176 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 



Aside from the fearful effects of the habitual use of alco- 

 hol upon the individual himself, statistics show that a large 

 share of the poverty and crime in the world is due to its use. 

 Nearly every child has known of the effects in the family of 

 some drunkard, how the father is feared, how all are ashamed 

 of him, how the children are poorly clothed, often not sent to 

 school, because not sufficiently supplied with clothes and 

 books ; all these, and the dirt and misery so well known in 

 so many cases, are a sufficient warning not to make the slight- 

 est beginning of this habit. History is full of accounts of 

 men who thought they could stop when they chose ; the grip 

 of the alcohol habit is almost as 'relentless as the grip of 

 death. There is one safe rule. " Touch not, taste not, handle 

 not." 



Some of the best authorities state that alcohol, taken in 

 small doses, is oxidized in the body, producing energy ; but 

 they do not class it with foods, nor do they recommend its 

 use. 



As to its power to produce heat, the fact is that, as ordi- 

 narily taken, alcohol lowers the temperature of the body. It 

 is well known that the face is flushed as the result of taking 

 alcoholic drink. This means that more blood has been sent 

 to the skin. This sending of blood to the skin gives a sensa- 

 tion of heat ; we feel hot when the skin is flushed from other 

 cause, as some emotion. But if the temperature of the body 

 be taken at the time when the body feels warm, in each case 

 it may be found that the temperature is actually lowered; 

 and we can see the reason for this, for the more blood there 

 is in the skin the more heat will be given off, and thus the 

 amount of heat in the body diminished. 



Neither does alcohol as usually taken increase the energy 

 of the body so far as muscular work is concerned. Experi- 

 ence shows that men can endure more cold and more hard 



