92 USE OF STIMULANTS. 



foods more palatable, do little or no harm as ordinarily 

 used. Others, as alcohol in all its forms, when taken at 

 all are very apt not to be used in moderation, and then 

 they do so much injury that they are really poisons. 

 Persons in perfect health need no kind of stimulant food. 

 A strong, healthy young person with rich blood, power- 

 ful heart, vigorous muscles, and good digestion wants 

 no pepper nor mustard nor tea nor coffee to promote his 

 appetite or relieve his fatigue. He is better without 

 such things; and so is a perfectly healthy man or wo- 

 man. 



3. The Use of Stimulants. Stimulant articles of diet 

 are rather medicines than foods; as medicines they have 

 their use. A man sometimes comes home after his day's 

 work, fagged out in body and mind, without appetite, and 

 feeling restless and jaded. Then a cup of tea will often 

 remove the feeling of fatigue, enable him to eat and 

 digest his supper, soothe his nerves, and let him get a 

 good night's rest. The tea has not itself nourished him, 

 but it has enabled him to take proper nourishment, and 

 in that way has done good. 



We may compare the safer kinds of stimulants, as tea 

 and coffee, to the " blower" of a grate. When a fire is 

 burning badly the blower is useful, but if the fire is 

 burning well it only does harm. It leads to a very rapid 

 using up of the coal or wood, without any correspond- 

 ing benefit, and does not itself supply fresh fuel. 



4. The Abuse of Stimulants is chiefly due to the fact 

 that the brief relief from fatigue, and the feeling pro- 



3. Rightly considered what are these stimulants ? What is said of 

 their effects when properly used ? To what may they be compared ? 



4. To what is the abuse of stimulants chiefly due ? What are the 

 wrong and right ways of regarding them ? 



