The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-01-01
hree oxygen expressed chemically as three

!
stances that are preserved by being i'm
mersed in bottles of it and sealed up. The
! flesh is partly charred or burnt by contact
with it; but as the air is excluded, further
change ceases.
Science has now developed another agent,
| servation of specimens, for scientific or
medical purposes than alcohol, and it is
! largely used in its stead.
| Alcohol is powerful solvent of many
vegetable substances or oils that can only
| be sparingly dissolved in water, and hence
is used in extracting the medical qualities
from banks, herbs, roots and berries of
various sorts. The essences of the drug
gist are all made with strong alcohol.
| Alcohol is lighter than water and bois
at lower temperature, and is thus sepa-
rated by gentle heat. But it always car
ries some water with it, and the strongest
alcohol is ninety-five per cent. only the
other five being water. Pure alcohol can
not be frozen at any temperature that we
produce, and hence is very useful in Their
mometers for low temperatures, and is used
in many cases where the cold of our Win
rerS would make water useless. 1t is used
/ in the manufacture of illuminating gas, and
| the small part of the alcoholic vapor that
it contains is enough to prevent the water
that condenses in the pipes from freezing.
| Alcohol burns with great heat, but emits
very little light. Hydrogen, being the
main element in its composition, burns
with a blue flame, the carbon giving the
! white light that is so desirable for illuminat-
ing purposes. Its great heating qualities
when burned in the alcohol lamp, are well
known, and you can see it in daily use by
the dentist, the watch maker, and various
other artisans where a high heat is needed
| to free metals 1t is now also used by the
oyster man, to get you up "stew y in
short time, as it furnishes greater heat
than coal fire, and can be lighted with
a match when wanted. 1t burns without
any smell or smoke, and here again is
simple chemical change. What was alco-
hol carbon two, oxygen four, hydrogen
six, by the touch of fire is resolved again
into carbonic acid gas and water. Toprove
this, invert glass jar over the flame and
the water will condense on the inside with
out any SCOT or other foreign substance, and
the carbonc acid being colorless, escapes
also unnotced.
| We have briefly treated of the scientific
and legitimate uses Of alcohol, and we will
only briefly touch upon the unscientitic
abuse of it.
| Because alcohol gives out great heat
when burned in spirit lamp, it does not
at all follow that it will produce like effect
when introduced into the human stomach.
| Kerosene produces great light also, but
will it illuminate a man at night if he take
it inwardly and of the two, alcohol is the
more violent poison. It's pungent proper
| ties in it's concentrated form are known,
and it takes but "a small quantity to kill a
small animal, and not more than a quart to
produce almost instant death in man.
| Taken in small portions it becomes mar
cotic stimulant and produces a temporary
exhilaration of the nervous system. 1t, by
this means, quickens the pulse and at the
same time lowers the temperature of the
blood. 1t also retards digestion and pre-
vents the work of the stomach, while it
paralyzes the muscles that surround it. 1t
is thus that it aleviates pain in some cases,
but does not remove the cause, just as laud-
| mum relieves an aching tooth.
Careful doctors use it occasionally to
| lower the temperature in cases of high
| fever, and Commands use it to postpone the
penalty that nature for the over crowding
of the digestive apparatus. Topers use it
| to make them feel strong when they are
weak, merry when they are sad, rich when
they are poor, and comfortable for little
while when they know that they are thor
| oughly miserable.
By continued use the system comes to
demand it, and what was once enough to
| produce an effect no longer suftces, and
he who drank at first "to be sociable with
| friend,' or because call the young fel-
lows do" now drinks because a shattered,
nervous system will not at once respond to
the demands upon it if the stimulus is
| withheld.
The Almighty has endowed all his rational
creatures with a nervous energy far above
any of the brute creation, and if this nerve
power is only properly used, it is sufficient
! for all our purposes without any stimulant
whatever. No stimuant that has ever been
devised by man can increase this, and the
inevitable effect of all intoxicating drinks
is to shorten or weaken human life or energy
in just the proportion in which it is used.
Having now shown the uses and a few
of the abuses of alcohol, We will leave an
intelligent public to form their own conclu
sion as to the necessity of the present state
of things, or the wisdom that has fostered
and built up an iniquitous traffic that is
now not only destroying the individual and
collective industry and intellect of the na-
ton, but is even grasping with its suici
dial hand for the throat of the government
| itself
| SOME QUEER RAILWAY BUILDERS
There were workmen on the Pacific rail
way even more curious than the Irish or
Chinese navvies. During the Summer of
1868, the Laramie river became very low,
much to the distress of 4 contractor who
had cut great many thousand ties
the timbers on which the rails are laid
and which he expected to float down to
the point where the railroad was to cross.
He was at first at loss to know what to
| do, but resolved finally to build a dam