Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-07-12
w. C. T. u. NOTES.

The W. C. T. U. will hold its annual
picnic July l2. at S. S. Bailey's suburban
home. 2 miles west on! r railroad avenue.
ALI friends invited to attend.
The eighth grade. prize winning essay
written by Miss Veta Kellogg:
THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE NERVOUS
SYSTEM.
In the past few years a remarkable
growth of scientific knowledge has
changed the opinion of medical experts as
to the value of alcohol. Science says:
1T is not food, but rank poison. a mar
cotc drug like ether. or chloroform.
whose tendency is to deaden and de-
stroy." The desire for alcohol is wholly
unnatural. 1t is cultivated habit
more and more alcohol required when
used habitually to produce the same eff
feet. The use of alcohol creates crav-
ing for more that cannot be satisfied.
The bodies of all plants and animals
are built up of very small forms Of mat
ter called cells. BY countless expert
ments with the lower forms of life. it has
been found that alcohol is injurious in
every case. A fatal influence on the pro-
cess of life. 1t is the same with these
cells of which our human bodies are
built. These may be healthy or more or
less exhausted. degenerated or poisoned.
Our subject deals with the effects of
alcohol on the nervous system. 1t is lik-
ened TO a delicate machine. CONT olling
and guiding our thoughts, emotions. our
memory, the movements. voluntary or in
voluntary, of every muscle, secretions of
all our glands. in fact every function Of
our body. The nervous system consists
of the brain, spinal cord and the nerves.
each part continuously connected with
the others and all of them consisting of
tine same highly specialized protoplasm in
the form of minute nerve cells and nerve
fiibers imbedied in supporting tissue or
frame work.
The brain is the controlling organ OF
the body, for not only are all our mental
powers dependent on its healthy activity.
but the beating of the heart and move
ments of the chest to maintain breathing.
are sustained by the activities of the
brain and spinal cord. The brain cere-
brum and eerebrum has a large blood
supply for nourishment of the delicate
nerve tissue. The great and little brain
receive their information and give out
their impulses by means of the spinal
cord. which is continuous with both and
gives off a series of nerves for out going
and incoming Impressions. The nerves
are the cords or bundles Of nerve fibers
which run from the skin to the spinal
cord and brain, and thence to the mus
eles and organs, such as lungs. liver and
stomach. There the whole body is
brought under the influence of the ner-
vous system. which on its part is effected
by and receives impulses from every
part of the body. Alcohol appears to
have special affinity for the brain This
organ also does more than any other.
and its delicate structure is correspond
ingly effected. 1t is necessary that the
blood sent to that organ should be cap
able of supplying oxygen freely. lntoxi-
cants bring to it poisoned blood with
only small supply of oxygen.
Another condition of healthy brain is
that the supply of blood be properly regu-
lated. One of the first effects of alcohol
is to excite the nerves. This stimulation
is really partial paralysis of the nerves
which regulate the flow of blood through