the waste which
continually takes place in the system. It is not strange, therefore,
that the habitual application to the organ of any agent, calculated to
derange its functions, or change its organization, should be followed by
symptoms so various and extensive, and by consequences so fatal. The use
of ardent spirit produces both these effects; it deranges the functions
of the stomach, and if persisted in, seldom fails to change its organic
structure.

The inebriate first loses his appetite, and becomes thirsty and
feverish; he vomits in the morning, and is affected with spasmodic pains
in the region of the stomach. He is often seized with permanent
dyspepsia, and either wastes away by degrees, or dies suddenly of a fit
of cramp in the stomach.

On examining the stomach after death, it is generally found irritated,
and approaching a state of inflammation, with its vessels enlarged, and
filled with black blood; and particularly those of the mucous coat,
which gives to the internal surface of the stomach the appearance of
purple or reddish streaks, resembling the livid patches seen on the face
of the drunkard.

The coats of the stomach become greatly thickened and corrugated, and so
firmly united as to form one inseparable mass. In this state, the walls
of the organ are sometimes increased in thickness to the extent of ten
or twelve lines, and are sometimes found also in a scirrhous or
cancerous condition.

The following case occurred in my practice several years since. A
middle-aged gentleman, of wealth and standing, had long been accustomed
to mingle in the convivial circle, and though by no means a drunkard,
had indulged at times in the use of his old cogniac, with an unsparing
hand. He was at length seized with pain in the region of the stomach,
and a vomiting of his food an hour or two after eating. In about
eighteen months he died in a state of extreme emaciation.

On opening the body after death, the walls of the whole of the right
extremity of the stomach were found in a scirrhous and cancerous
condition, and thickened to the extent of about two inches. The cavity
of the organ was so far obliterated as scarcely to admit the passage of
a probe from the left to the right extremity, and the opening which
remained was so unequal and irregular as to render it evident that but
little of the nourishment he had received could have passed the lower
orifice of the stomach for many months.

I have never dissected t