shorter and shorter intervals, and a propensity, likewise, gradually
increasing for a greater quantity at each time. This stage has long been
believed to be one of voluntary indulgence, for which the subject of it
was morally responsible. The drinker has been held as criminal for his
occasional indulgence, and his example has been most severely censured.
This habit, however, must be regarded as the first intimation of the
approaching disease--the stage of invasion, precisely as sensations of
_mal-aise_ and chills usher in a febrile attack.

"It is by no means claimed that in this stage the subject is free from
responsibility as regards the consequences of his acts, or that his case
is to be looked upon as beyond all attempts at reclamation. Quite to the
contrary. This is the stage for active interference. Restraint,
prohibition, quarantine, anything may be resorted to, to arrest the
farther advance of the disease. Instead of being taught that the habit
of occasional drinking is merely a moral _lapsus_ (not the most powerful
restraining motive always), the subject of it should be made to
understand that it is the commencement of a malady, which, if unchecked,
will overwhelm him in ruin, and, compared with which, cholera and yellow
fever are harmless. He should be impressed with the fact that the early
stage is the one when recuperation is most easy--that the will then has
not lost its power of control, and that the fatal propensity is not
incurable. The duty of prevention, or avoidance, should be enforced with
as much earnestness and vigor as we are required to carry out sanitary
measures against the spread of small-pox or any infectious disease. The
subject of inebriety may be justly held responsible, if he neglects all
such efforts, and allows the disease to progress without a struggle to
arrest it.

"The formative stage of inebriety continues for a longer or shorter