HOW TO CULTIVATE IN THE YOUNG A DISTASTE FOR NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS
By Kate Lindsay, M. D.
The child, when it enters the world, has all things to learn. It comes into life for itself at birth, with certain tendencies; or, in other words, with a predisposition to learn in some directions more easily than in others. These predispositions are called hereditary tendencies, and are the result of the formation of the child's mind and body more or less after the pattern of its ancestors. Whether the seed thus planted shall remain latent, or be stimulated to active, potent energy, depends upon the education of the little one. Ever since the first pair in Eden fell through appetite, every child has inherited an appetite more or less perverted. In view of this, parents should study to understand their own tendencies in this direction, and should take special pains to cultivate proper dietetic habits in the young. The craving for strong drink, tobacco, or narcotics may lie latent for years, and suddenly be awakened to activity by some weakening bodily illness, or some intense depressing emotion, by taxing mental labor, grief, loss of property, or some other misfortune. As soon as the youth reaches manhood, and many times even in childhood, the temptation to indulge in strong drink or tobacco is before him. Anxious to reach man's estate, and to take an active part in the duties of life, to be a power and have influence with his companions, every boy desires to do as he sees older persons do. At school and college, among his fellows, perchance a few years older than himself, he is told that in order to be a man, he must learn to drink, smoke, and use bad and profane language. If the parent has not already taught him the important lesson that these are the habits that destroy manhood and wreck life, he will surely fall into the snare set for unwary feet. It is an easy matter to-day to show that at any time of life the use of strong drink and tobacco impairs all the organs of the body, and that it is especially destructive to the sensitive, developing cell structures of the growing animal, whether of man or of the lower animals. By feeding puppies alcohol, their growth may be entirely checked; and young children can be so powerfully intoxicated by alcohol as to be killed outright. The history of our army, in the rejection of so many youthful cigarette smokers because of physical imperfection, such as weak hearts, imperfectly developed lungs, and defective eyesight, should be made known to the young. How can the inexperienced youth know how to choose what is good and eschew what is evil, unless some one tells him what is right and what is wrong? This knowledge must be taught him before the drink and tobacco habits are formed, or it will be too late. After the brain is damaged, and all the organs of the body have been robbed of much of their working energy, and the desire for these poisons has been created, it will be too late to do much for the youth until he is truly converted; then what a time of trial, agony, and almost despair, of falling and failure, before he can regain a portion of the heritage of health and strength that should have been his to use for God and humanity. I hear some parent say, But we don't know how to instruct our children in these matters, as we do not know about them ourselves. There are many books of small size, written in simple language, which are a great help in this matter. Then keep your eyes open for life-wrecks, which lie all along the pathway of every man and woman. These can be made useful object lessons. They appeal to the youthful intellect as nothing else will. Remember the child must be taught how and why to avoid those poisons. The temptation to indulge in them all must meet. Parents can but develop, by God's help, the power to resist and overcome.