want of wisdom in relation to the use of intoxicating drinks. In this particular, the educated and the ignorant are nearly on a par. In this particular, all proclaim the truth of the poet's declaration, that "a little learning is a dangerous thing." We need the diffusion of more knowledge on this subject. To aid in this good work is our object in writing the following pages. We have not the vanity to suppose that we shall be able to shed much more light abroad in relation to the evils resulting from our drinking customs; but, as we have been long engaged in the promotion of the temperance reformation, a few pages from us may, perhaps, be read by numbers who have never heard of the many very superior works on the subject, which have been given to the world from time to time. We are also not without a hope that our humble production may find some favour among the teachers of our youth, and be thus made instrumental in sowing seeds in good ground, that will, in after years, yield an abundant harvest of happiness.

The abandonment of the use of all kinds of intoxicating drinks is a subject of such vast importance to the present and future welfare of the people, that it should not remain unnoticed in elementary books intended for the education of our youth.

In the present chapter of this little work, therefore, we shall endeavour to give a short and clear account of the nature of alcoholic drinks, such as may tend to guard young persons against the evils caused by their use.

Alcohol is that principle in wines, ardent spirits, cider, beer, ale, and porter, which produces intoxication. It is produced in its pure state by distillation, but it exists in all fermented liquors. It is acknowledged by physicians and chemists to be one of the most dangerous poisons; it is classified as such in all works on toxicology, or the science of poiDr. Paris places it amongst those substances which destroy the functions of the nervous system by means of suffocation, from paralysis of the respiratory organs. He classes

sons.

it with oil of tobacco, and both of these substances he denominates narcotico-acrid poisons. Foderé and Orfila, distinguished French chemists, place alcohol in the same class with nux vomica, woorali, cocculus indicus, poisonous mushrooms, and other deleterious substances. In cases of death by lightning, the blood loses its power of coagulation, and remains altogether in a fluid state; this peculiarity is also observed in cases of death from the use of alcohol. Dr. Cheyne, a late eminent Dublin physician, gives it as his opinion that "should ten young men begin at twenty-one years of age to use daily but one glass of ardent spirits (of two ounces) and never increase the quantity, such are its poisonous qualities, that nine of the ten will, upon an average, each shorten life more than ten years." He describes alcoholic drinks as being most like opium in their nature and operations, and most like arsenic in their deleterious effects.

Dr. Cheyne's views as to the evil results of what is termed "moderate drinking," are sup

ported by Dr. Macnish, who says, in his Anatomy of Drunkenness:-"Having stated thus much, it is not to be inferred that I advocate the banishment of liquors of any kind from society. Though I believe mankind would be benefitted upon the whole, were such stimulants to be utterly proscribed, yet in the present state of things, and knowing the fruitlessness of any such recommendation, I do not go the length of urging their total disuse. I only would wish to inculcate moderation, and that in its proper meaning, and not in the sense too often applied to it; for, in the practice of many, moderation (so called) is intemperance, and perhaps of the most dangerous species, in so far as it becomes a daily practice, and insinuates itself under a false character, into the habits of life. Men thus indulge habitually, day by day, not perhaps to the extent of producing any evident effect either upon the body or mind at the time, and fancy themselves all the while strictly temperate; while they are, in reality, undermining

their constitution by slow degrees-killing themselves by inches, and shortening their existence several years. The quantity such persons take at a time, is perhaps moderate and beneficial if only occasionally indulged in; but, being habitually taken, it injures the health, and thus amounts to actual intemperance. It is,' says Dr. Beecher, and I fully concur with him, 'a matter of unwonted certainty, that habitual tippling is worse than periodical drunkenness. The poor Indian who once a month drinks himself dead, all but simple breathing, will outlive for years the man who drinks little and often, and is not perhaps suspected of intemperance. The use of ardent spirits daily, as ministering to cheerfulness or bodily vigour, ought to be regarded as intemperance. No person, probably, ever did or ever will receive ardent spirits into his system once a-day, and fortify his constitution against its deleterious effects, or exercise such discretion and self-government, as that the quantity will not be increased, and bodily