CHAPTER XXVII 

 ALCOHOL AND SOCIETY 



168. Why do people drink? Many find it hard to understand 

 why it is that alcohol drinking continues in spite of all that has 

 been done to discourage the practice. Investigations show that 

 most of those who have the drink habit began to drink rather 

 early in life (Fig. 40). The reasons for beginning at all are 

 various, but a few stand out prominently. 



1. There is the example of parents and associates. If all 

 the people at home and all who come to visit take a little nip 

 with every meal, the children will come to consider this the 

 proper and natural thing to do. They learn just as readily to 

 shovel food into the mouth with the knife, or to sip the soup 

 quietly. So far as the young people are concerned, there is 

 nothing necessarily wrong or right about any of the things 

 they see going on at home day after day. 



2. Then, some people begin by taking alcohol-containing 

 drinks as a "medicine" and get the habit. In most of such 

 cases the victims are not aware either of the presence of the 

 alcohol in the medicine or of the danger of the drink. They 

 take the medicine because a friend who " had the same 

 trouble" recommends it, or because it has been advertised to 

 cure all the imaginable diseases. But when they get used to 

 it, they feel that they cannot get along without it ; and indeed 

 they do suffer without it. 



3. Many people take to drink for the deliberate purpose of 

 " drowning their sorrows." It is certain that as alcohol has the 

 effect of weakening the attention, so it will help a person 

 forget what has been on his mind for some time ; and if one 

 has had worries or sorrow on his mind, we can understand 



137 



