Alcohol. 213 



of the United States. In our own mind the conviction is 

 established by the experience and observation of a lifetime, 

 that the regular routine employment of alcoholic liquors 

 by men in health is never, under any circumstances, useful. 

 We make no exceptions in favor of cold, or heat, or rain." 

 General Kitchener prohibited all drinks containing 

 alcohol in the Soudan campaign, and of the result a war 

 correspondent said : "Of one thing I am sure that the 

 mortality from fever and other diseases during the Atbara 

 campaign and the final Omdurman campaign would have 

 been infinitely greater than it was if alcoholic liquors had 

 been allowed as a beverage, or even as an occasional 

 ration." 



Alcohol and Mountain-climbing. Statistics have been 

 collected from mountain-climbers, and a large majority 

 testify that alcoholic drinks are injurious, or at least not 

 helpful. This testimony is all the stronger from the fact 

 that it comes largely from Englishmen and Germans, 

 many of whom have the habit of moderate drinking 

 when at home. Mountain-climbing calls for a greater 

 expenditure of energy than is probably realized by any 

 who have not tried it. Aside from the natural exhaustion 

 of such severe exertion, there is likely to be giddiness or 

 nausea as a result of the rarefied air. The keeper of the 

 house on the summit of Pike's Peak says that such symp- 

 toms are almost invariably aggravated, instead of being 

 relieved, by taking alcoholic drink. 



Testimony of a Naturalist. W. T. Hornaday, author 

 of Two Years in the Jungle, who has had years of experi- 

 ence as collector in many lands, has the following to say 

 as to the use of alcoholic drink : " Above all things, how- 

 ever, which go farthest toward preserving the life of the 



