242 
ON COLONIAL WINES. 
almost naked skin are to the equatorial African ; what 
his bitter beer is to the inhabitant of Northern Europe ; 
that is wine, and a moderate quantity of animal and 
vegetable food, to the inhabitants of sab-tropical 
climates all over the world. Again, if time allowed, it 
would be delightful to take up the line of illustration, 
so exquisitely drawn by Mr. Babinet, of the Institute of 
France, and trace the action of Providence in the wool, 
hair, feather, skin, and other integuments of animated 
nature in the several zones. But we can do no more 
now than allude to it. And so, if we reason consecu- 
tively, we shall find that every climate has its own 
appointed conditions, under which alone the human 
economy will be healthy and vigorous. You cannot 
here subsist on the starch food, which maintains in 
health and strength the inhabitants of equatorial 
regions, nor can you think of sustaining life for any 
length t>f time on the fish oil, tallow, and dried flesh 
of the Laplander, or man of Kamschatka. The beers 
and ardent spirits, so much a necessary in moderation 
in cold and damp regions, and the strong tea of China, 
when taken constantly and in excess, produce diseases 
here, on which learned physiologists become eloquent, 
and from which are derived in no small degree the 
need of the physician, and the waste of health and the 
expense of sickness, to say nothing of the miseries of 
declining life. Health depends much upon the vigorous 
tone of the nervous system ; the enjoyment of life 
wholly on that great instrument in the human labora- 
tory, the liver. Tea, and such like, act strongly on the 
nervous system, but are comparatively harmless. 
Malt liquors and ardent spirits load the system with 
carbon ; well enough for the production of animal heat, 
