A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

drinks. The first, is, their positive effect on the human system. Their peculiarity consists in so exciting the nervous system, that all the functions of the body are accelerated, and the fluids are caused to move quicker than at their natural speed. This increased motion of the animal fluids, always produces an agreeable effect on the mind. The intellect is invigorated, the imagination is excited, the spirits are enlivened; and these effects are so agreeable, that all mankind, after having once experienced them, feel a great desire for their repetition. But this temporary invigoration of the system, is always followed by a diminution of the powers of the stimulated organs; so that, though in all cases this reaction may not be perceptible, it is invariably the result. It may be set down as the unchangeable rule of physiology, that stimulating drinks (except in cases of disease) deduct from the powers of the constitution, in exactly the proportion in which they operate to produce temporary invigoration. The second evil, is, the temptation which always attends the use of stimulants. Their effect on the system is so agreeable, and the evils resulting are so imperceptible and distant, that there is a constant tendency to increase such excitement, both in frequency and power. And the more the system is thus reduced in strength, the more craving is the desire for that which imparts a temporary invigoration. This process of increasing debility and increasing craving for the stimulus that removes it, often goes to such an extreme, that the passion is perfectly uncontrollable, and mind and body perish under this baleful habit. In this Country, there are five forms in which the use of such stimulants is common; namely, _alcoholic drinks_, _tea_, _coffee_, _opium mixtures_, and _tobacco_. These are all alike, in the main peculiarity of imparting that extra stimulus to the system, which tends to exhaust its powers. Multitudes in this Nation are in the habitual use of some one of these stimulants; and each person defends the indulgence by these arguments: First, that the desire for stimulants is a natural propensity, implanted