0'8HEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 121 



•exaltation which results from the enjoyment of beautiful art 

 and music and intercourse with inspiring people can readily 

 beget that fine ecstacy which has made wine so celebrated in 

 -song and story. There is surely more of lasting joy in becom- 

 ing drunk with grace and beauty than with wine; beauty ex- 

 erts an integrating influence, it adds to the vitalities of life; 

 while wine disintegrates and dissipates energies. Considering 

 that the university student has special obligations to the com- 

 monwealth by whose bounty he is receiving the blessings of 

 education, then he above all others should secure his mental 

 gladnesses and gayeties through means which will confer upon 

 him increasing power and balance rather than through those 

 alluring agents which may momentarily give pleasure but which 

 in the end are destructive rather than constructive. 



The value of any food must be determined in a final analysis 

 by its force-producing capabilities. If beer, wine, and whiskey 

 impart energy to the organism this should be revealed in in- 

 creased activitv of mind and bodv. Research has shown in 

 some measure at any rate that instead of alcohol thus augment- 

 ing the amount of work which an individual can do, it actually 

 reduces it. Martin 1 observes that the evidence adduced by 

 •competent observers is distinctly against the use of spirits by 

 soldiers in time of war. He says there is no cogent evidence 

 to show that alcohol is of service in sustaining bodily activity. 

 Hodge's investigations are of especial significance on this point. 

 Professor Hodge was enabled a few years ago to conduct a se- 

 ries of experiments under the auspices of the Committee of 

 Fifty for the study of the liquor problem, wherein he carefully 

 observed the mental and physical effects upon a number of dogs 

 of alcohol administered in the forms of beer, wine, and whis- 

 key. The results so far as they refer to the particular topic 

 under discussion — the value of alcohol as a force producer in 

 a living organism — may be presented in his own words : 2 



"During the second month after administration of alcohol spon- 

 taneous activity of both Tipsy and Bum became noticeably impaired. 



^Treatise on Hygiene, Stevenson & Murphy, Vol. I, p. 487. 



* Popular Science Monthly, March and April, 1897, and reprint. 



