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Materia Medica.

PART II.

I

Medical properties and uses. — "Wine when good, and of aproper age, is cordial and tonic ; but when new it is flatulent,debilitating, and purgative, and intoxicates sooner than oldwine. In a dietetical point of view, the temperate use of itpromotes digestion, and gives additional energy to the actionof the heart and arteries, strengthens the animal functions, ex-hilarates the spirits, sharpens the wit, and calls into action allthe intellectual powers: but when taken in excess, it intoxi-cates, producing sickness, head-ach, vertigo, and diarrhoea, withnervous tremors, which continue for two or three days; and,like ardent spirit, its habitual excessive use extinguishes the fa-culties of both body and mind, producing dyspepsia, emaci-ation, and debility, hepatic and pulmonary inflammation, palsy,gout, dropsy, and a long train of diseases and wretchedness.

As a remedy, wine is stimulant, antiseptic, tonic, and anti-spasmodic. Its stimulating properties are less diffusible, butmore permanent than alcohol; and hence its dose is more ea-sily regulated, and its effects are more certain. In all disease*accompanied with much debility, as typhoid fevers, and in casesof extensive ulceration or gangrene, wine is not only the bestaddition to cinchona bark and opium, but is a remedy on whichalone there is much reliance: in some convulsive affections, assymptomatic tetanus, and chorea, much benefit has been de-rived from its use; and in the convalescencies from all severediseases it is the most efficacious and the quickest mean we canemploy for restoring the exhausted strength and vigour. Wineoperates less powerfully on the system in a state of disease thanin health : the quantity, however, to be given, and the properperiod of exhibiting it, require to be regulated with much judg-ment. The skin being open, and not dry or hot, the strengthsinking, and the ulcerations, if any exist, assuming a gangre-nous appearance, indicate the use of wine: and when, in theevent of the pulse being low and fluttering, wine restores itsfirmness without increasing delirium, and induces sleep, it maybe given with a confidence of the greatest benefit. But if onthe contrary it renders the pulse quicker, increases heat, thirst,delirium, or watchfulness, its exhibition ought immediately tobe discontinued. The quantity to be given depends entirelyon the nature of the disease, and the intentions for which it isadministered. In typhus the proper rule is to give it till thepulse fills, the delirium abates, and the extremities warm ; andit should be repeated on the smallest appearance of stupor,

has stated t!ie following as the proportion of spirit contained in malt liquor. Barton ale8-S8; Edinburgh a!e 6-20 ; Dorchester ale 5-56 ; Brown stout 6"80 ; London porter(average) 4-20; London small beer (average) 1-28,