THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON HUMAN BODY.

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 370, 18 April 1926, Page 8

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON HUMAN BODY.

A lecture given by Dr. O’Brien. Mrs l*>n in the chair.

The Doctor said probably his audience had been disappointed at the late election, but it was not a good thing tio fore© a law upon an unwilling people. We ;ire educating the public, ami there can be no two opinions upon the quea tion that the community would be better off without the beverage use of aJ oohob The Prohibition voters were thinkers, but with the exception of a few astute minds leading them, the unthinking vote was wet. Alcohol is not a necessity. It interferes with the vital processes. These are food, warmth, circulation of the blood, and reproduction. Food: God knows His nvn business, and in milk has given a perfect food. Milk contains nc alcohol, but it contains all the necessary elements foj growth, development, and reproduction. As we grow beyond infancy, we replace the albumen of the milk witih meat fish, fruits and cheese; ita fats by milk ami butter and its sugar by cane sugar and starches. These three classes are all that are required. Sterilising food destroys its vitamines. Alcohol is not a food. When we take more food than is required—and most of us do this—the body stares it all up for future uses. It stores sugar in the liver, fat In the fatty tissues, and albu men in the blood. The body never throws out food in health. In diseased conditions, like diabetes and Bright’s disease, it may do this, but never wben in a healthy state. But let a person take alcohol, and imm< > diately the body <k>es Its best to get rid of It. Not one drop is stored up; it is breathed out, and in from 12 to 24 hours it Is all thrown out. When food is taken, the stomach digests, but. does not abeort> it; ♦'he digestive fluids liquify the food, tun starch into sugar, and in other ways prepare it for absorption into the blood. These food stufffc are pou'-ed into the blood as they are needed, aud never more at one time than the body can deal with. No digestive fluid will digest alcohoi; it -s absorbed Into the blood from the sto uach as alcohol and w>e cannot stop the absorption of alcohol The body only absortm sugar as it requires, but it goes on al*»orbing alcohol until the person dies. One-tenth

of 1 per cent, of adoohd in the blood causes drunkenness, the half of 1 per cent. of alcohol in the blood causes death. The body stores up food, ami ran then go without food for days, b<ut it cannot store aloohol, it cannot digest alcohol, it cannot convert aloohol into l*xly tissues. It gets rid of aloohol as speedily as possible. Aloohol Is not a food. But alcohol, while circulating, damages the tissues, such as the brain i and kidney cells. It contains no nitrogen, so it cannot replenish the body. Alcohol ami the Heart. The heart beats all day and night right throughout life, and this beat must not be interfered with. The normal beat of the heart is equal to the work of lifting 120 tons one foot each day. If two ounces of alcohol is taken it increases the heart’s beat by 8000, and thus increases the heart’s work an increase equal to lifting 15 tons one foot a day. The heart is controlled by the lower brain, called sometimes th' subconscious and thus never sleeps. Two nerves control the

heart’s act.on, the accelerator and pneumo-gasiric. Alcohol puts the pneumo gastric nerve to sleep, ,remov ing the control, and allows the accelerator to run away with the heart. The heart never sleeps, and its control nerve should never sleep. Alcohol puts this nerve to sleep, and allows the hmrt to be tired out. When we lie down at night to rest the heart does 10 beats a minute less. But if alcohol has been taken before retiring, it causes fast l>eat, and so the drinker wake* up t.red. Meat and Cold. The limits of temperature within, which man lives lire very narrow. Life ceases below’ 97 degrees and above 105 degrees. The

vaso motor centre in brain controls the temperature of the body. It never sleeps. If subject to extreme cold. It allows extremities to cool, but keei>s vital organs warm. Aloohol puts the vaso-motor to sleep, and the man who drinks radiates the heat from his body instead of the vital organs being kept warm. Reproduction is interfered with by alcohol. Stockard made extensive ex periments with guinea pigs—about 8000 of them. The guinea pig won t drink aloohol. so Stockard caused them to Inhale it. He mater! a maJe guinea pig alooholised with a normal female, a drunken female with a no -mal male, . and both guinea pigs drunk when mated. The results wera always the

same, He got premature births and deformities. He took some of th<» offsprings, who looked alright, ana bred them with normal guinea pigs, giving no aloohol after the first pair. The s© cond find third generation were defonn ed, and it was the fourth generation be fore the offspring were normal.

Having shown how perniciously alcohol interferes with vital principles, should its sale be continued because

some like it?

When is a man drunk? No man who drives a public conveyance should take liquor in business hours. Aloohol paralyses the higher faculties, judgment, selfesteem, and self-criticism, puta them to sleep.

Alcohol can be done without. It en dangers self and loved ones, Injure one’s offspring. Teach the young never to touch alcohol, and set them the example.