Chapter XI: Part XI (1)

FORMULA FOR THE LESSON ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

1. My brain is a soft gray-and-white mass resembling marrow.

2. It is placed in a bony box called the skull; it is covered and held together by three coats or membranes.

3. The outer membrane is thick and firm; it strengthens and supports the brain.

4. The middle membrane is thick, and somewhat like a spider's web in appearance.

5. The inner membrane is a network of blood-vessels.

6. From the brain, white or reddish gray pulpy cords, called nerves, pass to all parts of the body. These nerves are of two kinds: nerves of feeling, and nerves of motion.

7. If I prick my finger, a nerve of feeling carries the message to my brain; if I wish to move my finger, a nerve of motion causes my finger to obey my will.

8. Twelve pairs of nerves pass from the base of the brain: the first pair, called the nerves of smell, to my nose; the fourth pair, called the nerves of sight, to my eyes; the fifth pair, called the nerves of taste, to my mouth, tongue, and teeth. One pair pass to my face; another to my ears. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth pairs to my tongue and parts of my throat and neck.[3]

9. The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves extending from the base of my brain, down through the whole length of my spine, or backbone. It is the largest nerve in my body.

10. From the spine, thirty-one pairs of nerves, called _spinal nerves_, pass to different parts of my body; some to the lungs, some to the heart, some to the stomach, some to the bones, and some to the muscles and skin.

11. If a nerve be destroyed it cannot carry messages to and from the brain. Before filling a tooth, the dentist sometimes destroys its nerve.

12. If a nerve be pressed upon too long it cannot perform its duty. If I press upon the nerve passing to my foot, I stop it from communicating with the brain; the foot loses its feeling, or, as I say, "is asleep."

13. If I drink alcoholic liquors, or snuff, smoke, or chew tobacco, my brain and nerves cannot do their work well; because alcohol and nicotine are very poisonous to the brain and nerves.

14. The brain must be supplied with good blood;

The brain must be used;

The brain must be rested;

I must drink wholesome drink, eat wholesome food, take enough exercise, and breathe pure air, that my brain may be supplied with pure blood;

I must study and think, that my brain may grow and be strong for work;

I must rest my brain when it is tired, either by changing my employment, or by going to sleep;

I must not poison my brain with alcohol or tobacco.

[3] NOTE.--_A fuller description of the Nerves of the Brain_: Twelve pairs of nerves pass from the base of the brain; the first pair, called the nerves of smell, to my nose; the second pair, called the nerves of sight, to my eyes; the third, fourth, and sixth pairs to the muscles of my eyes; the fifth pair to my forehead, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, teeth, and different parts of my face; the seventh pair to different parts of my face; the eighth pair, called the nerves of hearing, to the inner part of my ear; the ninth pair to my mouth, tongue, and throat; the twelfth pair to my tongue; the eleventh pair to my neck; the tenth pair to my neck, throat, lungs, stomach, and different parts of my body.

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QUESTIONS ON THE FORMULA.

1. Describe the brain.

2. Where is the brain placed?

3. Describe the outer membrane of the brain.

4. Describe the middle membrane of the brain.

5. Describe the inner membrane of the brain.

6. Tell about the nerves.

7. Tell about the use of the two kinds of nerves.

8. Tell about the nerves which pass from the brain.

9. Tell about the spinal cord.

10. Tell about the nerves which pass from the spinal cord.

11. What happens if a nerve be destroyed?

12. What happens if a nerve be pressed upon too long?

13. What happens if you drink alcoholic liquors, or snuff, smoke, or chew tobacco?

14. What is necessary if you would have a healthy brain?

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THE BRAIN AND ITS WORK.

The brain is egg-shaped, and of two parts, the large brain (_cerebrum_), and the little brain (_cerebellum_). These are composed of a white and gray substance, which in the large brain is so folded and wrinkled that it looks like the meat of an English walnut; in the little brain it is so arranged that it resembles a tree, and is called _arbor vitae_, tree of life. The mind does its thinking through the large brain, and controls its muscles through the little brain.

A drunken man can not walk straight because alcohol has hurt the little brain; he can not think straight because it has poisoned the large brain.

