TABLE I, Showing the amount of ardent spirits imported into the United States in each year from 1790. Year. Gallons. Year. Gallons. Year. Gallons. Year. Gallons. 597,414 | 1826 3,718,152 3,913,081 1827 3,537,426 4,941,732 1828 5,102,599 4,051,136 1829 3,423,884 1790 4,143,385, 1802 7,889,482 | 1814 1791 3,603,861 1803 8,525,217 1815 1792 4,567,160 1804 9,855,792 1816 1793 3,428,391 1805 7,694,258 1817 1794 5,545,681 1806 9,916,428 1818 6,052.453 1830 1,692,344 1795 5,018,562 1807 9,770,795 1819 4,477,628 1831 2,491,528 1796 5,599,760 1808 5,842,896 1820 3,928,996 1832 2.810,140 1797 6.819,728 1809 3,854,754 | 1821 1798 4.648,743 1810 1799 7,302,297 1811 1800 4,785,937 1812 4,519,726 1824 5,577.774 1836 3,524,288 1801 8,413,314 1813 1,044,344 1825 5,091,170 1837 2,672,288 4,504,530 1822 3,658,150 1833 2.954,288 5,088,989 1834 2,511,354 3,946,224 1835 3,394,439 TABLE II, Showing the quantity of domestic spirits annually distilled in the United States from 1790 to 1800. * The difference between the amount of the two columns was exported. B. THE MORBID ANATOMY OF DRUNKENNESS. The morbid appearances presented in the bodies of drunkards on post-mortem examination, are varied and striking. The most marked changes are, however, to be found in the stomach and liver; those great vital organs, which first receive the impression of the unnatural stimulus. The stomach has three distinct coats or membranes; the outer one is thin, and transparent, and is called the peritoneal coat-the second is the muscular, which, indeed, forms two separate layers, the fibres of one, running longitudinally, and those of the other circularly; the contraction of the first, shortening the stomach, and those of the other lessening its diameter. The inner coat is called mucous, or villous, from its soft, shaggy or velvet-like appearance. This is of an extremely delicate structure, and thrown into folds or ruga, which are so disposed as to resemble in appearance, a fine net-work. The villous coat is entirely made up of innumerable blood-vessels and nerves, and beneath it, are situated those mucous follicles or glands, which secrete that glairy fluid, by which the inner surface of the stomach is defended. Now, when alcoholic drinks are swallowed, this delicate expansion of nerves and blood-vessels becomes unnaturally irritated, and an increased quantity of blood, as well as nervous energy, is sent into it but in a short time, from a law of our natures, to which there is no exception, increased action is succeeded by collapse and want of tone-the dose is increased-the collapse becomes still greater, and the deluded victim goes on, until the main-spring of the animal machine gives way, and the system sinks under the unnatural abuse. On examining the stomach we find extensive marks of the rayages of the destroyer. The mucous coat, is often, almost entirely destroyed; a mere softened, pulpy shred remaining, which may be removed with the finger nail with the greatest facility. The inner surface generally presents a dark, mottled appearance, the colour varying from a dark brown or livid, to a florid red. In some instances, it is of deep red or almost purple colour; but in others, it is of an ashy paleness, the blood-vessels having apparently been corroded and destroyed by the alcohol. In a case of a drunkard whom we lately examined, by request of the Coroner, we found not only the mucous, but also the mus⚫cular coat, nearly destroyed; its texture being completely broken down, presenting a soft pulpy mass, in which muscular fibres could not be detected. On rubbing the inner surface of the stomach gently with the end of the finger, nothing seemed to remain but the thin membraneous peritoneal coat, not thicker than the thinnest letter-paper. It requires no arguments to prove that such a stomach could not well discharge the function of digestion. And we have frequently found the same appearances in other similar cases, indeed, we may say invariably, where the drink of the inebriate had been chiefly distilled liquor. Where fermented drinks have been chiefly used, the local ravages will not be found so extensive; but the consequences to the system generally, are no less deleterious and fatal. In these cases the mucous membrane of the stomach may even be found thickened. Where an animal is poisoned by a large dose of alcohol, the villous coat is always of a bright cherry-red colour. In the case above alluded to, where we found the coats of the stomach destroyed, there was a deposite of fat nearly two inches thick, surrounding the abdominal muscles. This was a morbid accumulation, and in such subjects fat should be regarded rather as a mark of disease than of health. As its ultimate elements are almost the same as those of alcohol, it is very probable that the latter becomes changed into the former. We have usually found the liver of inebriates enormously enlarged, and changed from a healthy purple to an orange