a792. sketches of the life of Mr Fohn Henderson. 38 
hour ; but this left him still weaker and more relaxed. 
Many of his friends observed the injury which his consti- 
tution suffered, and strenuously recommended the use of 
port wine. He was prevailed onto take it; and at/length 
what he had recourse to as a medicine, like thousands before 
him, he took by choice. Yet he never could give up his 
opiate draught, which was te him the grand restorative, and 
the chief cordial that banifhed sorrow, and left his mind te 
act with all its vigour. 
He was so attached tothis favourite medicine, that he 
at last took it so frequently, and in such quantities, that it 
impaired his faculties, at least for a time, caused epileptic 
fits, and produced all the appearances of intoxication, 
When he attended his poor patients also, he caught the 
disorder ; and though relieved for a time, the putrid affec- 
tion to which he was always subject, returned with violence. 
As a corrective, he drank more pert-than inclination could 
have led him to, and a little would disorder him; but still 
he could not refrain from opium. 
Those who have ever fallen into the habit of substituting 
the delusive aids of art, for the healing powers of nature, 
know what painful exertions it requires to cast it off. With 
the unfortunate Henderson, perhaps, it was impofsible. 
To debar him from the social enjoyments of the midnight 
hour, and deprive him of books, would have been almost 
equivalent to the destruction of his existence ; and yet, for 
some years before his death, his predominant desire could 
not, in either case, be gratified, without the afsistance of 
wine or opiates. 
His friends lamented also that the singular quicknefs of 
his talents betrayed him into a habit of arguing rather for _ 
the sake of confounding others, than for ascertaining the 
truth. Thus he often knowingly propagated error. In 
his early youth, his ardent mind despised the slow, but cer- 
