No one knows more about the effects of alcohol upon the brain than Sir Victor Horsley; _auspice_ Horsley, I have recently made some study of this question myself. Now the athlete, the true sportsman, _depends as much upon the condition of his brain for success as upon the condition of his body_. That is the finest thing about sport, and in many quarters it is the least understood thing about it. Now if we pursue the analogy of the confirmed inebriate we are able to detect exactly the same symptoms, though in an infinitely less degree, in the player of games who consciously or unconsciously drinks more than is good for him. At a critical moment in a game (let us say) the cerebellum or little brain fails for a single instant to transmit its message _via_ the nerve telegraphs of the body to the motor muscles. The catch is missed, the pass is made half-a-second too late; the little extra dose of alcohol has disorganized the accurate execution of muscular action--and perhaps a match is lost, a sportsman’s career definitely injured. Even in small quantities--provided always these quantities are in excess of the reasonable individual need--alcohol has a definite and harmful effect upon the actual performance of a voluntary movement. In an essay of this length one is compelled to take a broad summarizing view of such a question as it deals with. There has been no space to enter into dozens of aspects of the bad effect that drink is having upon the sport of the day. But I have said enough to show how great the evil is, and I am absolutely convinced that hundreds of sportsmen will agree with me that the poison is active, the danger imminent. It is an article of my creed that sport in its best sense means not only the salvation of the individual but the consolidation of the country. All sedentary and spoony sins, effeminacy, softness, and every sort of degeneration _cannot_ form a part of the sportsman’s temperament. Neither you nor I have ever known a good sportsman who is mentally “wrong.” When eggs are oysters and tea is Chablis we may meet with such a phenomenon, and not till then.