Alcohol makes you lose your self-control. It draws water from the nerves and injures them It quickens the beating of the heart and wears it out. It hastens circulation. It leads to crime of all sorts. It injures the thought-producing power. It causes paralysis. It causes insanity. H.-Text-book five or six years; two or three lessons a we EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BODY, Alcohol is a poison, which has great effect upon the body. It injures the brain so it cannot think properly, it burns the stomach, so that it cannot digest the food, it makes the heart beat faster, and if it is drank continually it will finally kill a person, it also poisons the blood. I.-Text-book six years: weekly lessons; class marking; term examinations. EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM. Alcohol is very injurious to the human system. It effects every part of it. It stops the growth of the bones. It makes unhealthy fat on the muscles so that they cannot work with much force and are not so elastic. It enters the stomach and does great harm there. It separates the pepsin from the gastric juice and makes sores all over the stomach. It gets into the blood and makes it impure, and also injures the blood vessels. In the lungs it injures the thin membrane or lining to the them and makes the breath smell bad. The heart is a muscle so that it injures that in much the same way as other muscles and also makes it work harder. The nerves and brain are also injured. Alcohol deadens the nerves and often people will do things when intoxicated that they would think very wrong when sober. Alcohol also causes consumption instead of curing it as some people think. If children have drinking parent they often weak and sometimes idiots. Alcohol is used by some people because they think that it will warm them but it does not only for a little while then they are colder than before. It has been found that people can work better without alcohol than with it. THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL. (a) The effect of alcohol is that of a narcotic; it destroys character, destroys the vital functions of the body & has the effect of a slow poison. (b) The action of the heart is increased & "fatty heart" is often the result. (c) The lungs are affected by having more work & the influence of bad surroundings. (d) The bones are affected by having their growth stunted by poor blood & the injuring of the pieroistum. (e) The blood as the life fluid is affected by a loss of red corpuscles, the minute bodies which carry oxygen, & from this loss comes a disease known as Aneamia; Of course there is a large increase of fat which is entirely useless. (f) The effect upon the brain in slight does; as a glass or two at a fashionable ball, is to increase or stimulate the action of the cerebrum. In larger doses the nerves are deadened or the person is hateful & finally sleeps it off. In a regular spree Delirum Tremins is often the result. (g) All the senses are deadened. (h) The pepsin in the gastric juice is separated from it, & sinks to the bottom of the stomach, stopping digestion till more can be thrown in & digestion completed. The lining is also irrated to the extent of cancers & sores. (i) The liver becomes of an immense size, swollen, or "hob-nailed." Also a bad secretion of bile. (j) An extra growth of the connective tissue is caused in the muscles. The last two papers are from a school where the instruction has been most thorough and systematic, and continued through the longest period; probably in no town in the State has more time been given to the subject. These are specimens of the best papers; from them the others shade down to almost zero; for example, in schools where a text-book has been studied for five years many of the pupils can write but two or three lines: ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO ON THE SYSTEM. Alcohol has a bad effect on the system. It makes the head feel thick and heavy and also stupefies. ALCOHOL. Alcohol is a stimulant and narcotic, it interfers with digestion, causes congestion of the blood vessels, and if you once take it you will want it all the time. Food is delayed by Alcohol. EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. Alcohol weakens the muscles. Alcohol affects the nerves. Alcohol affects the brain. TOBACCO. Tobacco injures the spinal cord. Tobacco injures the brain. Tobacco injures the blood: In many of the country schools the amount of information retained and realy for use is very small. The poorer scholars, whose deficiency is marked by faulty English, are often stronger in their expressions than the more cultivated pupils: ALCORHALL. All liquor contanes alcharhall. It poisions the syliava and the gastrit juice when it mixes withe the food it stops the works and the food layes in the stomacke, which causes it to ache. When the juice mixes with the blood it poisons it. Next the man is sick with blood poison and dies and the people wonder what made him have that. THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. Alcohol is another very injurious thing to the body. It is very injurious to the heart especially and there are a great