252 PHYSIOLOGY. 



a lowering and perversion of function, and with premature 

 decay of all the mental and physical powers." PALMER. 



Dr. Clum in his work entitled Inebriety, its Causes, its 

 Results, its Remedy, says : " The most important part of 

 man is his nervous system ; the cerebrospinal, sympathetic, 

 and vasomotor being intimately interwoven and connected, 

 composing the whole. The great nervous center, the brain, 

 with its hemispheres, its gray and white matter, is the 

 most complex of all complexities. The nerve fibers not 

 only connect every cell with every other cell, but unite all 

 nervous structures into one, making the entire body a 

 complete whole, and forming close and direct sympathy 

 between the intellect and the physical organization. 



" The mind and body are so intimately connected that 

 exhausting excess of either acts and reacts on the other. 

 Excessive work, either intellectual or physical, the sudden 

 loss of property, intense disappointment, great trouble, un- 

 requited affections, etc., may impart a shock to the senses 

 through the mind, which, extending to the molecules of 

 the brain, disturbs their normal action ; and a sufferer 

 thus worn and debilitated with the cares of life, with an 

 enfeebled will power, the result of nervous exhaustion, 

 experiences a craving for some form of stimulant to * brace 

 him up.' He is on the verge of inebriety, or of insanity, 

 or both, and if he indulges in alcoholic beverages he 

 becomes an inebriate. Any disease inherited or acquired, 

 acting either directly or indirectly upon the nervous system, 

 may act as the predisposing, exciting, or complicating and 

 protracting cause of alcoholic inebriety." 



" Inebriety is often, too often, observed to flourish in 

 the richest and most promising soil. The clergyman, the 

 lawyer, the editor, the student, and all others who use 

 their intellectual faculties to excess, as well as the mechanic, 



