CHAPTER VI 

 HABIT-FORMING AGENTS 



26. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, formerly chief agricultural 

 chemist of the United States, is an authority on the 

 subject of habit-forming agents. He said : " Either through 

 neglect, carelessness, or consent of parents and teachers, 

 thousands of school children are becoming addicted to 

 drug habits. ... In addition to these drugs, many chil- 

 dren are allowed to drink tea and coffee, and thus take into 

 their systems an alkaloid, caffein, which has the tendency 

 to take away the sense of fatigue, stimulate the heart's 

 action, and, in general, to urge the child forward to greater 

 physical and mental activity than he should be called 

 upon to endure. In the normal child the brain and 

 body give timely notice of fatigue; in the abnormal 

 child, fed partly on tea and coffee, these danger signals 

 are struck down, and the child has no sense either of 

 physical or mental fatigue. Thus he keeps on working 

 when, if nature had her way, he should be resting. Physi- 

 cians and teachers should combine to urge upon parents 

 the desirability of not allowing school children to use 

 tea or coffee. 



"In addition to these drugs containing caffein there 

 are about a hundred so-called soft drinks on the market 

 of the country, sold under different names, to which caffein 

 has been added so as to make the beverage, when con- 

 sumed, have about the same quantity of caffein that 



