ESSAY, &c.

THE substances in common use which contain the largest quantity of alcohol, are ardent spirit and wine. The proportion of this principle, in 100 parts, of the most usual varieties of these articles, is as follows:

Nearly all the wines used in this country contain a much larger proportion of alcohol than the above table indicates; as it is well known to be the practice of many dealers in wine, to add brandy and other articles, to give them more life and a richer color. Indeed, it is stated by a most respectable medical authority, that " for every gallon of pure wine which is sold, there is perhaps a pipe, or fifty times the quantity, of that which is adulterated, and in various manners sophisticated-the whole, without exception, the source of a thousand disorders, and in many instances an active poison imperfectly disguised."

Of the narcotic substances commonly used, opium and tobacco contain much the largest quantity of the narcotic principle. I would, therefore, solicit the attention of every student and other intelligent young man, to an examination of the nature, relations, and effects of spirit, wine, opium, and tobacco; in the hope of persuading them all, totally to abstain from their use.

* Journal of Health, Vol. I. p. 136.

I group these articles together, as alike to be rejected, because they agree in being poisonous in their natures; unnecessary to the healthy; incapable of affording nourishment to the body; fascinating to diseased appetite, and destructive to property, health, and life..

Of these articles, however, ardent spirit is preeminent in the work of destruction. And, therefore, abstinence from this, is of preeminent importance. But wine, opium, and tobacco in all the Protean forms they are made to assume, number not a few among their victims. They ought, therefore, to be all proscribed together.

Moreover, abstinence from one or more of these articles, while we retain the habit of using any of them, most effectually neutralizes the influence of our example in favor of temperance. "I should prefer to use wine, instead of rum, or whiskey," says an intemperate man; but wine is too expensive. Give me your wine, and I will abandon spirit.” "I am ready to abstain from alcohol," says another, "when you do from tobacco." This appeal must effectually shut the mouth, and destroy the influence, of any one, who will persist in the use of wine or tobacco.

By total abstinence from the alcoholic and narcotic substances above mentioned, I mean an entire disuse of them, except when they are prescribed for bodily disease, by a regular physician, who is not himself addicted to their use. Like most other poisons, they may sometimes be employed advantageously, as medicines; though several medical men of the first standing in our country, have pronounced all of them, except opium, to be unnecessary, even to the physician; since in all cases, as good, or better substitutes may be employed.

The appeal, which I now proceed to make, to every scholar and intelligent young man, urging him to abstain entirely from ardent spirit, wine, opium, and tobacco, is based, I. UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY.

These articles, it is well known, have all a vegetable origin. Alcohol is the principle that gives to ardent spirit and wine their intoxicating power; while the narcotic principle to opium and tobacco imparts similar properties. In popu lar language, alcohol is classed among the stimulants; and opium and tobacco among the narcotics; which are substances, whose ultimate effect upon the animal system, is,

to produce torpor and insensibility; but taken in small quan tities, they at first exhilarate. And since alcohol does the same, most medical writers, at the present day, class it among the narcotics.

Nor

All vegetable substances consist essentially of three simple principles; oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. These, and these only, compose the sweetest as well as the most acid parts of plants: the mildest as well as the most powerful; the most salutary as well as the most poisonous. can chemistry discover any difference in their composition, except that the elements above mentioned, usually exist in them in different proportions. A knowledge of the chemical constitution of the narcotics under consideration, affords no assistance, therefore, in determining whether they are salutary or injurious. Their physical effects upon animals, however, prove them to be active poisons.

But what are we to understand by a poison? Any thing, which being introduced into the animal system, proves detrimental, or fatal, may properly be denominated poisonous; so that the same substance may be a poison, or not, according to the quantity and circumstances in which it is taken. Taus, a very small quantity of arsenic, and a moderate amount of animal food, may be taken with equal impunity, and sometimes with equal benefit. But a large quantity of the food proves sometimes as fatal to health and life, as a large dose of the arsenic; and the effects of the two are not much dissimilar. Smallness of quantity and a certain obscurity in the mode of operation, seem included in Dr. Johnson's definition of the word. But these are relative circumstances merely, and therefore not essential. If the effect be rapid and powerful from small quantities, the poison is said to be active. In order to determine, therefore, whether the substances under consideration belong to this class, we have only to compare their effects upon the animal system, with that of articles universally acknowledged to be actively poisonous..

66

As to Morphia and Nicotin, which are the quintessence of opium and tobacco, there will be no dispute. "A grain and a half of morphia," says Dr. Ure, "taken at three dif ferent times, produced such violent symptoms upon three young men of seventeen years of age, that Serturner was alarmed, lest the consequences should have proved fatal.”

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Most of the other powerful vegetable poisons, such as benbane, hemlock, thoro apple, proic acid, deadly nightshade,. foxglove, and poison sumach, have an effect on the animal system scarcely to be distinguished from that of morphia and nicotin, or opium and tobacco. The operation of alcohol is also very similar. These poisons produce nausea, vertigo, vomiting, exhilaration of spirits for a time, and subsequent stupor, and even total insensibility; and so does alcohol. They impair the organs of digestion, and may bring on fatuity, palsy, delirium, or apoplexy; and so may alcohol. These effects, indeed, usually follow only in a slight degree from spirit, as it is commonly drunk; because the alcohol is so much diluted. Even spirit of the first proof,

Rees's Cyclopedia, Article Tobacco.

contains, as we have seen, only about 50 parts of alcohol in 100; yet seven drams introduced into the stomach of a rabbit, produced death in an hour and a quarter;* and 6 drams proved fatal to a robust dog in three and a half hours. Nor are the cases rare, in which alcohol, thus diluted, has proved fatal to men. Were the alcohol perfectly pure, or undiluted, these effects would be doubly powerful. Now all the virulent poisons, if mixed with other substances, so as to be less concentrated, may be used for a long time, even habitually, without seeming to produce any very inju rious effects. A horse may take a dram of arsenic daily and continue to thrive; and a very small quantity seems not to affect a man. In short, there is so close a resemblance between the operation of alcohol and most of the powerful vegetable poisons, that to regard the latter as poisonous, and not the former, would be highly unphilosophical. Accordingly, the best medical writers of the present day, do class alcohol among the poisons, as well as opium and tobacco.

It is surely reasonable to infer from hence, that these substances must be very dangerous, when employed as arti cles of luxury or diet; or when administered as medicines, except under the direction of the regular physician. He may use them, (especially opium) in many cases, perhaps, with advantage. For the same substance, that is deadly poison to the constitution in health, may be eminently salulary in sickness. And a similar difference exists in different constitutions; which is the reason that some men are worn out much sooner than others by the use of stimulants and narcotics. But the physician is the only proper person to judge of the cases and the quantity, in which these substances ought to be used. For every man to take the business into his own hands, without any knowledge of medicine, and to undertake to determine when, and how much, of ardent spirit, wine, opium and tobacco, are necessary for him, is just as absurd and as dangerous as if he were to prescribe and deal out arsenic, or corrosive sublimate, or calomel.. Nor can the man in health do it, to gratify his appetite, without certain injury to his constitution. He may not perceive injurious effects for years, on account of the immedi ate exhilaration; but complicated chronic complaints will,

*Rees's Cyclop. article Poison.

+ Nancredi's Abridgment of Orfila on Poison.