MUSCLES 369 



abolished by our government, no rations of liquor are allowed at 

 any time on board our ships." — Hewes, High School Physiology. 



" The custom just alluded to as followed by Spain is true of all 

 the navies of the world but ours. Yet Great Britain has aban- 

 doned the double rations of grog when a fight is on, and then no 

 liquor is allowed; but in place of it supplies of water and oatmeal 

 are arranged all over the ship to satisfy the thirst resulting from 

 the heat, exertion, and smoke inseparable from a naval combat." 

 — The Journal of the American Medical Association, January, 

 1899, p. 174. 



It is a well-known fact that all athletes who go into training for 

 any events give up, for the time at least, all alcoholic drinks and 

 tobacco. 



It is said that a desire to excel in athletic sport has led clubs of 

 students at some of the German universities to give up their 

 " morning drinking bout." They have learned that beer drinking 

 stands in the way of their best physical development and the 

 highest degree of athletic success. " For years sports have been 

 in great favor. Some of these, such as contests between boatmen 

 or between cyclists, require considerable energy and power of 

 endurance. Evidently, if alcohol increased strength, these com- 

 petitors would provide themselves with it and use it freely. But 

 this is not the case. No true sportsman, either before or during 

 the contest, touches a glass of spirits, experience having taught 

 the harm he would thereby do himself." — De Bienfait, of Liege. 



Effect of Alcohol and Other Stimulants and Narcotics upon 

 Muscular Action. — '' The most serious effects of the excessive 

 use of alcohoUc drinks, tobacco, opium, chloral, and other narcotic 

 drugs are felt by the nervous system and will be most fully treated 

 when we come to the special study of that part of the human 

 organism. But it is well to notice here how those substances 

 influence the organs of motion. 



*' No one who has ever seen a drunken man in the stage pre- 

 ceding that of stupor can have failed to observe the uncertainty 

 of his muscular movements: the shaking hand, the staggering 

 gait, the thick, indistinct utterance. These effects are due to 

 what is called the excessive use of alcohohc drinks, and no one 



hunter's BIOL. — 24 



