138 ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY 



how he might be tempted to take something that would make 

 him stop caring, if only for a little while. 



4. Many other persons are driven to resort to stimulants 

 because of the unsatisfactory condition of their nutrition. 

 Food that is badly cooked or otherwise improperly prepared, 

 malnutrition, indigestion, and so on alter a person's appetite so 

 that he is glad to try almost anything that his acquaintances 

 recommend, and alcoholic drink is more commonly recom- 

 mended by our well-meaning but ignorant friends than any 

 other one thin^, as a remedy fcr all sorts of ailments. 



5 . Many people 

 resort to drink in 



6 ' 12 I I 13 order to take away 



12-16 1 1 60 the sense of tired- 



16-21 r~ 1 102 ness after a hard 



, , day's work ; it 



21-30 1 1 71 . / 



spruces them 

 up a bit, and the 



FIG. 40. When the drink habit is formed sensations which 



Dr. Alexander Lambert found the ages at which 258 alco- result are STatifv- 

 holic patients in Bellevue Hospital, New York, acquired . . , 



the drink habit m g or tne time 



being. 



6. By far the largest single cause of beginning the drink 

 habit is found in man's natural sociability. Up to a certain 

 stage of development every person has a strong impulse to do 

 as he sees others doing. This is not simply blind imitation, 

 but a genuine sympathy with one's fellows, and a desire to 

 share in their activities and feelings. A young fellow may 

 drink because it seems to him to be a manly thing to do, 

 since he sees so many men and older boys doing it. Or he 

 may desire to be " in with " people. No one likes to be con- 

 sidered " out of it." And many a young fellow who has been 

 taught the dangers of drink has not the self-reliance and the 

 backbone to say No ! when the other fellows urge him on 

 or even jeer at him for being a " sissy." The exaltation of 



