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OF INTOXICATION.

The effects of intoxication are often fatal. No kind of poison killmore certainly than an over-dose of ardent spirits. Sometimes, bydestroying the nervous energy, they put an end to life at once; but ingeneral their effects are more slow, and in many respects similar to thoseof opium. Other kinds of intoxicating liquors may prove fatal whentaken to excess, as well as ardent spirits; but they may generally bedischarged by vomiting, which ought always to be excited when thestomach is overcharged with liquor.

More of those unhappy persons, who die intoxicated, lose their livesfrom inability to conduct themselves, than from the destructive, qualityof the liquor. Unable to walk, they tumble down, and lie in some awk-ward posture which obstructs the circulation or breathing, and f^tencontinue in this situation till they die. No drunken person should beleft by himself, till his clothes have been loosened, and his body laid insuch a posture as is most favourable for continuing the vital motions,discharging the contents of the stomach, &c. The best posture for dis-charging the contents of the stomach is to lay the person upon his belly;when asleep he may be laid on his side, with his head a little raised, andparticular care must be taken that his neck be no way bent, twisted, orhave any thing too tight about it.

The excessive degree of thirst occasioned by drinking strong liquorsoften induces people to quench it by taking what is hurtful. I haveknown fatal consequences even from drinking freely of milk after adebauch of wine or sour punch; the acid liquors, together with the heatof the stomach, having coagulated the milk in such a manner that couldnever be digested. The safest drink after a debauch is water with atoast, tea, infusions of balm, sage, barley-water, and such like. If theperson wants to vomit, he may drink a weak infusion of camomile flowers,or lukewarm water and oil; but in this condition vomiting may generallybe excited by only tickling the throat with the finger or a feather.

A young man had for a hire, drank ten glasses of strong brandy. Hesoon after fell fast asleep, and continued in that situation for severalhours, till at length his uneasy manner of breathing, the coldness of theextremities, and other threatening symptoms, alarmed his friends, andmade them send for me. I found him still sleeping, his countenanceghastly, and his skin covered with a cold clammy sweat. Almost theonly signs of life remaining were, a deep laborious breathing, and a con-vulsive motion or agitation of his bowels.

I triod to rouse him, but in vain, by pinching, shaking, applying volatilespirits and other stimulating things to his nose, &c. A few ounces 01blood were taken from his arm, and a mixture of vinegar and water waspoured into his mouth; but, as he could not swallow, very little of thisgot into the stomach. None of these things having the least effect, andthe danger seeming to increase, I ordered his legs to be put into warmwater, and a sharp clyster to be immediately administered. This gave1'ini a stool, and was flie firs* thing that relieved him. I was afterwards

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