Avoid Stimulants

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1903

THE Popular Science News gives the following sensible advice in regard to the use of stimulants:—

“All of the so-called strengthening preparations, which enable a man to accomplish more work when he is under their influence, do this, not by adding units of force to his body, but by utilizing those units of force which have already been obtained and stored away as reserve force by the digestion of his food. Kola, cocoa, chocolate, coffee, tea, and similar substances, which, while they temporarily cause nervous work to seem lighter, do so only by adding to the units of force which a man ought to spend in his daily life, those units which he should most sacredly preserve as his reserve fund. The condition of the individual who uses these articles when tired and exhausted, with the object of accomplishing more work than his fatigued system could otherwise endure, is similar to that of a banker, who, under the pressure of financial difficulties, draws upon his capital and reserve funds to supplement the use of those moneys which he can properly employ in carrying on his business. The result in both instances is the same. In a greater or less time the banker or the patient, as the case may be, finds that he is a pecuniary or nervous bankrupt.”