Sometimes men mix rum and molasses together in a shallow dish and set it where flying insects may see it. These little creatures are so fond of sweet things that they smell the molasses for yards around and hurry from all sides to get it. Possibly they like the rum too, for they seem to enjoy the whole mixture and drink it up eagerly. But imagine what happens afterwards. Before long the insects are intoxicated. Then they lie around so helpless that men catch them without even a net.

Did you ever hear of beautiful drunken butterflies? In South America there is a certain tree from the flowers of which a sweet juice trickles, and hosts of butterflies use this juice for food. Unfortunately, however, while it is still on the tree, it sours and ferments. Now butterflies do not seem to be quite bright enough to know that they take great risks when they use this juice after it is sour. In fact, they are so ignorant that they run their long tongues into the flowers and suck it up as merrily as ever. Then they feel queer, and stagger, and act as some men do on the sidewalks late at night. They cannot fly, they act half-witted, and when their enemy comes they are helpless and cannot get away.

The enemy is the bird. When he sees these butterflies in this sad plight he is delighted, and picks up one after the other, swallows them joyfully, and looks around for more. If he could talk about it, I suppose he would say that alcohol is one of the best things in the world because it helps him to get a hearty meal every day.

No doubt many a man who sells alcohol thinks so too. But what about the butterflies? And what about the men?

Dr. Hodge is the professor of physiology in Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. He is also a student of animals. For this reason, a few years ago, he was asked to find out whether alcohol does human beings any harm in certain directions. He was sure that the quickest and best way to go to work was to press various cats and dogs into this useful service, for he knew, as we do, that things that are unwholesome for animals are usually unwholesome for people, and that food which nourishes animals will generally nourish men too; that is, poison that kills a dog will kill a man, and food that fattens a dog will probably fatten a man.

In this way, then, animals sometimes pass most useful lives. By being rather uncomfortable and not very energetic for a while they have taught careful, scientific men lessons which will end by saving thousands of human beings from living miserable lives and dying miserable deaths.

In this particular case Dr. Hodge secured the help of several young kittens. He picked out two that were happy and healthy, and tried to make them take milk that had a little alcohol in it. But the kittens would not touch it; they acted as if they would rather starve first.

He therefore opened their mouths very carefully and fed the milk to them, a little at a time. It did not please them, but they swallowed it. Dr. Hodge did this regularly for ten days, and day by day he noticed how it affected the kittens. The result was certainly not favorable, for although they did not suffer the slightest pain, still they were changed. They stopped playing, did not grow, and did not keep their fur clean and smooth as healthy kittens always do. They did not even care for mice, or feel the slightest interest in any dog. Indeed, they seemed to be dull and indifferent to everything.

All the other kittens acted as usual. They grew bigger every day, played and caught mice, bristled up their tails at any dog that came in sight, purred, and kept their fur in good order.

The picture shows how the alcoholic kittens looked while the others were playing. They did not suffer, but they were dull and half asleep, and had no energy whatever. Finally, however, they were actually ill, and by this time Dr. Hodge concluded that they had taught him at least one great lesson. They had proved that alcohol prevents kittens from growing and robs them of their energy. Accordingly he stopped giving the stuff to them and turned his attention to dogs.

This story is much longer, and I must only begin to tell it to-day.

On Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1895, four puppies were born in two different kennels. Two were brothers and the other two were sisters. They were fine, strong, healthy, young animals, and that was one reason why Dr. Hodge specially needed their help in his important work.

Two of the dogs were a trifle more energetic than the others, and he picked these out for his experiment. He wished to see whether a little alcohol every day would make them at all different from the other dogs who were not to take any.

Each pair of dogs was put into a separate kennel, and each kennel was in a large yard full of sunshine. These houses were kept clean and neat, while the dogs had all that the heart of a dog could wish,—plenty of good food, dog biscuit, fresh meat, eggs, and milk, with bones enough besides, so that they could gnaw to their heart's content. Of course they also had fresh drinking water two or three times a day.

The four dogs were treated exactly alike, except in one important respect. Every day Dr. Hodge mixed a little alcohol into the food that went to one of the kennels. The dogs liked their food better without it, but they had good appetites and ate whatever was given them. On the other hand, not a drop of alcohol went to the second kennel. This did not seem to make much difference at first, for all four dogs grew equally fast, and all looked equally strong and healthy.

The dogs had to be named, and Dr. Hodge called one pair Bum and Tipsy, because they took alcohol; the other pair, in the other kennel, he named Nig and Topsy. The first Topsy died soon after the experiment began, and Topsy number two took her place.

Albert S. Lyons

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