But the majority of mankind who only commit a debauch occasionally-do upon these occasions exceed the bounds of moderation in eating as well as drinking.

The evils of repletion, too, are often aggravated by previous inanition, in consequence of the prevailing fashion of late and large dinners;-a daily alternation of emptiness and oppression neither agreeable to the first dictates of common sense nor common stomachs. The stomach, to be sure, does, occasionally, mark its sense of such treatment,-when, after vainly struggling to incorporate the chaotic mass with which its Epicurean master has thought proper to oppress it-it takes the liberty to throw back its whole contents. This is a practical mode of inculcating moderation, far more effectual than can be accomplished by medical precepts, or mere inanimate logic. The stomach, by the way, is one of the most gentlemanly organs in the body, and so long as it is properly treated, conducts itself as such. Ever kind and accommodating, it does its best to amalgamate the heterogeneous compounds with which it is sometimes encumbered. But how can continual outrage be born? By reiterated insults it is rendered extremely capricious, and sooner or later, is sure to revenge itself upon all those who have presumed to trifle with its texture. It may not be amiss to remind some and inform others, more particularly those who eat round the table, "ab ovo usque ad mala"-that a man is not nourished according to the amount which he eats, but in proportion to the quantity which he digests. The remembrance of this fact

Home, the Author of "Douglass," who occasionally lived in London, used to eat nothing for dinner on a Sunday, but a poached egg. By the periodical holiday thus given to the stomach, he was enabled to bear the luxuries of the Capital,

would save the stomach much needless drudgery-and the whole tract of the alimentary canal a great deal of unnecessary trouble. The gourmand (the road to whose heart is down his throat) thinks with the French that digestion is the stomach's affair, indigestion that of the Doctor.

As to the habitual drunkard, he generally turns a deaf ear to the precepts of the moralist, and counsel falls upon his ear "as profitless as water in a seive." Many habitual drunkards are early risers: sleep they cannot. The morbid thirst, parched lips, and longing for a dram force them to rise, that they may try to rid themselves of these sensations. The stomach has been so long accustomed to stimuli that it is never easy without them. As to breakfast the inebriate seldom gets any; or if he does he is sick-and the stomach rejects it. But whether he takes breakfast or not he is always subject to nausea. One reason for his early rising is the knowledge that a breakfast will not sit quite pleasantly upon the stomach without a cushion:-that cushion is a dram. To him the delicious potion has long ceased to bring back its first enchantments. The morning hangs heavily upon him ;—he tries to "goad the lingering moments into speed"-and is miserable till he gets once more immersed in the fumes of the vinous or spirituous debauch! The feelings with which a man awakes, whether drunk or sober, deternfine, for the most part, the character of the future day.

There are few drunkards who do not exhibit a general trembling, more especially when they have just awoke from sleep. This tremor is more particularly seen in the arms and hands ;-but the feet totter, and there is such a flickering and quivering of the lips and mouth, that distinct utterance is denied. There is a twitching of the tendinous extremities of

the muscles. All this seems to be the result of debility and a worn out nervous energy, where the brain has lost all power over certain voluntary muscles, and they act independently of the will. The depressing passions alone will sometimes produce it. The dram, or morning-nip to which the toper has recourse, is taken to bring him within the range of comfortable feeling. In this way he quells the upbraidings of his stomach, and coaxes it into good temper. This, however, is but too often only the forerunner of one or two more; and these are taken not merely to disperse the uncomfortable feelings of the stomach, but to cure the trembling. The tremor is certainly allayed by a dram: like the spear of Telephos it seems to heal the wounds it had made. The method adopted is, however, of all others, that which is most calculated to make matters worse; for, from the transient relief obtained, he is induced to abridge the intervals betwixt each cup-and thus more and more confirm himself in the habit. When a chain of muscular fibres is once excited to action, there is a strong tendency in it to repeat the same movements ; and a habit of recurrence once formed is difficult to break through.

Such are a few of the phenomena usually attendant upon these gastric achievements, which, accompanied as they are by such a strong effervescence of the passions, introduce a group of corporeal and mental discomforts, and not unfrequently make a wide inroad upon the domain of a wellregulated mind. In the vigour of health and youth this expenditure is not much felt; but nature is not to be cozened. A person in sound health, can require no such excitement of his frame; and by frequently inducing this state of preternatural strength, he must, sooner or later, exhaust the

vital powers, for there is no imprudence with regard to health that does not tell. Habitual drunkenness is neither more nor less, than to mortgage miserable morrows for nights of madness-and to purchase, by ten thousand miseries, the privilege of repentance !

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DIAGNOSIS.

THERE is an external character,-an aspect,-a cast of countenance, a tint of eye in the inebriate, even in his sober moments, which stamps him unequivocally. There is an awkwardness, a heaviness in his gait. His hand trembles. The face is bloated-the cheek pulpy;—but the fulness has a peculiar flabbiness very different from sound and healthy fat. Some are sallow, with small red streaks in the cheeks; but more frequently the face is of a dingy, dirty hue, which no ablution will remove, even should he wash with oriental scrupulosity. The beer drinker is heavy and unweildy-the wine bibber has a fine florid complexion, and often that emblem of beauty a pursed-chin.-The dram drinker looks haggard ;-has an appearance of ferocity in his countenance mingled with a dash of despair. An inflamed eye is a common attendant. His lips are furry and swollen ;—a thickened lip is considered as a regular index of intemperance. He is always smacking his lips, for his mouth is parched and clammy. There is an indistinctness in his speech:-his breath is fœtid. Whatever may be the physiological mode of accounting for it, the fact is no less certain, that most old drunkards are troubled with deafness. When sober he is dejected;-of a wavering and fickle resolution. He is often alarmed at trifles;-and even cowardly until he is again "screwed up" by a dram.

To distinguish his appearance when in liquor (or rather when the liquor is in him) requires no great discriminating tact; it seldom being confounded with any other condition.