THE MUSCLES AND HOW TO USE THEM 63 



92. Effect of repeating the Amount of Alcohol. A repe- 

 tition of the alcoholic drink may again create insensibility 

 to the fatigued feeling, and the muscles may again obey 

 the will, but only for a briefer time than before. In this 

 way the man who could have put forth just so much strength 

 in an emergency, and could have held out longer, accom- 

 plishes less work, abuses his muscles, and deludes his mind 

 by resorting to alcoholic drinks. He has also the injurious 

 effects of the alcohol on other parts of his body to contend 

 with afterward. 



93. How Alcohol impairs the Structure of Muscular 

 Tissue. Medical men tell us that changes in the muscles, 

 called " fatty degeneration," are, in many cases, the direct 

 result of the long-continued use of large doses of alcohol 

 and when once the process of degeneration has been set up 

 even small doses appear to exert further injurious effects 

 upon the diseased muscular tissues. 1 



94. Effect of Tobacco on the Muscles. Tobacco tends 

 to weaken the nerve stimulus which controls muscular 



1 It has been demonstrated on all sides, at the forge, in the workshop, 

 in the field, on the march, in the arctic region and in the torrid zone, in 

 physical and in intellectual labor, that the spirit drinker fails to cope with 

 the temperate man. WILLARD PARKER, M.D., for many years Professor 

 of Surgery in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. 



All medical authorities are agreed that in periods of prolonged physical 

 labor, more and better work will be done by men who slake their thirst on 

 non-intoxicating drinks than by those who drink large quantities of beer. 

 British Medical Journal. 



The disadvantageous effect of alcohol on persons performing mus- 

 cular work is well known, and the evidence is overwhelming that alcohol 

 in small amounts has a most deleterious effect on voluntary muscular 

 work. VICTOR HORSLEY, in Lees and Rapier Memorial Lecture. 



No amount of alcohol, however given, can increase the amount of 

 work done in that same period without giving rise to very serious disturb- 

 ances in other parts of the body; indeed, the amount of work done is 

 never really increased. G. SIMS WOODHEAD, M.D. 



