Sometimes brandy answers better than any wine, especially if the stomach is irritable and there is nausea or vomiting. As a mere stimulant it is best administered with yolk of egg and sugar, as is Sir Henry Halford’s celebrated mixture--the Mistura Spiritus Vini Gallici of the Pharmacopœia. If brandy is used for its special tranquillizing influence on an irritable stomach, it may be given neat, in drachm doses, or in double that quantity in a little simple, or in one of the aërated, waters. The wish of the patient for any particular form of stimulant is almost always a correct indication for its use. The dry and parched condition of the tongue and mouth so common in the dying, and the inextinguishable thirst that attends some forms of it, need constant attention. A spoonful of iced-water repeated frequently will be a great comfort. So, too, is a small bit of ice allowed to dissolve in the mouth--or lemonade--or weak black tea without milk, and slightly acidulated with a slice of lemon. In the case of nutriment and stimulants as of mere diluents, it is to be understood--supposing there is nothing to forbid--that so long as the lips close upon them, and an act of swallowing follows _promptly_, they may be continued: but when liquids seem merely to trickle down the throat, and after a time, only to excite a faint effort of swallowing, they should no longer be persisted in. The sensibility of the parts is so diminished that the patient is insensible to the stimulus of the liquid, and we infer _a fortiori_ to the dry and parched state of the mouth and fauces. If, after rubbing the lips gently with the spoon, or with the spout of the feeding vessel, no evident and distinct act of swallowing follows, it is useless, and it may be cruel to persist; the liquid will but clog the mouth and fauces, add to the impediment to breathing, and by so much, if any consciousness remains, to the sufferings of the dying. * * * * * Next in value to stimulants in the treatment of the dying is opium. It is a tradition that John Hunter used often to exclaim, “Thank God for opium,”[52] and under no circumstances are we bound to be more thankful for it then when ministering at the bedside of the dying. Opium is here worth all the rest of the materia medica. Its object and action must however be clearly understood. Opium is administered to the dying, as an anodyne to relieve pain; or as a cardiac and cordial to allay that sinking and anguish about the stomach and heart, which is so frequent in the dying, and is often worse to bear than pain, however severe. Opium should rarely be administered to the dying as a mere hypnotic, or with a view to enforce sleep. To do so would be to risk throwing the patient into a sleep from which he may not awake. But opium often induces sleep indirectly, and in the kindest way, by the relief of pain,[53] or sinking that had hitherto rendered sleep impossible.