may cause nausea or even vomiting. The glands of the stomach will not secrete unless a proper stimulation has been given to

Diagram of the path of a nervous impulse which results in the hand reaching to seize an object seen with the eye; C, cerebrum; Cb, cerebellum; M, medulla oblongata; MC, motor center in brain; OC, optic center in brain; P, pons Varolii; Q, corpora quadrigemina; S, spinal cord; T, optic thalami.

them by food entering the stomach. When food reaches the gland, the message is sent from the nerve endings in the gland, to the reflex nervous center. The gland begins to secrete its fluid on the receipt of a return message from that center. Each set of glands in the digestive tract acts in a similar manner, and thus digestive fluid is poured out, and digestion is accomplished.

Automatic Acts. Some acts, however, are learned by conscious thought, as writing, walking, running, or swimming. Later in life, however, these activities become automatic. The actual performance of the action is then taken up by the cerebellum, medulla, and spinal ganglia. Thus the thinking portion of the brain is relieved of part of its work.

Habit Formation. The training of the different areas in the cerebrum to do their work well is the object of education. When we learned to write, we exerted conscious effort in order to make the letters. Now the act of forming the letters is done without thought. By training, the act has become automatic. In the beginning, a process may take much thought and many trials before we are able to complete it. After a little practice, the same process may become almost automatic. We have formed a habit. Habits are really acquired reflex actions. They are the result of nature's method of training. The conscious part of the brain has trained the cerebellum or spinal cord to do certain things that, at first, were taken charge of by the cerebrum.

Importance of forming Right Habits. Danger of Strong Drink. - Among the habits early to be acquired are the habits of studying properly, of concentrating the mind, of learning self-control, and above all, the habit of contentment. Get the most out of the world about you. Remember that the immediate effect in the study of some subjects in school may not be great, but the cultivation of certain methods of thinking may be of the greatest importance later in life.

"The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize

Well! he may

but it is being

virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, 'I won't count this time!' not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it; counted none the less. Down among his nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course this has its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, and authorities in the practical and scientific, spheres by so many separate acts and hours of work. Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line

of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning, to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out."- JAMES, Psychology.

Necessity of Food, Fresh Air, and Rest. -The nerve cells, like all other cells in the body, are continually wasting away and being rebuilt. Oxidation of food material is more rapid when we do mental work. The cells of the brain, like muscle cells, are not only capable of fatigue, but show this in changes of form and of contents. Food brought to them in the blood, plenty of fresh. air, especially when engaged in active brain work, and rest at proper times, are essential in keeping the nervous system in condition. One of the best methods of resting the brain cells is a change of occupation. Tennis, golf, baseball, and other outdoor sports combine muscular exercise with brain activity of a different sort from that of business or school work.

Necessity of Sleep. Sleep is an essential factor in the health of the brain, especially for growing children. Most brain cells attain their growth early in life. Changes occur, however, until some time after the school age. Ten hours of sleep should be allowed for a child, and at least eight hours for an adult. At this time, only, do the brain cells have opportunity to rest and store food and energy for their working period.

Effects of Alcohol. Alcohol has the effect of temporarily paralyzing the nerve centers. The first effect is that of exhilaration. This, however, is a false feeling, the alcohol having paralyzed the sense of fatigue. A man may do more work for a time under the stimulation of alcohol. This stimulation, however, is of short duration and is invariably followed by a period of depression and inertia. In this latter state, a man will do less work than before. He frequently takes more alcohol to renew the feeling of buoyancy, and in this way the alcohol habit may be formed. In larger quantities, alcohol has the effect of completely paralyzing the nerve centers. This is seen in the case of a man "dead drunk.” He falls in a stupor because all of the centers governing speech, sight, locomotion, etc., have been temporarily paralyzed. If a

man takes a very large amount of alcohol, even the nerve centers governing respiration and circulation may become poisoned, and the victim may die.

Influence of Alcohol on the Nervous System.

The exact action of alcohol upon the human nervous system at every stage of the above-mentioned process has not as yet been completely accounted

for.

It is agreed that in large or continued amounts alcohol has a narcotic effect; that it first dulls or paralyzes the nerve centers which control our judgment, and later acts upon the so-called motor centers, those which control our muscular activities.

The reason then that a man in the first stages of intoxication talks rapidly and sometimes wittily, is because the centers of judgment are paralyzed. This frees the speech centers from control exercised by our judgment with the resultant rapid and free flow of speech.

In small amounts alcohol is believed by some physiologists to have always this same narcotic effect, while other physiologists think that alcohol does stimulate the brain centers, especially the higher centers, to increased activity. Many scientific and professional men use alcohol in small amounts for this stimulation and report no seeming harm from the indulgence. Others, and by far the larger number, agree that this stimulation from alcohol is only apparent and that even in the smallest amounts alcohol. has a narcotic effect. One of the most serious effects of alcohol is the lowered resistance of the body to disease. It has been proved that a much larger proportion of hard drinkers die from infectious or contagious diseases than from special diseased conditions due to the direct action of alcohol on the organs of the body. This lowered resistance is shown in increased liability to contract disease and increased severity of the disease.

But many cases of illness are directly due to the action of alcohol on the tissues. "Such chronic diseased conditions arise from the gradual poisoning of the system by the continued use of beverages containing alcohol. Even though we admit that alcohol in a definite small amount is, in some cases at least, fully oxidized in the body, like other carbo

hydrates, and so supplies energy as food, we must never forget that different constitutions may be differently affected, and conditions as to climate, temperament, and habits of life may cause variations in its influence upon health and character. We can never know perfectly the nature of all the innumerable strains of hereditary tendency which unite to make an individual what he is. Some one of these may have impressed upon the nerve cells an instability, a weakness, a peculiar susceptibility to the influence of alcohol, so that the first taste may arouse the insatiable craving which leads to dipsomania. In another case, the inherited weakness may render the child of an inebriate an epileptic, an imbecile, or a consumptive. We can never foresee just how the transmitted nervous weakness will manifest itself, but as a rule the descendants of those whose systems are poisoned by alcohol are enfeebled in body or mind or both.

"But suppose a man to have derived from his ancestors a sound constitution and to have become addicted to the moderate use of alcohol; the insidious nature of the dangerous substance may gradually lead him to consume, insensibly perhaps, only a little more than the cells can oxidize. Without realizing it, he may slowly poison his system. The primary effect is upon the brain; there is congestion and overexcitement of the nerve cells there conditions which gradually extend to the nerve cells of the spinal cord; inflammation sets in, and there follows fibrous degeneration of the tissues, substituting an inferior form for the specialized tissues which do the work of the organs in various parts of the body. Paralysis may result, or epilepsy, or dyspepsia from lack of the due amount of nervous influence upon the digestive organs, or any one of a thousand forms of disorder, some of which have been mentioned in preceding chapters. Though a man may never drink to intoxication, and never realize that he is using alcohol to excess, he may nevertheless become seriously diseased in consequence of his moderate indulgence, or what he believes to be such, while wondering why he is not well and strong. Still less does he consider the legacy of evil which he may be laying up for his children.

"Life insurance companies have gathered an immense body