NARCOTICS 191 



they seek instinctively to supply the deficiency. When 

 possible they flavour the water in various ways as by tea, 

 coffee, or alcohol. Secondly, men drink to gratify taste. 

 They seek to produce a pleasant sensation by exciting the 

 peripheral nerve-endings in the mouth. Their motives are 

 then precisely the same as those which animate a girl who 

 consumes a chocolate-cream. Thirdly, men drink to induce 

 those peculiar feelings, those peculiar frames of mind, which 

 arise when alcohol, circulating in greater or lesser quantities 

 in the blood, acts directly on the central nervous system. 



317. Clearly these three motives are entirely distinct; and, 

 upon examination it will be found that they impel to the 

 consumption of three distinct classes of beverages by three 

 distinct classes of individuals. The heated athlete, who 

 gulps down a quantity of light beer at a wayside inn and 

 departs satisfied, is evidently influenced by a desire different 

 from that which sets the connoisseur sipping his choice 

 wines, and both desires are different from the motives which 

 cause the toper to drink even methylated spirit when he 

 can get nothing more palatable. For the thirsty man the 

 water is the main consideration ; he takes the alcohol merely 

 to improve the taste of his drink. For the connoisseur the 

 flavour is the main consideration; the water and alcohol 

 are used merely to improve the flavour. For the toper the 

 cerebral effect is the main object ; so long as his beverage 

 contains alcohol he will drink even when he is not thirsty, 

 and when the flavour of his beverage is disagreeable. 



318. Of course the three motives may, and often do 

 co-exist in the same individual. A man may seek at one 

 and the same time to satisfy his thirst, to gratify his taste, 

 and to become drunk. Or in the beginning of his drinking 

 career he may drink alcoholic beverages mainly to satisfy his 

 thirst, later to gratify his palate, and lastly for the sake of 

 intoxication. But the fact remains that the three motives 

 are quite distinct, and that in the mind of any given drinker 

 one or other of them usually predominates, and impels him, 

 when he has a choice, to choose a certain class of beverage. 

 The thirsty man chooses dilute beverages. The man, who 

 seeks to gratify his palate, chooses especially well-flavoured 

 beverages. The toper, when he has a choice, chooses suf- 

 ficiently strong beverages, though of course he prefers them 

 well-flavoured if possible. By themselves thirst and taste 

 are never the causes of excessive drinking. Instinct warns 

 the thirsty man when he has had a sufficiency of water. 

 It takes from him his desire. A glass or two of wine, like 



