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.

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QUESTION ON BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

What harm does alcohol do in the stomach?

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

* * * * *

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. BLOOD-VESSELS. LUNGS. Overworks it. Hurries the blood through Makes them work too Makes it tired. them. fast. Loads it with fat. Stretches the small Heats and inflames Softens and destroys arteries and makes them them. it. unfit to work. Hardens the walls of Poisons the blood in the their air-cells. hair-like blood-vessels Keeps in the poisonous (capillaries). 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

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

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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 LOSE UNFIT TO UNFIT TO SERVE Money, Strength, Think, or Themselves, Talents, and Health, and Work. Their neighbor, Time. Good name. or GOD.

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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.

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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.

* * * * *

TOBACCO.

INTRODUCTORY LESSON.

You have been learning about the poison alcohol, and what mischief is done by it; we will now study about another poison which thousands of persons are using every day. It is rolled in cigars and cigarettes, and hidden in snuff and pieces of tobacco, and does more harm to children and young people who use these things than to grown persons.

Perhaps you know how a person feels who takes tobacco or smokes a cigar for the first time; if not, we will tell you. He begins to be dizzy, to tremble, to become faint, and to vomit; his head aches, and he is so sick for hours, often for several days, that he scarcely knows what to do. Why is he so sick? Because tobacco poison has been taken into his lungs; also, some has mixed with the saliva and gone down into his stomach; and each part it has reached is striving to drive it out, and is saying, by the pain it causes, "You have given me poison; do not give me any more." If he had taken enough it would have killed him.

He recovers from this sickness and tries chewing or smoking again and again, until he becomes accustomed to the poison and can chew or smoke and it does not hurt him; so he thinks, but he is very much mistaken.

Tobacco is a poison, and hurts everybody who uses it every time they do so, although it does its evil work very slowly, unless taken in large quantities. To understand more about this we will try to learn how tobacco is obtained, what poison is in it, and in what way it harms people.

* * * * *

THE STORY ABOUT TOBACCO.

HOW IT CAME TO BE USED.—Tobacco is the leaves of the tobacco plant, a native of America. It was used by the Indians of this country before Columbus came here in 1492. Some of the Spaniards who were with him on his second visit took some of it back with them to Portugal, and told the people they had discovered a wonderful medicine. From Spain tobacco seed was sent to France by Jean Nicot, in 1560. It is said that Sir Walter Raleigh carried it to England in 1586, when Elizabeth was queen.

In a few years many civilized people were snuffing, chewing, and smoking tobacco, like the wild Indians, although it cost them a great deal of money to do so. King James does not seem to have liked it very much, for he said, "It is a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs." He called the smoke "stinking fumes."

THE TOBACCO PLANT. This plant belongs to the same family as the deadly nightshade, henbane, belladonna, thorn-apple, Jerusalem cherry, potato, tomato, egg-plant, cayenne pepper, bitter-sweet, and petunia. Most of the plants of this Nightshade family have more or less poison in their leaves or fruit. Tobacco is supposed to have been named from the pipe used by the Indians in smoking its leaves.

The common tobacco plant grows from three to six feet high, and has large, almost lance-shaped, leaves growing down the stems; its flowers are funnel-shaped and of a purplish color. When fresh the leaves have very little odor or taste.

HOW TOBACCO IS USED.—When the plants are ripe, they are cut off above the roots and placed where they will become dry, sometimes in a building made for this purpose, called "a tobacco house." After a short time they begin to smell strong and taste bitter. They are then stripped from the stems very carefully and sorted. The leaves nearest the root are considered the poorest, those at the top generally the best.

The different sorts are packed in separate hogsheads, and sent away to be sold to manufacturers of cigars, snuff, etc.

The manufacturer has some leaves rolled into cigars, some pressed into cakes for chewing, or into little pieces to be smoked in a pipe; while some are ground for snuff. While the dried leaves are being rolled, pressed, or ground, various substances are mixed with them to give them an agreeable odor and pleasant taste.

Yet, however pleasant the manufacturer may make them as he rolls, presses, or grinds, he cannot take the poison out of them. It remains in its brown covering to do much harm to those who may smoke the cigars, use the snuff, or chew the tobacco.

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

THE TOBACCO PLANT. NATIVE OF FOUND BY TAKEN TO GROWS IN THE America. Columbus, 1492. Portugal, Torrid and 1496. temperate zones. France, 1560. (About 50 species.) England, 1586.

DESCRIPTION. FAMILY Height, 3 to 6 feet. The same as the Jerusalem Cherry, Leaves, lance-ovate, and running Petunia, down the stem. Potato, Stem, hairy and sticky. Tomato, Flowers, funnel-shaped and Egg-plant, purplish. Red pepper, etc.

HOW MADE READY FOR USE. (1) (2) Cut-off above the roots. Flavored and scented. Dried. Rolled for cigars. Stripped; sorted. Pressed for chewing. Packed, and sold to the Ground for snuff. manufacturers.

* * * * *

THE POISON IN TOBACCO AND THE HARM IT DOES.

