CHAPTER XXVI 

 ALCOHOL AND HEALTH 



164. An old acquaintance. One of the oldest stimulants 

 known to man is alcohol. This is a compound of carbon, 

 hydrogen, and oxygen (C 2 H 5 OH) commonly produced by the 

 action of the yeast plant (see pp. 291-292) on sugars. 



The ancients found that when juices of fruit, or malted grain 

 (see p. 78) in water, were allowed to stand for some time, 

 they developed new flavors and tastes, and that some of them 

 also acquired the peculiar property of making the drinker feel 

 very much elated. In time the making of alcoholic drinks 

 developed into special trades, and in modern times into vast 

 industries. It is only during the past forty odd years that we 

 have come to understand just what happens in these ferment- 

 ing liquids, largely on the basis of the chemical and biological 

 investigations started by Louis Pasteur. 



165. Is alcohol injurious? It is still more recently that we 

 have come to understand what it is that happens when alcohol 

 or alcoholic liquors are taken into the body of an animal. 



The custom of drinking these beverages is so old, and the number 

 of people who are directly or indirectly interested in keeping up their 

 manufacture and sale is so large, 1 that it is naturally difficult to spread 



1 In this country alone there were over two million people dependent for 

 their living upon the manufacture and sale and distribution of various kinds 

 of alcoholic beverages when we entered the Great War. This included people 

 who were engaged in the raising of barley and rye and corn and other plant 

 materials that are used in the manufacture, chemists and engineers, makers of 

 machinery, workers in the building trades, carpenters and cabinetmakers, 

 machinists and mechanics of many kinds, who were engaged in the making 

 and repairing of vehicles used in connection with the business, drivers and 

 teamsters, bottle makers, and so on. Almost every line of trade had a portion 

 of its workers dependent upon the liquor industry. 



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