94 THE HUMAN BODY. 



20. Athletes who are training for hard trials of their 

 bodily vigor, abstain from alcohol and tobacco. Disease, 

 early failure of strength, and premature death, are the 

 results of drinking-habits. Physicians, insurance com- 

 panies, and all observing men, testify to this. 



21. It is not always true that the strong liquors are 

 most pernicious, nor that the milder drinks are compara- 

 tively harmless. In some sections of this country, cider 

 is a worse evil than whisky. Its apparent harmlessness 

 attracts those who would refuse stronger liquors. When 

 the appetite for this drink is awakened, it requires for its 

 satisfaction an amount of soaking that keeps the faculties 

 benumbed, and reduces the individual to worthlessness 

 as surely as more fiery, but less abundant, potations. 



22, It is a melancholy fact, that "the evil that men do," 

 in this regard, " lives after them." The iniquities of the 

 fathers are visited upon the children. By an inflexible 

 law of nature, the effects of alcohol are not expended upon 

 the user alone. Morbid cravings for drink, tendencies 

 to disease, weakness of body and mind and character, 

 are the heritage of misery which he bestows upon his 

 offspring. 



23, Chloral is a drug of great value in the hands of the 

 physician. It gives sleep to those who can not sleep in 

 the natural way. But it is dangerous. It has caused 

 death. A habit of using it may be acquired which is 

 very injurious to body and mind, and very difficult to 

 break. 



