And as the propensities and desires usually descend in the line of the father, his love of stimulants is more liable to be transmitted than are his talents thus visiting the iniquities of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generations.

A committee of the British Parliament, in their report on this subject, say "Intemperate parents, according to high medical testimony, give a taint to their offspring. The poisonous stream of ardent spirits is conveyed through the milk of the mother to the infant at the breast, so that the fountain of life, through which nature supplies that pure and healthy nutriment in infancy, is poisoned at its source. A diseased appetite is created, which grows with its growth, and strengthens with its increasing weakness and decay." *

*The following fact, from a writer on Physiology, corroborates the above position :—

Three brothers by the name of Downing, who emigrated with William Penn, and took up land on Chester Creek, which still remains in the family, were all remarkably honest, industrious, and temperate as have been all their descendants-except those of one, "flower of the flock," who was a state senator, and by being much in public life, learned to sing songs, crack jokes, and drink wine after dinner, and other stimulants, till he felt merry, yet never to absolute drunkenness.

A daughter of his, not known to have loved stimulants, and an excellent woman, had four sons, three of whom were noted drunkards; and the fourth was fast following in the same steps, but saw his danger, and took in a reef or two, yet would get disguised on public days. One of these four brothers had two sons, one of whom died at twenty-two, an occasional tippler; and the other is a confirmed sot. The eldest of these four brothers had five children by a superior wife; two sons of which, in spite of the restraining influences of the mother, formed drinking habits,

Dr. Caldwell remarks, that "in hundreds of instances, parents who have had children born while their habits were temperate, have become afterwards intemperate, and had other children born. In such cases, it is matter of notoriety that the younger children have become addicted to the practice of intoxication much more frequently than the elder, in the proportion of five to one.'

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In fact, a drunken parent can never be the father or mother of sound and healthy children. Think of this, fathers and mothers, when you behold children for whose early depravity, and imperfect organization you are unable to account. True, intemperate habits in the parent, is only one of several causes of depraved and imperfect offspring; nor is it designed to teach here, that all are not depraved, but simply that intemperance in the parent, usually has a decided effect upon the organization of the child, and is an exciting cause of youthful depravity.

There is, in fact, no good quality in alcohol: it has no redeeming virtue; it contributes to no man's health-it protracts no man's life. It fosters no devotion in the divine; it imparts no skill to the physician-no power to the advocate; it develops no ingenuity in the mechanic; it adds no strength or power of endurance to the laborer. Every where its influence is evil, and only evil continually.

but were reclaimed by the temperance movement. Thus most of the descendents, as far as known, for five generations, of this wine-loving senator, except one daughter, inherited a love of stimulants; and this love increased as it descended.

CHAPTER III.

ALCOHOL A POISON.

THAT alcohol is a poison, is a well settled factby the testimony of all who are best qualified to judge.

Chemists, whose business it is to analyze the properties of substances, and to settle the verdict of a jury of inquest in case of death by poison, testify that the substance which intoxicates, and which men so much love and seek in brandy, rum, wine, and other liquors, is alcohol- one of the most active and powerful of the narcotic vegetable poisons.

And what is the testimony of the most eminent medical authorities on this point?

The highest medical authorities of Great Britain, being examined in large numbers before the committee appointed by the British Parliament to inquire into the causes of drunkenness, unanimously testified as follows:-"Ardent spirits are absolutely poisonous to the human constitution; that in no case whatever are they necessary, or even useful to persons in health; that they are always, in every case, and to the smallest extent, deleterious, pernicious, or destructive, according to the proportions in which they may be taken into the system.

The celebrated Sir Astley Cooper, than whom no one could be more qualified to give an opinion on

the subject, has declared- "I never suffer ardent spirits in my house, thinking them evil spirits: and if the poor could witness the white livers, the dropsies, the shattered, nervous systems which I have seen, as the consequences of drinking, they would be aware that spirits and poisons are synonymous

terms."

The learned Dr. Darwin, F. R. S., includes wine, beer, and cider, in his list of vegetable poisons, because they contain alcohol. Opium he ranks first, alcohol second, after this, distilled laurel water, essential oil of tobacco, deadly night-shade, henbane, cocculus indicus, nux vomica, hemlock, &c.

Dr. Gordon, physician to the London Hospital, observed to the English parliamentary committee, that "it would be difficult to find a more destructive poison than ardent spirits." Dr. Farre, before the same committee, delared that alcohol is in the "strict sense a poison."

Between three and four hundred physicians in the city of New York, and about seven thousand in America and Europe, have added their testimony to that of the medical authorities before cited, that alcohol is a destructive poison. Thus we have arrayed before us, a jury of more than seven thousand men, disinterested and intelligent, and in every respect competent to settle the question. In opposition to such evidence, will any man declare that alcohol in any form is a wholesome or a harmless beverage?

OTHER INTOXICATING BEVERAGES BESIDES ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

Man naturally seeks pleasurable excitements, which has led to the invention of various stimulating beverages.

The Israelites early learned that the luscious fruit of Eshcol would ferment, and produce exhilaration. Noah, immediately after he left the ark, planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine produced therein. Besides the common juice of the grape, it is evident from the strength of the beverages drank among the Israelites, that they were acquainted with the art of mixing stupifying and exhilarating drugs with their wine. The means of intemperance were possessed by the antediluvians, as is evident from the drunkenness of Noah and others. And very likely drunkenness was one of the crying sins that incensed the Creator to bring a flood upon the old world.

In India, a powerful liquor is produced by fermenting the sweet sap of the palm-tree, and afterwards extracting the spirit by the use of the alembic, or still-as is likewise done from a fermented liquor made by steeping rice in water. Both these liquors are known as Arrack; the first is said to partake much of the qualities of rum, and the latter of whiskey. Arrack, manufactured from rice, is said to have been in use in India at the time of Alexander's expedition to that country, and is mentioned by the historians of that period as rice wine.

Another agent of intoxication, in popular use