THE QUANTITY OF STIMULANTS. 399 



the same mould. Some persons are better treated 

 without alcohol, while others, suffering from the very 

 same disorder, require a good allowance of stimulant. 

 The difficulties of explaining this and many familiar 

 facts are great indeed perhaps insurmountable in 

 the present state of our knowledge. Many of us have 

 remarked how readily some persons when exposed 

 to contagion contract the disease, while others alto- 

 gether escape, or if attacked, progress favourably 

 in spite of circumstances the most adverse. Original 

 hereditary defects affecting the organs of circulation 

 and the nervous system, particularly weak heart, will 

 doubtless account for some of the cases we have 

 observed. There is reason to think that many children 

 who die early might have reached old age if they 

 could have been preserved up to the period of early 

 youth. While there is no doubt that in other instances 

 adolescence, or a still later period of life, constitutes 

 the critical period when exposure to the influence of 

 contagious poison might be more disastrous than at 

 any other time of life. Such considerations must 

 always influence our judgment in determining the 

 proper treatment, especially as regards the quantity 

 of alcohol. In the regulation of the amount of food 

 for prisoners, the inmates of workhouses, hospitals, 

 and charitable institutions, there is too great a 

 desire on the part of the authorities to adopt uni- 

 formity ; as if every individual required precisely 

 the same quantity. The consequence is that a diet 