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C, the large brain (_cerebrum_). B, the small brain (_cerebellum_). S, a portion of the spinal cord.

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QUESTIONS ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

Where is your brain?--"In my skull."

What color is the brain?--"Gray and white."

What does the brain resemble?--"Marrow."

How is the brain protected?--"By three coats or membranes."

What may you name these membranes?--"The outer membrane, the middle membrane, and the inner membrane."

Describe the outer membrane. See Formula.

Describe the middle membrane. See Formula.

What are the nerves?--"White ashen-gray pulpy cords, which are found in the brain."

Where do they go from the brain?--"To every part of the body."

How many kinds of nerves have you?--"Two."

What names are given to the two kinds of nerves?--"Nerves of motion and nerves of feeling."

Which is the largest nerve in the body?--"The spinal cord."

Where is the spinal cord?--"It extends from the brain throughout the whole length of the backbone."

How may you describe the spinal cord?--"It is a bundle of nerves, etc." See Formula.

Where are the spinal nerves?--"They pass from the spinal cord to different parts of the trunk and limbs."

How many pairs of nerves pass from the base of the brain?--"Twelve."

Where do the first pair go?--"To the nose."

What are they called?--"The nerves of smell."

Where do the second pair go?--"To the eyes."

What are the second pair called?--"The nerves of sight."

Which move the muscles of the eyes?--"The third, fourth, and sixth pairs."

Where do the fifth pair go?--"To the forehead, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, teeth, and different parts of the face."

The seventh pair?--"To the different parts of the face."

The eighth pair?--"To the inner ear."

What are the eighth pair called?--"The nerves of hearing."

Where do the ninth pair go?--"To the mouth, tongue, and throat."

Where do the twelfth pair go?--"To the tongue."

Where do the eleventh pair go?--"To the neck."

Where do the tenth pair go?--"To the neck, throat, lungs, stomach, and different parts of the body."

What happens if a nerve be destroyed?--"It cannot carry messages to the brain."

What happens if a nerve be pressed upon too long?--"It cannot carry messages to the brain."

What is necessary if you would have a strong, healthy brain?--"My brain must be used; my brain must be rested; my brain must be supplied with pure blood."

How must you use your brain?--"In thinking and studying."

How may the brain be rested?--"By sleep."

In what other way may the brain be rested?--"By thinking of something different from that which made it tired."

What two brain-poisons have you learned about?--"Alcohol and tobacco."[4]

With what may you show the harm done by alcohol to the gray part of the brain?--"With alcohol and the white of an egg."

How could you show it with these?--"I would pour the alcohol upon the white of the egg."

What would then happen?--"The white of the egg would harden as if it had been boiled."

What is in the white of an egg?--"Water and albumen."

Where else may we find albumen?--"In some seeds, and in the gray part of the brain and the nerves."

What harm does alcohol do to the nerves?--"It takes away their moisture and hardens them."

What harm does this do to them?--"It paralyzes them, or makes them lose their power."

What happens when nerves are paralyzed?--"They lose their power over the muscles; they are unfit to carry messages to and from the brain."

What harm does alcohol do to the gray part of the brain?--"It hardens it, as it hardens the white of an egg."

What harm does this do to the brain?--"It paralyzes it, or makes it lose its power."

What then happens?--"It cannot properly do its work of thinking, and cannot control the nerves."

What disease is sometimes caused by this hardening of the brain by alcohol?--"Paralysis, which often ends in death."

What harm does alcohol do to the blood-vessels of the brain?--"It fills them with impure blood."

What disease is caused by the blood-vessels of the brain being filled with impure blood?--"Congestion of the brain, or apoplexy, which ends in death."

What else frequently happens to those who drink alcoholic liquors?--"They become crazy, or insane."

If you wish to have a strong, healthy brain, what should you do about these liquors?--

"Never put them into my mouth,
To steal away my brains."

Tell of what dreadful disease people die who are bitten by a mad dog.--"Of hydrophobia."

Of what dreadful disease do people sometimes die who are bitten by the serpent in alcoholic liquors?--"Of delirium tremens."

