THE FARMER AT HOME. 133 



liquid to that of dry or solid food, cannot be precisely ascertained ; yet, 

 if the constant secretion of the fluids be laid down as the basis of this 

 computation, we should, perhaps, drink double the quantity of the 

 solid provisions we daily consume. Nevertheless, even this propor- 

 tion is but too often exceeded, merely to please the artificial cravings of 

 a corrupted palate. Thus we no longer drink with a view to quench 

 thirst only, but at certain hours of the day, whether we are naturally 

 inclined or not. Nay we frequently meet with sots in beer, ale, spir- 

 its, wine, punch, and even tea. Excessive drink, however, though it 

 distend and oppress the stomach, and thus impede digestion, is not 

 nearly so pernicious as gluttony, unlesss the former be attended with 

 intoxication. It however impoverishes the whole mass of the blood, 

 by rendering it too thin and watery ; so that relaxation of the urinary 

 and other canals, and, at length, general debility of the system, are 

 its necessary concomitants. 



On the contrary, too little drink disposes persons of a sedentary 

 life to indigestion ; because many particles of solid food are, for want 

 of dilution, passed unassimilated through the alimentary canal ; and 

 the blood becomes viscid, and inert in its circulation. The active 

 and laborious should, therefore, drink more than the idle or phlegm- 

 atic ; and either of these more in summer than in winter, to supply 

 the great loss of humors exhaled by insensible perspiration. Persons, 

 whose natural appetites are not depraved in consequence of irregular 

 living, may easily regulate the due proportion of their drink to that of 

 their solid food ; as, to them, thirst will be the safest guide. But 

 those individuals who have become slaves to intoxicating libations 

 are unfortunately deprived of this beneficent instinct, which is the 

 privilege even of brutes, to drink what they need, and then to abstain 

 from drinking. 



DROMEDARY. A species of camel, called also the Arabian 

 camel, with one bunch or protuberance on the back, in distinction 

 from the Bactrian camel, which has two bunches. It has four cal- 

 lous protuberances on the forelegs, and two on the hind ones. It is a 

 common beast of burden in Egypt. Syria, ami the neighboring coun- 

 tries. It is said to be very swift, and able to travel more than one 

 hundred miles in a day, though its common rate does not exceed forty 

 in iles. 



DRONE. The male of the honey bee. It is smaller than the queen 

 bee, but much larger than the working bee. The drones make no 

 honey, but after living a few weeks, and being no further needed to 

 impregnate the queen, by a wonderful instinct in the working portion 

 of the family, they are killed or driven from the hive. An idler ; a 

 sluggard ; one who earns nothing by industry is also called a drone. 



DROWNING. The extinction of life by a total submersion in 

 water. In some respects, there seems to be a great similarity between 

 the death occasioned by immersion in water, and that by strangula- 



