combustible* material from the stomach, so that it shall do almost all the burning-then the blood's impurity cannot be sufficiently consumed; venous blood will come to circulate more or less, instead of arterial; and the most serious consequences cannot fail to happen. The kidneys, and skin, and liver, will make great exertions, no doubtas excretory organs to throw out the evil thus forced through the system; but they will not wholly succeed; and they themselves will suffer injury in the strain. The blood will remain impure, important organs of the body will be thrown into a state of disorder, and disease of a serious kind may be established.

But the whole of the oxygen taken in by the lungs is not thus accounted for. About a fourth passes into the system, with the blood, without being spent at all on oxidation of the "waste." This portion of the oxygen cannot well be traced in its course; but there is good

from solid to fluid - is accompanied with disengagement of caloric. But obviously while much of the "oxidation" is done in the lungs, almost all the oxygen enters by the lungs, whereby the "oxidation," or burning is performed.

*Whether it be because alcohol is "peculiarly combustible," or not, may not be quite determined; but Prout and others have experimentally ascertained that less carbonic acid than usual is evoked during the presence of alcohol in the blood, and that that fluid is decidedly darker than in persons untainted by the "poison." It would almost seem as if alcohol, circulating in the blood, to a considerable extent suspended, for the time, the chemico-vital processes proper to the fluid in its normal state. Thus the oxidation of the phosphorus of waste tissue is sometimes so interrupted by alcohol, that the body of the drunkard smells of phosphorus, his breath presents a visible phosphorence, and his urine is luminous in the dark. As will afterwards be seen, this is the only luminosity which alcohol mparts to the debauchee.

reason to believe that it acts an important part in the change of the nutritious part of the arterial blood into living tissue-supplying renewal for the "waste;" and that it is again active in the crumbling down of that tissue constituting the "waste;" in both actions evol ving caloric. And so here is a third way of maintaining the general temperature.

A word as to the action of poisons. Applied to a part, poisons have various effects. Some, like potass, acids, and other caustics, destroy all structure; others, like alcohol and ammonia, irritate and inflame; others, as prussic acid, impress mainly the nerves.

The constitutional effect is also various. The poison, more or less rapidly absorbed into the blood, might be circulated equably over the whole system. According to a strange law, however, such diffusion does not occur; but, on the contrary, certain poisons seek out certain parts, and act on them primarily and chiefly-drawn thither by a vital, as if by a chemical attraction. Tobacco, digitalis, and the upas poison, for example, act specially upon the heart; arsenic affects the bowels, and mucous membranes in general; cantharides, the kidneys; iodine, the glands; strychnia, the spinal cord; alcohol, opium, and all narcotics, the brain.

Some kill directly and at once; others more remotely, by the induction of secondary disease.

Some exert definite effects, dose by dose; others produce their special results only after frequent and continued repetition.

Some produce continuous results; others, as the ma laria, afford intervals of apparent immunity.

ALCOHOL: ITS PLACE.

"LET everything have a place, and everything be in its place." This is a good old Scottish maxim, pregnant with both thrift and wisdom. And had it but its full sway over the common household thing whose ominous name heads the page, the world were many times fairer, richer, and better, than it is this day.

But in order to put and keep anything in its proper place, we must ascertain and determine what that place is And, accordingly, let us at once proceed to make some inquiry in this direction, so far as alcohol is concerned.

Under the term "alcohol," is included, let it be distinctly understood, every kind of intoxicating drink. All the varieties of spirits, wines, and malt liquors, are the same as to their intoxicating quality; that invariably depends upon the presence of alcohol. This may be more or less diluted, mixed, colored, and flavored; or, as in the case of malt liquors, combined with a small quantity of nutritive material; * but it is always present, and according to its amount is the intoxicating

* Very small in the best of them, especially if you exclude the saccharine stuffs. For, according to Liebig, suppose a man to consume, daily, eight or ten quarts of "the best Bavarian beer," he will obtain from it in the course of twelve months, no more than the same quantity of nutritive constituents contained in a five-pound loaf of bread.

power of the beverage. A man is apt to draw a broad distinction-greatly in his own favor between himself drinking beer and another drinking brandy, as a daily habit; but the truth is, that both are drinking the same thing, only in a different guise and dilution; chemically and practically, there is much the same difference as between one who drinks spirits "neat" and another who drinks his allowance of the same thing largely "watered." The one drinks alcohol slightly diluted; the other drinks alcohol much diluted, and somewhat modified by flavor; but both are drinking alcohol. Not a day passes but you may hear, "I am no drinker; for years I have never touched spirits; I take nothing but wine." The man who so expresses himself may be in the habit of taking his pint of sherry, or quart of claret, daily, or all but daily; and, while honestly convinced that he is touching no "spirits," is really swallowing the same amount of alcohol as if he had taken a glass or two of raw brandy or whisky instead. He believes that spirits are injurious; he would not take them for the world; yet all the while he is taking them; and surely it is of great importance that he should be undeceived. Let it be well understood then, at starting, that all intoxicating beverages contain alcohol, as their characteristic and essential ingredient; and however they may vary in taste or appearance, their chemical constitution as intoxicants is practically the same Beer, no doubt, is less hurtful than brandy-wine less dangerous than whisky; but chiefly because they contain less alcohol.

And what is this alcohol? Whether pure or diluted,

where should it stand in the arrangement of things! As a poison? As a medicine? An article of food, or of luxury? In a household we can readily imaginesay in a hotel a long list of articles of diet fit and offered for use; a medicine-chest, too, with a carefullyarranged catalogue of its contents; and hung up in some conspicuous spot, for readiness of access in emergencies, perhaps a tabular list of the most common poisons, with short and simple rules for their counteraction. Into which of these lists ought alcohol to go? The question is not, How do men generally consider it, and in what category is it placed? That were easily answeredthough somewhat unsatisfactorily. Most men call it food, and use it daily as such, in some form or other. Others esteem it a luxury; and their use of it accordingly is but occasional. A few regard it medicinally, and are ready to give it a high character as an assuager of the ills of life. all but a panacea. Few, very few, ever dream of it being a poison.

Let us see how the truth lies. Can it be that men are using as an article of food, daily and freely, what is essentially a poison? In cooking, were an appreciable amount of verdigris from the pot or pan to be mingled with their stews and boils; in their tea and coffee, were the water to contain a grave proportion of lead from the pipe or cistern; in the flavoring of the sweet course, were the ratafia to give out a decided quantity of prussic acid, the effects would tell, inquiry would be made, and the contamination would be avoided. And can it be that men are daily mingling with their food, in no niggard amount, what is as truly poisonous as the