*Excessive Reading* is a frequent cause of injury to the nervous systems of children. This has a bad effect, both on account of too many impressions being made upon the mind and also on account of the strain to the eyes. Then if the reading consists mostly of light fiction, the mind is directed away from the really important things of life. The reading of children should be thoughtfully controlled, both as to quality and quantity. Exciting stories should, as a rule, be excluded, but a taste for biography, historical and scientific writings, and for the great works of literature should be cultivated. Simple fairy tales which have a recognized value in developing the imagination of the child need not be omitted, but it is of vital importance that the "story-reading habit" be not formed. *Effects of Drugs.*—Because of its delicacy of structure a number of chemical compounds, or drugs, are able to produce injurious effects upon the nervous system. Some of these are violent poisons, while others, in small quantities, are mild in their action. Certain drugs, in addition to their immediate effects, bring about changes in the nervous system which cause an unnatural appetite, or craving, that leads to their continued use. This is the case with alcohol, the intoxicating substance in the usual saloon drinks, and with nicotine, the stimulating drug in tobacco. The same is also true of morphine, chloral, and several other drugs used as medicines. The _danger of becoming a slave_ to some useless and pernicious habit should dissuade one from the use of drugs except in cases of positive emergency. *Alcohol and the Nervous System.*—Alcohol, as already shown, injures practically all portions of the body; but it has its worst effects upon the nervous system. Through its action on this system, it interferes with the circulation of the blood, produces a condition of "temporary insanity" called intoxication, weakens the will, and eventually dethrones the reason. Worst of all, it produces a condition of "chronic poisoning" which manifests itself in an unnatural craving, and this causes it to be used by the victim even when he knows he is "drinking to his own destruction." Though its use in small quantities does not, as a rule, produce such marked effects upon the nervous system, it develops the "craving," and this is apt in time to lead to its use in larger quantities. But even if this does not occur, the practice is objectionable for its unhygienic effects in general.(111) Tippling with such mild solutions of alcohol as light wine, beer, and hard cider is, for these reasons, a dangerous pastime.