g weights have also been tried upon men by careful
investigators. In every case it was found that even beer, and very
dilute solutions of alcohol, would diminish the height to which the
lifted weight could be raised. As an illustration of the deceptive power
of alcohol upon people under its influence, it is said that persons
experimented upon were under the impression, after the drink, that they
could do more work, and do it more easily, although the testing-machine
showed exactly the contrary to be true.

Athletes and their trainers have learned by experience that alcohol does
not give strength, but is, in reality, a destroyer of muscular power. No
careful trainer will allow a candidate for athletic honors to drink even
beer, not to speak of stronger liquors. When Sullivan, the once famous
pugilist, was defeated by Corbett, he said in lamenting his lost
championship, "It was the _booze_ did it"; meaning that he had violated
training rules, and used liquor. University teams and crews have proved
substantially that drinking men are absolutely no good in sports, or
upon the water. Football and baseball teams, anxious to excel, are
beginning to have a cast-iron temperance pledge for their members. So
practical experience of those competing in tests of strength and
endurance teach eloquently that alcohol does not give strength, but
rather weakens the body, by rendering the muscles flabby.

Sandow, the modern Samson, wrote his methods of training in one of the
magazines a few years ago, and stated that he used no alcoholic
beverages. The ancient Samson was not allowed to taste even wine from
birth.

A question worthy of serious consideration is: how are the sick to be
strengthened and "supported" by drinks which athletes are warned to
specially shun as weakening to the body? Either the sick are mistakenly
advised, or the athletes are in error. Which seems the more likely?

Dr. Richardson says in _Lectures on Alcohol_:--

"I would earnestly impress that the systematic administration of
alcohol for the purpose of giving and sustaining strength is an
entire delusion."

In another place he says:--

"Never let this be forgotten in thinking of strong drink: that
the drink is strong only to destroy; that it never by any
possibility adds strength to those who drink it."

Sir William Gull, late physician to the Prince of Wales, said before a
Select Committee of the House of Lords on Intemperance:--