r the convulsions
of children, and was said to have good effect; but is now improvidently
left out of our pharmacopias. I have known one leaf of the laurocerasus,
shred and made into tea, given every morning for a week with no ill
consequence to a weak hysteric lady, but rather perhaps with advantage.

9. The pernicious effects of a continued use of much vinous spirit is daily
seen and lamented by physicians; not only early debility, like premature
age, but a dreadful catalogue of diseases is induced by this kind of
intemperance; as dropsy, gout, leprosy, epilepsy, insanity, as described in
Botanic Garden, Part II. Canto III. line 357. The stronger or less diluted
the spirit is taken, the sooner it seems to destroy, as in dram-drinkers;
but still sooner, when kernels of apricots, or bitter almonds, or
laurel-leaf, are infused in the spirit, which is termed ratafia; as then
two poisons are swallowed at the same time. And vinegar, as it contains
much vinous spirit, is probably a noxious part of our diet. And the
distilled vinegar, which is commonly sold in the shops, is truly poisonous,
as it is generally distilled by means of a pewter or leaden alembic-head or
worm-tube, and abounds with lead; which any one may detect by mixing with
it a solution of liver of sulphur. Opium, when taken as a luxury, not as a
medicine, is as pernicious as alcohol; as Baron de Tott relates in his
account of the opium-eaters in Turkey.

10. It must be observed, that a frequent repetition of the use of this
class of medicines so habituates the body to their stimulus, that their
dose may gradually be increased to an astonishing quantity, such as
otherwise would instantly destroy life; as is frequently seen in those, who
accustom themselves to the daily use of alcohol and opium; and it would
seem, that these unfortunate people become diseased as soon as they omit
their usual potations; and that the consequent gout, dropsy, palsy, or
pimpled face, occur from the debility occasioned from the want of
accustomed stimulus, or to some change in the contractile fibres, which
requires the continuance or increase of it. Whence the cautions necessary
to be observed are mentioned in Sect. XII. 7. 8.

11. It is probable, that some of the articles in the subsequent catalogue
do not induce intoxication, though they have been esteemed to do so; as
tobacco, hemlock, nux vomica, stavisagria; and on this account should
rather belong to other arrangements, as to