LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 257 



effect of ardent spirit, first to excite the nervous 

 system above, and then to depress it below, the 

 natural standard also. Both these effects are poi- 

 sonous both will destroy life, if carried far enough: 

 neither will destroy life, if not carried far enough. 

 Prussic acid, therefore, and ardent spirit, are equally 

 poisons; though neither will destroy life, unless 

 taken in sufficient quantity. But would you will- 

 ingly continue to swallow prussic acid daily, merely 

 because you admired its delicious flavour ; comfort- 

 ing yourself the while, by saying, that it could do 

 you no harm, because you did not take it in suffi- 

 cient quantity to destroy life? And, above all, 

 would you do so, knowing it to be unnecessary ? 

 Yet have I not proved that wine, spirit, and ale, 

 are unnecessary? 



But if you be impenetrable to rational argument, 

 you dare not deny the result of direct experiment. 

 Observe : " Mr. Brodie found, that by the admi- 

 nistration of a large dose of alcohol (ardent spirit) 

 to a rabbit, the pupils of its eyes became dilated, 

 its extremities convulsed, and the respiration labo- 

 rious; and that this latter function was gradually 

 performed at longer and longer intervals ; and that 

 it, at length, entirely ceased. Two minutes after 

 the apparent death of the animal, he opened the 



