Use and Abuse of Drugs.--The American people are addicted to the use of drugs, and especially patent medicines. A glance at the street-car advertisements shows this. Most of the medicines advertised contain alcohol in greater quantity than beer or wine, and many of them have opium, morphine, or cocaine in their composition. Paregoric and laudanum, medicines sometimes given to young children, are examples of dangerous drugs that contain opium. Dr. George D. Haggard of Minneapolis has shown by many analyses that a large number of the so-called "malts," "malt extracts," and "tonics," including several of the best known and most advertised on the market, are simply disguised beers and, frequently, very poor beers at that. These drugs, in addition to being harmful, affect the person using them in such a manner that he soon feels the need for the drug. Thus the drug habit is formed,--a condition which has wrecked thousands of lives. A number of articles on patent medicines recently appeared in a leading magazine and have been collected and published under the title of _The Great American Fraud_. In this booklet the author points out a number of different kinds of "cures" and patent medicines. The most dangerous are those headache or neuralgia cures containing _acetanilid_. This drug is a heart depresser and should not be used without medical advice. Another drug which is responsible for habit formation is _cocaine_. This is often found in catarrh or other cures. Alcohol is the basis of all tonics or "bracers." Every boy and girl should read this booklet so as to be forearmed against evils of the sort just described. REFERENCE READING ON FOODS