ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 281, 20 April 1911, Page 6

ALCOHOLOGY.

TEMPERANCE WALL-SHEET No. 2. SOME PROPERTIES OF ALCOHOL. (Published by Arrangement). Alcohol belongs to a class of drugs known as narcotics, which are stimulating for a short time and depressing for a much longer time. It is a poison in the same sense as chloroform, strychnine and opium arc poisons. Alcohol' has a great_ affinity for water. If substances containing water, such as meat and vegetables, are soaked in alcohol they lose this water and become tough and hard. The presence of alcohol in the stomach make more difficult the work of digestion. Alcohol is also able to absorb water from the tissues of the body. This explains why alcoholic drinks tend to make a person more thirsty rather than less thirsty. Beer contains from 5 to 6 per cent, of alcohol; wines contain from 9 to 23 per cent, of alcohol; spirits (gin, rum, whisky, brandy) contain from 40 to 50 j per cent. Effect of much alcohol on the organs of the body:— _l. Organs of digestion.—Much alcohol hinders digestion, and so tends to imperfect nourishment of the body. In the stomach an excessive flow of digestive juice is caused which is of no benefit to healthy individuals, and is wasted in the absence of food to digest. Further, acute inflammation may result, accompanied by the secretion of uncus, which hinders both the digestion and the absorption of food. The liver bettomes congested, slow and torpid, and does not. carry out its functions. It may become fatty and enlarged, and at a later stage may shrivel and harden, offering groat resistance to the (low of blood through it. 2. The lungs.—The lungs become less able to resist attacks of disease germs, and so an affection of the lungs' be66mes a very serious matter. .. .■•.,.. ~ 3. The blood.—The white, corpus.cle r s, which are the guardians of t'he,bo(ly and fight for us in time of disease, become more or less inert. The'germs 1 of'dis'case find, therefore, a much easiflF-jentrjvint? i the body. Even in small .quantities'a.b | eohnl reduces the efficiency of the red corpuscles, which carry oxygen to the tissues and remove carbon dioxide from them. -.(.[T 4. The heart and the circulation.—Experiment shows that alcohol -does not permanently strengthen (as is commonly supposed), but rather weakens the pumping powers of the heart. The heart tends to become unduly stretched and dilated, and fat is deposited in and about ; the muscle, even partly replacing.,,it. The heart is thus weaken'ed aria ' its pumping power considera'btj- ty'eßsiftfe'd. Both the muscles and the nerves of the j heart may become partly prifaTys'u'd. The tendency to heart failure, especially from shock, is thus increased. The functions of the circulatory system as a ' whole become seriously impaired.' Waste products are not properly removed, and waste tissues are not properly,-repaired. 5. The kidneys.—The filtering action of' the kidneys becomes seriously impaired, waste products being retained in the body while valuable substances'" (ire allowed to escape. Various ailments result, such as "rheumatic" pains, mental depression, and sickness. .Finally, in- s curable Bright's disease may'lie' induced. C. The brain and the nervous system.— ■ The power to receive impressions and the power to control movements are impaired. This is seen in the, case, of a drunken man. Prolonged indulgence leads to paralysis and insanity. , The constant drinking df alcoholic Ijcv-' erages not only may have bad effects on 1 the body of the individual, but may also be followed by still more serious conse-, quenc.es—namely, mental and moral injury to himself and great harm to others. ' (A set of Wall sheets, of which this is< No. 2, lias been published under the authority of the Government, to be hung on the walls of every public school in the Dominion).