Alcohol in any form is not allowable if the diet is to be confined to those foods that build strength. It may stimulate, and does, unquestionably, at times buoy one with a feeling of false strength, but true strength and endurance - the power to continue on and on for any length of time - can never be gained unless alcoholic liquors be avoided absolutely. On one occasion I heard the following excuse for the use of alcohol: " For a number of years I was a sufferer from digestive troubles, I tried everything without benefit. I was in misery half the time. Finally I was advised to make habit of drinking beer or wine at my meals, d whenever I had that uncomfortable feel-ing in the region of the stomach I followed this twice and it cured me of my troubles." This region was plainly suffering from overeating. The digestive organs were continually called upon to work beyond their need or capacity. The use of alcoholic drinks under such circumstances will remedy such troubles temporarily for the organs make every possible effort to rid themselves of alcohol immediately upon its introduction into the stomach, and the undigested food that may be there is naturally hurried along because of these extraordinary efforts.

If one cannot restrain his appetite, if he will persist in eating more than his stomach can digest, it is really a question whether he is not the gainer for the time being by moderate indulgence in mild alcoholic stimulation to help force the food along, for overeating is by far the greater sin of the two, it kills twenty-five where alcohol kills one person, and its victims can be found in every household.

"The aristocratic toper, who wishes to give an air of respectability to his vice, will claim that alcohol is a food. He will cite, in proof, instances in which persons have lived for weeks by the aid of no other nutriment, taking nothing but alcohol and water. This semblance of argument scarcely needs exposure; for the most that can be claimed is that it proves merely that persons have lived several weeks while taking only alcohol and water. The fact that individuals have in several instances been known to live from thirty to sixty days while taking only water, shows conclusively that those persons who lived a shorter time on brandy and water lived in spite of the alcohol instead of by the aid of it. A conclusive evidence that alcohol is not a food is found in the fact that when taken into the system it undergoes no change. It is alcohol in the brain, in the liver, in all the tissues, and alcohol in the breath, in the perspiration, and in all the excretions. In short, alcohol is not used in the body, but leaves it, as it enters, a rank poison. I can no more accept them as food than I can chloroform or ether.

In experiments made by the writer and reported in a paper read before the American Medical Temperance Association, it was shown that the total strength of a healthy young man was diminished 331/8 per cent, as the result of taking four ounces of whisky. The total falling off was diminished in a notable degree. It was noticed that the loss of strength in the legs was much greater in proportion than in other parts of the body.,, - J. H. Kellogg, M.D.

I have never during my entire life had an occasion to use alcohol and I never expect to have. It is a stimulant and a poison. No one can gain permanent strength from it. It retards the elimination of waste matter frcm the body, and the tissues are often filled with impurities that are liable at any time to become manifested in some virulent disease.

"It is assumed by most persons that alcohol gives strength, and we hear feeble persons saying daily that they are being ' kept up by stimulants.' This means actually that they are being kept down; but the sensation they derive from the immediate action of the stimulant deceives them and leads them to attribute passing good to what, in the large majority of cases, is persistent evil. The evidence is all perfect that alcohol gives no potential power to brain or muscle. During the first stage of its action it may enable a wearied or feeble organism to do brisk work for a short time; it may make the mind briefly brilliant; it may excite muscles to quick action; but, it does nothing substantially, and fills up nothing it has destroyed, as it leads to destruction. A fire makes a brilliant sight, but leaves a desolation. It is the same with alcohol." - Dr. Richardson.

It dulls the keen sensitiveness of the nervous system. The statement is often made that alcohol brings out a man's animal nature, but they really mean that it brings out all his lowest tendencies, for no lower animal under any circumstances, could become so depraved as one who is under the influence of the poison. A reeling, drunken fool, is about the most disgusting object that the human mind can possibly conceive. A hog becomes a decent, clean animal when compared to such vile specimens of humanity.

Prof. Janeway, M.D., professor of materia medica in Bellevue Medical College, stated in a lecture before his class that alcohol does not assist those who use it to endure cold. In proof of the assertion, he related the following incident, which was given to him by the first gentleman mentioned in the account: "A gentleman was appointed by the government to go on a survey in the Eastern States in the depth of a severe winter. He chose for his assistants men who were total abstainers. At the same time, another party set out upon the same business, the members of which were addicted to the use of whisky. Only one of the first party gave out, while nearly every one of the whisky drinkers succumbed to the influence of cold.

Every human being admires strength and desires to acquire all he can and when this one fact is considered it becomes extremely difficult to understand how any one can continue to burn out his internal organs with these liquid poisons. It has been proven conclusively again and again that alcohol of all kinds lessens the muscular vigor. Did you ever hear of an athlete training for a contest with alcohol of any kind as a part of his diet? Even the most ignorant know enough to avoid it absolutely when they desire to obtain the highest degree of physical health. A man who drinks liquors is only a part of man. He goes through the world not only with his brain clouded and benumbed, but his every physical function is weakened and blunted. He misses entirely the complete powers that might easily have been possessed.

" Close upon the derangement of the stomach, which is certain to come sooner or later with all drinkers, follows nearly every other functional disease possible to the human system. Every organ is disturbed. The whole vital machinery is deranged. Strange noises are heard in the head occasioned by the rushing of the hot torrent of poisoned blood through the distended blood-vessels of the head, which pass near the ear. Black spots and cobweb appearances annoy the sight. Alcoholic amaurosis or amblyopia comes on, and sight becomes impaired; sometimes blindness follows. The dilated blood-vessels of the skin become permanently enlarged, especially in the face and nose, and the drinker gets a rum blossom. Skin diseases of various sorts are likely to appear, particularly eczema of the fingers or toes, or on the shins. An unquenchable thirst seems to be ever consuming the blood, and nothing but alcohol will even temporarily as-sauge the desire for drink. Notwithstanding, large quantities of fluids will be. taken, often amounting to several quarts a day, which overwork the excreting organs. The liver and kidneys are disturbed in their function, one day being almost totally inactive through congestion, and the next rallying to their work and doing double duty.

Every organ feels the effect of the abuse through indulgence in alcohol, and no function, through long continuance of the disturbance, induces tissue change. The imperfectly repaired organs suffer more and more in structure until the most extensive and disastrous changes have taken place. Dr. Wil-lard Parker of New York shows from statistics that for every ten temperate persons who die between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, fifty-one intemperate persons die. Notwithstanding the constant protest of both moderate and immoderate drinkers that alcohol does not them. The same inspiration, made many times more keen and clear could be produced by normal conditions, by creating that feeling of superb health which awakes every nerve to the full realization of the joy of life and health.