many men that die from the use of alcohol sooner than those that don't. Some men go crazy from the use of alcohol or they are called delireum tremans, and a great many men the have used alcohol have become ministers and their advice to boys or anybody not to use alcoholic drink's. Alcohol is very bad for the stomach and is good for the head ack and it is a strong smell and It will stop any one from fainting. THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL. It will gradually eat away the flesh. If any one drinks it, it will pickel the inside of the body. THE EFFECT OF TOBACCO ON THE HUMAN SISTEM. The effect of tobacco on the sistem it deadens the brain and the user it is said to have a sore heart which in the gets clogded and they die quicker than if they did not use it. it softens the brain. In schools where the text-book is begun early I have sometimes called for papers from the sixth grade, a class which has used books for two or three years. Here the amount of information retained is usually scanty, and in crude form. The following are the best papers from school I, sixth grade: EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL, Alcohol weakens the body and makes the heart beat too fast, it also makes the blood-vessels enlarge and weakens the walls of the blood-vessels. Alcohol makes a man have a red face because when the blood-vessels enlarge they show out. When alcohol is taken into the system it makes poor circulation. The brain wants good blood but when alcohol is taken it does not receive it. When alcohol is taken the brain cannot send the messages so well. Livinstone found that in Africa that the men could do better without it and could endure more heat. And in the Artic Regions the explorers can do better without it because when they take alcohol they do not know so much and can do great deal better with out. A man said once that he would not have any alcohol used in his factory because they did not work so well, and if any did use it he would discharge them. Alcohol also makes the muscles weak and fat so that they cannot work so well. If a person once takes some alcohol he will keep wanting more because his appetite for it is so strong. ALCOHOL ON THE BODY. When a man drinks the first glass he cannot stop but wants more, It burns his stomach and fills the blood vessels so full with the watery substance that they cannot bear the strain so sometimes an artery breaks and death occurs instantly. About one-fifth of all the water that is in the body is in the head around the soft fibers of the brain and the alcohol mixes with it and takes it away from where it is needed. It deadens his nerves so that the messages do not obey and he does not know what he is doing. Many people are in prison for murder or some other wicked thing because they are under the influence of licquer. A story is told of a great murderer who was about to kill a baby when the little creature looked up in his face and smiled so he did not like to kill it, so he took a glass of brandy and he did not care. Insurance men will not insure the lives of licquer sellers because they are most always beer drinkers. Some times when a person is dying the doctor gives him alcohol to make his heart beat faster till he can give him some other medicine and thus som times save his life. From school H, sixth grade, the following are the best: The effects that alcohol has on the body is that it poison the blood, and hardens the albuem of the brain, just as it hardens the egg as if it was boiled, and it does harden the brain, so that we can not think as we could if we did not drink the alcohol, and it hurts the heart because it makes the heart beat to fast because heart wants to drive it out quick, and this wears the heart out, and so we know alcohol does harm to the body. Alcohol poisons the blood and hurts the brain so it is not able to think well, It poisons the heart and lungs it makes people stuid and they don't don't walk straight. And it makes them have diseases Sometimes it makes the heart stop beating and then they die. Alcohol makes them so stuid that they do not know what they are doing part of the time. Alcohol makes bad blood and bad blood makes poor bones. Alcohol makes them unhealthy and so shortens their lifes. When people first begin to drink alcohol it seems bitter, but they keep on and so get used to it. I have culled the following statements of the effects of alcohol on the stomach and brain from a large number of papers. Most of them are from the better class of papers, as the poorer scholars make few specific statements: "It separates the pepsin from the gastric juice, and makes sores all over the stomach;" "Destroys the fine membrane that lines it;" Inflames the lining of the stomach" Inflames the sides, and changes the pinkish lining to a bright red;" "By taking the gastric juice from the stomach, so the stomach has no juice to aid in digesting the food;" "Inflames the membrane, and causes sores to come inside" "It uses up all the tissues lining around the stomach, and it uses all the saliva in the body so that we cannot digest the food;" "Will make the lining of the stomach fat;""The pepsin in the gastric juice