ALCOHOL AS A BEVERAGE 147 



The fellow was young. He talked loud and fast, with a 

 thick voice. He said he knew he was getting drunk and that 

 he didn't care. He still had the power of choice, and he 

 called for more drink. He asked everybody to drink with 

 him ; he said he had plenty of money and that when he 

 reached Vancouver he could get more. 



Those of us who saw him and heard him knew that, even 

 while he talked, tainted blood was washing its way over his 

 most sensitive brain cells. We knew that already those cells 

 which gave best aid to his wit — those which controlled his 

 judgment — were dulled. 



Later the fellow went off with his friends. Later still he 

 was staggering across the deck. His friends were with him, 

 one on each side to keep him steady. They looked shame- 

 faced as they held him up. To the rest of us the sight of it 

 all was exceedingly sad — not because the fellow could n't talk 

 straight, not because he staggered, but because of what we 

 knew had happened to his brain cells. 1 We knew that by the 

 power of his own hand, by the choice of his own brain, he had 

 thrown uncounted millions of these brain cells out of service. 



Study the diagram (p. 149). It shows the order in which 

 brain cells always develop in the human embryo. First come 

 cells that control the heart, and last of all those that control 

 judgment and will power — the inhibitory centers of the brain, 

 we call them. By this chart of his Dr. Chappie shows that 

 alcohol damages brain cells in the reverse order of their 

 development — that cells which control judgment and will 

 power are cut out first, those, that control the heart last. 



Now we understand what the alcohol habit means, and 

 why certain anti-alcohol people were troubled when they found 

 a peculiar little bottle in the hands of school boys in Ohio. 

 1 See " Control of Body and Mind," chap. xxvi. 



