It is a curious fact that similar effects should be produced, and similar advantages claimed, for the use of a drug which is totally different in its other chemical properties and relations. ‘White arsenic,’ or arsenious acid, is the oxide of a metal, and far as the poles asunder from the alkaloids, alcohols, and aromatic resins in chemical classification. But it does check the waste of the tissues, and is eaten by the Styrians and others with physiological effects curiously resembling those of its chemical antipodeans above named. Foremost among these physiological effects is that of ‘making the food appear to go farther.’ It is strange that Liebig or any physiologist who accepts his views of vital chemistry, should claim this diminution of the normal waste and renewal of tissue as a merit, seeing that, according to Liebig, life itself is the product of such change, and death the result of its cessation. But in the eagerness that has been displayed to justify existing indulgences, this claim has been extensively made by men who ought to know better than to admit such a plea. I speak, as before, of the _habitual_ use of such drugs, not of their occasional medicinal use. The waste of the body may be going on with killing rapidity, as in fever, 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.