DRU 
DRU 
skin, which is kept fast by a circle of iron, 
and several holes fastened to the body of 
the drum, and a like number of screws to 
screw up and down. They are much used 
among the horse, as also in operas, orato- 
rios, concerts, &c. 
DRUMMER, he that beats the drum, 
of whom each company of foot has one, 
and sometimes two. Every regiment has 
a drum-major, who has the command over 
the other drums. They are distinguished 
from the soldiers by clothes of a diftcrent 
fashion : their post when a battalion is 
drawn up, is on the flanks, and on a march 
it is betwixt the divisions. 
DRUNKENNESS, tAeoryo/. The com- 
mon and immediate effect of wine is to dis- 
pose to joy, i. e. to introduce such kinds 
and degrees of vibrations into the wliole 
nervous system, or into the separate parts 
thereof, as are attended with a moderate 
continued pleasure. This it seems to do 
chiefly by impressing agreeable sensations 
upon the stomach and bowels, which are 
thence propagated into the brain, continue 
there, and also call up the several associated 
pleasures that have been formed from plea- 
sant impressions made upon the alimentary 
duct, or even upon any of the external 
senses. But wine has also probably a con- 
siderable effect of the same kind, after it 
is absorbed by the veins and lacteals, viz. 
by the impressions which it makes on the 
solids, considered as productions of the 
nerves, while it circulates with the fluids 
in an unassimilated state, in the same 
manner, as may be observed of opium ; 
which resembles wine in this respect also, 
that it produces one species of temporaiy 
madness. And we may suppose, that ana- 
logous observations hold with regard to all 
the medicinal and poisonous bodies, which 
are found to produce considerable disor- 
ders in the mind ; their greatest and most 
immediate effect arises from the impressions 
made on the stomach, and the disorderly 
vibrations propagated thence into the brain ; 
and yet it seems probable, that such parti- 
cles as are absorbed, produce a similar 
effect in circulating with the blood. 
Wine, after it is absorbed, must rarefy 
the blood, and consequently distend the 
veins and sinuses, so as to make them com- 
press the medullary subtance, and the 
nerves themselves, both in their origin and 
progress; it must, therefore, dispose to 
some degree of a palsy of the sensations 
and motions ; to which there will be a 
farther disposition from the great exhaustion 
VOL. II. 
of the nervous capillaments, and medullary 
substance, which a continued state of gaiety 
and mirth, with the various expressions of 
it, has occasioned. It is moreover to be 
noted, that the pleasant vibrations pro- 
ducing this gaiety, by rising higher and 
higher perpetually, as more wine is taken 
into the stomach and blood vessels, come 
at last to border upon, and even to 
pass into, the disagreeable vibrations be- 
longing to the passions of anger, jealousy, 
envy, &c. more especially if any of the 
mental causes of these be presented at the 
same time. 
Now it seems, that, from a comparison 
of these and such things with each other, 
the peculiar temporary madness of drun- 
ken persons might receive a general 
explanation. Particularly it seems na- 
tural to expect, that they should at first 
be much disposed to mirth and laugh- 
ter, with a mixture of small inconsis- 
tencies and absurdities; that these last 
should increase from the vivid trains which 
force themselves upon the brain, in oppo- 
sition to the present reality; that they 
should lose the command and stability of 
the voluntary motions from the prevalence 
of confused vibrations in the brain, so that 
those appropriated to voluntary motion, 
cannot descend regularly as usual ; but that 
they should stagger and see double ; tiiat 
quarrels and contentions should arise after 
some time and all end at last in a tempo- 
rary apoplexy. And it is very observable, 
that the free use of fermented liquors dis- 
poses to passionateness, to distempers of the 
head, to melancholy, and to downright 
madness ; all which things have also great 
connections with each other. The sickness 
and head-ach which drunkenness occasions 
the succeeding morning, seem to arise, 
the first from the immediate impressions 
made on the nerves of the stomach ; the 
second from the peculiar sympathy which 
the parts of the head, external as well as 
internal, have with the brain, the part prin- 
cipally affected in drunkenness, by deriving 
their nerves immediately from it. See 
Hartley on Man. 
DRUPA, in botany, a species of seed- 
vessel that is succulent, has no valve or 
external opening like the capsule and pod, 
and contains within its substance a stone 
or nut. The cherry, plumb, peach, apricot, 
and all stone fruit, are of this kind. The 
stone, or nut, which, in this species of fruit, 
is surrounded by the soft pulpy flesh, is a 
kind of woody cup, containing a single ker* 
O o 
