ALCOHOL.

THE STORY ABOUT ALCOHOL.

Several hundred years ago many people were trying to discover something that would keep them young and strong, and prevent them from dying. It is said by some that a man named Paracelsus, in making experiments, discovered alcohol. He called it "the water of life," and boasted that he would never be weak and never die; so he went on drinking alcoholic liquors until at last he died in a drunken fit.

What is this alcohol which has done and is doing so much mischief in the world? I will show you some. What does it look like?—"Water." Yes; and if you were to smell it you would say it has a somewhat pleasant odor; if you were to taste it, that it has a hot, biting taste, i.e., is pungent. If you put a lighted match to it you would notice that it burns easily, and with a flame, and may therefore be said to be combustible and inflammable.

What does it come from? Is it one of the drinks God has given us? Some of the class think it is; we will try to learn whether this answer is correct or not. If we study about it very carefully we shall discover that it is not a natural drink, that it is not found except where it has been made from decayed or rotten fruits, grains, or vegetables.

If you take some apples, and squeeze the juice out of them, you will find it sweet and pleasant; let that juice stand for several days and what will happen to it?—"It will get bad." Yes; or, as grown people say, it will work or ferment; that is, the sugary part of the juice will be separated into a kind of gas and a liquid. The gas is called carbonic acid gas; the liquid is alcohol. Both the gas and the liquid are poisonous.

Alcohol may also be obtained from other fruits, as grapes, and from some grains and vegetables. But all these must first become rotten before alcohol will come out of them. This is

one reason why we think that God, who gives us good, wholesome food, did not intend alcohol to be a drink for man, else He would have put it into the delicious ripe fruit, and not made it impossible to get until they decay.

Now let us put upon the blackboard something which will help us remember what we have learned about

ALCOHOL.
DISCOVERED BY Paracelsus. CALLED "The water of life."	DESCRIPTION. Water-like; with a pleasant odor; a hot, biting taste; and will burn with a flame.	MADE FROM Fruits, Grains, or Vegetables.

USES OF ALCOHOL.

We put some sugar into water; the children see that it melts; then some glue or shellac is placed in the same liquid; they see that this is not melted, but that, when alcohol is used instead of water, the glue or shellac is dissolved. From this experiment they learn that alcohol is used in making varnishes.

Some water is poured into one saucer, and alcohol into another; a lighted match is applied to each; the class notices that the alcohol takes fire and burns, while the water does not.

Next, we fill a lamp with alcohol, and put a wick into it; when the wick becomes wet with the fluid it burns steadily and without smoke, as may be seen by holding a clean white saucer over the flame. This shows why jewellers and others, who wish to use a lamp to make things very hot, prefer alcohol to kerosene, which, as the children know, smokes lamp-chimneys, or anything else, so easily.

We show a thermometer; the children are told its use if they are not already familiar with the instrument; we talk about the quicksilver in the tube, about its rising or falling according to the degree of heat or cold; then we inform the class that in

some countries where it is very cold quicksilver freezes; for this reason alcohol, which does not freeze, is colored red and put into the thermometer tube to be used in these Arctic regions.

Another use for alcohol is to keep or preserve substances. This we illustrate by placing a piece of meat into some alcohol. We explain that the water in the meat is that which causes it to decay. Alcohol has the power to take up or absorb water; so when meat is put into this liquid the water from the meat is absorbed by it, and the meat does not become bad. Those who wish to preserve insects a long time, and doctors who desire to keep any portion of a human body after death, put these into alcohol, in which they may be kept for a long time.

Lastly, we let the children smell cologne or other perfumery, and tell them this is made from different oils mixed with alcohol.

At the close of this lesson the class is ready to help us make the following BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

FACTS ABOUT ALCOHOL.
It melts gums.
Burns with a flame.
Burns without smoke.
Will not freeze.
Likes water.
Mixes with oils.

GOOD USES OF ALCOHOL.
To melt gums.
To make varnishes.
To burn in lamps.
To make camphene, etc.
To put into thermometer tubes.
To preserve meats, etc.
To make perfumery.
In making jewelry.

USES OF ALCOHOL—concluded.

You see alcohol is very useful for some purposes; but do people ever drink it? Some of the children think not, and we grant that no one is foolish enough to drink raw alcohol, because it is too strong. It would take only a little to make them drunk, and only a few ounces to kill them instantly.

We ask the pupils if they have ever seen a drunken person, and what made that person drunk? We soon obtain an answer,

and place upon the board "Rum, gin, whiskey, brandy," as the names of drinks which will take away the good sense of those who drink them. To these are added "Wine, beer, ale, lager, and cider."

We explain that all these have alcohol in them, as may be known by smelling them, or by smelling the breath of those who have drunk even a little of them; and that because they contain alcohol they are called alcoholic liquors. If a person drinks any one of them he will be poisoned, more or less, according to how much he takes. The children are astonished at the word poisoned, but we explain that the very word, intoxicated, means poisoned. So a drunken man is a poisoned man. If enough alcohol, or alcoholic liquor, is drunk by anyone, he will drop down dead as quickly as if he were shot by a cannon ball.

