236 OUR BODIES AND HOW WE LIVE 



companies class even moderate but habitual users of alcoholic 

 liquors as "extra risks." The great mass of statistics 

 gathered by these companies, bearing upon the tenure of 

 human life, go to show that the man who never drinks 

 alcoholic beverages is likely to live longer than one 

 who does. 



318. The Final Result of Alcoholism. After a longer 

 or a shorter time the usual result of the continuous use 

 of alcoholic liquor is steadily to weaken the self-control of 

 its victim, and at last to make him a slave to his lower 

 nature. The craving for ardent spirit becomes well-nigh 

 irresistible. Self-respect, honor, conscience, everything, is 

 sacrificed in this craving for strong drink. 



The disease known as delirium tremens, meaning a 

 trembling madness, is not an uncommon instance of the 

 profound effect of the habitual use of alcohol upon the 

 nerve centers. 



There is still another depth of ruin in such a downward 

 course, and that is insanity. In fact, every instance of com- 

 plete intoxication is a case of temporary insanity, that 

 is, of mental unsoundness with loss of self-control. Per- 

 manent insanity may be one of the last results of intem- 

 perance. Alcoholism sends to our insane asylums a large 

 proportion of their inmates, as ample records testify. 1 



319. Moral Effect of the Alcoholic Habit. The once 

 active will power of the man who has become the victim 

 of alcohol is a thing of the past. He can no longer resist 

 the feeblest impulse to temptation. The grand faculty of 



1 About thirty per cent of the male cases in lunatic asylums where 

 inebriates are taken may be classed as direct alcoholic lunacy. The 

 indirect victims of the drunken habits of their ancestors no doubt form 

 a larger, but incalculable, number of the inmates of such asylums. 

 A. FOREL, M.D. 



