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Natural Wonders did not have much to say about chemistry, except in terms of poisons. A strong defence of Temperance, not to say Prohibition, flowed from Brewster's scientific pen:
《自然奇迹》里面没有讲太多的化学，只有一点关于毒物的知识。布鲁斯特讲得并不很学术，他说：
The life of any creature, man, animal or plant, is one long fight against being poisoned. The poisons get us in all sorts of ways … like alcohol, ether, chloroform, the various alkaloids, such as strychnin and atropin and cocain, which we use as medicines, and nicotin, which is the alkaloid of tobacco, the poisons of many toadstools, caffein which we get in tea and coffee. …
任何一种生物，无论是人还是植物，一生都是在与各种毒物斗争。毒物会通过各种渠道找上我们……酒精，氯仿，各种生物碱，比如做药的可卡因，还有尼古丁，也就是烟草的生物碱，各种毒菌的毒，以及我们喝的咖啡因……
There was another section headed 'Of Sugar and Other Poisons', explaining the effect of carbon dioxide in the blood, causing fatigue, and the action of the brain:
还有一章叫作《关于糖和其他毒物》，谈到了二氧化碳在血液中产生的影响，以及大脑对此的反应：
When the nerve center in the neck tastes a little carbon dioxid, it doesn't say anything. But the moment the taste begins to get strong (which is in less than a quarter minute after one starts running hard) it telephones over the nerves to the lungs: 'Here, here, here! What is the matter with you fellows Get busy. Breathe hard. This blood is fairly sizzling with burnt up sugar!'
当脖子里的神经中枢刚尝到一点儿二氧化碳时，它不会怎么样，但当这种感觉开始增强时（大概15秒以内），它就会通过神经传达给肺，它会说：「嘿嘿嘿！你们怎么回事？赶快干活了！用力呼吸！否则血液就要开始燃烧血糖了！」
All this was grist to Alan's mill, although at this point what interested him was the more sober claim that:
艾伦觉得这些都很有趣，但是下面这段关于「苏打」的比喻更有趣：
