60
ALCOHOLIC POISON,
dram-sellers and their infatuated customers,
What a damage to the government would be the
loss of $60,000,000 of revenue ! and what a pity
that 500,000 poor laborers should be thrown out
of employment! Ah! yes; and what a pity
that 40,000,000 bushels of grain, equivalent to
600,000,000 four-pound loaves of bread, should
be wasted—worse than wasted, manufactured
into poison. The same liquor which brings to
the government a revenue of $60,000,000, makes
800,000 paupers, who require for their mainte-
nance 3100,000,000. There is very little profit
in this, surely. The cost of crime resulting from
drink is still greater. The expense of caring for
30,000 idiots and lunatics must also he charged
to alcohol. Where, then, are the profits ? We
have said nothing of the loss resulting from the
unproductive labor of those employed by the
liquor business, or from the idleness, disease, and
death occasioned by drink, which aggregate an
enormous sum,
18. The Moderate Use of Wine Is Necessary
to Maintain Nervous Activity in Old Age.
Many, even of those who profess to be instruct.
ors of the people in the laws of health, advocate
the use of wine in old age, on the ground that
age venders the system somewhat sluggish in its
activities, and hence a little stimulus is needed to
maintain its functions, and especially nervous
activity,
THE DRUNKARD'S ARGUMENTS, 61
A consideration of this argument will show
that the use of alcohol is not only unnecessary in
old age, but absolutely hazardous. Why are the
bodily functions less active in old age than in
youth ? Why is the mind less brilliant ? Be-
cause the organs of the body have become worn
and disabled by long usage and imperfect repair.
The tissues are not kept intact by assimilation.
The reason why they are less active, then, 1s that
they are less qualified to act. They are incapa-
ble of that vigorous action which they sustained
in youth and middle age. Co
This decreased activity is an admirable provis-
ion of nature for the prolongation of life to the
utmost limit. The waste of tissue depends upon
its activity ; the more action, the more waste and
wear, the sooner worn out. Using alcohol pro-
duces an increased activity, but does not increase
the capability of the system to sustain action. In
other words, it tears down tissue, but does not
build it up. It interferes with the repair of tis-
sues. The increased vigor seemingly imparted
" by alcohol, therefore, is dangerous, rather than
desirable. If alcohol enables a man to live faster,
it shortens his existence by so doing.
Again, alcohol, even in moderate quantities,
produces a peculiar degeneration of the walls of
the blood vessels, by which they become weak-
ened, the muscular tissue composing the small
vessels being replaced by particles of fat ox carbon-
ate of lime. This kind of degeneration 18 also a