the house of God. There was an entire change in the circumstances and habits, disposition and character, of the man."

Fruitless Efforts for Recovery.—“As requested, and drawn by a fond desire to do him good, and bring gladness and hope again to that now sad family, we repeatedly saw and conversed and prayed with the changed and unhappy man. When free from the influence of strong drink, he would freely talk with us, at times confess his folly and sin, weep most bitter tears, and make promises almost with the intense earnestness of a desperate man, that he would never touch the accursed drink again. And as we would bow together in prayer for the grace that alone could sustain in keeping from the terrible evil and in doing the right, he would add his most emphatic Amen to the petition. Yet, ere long, he would fall again as low or lower than before, and thus continued reforming and refalling, and becoming more and more the utter wreck and ruin of himself, until at length he died a terrible death.”

The Victim's Sorrowful Experience.-"Now, what was the history of this terrible change in that man? This was a question that we often pondered, and after vainly seeking for some time an account of it from himself, he one day spoke in substance as follows: 'Up to the time of my long declining health no man ever had a greater abhorrence of the drunkard's cup and the drunkard's curse than I; never was ardent spirits in any form put into my mouth, and in no sense had I the slightest desire for it. But,' said he, 'after I had been ailing some time, my physician directed me to procure a particular kind of ardent spirits, and take a portion of it every day. I hesi tated, however, about it, not from any particular fear, but because I could not bear the taste of it. But he insisted it would do my system good; so we obtained it, and I began to drink it. The effect seemed beneficial, and my physician told me to continue to take it. The repugnance I had to it gradually wore off, and finding it exhilarated me and made me feel better, I more and more willingly took it, and after a time would look forward with pleasure, and even longing, for the appointed season or hour for taking it, and thus it went on; but,' said he, with an awful pause, and a look of indescribable agony and despair, 'why shall I tell you any more? You see the beginning, and here I am a slave to a habit, and a doomed man. I have tried to stopO, God only knows how hard I have tried! - but I cannot. The desire for it comes upon me at times with an overpowering force, and I must have itI must, I MUST!' and he rushed from the room.

"It was not long after this he died, and sad were the thoughts and feelings of the funeral day."

Dr. Rush's Noble Testimony.-Strong and noble, and even stately, was the course of the excellent Dr. Benjamin Rush in this matter. Long before the temperance reform, a missionary from the West Indies sought medical ad

vice of Dr. Rush, and when an unpalatable medicine was presented, the patient asked if he could not take a little "good old Jamaica" with it.

'No, sir," the doctor decidedly replied.

'Why, sir, what harm will it do?" demanded the West Indian.

"What harm will it do?" continued Dr. Rush. "I am determined that no man shall rise on the day of judgment and say, 'Dr. Rush made me a drunkard.'"

Drinking Paroxysms: Periodic Attacks.-In some cases the drinking paroxysms come on suddenly and after considerable periods of abstinence. Sometimes there is no premonition, but more frequently there is an alteration in appearance and temper that forewarns those who have any thing to do with the patient. In the case of a married man, the wife can almost always tell when an attack is coming on. The length of these attacks varies very much, more especially according to the duration of the disease in the patient. In the early history of the disease, the drinking bouts often last from one to three weeks, and during that time the patient is constantly drinking. As he cannot get the quantities of liquor that he requires outside anywhere, he takes to drinking in his own rooms or house. Nothing will stop him. If his friends or servants try to get him to leave off, he storms and rages and terrifies them into submission to his ways and wants.

The Excuse for these Periodic Paroxysms.-His excuse for drinking is always that he is excessively weak and nervous and requires support, and that it is absolutely necessary for his life that he should have stimulants. His appetite soon disappears, and he only makes vain efforts to partake of any food that is brought to him. Great sleeplessness and restlessness comes on, and, in fact, the patient is often on the verge of delirium tremens when the disease abates, either gradually or suddenly, and he gets fairly well.

Sudden End of the Drinking Paroxysms.-When it ends suddenly, it is generally from an attack of acute or subacute gastritis, for which he requires and seeks medical aid. The craving for drink having also disappeared, he willingly submits to medical direction, and under judicious treatment recovers. When the attacks go off gradually, there are less severe gastric symptoms, and the craving having become less, there is a diminution in the gastric and nervous troubles.

Increase of the Paroxysms.-After patients have lived for several years with these periodical attacks, the duration of attack diminishes in length, and they increase in frequency; the cause of this being chiefly due to the effects on the gastric system. The stomach much sooner resents the large quantities of alcohol put into it, and consequently the drinking fits are cut short by attacks of gastritis, and often also enteritis. But from the attack being shorter,

the interval of diminution in drinking also becomes shorter, so that the patient gradually goes from bad to worse.

How Alcohol Injures the Physical System.-Dr. N. S. Davis having instituted a series of sphygmographic observations of the effects of alcohol on the circulation, thus sums up the results in the Chicago Medical Examiner.—

1. Its presence in the blood directly interferes with the normal play of vital affinities and cell action in such a manner as to diminish the rapidity of nutrition and disintegration, and consequently to diminish the dependent functions of elimination, calorification, and innervation; thereby making a positive organic sedative, instead of a diffusable stimulant, as is popularly supposed, both in and out of the profession.

2. That the alcohol itself acts in the system exclusively as a foreign substance incapable of assimilation or decomposition by the vital functions, and is ultimately excreted or eliminated without chemical change.

The important bearing of these conclusions on the therapeutic and hygienic uses of alcoholic drinks must be obvious to all, and especially demands the careful attention of every member of the medical profession.

