Note 925 — SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23.

I never tasted whiskey except once for experiment at the inn in Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. It was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant.' Johnson's Works, ix. 52. Smollett, medical man though he was, looked upon whisky as anything but poison. 'I am told that it is given with great success to infants, as a cordial in the confluent small-pox.' Humphry Clinker. Letter of Sept. 3.