The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

46 Tile Phlysiological L.ffE,cis of A Icohol.
obtain as much mechanical and mental as is compatible
with health, we can consider the effect of alcohol, per se,
as simply a means of irevenizfzf the develofinzeizt of force."
Dr. Richardson, in discussing the " Physiological Position of Alcohol (Poizblar Science Revziew, April, I872), decisively affirms: " The evidence is all-perfect that alcohol
gives no potential power to brain or muscle. A fire
makes a brilliant sight, but'it leaves a desolation, and thus
with alcohol."
II.-I:;JURIOUS ACTION OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS.
That intoxicating liquors operate injuriously by reason
of the alcohol they contain, even when the quantity consumed is not regarded as excessive, is attested by the
following considerations
I. PURE ALCOHOL IS CLASSED BY ALL TOXICOLOGISTS
AMONRG POISONS.-Orfila and Christison place it in the
catalogue of narcotic-acrid poisons-poisons, that is.
whose primary effect is of an acrid or irritant nature, and
whose secondary effect is that of narcotizing or paralyzing the organism with which they come into contact
\When the application is very strong, the narcotic effect is
hastened, and may altogether supersede the irritant symtoms. This has often been done when, by swallowing a
large dose of ardent spirits, instant death has been produced. This fact proves-what might have been presumed-that dilution makes no essential difference in the
character of the alcoholic action-the less water ther- is,
the less alcohol is needed to produce toxic results; the
more water that is mixed with alcohol, the larger or more
frequent is the dose required. But in no case is the
antagonistic relation between alcohol and the living system altered; any difference observed is one of degree
only. It is incredible that its poisonous action can be
transformed into an innocent one, unless-to speak para
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