advocate of strong stimuli," says Dr. G. R. Dods, "would accompany us to a few post-mortem examinations of individuals who have persevered in such habits, or were called to witness, like us, the sufferings they previously endured, they would feel horrified at their own folly and ignorance, and, if they were wise, would never touch the dangerous bowl again. But whatever men may think, and however they may act, still it is true, that the use of ardent spirits, now so prevalent, is one of the greatest evils that has ever befallen the human race. It is a second curse, which seems destined completely to destroy every blossom of beauty and virtue which the first left blanched and drooping here and there upon the face of the earth."1

The effects of drunkenness are not confined to the actual drinkers. "I have observed," says Mr. Poynder, clerk of the Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, "that the children of dram-drinkers are generally of diminutive size, of unhealthy appearance, and sickly constitution." This might well be expected, not only because a feeble constitution must be communicated to them by their intemperate parents, but also because they are generally brought up amid frequent cold and hunger, nakedness and 1 Report on Drunkenness, p. 225.

See an admirable paper on the results of intemperance, appended to the Report on Drunkenness, pp. 417-425.

filth. Nor are the hereditary effects of drunkenness confined to the body. The mind also is frequently affected. "The drunkard," says Dr. Browne, formerly of the Dumfries Institution for Lunatics, "not only injures and enfeebles his own nervous system, but entails mental disease upon his family. His daughters are nervous and hysterical; his sons are weak, wayward, eccentric, and sink insane under the presence of excitement, of some unforeseen exigency, or of the ordinary calls of duty. . . . . Some time since, I was called upon to treat a remarkably fine boy, about sixteen years old, among whose relatives no case of derangement could be pointed out, and for whose sudden malady no cause could be assigned, except puberty and a single glass of spirits. His father, however, had been a confirmed drunkard, was subject to the delirium and the depression following inebriety, and died of delirium tremens. .. At present I have two patients who appear to inherit a tendency to unhealthy action of the brain, from mothers addicted to drinking; and another, an idiot, whose father was a drunkard."1

Alas! how many miserable lives and early deaths must be attributed to the intemperance of parents! We hesitate not to say, that many an intemperate

1 See The Moral Statistics of Glasgow, p. 21.

person, whom man's law cannot reach, has done more to deserve the doom of a MURDERER than some who have hung in chains. We may well be horrorstruck when we read of the father of a family, in a sudden paroxysm of madness, seizing a knife and murdering his family; but have we not more reason to stand aghast at the conduct of the wretch who systematically feeds his depraved appetite at the expense of the health and lives of the little ones of whom God made him the guardian, but of whom strong drink has made him the destroyer?

It is a great pleasure to see "the cup that cheers but not inebriates" displacing "the star wormwood." But it were well too that the peculiar function of tea and coffee in the nourishment of our frame were borne in mind. In some slight degree they may contribute to the support of the body in general, but their peculiar office is to revive the nerves and brain. Taken in small quantities, their effect is most beneficial, especially to those whose nerves and brain. are exposed to a severe strain. But taken in large quantities, and especially when taken as the principal part of the nourishment, they can only tend to stimulate the nervous system unduly, and ultimately, perhaps, undermine it. The practice cannot be recommended, said to be somewhat common among females who take little exercise, of living chiefly

upon bread and tea.

Broken sleep and trembling

limbs are likely to result.

Of damp, exposure to excessive cold, and insufficient clothing as causes of disease, we have not left ourselves space to say anything. We must hasten to a close by calling attention to the great goodness of God in providing, on the most liberal scale, nearly all the principal elements that contribute to the preservation of health.

Three of these are air, water, and light. Of the influence of pure air and clean water we have already spoken. The influence of light has not yet been brought to the test of equally definite facts, but the principle is fully established, that the absence of light is a cause of disease, and the presence of light a means of cure. We once had occasion to visit a young person reduced to the last stage of feebleness, and apparently at the very brink of death. So weak was she that she could scarcely articulate a whisper, and she was incapable of the slightest motion. Termday came, and the family had to remove to another house. We laid it down as a thing undoubted that the fatigue and exposure would kill her. With fear and trembling we called, a few days after, to see if she were still alive. To our amazement, she herself met us at the door. She had begun to recover from the first hour of her occupying her new apartment.

No other explanation could be given, but that she had exchanged a very dark and dismal apartment for a light and cheerful one. God's own littlethought-of medicine had worked the cure.

While the luxuries of life are produced in but small quantities, and at far distant spots, the essentials of life are almost everywhere abundant. Abundant certainly in this country are air, water, and light. No one has to go far for any of them. But it would seem as if the indolence and folly of men had formed a league against them. If an army of jailors besieged certain houses, employing all their vigilance and energy to prevent the entrance of fresh air, and compel the inmates to breathe over and over again the impure stuff that had already done its work, they could hardly be more efficient than the ignorance and prejudices of the inmates often are now. If fresh water were as costly as champagne, and if a tax were imposed each time it were used to cleanse the person, the house, or the clothing, its use could hardly be more rare than it is in some families now. If pure light were compounded of precious stones instead of the seven colours of the rainbow, it could hardly be more a stranger in certain chambers than it is now. This ignorant and thoughtless rejection of some of the best physical gifts of heaven, is not merely a blunder against the interests of man,

L