People who are sick with a slow disease like consumption are often advised by their friends to take whisky to brace them up. It is true that the immediate effect of the whisky is to make the patient feel a little better, but the final effect is to leave him in a much weaker condition than before. More than this, the cells are much less able to resist the disease germs than they were before the alcohol was taken. When people are exposed to such diseases as scarlet fever and smallpox, they may think that if they take a drink of whisky they will not be so liable to contract the disease. It is just the other way. The alcohol reduces the resisting powers of the cells of the body, and anything that does this renders a person more liable to contract any disease to which he is exposed. [Sidenote: (_4_) On the nervous system] The effect of alcohol on the cells of the nervous system is very marked. Continued use will injure the nervous system and result in a kind of insanity called delirium tremens. It will also cause other forms of insanity. The effect of alcohol on the parent is passed on to the children of the next generation, and even beyond this. A large percentage of idiotic children are the offspring of alcoholic parents. [Sidenote: (_5_) On the morals] The use of alcohol numbs the sense of right and wrong. More young men have become criminals from the use of alcohol than from any other one cause. Anyone who reads the daily papers can see that many criminals give the use of alcohol as an excuse for having committed a crime. [Sidenote: (_6_) On brain work] Some people will tell you that alcohol stimulates the brain, so that one can work faster and better. This is not true. Tests have been made in this matter, and it has been found that men doing mental work will work about one tenth slower and make one fourth more mistakes when given one drink of whisky a day, than they will when not given any whisky. If _one_ drink of whisky a day thus reduces a man's power and accuracy in doing mental work, what do you think three drinks, or ten drinks will do? [Illustration: FIG. 38. The mind not clouded by alcohol works quickly and makes few mistakes.] [Illustration: FIG. 39. The mind clouded by alcohol works slowly and makes many mistakes.] [Sidenote: What business men think of men who drink]