they were intemperate." They often, indeed, evince a singular degree of moral perversion on that subject, confidently asserting that the unfortunate sufferer was a model of temperance, when, on closer inquiry, it will frequently appear, that he was in the habit of taking a good many glasses of whiskey in the day, but was, notwithstanding considered perfectly sober, because he never indulged so far as to be unable to attend his work." +

* Parliamentary Papers, vol. viii. p. 12. 1817.

"I feel confident," adds Dr. Crawford, "that I am keeping within the strict bounds of truth in stating, that at least one out of two, of the patients now in the Asylum, have become insane in consequence of the abuse of ardent spirits, and I know, that the same has been observed in the other public Lunatic Asylums in Ireland." One class labour under various forms of melancholy, partial hallucinations, impaired mental powers, loss of memory, complete fatuity, delirium tremens, and various forms of paralysis. Those thus affected, are mostly habitual tipplers, who have long indulged in the habit of taking ardent spirits in sufficient quantity to keep up a moderate degree of excitement, but seldom, perhaps, if ever, succeeding so as to produce actual intoxication. This is probably the most dangerous mode of drinking, and also the most common; people encourage themselves in it by applying as a quietus to their reproving consciences, the deceitful excuse, that they stop short of getting drunk; they thus go on, requiring, as they proceed, a gradually increasing quantity of liquor to keep up the delusive enjoyment; their short intervals of abstinence from

R

In England and Wales, the same consequences are found to follow habits of intemperance. In a Report presented to Parliament, a few years ago, and printed by order of the House of Commons, it appears, that the pauper lunatics and idiots in the several counties of England and Wales, amounted to very nearly 10,000 in number; 5145 of which were females. By adding to this number the amount of lunatics ascertained to be confined in public and private asylums, and those in the Army and Navy; a total is produced of 13,665, a mass, which, according to Sir Andrew Halliday, is three times greater than it was twenty years ago.

*

Out of 495 patients admitted into a lunatic asylum in Liverpool, 257 were ascertained to have come to that state through intemperance. The Report of the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, at Hanwell, for 1834, states as follows: "The seventy-six deaths which have occurred in the year, have been (with the exception of those who died with advanced age) principally caused by the disease of the brain and of the lungs, and the complaints brought on by those deadly potions of ardent spirits, in which the lower classes seem, more than ever, to indulge. In a very great number of men and women, the insanity is caused entirely by spirit-drinking."

Insanity does not prevail to so great an extent in France, as in the British nation. It appears, from the statement of Dr. Bayle, that between the 1st of January, 1815, and the 1st of January, 1823, there were received into the Royal Hospital at Charenton, 847 male, and 606 female lunatic patients. Of this number, the proportion of cases arising from intemperance, was one to fifteen among the men, and one to 140 among the women. The calculations, how

drink are attended with intolerable feelings of distress, despondency and remorse, until at last, they are reduced often in the prime of life, to the degrading condition of drivelling besotted imbeciles, with constitutions broken down by a variety of hopeless and loathsome complaints. There is seldom an instance of recovery from any of the forms of insanity produced in this manner."

* Dr. Ellis, resident Physician at the County Lunatic Asylum, Middlesex, in his examination before a Committee of the House of Commons, stated, that out of thirty-eight individuals admitted last year and reported as recent cases, nineteen were known to be drunkards.-Parl. Evid., 1834, p. 46.

ever, of Dr. Hallaran, show a widely different proportion; being one to three among the men, and one to six among the women. These included those cases alone, the origin of which, could be accurately ascertained; but supposing the entire number of patients in the Asylum be included in the calculation, and that every case where the cause could not be traced, be placed on the list of those which had not arisen from intemperance, the proportion would still be one to six among the men, and one to twelve among the women, that is, in relation to France, more than double the number as regards the male sex, and nearly twelve times the proportion as respects females. The observations and experience of Dr. Esquirol, exhibit a still greater disparity. Out of 336 patients submitted to his care in the neighbourhood of Paris, he found three only, whose insanity was attributable to excessive drinking; while, according to Dr. Hallaran, at the Cork Lunatic Asylum, out of 383 male patients, 103 had been reduced to that melancholy state from the effects of intemperance.

The Reports of the Paris hospitals (Compte Rendu, &c., 1826,) however do not make so large a disproportion as in the cases above stated. Out of 2507 insane cases, which included the entire number in the hospitals of Paris, 185 are stated to have become so by drunkenness, or about one in thirteen and a-half. In Cork, the cases were one in four, where the causes of the disease could be ascertained, and one in eight on the entire.

It has almost invariably been found, that in the lunatic asylums in France and Italy, the female inmates considerably preponderate over the males. This arises, of course, from peculiar causes, which need not more particular attention.

At the Cork Asylum, however, the proportion of the sexes was found to be nearly equal, whilst in most other similar institutions in that country, the males preponderated.

It is inferred, from these statements, that some cause of insanity was in operation among the male sex in Ireland, which did not exist in France and Italy.

In America, also, intemperance has been found to be equally productive of insanity. Dr. Waters states, that

while he acted as house pupil and apothecary to the Pennsylvanian Hospital, the madness of one-third of the patients confined by this terrible disease, had been occasioned by the use of ardent spirits.*

Dr. J. V. Rensselaer, of America, states, that in his opinion, one-half of the cases of insanity which come under the care of medical men in that country, arise more or less from the use of strong drink.

In the Second Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Lunatic Asylum, Worcester, Massachusetts, it is stated, that in the year 1834, there were admitted 272 patients. Out of more than forty different causes of insanity, under which the number of the patients are affixed, are extracted four of the highest proportions, exactly as they are published in the Report. These are,

Intemperance is thus seen to be thrice more productive of insanity than the most prolific of all the other causes in the table in question. It is known, moreover, to be the principal cause of ill health and family troubles, together with many other reasons generally stated in public documents, as strong inducements to mania. It is more than probable, that great numbers of individuals are rendered insane, who have in general borne a character of temperance and sobriety. They drink freely, but not to a state of visible intoxication. The excitement thus occa- · sioned to the nervous system, on some favourable opportunity (and perhaps to the surprise of friends and relations) breaks out into fierce and incurable insanity.

* Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits, by Dr. Rush.

PART V.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FALLACY OF POPULAR OBJECTIONS EXPOSHD.

Pure water is the best drink for persons of all temperaments: it promotes a free and equable circulation of the blood, on which the due performance of every animal function depends. Water drinkers are not only the most active and vigorous, but the most healthy and cheerful.-FREDERICK HOFFMAN.

The more simple life is supported the better, and he is happy who considers water the best drink.-Dr. PARIS.

Man is naturally a water drinker, and when he is so, seldom fails to be cheerful and happy; his first step in the descending scale is to become a drinker of wine.-MICHAELIS.

AMONG the numerous objections made in reference to an abandonment of the use of intoxicating liquors, are those by which their necessity is urged as a restorative of strength in cases of extraordinary physical exertion. One of the most deeply rooted of these notions is, that which supposes stimulating liquors to be beneficial in enabling men to endure a greater amount of physical exertion. Intoxicating liquors merely stimulate or accelerate the vital actions, and do not increase the actual strength of the physical powers; on the contrary, by calling those powers into unnatural action, they diminish their permanent capability, and thus exhaust that vital energy, which, unless thus improperly interfered with, is capable of undergoing extraordinary and long-continued exertion, supported and renovated only by plain and wholesome nutriment. This important fact was well known to the ancients, among whom physical improvement was made a regular branch of education. They were, indeed, well acquainted with the fact, that those who abstain alto