When told that alcohol is not a food, but a poison, the class readily understands what we mean, and we have no difficulty in having the following statements prepared and memorized:

FOOD.

That which makes the body grow, and helps to keep it alive.

POISON.

That which hurts the body, and makes it die.

ALCOHOL.

QUALITIES.
Water-like, looks like water.
Transparent, may be seen through clearly.
Odorous, has a smell.
Pungent, has a hot, biting taste.
Liquid, will flow in drops.
Poisonous, hurts the body.
Intoxicating, takes away the senses; makes drunk.
Absorbent, takes up or absorbs water.
Inflammable, burns with a flame.
Uncongealable, will not freeze.
Innutritious, not good for food.

GOOD USES.
To melt gums.
To make varnishes.
To burn in lamps.
To make camphene, etc.
To put in thermometer tubes.
To preserve meats, insects, etc.
To make perfumery.
In making jewelry.

BAD USE.
To drink.

ABOUT FERMENTATION AND FERMENTED LIQUOR.

Alcohol.—Alcohol may be obtained from any substance which contains sugar or starch, or both sugar and starch, as apples, pears, grapes, potatoes, beets, rice, barley, maple, honey, etc.

Alcohol can be obtained only by fermentation. By fermentation we mean the change which takes place when a juice containing sugar decays, or goes to pieces. You know decay always makes things fall to pieces.

You ask, what pieces is sugar made of? Very, very little pieces, called atoms. There are different kinds of sugar. In that made from grapes, called grape sugar, there are six atoms of carbon, twelve of hydrogen, and six of oxygen. What are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen? Oxygen is the kind of gas which keeps animals alive, and makes things burn. Hydrogen is another kind, which you have smelled perhaps when water has been spilled on a hot stove; the gas burned in street-lamps is hydrogen that has been driven out of coal. Carbon you see in charcoal and soot; the black lead of your lead-pencils is mostly composed of carbon and iron; lamp-black is pure carbon, without form or shape.

We will let these circles of colored paper stand for the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in grape sugar,—the largest, which are red, for the oxygen; the second size, which you notice are black, will represent atoms of carbon; while the little blue ones will make you think of hydrogen.

If you remember that it takes one atom of carbon and two of oxygen to make carbonic acid gas; also, that two atoms of carbon, one of oxygen, and six of hydrogen to form alcohol, you can easily find that two atoms of carbonic acid gas and two atoms of alcohol may be formed from an atom of sugar. So the more sugar a juice contains the more alcohol may be formed from it.

Cider.—Cider is made by pressing the juice out of apples. This sweet cider ferments, and the sugar part of it changes into carbonic acid gas and alcohol. People who do not understand this go on drinking cider, not knowing that it makes drunkards of those who drink much of a beverage which seems so pleasant and harmless.

Wines.—Wines are made from the juices of fruits which have sugar in them, especially grapes. Sometimes people have what they call home-made wines, which they make from blackberries, currants, elderberries, gooseberries, cherries, or other fruits. They may ask you to take some, saying, "This will do you no harm; we did not put any alcohol into it." They do not know what you have learned, that alcohol is always formed in fermented juices which contain sugar. It does not wait to be put into the home-made wines; it quietly comes in as they are getting made, at home or any other place, and will make people drunk as surely as when it is found in brandy or any other liquor.

Some of the wines in the stores are made from grape juice, but many more are made by mixing hurtful and poisonous things together to make the liquor strong, and give it what is called a fine color and good taste.

Beer and Ales.—These are made from grains and hops, which contain no sugar, it is true, but are composed of starch, which may be changed into sugar. When a seed of grain is put into the ground and begins to grow, the starch in it becomes sugar, which feeds the young plant. When a brewer wishes to make beer, he takes some grain, puts it in a dark place, wets it, and leaves it to sprout, or begin to grow. Then he puts it into an oven to dry it, and make it stop growing. This makes what is called malt. The malt is mashed and soaked in warm water to get the sugar out of it; this forms a liquid called sweet wort. The wort is separated from the mashed grain and boiled; yeast is mixed with it to help it to ferment more quickly; it soon becomes changed; a dirty yellow scum filled with bubbles comes to the top, which we know is the poisonous carbonic acid gas;

the other poison, alcohol, stays in the liquid and makes the beer taste good to those who like it.

Liquors made from grain are called malt liquors. Lager beer, and all kinds of ales and porters, are malt liquors. They make people dull, sluggish, and stupid who drink much of them. They do much mischief in the body, though it takes a larger quantity of any one of them to make a person drunk than it does of whiskey or brandy.

AN ATOM OF
GRAPE SUGAR. Carbon, 6 atoms. Oxygen, 6 atoms. Hydrogen, 12 atoms.	CARBONIC ACID GAS. Carbon, 1 atom. Oxygen, 2 atoms.	ALCOHOL. Carbon, 2 atoms. Oxygen, 1 atom. Hydrogen, 6 atoms.

SUB-FERMENTED GRAPE SUGAR MAKES 2 atoms of carbonic acid gas and 2 atoms of alcohol.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS MADE FROM
FRUITS.			GRAINS.
Cider.	Wines.		Beer, Ales, etc.
Apples. Perry. Pears.	Grapes, Currants, Blackberries,	Gooseberries, Elderberries, Cherries, etc.	Barley, Wheat, Corn,	Oats, Peas, etc. (with hops).

