is country do with wine
and spirits; and those who have been accustomed to take this drug for
a considerable time, feel languid and depressed when they are
deprived of it for some time; they repair to the opium houses, as our
dram drinkers do to the gin shops in the morning, sullen, dejected,
and silent; in an hour or two, however, they are all hilarity. This
shows the effects of opium to be stimulant. Tobacco intoxicates those
who are not accustomed to it, and in those who are, it produces a
serene and composed state of mind by its stimulating effects. Like
opium and fermented liquors it exhausts the excitability, and leaves
the person dejected, and all his senses blunted, when its stimulant
effects are over.

That what is more properly called food acts in the same way as the
substances I have just examined, is evident from the fact which I
mentioned some time ago, that persons whose excitability has been
accumulated, by their being deprived of food for some days, have been
intoxicated by a bason of broth.

These facts, with innumerable others which will easily suggest
themselves, prove, beyond doubt, the truth of the second law, namely,
that when the exciting powers have acted violently, or for a
considerable time, the excitability is exhausted, or less fit to be
acted on.

Besides the stimulants which I have mentioned, there are several
others which act upon the body, many of which will hereafter be
considered: but all act according to this law; when their action has
been suspended or diminished, the excitability of the organ on which
they act becomes accumulated, or more easily affected by their
subsequent action; and, on the contrary, when their action has been
violent, or long continued, the excitability becomes exhausted, or
less fit to receive their actions.

Among the stimulants acting on the body, we may mention sound, which
has an extensive influence on human life. I need not mention here its
numerous natural, or artificial sources, as that has been fully done
in a preceding lecture. The effect of music, in stimulating and
producing a state of mind approaching to intoxication, is universally
known. Indeed the influence of certain sounds in stimulating, and
thereby increasing, the powers of life, cannot be denied. Fear
produces debility, which has a tendency to death. Sound obviates this
debility, and restores to the system its natural degree of
excitement. The schoolboy and the clown invigorate their tr