a more homely exposition of the matter, all one more readily accessible to the popular hand and mind. Another workman, accordingly, is needed for this particular department; and I have not felt at liberty to decline the call addressed to me. The whirl of many important avocations, the inevitable inroads on such snatches of leisure and relaxation as may be possible in such a life as mine, might have been pleaded as ground for a refusal. But perhaps such excuses are in most cases sufficiently met by the common proverb, "Where there's a will there's a way." And having a sincere and hearty "will" to help on the good cause of temperance, I have not sought the shelter of any such plea, but rather am content to find and ferret out the "way." Like apologetics might now be urged on you, gentle reader, deprecating your harsh criticism, and craving a generous forbearance in regard to a task hastily and imperfectly done. But even here I would be silent satisfied that whatever failings may mar the attempt, the motives which led to it were honest, disinterested, and sincere. Throw aside prejudice for a time sheathe your critical acumen give me your patient attention and, however much I may now and then unintentionally offend in minor points, I hope to convince you that threefourths of the men and women of Scotland are ill-informed in this vital matter, and daily reaping most disastrous fruits of this ignorance, in both themselves and others - A short preliminary statement must be made, giving a general idea of the more ordinary functions of the human body in health. Every function of the living man—whether thinking by help of his brain, for example, or working by means of his muscles, or secreting through the agency of his glands, produces a corresponding disintegration of the appropriate structure; a certain amount of nervous, muscular, or secreting tissue crumbles down, and, for the time being, is rendered useless to the living economy, and, besides, its presence any longer at least in that condition—would prove hurtful. A two-fold action is required: first, to supply renewal for the waste; and second, to have the wasted material suitably removed. The latter object is accomplished by the blood, which, by the help of veins and absorbents, receives the used up stuff into its backward or venous current, for the purpose of consuming part by the action of oxygen in the lungs, and disposing of what remains by means of the organs of excretion—the liver, bowels, skin, and kidneys. The renewing supply of the waste, from tear and wear, on the other hand, is performed by the arterial blood, in its onward current throughout the frame. Filtering through very minute and numerous vessels, called capillaries, it allows that portion of it which is needful to compensate for the ever-recurring loss to escape, and come in contact with and be applied to the parts which need it. The waste is constant greater according to the amount of exertion made, but always more or less; and the supply must not only be constant too, and proportional in amount, but also of a certain quality. Send venous blood to muscle, and you mar both its structure and its working. Do the like by the brain, and the result is similar; you disorder its function invariably, and may easily enough silence it for ever To nourish, blood must be arterial. Having nourished, it becomes venous not only useless but noxious to the organs that need nourishment, and fit only to be sent back through the liver and lungs, there to undergo such changes of giving and taking as shall once more qualify it for its work of supply. In this backward course, as already said, it receives and is mingled with the used-up material, whose loss its next wave has to compensate. And whatever tends to send on this doubly-defiled current over the whole body, with an imperfect performance of the purifying process-technically called depuration -must inevitably cause most serious interference with health and longevity. But the blood is not a mere circling fluid, "self-contained." In every circuit it makes, it looses largely, both in quality and quantity; and its loss must be made up. This is done through the stomach. Food is taken in there, masticated, softened, and mixed up, so as to be in a state of suspension and solution. The gastric juice or peculiar secretion of the stomach-mingles with it; and the digestion is carried on, as if in a stew-pan. Having become a pulpy fluid, called chyme, the food moves slowly into the alimentary canal; there it receives farther additions bile from the liver, and juice from the pancreas or sweet-bread; the nutritious portion, called chyle, is taken up by the absorbents, whose various tubes concentrate into one common duct; and this empties its contents into the venous returning hlood, just before it begins its purifying circuit through the lungs. So the feeder is fed. But some things—alcohol happens to be one, and the poison of asps another-are impatient of so round-about a journey; they must be conveyed to the blood at once. They will not wait to be digested; but, taken up as they are by the veins of the stomach, are carried. little if at all changed into the general venous circulation, and do their work there, whatever it may be, with almost instantaneous rapidity. What takes place ordinarily in the lungs requires a little special consideration. The blood having suffered exhaustion and loss in its work of nourishing all the various parts of the body, having received a supply it greatly needed from the stomach and bowels, in the form of chyle-as a help; and having got also, what in some respects it might have seemed to have been better without, the used-up material refuse of life and working. as a burthen, it passes by the right side of the heart. through the lungs; and in the cell-like ramifications of these, it is brought in all its motley mass into contact with the air, which for that purpose has been taken in by the wind-pipe. This air parts with its oxygen; a large proportion of which unites with carbon and hydrogen in the blood-carbonic acid and watery vapor being extricated in consequence. This important change, chemically called oxidation, is really a burning. Though not accompanied by light or flame, it is, like ordinary combustion, productive of heat; and, in consequence, it will be readily understood that the process of respiration, when duly performed, fulfils two important objects --ærating the blood, and at the same time helping to maintain the due temperature of the body. But what is it that is thus oxidized, or burnt, by the breathed air? Two things. The used-up material of the structures, returned in the venous circulation, is either burnt off, or so modified as to be converted into the most suitable forms for final expulsion from the blood. The greater part is thrown off in the form of carbonic acid and watery vapor, while the rest, imperfectly oxidated, moves on into the general circulation, to be dealt with exhaustively in the lungs on its next transit, or to be disposed of by the liver, bowels, skin, and kidneys. This treatment of the "waste" is essential, and must be done. But the doing of it is not enough, of itself, to maintain the general temperature. And so a portion of food, digested in the stomach, and received by the blood as chyle, is specially devoted to the process of burning too; that portion consisting of such articles of diet as contain no nitrogen: oil and sugar being special examples. In this wondrous living factory of ours, the waste material is not only burned off- as farmers do "wrack" on the surface of their fields—there is besides a special heating apparatus constantly at work; and so, by the two-fold process, the blood is purified of its hurtful matter, while the whole frame is maintained in its due heat. Let either part of this process flag, and evil must ensue. Burn off all the blood's impurity, yet have an insufficient supply of extra fuel from the stomach the body must grow cold.* Send an inordinate amount of peculiarly It is not alleged that the whole of the heating process is done in the lungs. On the contrary, there is good reason to suppose (as will immediately be stated,) that every act of nutrition and disintegration of tissue throughout the body-every change from fluid to solid, and |