nd he loses
in succession all the senses; the muscles unbend themselves, and permit
the limbs to fall into the most easy and natural position; digestion,
respiration, circulation, secretion, and the other functions, go on with
diminished power and activity; and consequently the wasted excitability
is gradually restored. After a repose of six of eight hours, this
principle becomes accumulated to its full measure, and the individual
awakes and finds his system invigorated and refreshed. His muscular
power is augmented, his senses are acute and discriminating, his
intellect active and eager for labor, and all his functions move on with
renewed energy. But if the stomach be oppressed by food, or the system
excited by stimulating drinks, the sleep, though it may be profound, is
never tranquil and refreshing.

The system being raised to a state of feverish excitement, and its
healthy balance disturbed, its exhausted excitability is not restored.
The individual awakes, but finds himself fatigued rather than
invigorated. His muscles are relaxed, his senses obtuse, his intellect
impaired, and his whole system disordered; and it is not till he is
again under the influence of food and stimulus that he is fit for the
occupations of life. And thus he loses the benefits of this wise
provision of repose, designed for his own preservation.

Nothing, probably, tends more powerfully to produce premature old age,
than disturbed and unrefreshing sleep.

It is also true, that artificial stimulus, in whatever way applied,
tends constantly to exhaust the principle of excitability of the system,
and this in proportion to its intensity, and the freedom with which it
is applied.

But there is still another principle on which the use of ardent spirit
predisposes the drunkard to disease and death. It acts on the blood,
impairs its vitality, deprives it of its red color, and thereby renders
it unfit to stimulate the heart and other organs through which it
circulates; unfit, also, to supply the materials for the different
secretions, and to renovate the different tissues of the body, as well
as to sustain the energy of the brain--offices which it can perform only
while it retains the vermilion color, and other arterial properties. The
blood of the drunkard is several shades darker in its color than that of
temperate persons, and also coagulates less readily and firmly, and is
loaded with serum; appearances which indicate that it has exchanged it