he man, who daily drinks ardent spirit, may, from the greater
insensibility of his system, in some cases escape sickness as long as
the most temperate, (though this is by no means a common fact); yet, let
disease once commence, and then we learn, by painful experience, the
disadvantage of having broken down the nervous system by needless and
vicious excess.

Tobacco is acknowledged to be one of the most deadly of the vegetable
narcotics: yet experience proves that the nerves, by habit, become so
accustomed to its stimulus, that it in a great measure loses its power.
How then can we hope with ordinary remedies to make an impression, when
even this powerful agent has itself lost its proper and natural effect?

The unparalleled mortality of the great epidemic of 1812 and 1813, was
in a good measure owing to the immense quantities of ardent spirit
consumed by the victims of that fatal malady. In the town in which I
then resided, about forty adults died in the course of the winter and
spring; and most of those were in the habit of using ardent spirit
freely. And though numbers of temperate persons were attacked, yet many
of these recovered; while every instance within my knowledge, where an
intemperate person was attacked with this formidable disease, it proved
fatal.

The ravages of the _cholera_ in India and Persia, since 1816: and in the
North of Europe, for the last eighteen months; settle the point in
question beyond reasonable doubt. In one hundred cases where the cholera
proved fatal, ninety of them had been in the liberal use of ardent
spirit. And this fact should be carefully noted, when this formidable
disease has reached Great Britain, and threatens us with its visitation.

If then the habitual use of alcohol, by exhausting the nervous energy,
predisposes the system to disease, and at the same time renders the
disease, when it has commenced, so much more intractable; what shall be
said of the common use of tobacco, which is allowed by all to be a still
more deadly poison, and of course must exhaust the power of the nerves
in a proportionate degree?

A female, aged 27 years, was attacked in December 1829 with a sore
mouth, accompanied with diarrhoea and profuse salivation. These
complaints continued to increase, notwithstanding the application of a
variety of remedies, prescribed by her medical attendant, until the 5th
of March following, when I was called to take charge of the patient. She
was much emaciated.