DISTILLATION.

How does the sugar in grapes and other fruits become alcohol?—"By fermenting." Yes, and liquors made by fermenting are called fermented liquors. What other alcoholic drinks have you heard about beside cider, wines, beer, and ales?—"Gin, whiskey, brandy, rum." These are stronger than the fermented liquors, that is, they contain more alcohol; they are made by what is called distillation.

If you boil water, and let the steam from it fall upon a cold plate, the steam will change back into liquid and become

distilled water. Making a liquid boil, catching the vapor or steam and cooling it, is what we mean by distillation.

If two or more liquids are mixed together, the one that boils with the least heat will be drawn off first. The alcohol of beer, cider, and wines is mixed with water; it boils at a lower heat than water, so can be drawn off from it very easily. This does not make more alcohol, it only makes the alcohol stronger by separating it from the water.

When beer or any other alcoholic liquor is to be distilled, it is poured into a large copper boiler, called a still, and boiled. A tube carries the vapor from the boiler into a cask filled with cold water. This tube is coiled like a spiral line or worm through the cask; it is called the worm of the still, and the cask is the worm-tub. As the vapor passes through the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or distilled.

In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented molasses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them. But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when they have become drunkards.

DEFINITIONS.

Distillation. Drawing the vapor from a boiling liquid and cooling it.

Still. Machinery for distilling; the boiler which holds the liquid.

The Worm of the Still. The tube which passes from the still to a cask, in which it coils like a worm.

Worm-tub. The cask which holds the tube or worm, and receives the distilled liquid.

Distilled Liquid. A liquid formed by cooled steam.

Distilled Liquors. Liquors made by distilling alcoholic liquors.

Fermented. Changed by decay.

Fermented Liquors. Liquors which have been fermented or changed by decay, and contain alcohol.

Unfermented. Not decayed.

Unfermented Liquors. Liquors which contain no alcohol.

KINDS OF LIQUORS
[^[5]]UNFERMENTED. Grape juice, Sweet cider, Root beer, Ginger beer. Perry.	FERMENTED. Hard cider, (Malt liquors) Beer, Lager beer, Ale, Porter, Wine.	DISTILLED. Gin, Brandy, Whiskey, Rum.

[5] These soon become fermented; they then contain alcohol.

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE BODY.

Raw alcohol does not do much harm to people because it is too strong for them to drink much of it; but the alcohol hidden in cider, ale, wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic drinks kills not less than sixty thousand persons in this country every year, besides those who die from its use in other parts of the world.

There is great excitement when there is a mad dog around; and, if any one is bitten and dies from the dreadful hydrophobia, people are ready to destroy all the dogs of the neighborhood; but when a drunkard dies from delirium tremens or alcohol craziness, how few take any notice of the cause of his death, or do all they can to wage war against the use of alcoholic liquors.

But why do we say such hard things against these liquors which some people love so well and think so harmless? In what way do they hurt and kill people? Let us see. Where does what we drink go after it has been put into the mouth?—"Into the stomach." If it were the right thing to go into the stomach, into what would it be changed?—"Into something which helps to make good blood."

Learned men, who have examined and carefully studied about these things, tell us that the stomach is hurt by alcohol,

because the fiery fluid is not food, but poison which makes the stomach very sore, and gives it hard work to do. The veins of the stomach take it up and send it into the liver. The liver, which is a large organ weighing about four pounds, lies on the right side below the lungs; its work is, to help make the blood pure. It can do nothing with alcohol, so it drives it along to the heart; the heart sends it to the lungs; the lungs throw some of it out through the breath, which smells of the vile stuff that has been poisoning every part it has passed through since it entered the mouth.

Some of the alcohol does not get out of the lungs through the breath, but goes with the blood back to the heart, and from the heart is sent through the arteries to every part of the body. No part of the body wants it.

The Skin drives some of it out, through its little pores, with the perspiration.

The Kidneys, which lie in the back below the waist, on each side of the spine, send off some of the poison.

Yet some of it gets into the brain, and there does very much mischief, of which you will learn more by and by. You know, if the brain is hurt, the mind cannot do its work of thinking properly; thus, alcohol does great harm to the mind through the brain.

The muscles and the bones are hurt by not being supplied with pure blood; the heart gets tired out with overwork, and the lungs become diseased through this same terrible alcohol.

Therefore, if you would be strong and healthy, have nothing to do with alcoholic liquors; for

ALCOHOL POISONS
The stomach, The heart, The bones,	The liver, The lungs, The muscles,	The blood, The brain, The skin,
And every part of the body.

IN THE STOMACH.

Children who have learned the Lesson on Digestion, and know about the coats of the stomach, about mastication and chyme-making, are easily made to understand why anything which has alcohol in it is unfit to go into the stomach.

If we touch a drop of alcohol to the eye, it will make it sore; so alcohol in the stomach irritates its coats and makes them sore.

Alcohol poisons the gastric juice. If we get some of this juice from the stomach of a calf which has just been killed, and mix alcohol with it, the alcohol will separate the watery part from the pepsin or white part. This is what alcohol does in the stomach. It takes up water from the gastric juice, which prevents the pepsin from mixing well with the food, and hinders the change of the food into chyme, which cannot take place without pepsin.

The children have already learned that alcohol keeps meat from decaying, or going to pieces. We explain that food in the stomach must go to pieces to prepare it to make blood; when mixed with alcohol, it is preserved, and the gastric juice cannot melt or dissolve it. Thus the stomach is hindered from doing its work until it gets rid of the alcohol.

A true story we have read will help you to remember how troublesome alcohol is to the stomach. Some men in Edinburgh were paid their wages, one Saturday, soon after they had eaten their dinner. They got drunk and remained so till the next day at noon. When they became sober they had a headache and were so ill that they sent for a doctor; he gave them some medicine which brought up their Saturday's dinner just as it had gone down into the stomach. The poor stomach could do nothing with dinner mixed with whiskey or rum, because these liquors are half alcohol.

You have already learned that the stomach hurries to drive out the alcohol into the liver; the liver sends it with the blood into the heart; the heart pours it into the lungs; the lungs breathe it out through the nose and mouth, and tell that some kind of alcoholic liquor has been taken into the stomach.

Remember, that the alcohol which comes out in the breath is a part of that which went into the mouth. It could not be changed. It did nothing but mischief in its journey, which shows that it is not food, but poison. God, who created the body, has not given any part of it power to change alcohol into blood.

People sometimes take ale or wine because they think it gives them an appetite. This is a great mistake. When any alcoholic liquor goes into the stomach, there is such hard work to get it out that the pain of hunger is not felt; when it is out, the stomach is tired and does not tell the brain that it is hungry. When alcohol is poured into it, day after day, it loses its desire for good, wholesome food, and wants more and more alcoholic liquor. It has an appetite for alcohol.

Alcohol makes the stomach sore and full of disease; people who take much of it in liquors always suffer much from dyspepsia.

So, if the stomach could speak, it would say: "Don't pour any alcohol into me, though you mix it and call it ale, cider, wine, or any other name that makes folks think it will do me no harm. You cannot deceive me. I know alcohol as soon as it comes down, and it always makes me suffer."

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

ALCOHOL—
	Burns or inflames the coats of the stomach. Spoils the gastric juice. Makes the food hard to be dissolved. Makes the stomach tired and weak. Takes away the appetite for wholesome food. Makes an appetite for alcoholic liquors. Causes disease in the stomach and other digestive organs.

QUESTION ON BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

What harm does alcohol do in the stomach?

TO THE BONES, MUSCLES, AND SKIN.

To the Bones.—You have already learned that the bones require to be supplied with good blood to make them strong and healthy, and that alcohol does not make good blood, so we need spend no time in deciding that alcoholic liquors do injury to the bones, and that the bones of those who drink these liquors are less likely to heal, when broken, than those of persons whose blood has not been poisoned by alcohol.

To the Muscles.—The muscles, as you know, cover and move the bones; good blood makes them grow, and keeps them healthy and strong. People like to have plenty of good muscle, for this not only gives them strength, but makes them look plump and well.

Alcohol poisons the blood by killing many of the very little, round, red parts in it, called by a long name, which you can learn if you try. This hard name is corpuscles [kor'pussls]; corpuscle means a little body.

These little bodies float in the fluid portion of the blood, and go to every part of the body to help keep it alive and healthy. When alcohol hurts them, they turn into a poor kind of fat, like suet, and cannot do any good. They stay in different parts and do much harm. Sometimes they lodge between the muscles, and make a person look strong because plump; but he is not strong, for his muscles are filled with fat.

Sometimes the liver or the heart, which are only large muscles, become so heavy and soft with fat that they cannot do their work properly; they become weak and diseased, wear out, and cause the death of their owner, who has poisoned them with ale, wine, or other alcoholic drink.

To the Skin.—Alcohol hurts the skin also, by feeding it with poisoned blood, by giving the pores extra work in carrying off some of the alcohol in the perspiration, and by making the little blood-vessels larger than they should be in a way you will learn more about by and by. These little blood-vessels become very full of blood, and cause the red face and blue nose which

mark the drinker of alcoholic liquors. This redness of the skin tells of the mischief which alcohol is doing inside of the body. It is the danger-signal which warns against the use of the fiery poison.

ALCOHOL HURTS
THE BONES, By supplying them with bad blood.	THE MUSCLES, By supplying them with bad blood; By loading them with fat which makes them weak.	THE SKIN, By supplying it with bad blood; By over-working the perspiratory pores.

TO THE BLOOD, THE LUNGS, AND THE HEART.

To the Blood.—The wonderful fluid which is the life of the body consists of a water-like liquid in which floats millions of the very little, circle-shaped, red particles which you have been taught to call corpuscles. You have also been told that alcohol kills these little bodies, and thus takes some of the life out of the blood, and fills it with useless, suet-like fat.

The blood, you know, flows everywhere through the body, giving its goodness to make every part grow and live, and carrying away the worn-out particles it meets. Blood, when poisoned with alcohol, goes through the body, giving disease and death instead of health and life. So, if you want good, red blood, do not let alcohol get into it.

To the Heart.—When alcohol comes with the blood from the liver, the heart begins to beat fast to get rid of the firewater; this makes it very tired, for it always has enough to do in carrying bad blood to the lungs, and pumping good blood into the arteries, without having the extra trouble of driving out alcohol. Wise people will not give it this extra work to do.

Besides, we told you, in the talk about the harm done by alcohol to the muscles, that the heart,—which is only a large

muscle, or rather many muscles fastened together so as to make a pear-shaped organ about the size of your fist,—is hurt in another way by alcohol. It gets too much of the poor kind of fat from the blood, which fills between the muscles, and after awhile makes the walls of the heart so soft and weak, that we could almost push through them with a finger, if we could get at them.

Very often the tired, overworked, weakened heart suddenly stops beating, and the person who would keep on drinking beer, wine, brandy, or rum falls down dead. "Died from heart disease," people say, when the truth is, died from drinking alcoholic liquors.

To the Lungs.—What are the lungs?—"The breathing-machines of the body." What do they throw out?—"Bad air." What do they take in?—"Fresh air." In pure air there is a good kind of gas which is necessary to keep us alive; this gas is called oxygen.

When air is taken into the lungs, the oxygen mixes with the blood in them and makes it pure. If alcohol is in the lungs, it hardens the walls of their air-cells, and keeps out the oxygen or good gas; at the same time it keeps in the impure gas, called nitrogen, which ought to come out through the nose and mouth into the air. Thus the blood in the lungs cannot be properly purified, and goes back to the heart impure blood which is unfit to be used.

The lungs are also obliged to work faster when alcohol is in them, because with the heart they are striving to drive out the enemy. This makes the lungs tired, sore, and inflamed. They are not as strong to do their work, and are more likely to breathe in any contagious disease than are the lungs of people who do not drink alcoholic liquors.

Some people go on drinking these poisons for many years, and seem not to be hurt by them; but at last they suffer from what is called Alcoholic Phthisis, a kind of consumption which doctors cannot cure.

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL TO THE
HEART. Overworks it. Makes it tired. Loads it with fat. Softens and destroys it.	BLOOD-VESSELS. Hurries the blood through them. Stretches the small arteries and makes them unfit to work. Poisons the blood in the hair-like blood-vessels (capillaries).	LUNGS. Makes them work too fast. Heats and inflames them. Hardens the walls of their air-cells. Keeps in the poisonous gas. Keeps out the good gas (oxygen). Weakens them and makes them diseased.

THE BLOOD ("The life ... is in the blood")

Consists of
	A colorless liquid (plasma), and Little, red, circle-shaped bodies (corpuscles).

ALCOHOL (a blood-poison)

Mixes with the colorless liquid, and takes away some of its goodness.

Makes some of the corpuscles
	Smaller. Change shape. Lose color. Lose oxygen. Die, and change into useless fat

TO THE BRAIN AND NERVES.

Where is your brain?—"In my skull." What color is it?—"Gray and white." What does it resemble?—"Marrow." What work is done in the brain?—"The work of thinking." You may repeat what you have learned about the membranes of the brain. (See Formula for the Lesson on the Nervous System.)

You say "the inner membrane is a net-work of blood-vessels." If these are blood-vessels in the membranes, what fills them?—"Blood." Do you think alcohol can get into the brain?—"Yes." How can it get there?—"It goes there with the blood." How can we know that alcohol does mischief in the brain? You cannot answer? Did you never see a drunken man? Now tell me how you might know his brain has been hurt by alcohol.—"He talks funny; he acts strangely; he is very cross; he does not know what he is doing; he walks crookedly; he falls down; sometimes he falls asleep, and is almost like a dead man; he is dead drunk."

Let us study to learn why the drunken man does such strange things. The alcohol in this bottle, and this egg which you see, will help us find the cause of the mischief. You may tell what is in the egg.—"A white liquid and a yellow liquid." How could they be made hard?—"By making the egg hot; by boiling." We will try what alcohol will do to the white part. You see when it is poured upon the white of the egg it hardens this part as boiling would harden it. This white portion is composed of water and something called albumen. The alcohol dries up the water and thickens the albumen.

Albumen is found not only in eggs but in some seeds, as beans, peas, corn, etc., also in the gray part of the brain and in the nerves.

We will talk first of the harm alcohol does to the nerves. You know they are the grayish-white cords which pass from the brain and the spine to every part of the body. What do they act like in the kind of work they do?—"Like telegraph wires." What is their work?—"To carry messages to and from the brain." What kinds of nerves have you learned about?—"Nerves of feeling and nerves of motion."

When alcohol touches a nerve, it draws away the moisture or water from it, and hardens the white part or albumen; this makes the nerve shrivel as if it had been burned; it loses its power to feel and move, or, to use a long word, is paralyzed.

Alcohol paralyzes all the nerves it touches. It makes them

so stupid that they cannot understand what the brain says to them, and they do not carry the right messages back to it. For instance: when the nerves of the stomach are poisoned by the alcohol in beer, wine, etc., they do not feel the pain of hunger as much as they otherwise would, and they let the brain think the stomach is satisfied and does not need any more food, when it is only stupefied by these liquors.

