~34.~ This is the effect of strong alcohol. The alcohol of alcoholic drinks has water and other things mixed with it, so that it does not act so quickly nor so severely as pure alcohol; but the effect is essentially the same in character. It is partly in this way that the brain, nerves, muscles, and other tissues of drinking men and women become diseased. Eminent physicians tell us that a large share of the unfortunate persons who are shut up in insane asylums are brought there by alcohol. Is it not a dreadful thing that one's mind should be thus ruined by a useless and harmful practice? SUMMARY. 1. Alcohol is produced by fermentation, and obtained by distillation. It will burn like kerosene oil and other burning fluids. 2. The vapor of alcohol will burn and will sometimes explode. 3. Alcohol may be separated from beer and other fermented liquids by boiling. 4. Brandy is distilled from fermented fruit juice, whiskey and gin from beer or fermented grains, rum from fermented molasses. 5. Alcohol is the result of a sort of decay, and much good food is destroyed in producing it. 6. Besides ordinary alcohol, there are several other kinds. Naphtha and fusel-oil are alcohols. 7. All the members of the alcohol family are poisons; all will burn, and all will intoxicate. The alcohol family have several bad relations, among which are carbolic acid, ether, and chloroform. 8. Cider, beer, and wine are harmful and dangerous as well as strong liquors. "Bitters" often contain as much alcohol as the strongest liquors, and sometimes more. 9. Alcoholic liquors are sometimes adulterated, but they usually contain no poison worse than alcohol. Pure alcohol is scarcely less dangerous than that which is adulterated. 10. Death sometimes occurs almost instantly from taking strong liquors. 11. Alcohol will kill grass and other plants, if poured upon them or about their roots. 12. Mr. Darwin proved that the vapor of alcohol will kill plants; also that plants become intoxicated by breathing the vapor of alcohol. 13. Alcohol, even in small quantities, hinders digestion. 14. Alcohol causes the body to lose heat so rapidly that it becomes cooler instead of warmer. 15. The danger of freezing to death when exposed to extreme cold is greatly increased by taking alcohol. 16. Stanley, and other African explorers, say that it is dangerous to use alcoholic drinks in hot climates. 17. In very hot weather, persons who use alcoholic drinks are more subject to sunstroke than those who do not. 18. Beefsteak soaked in alcohol becomes tough like leather. An egg placed in alcohol is hardened as though it had been boiled. 19. The effect of alcohol upon the brain, nerves, and other tissues of the body is much the same as upon the beefsteak and the egg. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW.