ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO 313 



plished these operations less quickly than when he had taken 

 no alcohol. Numerous experiments with Swedish sol- 

 diers under various conditions have shown that accuracy 

 in shooting at a target was reduced from 30 to 50 per cent, 

 when a small amount of brandy was given. 



In the higher operations of the mind alcohol acts as a 

 depressant and inhibitor. A person slightly under its 

 influence often talks more rapidly and appears more lively, 

 but he acts with less judgment. Herbert Spencer observes 

 " Incipient intoxication, the feeling of being jolly, shows 

 itself in a failure to form involved and abstract ideas." 

 Helmholtz, in speaking of the inspirations that came to 

 him while pondering over his problems, said "They were 

 especially inclined to appear to me while indulging in a 

 quiet walk in the sunshine or over the forest-clad moun- 

 tains, -but the smallest quantity of an alcoholic beverage 

 seemed to frighten these ideas away." 



Alcohol in inhibiting the higher operations of the mind 

 causes the loss of self-restraint that only too frequently 

 leads to crime. Swedish statistics show that out of 24,298 

 prisoners committed to hard labor, 17,374, or 71.2 per cent, 

 attributed their crime to the use of alcohol. Dr. Sullivan 

 found that "out of 200 men convicted of murder or attempts 

 at murder, 158 were of alcoholic habits, and in 120 of 

 these, or 50 per cent, of the whole series, the criminal 

 act was directly due to alcoholism." The same inhibition 

 of higher nerve centers accounts for the large percentage 

 of accidents that happen to people influenced by drink. 

 The nervous system is a delicate mechanism, and when 

 anything important depends on its proper working, al- 

 cohol had better be left entirely alone. 



While the evil effects of over indulgence in alcoholic 

 drinks are evident enough, it is often claimed that moder- 

 ate drinking can be practised with no serious results. 



