CHAPTER XXII. 



THE ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON BODY, MIND, AND 

 CHARACTER. 



1. Introductory. We hope that the boys and girls for 

 whom this book has been written, with its statement of 

 the structure and working of the parts of the human 

 body, and the rules which must be observed if health is to 

 be kept, have had little chance to gain experience of the 

 evils of intemperance. Unhappily, none of us can re- 

 main long ignorant of them. All around us are those 

 who suffer in one way or another from the effects of alco- 

 holic drinks. We speak not only of those who them- 

 selves indulge in them, but of the far larger number 

 whose lives are spoiled by the ruin of their natural pro- 

 tectors and their loved ones. 



We do not mean to say that most of those who drink 

 liquor are drunkards, or indulge in it to excess, in the 

 ordinary sense of the words; but when we think of the 

 great number who daily take drinks containing alcohol; 

 when we call to mind the fact that what is usually called 

 moderate drinking, which never makes a man drunk, is 

 often positively hurtful, and may alter for the worse 

 nearly every important organ of the body; when we re- 



i. Why are we unlikely to remain ignorant of the evils of alcohol- 

 drinking? What is said of " moderate" drinking? Of nervous dis- 

 eases due to alcohol ? Of its general effect on human happiness ? 



