work on Hygiene, has effectually disposed of the notion, long and very
generally entertained, that alcohol is a valuable prophylactic where a
bad climate, bad water and other conditions unfavorable to health,
exist; and an unfortunate experiment with the article, in the Union
army, on the banks of the Chickahominy, in the year 1863, proved
conclusively that, instead of guarding the human constitution against
the influence of agencies hostile to health, its use gives to them
additional force. The medical history of the British army in India
teaches the same lesson."

But why present farther testimony? Is not the evidence complete? To the
man who values good health; who would not lay the foundation for disease
and suffering in his later years, we need not offer a single additional
argument in favor of entire abstinence from alcoholic drinks. He will
eschew them as poisons.




CHAPTER IV.

IT CURSES THE SOUL.


The physical disasters that follow the continued use of intoxicating
beverages are sad enough, and terrible enough; but the surely attendant
mental, moral and spiritual disasters are sadder and more terrible
still. If you disturb the healthy condition of the brain, which is the
physical organ through which the mind acts, you disturb the mind. It
will not have the same clearness of perception as before; nor have the