13. By distilling beer, a strong liquor known as whiskey is obtained.  Sometimes juniper berries are distilled with the beer.  The liquor obtained is then called gin.  In the West Indies, on the great sugar plantations, large quantities of liquor are made from the skimmings and cleanings of the vessels in which the sweet juice of the sugar-cane is boiled down.  These refuse matters are mixed with water and fermented, then distilled.  This liquor is called rum.

14. Now you have learned enough about alcohol to know that it is not produced by plants in the same way that food is, but that it is the result of a sort of decay.  In making alcohol, good food is destroyed and made into a substance which is not fit for food, and which produces a great amount of sickness and destroys many lives.  Do you not think it a pity that such great quantities of good corn and other grains should be wasted in this way when they might be employed for a useful purpose?

15.  The Alcohol Family.—­Scientists tell us that there are several different kinds of alcohol.  Naphtha is a strong-smelling liquid sometimes used by painters to thin their paint and make it dry quickly.  It does not have the same odor as alcohol, but it looks and acts very much like it.  It will burn as alcohol does.  It kills animals and plants.  It will make a person drunk if he takes a sufficient quantity of it.  Indeed, it is so like alcohol that it really is a kind of alcohol.

16. There are also other kinds of alcohol.  Fusel-oil, a deadly poison, is an alcohol.  A very small amount of this alcohol will make a person very drunk.  Fusel-oil is found in bad whiskey. (All whiskey is bad, but some kinds are worse than others.) This is why such whiskey makes men so furiously drunk.  It also causes speedy death in those who use it frequently.  There are still other kinds of alcohol, some of which are even worse than fusel-oil.  So you see this is a very bad family.

17. Like most other bad families, this alcohol family has many bad relations.  You have heard of carbolic acid, a powerful poison.  This is one of the relatives of the alcohol family.  Creosote is another poisonous substance closely related to alcohol.  Ether and chloroform, by which people are made insensible during surgical operations, are also relatives of alcohol.  They are, in fact, made from alcohol.  These substances, although really useful, are very poisonous and dangerous.  Do you not think it will be very wise and prudent for you to have nothing to do with alcohol in any form, even wine, beer, or cider, since it belongs to such a bad family and has so many bad relations?

18. Some persons think that they will suffer no harm if they take only wine or beer, or perhaps hard cider.  This is a great mistake.  A person may get drunk on any of these drinks if a sufficient amount be taken.  Besides, boys who use wine, beer, or cider, rarely fail to become fond of stronger liquors.  A great many men who have died drunkards began with cider.  Cider begins to ferment within a day or two after it is made, and becomes stronger in alcohol all the time for many months.