96 OUR BODIES AND HOW WE LIVE 



Because of the ease with which the alcoholic appetite is 

 roused when it has been once formed, and the power of 

 a very small amount of strong drink to stimulate such an 

 appetite, there may be a real danger in using wine, rum, 

 and brandy as a flavoring for pies, pudding sauces, jellies, 

 or any other article of food. 



140. The Danger of Social Drinking. The habit of treat- 

 ing one's friends to beer, wine, or any other alcoholic drink 

 is simply asking them to injure their health at our expense. 

 Such treating is a mark of imprudence rather than an evi- 

 dence of real courtesy or friendship, and it must be so con- 

 sidered by one who understands the true nature of such 

 substances. 



Furnishing wines or liquors at parties, dinners, or other 

 entertainments, or for guests or callers, is virtually offering 

 poisonous drinks, and is never an act of true or intelligent 

 hospitality or real kindness. It may be placing temptation 

 too strong to be resisted in the way of an inherited or 

 acquired appetite for alcohol. 



The eminent Dr. Horsley, a professor in University Col- 

 lege, London, in closing a lecture recently on the effects 

 of small quantities of alcohol on the brain, said : " The con- 

 tention so often made that small doses of alcohol, such as 

 people take at meals, have practically no deleterious effect 

 cannot be maintained. From the scientific standpoint total 

 abstinence must be the course if we are to follow the teach- 

 ing of truth and common sense." 



141. The Alcohol Habit. Alcohol, like so many other 

 narcotic poisons, has the peculiar power when taken fre- 

 quently, even in small quantities, of creating a diseased 

 appetite or craving for itself, which calls for repeated and 

 increasing amounts. This is known as the alcoholic habit or 



