Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-03-09

Alcohol and the Brain.
This subject is treated in a little
catechism. printed first in the Rams
Horn
Question. OF what is the brain made:
Answer. Of soft white fibres or
threads, and little cells of gray matter.
folded and wrinkled very much like the
meat of an English walnut.
q. What is the shape and size of the
brain?
A. Its shape is much like that of an
egg. 1t is packed closely in the skull,
and it usually weighs little more than
three pounds.
q. How is it protected from injury?
A. BY the bones of the skull, which
form strong box for the brain.
q What is the brain for?
A. 1t is the organ of the mind. 1t
does all our thinking, receives all our
knowledge, plans all our actions, and
controls all our movements.
q. How does il control our move
mcnts:
A. 1t is connected with all other parts
of the body by small, white cords called
nerves, over which it sends Its messages
to move or to keep still.
q. What may we call the brain?
A. We may call it the body's tele-
graph Office, and the nerves telegraph
lines, while the mind is the operator.
G. If you cut your finger what hap
pens:
A. The finger telegraphs over Its
nerve 20 the BRAIN, II am hurt, and the
brain answers back, "Throw down your
knife
q Is the brain a busy organ:
A. Yes, indeed. 1t should be the
hardest working part of the body.
q. Then what care should it have:
A. The very best of care. People
who do hard brain work should be very
well fed. They need better food than
people who only work with their hands.
q Does the brain waste ike other
parts of the body:
A. Yes; only faster. Every thought
we think kills little bit of the brain
matter.
q. Then what must he done:
\. More brain matter must be built
of the blood sent to the brain.
q. What sort of blood does this
require:
A. Pure, healthy blood made of goot
food. No other part of the body suffer;
so much from bad food as the brain does
1t also needs fresh air and sunlight ant
sleep to keep 1t well and able to think
strongly.
@ Is alcohol good brain food?
\. Alcohol is not food for anything
and Injuries the brain more, a great deal
than any other part of the body. 1t i
especially a brain poison, and acts upOl
the brain at once. 1t seems to fl,
through the stomach and the bloc,
vessels to reach the brain in an instant.
q, How does alcohol niure the brain
A. 1t carries to it bad blood unfit t,
repair its waste. 1t robs it of its need
full water and makes it hard. 1t reall,
cooks the brain.
q. What else does ii do:
A. 1t weakens the little blood vessel
so that they often burst, and let tn
blood flow out into the substance of tn
brain, producing apopleXy, of whicl
many drinking people die.
@. How does alcohol affect the brain
work?
A. 1t destroys the brains power t.
think or to control the body as it ought
When mans brains are so effected b,
alcoholic liquors as to destroy his powe
to think or to control the body, what hs
he become? An idiot. The idiocy ma
pass of with the liquors, but it is rea
while it lasts.
1t is characteristic of many dilleren
poisons that they especially affect onl
certain parts of the body, as bad poiso
fastens upon the muscles of the wrist an
strychnia affects the spinal cord. Tn
poison, alcohol, found in all intOXicatin
liquors, especially attacks the nervou
! system, affecting the brain most severely
A man without brains is deprived c
intelligence, of self control, of mora
convictions, of moral judgment and col
troll. A college-bred man is as niue
affected by the loss of his brains as
the biggest clod-hopper. lntoxicatin
liquors deprive man of the use of h
brains, and so they as completely ups'
, a ID. d., or an IL D., or Pm. D., as
Digger Indian of California.
Government is built upon brains, an
md brains at that, for only such Civ