is separated from it, and sinks to the bottom of the stomach;" "Takes the gastric juice of the lining and turns the lining into fat;" "Irritates the lining, and takes the water from the gastric juice;" "The alcohol in the system lies at the bottom of it until the glands can pour in enough gastric juice to dissolve the alcohol;" "Burns the stomach so as to raise little blisters on the inside of it;" "Eats the lining ;" "Burns off the coating" "Makes cancers come in the system;""Makes the lining of the stomach tough;" "His stomach becomes black, and covered with cancers. The moderate drinker's stomach is not quite so black;" "Hardens the mucuous membrane, so that the digestive juice can not get through;" "Makes the gastric juice flow fast, until it becomes so weak it can not perform its part;" "Causes the stomach to be dry and hard;" "It draws the pores of the stomach so tight that the first coating on the stomach is so hard that it can not perspire;" "The stomach becomes coated with a sort of crust, and disease sets in;" Hinders the action, and makes it look like raw beef;"" Makes great sores in the stomach, because alcohol burns the stomach;" "Gastric juice becomes thick and ropy;" ;" "The blood oozes out from the flesh into the stomach;" "Eats the stomach until, after a time, a man has no stomach at all, so to speak;" "It hurts the brain by injuring the nerves, and often the nerves break, and people have apoplexy;""It causes more blood to go to the brain;""When alcohol is taken, the brain can not send the messages so well;" "About one-fifth of all the water in the body is in the head around the soft fibers of the brain, and the alcohol mixes with it and takes it away from where it is needed;" "About one-fifth of the blood is in the brain, and around the soft gray matter, and among the white fibers are tiny blood vessels, and the blood vessels are injured from the drinking of alcohol, and then the blood sometimes becomes stagnant, and headaches often follow after a glass of liquor." I have endeavored to show as clearly as possible in a limited space the present condition of the physiological work of the schools. To show the work completely would necessitate printing all the papers. After a careful study of these papers, I am lead to the following conclusions. 1. The phrase, "scientific temperance instruction," sometimes applied to this work, is a misnomer. There is, and in the nature of things can be, no such instruction. The two essential elements of scientific study-observation and inference-are necessarily wanting; neither the pupil nor the teacher can have first-hand information; 2. That the outcome in accurate knowledge, resulting from much of the work done, is meager and out of proportion to the time spent upon it; 3. That many false impressions are left in the minds of the students; 4. That physiological details are not suited to young children; 5. That, however defective the instruction may be, the sentiment of the schools is sound-the conviction that alcohol and tobacco are bad things to use seems universal; 6. That the strength of this sentiment does not depend upon the amount of information acquired; 7. That, where exaggerated notions of the effects of stimulants have been acquired, there is danger of a reaction of sentiment in the light of after knowledge. From these conclusions I venture the following suggestions: 1. That committees and superintendents give more careful attention to work in this department, prescribing definitely its limits, and requiring the prescribed work to be done as well as work in other subjects, using the same means for judging of its progress and results; 2. That teachers who are called upon to give oral instruction prepare themselves with great care for the exercise, and see that their statements are true, and by frequent tests, oral and written, ascertain that their teaching is intelligently comprehended by all the pupils; 3. That, when no text-book is used in any grade, the teachers prepare for the highest classes a summary of the effects of stimulants and narcotics upon the different systems of the body, aiming at clearness of statement, and avoiding exaggeration; 4. That the use of text-books be limited to the older pupils; 5. That so much of explanation accompany the use of the book as may be necessary to guard against error and insure exact knowledge; 6. That, as far as possible, technicalities be avoided; 7. That the pupils have frequent opportunities to express their knowledge orally and in writing; 8. That throughout the course the moral and social effects of the use of intoxicants be made prominent, and abstinence be inculcated from higher ends than such as concern only the body. Respectfully submitted. GEO. H. MARTIN. VI.