y their moisture and
hardens them."

What harm does this do to them?--"It paralyzes them, or makes them lose
their power."

What happens when nerves are paralyzed?--"They lose their power over the
muscles; they are unfit to carry messages to and from the brain."

What harm does alcohol do to the gray part of the brain?--"It hardens it,
as it hardens the white of an egg."

What harm does this do to the brain?--"It paralyzes it, or makes it lose
its power."

What then happens?--"It cannot properly do its work of thinking, and cannot
control the nerves."

What disease is sometimes caused by this hardening of the brain by
alcohol?--"Paralysis, which often ends in death."

What harm does alcohol do to the blood-vessels of the brain?--"It fills
them with impure blood."

What disease is caused by the blood-vessels of the brain being filled with
impure blood?--"Congestion of the brain, or apoplexy, which ends in death."

What else frequently happens to those who drink alcoholic liquors?--"They
become crazy, or insane."

If you wish to have a strong, healthy brain, what should you do about these
liquors?--

"Never put them into my mouth,
To steal away my brains."

Tell of what dreadful disease people die who are bitten by a mad dog.--"Of
hydrophobia."

Of what dreadful disease do people sometimes die who are bitten by the
serpent in alcoholic liquors?--"Of delirium tremens."

Which is the more dreadful, hydrophobia or delirium tremens?--"One is as
dreadful as the other."

How can you be sure never to have delirium tremens?--"By drinking nothing
which has alcohol in it."

Will a little beer or wine hurt you?--"Yes, it may make me love the taste
of alcohol."

What harm is there in loving the taste of alcohol?--"I may love it so much
as to become a drunkard."

Tell once more how you should treat alcoholic liquors.--"I should never
drink a drop of them."

[4] See Appendices.

* * * * *

ALCOHOL.

THE STORY ABOUT ALCOHOL.

Several hundred years ago many people were trying to discover something
that would keep them young and strong, and prevent them from dying. It is
said by some that a man named Paracelsus, in making experiments, discovered
_alcohol_. He called it "the water of life," and boasted that he would
never be weak and never die; so he went on drinking alcoholic liquors until
at last he died in a drunken fit.

What is this alcohol which has done and is doi