abdomen; and hemorrhagic discharges from the surface of his inferior extremities were observed in several places; and these discharges continued until the close of life. The quantity lost in this manner was many ounces, nor would kreosote or pyroligneous acid, or any other remedy modify in the least the sanguineous discharge. I have also known old cicatrized wounds to bleed anew in such subjects, previous to their decease; and blistered surfaces to become extremely annoying. It is difficult to set forth the numerous modifications of disordered action manifested in the extremities; the inferior limbs are the special seat of suffering, because these parts partake largely of that indirect debility which so certainly follows improvident excitement. Sometimes we see in these desperate habits the elephantine leg. A formidable catalogue of cutaneous affections is a legitimate sequel to a long course of intemperance. Five of the most protracted cases of ichtyosis for which I have prescribed, owed their origin to the depraved condition induced by gross intoxication. The tuberculated aspect of Bardolph's face is but a very limited part of the cutaneous annoyances of inebriety. "The brain of the intemperate is the rallying point of much disorganizing action; but to detail all the morbid changes of this organ from this cause, would trespass too much on your circumscribed limits. Dissections have shown preternatural fulness of a venous character; the membranes of the brain gorged with blood; in some instances, where the patient has perished from protracted delirium tremens, traces of the inordinate operation of the poison have been most distinctly seen at the basilar or inferior portion of the skull, and a highly vascular or surcharged state of the whole brain, but more especially of the pia mater, with serous effusion between it and the arachnoid tunic. The substance of the brain itself is generally more or less invaded by serum, and hence the uncommon moisture of its cut surfaces: in the lateral ventricles as well as at the base of the brain, large quantities of serum have also been remarked. Dr. Cooke, of London, in his work on nervous diseases, has stated the case of a man who was brought dead into the Westminster Hospital, who had just drank a quart of gin for a wager. The evidences of death being quite conclusive, he was immediately examined, and within the lateral ventricles of the brain was found a considerable quantity of a limpid fluid, distinctly impregnated with gin, both to the sense of smell and taste, and even to the test of inflammability. Dr. Kirk, of Scotland, has given a like fact by the dissection of the dead body of an inebriate. The fluid of the lateral ventricles of the brain exhaled the smell of whiskey; and when he applied a candle to it, in a spoon, it burnt with a 'lambent, blue flame.' "I have repeatedly had cases partaking much of the same character, falling under my own inspection. Upon removing the bony covering of the brain, the exhalation of ardent spirits on several occasions was strongly manifested to the olfactories of the bystanders, as also the effused fluid, conspicuous for its quantity and quality. On one occasion while holding an inquest over the body of a drunkard suddenly cut off, some spectators who entered the room where the anatomical examination was made, asked what puncheon of rum we had opened. It is worthy of record, that these effusions of serum from peculiar circumstances, as by injury from falling, or blows inflicted, take place most rapidly in some instances. I have known five ounces of serous fluid taken from the lateral ventricles of a gross drunkard within two short hours after his zig-zag pedestrian movements were arrested by an accidental blow on the head. What portion, indeed, of so copious effusion existed in the cerebral organ while life still sustained its controlling influence, I am at a loss to calculate. The occurrence is, nevertheless, instructive, because it shows us that the citadel of thought may become the receptacle of agents whose influence, at war with the wholesome exercise of the mental faculties, predisposes to extreme mobility in the nervous system, and, from the slightest causes, urges on with perhaps an irregular, but yet certain issue, to the complete dethronement of all its noble prerogatives. Other post obit examinations of a similar sort, might be stated corroborative of this sad condition of the brain, whose manifestations of deranged sensation, too clearly showed how far removed from a sound condition were the faculties. Hence the sudden invasion of palsy, of epilepsy, and of apoplexy, occurring in many after a debauch: hence, on some occasions, upon an investigation into the morbid anatomy of the structural part of the brain itself, we discover a preternatural softness of its substance, a pulpy disorganization, (ramollissement,) and that its texture has lost its distinctive peculiarities, not unlike the specimens of disorganization ascertained in some fatal cases of malignant typhus. The same abnomal state of the brain may be often witnessed in cases of death, induced by the profuse drinking of cold water in days of ardent solar heat, by persons long accustomed to diffusible stimuli, and the rapidity with which decomposition goes on in these cases is another occurrence worthy of record. As the mental action is determined by the modification of structure and condition of the brain, and every variety of the manifestation of the mental principle depends upon the condition of the cerebral organ, we feel warranted in believing that all undue or immoderate effort of the intellect, as well as every cause acting disproportionably upon the brain, either disturbs, or impairs, or destroys, its wonted integrity. What sad havoc must consequently arise in the premises, when a cohort of rebellious forces invades the sanctuary of the mind, as in delirium tremens, and in the over-wrought and worn out nervous system? No intellectual faculty suffers so severely and so generally as memory in this deranged state of the brain; no memoria technica can supply the loss occasioned by habitual inebriation. He who indulges in the spring-time of life in alcoholic potations, will assuredly find in the autumnal period, his strongest recollections but the feeble vestiges of by-gone associations, whether of words or things. Conversing on a particular occasion, with a distinguished character of pre-eminent renown in his walk in life, and expressing my surprise at the tenacity of his memory, considering his abuse of the intellectual faculties by pernicious indulgence, he disclosed to me the mortifying truth that he could no longer commit a new reading, that the studies of to-day were forgotten on the morrow "but Shakspeare I retain (adds he) with undiminished freshness his language is so adhesive." Notwithstanding this adhesiveness, Othello was but a blank in this great tragedian's recollections, ere his histrionic career closed.* To adopt the surgeon's phraseology, there is a solution of continuity in the powers of ratiocination and of memory in the brain of the drunkard. "The thoracic viscera suffer excessively in many cases, and undergo great and permanent changes from intemperance. In those of strong predisposition to pulmonary mischief; in habits of a strumous or scrofulous nature we find tubercular formations, and the several changes of disordered structure, the result of over wrought action, or inflammation. Sometimes the lungs may be freed of this oppressed state by hemorrhage, and their texture be released for a season, but the lesions thus induced are only the precursors of ulcerative action in other subjects the previous tubercles secure their disastrous triumphs by purulent secretion and death. It is surprising that writers have not more generally adverted to the frequency of pulmonary consumption as occasioned by hard drinking. Dr. M'Lean assures me he has attended at least fifty cases of fatal consumption of the lungs, brought on by intemperance. Others as well as myself, have found the heart unusually enlarged, and its valves so diseased, as to occasion serious obstruction to the circulation of the blood. The hyperthrophy of this important organ, and the condition of its valves, will account for the sudden death of some alcoholic martyrs. "Every body knows that the stomach, though armed with vast conservative powers, is compelled at length to surrender to so efficient a conqueror as alcohol. Its sufferings though severe are too often unheeded. Its most conspicuous changes upon inspection are the conditions of the mucous or villous coat; softened, or removed by absorption in its greater or cardiac extremity, while nearer its smaller or pyloric portion, this membrane in a majority of cases is thickened, of a slaty colour, with its surface uneven or nippled, the results of chronic irritation. In other instances, the mucous coat is seen studded with highly-coloured appearances of vascular fulness. In inebriates, suddenly destroyed by drinking cold water, in a state of high excitement and in very warm weather, I have found this vascular peculiarity more diffused and more vivid, with marks of abrasion. For want of a better name I have sometimes called it a stellated form of inflammation. In every immoderately warm summer we have examples of this pathological nature. In the ardent summer of 1825, I examined about thirty cases of death by cold water, in nearly all of whom were found this morbid alteration of the stomach. "Intemperance exercises a singularly direct and potent influence on the liver: the spleen and pancreas are also deeply affected by long-continued hard drinking. The last mentioned organ is in some cases found to be scirrhous: the spleen is not unfrequently in a state of turgescence. In one subject I found it augmented to * The late celebrated tragedian, Edmund Kean, Esq.