Again, it is the work of some nerves to tell the muscles of the small arteries to tighten, or contract, when too much blood is coming into them. Alcohol so paralyzes these nerves that they do not carry their message; the arteries let in the blood, and become swollen and enlarged. They tell the mischief done to them, by causing the skin to be red or flushed. If people drink much of any intoxicating liquor, and often, their skin is always a bad color, or, as grown folks say, becomes permanently discolored. All this because the nerves have been made unfit to do their duty by alcohol poison.

The nerves also lose power over the muscles of the limbs. This is plainly seen in the trembling of the hands and the unsteady walking of the drunkard; but is equally true of those who drink only a little now and then. Their nerves are not as strong and wide-awake to control the machinery of the body as they would be if no alcohol were troubling them.

Sometimes the nerves of hearing and sight tell the brain queer stories, and the poor brain believes them all, for it, too, is stupefied by the same fire-water which has hurt the nerves. Indeed, the harm done by alcohol to the brain is greater than that done to any other part of the body. It takes the water from the albumen, and makes the white part of the brain hard, as if it had been cooked. It kills the little, circle-shaped, red parts of the blood—the corpuscles; these collect in the blood-vessels of the brain, and keep the blood from flowing as fast as it ought, which causes disease and very often death. Sometimes the brain is so much injured by the poison that the drinker becomes crazy, and is a great deal of trouble to himself and everybody else.

Since all this is true, wise children will let cider, lager, ale, wine, and every other kind of alcoholic drink alone, and never, NEVER,

"Put an enemy into their mouths,

To steal away their brains."

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL TO THE
NERVES. Takes away their moisture, and paralyzes them. Takes away their power to control the muscles. Makes them unfit to carry messages to and from the brain.	BRAIN. Fills or congests its blood-vessels with impure blood. Collects in it, and paralyzes it. Hardens its albumen. So hurts it as to cause craziness (insanity) and death.

MORE ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL.

In the lessons you have learned you have been taught about the harm done by alcohol to the body and the mind; can you tell, from what you have seen of drunken people, in what other way alcoholic liquors hurt them?—"They make people waste their money; they make them waste their time; they make them cross; they make them fight; they make them say silly and wicked words; they sometimes make fathers and mothers hurt their children; they make people lose their good name; they often make them do things for which they are sent to prison."

Yes, this is only some of the mischief done by alcohol. If you could fly around the world and see everybody who has been hurt in any way by this terrible poison, what a sad, sad sight you would behold! At least half the trouble in the world comes from strong drink.

Are you, little girl, little boy, going to join the army of drunkards? No, indeed! you think; but probably no one who has become a drunkard ever intended to do so. They all began

with one glass, a few drops of some alcoholic liquor,—cider, wine, or beer perhaps,—and thus learned to love the taste of alcohol, and soon became its slaves. For this poison has the strange power of making those who drink it want more and more of itself, though they know it is doing them harm.

The only safety is in letting alcoholic liquors alone, forever.

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS HURT The body, The mind, and The soul; AND MAKE PEOPLE
WASTE Money, Talents, and Time.	LOSE Strength, Health, and Good name.	UNFIT TO Think, or Work.	UNFIT TO SERVE Themselves, Their neighbor, or GOD.

STORIES ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL.[^[6]]

A YOUNG BEGINNER.—The hardest drinker I ever knew commenced on cider when he was only five years old. He would go to the barrel of cider in the cellar, which had been put there to make vinegar, and, getting a straw, would suck all the cider he wanted; and then, after he had played awhile, he would go back and get more. He kept on drinking alcoholic liquors of some kind, until he died a drunkard.

CIDER DELIRIUM.—Dr. J.H. Travis, of Masonville, N.Y., was once called to a child six years old, who was raving in the wildest delirium. His symptoms were so peculiar that he questioned the family closely, and found that the day previous, at a raising, the child had drank freely of cider. After the men left he had procured a straw and gone to the barrel and drank till he was senseless, and after this the delirium

came on. He exhibited undoubted symptoms of delirium tremens. Cider was the common beverage of the family. Dr. Travis has been called to several other cases of delirium tremens from the use of cider.—Mrs. E.J. Richmond.

A CAUTION TO MOTHERS.—One of the first literary men in the United States said to a temperance lecturer: "There is one thing which I wish you to do everywhere; entreat every mother never to give a drop of strong drink to a child. I have had to fight as for my life all my days to keep from dying a drunkard, because I was fed with spirits when a child. I thus acquired an appetite for it. My brother, poor fellow, died a drunkard."

A GIRL DRUNKARD.—A young girl of eighteen, beautiful, intelligent, and temperate, the pride of her home, was recommended to take a little gin for some chronic ailment. She took it; it soothed the pain; she kept on taking it; it created an artificial appetite, and in four years she died a drunkard.—Medical Temperance Journal.

