LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 251 



nor the other ? I assert, that they are, in every 

 instance, as articles of diet, pernicious ; and even, 

 as medicines, wholly unnecessary ; since we possess 

 drugs which will answer the same intentions, in, at 

 least, an equal degree. But it is only as articles of 

 diet that we are here to consider them. 



Wine, spirit, and ale, are all alike, as it regards 

 the fact of their being stimulants : they only differ 

 somewhat in kind and degree. 



I shall speak, for the present, only of wine, for 

 the sake of convenience. But whatever I shall say 

 of wine, is to be considered as equally true of the 

 others : and if what I have taught you, in my pre- 

 ceding Letters, be true, what I shall say now of sti- 

 mulants must be true also. 



If wine be productive of good, what is the nature 

 and kind of good which it produces? Does it 

 nourish the body ? We know that it does not ; for 

 the life of any animal cannot be supported by it. 

 Besides, if you have understood what I have said as 

 to the nature, manner, and mechanism of nutrition, 

 you will see at once, from the very mode in which 

 the body is nourished, that whatever is capable of 

 nourishing, must be susceptible of conversion into 

 the solid matter of the body itself. But fluids 

 taken into the stomach are not capable of being 



