646 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



quantity of intoxication, which, when the fumes of the wine are 

 dissipated, is followed by a prodigious languor and a state of 

 great debility, respect may be had to the former habit, and we 

 may be more bold, nay, it is almost necessary to exhibit wine. 



" Secondly, where we have not that habit of the patient to 

 guide us, there are few persons of any condition in life who have 

 not frequently taken more or less wine, and that are not ac- 

 quainted with its effects ; and the most abstemious will feel a 

 languor that will make them call for this cordial ; and wher- 

 ever the patient's own appetite makes the demand, there we may 

 with some confidence gratify and indulge it ; or at least we may 

 make a trial, and then we are farther determined by the pa- 

 tient's feelings ; if he feels it a cordial without its proving heat- 

 ing or increasing the thirst, we may confidently repeat it, and 

 more especially, if the frequency of the pulse, and the delirium 

 which subsisted before, are not increased, but rather diminished. 



" But I must observe, that frequently among the poor people 

 in this country, it is not uncommon to employ brandy or other 

 such ardent spirits in place of wine, and sometimes, I believe, with 

 great effect; but there is no sort of doubt, that though the sti- 

 mulus of ardent spirits is of the same nature as that of wine, yet, 

 from the difference arising from the other substances blended 

 with the plain spirit, the latter by itself is always a more inflam- 

 matory stimulus, and is therefore employed with much more 

 hazard. And I carry this so far as to observe, that even of the 

 different wines, some are neat, and purely depend upon the fer- 

 mentation of the grape, while in many others it is necessary to 

 put in a quantity, sometimes a considerable quantity, of spirits 

 on account of their exportation ; and I hold it a rule in all cases 

 of fever to employ the first, the most genuine and neat wines, 

 such as Claret and Rhenish wine, and to abstain from the Spanish 

 and Portuguese wines, which have spirits put into them in their 

 respective countries. 



" As the danger from the use of wine arises chiefly from its 

 stimulus, practitioners have thought it necessary to give it al- 

 ways considerably diluted ; and in the main this is a safe and 

 proper practice, especially in the first trials of it. We dilute it 

 in the form of posset, wine-whey, or what we call negus. The 

 first has the most considerable effect, but it forms a mawkish 