THE POISON.—What is the poison in fermented liquors?—"Alcohol." In distilled liquors?—"Alcohol" True; and the strongest poison in tobacco is nicotine, named from the man who first sent it to France, Jean Nicot. Beside this it contains several others, some of which we shall tell you about when we make up our blackboard outline.

Tobacco, like alcohol, is a narcotic; that is, it soothes pain and produces sleep. Alcohol acts first upon the nerves; tobacco upon the muscles, which it weakens and causes to tremble. It often causes palpitation of the heart.

If the skin is scratched or punctured, and tobacco poison put into the wound, it will do the same harm as if it were taken into the stomach. Tobacco is so dangerous that physicians do not use it much as a medicine.

HARM DONE IN THE STOMACH.—You remember that after alcohol has been swallowed, the little mouths of the stomach take it up and carry it to the liver, which sends it with the blood to different parts of the body.

Tobacco, as we have already told you, poisons more slowly. People do not swallow it purposely, yet some of it goes down, accidentally, into the stomach with the saliva, and makes trouble there, causing nausea and vomiting when taken for the first time. By and by the stomach seems to take the poison without being hurt, but it really suffers from dyspepsia or other diseases, and often loses its appetite for wholesome food.

HARM DONE IN THE MOUTH, THROAT, AND LUNGS.—The mouth takes in some of the poison through the pores of the membrane, or skin, which lines it; those who smoke, sometimes have what is called "smokers' sore throat"; besides this, the senses of taste and smell arc more or less injured by nicotine and the other poisons in tobacco.

The fumes, or smoke, from the weed fills the air with poisonous vapor which irritates the lungs, not only of the smoker, but of all who are where they must breathe the same atmosphere. Lungs thus irritated are liable to become diseased.

Cigarettes are still more injurious than cigars because of the smoke from their paper coverings; also, because from the way they are made, more of the tobacco poison goes into the lungs. The cheap cigarette which boys use is made from cast-away cigar stumps and other filthy things.

HARM DONE IN THE BRAIN AND NERVES.—The smoker feels so rested and comfortable, after his cigar, and his brain is so rested, that he does not think about the mischief that is going on among its blood-vessels and nerves; perhaps he has never heard that tobacco, snuffed, chewed, or smoked hurts the brain, and does not learn about it until he finds he is losing his memory, that his mind is not so strong to think as it should be, and his will too weak to help him conquer his love for the snuff, tobacco, or cigar, when he wishes to stop using it. He has become the slave of tobacco, and it is not easy to get free from his cruel enemy.

The nerves also lose their power, or become more or less paralyzed by nicotine and the other tobacco poisons.

MORE ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY TOBACCO.—Some persons who continue to use tobacco are strong enough to throw off the poison through the lungs, the skin, and in other ways; but how much better it would be if they were not obliged to employ their strength in getting rid of that which does them no good, which only gives a little pleasure to nobody but themselves, and often makes those suffer who are compelled to remain where they are having "a good smoke." Beside, their breath and clothing have the tobacco odor, which not only makes the air impure, but is disagreeable to most people.

If this be true of smoking, what shall we say about the filthy habit of chewing, and the utterly useless and disgusting practice of taking snuff, which injures the voice as well as the senses of taste and smell?

And what about spitting tobacco juice on the floors of cars, steamboats, churches,—any place where it is convenient for the man or boy who has lost his common politeness in his love for tobacco?

We must not forget that cigars, etc., cost money. No one who smokes, chews, or snuffs would throw away dollars and cents which might be put into the savings bank, or used in buying something worth having for himself or somebody else.

Lastly, we would have you know that tobacco causes thirst, and this often leads to drinking alcoholic liquors. Some one who has studied this subject, says that "nine out of ten of the boys and young men who become drunkards have first learned to smoke or chew tobacco." A New York daily paper gave a list of 294 cases of insanity caused by drinking, in 246 of which the whiskey drinking followed tobacco chewing.

Tobacco and alcohol make thousands of wretched homes, and send a great many people to prison or to the insane asylum; so we entreat you to turn from beer, wine, and all alcoholic liquors as you would from a serpent, and say No, when tempted to smoke a cigar or use tobacco in any form.

Do this all the more decidedly because, as we have told you before, alcohol and tobacco hurt children and young persons in every way more than they injure any one else. If you have begun to use these poisons, give them up this very day, before the habit of using them becomes too strong for you to break.

* * * * *

QUESTIONS ON THE USE OF TOBACCO.

Of what poison beside alcohol have you been studying?—"Tobacco."

How is tobacco used?—"Some take it in snuff; some chew it; some smoke it in a pipe; some smoke it in cigars or cigarettes."

What is the name of the strongest poison in tobacco?—"Nicotine."

What harm does tobacco poison do to the body?—See Blackboard Outline.

What harm does it do to the mind?—See Blackboard Outline.

Whom does it harm most?—"Those who begin to use it when they are children or very young."

What happens to children or young people if they use tobacco in any way?—"They are not healthy; they are not strong; they do not grow fast; they look pale and sickly."

How does the tobacco poison hurt their minds?—"They cannot learn fast; they often forget what they have learned."

