same.

But I pass on to notice one state of the system, produced by ardent
spirit, too important and interesting to leave unexamined. It is that
_predisposition to disease and death_ which so strongly characterizes
the drunkard in every situation of life.

It is unquestionably true, that many of the surrounding objects in
nature are constantly tending to man's destruction. The excess of heat
and cold, humidity and dryness, noxious exhalations from the earth, the
floating atoms in the atmosphere, the poisonous vapors from decomposed
animal and vegetable matter, with many other invisible agents, are
exerting their deadly influence; and were it not that every part of his
system is endowed with a self-preserving power, a principle of
excitability, or, in other words, a vital principle, the operations of
the economy would cease, and a dissolution of his organic structure take
place. But this principle being implanted in the system, reaction takes
place, and thereby a vigorous contest is maintained with the warring
elements without, as well as with the principle of decay within.

It is thus that man is enabled to endure, from year to year, the toils
and fatigues of life, the variations of heat and cold, and the
vicissitudes of the seasons--that he is enabled to traverse every region
of the globe, and to live with almost equal ease under the equator and
in the frozen regions of the north. It is by this power that all his
functions are performed, from the commencement to the close of life.

The principle of excitability exists in the highest degree in the
infant, and diminishes at every succeeding period of life; and if man is
not cut down by disease or violence, he struggles on, and finally dies
a natural death--a death occasioned by the exhaustion of the principle
of excitability. In order to prevent the too rapid exhaustion of this
principle, nature has especially provided for its restoration by
establishing a period of sleep. After being awake for sixteen or
eighteen hours, a sensation of fatigue ensues, and all the functions are
performed with diminished precision and energy. Locomotion becomes
feeble and tottering, the voice harsh, the intellect obtuse and
powerless, and all the senses blunted. In this state the individual
anxiously retires from the light, and from the noise and bustle of
business, seeks that position which requires the least effort to sustain
it, and abandons himself to rest. The will ceases to act, a