542 EXERCISE. 



of giving it in such large proportions ? Why, 

 every professional man, knowing the mode by 

 which it must inevitably affect the circula- 

 tion, would naturally expect it to dissolve 

 the very crassamentum of the blood, and 

 reduce it to an absolute serwn or aqueous 

 vapour/' 



Admitting this representation of its ana- 

 lysed properties to stand incontroverted, what 

 must prove its evident effects upon the crasis 

 of the blood, already too much impoverished 

 tor ** the standard of mediocrity necessary to 

 the preservation of health ?" and how dis- 

 tressingly erroneous must have been its in- 

 troduction and continuance, in the former 

 case of the two we have recited I to elucidate 

 its destructive tendency in which, the pre- 

 sent repetition of its description is particu- 

 larly?applied. 



It is absolutely astonishing how very much 

 time, assisted by the torrent of popular im- 

 pression, may pervert the best intentions to 

 the worst of purposes ; this has been so truly 

 the case in the frequent prostitution of this 

 medicine, that little need be introduced to 