or pale yellow. The tissue is, also, very often softened, so that the mass can easily be broken down with the finger. We have met with instances where the liver has weighed over 12 pounds, though it is sometimes shrivelled to dimensions smaller than natural. such cases, it is usually tuberculated and hard. In With these few observations we beg to request the reader's attention to the following able and instructive remarks of Prof. J. W. Francis, of this city, whose acquaintance with the morbid anatomy of inebriates, from close and extensive personal examination and research, is probably not surpassed in this country. DEAR SIR New York, July 10th, 1840. "The intimate connection and close dependence of the mental faculties with the organization and functions of the physical man are, perhaps, in no way more clearly demonstrated than by the influence which alcoholic drinks exert on the human system. Let the philosopher trace the nice dependencies of each upon the other, and note how minute at times are the causes which disturb their wonted harmony. The clinical observer is familiar with their mutual relationships, and cautiously, in all cases of responsible emergency, weighs the reciprocal action between the disturbed mind and the disordered body; aware of the value of a precise knowledge of their disturbing forces, and that the cogitative, as well as the moral powers, are modified by agents often strictly physical. It is, moreover, familiarly known, inasmuch as it is matter of almost daily occurrence, that the inebriate, when subjected to malign causes, acting in common on the mass of mankind, sustains the evil with a greater penalty than does his more prudent fellow-being. Mild diseases, we know, are rendered by intemperance, severe, and, perhaps, fatal; and every disturbance of the physical condition, without exception, is aggravated in its symptoms and character, when occurring in habits vitiated by ardent spirits. Disorders of a limited or circumscribed type, often become from the same cause formidable in their course, and chronic in their duration. So also every one at all conversant with the history of epidemics, knows full well the greater ravages which pestilence makes upon those individuals who indulge largely in spirituous potations: witness the accounts of the several visitations of the yellow fever in different ports and towns of the United States, and the records of the malignant cholera in New York and elsewhere in numerous sections of the Union, in 1832 and 1834. It is forcibly imprinted on the memory of every medical man who studied the characteristics of this peculiar disorder at our several Cholera Hospitals and in private practice, that of the whole number who sickened or died by it, a vast majority were composed of those who had been addicted to the immoderate use of alcoholic liquors. The inebriate, when assaulted, soon felt within himself his great peril, and how uncertain was his escape of destruction, In short, the history of almost all epidemics furnishes proofs most ample, that comparatively little chance exists of exemption from their direful effects, on the persons of those whose physical constitutions have been impaired by inebriating drinks: and, if indeed, occasional examples occur of individuals addicted to such pernicious beverage being seemingly thereby enabled to brave the influence of disease for a while, yet is it to be borne in mind how certain and fatal, in general, is the arrow of pestilence, when directed among the victims of habitual indulgence in ardent and diffusible stimuli. In a climate like that of the United States, characterized by sudden vicissitudes of extreme heat and cold, the human framè is rendered decidedly more amenable to that cachectic condition so generally the penalty of intemperance, even under circumstances less favourable to engendering it. Need we wonder then, when taking a discriminative view of facts, at the greatly disproportioned number of martyrs to the consequences of habitual intoxication among certain classes of European nations which emigrate hither unconscious of the fatal results of the combined agency of a variable climate and an unassimilated constitution impaired by drunk enness. "I will now briefly embody some of the more prominent facts connected with the phenomena of intemperance, so far as they are associated with morbid changes in the physical structure, occurring in persons who have long indulged in spirituous potations. They cannot but furnish a convincing reason against the habitual use of ardent spirits, on the strongest medical grounds. It is for the divine, the moralist, and the economist to attack the pernicious habit on other principles equally or more potent. All that I aim at, on this occasion, is to group together a number of the most striking occurrences we encounter when professionally called upon to prescribe for the intemperate; or to perform a more unpleasant service