54 ALCOHOLIC POISON,
breakfast. Tmmediately after breakfast, he must
have another glass to assist digestion. But how
does alcohol assist digestion ? Not by dissolving
the food, for its effect is to harden tissues. It
does not render the gastric juice more efficient,
for it destroys it and causes its active element
pepsin, to be deposited as a white powder. Tn
dogs to which alcohol was given with food, it
was found that the process of digestion had not
begun, twelve hours after eating. The stomach is
obliged to remove all the alcohol before digestion
can begin. This, then, is a monstrous fallacy.
9. Alcohol Is Made from Grain.
“ But,” says one, “alcohol is made from grain,
and if it is so very bad, why should not the grain
be injurious also? There is a little poison in
everything, any way.”
Alcohol is made from grain, but it is not found
ti it. Smoke is made from wood, yet there is
no smoke in wood ; it is made by the destruction
of the latter. Alcohol is made by the destruction
of fruits and grains.
[t 1s an absurd popular notion that there is,
necessarily, poison in everything. In these days
of wholesale adulteration it is often difficult to
obtain food unmixed with poisonous products;
but nature does not serve us so badly. Poison is
not essential to life.
THE DRUNKARD'S ARGUMENTS,
10. Whisky Does not Hurt me.
The opium smoker, the absinthe taker, the ar-
senic eater, all use the same argument, yet each
falls a victim to his vice. You do not know
what alcohol is doing for -you. “Wine is a
mocker [deceiver].” You cannot see its depreda-
tions. Your blunted sensibilities cannot feel its
ravages. Your friends see it. Your wife notes
it and mourns over it. You can yourself see it
in others. Are your tissues different from those
of every other man? Are they made of iron
that they cannot be destroyed? Is the alcohol
you drink different from all other alcohol? No;
your good sense tells you, No. Then reform be-
fore it is too late.
11. Pure Liquor Is not Bad.
«Tf we only had such pure liquor as they used
to make, it would not be so very bad,” says one.
«Only take a little of my wine; I made it my-
“self and it cannot hurt any one,” says the good
housewife.
These are two mischievous errors. Alcohol is
the worst poison found in liquor. No drug add-
ed by adulteration is so bad as the fiery liquid
itself, Pure liquor is simply pure poison. ~Alco-
hol is always the same, and its effects are always
identical, whether it is found in the whisky bar-
rel, or the cider barrel; in rum, brandy, lager
beer, home-made wine, or “temperance bitters.”