icated cases of a combustion of the human body from
the use of ardent spirits. Trotter mentions ten such cases, and relates
them at length. They are attended with all the proof we require to
believe any event. They are attested by living witnesses, examined by
learned men, and published in the journals of the day without
contradiction. It would be unnecessary to relate the whole, but I will
state one of them, and from this an idea can be formed of the rest. It
is the case "of a woman eighty years of age, exceedingly meagre, who had
drunk nothing but ardent spirits for several years. She was sitting in
her elbow-chair, while her waiting-maid went out of the room for a few
moments. On her return, seeing her mistress on fire, she immediately
gave an alarm; and some people coming to her assistance, one of them
endeavored to extinguish the flames with his hands, _but they adhered to
them as if they had been dipped in brandy or oil on fire_. Water was
brought and thrown on the body in abundance, _yet the fire appeared more
violent, and was not extinguished till the whole body had been
consumed_. The lady was in the same place in which she sat every day,
there was no extraordinary fire, and she had not fallen."[B]

[Footnote B: Trotter on Drunkenness, pp. 78, 79.]

This, with nine other cases, related by the same author, was a
consumption of the body produced by the use of ardent spirits. The
horror of a drunkard's death beggars description. Need I point to yonder
grave, just closed over the remains of one who went from the cup of
excess to almost instant death? You all know it.

But this is not all. One half the poor you support by taxes and
individual charity, are made poor by the use of ardent spirits. This has
been demonstrated by actual inquiry and examination. In the city of New
York, where there are more poor, and where more is done for them than
in any other city of the United States, a committee appointed for the
purpose, ascertained by facts, that more than one half of the city poor
were reduced to poverty by intemperance. This is also the case
throughout the Union. And here permit me to state a case, with which I
am acquainted. I do it with a double object. I do it to show that the
use of ardent spirits produces poverty and distress, and the disuse of
them restores to wealth and comfort.

A gentleman in the city of New York, who carried on ship-building on an
extensive scale, and employed a great number of han