The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-09-25
TEMPERANCE READING.
ALCOHOL in THE SYSTEM.

49, @hFS@ ~ IT, ~ ~ 1919
Notes from an Address to the Students
of Knox College by Prof. Albert Hurd.
The familiar phenomenon of blushing
is produced by some emotion, either
agreeable or other. V. A. s. Hills
Rhetorics, p. AZ. The circulatory sys-
tenn, consisting of heart, arteries, veins
and capillaries, is supplied with nerves
from the sympathetic system. When
these nerves are in their normal condi-
ton, they maintain certain tension in
the muscular walls of the arteries and
veins. If from any cause the sympa-
thetic nerve is paralyzed, the tension is
removed from the blood-vessels which
it supplies, and the result is an in
creased flow of blood in the arteries. SO
that the small capillaries become
gorged with blood. Such is the case
when some sudden emotion takes pos
session of the mind; hot flush is felt;
the skin grows red. Sometimes these
changes are confined to the cheeks
only, Oh they extend to 1.-The roots of
the hair" or "all over"
Alcohol produces the same results.
Very soon after alcohol is taken into
the system it paralyzes the sympathetic
nerve. The tension in the walls of the
blood-vessels is lost; an increased flow
of blood finds its way into the small
capillaries which gives the skin of the
face and neck especially. flushed APP
pearance. When alcohol is habitually
taken, the elasticity of the muscular
walls of the blood-vessels is, in a large
measure, lost; so that after the immedi-
ate effects of the alcohol have passed
away the blood-yessels fail to resume
Their normal size, and the flushed APP
pearance of the face becomes per-
manent.
Now, the heart IS a pump, filing the
arteries which lead from it with blood.
When the normal tens on is removed
from these arteries and they become
enlarged, it takes more blood to fill
them. So that, whereas, in q healthy
state the arteries by their tensions are
check upon the action of the heart
under the diseased condition produced
by alcohol. that check is removed and
the flabby walls of the arteries, crying
for more blood, offer no resistance to
the action of the heart. In a healthy
person the heart beats seventy times
per minute, or about 100, 900 in q day.
Careful experiments show that two
ounces of alcohol. the amoung very
moderate ale or whisky drinker takes
daily, increase the heart beats 5000 in
twenty-four hours. So then the heart
of moderate drinker beats LOG, 900
times, instead of 100, 900 times in day.
The force exerted by the heart in beat
ing 5000 times would lift a weight of
seven tons to height of one foot Put
ting the result in another form, the
heart is driven to do extra work equal
to lifting 653 pounds one foot high each
hour. Is it any wonder that feeling
of languor succeeds, or that reaction
follows when the immediate effects of
the alcohol have passed off?
The effect of alcohol upon albumen
can readily be seen by dropping an egg
into glass of alcohol 1t is immedi-
ately cooked. Albumen forms a large
part of the tissues of the body. Alcohol
hardens the albumen in the tissues, Just
as it hardens it in the egg. The very
delicate walls of the air-cells of the
lungs are thus thickened and hardened.
When the impure blood is brought to
the lungs. to exchange its carbonic acid
and other waste products for oxygen,
it finds between it and the fresh air a
thickened, hardened membrane through
which the exchange can be made but
slowly and imperfectly. The blood
must return to the tissues of the body
still filled with impurities. The cor
puscles still charged with carbonic acid
are enlarged. and thus the blood is
made thick.
Alcohol has a strong affinity for wa
ter. it drinks up all the moisture of the
body and causes inordinate thirst. AL
cohol bcgets a strong appetite for it
SELF so that the thirst which it produces
is generally slaked for the time being
by more copious draughts from some
drink containing alcohol, thus only
augmenting the evil
Alcohol is not assimilated by the
body, but must be thrown off as waste
matter. This is the opinion of many
eminent physicians on both sides of the
Atlantic. 1t is true that few physi-
clans of acknowledged authority main
tain that small amount of alcohol may
be incorporated into the body Yet in
the amount of alcohol that very mod
crate drinker takes daily, this can be
but an exceedingly small per cent. I'm
doubtedly almost the entire amount of
alcohol taken into the system remains
a foreign element until it is thrown of
by the excretory organs. Alcohol thus
entails upon the excretOry organs an
un0ue amount of labor which they are
not calculated to perform.
The effects of alcohol upon the brain
are easily foreseen when we reflect that
the brain is composed largely of aIbu-
men. 1t is not a matter of speculation,
but of actual experiment The brains
of drunkards are upon examination
found TO be hardened. The delicate
structure is destroyed. The mental eff
feet produced by alcohol leading on to
the most dreadful of al diseases of the
nerves, are well known.
The exhilarating effects of alcohol
are only apparent. For short time it
produces, as we have seen, an increased
activity OF the circulatory organs, but a
reaction follows. Under its continued
use the tone of the system is lowered.
Persons addicted to the use of alcoholic
liquors are in more danger from cpl
denies than temperance people. The
system that is tlogged by alcohol, SO
that the heart j. overworked, in which
the tissues of me air cells OF the lungs
are hardened so that the blood is put
imperfectly purified in the lungs, is in
no condition to repel the attacks of dis
ease. This has been clearly shown in
cases of ep:demics. In one town in
France cholera proved fatal TO every
drunkard there