46 PHYSIOLOGY AND TEMPERANCE. 



daily exercise in the open air. This daily exercise should be 

 kept up during the whole period of youth from childhood to 

 maturity, and unless the child is restrained or kept too closely 

 confined in the school-room, its natural inclination is towards 

 activity of limb. It is possible for a child, however, to go 

 beyond the bounds of healthy exercise. It may be too violent 

 or kept up too long for its strength. When a boy comes in 

 so tired from play that he does not want any supper, and 

 seizes the earliest opportunity to steal off to his bed, that boy 

 has done more harm than good by exercise. 



After maturity there are degrees of healthy development. 

 A limited amount of exercise, such as is necessary in going 

 about the daily duties of life, will keep the muscles healthy 

 and in a condition to furnish a moderate degree of strength. 

 The careful and constant training of the athlete, on the other 

 hand, will greatly increase the size of his muscles and give 

 him power to perform almost miraculous feats of strength. 

 Look how the daily vigorous exercise of some particular region 

 of the muscular system will develop that region. The power- 

 ful right arm of the blacksmith is the production of a constant 

 wielding of the heavy hammer. 



8. Effects Of Alcohol. We have already referred to the 

 fact that those who wish to attain to the greatest perfection 

 of muscular strength and agility know that they must abstain 

 entirely from alcoholic liquors. Alcohol lessens muscular 

 strength exactly in proportion to the amount taken. For a 

 very brief period after taking a glass of liquor there may be 

 a slight increase in muscular force, but so soon as sufficient 

 alcohol is taken to show its constitutional effects, muscular 

 force begins to fail ; and as sip after sip or glass after glass is 

 taken, the muscles become more and more helpless, and at 

 last the inebriated man sinks beneath the table, an example 

 of the complete triumph of alcohol over muscular power. 



It now remains for us to speak of certain changes which 