Which is the more dreadful, hydrophobia or delirium tremens?--"One is as dreadful as the other."

How can you be sure never to have delirium tremens?--"By drinking nothing which has alcohol in it."

Will a little beer or wine hurt you?--"Yes, it may make me love the taste of alcohol."

What harm is there in loving the taste of alcohol?--"I may love it so much as to become a drunkard."

Tell once more how you should treat alcoholic liquors.--"I should never drink a drop of them."

[4] See Appendices.

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ALCOHOL.

THE STORY ABOUT ALCOHOL.

Several hundred years ago many people were trying to discover something that would keep them young and strong, and prevent them from dying. It is said by some that a man named Paracelsus, in making experiments, discovered _alcohol_. He called it "the water of life," and boasted that he would never be weak and never die; so he went on drinking alcoholic liquors until at last he died in a drunken fit.

What is this alcohol which has done and is doing so much mischief in the world? I will show you some. What does it look like?--"Water." Yes; and if you were to smell it you would say it has a somewhat pleasant odor; if you were to taste it, that it has a hot, biting taste, _i.e._, is pungent. If you put a lighted match to it you would notice that it burns easily, and with a flame, and may therefore be said to be combustible and inflammable.

What does it come from? Is it one of the drinks God has given us? Some of the class think it is; we will try to learn whether this answer is correct or not. If we study about it very carefully we shall discover that it is not a natural drink, that it is not found except where it has been made from decayed or rotten fruits, grains, or vegetables.

If you take some apples, and squeeze the juice out of them, you will find it sweet and pleasant; let that juice stand for several days and what will happen to it?--"It will get bad." Yes; or, as grown people say, it will _work_ or _ferment_; that is, the sugary part of the juice will be separated into a kind of gas and a liquid. The gas is called _carbonic acid gas_; the liquid is _alcohol_. Both the gas and the liquid are poisonous.

Alcohol may also be obtained from other fruits, as grapes, and from some grains and vegetables. But all these must first become rotten before alcohol will come out of them. This is one reason why we think that God, who gives us good, wholesome food, did not intend alcohol to be a drink for man, else He would have put it into the delicious ripe fruit, and not made it impossible to get until they decay.

Now let us put upon the blackboard something which will help us remember what we have learned about

ALCOHOL. DISCOVERED BY DESCRIPTION. MADE FROM Paracelsus. Water-like; with a Fruits, Grains, or pleasant odor; a Vegetables. CALLED hot, biting taste; "The water of life." and will burn with a flame.

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USES OF ALCOHOL.

We put some sugar into water; the children see that it melts; then some glue or shellac is placed in the same liquid; they see that this is not melted, but that, when alcohol is used instead of water, the glue or shellac is dissolved. From this experiment they learn that alcohol is used in making varnishes.

Some water is poured into one saucer, and alcohol into another; a lighted match is applied to each; the class notices that the alcohol takes fire and burns, while the water does not.

Next, we fill a lamp with alcohol, and put a wick into it; when the wick becomes wet with the fluid it burns steadily and without smoke, as may be seen by holding a clean white saucer over the flame. This shows why jewellers and others, who wish to use a lamp to make things very hot, prefer alcohol to kerosene, which, as the children know, smokes lamp-chimneys, or anything else, so easily.

We show a thermometer; the children are told its use if they are not already familiar with the instrument; we talk about the quicksilver in the tube, about its rising or falling according to the degree of heat or cold; then we inform the class that in some countries where it is very cold quicksilver freezes; for this reason alcohol, which does not freeze, is colored red and put into the thermometer tube to be used in these Arctic regions.

Another use for alcohol is to keep or preserve substances. This we illustrate by placing a piece of meat into some alcohol. We explain that the water in the meat is that which causes it to decay. Alcohol has the power to take up or _absorb_ water; so when meat is put into this liquid the water from the meat is absorbed by it, and the meat does not become bad. Those who wish to preserve insects a long time, and doctors who desire to keep any portion of a human body after death, put these into alcohol, in which they may be kept for a long time.

Lastly, we let the children smell cologne or other perfumery, and tell them this is made from different oils mixed with alcohol.

