RESULTS OF INTEMPERANCE. 241 



member that nervous diseases are very frequently pro- 

 duced by alcohol, and are more often transmitted by 

 parents to their children than any other class of dis- 

 eases, assuming worse forms as they are passed on from 

 generation to generation; when we recall such facts, we 

 have no reason to wonder that more disease and prema- 

 ture death, more crime and misery, are due to alcohol 

 than to bad drainage, foul air, insufficient food, unsuit- 

 able clothing, or any other of the subjects treated of in 

 an elementary text-book of physiology and hygiene. 



The habit of drinking is often formed in ignorance of 

 its consequences. Be warned and instructed in time, to 

 protect yourself and others against it. Many of the dis- 

 eases produced by alcohol come on so gradually that they 

 are not recognized until the will has become too weak 

 to resist what the appetite craves. 



The form of disease depends on the sort of drink, the 

 amount, and the constitution. Some few there are, 

 whose excretory organs are so active that the alcohol is 

 quickly passed out of the body, and no disease, due to 

 it, manifests itself until the close of, perhaps, a long life. 

 Such persons are, however, marked exceptions to the 

 general rule, which may be thus stated: prolonged exces- 

 sive use of alcoholic liquors, leads surely to disease of the body 

 and disease of the mind; often to insanity and death. 



2. Alcoholic Drinks, as you have already learned (p. 94), 

 are all such intoxicating liquors as brandy, whiskey, gin, 

 rum, wines, ales, beer, and cider ; also mixtures which 



How is the habit often formed? Why are the diseases caused by 

 it often discovered too late ? On what does the form of disease de- 

 pend ? Why do some persons escape for a long time? What is the 

 general rule ? 



2. Name the alcoholic drinks most often used. 



