BEVERAGES 79 



He played as much as Nig and could even bring the 

 ball back nearly as often. Nevertheless, during his 

 fifth year, he began to have trouble with his eyes and 

 was soon entirely blind. Later he had a skin disease, 

 eczema, which lasted a long time. Bum looked and 

 acted like an old dog. His twin brother, Nig, on the 

 contrary, was still strong and frisky. Indeed, you 

 might easily have taken him for Bum's grandson, so 

 great was the contrast between them. 



But these experiments were with dogs. Surely 

 alcohol has never been shown to have similar effect 

 upon people. Unfortunately there is abundant proof 

 of this fact. Time and again physicians have found 

 that both drunkards and moderate drinkers get well 

 much less frequently from pneumonia, typhoid fever, 

 and other dangerous diseases, because of their pre- 

 vious use of alcohol. Neither are they so likely as 

 total abstainers to recover from a severe surgical op- 

 eration. Such investigators as Professor Demme also 

 assert that children of alcohol-using parents are much 

 more likely to be born idiots or epileptics, or other- 

 wise ailing or deformed in mind or body, than children 

 of parents who are total abstainers. 



It" is a well-known fact that coaches of college crews 

 and baseball teams insist that those under their charge 

 shall not use alcoholic drinks during the period of train- 

 ing. This rule is made because their experience has 

 shown that boys can play games with greater strength, 

 endurance, and skill without such drinks. At the 