At the close of this lesson the class is ready to help us make the following BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

FACTS ABOUT ALCOHOL. GOOD USES OF ALCOHOL. It melts gums. To melt gums. Burns with a flame. To make varnishes. Burns without smoke. To burn in lamps. Will not freeze. To make camphene, etc. Likes water. To put into thermometer Mixes with oils. tubes. To preserve meats, etc. To make perfumery. In making jewelry.

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USES OF ALCOHOL--_concluded_.

You see alcohol is very useful for some purposes; but do people ever drink it? Some of the children think not, and we grant that no one is foolish enough to drink _raw_ alcohol, because it is too strong. It would take only a little to make them drunk, and only a few ounces to kill them instantly.

We ask the pupils if they have ever seen a drunken person, and what made that person drunk? We soon obtain an answer, and place upon the board "Rum, gin, whiskey, brandy," as the names of drinks which will take away the good sense of those who drink them. To these are added "Wine, beer, ale, lager, and cider."

We explain that all these have alcohol in them, as may be known by smelling them, or by smelling the breath of those who have drunk even a little of them; and that because they contain alcohol they are called _alcoholic liquors_. If a person drinks any one of them he will be poisoned, more or less, according to how much he takes. The children are astonished at the word _poisoned_, but we explain that the very word, _intoxicated_, means poisoned. So a drunken man is a poisoned man. If enough alcohol, or alcoholic liquor, is drunk by anyone, he will drop down dead as quickly as if he were shot by a cannon ball.

When told that alcohol is not a food, but a poison, the class readily understands what we mean, and we have no difficulty in having the following statements prepared and memorized:

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FOOD.

That which makes the body grow, and helps to keep it alive.

POISON.

That which hurts the body, and makes it die.

ALCOHOL.

QUALITIES. GOOD USES. Water-like, _looks like To melt gums. water_. To make varnishes. Transparent, _may be seen To burn in lamps. through clearly_. To make camphene, etc. Odorous, _has a smell_. To put in thermometer Pungent, _has a hot, biting tubes. taste_. To preserve meats, insects, Liquid, _will flow in etc. drops_. To make perfumery. Poisonous, _hurts the In making jewelry. body_. Intoxicating, _takes away the BAD USE. senses; makes drunk_. To drink. Absorbent, _takes up or absorbs water_. Inflammable, _burns with a flame_. Uncongealable, _will not freeze_. Innutritious, _not good for food_.

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ABOUT FERMENTATION AND FERMENTED LIQUOR.

_ALCOHOL._--Alcohol may be obtained from any substance which contains sugar or starch, or both sugar and starch, as apples, pears, grapes, potatoes, beets, rice, barley, maple, honey, etc.

Alcohol can be obtained only by _fermentation_. By fermentation we mean the change which takes place when a juice containing sugar decays, or goes to pieces. You know decay always makes things fall to pieces.

You ask, what pieces is sugar made of? Very, very little pieces, called _atoms_. There are different kinds of sugar. In that made from grapes, called _grape sugar_, there are six atoms of carbon, twelve of hydrogen, and six of oxygen. What are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen? Oxygen is the kind of gas which keeps animals alive, and makes things burn. Hydrogen is another kind, which you have smelled perhaps when water has been spilled on a hot stove; the gas burned in street-lamps is hydrogen that has been driven out of coal. Carbon you see in charcoal and soot; the black lead of your lead-pencils is mostly composed of carbon and iron; lamp-black is pure carbon, without form or shape.

We will let these circles of colored paper stand for the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in grape sugar,--the largest, which are red, for the oxygen; the second size, which you notice are black, will represent atoms of carbon; while the little blue ones will make you think of hydrogen.

If you remember that it takes one atom of carbon and two of oxygen to make carbonic acid gas; also, that two atoms of carbon, one of oxygen, and six of hydrogen to form alcohol, you can easily find that two atoms of carbonic acid gas and two atoms of alcohol may be formed from an atom of sugar. So the more sugar a juice contains the more alcohol may be formed from it.

