ALCOHOL. 221 



alcohol enables persons to withstand fatigue better than 

 where no alcohol is used. A large amount of concurrent 

 testimony absolutely negatives this belief. 



"The predisposition to many diseases is greatly in- 

 creased by the habitual use of alcohol. Sunstroke, the 

 acute infectious diseases, and many local organic affec- 

 tions, attack, by preference, the intemperate. A recent 

 collective investigation by the British Medical Association 

 brought out the fact that croupous pneumonia is vastly 

 more fatal among the intemperate than among those- who 

 abstained from the use of alcoholic liquors." 



Testimony of a Naturalist. W. T. Hornaday, author 

 of Two Years in the Jungle, who has had years of ex- 

 perience as collector in many lands, has the following to 

 say as to the use of alcoholic drink : " While a traveler or 

 hunter should never drink brandy or whisky as a bever- 

 age, it is a most excellent thing to have in many cases of 

 sickness or accident, when a powerful stimulant is neces- 

 sary. Above all things, however, which go farthest toward 

 preserving the life of the traveler against diseases and 

 death by accident, and which every naturalist especially 

 should take with him wherever he goes, are Jiabits of strict 

 temperance. In the tropics nothing is so deadly as the 

 drinking habit, for it speedily paves the way to various 

 kinds of disease which are always charged to the account 

 of 'the accursed climate.' If a temperate man falls ill 

 or meets with an accident, his system responds so readily 

 to remedies and moderate stimulants that his chances of 

 recovery are a hundred per cent better than those of the 

 man whose constitution has been undermined by strong 

 drink. There are plenty of men who will say that in the 

 tropics a little liquor is necessary, 'a good thing,' etc.; but 



