DOES ALCOHOL IMPART STRENGTH?--Experience shows that alcohol weakens the power of undergoing severe bodily exertion. [Footnote: Dr. McRae, in speaking of Arctic exploration, at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Montreal in 1856, said: "The moment that a man had swallowed a drink of spirits, it was certain that his day's work was nearly at an end. It was absolutely necessary that the rule of total abstinence be rigidly enforced, if we would accomplish our day's task. The use of liquor as a beverage when we had work on hand, in that terrific cold, was out of the question."] Men who are in training for running, rowing, and other contests where great strength is required, deny themselves all liquors, even when they are ordinarily accustomed to their use. Dr. Richardson made some interesting experiments to show the influence of alcohol upon muscular contraction. He carefully weighted the hind leg of a frog, and, by means of electricity, stimulating the muscle to its utmost power of contraction, he found out how much the frog could lift. Then administering alcohol, he discovered that the response of the muscle to the electrical current became feebler and feebler, as the narcotic began to take effect, until, at last, the animal could raise less than half the amount it lifted by the natural contraction when uninfluenced by alcohol. EFFECT UPON THE WASTE OF THE BODY.--The tendency of alcohol is to cause a formation of an unstable substance resembling fat, [Footnote: The molecular deposits equalizing the waste of the system do not go on regularly under the influence of alcohol; the tissues are not kept up to their standard; and, in time, their composition is changed by a deposit of an amorphous matter resembling fat. This is an unstable substance, and the functions of animal life all retrograde.--HUBBARD, _The Opium Habit and Alcoholism_.] and so the use of liquor for even a short time will increase the weight. But a more marked influence is to check the ordinary waste of the system, so that "the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the lungs may be reduced as much as thirty to fifty per cent."--HINTON. The life process is one of incessant change. Its rapidity is essential to vigor and strength. When the functions are in full play, each organ is being constantly torn down, and as constantly rebuilt with the materials furnished from our food. Anything that checks this oxidation of the tissues, or hinders the deposition of new matter, disturbs the vital functions. Both these results are the inevitable effects of alcohol; for, since the blood contains less oxygen and more carbonic acid, and the power of assimilating the food is decreased, it follows that every process of waste and repair must be correspondingly weakened. The person using liquor consequently needs less bread and beef, and so alcohol seems to him a food--a radical error, as we have shown.