ordered, that no officer who dined at his table should exceed two bottles of wine. Dr. Trotter, who adverts to this circumstance with somewhat of astonishment, records it as an honour to the British Navy, that in his time, the commanders-in-chief never allowed more at their tables than half a bottle to each guest.

The institution, in the present century, of Temperance Societies in this country and in America, forms a striking illustration. Many of these institutions had merely an ephemeral existence. Of those established, one class had for its object the advancement of temperance, by inculcating the moderate use of all kinds of intoxicating liquors. Another class still in operation, has for its fundamental regulation the moderate use of fermented liquors, but abstinence from ardent spirits.. Each of these, however, evidences the existence, not only of erroneous notions concerning the nature and effects of intoxicating liquors, but the very general and deep-rooted appetite which exists for artificial and stimulating drinks.

An examination of these facts, irresistibly forces the conviction upon all unprejudiced minds, that the inclinations and appetites of mankind have invariably influenced their opinions in relation to the nature and limits of temperance. The consequences of these latitudinarian notions, are witnessed in the free use of strong drink in the present day, by those who deem themselves temperate and sober members of society.

To this class of men has been very appropriately assigned the appellation of sober drunkards. "It is not drinking spirituous liquors," remarks Dr. Trotter, "to the length of intoxication, that alone, constitutes intemperance. A man may drink a great deal-pass a large portion of his time at the bottle, and yet be able to fill most of the avocations of life. There are certainly, many men of this description, who have never been so transformed with liquor as to be unknown to their own house-dog, or so foolish in their appearance, as to be hooted by school-boys, that are yet to be considered as intemperate livers. These sober drunkards,' if I may be allowed the expression, deceive themselves as well as others; and though they pace slowly along the road to ruin, their journey terminates at the goal, bad health."+

A further examination of this subject, leads us to the • Trotter's Essay on Drunkenness, p. 157 + Trotter on Drunkenness, p. 177.

astounding, but incontestable fact, that that part of the community in general termed temperate, consumes a larger proportion of inebriating liquor, than those individuals who are usually denominated drunkards. A great proportion of those who are known to be drunkards, in general are not habitual slaves to this most debasing vice. During their fits of intemperance, they consume a large quantity of intoxicating liquor. On ordinary occasions, they do not indulge in the use of strong drink to any serious extent. The former section of society, however, drink considerably less at stated times; but, by the accumulating amount of habitual and frequent repetition, consume a quantity, which, on calculation, appears almost incredible. The individual, for example, who indulges in but one glass of ardent spirit, or what amounts to the same thing, in two or three glasses of wine daily; consumes, in the course of ten years, not less a quantity than thirty gallons of pure alcohol, or spirits of wine; a poison well known to be most dangerous and fatal in its character. The consumption of this quantity, however, is far from being considered either as improper or intemperate. The most strenuous advocates of the moderate use of intoxicating liquor, would not, it is presumed, object to the daily apportionment of a pint of ale to each adult member of the human family-an allowance, which, in the course of one year, would amount to forty-three gallons, or about twenty-five gallons of proof spirit! These, and similar illustrations, sufficiently demonstrate the fact, that those individuals, commonly denominated drunkards, do not invariably consume the largest portion of alcoholic stimulants.

From the preceding observations, it will be seen how impossible it is to arrive at a correct definition of the nature of intemperance, from the uncertain and ever-varying opinions and practices of the age. Chemical and physiological knowledge alone supply us with the requisite data. The most important distinction between the temperate and intemperate employment of articles of food and drink, consists in the relative use they are of, in supplying the system with its natural requirements; in other words, in affording to the human frame, suitable food or nourishment. Some substances are proper as articles of diet, when used in moderate quantities, or to such an extent as nature may require others, on the contrary, are useful as medicines only, and when employed occasionally, and with judgement. The great distinction between these two di

visions, obviously consists in the circumstance, that the one contains matter capable of becoming a part of, and, consequently, of adding nourishment to, the corporeal system. The other, exercises a specific or medicinal influence on some part or parts, of the human frame; but it does not become assimilated with it. Arsenic, for example, has a powerful and peculiar influence on the human system; but it is not capable of being assimilated with it. Alcohol, in whatever combination, is similar in its operation. It stimulates or increases the action of the parts with which it comes in contact; but it is not added to, or identified with them. The use of alcohol, according to this unerring test of dietetic value, is found to be directly opposed to the natural actions of the system; because, like all medicinal agents, it can only be employed with beneficial results, when the system is in an unnatural or unhealthy state. "Nourishing substances," remarks a distinguished writer, "require to be of a similitude with the substance to be nourished; and the constituent materials of man, and the whole of living creation, contain no such compo sitions as those fermented and spirituous liquors. Such liquors, cannot therefore, be reckoned useful, in the way of nourishing or maintaining the principal materials of the human frame.*

The universal tendency of intoxicating liquor is to debilitate the intellectual, and to deprave the moral powers of man. The habitual use of alcohol, in any of its varied combinations, strengthens the power of motives to do wrong, and weakens the power of motives to do right. The nature and tendency of strong drink are such, that mankind in general cannot continue long to indulge in the moderate use of it. From the earliest period of its introduction to the present time, these evidences of its nature and character have been uniform and certain.

These general characteristics of alcoholic liquors lead to the examination of an important distinction, which exists between intemperance and drunkenness, terms in general used synonymously without reference to a primary or natural signification. The indications of drunkenness are too obvious to require description. One of the canons of the Anglo-Saxon church in a prohibition against drunkenness, thus defines the term:- -“ This is drunkenness, when the state of the mind is changed, the tongue stammers, the

* Lecture on Fermented Liquors, by A. Carlysle, M.D.

eyes are disturbed, the head is giddy, the stomach is swelled, and pain follows." Intemperance, however, has relation to an essentially different state of the system. An individual may, in the strictest sense of the word, be habitually intemperate, without exhibiting either the staggering gait, the faltering tongue, or the disgusting ejaculations of the professed debauchee. In this circumstance lies the insidious influence of strong drink, which has ever been characterized by the unnatural changes which it effects, in too many instances, unobserved and unsuspected by its unfortunate victims.*

Eminent writers have advanced various definitions of the nature and meaning of temperance. By some, it has been correctly asserted, that an intemperate man is one whose appetite rules his reason; and that a temperate man, is one whose reason rules his appetite. Temperance is a virtue of self-denial or restraint. Dr. Adam Clarke defines it to be a proper and limited use of all earthly enjoyments, keeping every sense under proper restraint, and not permitting the animal part to subjugate the rational. Parkhurst renders it "self-government, temperance, continence; having power over one's own appetites." Pasor and other lexicographers of good authority, give it the same signification. In this sense also, was the word used by one of the most distinguished philosophers of old. "Temperance," observes Cicero, "is the unyielding control of reason over lust, and over all wrong tendencies of the mind. Frugality is not so extensive as temperance. Temperance means not only frugality, but also modesty and self-government. It means abstinence from all things not good,

"Men indulge habitually, day by day, not perhaps to the extent of producing any evident effect, either upon the body or mind at the time, and fancy themselves all the while strictly temperate, while they are, in reality undermining their constitution by slow degrees-killing themselves by inches, and shortening their existence several years."-Anatomy of Drunkenness, by Robert Macnish, 5th Ed. p. 254.

"It is," remarks Dr. Beecher, of America, and I fully concur with him, observes Dr. Macnish, (6 a matter of unwonted certainty, that habitual tip. pling is worse than periodical drunkenness. The poor Indian, who once a month drinks himself dead, all but simple breathing, will outlive for years, the man who drinks little and often, and is not perhaps suspected of intemperance."

"The observation of twenty years, in this city (Dublin,) has convinced me, that, were ten young men, on their twenty-first birthday, to begin to drink one glass (equal to two ounces) of ardent spirits, or a pint of port wine or sherry, and were they to drink this supposed moderate quantity of strong liquor daily, the lives of eight out of the ten would be abridged by twelve or fifteen years. They represent themselves as temperate-very temperate." Statement by Dr. Cheyne, late Physician General of Ireland, p. 54, 1829.

and entire innoce ce of character." Temperance is that which teaches us to regulate our desires and fears, so that in desiring and in shunning things, we may always follow reason. Fortitude is concerned in labours and dangers, temperance in renouncing pleasures.

From these observations, we may with great propriety conclude, that physical temperance consists in the moderate use of those things which are nutritious and proper for human sustenanee, and in abstinence from everything which is injurious and unnecessary. This definition, is, in every sense of the word, strictly applicable, because it not only comprehends the quantity but the quality also of those things which ought to enter into the composition of human diet. Sir William Temple, a writer of considerable eminence of the seventeenth century, remarks thus:"I do not allow the pretence of temperance to all such as are seldom or never drunk or fall into surfeits, for men may lose their health without losing their senses, and be intemperate every day without being drunk perhaps once. in their lives; but that which I call temperance, is a regular and simple diet, limited by every man's experience of his own easy digestion, and thereby proportioning, as near as well can be, the daily repairs to the daily decays of our wasting bodies.* Sir William Temple then proceeds to apply this rule of temperance to the removal of a disease on which he has written largely, and enforces the necessity of rigorous abstinence from inebriating liquor on all ordinary occasions.

"Per

Another writer, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, in reprobating the practice of intemperance, makes the following pertinent remarks:- "It is sad to consider how many will hear this charge, for one that will apply it to himself, for confident I am, that fifteen of twenty, this city over, (London) are drunkards, yea, seducing drunkards, in the dialect of Scripture, and by the law of God, which extends to the heart and the affections." haps," observes the same writer, "by the law of the land, a man is not taken for drunk except his eyes stare, his tongue stutter, his legs stagger; but by God's law, he is one that goes often to the drink, or that tarries long at it. Prov. xxiii. 30, 31. He that will be drawn to drink when he hath neither need of it, nor mind to it, to the spending of money, wasting of precious time, discredit of the Gospel,

An Essay on the Cure of the Gout.—Miscellanea, Part I. 1677.