146 



Alcohol — is it a Food. 



are rather harmful than beneficial, and yet we would not 

 willingly be deprived of them, even did we think we might 

 live a year or two longer by our abstemiousness. Alcoholic 

 drinks belong to this class of substances, of which they are 

 undoubtedly the oftenest abused members. So long, how- 

 ever, as we continue to live as, in most respects, do those 

 of the nineteenth century, total abstinence in this respect 

 alone seems, to say the least, inconsistent, ifnot uncalled for. 



