CHAPTER XIII. 

 ALCOHOL. 



Alcohol. Alcohol is not a food. But because it is 

 taken into the digestive tube, and produces its effects, 

 primarily, through the digestive system, it is here pre- 

 sented. 



If we eat a sufficient amount of bread to-day, we do 

 not crave a larger amount to-morrow; but the appetite 

 for alcohol grows ; the law of its use is the law of in- 

 crease, until the terrible alcohol habit is formed. 



Alcohol and Crime. Aside from the fearful effects 

 of the habitual use of alcohol 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 

 slightest beginning of this habit. History is full of ac- 

 counts 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." 



Alcohol and Energy. Some of the best authorities 

 state that alcohol, taken in small doses, is oxidized in the 



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