ammability. The liquid appeared to the senses of the examining
students, as strong as one-third gin, and two-thirds water."

Dr. Armstrong, who has enjoyed very ample opportunity of investigating
this subject, speaks of the chronic inflammation of the brain and its
membranes, as frequently proceeding from the free use of strong liquors.

It is a fact familiar to every anatomist, that alcohol, even when
greatly diluted, has, by its action on the brain after death, the effect
of hardening it, as well as most of the tissues of the body which
contain albumen; and it is common to immerse the brain in ardent spirit
for a few days, in order to render it the firmer for dissection.

On examining the brain after death of such as have long been accustomed
to the free use of ardent spirit, it is said the organ is generally
found harder than in temperate persons. It has no longer that delicate
and elastic texture. Its arteries become diminished in size, and lose
their transparency, while the veins and sinuses are greatly distended
and irregularly enlarged.

This statement is confirmed by my own dissections, and they seem also to
be in full accordance with all the intellectual and physical phenomena
displayed in the drunkard, while living.

7. The _heart_ and its functions. It has generally been supposed, that
the heart is less frequently affected by intemperance, than most of the
other great vital organs; but, from the history of the cases which have
come under my own observation, I am convinced that it seldom escapes
disease under the habitual use of ardent spirit. And why should it,
since it is thrown almost perpetually into a state of unnatural
exertion, the very effect produced by the violent agitation of the
passions, the influence of which upon this organ is found so injurious?

The following case came under my notice, a few winters since. A large
athletic man, long accustomed to the use of ardent spirit, on drinking a
glass of raw whiskey, dropped instantly dead. On carefully dissecting
the body, no adequate cause of the sudden cessation of life could be
found in any part, except the heart. This organ was free from blood, was
hard and firmly contracted, as if affected by spasms. I am convinced
that many of those cases of sudden death which take place with
intemperate persons, are the result of a spasmodic action of the heart,
from sympathy with the stomach, or some other part of the system. The
use of ardent spirit, no d