Patent "Bitters" are Strong Liquors Drugged.—Nearly all the patent "bitters" are strong liquors drugged and doctored, and labeled medicine, for the sake of those whose appetites are stronger than their temperance principles, and who want their daily dram without being known as even "moderate drinkers." The wine-bottle of the side-board is better than the bitterbottle in the closet; or, in other words, it is better to drink openly at meals than to drink irregularly and in secret between meals. It is better to drink honest wine than hypocritical bitters.*

Patent "Bitters" the Worst Form of Alcohol.-"If one must drink alcoholic liquors," said a distinguished physician to us lately, "let him drink them pure, not drugged with nameless poisons, and passed off on the community on false pretenses." Of all temperate drinking the drinking of bitters is the most dangerous. And he who gets his prescription for indigestion from the advertising columns of the newspapers, no matter how conclusive the indorsements, nor how respectable the journal, may be morally sure that he is getting gin, whiskey, or rum, under pretense of medicine.

"Cure of Drunkenness."-The first business of the intelligent attendant should be to shut off the supply of liquor, and the second to get the terrible poison out of the patient's system. The former work may be done at once; the latter will require considerable time, the length being proportioned to the extent of the inroads made upon the physical system, and to the thoroughness of the remedial treatment.

* Christian Weekly.

The "Tapering-off System" Exploded. The most rigid experiments show that it is better to stop the liquor supply at once, instead of gradually diminishing the amount used until all is banished. An eminent physician, after carefully testing both the "gradual stoppage" and the "sudden stoppage "systems, gives the following opinion: "I am firmly convinced that the latter has every advantage over the former, and especially in those cases in which, at first appearance, it seemed that in cutting off at once the entire supply there would be the greatest peril."

Treatment of Inebriates in Delirium Tremens.-In the "Archives Générales de Médicines," November, 1871, Dr. Decaisne wrote: "The use of opium in the treatment of delirium tremens is not unattended with danger on account of the large doses which it becomes necessary to arrive at proI resolved to submit a certain number gressively in the majority of cases. of patients to an entirely expectant plan of treatment, to determine whether simple regime and a withholding of the cause of the disease would give a result similar to those caused by the principal medicinal agents recommended for this disease. Eight patients were submitted to the following regime: entire abstinence from wine and spirits: Some beer and an infusion of orange leaves were given as drinks. The diet was low; a warm bath was given every day, and every morning each patient took a purgative draught containing sulphate of magnesia. This mode of treatment is capable of being often used with advantage.

Délirium tremens must be carefully treated, in a way to restore physical strength speedily. If there is vomiting, give lime-water and milk, one teaspoonful of the former to two or three of the latter, with a small piece of If this fails, then a large ice given every fifteen minutes for two hours. mustard plaster, should be given, applied over the abdomen, and the remedy first named repeated. As soon as the stomach will bear it, beef-tea should be given at short intervals, beginning with a tablespoonful and increasing gradually to a teacupful as needed; it can be seasoned with black pepper, salt, and a small pinch of ground cloves. Chicken-tea will sometimes be borne more readily than beef-tea. From fluids we can soon pass on to something more solid, such as eggs, toast, mutton-chops, etc.

What to Avoid.-Two things are to be especially avoided in treatment. 1. The use of tobacco* in any form; and 2. Water, except in limited quantities; although the thirst for it may be very great, there is danger in gratifying it. Medical tinctures should not be used; hop-tea, wormwood-tea, capsicum, and highly-seasoned soups can be dispensed with as tending to keep up a desire for drink. Tobacco must be entirely avoided.

*Statistics show that ninety-four per cent. f inebriates use tobacco.

Sleep and food are the main restoratives in the treatment, and the remedies should be directed to produce sleep, and enable the victim to take proper nourishment and food. A convalescent inebriate possesses usually a great appetite and rapidly gains flesh, and is hungry for his meals for weeks, after baring starved his system on alcohol.

TOBACCO AND HEALTH.

Effects of Tobacco on the System.-Some years ago, the French Government directed the Academy of Medicine to inquire into the influence of tobacco on the human system. The report of the commission appointed by the Academy states that a large number of the diseases of the nervous system and of the heart, noticed in the cases of those affected with paralysis or insanity, were to be regarded as the sequence of excessive indulgence in the use of this article. The report also stated that tobacco seems primarily to act upon the organic nervous system, depressing the faculties, and influencing the nutrition of the body, the circulation of the blood, and the number of red corpuscles in the blood. Attention was also called to the bad digestion, benumbed intelligence, and clouded memory of those who use tobacco

to excess.

Another Testimony.-A late article in the Journal of Science Review gives us the mischievous results of the use of tobacco, as shown by many experiments, and sums up as follows:

"Tobacco adds no potential strength to the human frame. Its work is destruction, and not construction. It cannot add one molecule to the plasm out of which our bodies are built up. On the contrary, it exerts upon it a most deleterious influence. It does not supply, but it diminishes, vital force. Tobacco belongs to the class of narcotic and exciting substances. It has no food value. Stimulation means abstracted, not added, force. It evolves the narcotic paralysis of a portion of the functions, the activity of which is essential to healthy life.

"It will be said that tobacco soothes and cheers the weary toiler and solaces the overworked brain. All such expedients are fallacious. When a certain amount of brain-work or hand-work has been performed, nature wants time to rest and recuperate, and all such devices for escaping from this necessity will fail. It is a bad policy to set the house on fire to warm our hands by the blaze. Let it then be clearly understood that the temporary excitement produced by tobacco is gained by the destruction of vital force, and that it contains absolutely nothing that can be of use to the tissues of the body."