THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 4U 



of statistics respecting human life, with sole reference to their 

 bearing upon the business of insurance, and it is well known that 

 life insurance companies regard policies upon the lives of drinkinp- 

 men — even ' moderate drinkers ' — as involving ' extra risk.' 

 Their figures have convinced them that the man who uses no alco- 

 holic beverages is likely to live longer than one who does." — 

 Macy, Physiology. 



" Alcohol a Cause of Mental Disorders. — If you look round and 

 try to find out the primary causes of disease and poverty and crinie 

 and misery, you are over and over again thrown back on the use of 

 alcohol. One cannot read the newspapers and reports of judges 

 without seeing that alcohol accounts for a very large proportion 

 of what is evil in our daily life. It is sapping the foundation of 

 our national life, and if we could do away with all the disease and 

 poverty and crime caused by alcohol, the questions which confront 

 us would be solved very easily. 



" The Influence of Alcohol upon the Morals. — The most highly 

 specialized characteristics are fir=5t impaired, and thus the spiritual 

 faculty, if I may so term it, first becomes blunted by the use of 

 alcohol. Following this in rapid succession there is blunting of 

 the moral sense; a slight, though distinctly perceptible, inter- 

 ference with the intellectual faculties, which leads to what we 

 might call blurring of the reasoning power; then follows a distinct 

 diminution in the power of rapidity and accuracy of perception. 

 At none of these stages would a man admit that he was under 

 the influence of alcohol; but these powers are just as assuredly 

 under its influence as are the muscles which can no longer act 

 coordinately to enable a man to walk straight." — Professor (i. 

 Sims Woodhead. 



The Influence of Alcohol. — ''Alcohol acts primarily on the 

 nerve cells, changing their granular matter, breaking up their 

 nutrition, and changing their dynamic force. This action is 

 followed by contraction of the dendrites, swelling and atrophy of 

 these fibers, also shrinking of cell walls, as in fatigue, and coalescing 

 and disappearance of the granular matter of proto}^lasin." — 

 Journal of the American Medical Association, November, 1S9S. 



''Alcohol does not affect all the spinal cells equally, and in the 



