398 THE HUMAN MACHINE 



Alcohol Damages the Body Machine. More serious 

 still is the effect of alcohol upon the body machine. Alco- 

 hol taken in excess shortens life very considerably by 

 undermining the structure of the digestive tract, liver, 

 kidneys, blood vessels, and nerves. It slows muscular 

 efficiency, as can be shown by experiments in mountain 

 climbing, digging ditches, carrying weights, etc. In all of 

 these experiments the subjects without alcohol did more 

 work and did it better. It makes for inefficiency in any 

 work where judgment and skill are involved, such as 

 typing, drawing, or using machines. It slows up all 

 mental work and makes it less accurate, although the 

 person believes he is doing better work. No boy or girl 

 who wants success in life can take a chance with alcohol. 



SELF-TESTING EXERCISE 



Select from the following list of words those which best fill the blank 

 spaces below and arrange them in proper numerical order. A word 

 may be used more than once. 



smoker nicotine less wealth 



success strong heart drinker 



money food same alcohol 



body failure fatigue athletics 



health scholarship feet narcotic 



more cells machine heavy 



nervous life efficiency light 



When a person feels tired, it is because (1) poisons have been 



formed in the (2) of the (3) A (4) poison such as 



(5) which is found in tobacco acts in much the (6) way. 



Smoking is a bad habit because it not only wastes (7) but it also 



lowers one's (8) It does this through its effect on the (9) 



and (10) system. Smokers in college do not have as much chance 



in (11) or (12) , according to statistics as do non-smokers, 



and their chances of good (13) are (14) than of non-smokers. 



The same may be said about the use of (15) Not only does it 



harm the human (16) , but it handicaps the (17) so severely 



that his chances of (18) in life are not to be compared with those 



of the non-drinker. 



