ng so much mischief in the
world? I will show you some. What does it look like?--"Water." Yes; and if
you were to smell it you would say it has a somewhat pleasant odor; if you
were to taste it, that it has a hot, biting taste, _i.e._, is pungent. If
you put a lighted match to it you would notice that it burns easily, and
with a flame, and may therefore be said to be combustible and inflammable.

What does it come from? Is it one of the drinks God has given us? Some of
the class think it is; we will try to learn whether this answer is correct
or not. If we study about it very carefully we shall discover that it is
not a natural drink, that it is not found except where it has been made
from decayed or rotten fruits, grains, or vegetables.

If you take some apples, and squeeze the juice out of them, you will find
it sweet and pleasant; let that juice stand for several days and what will
happen to it?--"It will get bad." Yes; or, as grown people say, it will
_work_ or _ferment_; that is, the sugary part of the juice will be
separated into a kind of gas and a liquid. The gas is called _carbonic acid
gas_; the liquid is _alcohol_. Both the gas and the liquid are poisonous.

Alcohol may also be obtained from other fruits, as grapes, and from some
grains and vegetables. But all these must first become rotten before
alcohol will come out of them. This is one reason why we think that God,
who gives us good, wholesome food, did not intend alcohol to be a drink for
man, else He would have put it into the delicious ripe fruit, and not made
it impossible to get until they decay.

Now let us put upon the blackboard something which will help us remember
what we have learned about

ALCOHOL.
DISCOVERED BY DESCRIPTION. MADE FROM
Paracelsus. Water-like; with a Fruits, Grains, or
pleasant odor; a Vegetables.
CALLED hot, biting taste;
"The water of life." and will burn with a
flame.

* * * * *

USES OF ALCOHOL.

We put some sugar into water; the children see that it melts; then some
glue or shellac is placed in the same liquid; they see that this is not
melted, but that, when alcohol is used instead of water, the glue or
shellac is dissolved. From this experiment they learn that alcohol is used
in making varnishes.

Some water is poured into one saucer, and alcohol into another; a