which occasionally presents itself as a duty; I mean the drawing up a report after death, of the disordered changes wrought by alcohol in the corporeal system of the inebriate. Differences of constitution, of age, of temperament, of business occupation, variety in the drinks themselves, and the longer or shorter period in which they have been indulged-as all these circumstances modify the force and termination of drunkenness, so also do we find by post-mortem examinations, corresponding variations in the cadavers of those who have perished by so lamentable a cause. "The malade imaginaire affords good proof that Moliere drew some of his leading illustrations from cases of what are now denominated delirium tremens, or mania a potu. The disturbed, unequal, and often exhausted state of the faculties of the minds of persons who have long indulged in spirituous drinks, is familiarly known; and the same condition of the functions of the body has as often been observed. Hypochondriacism or other species of mental aberration are noticed in one class of patients, and func tional derangement in another, but oftener both in the same individual; and hence, too, we see alcoholic insanity conspicuous among the numerous forms of deranged manifestations of mind in many of the inmates of our public institutions appropriated to the treatment of lunacy. The greater prevalence of intemperance among men than women, Dr. Burrows, of London, asserts as the reason why insanity prevails in the United States most among males, although women, from greater nervous susceptibility, would seem at first more predisposed to it. Rush assures us that on inquiry in regard to the insane confined in the Pennsylvania Hospital, he found that one third of the whole number had become deranged from intemperance. Dr. Woodward, the superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum at Worcester, Massachusetts, reports the same cause as the most frequent source of disordered intellect in that establishment; and Dr. McDonald, late Physician of the Lunatic Asylum at Bloomingdale, New York, assures me that more than one fourth of the patients of that excellent institution are brought there from the sad effects of inebriety. A close inspection of many hospitals for the treatment of the insane, both in this country and in Europe, long ago convinced me that inebriety was the prolific source of mental aberration. In short, in our mixed population, (I mean of foreigners and natives,) we find this type of disease more abundant than any other of the disorders which are classed under the denomination of insanity. Gloomy as this picture may seem, it has this cheering feature, that inasmuch as the mania of intemperance is more medicable than several other forms of the complaint, we may, in cases of this origin, often promise a success in our means of cure, when capable of carrying out our remedial measures into full effect, that might be altogether unwarrantable in many instances arising from a different source. "As medical witness in our courts of criminal judicature, I have often been summoned to give testimony in cases of death occasioned by intemperance, or by other causes which have resulted fatally; and for the better discharge of this duty, have within the period of fourteen or fifteen years examined many bodies destroyed by accident, or other causes operating suddenly or with violence. The details, therefore, which I now communicate, are derived entirely from autopsic examinations thus instituted. 66 The body of the dead inebriate often exhibits, in its external parts, a physiognomy quite peculiar, and as distinctive as that which presents itself when life has been terminated by an overdose of laudanum. Sometimes the surface, more especially at its superior parts, as about the head, neck, or face betrays a surcharged fullness of the vascular system; and the cutaneous investure of these parts and of the extremities, is characterized by the results of an increased action of the extreme vessels, by blotches and discolorations of different hues, &c.; and this state, the consequence of previous overaction and worn out excitement, has so impaired the vital energies of the surface, that effusions of a serous or sanguineous character are to be observed. Hence purpura hemorrhagica, an affection, in most instances, occurring in persons of depraved habits, vitiated still further by scanty or unwholesome food, and deleterious drink, is often to be noticed in inspecting the cadaver of the drunkard. I remember a striking case of the extraordinary changes to which the common surface is capable of being brought, while attending a suffering victim some five or six days, the duration of his last illness. The subject was a middle-aged male, who had long indulged in the free use of distilled spirits. He died of universal dropsy. Some few days previous to his decease, purple blotches were seen on his chest, shoulders, and |