The treatment of disease, and more particularly of convalescence, can scarcely be conducted without the administration of stimulants; but it is obvious that it should be accompanied with emphatic caution lest the use grow into the abuse thereof. An occasional dose may soon become the habitual dram, unless self-denial and self-control be exercised.

We are not here called upon to follow in the wake of those who feel it their duty to expose the errors and weaknesses of their neighbours; suffice it that we admit that in all directions we see a too free indulgence in alcoholic stimulation. There can be no two opinions upon that point. There is no amount of health or wealth that cannot or will not surely be destroyed by any one who determinedly gives himself up to drink.

As has been said over and over again, it is a mistake to argue against the use of anything from its misuse, and so with alcohol. So long as the cares and toils of life are what they are, so long will the human frame be benefited by the judicious use of alcohol. Common sense and science combine to confirm the experience of good and wise men that the moderate use of alcoholic stimulation is to be regarded as indispensable.

The extravagant views and unsupported assertions of the "teetotaller'"' do infinite harm, by substituting artificial restraints for the wholesome moral influence of daily practice of self-denial and close watch over indulgence of the appetites.

Abundant reasoning could be adduced in refutation of the alleged effects of alcohol were this the place to bring them forward. It has been repeated as a stock argument by indiscreet advocates of the teetotal movement that alcohol is not food, cannot be food under any circumstances or conditions whatever. Experiment, however, contradicts the allegation, by showing that alcohol once taken into the animal system is never again recovered as alcohol alone, but passes out again like all other alimentary substances in various forms of combination as effete refuse - e.g., carbonic acid, water, urea, etc., after - as is daily to be seen in the case of the inveterate drunkard, who takes nothing else - having served to form flesh and blood and diseased structures. Diseased structures require a pabulum as well as the healthy structure, true though it be that the better nourished the more surely they lead to death.

The man who cannot be persuaded to sobriety by the instincts of self-preservation, or the obligations of social claims, will not likely be deterred from intemperance by extravagant assertions of a pseudo-scientific character. Better by far is it to inculcate lessons of morality than lessons of false science. "The schoolmaster is abroad" now in earnest, and we may indulge a confident hope that as education spreads multitudes will learn to appreciate the virtue of sobriety, without being scared by the hideous phantoms of excited imaginations.

The medicinal uses of stimulants are most found in chronic disease, or in acute disease occurring in extremely debilitated states. It is grievously to be lamented that the medical recommendation of stimulants is not always sufficiently guarded and watched. There has been of late a fashion to regard and to teach that all disease proceeds from debility, and therefore that it must be treated with alcoholic stimulants. Allowing (which we do not) that such might be the case, yet the inference that alcohol is the remedy is by no means conclusive. A supply of wholesome nourishment, with avoidance of the causes of disease, and bodily and mental rest, will be surer in their present effects and safer in future results. Few medical practitioners can pass many years, or even months, without meeting with the melancholy results of intemperance that began with the medicinal use of brandy-and-water, champagne, etc. The possibility is here referred to simply as a warning to those, who, consulting these pages, may feel justified in advising the use of alcoholic stimulants as a means of combating disease, lest they forget to look also to the discontinuance of their use.

As regards the dietetic use of alcoholic stimulants, we have only a few words to add to the caution already given.

Malt Liquors are, as a general rule, the most wholesome of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol is in them so combined with saccharine matter and tonic vegetable principles that it can only be separated by a distillation, destructive of all other qualities. A small quantity of mild ale or porter taken with dinner and supper, or luncheon and dinner, supports the strength, and supplies wear and tear.

Wines resemble malt liquors in that when pure the alcohol is in a state of chemical combination that can only be superseded by destructive distillation. They have not, however, so much solid matter suspended in them as malt liquors. They are for this reason better suited to persons of weak digestive powers. The dietetic and the therapeutic uses of wines must depend upon their percentage of alcohol, and upon the development in them of certain acids and spirituous combinations termed ethers, which constitute what judges of wine call the "bouquet." The proportion of unfermented sugar also is a point to be considered in selecting wine for invalids. Thus, there are sweet and astringent wines, as there are red and white wines, and there are wines in which the fermentation of the sugar is checked and the sparkling or effervescing wine is produced.

Effervescing wines, Champagne and Moselle, are among the most valuable wines for medicinal purposes. The free carbonic acid they contain renders them very serviceable in sickness and vomiting, while the alcohol, being in some peculiar state of combination, is more volatile, acts as a more rapid stimulant, effects passing off more rapidly than those of other and stronger wines.

Astringent wines, such as Burgundy, Hungarian, Bordeaux, etc., are less liable to ferment in the stomach. Port, Madeira, sherry, Marsala, are all stronger wines, and are said to be highly brandied, and therefore less wholesome for ordinary consumption; but they are (if moderately good) more useful for medicinal purposes than the lighter wines, which may be safer for daily use dietetically. In this matter, however, as in many others where eating and drinking are concerned, quantity is often a more important element in the question than quality. There is, moreover, so much in fashion that it is almost impossible to say which wines are best. Moderation is the golden rule.

Spirits, the type of which may be taken to be brandy, are only of value as medicinal agents, and for these purposes they are sometimes invaluable - e.g., in low fevers, in some inflammations, and in states of debility, in sickness, and generally as indicated under the several headings of diseases in the preceding pages. We have no hesitation in affirming that raw or diluted raw spirits can never be advantageously used merely as ordinary beverages by those who can obtain wholesome malt liquor or wines.

The habit of spirit-drinking (as grog every night) as practised by many "very respectable people " in the middle classes, is not one whit morally or physically better than the habits of the poor besotted creatures who swarm in and out of the London gin palaces. With the moral aspects of the habit it may be said that we are not concerned, but of the physical aspects we feel morally bound by a solemn responsibility to speak. From our own personal observation we would warn all whom it may concern, that the "night-cap," as it is miscalled, gradually generates disease of the brain, liver, kidneys, with all the horrible train of diseases - delirium, paralysis, dropsy, cum multis aliis.