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Such a degree of mortality of the infant fpecies, 
unknown among the young of other animals, is 
furely an alarming circumftance! The account, 
however, only relates to children under five years 
old, exclufive of all that prodigious number of 
Englith fubjects, above that age, whofe lives are 
continually fhortened by the fame caufe! 
In tracing the effects of ardent fpirit on the hu- 
man body, we fhall find that it exerts its pernicious 
influence firft on the ftomach, the inner coat of 
which is expofed to its full action. It foon deadens 
that exquifite fenfibility of its nerves which gives 
the keen edge to appetite, fo effential to digeftion. 
But-this important organ, from its intimate con- 
nection with all the noble parts, may be confidered 
as the key-/fone of the fabrick. By gradually de- 
ftroying this, it undermines the very foundation of 
health, and, in procefs of time, lets down the whole 
frame. The liver next becomes difeafed; for on 
this organ it feems to exert a peculiar fpecific 
power, and by injuring its texture, it interrupts the 
courfe of the bile, and renders it incapable of per- 
forming its functions. 
From its action on thofe two important organs, 
its effects are propagated far and wide over the 
whole nervous fyftem. It not only creates maladies 
peculiar to itfelf, but caufes other difeafes to prove 
far more complex, mere dangerous, and more diffi- 
cult to cure. Hence may be explained the naufea 
and 
