g a carelessness or boldness of action which
would not have occurred under the cooling, temperate influence of a
beverage free from alcohol. Many persons have admitted to me that they
were not the same after taking even one glass of ale or wine that they
were before, and could not _thoroughly_ trust themselves after they had
taken this single glass."

IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY.

An impairment of the memory is among the early symptoms of alcoholic
derangement.

"This," says Dr. Richardson, "extends even to forgetfulness of the
commonest things; to names of familiar persons, to dates, to duties of
daily life. Strangely, too," he adds, "this failure, like that which
indicates, in the aged, the era of second childishness and mere
oblivion, does not extend to the things of the past, but is confined to
events that are passing. On old memories the mind retains its power; on
new ones it requires constant prompting and sustainment."

In this failure of memory nature gives a solemn warning that imminent
peril is at hand. Well for the habitual drinker if he heed the warning.
Should he not do so, symptoms of a more serious character will, in
time, develop themselves, as the brain becomes more and more diseased,
ending, it may be, in permanent insanity.

MENTAL AND MORAL DISEASES.

Of the mental and moral diseases which too often follow the regular
drinking of alcohol, we have painful records in asylum reports, in
medical testimony and in our daily observation and experience. These are
so full and varied, and thrust so constantly on our attention, that the
wonder is that men are not afraid to run the terrible risks involved
even in what is called the moderate use of alcoholic beverages.

In 1872, a select committee of the House of Commons, appointed "to
consider the best plan for the control and management of habitual
drunkards," called upon some of the most eminent medical men in Great
Britain to give their testimony in answer to a large number of
questions, embracing every topic within the range of inquiry, from the
pathology of inebriation to the practical usefulness of prohibitory
laws. In this testimony much was said about the effect of alcoholic
stimulation on the mental condition and moral character. One physician,
Dr. James Crichton Brown, who, in ten years' experience as
superintendent of lunatic asylums, has paid special attention to the
relations of habitual drunkenness to insanity, having carefully examined
five