We feel cold in cold weather because the body is conserving heat; in warm weather, on the other hand, we feel warm because the skin is flushed and the body is losing heat as rapidly as it can. The practical bearing of this is that it might be disastrous to feel particularly warm in cold weather. Not, of course, if the feeling of warmth be due to a very rapid production of heat, as in vigorous exercise, but if it is due simply to a flushing of the skin when not much heat is being produced, the body is being deprived of what heat it has and a condition which cannot long be endured in cold weather will result. It happens that exactly this situation is met with in connection with the use of alcohol. One of the important effects of alcohol is to produce a flushing of the skin; this is a direct drug effect and has nothing whatever to do with the amount of heat that is being produced in the body. The result is that one who, by a few drinks, fortifies himself, when starting out for a long cold ride, feels very warm and comfortable as long as the alcoholic effect persists; but as soon as this passes off he is very much colder than he otherwise would be, since during all this time he has been losing heat rapidly instead of conserving it. It used formerly to be not at all uncommon in the cold parts of the country for persons to perish from exposure on long drives because they had attempted to keep themselves warm by taking alcohol, when if they had conserved their bodily heat instead of wasting it for the sake of comfort, they would probably have reached their destinations in safety.