egetables, these liquors may be hurtful. The stimulus of
fermented or spirituous liquors is not necessary to the young and
vigorous: and, when much employed, impairs the tone of the system."

Dr. C. might have added--what indeed we should infer by parity of
reasoning--that when fermented liquors are avoided, animal food is no
longer necessary, and by increasing the alkaline state of the stomach
and fluids, may be hurtful. The truth is, they go best together. If we
use flesh and fish, which are alkaline, a small quantity of gently acid
drink, as weak cider or wine, taken either _with_ our meals, or
_between_ them, may be useful. It is better, however, to abstain from
both.

For if a purely vegetable aliment, with water alone for drink, is safe
to all young persons inclining at all to gout, to whom is it unsafe? If
it tends to render a young person at all weaker, that very weakness
would predispose to the gout, in some of its forms, if a person were
constitutionally inclined to that disease--if not to some other
complaint, to which he was more inclined. It cannot, therefore, be
unsafe to any, if Dr. C. is right.

But if those who are trained to it, _lose_ nothing, even in the high
latitude of Scotland--where Dr. C. wrote--by confining themselves to
good vegetables and water, then they must necessarily _gain_, on his own
principles, by this way of living, because they get rid of any sort of
necessity (he might have added, lose their appetite) for fermented
liquors.

More than this, as the doctor himself concludes, in another place, they
prevent many acute diseases. His words are these:--"It is animal food
which especially predisposes to the plethoric and inflammatory state;
and that food is therefore to be especially avoided." It is true, he is
here speaking of gouty persons: but his principles are also fairly
susceptible, as I have shown, of a general application.

In short, it is an undeniable fact, that even a thorough-going vegetable
eater might prove every thing he wished, from old established writers on
medicine and health, though themselves were feeders on animal food; just
as a teetotaler may prove the doctrine of abstinence from all drinks but
water, from the writings of medical men, though themselves are still, in
many cases, pouring down their cider, their beer, or their wine--or at
least, their tea and coffee.

DR. BENJAMIN RUSH.

I find nothing in the writings of this great man which shows, with
cer