The Chemistry of Cookery

and then such medicines may save life, provided always that the body has not become ‘tolerant,’ or partially insensible, to them by daily usage. I once watched a dangerous case of typhoid fever. Acting under the instructions of skilful medical attendants, and aided by a clinical thermometer and a seconds watch, I so applied small doses of brandy at short intervals as to keep down both pulse and temperature within the limits of fatal combustion. The patient had scarcely tasted alcohol before this, and therefore it exerted its maximum efficacy. I was surprised at the certain response of both pulse and temperature to this most valuable medicine and most pernicious beverage. The argument that has been the most industriously urged in favour of all the vice-drugs, and each in its turn, is that miserable apology that has been made for every folly, every vice, every political abuse, every social crime (such as slavery, polygamy, &c.), when the time has arrived for reformation. I cannot condescend to seriously argue against it, but merely state the fact that the widely-diffused practice of using some kind of stimulating drug has been claimed as a sufficient proof of the necessity or advantage of such practice. I leave my readers to bestow on such a plea the treatment they may think it deserves. Those who believe that a rational being should have rational grounds for his conduct will treat this customary refuge of blind conservatism as I do. I recommend tea drinkers who desire to practically investigate the subject for themselves to repeat the experiment that I have made. After establishing the habit of taking tea at a particular hour, suddenly relinquish it altogether. The result will be more or less unpleasant, in some cases seriously so. My symptoms were a dull headache and intellectual sluggishness during the remainder of the day—and if compelled to do any brain-work, such as lecturing or writing, I did it badly. This, as I have already said, is the diseased condition induced by the habit. These symptoms vary with the amount of the customary indulgence and the temperament of