258 ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY 



drugs on the wrapper of a bottle mean nothing. A further step is 

 taken by those states that prohibit absolutely the sale of dangerous 

 drugs, except on the prescription of a licensed physician. 



310. Individual variation. Experiments show that from five 

 to ten persons in a hundred differ so much from the rest in 

 their physiological and chemical constitutions that every rule 

 we can make must carry exceptions with it. We are not yet 

 able to say anything about the action of alcohol that will be 

 true for all men. If it is found to be injurious in general, 

 there will be a few in every thousand who can take large 

 quantities apparently without measurable harm. If we find 

 that a certain drug is useful for certain purposes, in a given 

 dose, we shall find that there are a few people in a hundred 

 who will get no benefit from it in any dose. Or we shall find 

 that what is a harmless dose for most people will be a 

 dangerous dose for a few. Thus, it has been found that blond, 

 pale-faced people are unusually sensitive to atropin. 



For all practical purposes, however, the following conclusions 

 of the " Committee of Five" as to the use of alcohol may serve 

 as a sufficient guide to all of us in our attitude toward this and 

 other habit-forming substances : 



1. While, in small quantities, beer and wine may be, in a certain 

 sense, a food, they are a very imperfect and very expensive kind of 

 food, and are seldom used for food purposes. 



2. They are not needed by young and healthy persons, and they 

 are dangerous in so far as they tend to create a habit. 



3. In certain cases of disease and weakness they are useful in 

 quantities to be prescribed by a physician. 



4. When taken habitually, it should be only at meals, and as a 

 rule only with the last meal of the day, or soon after it. 



5. Alcoholic drinks are worse than useless for preventing fatigue 

 or the effects of cold, although they may at rare times be useful as 

 restoratives. 



6. They are almost always a useless expense. 



7. Their use in excess is the cause of much disease, suffering, and 

 poverty, and of many crimes. 



