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rangement; a state in which a vast proportion of drunkards may be considered as nosologically placed.

In the preceding pages it has been attempted, more than once, to shew that the disorder of the digestive organs is often secondary to that of the brain. It has also been attempted to be shewn, the vast influence which the digestive organs have upon the brain, the organ of the intellectual functions. Moreover than this, it has been repeatedly stated, that the diseases of the one and the diseases of the other, are frequently co-existant. The best authorities concur in stating that insanity is, in a great majority of cases, a sympathetic affection; and from a collection of dissections by distinguished Anatomists and Physicians of the very highest character, it appears that more than one in five corpses of maniacs, present no evidence of any disease whatever!

OBSERVATIONS.

The catalogue of diseases now given, formidable as it may appear to some, contains those only which most frequently assail the drunkard. It would be manifestly impossible to enumerate in the space allotted, all the minor complaints to which drunkenness gives rise, and were it otherwise, it would be to transgress my plan. The complaints here enumerated are, in fact, but a tithe of the whole; for to give an account of all the diseases which habitual intoxication either increases, complicates, or renders more dangerous, would be no less a task than to go through the whole nosology. Several ailments which levy severe contributions on health and happiness, and which might, with propriety, have here found a place, have purposely been withheld. I may mention, once for all, that the complaints produced by adulterations have been

designedly withheld;-as the cholica-pictonum and others. Nor has any thing been said of maladies which are the offspring of those enervating pleasures, which are sometimes associated with drunkenness, and which are frequently the portion of debauchees who wallow in voluptuousness. These diseases may truly be said to be the interest of pleasures. Those have also been purposely passed over, from motives which the reader will readily discover.

Neither has any mention been made of the inebriate's situation, should he be overtaken with any serious accident. Every hospital surgeon can attest, that dray-men, coal-heavers, hackney-coachmen, and the numerous tribe of gin-drinkers, are the most unfavourable subjects for severe injuries; for in them, even a trifling injury, is sometimes followed by the most serious constitutional disturbance.

It was an axiom amongst the ancients, that acute diseases are from heaven, and chronic ones from ourselves; and it is these latter, to which the inebriate is chiefly subjected. In any acute disease, however produced, whether by intemperance or otherwise, it requires not a moment's consideration to foresee, that the drunkard stands a far worse chance of recovery, than the man of sober habits; for all acute diseases, and nine-tenths of chronic ones, are improved by abstinence from excitement of every description. The maladies glanced at in the foregoing rapid coup d'oeil are, for the most part, of slow growth, and steal upon the person unawares;-and it is only by slow measures that they can be eradicated, when eradicated at all. Some of them mask themselves behind unsuspicious phenomena,—and in this way, the constitution is slowly sapped : but the cases are far more numerous, in which the premonitory symptoms, are either overlooked altogether, or if seen, totally disregarded. Most of the diseases

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just enumerated are, in the beginning, merely functional:step by step, matters get worse, till at length, they become organic;-but a long period sometimes elapses, before they assume this character. Acute diseases come on rapidly, andsometimes reach their acmé in a few hours: they make their attack on horseback. Chronic diseases, on the contrary, as their very name and nature implies, come on and advance by slow degrees. But both the one and the other retire on foot.

Nothing can be more fallacious, than the bacchanalian conclusions which are sometimes drawn from instances of great drinkers proving long livers. To be healthy, and habitually intemperate at the same time, is an event, lying but just within the verge of possibility. There are, to be sure, a very few individuals whose Herculean stomachs would resist almost any thing. But every healthy toper, ought to be regarded as a decoy duck ;-and no more proves that health is safe in intemperance, than an unwounded soldier proves that life is secure in a battle.

As to the difference betwixt excess in eating and excess in drinking, I may take this occasion to observe, that the former, is, in my belief, the more immediately injurious of the two. The vessels sooner unload themselves from excess in drinking, by the various secretions, Large quantities of solids in the stomach interrupt digestion in the first place;derange the circulation, and by the stimulus they give to the heart and arteries, give a decided bent to, and pave the way for chronic inflammation. By their bulk too, they press the stomach against the diaphragm, and descending aorta,

The water-drinker glides through life without any exhilerations, or much depression-is subject to few diseases, and mostly preserves his senses and faculties to a late period

of life. He is generally more calm, prudent, and considerate, than those who use fermented liquors.

The drinker of genuine malt-liquor passes through life more merrily, and more speedily: but is subject to a few more diseases,

The wine-bibber has vivid periods of rapture, with long intervals of gloom.

The spirit drinker fares still worse:-his life is still shorter, and he is subject to numerous diseases.

The dram-drinker's condition is the worst of all, and he is quickly cut off. In his life there is no noon; it is all spring and winter.

From the preceding pages we have seen that habitual intoxication makes the most fatal havoc both upon the body and the mind-that it not only plucks up flowers, but plants thorns in their room-that it is a powerful agent in the aggravation of maladies which may incidentally supervene from other causes, and that it may be said, in round numbers, to be an engine by which those who are not killed are disabled.

That period of apparent health which intervenes between the commencement of the habit of intoxication, and the open manifestation of disease, may be well enough termed the period of incubation.

When we survey this appalling assemblage of miserythis total shipwreck of health, fame, and fortune, we can scarcely avoid coming to the conclusion, that to be an habitual drunkard is voluntarily to accept the chaplet of infamy.

Were a knowledge of the facts herein mentioned, more generally diffused amongst drunkards, it might, probably, tend to lessen their achievements, if it did not lessen their number.

TREATMENT DURING THE FIT.

Notwithstanding all this confusion-this universal uproar in all the bodily and mental functions (the inevitable result of every attempt which a man makes to "moisten his clay"), it is undeniable, that in 99 cases out of 100, no treatment whatever is required:-except, that can be called treatment which consists in putting His Highness to bed as soon as possible, with his head and shoulders well raised, and his head inclined a little to one side. The case may then be pretty safely handed over to Dame Nature, who generally takes precious good care of all her hopeful sons.

It happens, however, occasionally, that when a man is self-deprived of all sense and motion, and is in that state usually denominated Dead Drunk, that he is considered, and very properly so, in some jeopardy. In fine, he is, or ought to be considered, as under the danger of an impending apoplexy. In all such cases, the first and paramount indication is to evacuate the contents of the stomach. For this purpose, warm water is to be poured down the throat; and the expulsive force of the stomach ought to be further solicited, by irritating the fauces with a feather. These means alone will, in many cases, induce the stomach to eject the inebriating fluid. Olive oil is sometimes employed. In the choice of an emetic some circumspection is necessary. A gentle one may prove inefficient, and a powerful one, might either rupture the stomach, or produce irreparable mischief to its coats. When it is necessary to exhibit an emetic, ipecacuanha will be found the safest, to which may be joined some