Case 3. The daughter of a respectable tradesman, in the parish of I—unknown to a part of her family, gave birth to an infant. At four months old, she introduced it for a short time amongst them, as belonging to somebody else. When about to leave home, she engaged another woman to carry it part of the road she was going, promising she would soon overtake her. On reaching the village of L—, a distance of four miles from whence she started, the woman looked at the infant attentively, and thought it was dying. Being alarmed, she entered the first public house she came to, imparted her suspicions, and on close examination, found her fear was not groundless, for the infant had ceased to exist. A coroner’s inquest was summoned, and evidence given that the parent had expressed other than a mother’s fondness for her child. Laudanum had been purchased the night previously, from a shopkeeper in the village by her order, and on receiving it, she tore off the label which denoted the deadly poison, and the phial was subsequently found emptied of its contents. Here apparently a link in the chain of evidence was broken. Two medical gentlemen who made a post mortem examination of the body, deposed that laudanum had been administered to the child, but they were not prepared to say in sufficient quantity to cause death. {28} A verdict under the coroner’s direction, was recorded that the child died by the visitation of God; but material evidence from other witnesses was withheld, which might have unveiled the mystery surrounding the death of the innocent, and the strongly suspected parties might have been brought to justice. It is generally known, sooner or later, to habitual drunkards, that too much indulgence in strong beverages, particularly spirituous liquours, is followed by becoming more and more susceptible to their intoxicating effects, although partaken of in smaller quantities. This is owing to established facts; the liver becomes diseased, the nervous system becomes shattered, the brain itself participates in the mischief, so that reason losing its sway in the earlier period becomes permanently injured, and either madness or imbecility; premature age, or organic disease are the inevitable consequences. From the cradle to the grave, a predisposition to decay exists in every one which would far more frequently lie latent, until Old Mortality could no longer stay, did not this, the most disgraceful of all-exciting causes, thus step in and cut the thread of life when least expected, and probably least prepared.