-OBJECTIONS TO SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION STATED. SCIENCE IN HARNESS. [From the Popular Science Monthly, November, 1887.] No journal has upheld more steadily than the Popular Science Monthly the principle that, as far as they are established, the truths of science shall be applied to useful purposes and through popular education be made as widely available as possible for the general guidance of life. And yet we can not look with favor upon what many persons doubtless regard as a very signal and happy example of the utilization of scientific conclusions. We mean the authoritative and dogmatic teaching as to the effects of alcohol now provided for by the school laws of many States. It is only right, therefore, that we should assign our reasons for holding that this is not a case of the legitimate application of scientific truths to practical life. In the first place, it is an abuse of power on the part of the majority. In the "temperance" controversy as a distinct social issue we have no wish to interfere; but we can not ignore the fact that there is such a controversy, nor can we consent to believe, with the advocates of prohibitory legislation, that their opponents are necessarily persons devoid of all high motives and hardly to be distinguished from the criminal population. But if a minority in the State is to be respected so long as it is law-abiding, its opinions are also to be respected; and to seize hold of the school machinery of the State to inculcate opinions that are not accepted by the minority, and that tend to set the minority in a very unfavorable light, is not right nor just. If every triumphant party were to seize the public schools for the inculcation of doctrines favorable to its own party interests, there would soon be an end of our public-school system. It would always be easy to invoke the name of science. If it were desired to rear a race of protectionists, it would only be necessary to claim that you were teaching the truths of political economy. The proper text-books would be prepared, and teachers, on pain of dismissal, would have to enunciate the doctrines of Henry C. Carey and Horace Greeley; and so in the days of slavery, the science of ethnology might have been invoked either on the side of abolition or in defense of the slave system, according to the leaning of the majority. At this moment we have the president of a New England college recommending the majority in the several States to use their power to enforce the teaching of certain specific views of New Testament history which he is pleased to declare all competent critics have accepted. "But," say the advocates of the teaching to which we refer, "we only wish to inculcate the real results of scientific research in regard to alcohol." To which we rejoin that, in a community like this, it is too soon to inculcate the truth, supposing you have it, if the issue is still practically open, and if large numbers of your fellow-citizens are not persuaded that what you call the truth is the truth. Minorities have their rights even when they are in the wrong, and to use a school system which the minority support to teach opinions which the latter do not believe to be true is unfair. But there is another view of the matter. Are the advocates of such instruction prepared to have it communicated in a thoroughly nonpartisan spirit? Are they prepared to have the whole truth taught, or do they want only that part of the truth which is favorable to the specific end they have in view? Are they prepared, for example, to give any fair representation to the views of those who consider that alcohol has its important uses, dietetic and social? A few years ago the Contemporary Review opened its columns to a discussion of the alcohol question; and we are safe in saying that there was a preponderance of opinion among the many eminent men who joined in the discussion in favor of a moderate use of alcoholic beverages. In the August number of the North American Review, a well-known physician of this city enters a plea against the indiscriminate condemnation of narcotics and stimulants. Is all this opinion to go unrepresented when the alcohol question is introduced into the schools? Of course it must, or the specific object of the teaching would be ruined. We say, therefore, that this is not teaching science; it is harnessing science to the temperance" cart, and driving her under instruction from "temperance" headquarters. THE RESULT OF SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION. Will the reader please cast his eye upon the following questions: 1. How can it be proved that nicotine is a poison? 2. Why are cigarettes especially harmful? 3. Is alcohol a food? 4. What is the effect of disuse upon a muscle? 5. Under what names is opium cold? 6. Under what name is alcohol drunk? 7. What is the difference between a food and a poison? 8. Is anything gained by changing from one narcotic to another? 9. What is the effect of beer as a drink? 10. How does cheerfulness help the muscles? These are the questions given as a test in physiology in the public schools of a prominent Eastern city. They are not addressed to young men about to leave school. No; they are asked of little boys and girls of from 8 to 10 years of age. This is the examination paper at the end of the first year's elementary instruction in physiology. Of ten questions, eight relate to drinking and smoking; the physiology is a mere side issue. These children, who ought to have about as much knowledge of such matters as they should of the methods in vogue at the stock exchange, are |