PREFACE. AT the threshold the Author deems it necessary to state, that the following pages are intended more for the general than the professional reader, as they form but a selection from a professional MS. it has long been in contemplation to publish, but which has been deferred from time to time, for reasons which need not here be stated. To adopt a word of modern coinage it has not been deemed expedient so to do. It has, however, been thought, that there might be usefulness in aiming to popularize, at a cheap rate, some of the more important facts connected with the subject. With this view the present selection has been made. From more than one chapter no extract whatever has been taken; as, for instance, that on post mortem examinations. The same remark might almost be extended to physiology,—that small portion with which the other matter is occasionally interwoven being scarcely entitled to the name. Be sides these, many other points have been altogether withheld, for no other reason than that their insertion would have swollen the pamphlet to unreasonable dimensions. Still, upon so important and extensive a subject-one which has ever been a commodious theme of raillery to the gay, and declamation to the serious, which has so often been ridiculed with all the pleasantry of wit, and exaggerated with all the amplifications of rhetoric, it is anything but easy to avoid overstepping the limits originally chalked out. Professional subjects cannot be investigated or explained in diction purely popular; yet though narrowed by such a curb, the Author would fain hope that these pages may possess a more substantial claim to notice than that of mere novelty, and that when they are submitted to a healthy digestion, the proportion of real nutriment will not be inconsiderable. Considering how common a malady drunkenness is, it is truly surprising that so few medical writers have devoted their attention to it, or employed their pens in its delineation. In this age of literary fecundity, one would have supposed, that the press (that Midwife-General to the brain) would have brought forth a numerous progeny. Yet, so far as my information extends, Dr. Trotter's Essay, published in 1814, and the "Anatomy of Drunkenness," recently published by Macknish, are the only works written ex professo upon the subject. Small portions, it is true, of this field of medical inquiry have at various times been plentifully manured by the fertilizing productions of numerous writers ;-so that the whole now affords a rich harvest, into which as yet few sickles have been introduced. The Author is not for whining at the depravity of the times; he is not disposed to paint a gloomy prospect ;-neither needs the reader be alarmed, lest by the perusal of these pages he should be led to suspect the seeds of disease in every cup. All these he leaves, most willingly, to those declaimers who love to mourn over the degeneracy of the age. As to temperance it has now been so frequently lauded as to leave little more to be desired upon this point, except, that we should talk of it less and practise it more. In short, it has been attempted to comprise as much entertaining matter as could be given along with useful knowledge, and as much knowledge as could be conveyed in an amusing form. After all, the present is rather an attempt at what may be accomplished than the accomplishment itself; and ore is still left in the mine which the Author has been exploring, that well deserves smelting for general currency. Skipton, May 1st, 1832. PRACTICAL ESSAY. HORATIO. Is it a custom ? But to my mind, though I am native here, And to the manner born, it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the observance, This heavy-headed revel, east and west, From our achievements though perform'd at height, The pith and marrow of our attribute. SHAKSPEARE, GENERAL REMARKS. INTOXICATION, is less a vice of modern than of ancient times. It is no longer the practice to drink down the evening, and drink up the morning star. The Bacchanalian feats of the polite Greeks, and lordly Romans, far out-strip any thing which men of modern times have been able to exhibit. Betwixt the drinking habits, and the general manners of nations, there is, of course, an intimate connection; and an inquiry into the influence of wine on national character, offers an extensive and highly interesting field of disquisition, There is little doubt, that national character, as well as form, and other material qualities, depend as much on climate, and physical circumstances, as on government, education, religion and laws; and in the history of manners, it is more than B |