The frontal brain or cerebrum contains the centers for the sensory organs, also the motor centers which supply the driving impulses for the muscular activities of the body, and in the occipital and frontal lobes, the centers for the higher and highest qualities of mind and soul, which constitute the governing and restraining faculties on which depend the powers of self-control.

Thus we see that the development of the brain has been in a forward direction, from the upper extremity of the spinal cord to the frontal lobes of the cerebrum, from the low, vegetative qualities of the animal and the savage to the complex and refined activities of the highly civilized and trained mind.

It is an interesting and most significant fact that paralysis of brain centers caused by alcohol and other stimulants, or by hypnotics and narcotics, proceeds reversely to the order of their development during the processes of evolution.

The first to succumb are the brain centers in the frontal lobes of the cerebrum, which control the latest-developed and most-refined human attributes.  These are:  modesty, caution, reserve, reverence, altruism.  Then follow in the order given:  memory, reason, logic, intelligence, will power, self-control, the control of muscular coordination and equilibrium and finally consciousness and the vital activities of heart action and respiration.

When the conscious activities of the soul have been put to sleep, the paralysis extends to the subconscious activities of life or vital force.  Respiration and heart action become weak and labored, and may finally cease entirely.

In order to verify this, let us study the effects of alcohol, the best-known and most-used of stimulants.  Many people believe that alcohol increases not only physical strength, but mental energy also.  Regular medical science considers it a valuable tonic in all cases of physical and mental depression.  It is often administered in surgical operations and in accidents with the idea of prolonging life.  I have frequently found the whisky or brandy bottle at the bedside of infants and on it the directions of the attending physician.

Watch the effect of this tonic on a group of convivial spirits at a banquet.  Full honor is done to the art of the chef, and the wine flows freely.  The flow of animal spirits increases proportionately; conviviality, wit and humor rise by leaps and bounds.  But the apparent joy and happiness are in reality nothing but the play of the lower animal impulses, unrestrained by the higher powers of mind and soul.

The words of the afterdinner speaker who, when sober, is a sedate and earnest gentleman, flow with unusual ease.  The close and unprejudiced observer notices, however, that what the speaker has gained in eloquence, loquacity and exuberance of style and expres-sion, he has lost in logic, clearness and good sense.

As King Alcohol tightens his grasp on the merry company, the toasters and speakers lose more and more their control over speech and actions.  What was at first mischievous abandon and merry jest, gradually degenerates into loquaciousness, coarseness and querulous brawls.  Here and there one of the maudlin crowd drops off in the stupor of drunkenness.