{ 259 J 
fluence over our cities and villages, {paring neither 
age, fex, nor condition! It fheds the dire contagion, 
not only amongtt our poor infatuated foldiers, fail- 
ors, manufacturers, and day-labourers, but even 
communicates the infeétion to the tender mother, 
the affectionate nurfe, and the helplefs infant. It 
not only poifons the prefent generation, but even 
blafts the hopes of the next, by intailing difeafe, 
mifery, and wretchednefs, on their innocent off- 
fpring! Nor is this to be wondered at, feeing that 
the milk of unhealthy mothers or nurfes, who are 
addicted to fpirits, is peculiarly deftructive to the 
tender frame of infants whom they fuckle. Hence 
the number of puny, fickly children, who bear all 
the marks of fhrivelled old age, prone to convul- 
fions, and other fatal difeafes, and who rarely in- 
deed furvive the firft ftage of infancy. 
The Rev. Dr. Hales obferves, that the mortality 
among young children, and the decreafe of births, 
keep equal pace with the abufe of fpirituous liquors ; 
hence the ftriking difference in both refpects be- 
tween London and Paris, the habit of dram-drink- 
ing being vaftly greater in the former than in the 
latter. In London, in the year 1750, the burials 
were found to exceed the chriftenings by — 9,179 
In Paris, in the fame year, the chriften- 
ings exceeded the burials by - + = 9651 
Balance againft London upon both arti- —-—— 
cles in one year, y s a - 10,130 
8 2 . Such 
