THE MORAL STATUS OF ALCOHOL. 385 



seen many a confirmed cider sot men all, however. I can- 

 not call to mind one example of a cider-sottish woman. 



We come now to propose a question having great practical 

 interest to all who take delight in habitual drunkenness un- 

 der circumstances of difficulty, arising from alcoholic scarcity. 

 Out of all the things in nature existing, or by the chemist 

 producible, is there nothing that can take the place of alco- 

 hol ? * I think we shall have to answer, c Not one.' Though 

 it may be possible to bring out the energies of a small modi- 

 cum of alcohol by auxiliary treatment, yet for any genuine 

 elevation to ensue inebriation, that is to say, maliciously 

 called intoxication a modicum of alcohol ingested there 

 needs must be. I have heard of a seafaring man who, to 

 evolve the fullest power out of three-water grog, used to get 

 himself triced-up by the heels, so that his head might hang 

 downward. The device might, indeed, be effectual, but it 

 is assuredly not graceful moreover, in some cases, as will 

 readily occur, the expedient would be socially objectionable. 

 Whether we are to regard the mental exaltation produced 

 by alcoholic liquors a condition of good or of evil, in either 

 case the individual, be he who he may, who first imagined 

 and brought into conventional usage the word f intoxication ' 

 in its alcoholic sense, had no great notion of the benignity 

 of inebriating spirit. The word ' intoxication ' simply means 

 c poisoning:' literally, as by a poisoned arrow; but freely, and 

 by metastasis, poisoning of any sort. 



The late Sir Humphrey Davy, working in the interests 

 of science, and whilst he was studying the characteristics of 

 laughing gas, went through a painful course of getting tipsy 

 on various alcoholic mixtures ; chronicling the results he ex- 

 perienced. In this way was the fact not only made out, that 

 hardly any two varieties of alcoholic mixture produce exactly 

 similar effects; but that no agent could be substituted for 



* Various alcohols are known to chemists. Ethyl alcohol is the one 

 obtained by fermentation, and found in spirituous liquors, 



CO 



