NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 331 



spread. Excessive use of alcohol affects the liver, 

 kidneys, heart, blood vessels, and nervous system. 

 More than any other drug, it is responsible for the 

 general break down of the whole body. 



Alcohol not only ruins the health, but it also results 

 in much poverty and crime. A constant drinker spends 

 a large proportion of his income for liquors, and at 

 the same time he renders himself unfit to earn more 

 money. Wide and accurate scientific investigations 

 have proved, beyond a doubt, that alcohol is responsible 

 for a large percentage of crime. It not only wrecks 

 the mind, but it wrecks the character. The cost of the 

 care of the many, who, through intemperance, help to 

 fill up our reformatories, prisons, and insane asylums 

 has been estimated at $100,000,000 annually. 



Conclusion. After showing the terrible results which 

 come from the excessive use of narcotics and stimu- 

 lants, Mr. Blount* says: "We squander our mate- 

 rials, waste our energies, and benumb our powers in 

 that which harms but does not satisfy. And yet the 

 world is full of great things to do. There are barren 

 lands to clothe with forest and field, marshes to drain, 

 canals to dig, works of art to make, magnificent cities 

 to build, founded not on the bones of the weak and 

 oppressed, but firmly grounded in equality and justice. 

 This work cannot be done by people whose delight is in 

 tickling their senses with drugs. It is a labor for 



*R. E. Blount, Physiology and Hygiene. Row, Peterson and 

 Company. 