What often makes tobacco-chewers, snuffers, and smokers disagreeable to clean people?—"Their breath smells of tobacco; their clothes smell of tobacco; they poison the air with tobacco-fumes; some have the filthy habit of spitting tobacco-juice wherever they happen to be."

What other harm does the use of tobacco do to people?—"It makes them waste time and money; it leads some to drink alcoholic liquors and to go with bad company."

If you are wise how will you treat tobacco?—"I will let it alone."

If you have begun to use it what had you better do?—"Give it up to-day."

Why to-day?—"Because the longer I use it the harder it will be for me to give it up."

If you keep on using it what will you be?—"A tobacco slave."

* * * * *

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

TOBACCO. POISONS IN TOBACCO SMOKE. EFFECTS OF THE POISONS. Carbonic acid Causes sleepiness and headache. Carbonic oxide Causes trembling of the muscles and heart. Ammonia Bites the tongue; makes too much work for the salivary glands. Nicotine See below.



NICOTINE IS CAUSES Odorous, Weakness, Pungent, Nervousness, Emetic, Dizziness, Poisonous, Nausea, Pain-soothing, Faintness, Sleep-producing, i.e. Narcotic. Loss of strength, Stupor, If taken in large quantities Convulsions and Death.



SOME OF THE HARM DONE BY TOBACCO TO THE BODY. TO THE MIND, ETC. Poisons the saliva. Makes the memory poor. Injures the sense of smell, taste, Lessens the power to think. sight, and hearing. Weakens the will. Causes "smokers' sore-throat." Makes people grow in selfishness Injures the stomach, causing and impoliteness. dyspepsia, etc. Makes people waste time and Often takes away the appetite for money. wholesome food. Often leads to drunkenness and bad Irritates the air-cells of the company. lungs. Sometimes causes insanity. Causes palpitation of the heart. Weakens the muscles, causing trembling. Injures the eyes. Excites, then stupefies and paralyzes the brain and the nerves.

* * * * *

OPIUM AND OTHER NARCOTICS.

OPIUM.—Opium is the juice obtained from the seed-vessels of the white poppy before they are ripe; this is dried, and smoked in a pipe or chewed. It makes a person feel very pleasant and happy for a little while, then so horribly wretched that he takes more of the poison to forget his misery. So he keeps on until mind and body are a complete wreck. Now and then an opium slave gets free from the dreadful habit which has mastered him, but usually the slavery ends only in death.

LAUDANUM AND MORPHINE.—These soothe pain and cause sleep; but beware of them; they are made from opium, and like it, though more slowly, hurt mind and body.

Beware also of chloral hydrate and chloroform, which physicians give to ease suffering and produce sleep. Endure pain rather than form the habit of using these narcotics.

HASHISH, ETC.—This is prepared from the hemp plant growing in hot countries, and is a terribly exciting poison.

The areca nut, the seed from a kind of palm, pear-shaped, and resembling a nutmeg, is mixed with quick-lime and wrapped in a betel-leaf, which grows on a vine belonging to the pepper family. This mixture reddens the saliva and lips, and blackens the teeth. It is chewed by millions of people in India.

The leaves of the coca, also of the thorn apple, are smoked or chewed by the South American Indian.

ALL these poisons mean the same thing,—

A little pleasure, DISEASE, and DEATH.

* * * * *

Practical Work in the School-Room.

BY SARAH F. BUCKELEW & MARGARET W. LEWIS.

Part I.—THE HUMAN BODY.

TEACHERS' EDITION.

A TRANSCRIPT OF LESSONS GIVEN IN THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT OF GRAMMAR SCHOOL NO. 49, NEW YORK CITY.

This work was prepared especially to aid Teachers in giving oral instructions in Physiology to Primary and Intermediate Classes. It is, perhaps, the only Physiology published that is suitable for these grades. Considerable attention is paid to the subject of Alcohol and Narcotics.

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Illustrated. Price by mail, 75 cents.

* * * * *

DEVELOPMENT LESSONS.

BY PROF. E.V. DEGRAFF & MISS M.K. SMITH.

IN FIVE PARTS.

I. FIFTY LESSONS ON THE SENSES, SIZE, FORM, PLACE, PLANTS, AND INSECTS.

These lessons are presented objectively with a view to showing how elementary work in natural science may be done.

II. QUINCY SCHOOL WORK.

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Specific instruction is given on how to teach Reading, Spelling, Phonics, Language, Geography, Arithmetic, etc.

IV. SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.

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DR. A.D. MAYO says, in the New England Journal of Education: "Although we have given place in our book-notice column to an appreciative mention of the volume, 'Development Lessons,' a new reading seems to call for a new commendation of this admirable guide to teachers. Mr. DeGraff needs no special 'boom' as a first-class institute man, and his extracts of lectures in Part III. sparkle with valuable suggestions. In no published work is Col. Parker really seen to such advantage as in the 'reports of conversations' with him in Part II., which can be studied with profit by every teacher. But perhaps the most complete portion of this admirable book is the 178 pages of lessons on the Senses, Size, Form, Place, Plants, and Insects, by MISS M.K. SMITH, now Teacher of Methods in the State Normal School at Peru, Neb."

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THE END