314 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



Many people, it is true, drink regularly a small amount of 

 alcoholic beverage and live to an advanced age in apparent 

 good health. But this does not prove that moderate 

 drinking was not harmful to them, or that in other people 

 less able to withstand the strain it may not cause greater 

 injury. One of the worst effects of moderate drinking 

 lies in the danger that it may lead to heavy drinking. 

 Many people, once they acquire a taste for alcohol, soon 

 become victims of a habit which is insidiously fastened 

 upon them and finally makes a wreck of their lives. That 

 many men of fine intellect and excellent character become 

 the slaves of alcohol is a fact known to everyone, and 

 whoever takes to drink thinking that it will be easy to 

 break off is performing a very dangerous experiment. 

 Habit-forming drugs impair the will at the same time that 

 they increase desire. And before one is aware *>f the 

 danger, he may be already in the clutches of the enemy 

 that he is powerless to shake off. 



One of the best evidences of the injurious influence of 

 moderate drinking is afforded by the statistics of life insur- 

 ance companies which show that the average length of 

 life of moderate drinkers is less than that of total abstain- 

 ers. Some life insurance companies do not take even 

 moderate drinkers. In one of these, the American Tem- 

 perance Life Insurance Association, the death rate of the 

 members is 26 per cent, less than that of general risk. 

 Users of alcohol are more liable to contract infections 

 such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and cholera, and the 

 disease is, as a rule, more severe with them. 



TOBACCO 



Ever since its first introduction into the civilized world 

 by Sir Walter Raleigh, tobacco has been very extensively 