"A LITTLE WON'T HURT HIM."—I was the pet of the family. Before I could well walk I was treated to the sweet from the bottom of my father's glass. My dear mother would gently chide with him, "Don't, John, it will do him harm." To this he would smilingly reply, "This little sup won't hurt him." When I became a school-boy I was ill at times, and my mother would pour for me a glass of wine from the decanter. At first I did not like it; but, as I was told that it would make me strong, I got to like it. When I became an apprentice, I reasoned thus: "My parents told me that these drinks are good, and I cannot get them except at the public-house." Step by step I fell.... I have grown to manhood, but my course of intemperance has added sin to sin. My days are now nearly ended. Hope for the future I have none.—Dying Drunkard.

DANGER.—In one of Mr. Moody's temperance prayer meetings at Chicago, a reformed man attributed a former relapse of drunkenness wholly to a physician's prescription to take whiskey three times a day!

KILLED BY THE POISON.—Many years ago, when stage coaches were in use in England, during a very cold night, a young woman mounted the coach. A respectable tradesman sitting there asked her what induced her to travel on such a night, when she replied that she was going to the bedside of her mother, of whose illness she had just heard. She was soon wrapped in such coats, etc., as the passengers could spare, and when they stopped the tradesman procured her some

brandy. She declined it at first, saying she had never drank spirits in her life. But he said, "Drink it down; it won't hurt you on such a bitter night." This was done repeatedly, until the poor girl fell fast asleep, and when they arrived in London she could not be roused. She was stiff and cold in death, and the doctor, on the coroner's inquest, said that she had been killed by the brandy.—Mrs. Balfour.

IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK.—In the winter of 1796 a vessel was wrecked on an island of the Massachusetts coast, and five persons on board determined to swim ashore. Four of them drank freely of spirits to keep up their strength, but the fifth would drink none. One was drowned, and all that drank spirits failed and stopped, and froze one after another, the man that drank none being the only one that reached the house at some distance from, the shore, and he lived many years after that.

IT EXHAUSTS STRENGTH.—Concerning one cold winter when there were very severe snow-storms in the Highlands of Scotland, James Hogg, the poet, says: "It was a received opinion all over the country that sundry lives were lost, and a great many more endangered, by the administration of ardent spirits to the sufferers while in a state of exhaustion. A little bread and sweet milk, or even bread and cold water, proved a much safer restorative in the fields. Some who took a glass of spirits that night never spoke another word, even though they were continuing to walk and converse when their friends joined them. One woman found her husband lying in a state of insensibility; she had only sweet milk and oatmeal cake to give him, but with these she succeeded in getting him home and saving him."—Bacchus.

SHIPMASTER OF THE KEDRON.—"I was brought up in a temperance school, and when I shipped before the mast I stuck to my principles, though everyone else on board drank excepting two boys whom I persuaded to abstain. In a very severe storm off a lee-shore, when it was so cold they had to break the icicles off the ropes to tack the ship, all drank but myself and these two boys. The men would work very well for a few minutes, and then slack off and take another drink, until they were all keeled up, and we three boys had all we could do to keep the ship from going ashore. If we had drank with the rest, all would have been lost, for the men were too drunk to save themselves. Providentially, the storm abated before morning, and we were saved. Now, for many years I have been captain of my own ship, and I never give out one drop of liquor."—Captain Brown.

ON THE PLAINS.—Twenty-six men, travelling on one of the great Western plains in the United States, were overtaken by cold and night. They had food, clothing, and whiskey, but no fire. They were warned not to drink whiskey or they would freeze. Three did not drink a drop, and though they felt cold they did not suffer nor freeze. Three more drank a little, and though they suffered much they did not freeze. Seven others that drank a good deal had their toes and fingers frozen. Six that drank pretty strong were badly frozen and never got over it. Four that got very boozy were frozen so badly that they died three or four weeks afterward. Three that got dead drunk were stiff dead by daylight. They all suffered just in proportion to the amount of whiskey they took. They were all strong men, and had about the same amount of clothing and blankets; the whiskey was all that made the difference.

THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION in Canada, in 1870, is often quoted as one of the most laborious on record, 1200 troops travelling 1200 miles through a very dense wilderness, and having all their supplies to carry. They were ninety-four days out, and none of them had liquor. They were constantly wet through, sometimes for days together, and all the while at the severe labor of rowing, poling, tracking, and portaging, yet they were always well and cheery, and there was a total absence of crime.

IN AFRICA it is far safer to do without intoxicating drink. Livingstone says that he lived without it for twenty years. Stanley performed his wonderful journey without it. Bruce said more than one hundred, years ago: "I laid down as a positive rule of health that spirits and all fermented liquors should be regarded as poisonous. Spring, or running water, if you can find it, is to be your only drink."

WATERTON, the great naturalist, who travelled so much in South America, says: "I eat moderately, and never drink wine, spirits, or any fermented liquors in any climate. This abstemiousness has proved a faithful friend." He died by accident at the age of eighty-three.

MR. HUBER, who saw 2160 perish of cholera in twenty-five days in one town in Russia, says that "Persons given to drinking are swept away like flies. In Tiflis, containing 20,000 inhabitants, every drunkard has fallen." Of 204 cases of cholera in the Park Hospital, New York, there were but six temperate persons, and these recovered. In Albany, where cholera prevailed with severe mortality for several weeks, only two of the 5000 members of temperance societies became its victims.

