single glass will often suffice to take_, so to speak, _the edge off
both mind and body_, and to reduce their capacity to something below
what is relatively their perfection of work.'

"Not long ago, a railway train was driven carelessly into one of the
principal London stations, running into another train, killing, by the
collision, six or seven persons, and injuring many others. From the
evidence at the inquest, it appeared that the guard was reckoned sober,
_only he had had two glasses of ale_ with a friend at a previous
station. Now, reasoning psychologically, these two glasses of ale had
probably been instrumental in _taking off the edge_ from his perceptions
and prudence, and producing a carelessness or boldness of action which
would not have occurred under the cooling, temperate influence of a
beverage free from alcohol. Many persons have admitted to me that they
were not the same after taking even one glass of ale or wine that they
were before, and could not _thoroughly_ trust themselves after they had
taken this single glass."


IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY.

An impairment of the memory is among the early symptoms of alcoholic
derangement.

"This," says Dr. Richardson, "extends even to forgetfulness of the
commonest things; to names of familiar persons, to dates, to duties of
daily life. Strangely, too," he adds, "this failure, like that which
indicates, in the aged, the era of second childishness and mere
oblivion, does not extend to the things of the past, but is confined to
events that are passing. On old memories the mind retains its power; on