Note 43 — PART I. OF THE GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES. (continued 2)

We may form some notion of the immense quantity of ardent spirits consumed in Great Britain from this circumstance, that in the city of Edinburgh and its environs, besides the great quantity of foreign spirits duly entered, and the still greater quantity which is supposed to be smuggled, it is computed that above two thousand private stills are constantly employed in preparing a poisonous liquor called Molasses. The common people have got so universally into the habit of drinking this base spirit, that when a porter or labourer is seen reeling along the streets, they say, he has got molassed.