In Montreal, where the victims of the disease were intemperate, it usually cut them off. In Great Britain, those who have been addicted to spirituous liquors and irregular habits have been the greatest sufferers from cholera. In some towns the drunkards are all dead.—Bacchus.

MALT LIQUORS, under which title are included all kinds of porters and ales, produce the worst species of drunkenness. The effects of malt liquors are more stupefying than those of ardent spirits, and less easily removed. In a short time they render dull and sluggish the gayest disposition.—Anatomy of Drunkenness.

GINGER-BEER.—A man who has been a temperance-worker for forty-five years, says that there is often alcohol in ginger-beer. He told of a case known to him of a reformed man who, after drinking some, felt strongly drawn to the bar-room, where he drank until he brought on delirium tremens. The beer will sometimes ferment enough in a few hours to produce alcohol—if it answers the conditions—a sweet liquid and a ferment.

DANGER TO THE REFORMED.—A lady who had become a drunkard through taking alcoholic drinks as medicines, at length, after many efforts, succeeded in breaking away from the power of the appetite, and for a long time she seemed to be saved. At length she went to visit her mother, and that mother put brandy peaches on the table for tea. They aroused the slumbering appetite, the victim fell again, became worse than ever, and died a miserable drunkard.

[6] From Juvenile Temperance Manual, by Julia Colman.

STORIES ABOUT THE RIGHT WAY TO TREAT ALE, BEER, Etc.

THE RIGHT SIDE.—"Boys, which is the right side of the public house? Can you tell me?"—"Yes, sir, the outside."

THE GOAT AND THE ALE.—Many years ago, when everybody drank freely, a Welsh minister named Rees Pritchard was at the ale-house drinking, when he took it into his head to offer some ale to a large tame goat. The animal drank till he fell down drunk, and the minister drank on till he was carried home drunk. The next day he was sick all day, but on the third day he went again to the ale-house, and began to drink. The goat was there, and he offered him more ale, but the

animal would not touch it. The minister, seeing the animal wiser than himself, was ashamed, and gave up drinking, and became a worthy minister.

HOW THE MONKEY WAS CURED.—A monkey named Kees had been taught to drink brandy. At dinner every day he had his share like his more manly (?) neighbors, only that his was given to him in a plate. One day, as he was about to drink it, his master set it on fire, and he ran off frightened and chattering. No inducement could afterward make him drink brandy. We have many stories of animals who would never drink again after they had once experienced its effects.

THE KEEN MARKSMAN does not poison his nerves and brain with alcohol. Angus Cameron, a Highlander, at the age of twenty, took the Queen's prize for the best marksmanship, and when he was twenty-two (in 1869), he won in the same way a cup worth $1000. He made the best shot each time that ever had been made in the contest, and neither of them has been beaten by anyone else. Angus is a slight, modest, unassuming young man, who had been a Band of Hope boy. When he was announced as the winner, and all the friends made an ado over him, and offered him a generous glass of champagne, he quietly refused their mistaken kindness, and kept his pledge.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, when a printer boy in London, would drink no beer, and his companions called him the water American, and wondered that he was stronger than they who drank beer. His companion at the press drank six pints of beer every day, and had it to pay for. He was not only saved the expense, but he was stronger than they, and better off in every way. If he had gone to drinking beer at that time, like the other printer boys, it is likely we should never have heard of him.

OATMEAL DRINK.—"In Boulton and Watts' factory we saw an immense workman at the hottest and heaviest work, wielding a ponderous hammer, and asked him what liquor he drank. He replied by pointing to an immense vessel filled with water and oatmeal, to which the men went and drank as much as they liked." This is made by adding one pound fine oatmeal to each gallon of water, and is much used in factories and at heavy work of all kinds in Government works, instead of the old rations of alcoholic liquors. Iron puddlers, glass blowers, and athletic trainers, all do their work now better without alcoholic liquors.

A CHANGE IN AFFAIRS.—A poor boy was once put as an apprentice to a mechanic; and, as he was the youngest, he was obliged to go for beer for the older apprentices, though he never drank it. In vain they teased and taunted him to induce him to drink; he never touched it. Now there is a great change. Every one of those older apprentices became a drunkard, while this temperance boy has become a master, and has more than a hundred men in his employ. So much for total abstinence.

BOOKS BETTER THAN BEER.—An intelligent young mechanic stood up in a temperance meeting and said: "I have a rich treat every night among my books. I saved my beer money and spent it in books. They cost me, with my book-case, nearly $100. They furnish enjoyment for my winter evenings, and have enabled me, by God's blessing, to gain much useful knowledge, such as pots and pipes could never have given me."

A LITTLE DRUMMER-BOY was a favorite among the officers, who one day offered him a glass of strong drink. He refused it, saying that he was a Cadet of Temperance. They accused him of being afraid; but that did not move him. Then the major commanded him to drink, saying: "You know it is death to disobey orders." The little fellow stood up at his full height, and fixing his clear blue eyes on the face of the officer, he said: "When I entered the army I promised my mother on bended knees that, by the help of God, I would not taste a drop of rum, and I mean to keep my promise. I am sorry to disobey orders, sir, but I would rather suffer than disgrace my mother, and break my temperance pledge." He was excused from drinking.