962 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



it will almost inevitably lead to excess, it being difficult for most persons to draw the line 

 between a moderate and immoderate use of it, but from its evil effects directly upon the whole 

 system, especially upon the nerves and heart. Dr. N. B. Richardson, one of the most cele 

 brated physicians of London, states that he was able to convey a considerable amount of con 

 viction to a man who thought he could not get along without his regular daily rations of 

 alcoholic stimulants. He did this by showing him the effects of alcoholic liquors upon the 

 action of the heart. 



He says: &quot; I said to the man, will you please feel my pulse, as I stand here, counting it 

 carefully. What does it say? He did so, and replied, Your pulse says 74. I then sat 

 down in a chair and asked him to count it again. He did so, and said, Your pulse has gone 

 down to 70. I then laid down on the lounge and said, will you take it again? He replied, 

 Why, it is only 64; what an extraordinary thing! I then said, when you lie down at 

 night, that is the way nature gives your heart rest. You know nothing about it, but that 

 beating organ is resting to that extent; and if you reckon it up, it is a great deal of rest, 

 because in lying down the heart is doing ten strokes less a minute. Multiply this by 60, and 

 it is 600; multiply it by eight hours, and within a fraction it is 5,000 strokes different; and 

 as the heart is throwing six ounces of blood at every stroke, it makes a difference of 30,000 

 ounces of lifting during the night. When I lie down at night without any alcohol, that is 

 the rest my heart gets. But when you take your wine or other alcoholic drinks, you do not 

 allow that rest, for the influence of alcohol is to increase the number of strokes, and instead 

 of getting this rest, you put on something like 15,000 extra strokes, and the result is, you rise 

 up very nervous and unfit for the next day s work till you have taken a little more of the 

 ruddy bumper, which you say is the soul of man below. His wife acknowledged that this 

 was perfectly true. He began to reckon up those figures, and found what it meant lifting up 

 an ounce so many thousand times, and the result was, he became a total abstainer, with every 

 benefit to his health, and, as he admits, to his happiness. I would like those who take 

 stimulants to give them rest, just to take the opposite side of the question into consideration, 

 and see how the two positions fit together.&quot; 



Young men are apt to entertain the foolish idea that in taking an occasional drink they 

 are exhibiting a spirit of manliness, so ape their elders in this respect, the same motive 

 prompting that induces them to smoke their first cigar; but when the habit is once formed, 

 it is with difficulty broken, and too often proves a chain of such power that it seems impos 

 sible to sever it, and the victim is dragged by it down to a drunkard s grave. The only safe 

 and manly course for a young man to pursue is to entirely discard the use of all alcoholic 

 liquors; to shun the evil as he would a deadly viper, and not allow himself to become con 

 taminated by its influence, as he certainly will more or less, if he partakes of it. 



Adulteration of Liquors. When we consider the evil effects upon the system of a 

 frequent use of pure alcoholic stimulants, and the additional fact that the great proportion of 

 liquors sold in this country are adulterated with poisonous drugs, it is no wonder that the 

 army of men that yearly fill drunkards graves is so large; the only wonder is that some of 

 them survive as long as they do! The following report concerning the adulteration of liquors 

 was obtained from an extensive wholesale liquor dealer in the city of New York, many years 

 engaged in the business, and who has recently retired from it. On being requested to state 

 the manner of adulterating liquors, he replied: 



&quot; If I should give you the tricks of the trade with my name, this city would be a hot 

 place for me. But few liquor drinkers have the faintest idea in regard to the extent of the 

 evil of adulteration. For instance, more than two-thirds of the stuff sold for brandy in this 

 country is the meanest kind of poison. It is manufactured from an oil of cognac. Dr. Cox, 

 the inspector of liquors for Ohio, after examining some of these imported brandies, said that 

 the chemical tests gave him fusil oil as a basis, with sulphuric acid, copper, chloroform, tannic 

 acid, Guinea pepper, and a small percentage of good brandy. The same gentleman, after 

 testing liquor from a half pipe of splendid Seigrette brandy, found evidences of sulphuric 

 acid, nitric acid, nitric ether, prussic acid, Guinea pepper, fusil oil, and common whiskey. 



Gin is considered a safe drink by thousands, who believe that it is the only liquor which 

 escapes adulteration. They are mistaken. In most of the gin sold, there will be found oil of 

 vitriol, oil of turpentine, oil of almonds, sulphuric ether, and extract of grains of paradise. It 

 is in the manufacture of whiskey, however, that the adulterators do their finest work. You 

 can purchase oils and essences from which whiskey of any age can be produced. The style 

 of whiskey when tested will show sulphuric acid, caustic potassa, benzine, and nux vomica, and 

 other poisons. This is the sort of stuff that bores into the coatings of the stomach and ere- 