-ED. three times the common size: its structure is now and then extremely soft and yielding, or what is termed grumous. The researches of the pathologist have led him to describe several striking alterations in the liver: of all the abdominal organs perhaps it suffers most; and hence the despondency so often consequent upon the vice of hard drinking. The liver may become by habitual intoxication preternaturally hard or scirrhous: it may be studded with tubercles, and these may be more or less deep-seated in its texture or superficial, with or without suppuration: its whole structure may also be changed it may be obstructed and become extraordinarily enlarged; and it is worthy of remark, that the inordinate plethora of the blood-vessels, which so generally accompanies excess in eating and hard-drinking, here evinces its detrimental influence in the most palpable manner. I once asked old Mr. Fife, the Anatomist at Edinburgh, who was many years dissector at the University, how great was the largest sized liver he had ever encountered in his preparations of dead bodies for collegiate purposes? He answered fifty pounds!! and this occurred in the person of an inebriate who had long lived in the East Indies. When we consider that the ordinary weight of this viscus may vary in a healthy state, from four to seven or eight or nine pounds, it might have been inferred that such a formidable liver would have created bile enough for a whole army; yet this man died with a deficiency of this secretion. The livers of those who abuse their constitutions by alcohol, are, however, generally preternaturally diminished, of a pale straw colour, with few traces of blood-vessels and in a hardened or indurated state: this contracted state doubtless follows the enlarged condition usually the result of long-continued disease in this organ. Sometimes excessive indulgence in fermented drinks, will augment the size of this gland to an enormous extent: thus at least I have found it in a limited number of dissections. "The venal organs are in some rare examples, partakers of the inconveniences and changes arising from alcohol. From their being summoned to inordinate action, they occasionally take what pathologists have termed a granular degeneration. I have rarely examined the state of the kidneys and have made no investigations confirmatory of this view, though this disorganized structure has been lately pointed out to me, and Dr. Bright assures us it is often seen in the kidney of the sot. Some few years past I saw an example of great enlargement of the left kidney, which upon being opened discharged nearly two quarts of purulent secretion. The sufferer had long been accustomed in secret, to excessive drinking, and his morbid anatomy in divers parts was a notable display of those ravages of inebriety on the constitution, so familiar to the pathological inquirer. In another drunkard, I witnessed ischuria blended with cerebral symptoms. He had laboured under diabetes some five weeks, and was much exhausted: the diabetic discharge suddenly ceasing, coma supervened and he lived but a few hours. 66 'Having noticed briefly the changes which occur in the heart, the liver, and in the kidneys, I might now refer to dropsy as a general result, of disease in these several organs. But there is no need that I should describe its pathological relations. Whenever dropsy occurs in the intemperate, whether in the chest, around the lungs, or around the heart, in the abdominal cavities or in the general cellular tissues, as seen in the lower limbs, or in the bloated face, we are admonished that more latent disease in the heart, the liver, or in the kidneys is at work, and have grounds to apprehend the most serious consequences. "More circumstantial details of altered structure might be given you, and other parts be noticed, inasmuch as pathology is enriched with truths derived from an acquaintance with the malign changes wrought on the human economy by alcohol: but I should exceed my prescribed intentions to detail them on this occasion. It may justly be said that not a blood-vessel, nor a nerve, nor a tissue escapes the influence of the poison: the whole animal machine is the theatre of its display. "With sentiments of regard, I remain most truly your friend. "To C. A. LEE, M. D. "JOHN W. FRANCIS." C. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.-PROVERBS. Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner-honest water, which ne'er left man i' th' mire.-SHAKSPEARE. Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty: For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; Nor did not, with unbashful forehead woo 1. Evidence in approval of water as a common beverage. 2. Testimonies of individuals who have abandoned the use of intoxicating liquors 3. Temperance favourable to ongevity. 4. Statements relative to the health of certain tribes who absiain from the use of strong drink. 5. Illustrations of the effects of Intemperance. 6. Fffects of intoxicating liquors during lactation on the health both of parents and children. 1. EVIDENCE IN APPROVAL OF WATER AS A COMMON BEVERAGE. "My father was a weakly child; he was taken early to Geneva, where a celebrated medical professor, who had formerly been a pupil of the great Boernaave, was consulted on his case. He advised that he should use much exercise, and drink nothing but water. He adhered strictly to that advice; and when, in after years, his habits became sedentary, he still used only water. He |