11.  Alcohol Paralysis.—­You have seen how a drunken man staggers when he walks.  Did you ever see a man who walked just as though he were drunk when he was really sober?  This is because a part of the brain or spinal cord has been permanently injured or paralyzed.  Alcohol is not the only cause of this disease, and so you must not think every person who staggers is or has been a drunkard; but alcohol is a very frequent cause of paralysis.

12.  Effects of Alcohol upon the Mind and Character.—­When a man is under the influence of alcohol is his character good or bad?  Is a man likely to be good, or to be bad, when he is drunk or excited by drink?  Most men behave badly when they are drunk, and after they have been drunk a great many times they often behave badly all the time.  A great many of the men who are shut up in prisons would not have been sent there if they had never learned to drink.

13.  A Legacy.—­Do you know what a legacy is?  If your father should die and leave to you a fine house or farm, or money in the bank, or books, or horses, or any other kind of property to have for your own, it would be a legacy.  When a person gets anything in this way from a parent we say that he inherits it.

14. We inherit a great many things besides houses and lands and other kinds of property.  For instance, perhaps you remember hearing some one say that you have eyes and hair the same color as your mother’s, and that your nose and chin are like your father’s.  So you have inherited the color of your hair and eyes from your mother and the shape of your chin and nose from your father.

15.  The Alcohol Legacy.—­The inside of a boy’s head is just as much like his parents’ as the outside of it.  In other words, we inherit our brains just as we do our faces.  So, if a man spoils his brain with alcohol and gets an alcohol appetite, his children will be likely to have unhealthy brains and an appetite for alcohol also, and may become drunkards.  Is not that a dreadful kind of legacy to inherit?

16. A child that has no mind is called an idiot.  Such a child cannot talk, or read, or sing, and does not know enough to take proper care of itself.  This is one of the bad legacies which drunken parents sometimes leave to their children.

17.  Effects of Tobacco on the Brain and Nerves.—­The effects of tobacco upon the brain and nerves are much the same as those of alcohol.  Tobacco, like alcohol, is a narcotic.  It benumbs and paralyzes the nerves, and it is by this means that it obtains such an influence over those who use it.

18. The hand of a man or boy who uses tobacco often becomes so unsteady that he can scarcely write.  Do you know what makes it so unsteady?  It is because the cells which send nerves to the muscles of the hand are diseased.  When a person has a trembling hand you say he is nervous.  If you feel his pulse you will find that it does not beat steadily and regularly as it ought to do.  The heart is nervous and trembles just the same as the muscles do.  This shows that the tobacco has poisoned the cells in the brain which regulate the heart.