FOOD ACCESSORIES AOT> DRUGS 303 



in preparing the way for many other diseases, and is hence 

 a serious menace to health. 



20. The seat of the danger in alcoholic drink. The regular 

 use of alcoholic beverages is dangerous for the same reason 

 that the regular use of any drug is dangerous. We are too 

 apt to rely upon the drug to do for us what we ought to 

 accomplish only by the hygienic conduct of life ; the drug 

 never satisfactorily does the work, and we go from bad to 

 worse, and become its slave. But there is certainly greater 

 danger in hypnotic drugs, like alcohol, than in true stimu- 

 lants, like coffee, and cocoa, and tea. We need to have 

 ourselves well under control when we use any drug; the 

 highest faculties of the mind must keep tight rein or we 

 may lose control of ourselves. With hypnotic drugs to 

 which class belong not only alcohol but ether, chloroform, 

 opium, chloral, etc. there is special danger that these 

 powers of control (inhibition) may be stealthily paralyzed 

 before we know it. Of course thousands of people use 

 alcohol in moderation and never become drunkards ; but 

 thousands also, with no intention of using it to excess, do 

 unconsciously let the reins drop, and before they know it 

 the drug gets the better of them. Experience shows that 

 it is with the hypnotic drugs that this most frequently 

 happens. 



Again, if we make a habit of taking alcoholic drinks, we 

 are specially exposed to temptation from our fellow men to 

 go too far. For the most part, people take coffee and tea 

 or do not take them, as they please ; no one urges them to 

 use these drinks when they are disinclined to do so. To a 

 less degree the same thing is true of tobacco, although here 

 the force of fashion and example is stronger. But with 

 alcoholic beverages the custom of " treating " makes the 

 exercise of self-restraint more difficult than it would other- 

 wise be, for here we are dealing with a drug which is 

 capable of impairing self-control. Some one "treats" a friend 



