MH page 332

There is danger to health in the use of even sweet cider as ordinarily produced. If people could see what the microscope reveals in regard to the cider they buy, few would be willing to drink it. Often those who manufacture cider for the market are not careful as to the condition of the fruit used, and the juice of wormy and decayed apples is expressed. Those who would not think of using the poisonous, rotten apples in any other way, will drink the cider made from them, and call it a luxury; but the microscope shows that even when fresh from the press, this pleasant beverage is wholly unfit for use. [When this statement was made in 1905, it was common practice to manufacture cider as here described by the author. Today, in places where the purity of foods is not controlled, apple cider may still be made the same way. But where cider is produced under sanitary conditions, using good, sound fruit, obviously the objections disappear.—Publishers.]

Unsanitary food production methods and decayed ingredients make certain commercial ciders unsafe for consumption. Warns against microbiological and physical hazards in commercially manufactured cider.

Intoxication is just as really produced by wine, beer, and cider as by stronger drinks. The use of these drinks awakens the taste for those that are stronger, and thus the liquor habit is established. Moderate drinking is the school in which men are educated for the drunkard's career. Yet so insidious is the work of these milder stimulants that the highway to drunkenness is entered before the victim suspects his danger.

Mild alcoholic beverages stimulate the palate and pave the way for severe addiction. Argues that milder alcohols carry the same physiological risks of dependence as stronger spirits.

Some who are never considered really drunk are always under the influence of mild intoxicants. They are feverish, unstable in mind, unbalanced. Imagining themselves secure, they go on and on, until every barrier is broken down, every principle sacrificed. The strongest resolutions are undermined, the highest considerations are not sufficient to keep the debased appetite under the control of reason.

Chronic use of mild intoxicants subtly destabilizes mental balance, emotional control, and rational decision-making. Describes sub-clinical neurological and psychological effects of continuous mild alcohol use.