_CIDER._--Cider is made by pressing the juice out of apples. This sweet cider ferments, and the sugar part of it changes into carbonic acid gas and alcohol. People who do not understand this go on drinking cider, not knowing that it makes drunkards of those who drink much of a beverage which seems so pleasant and harmless.

_WINES._--Wines are made from the juices of fruits which have sugar in them, especially grapes. Sometimes people have what they call _home-made wines_, which they make from blackberries, currants, elderberries, gooseberries, cherries, or other fruits. They may ask you to take some, saying, "This will do you no harm; we did not put any alcohol into it." They do not know what you have learned, that alcohol is always formed in fermented juices which contain sugar. It does not wait to be put into the home-made wines; it quietly comes in as they are getting made, at home or any other place, and will make people drunk as surely as when it is found in brandy or any other liquor.

Some of the wines in the stores are made from grape juice, but many more are made by mixing hurtful and poisonous things together to make the liquor strong, and give it what is called a fine color and good taste.

_BEER AND ALES._--These are made from grains and hops, which contain no sugar, it is true, but are composed of starch, which may be changed into sugar. When a seed of grain is put into the ground and begins to grow, the starch in it becomes sugar, which feeds the young plant. When a brewer wishes to make beer, he takes some grain, puts it in a dark place, wets it, and leaves it to sprout, or begin to grow. Then he puts it into an oven to dry it, and make it stop growing. This makes what is called _malt_. The malt is mashed and soaked in warm water to get the sugar out of it; this forms a liquid called _sweet wort_. The wort is separated from the mashed grain and boiled; yeast is mixed with it to help it to ferment more quickly; it soon becomes changed; a dirty yellow scum filled with bubbles comes to the top, which we know is the poisonous carbonic acid gas; the other poison, alcohol, stays in the liquid and makes the beer taste good to those who like it.

Liquors made from grain are called _malt liquors_. Lager beer, and all kinds of ales and porters, are malt liquors. They make people dull, sluggish, and stupid who drink much of them. They do much mischief in the body, though it takes a larger quantity of any one of them to make a person drunk than it does of whiskey or brandy.

AN ATOM OF GRAPE SUGAR. CARBONIC ACID GAS. ALCOHOL. Carbon, 6 atoms. Carbon, 1 atom. Carbon, 2 atoms. Oxygen, 6 atoms. Oxygen, 2 atoms. Oxygen, 1 atom. Hydrogen, 12 atoms. Hydrogen, 6 atoms.

SUB-FERMENTED GRAPE SUGAR MAKES 2 atoms of carbonic acid gas and 2 atoms of alcohol.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS MADE FROM FRUITS. GRAINS. _Cider._ _Wines._ _Beer, Ales, etc._ Apples. Grapes, Gooseberries, Barley, Oats, _Perry._ Currants, Elderberries, Wheat, Peas, etc. Pears. Blackberries, Cherries, etc. Corn, (with hops).

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DISTILLATION.

How does the sugar in grapes and other fruits become alcohol?--"By fermenting." Yes, and liquors made by fermenting are called _fermented liquors_. What other alcoholic drinks have you heard about beside cider, wines, beer, and ales?--"Gin, whiskey, brandy, rum." These are stronger than the fermented liquors, that is, they contain more alcohol; they are made by what is called _distillation_.

If you boil water, and let the steam from it fall upon a cold plate, the steam will change back into liquid and become _distilled_ water. Making a liquid boil, catching the vapor or steam and cooling it, is what we mean by distillation.

If two or more liquids are mixed together, the one that boils with the least heat will be drawn off first. The alcohol of beer, cider, and wines is mixed with water; it boils at a lower heat than water, so can be drawn off from it very easily. This does not make more alcohol, it only makes the alcohol stronger by separating it from the water.

When beer or any other alcoholic liquor is to be distilled, it is poured into a large copper boiler, called a _still_, and boiled. A tube carries the vapor from the boiler into a cask filled with cold water. This tube is coiled like a spiral line or worm through the cask; it is called _the worm of the still_, and the cask is _the worm-tub_. As the vapor passes through the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or distilled.

In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented molasses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them. But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when they have become drunkards.

DEFINITIONS.

_DISTILLATION._ Drawing the vapor from a boiling liquid and cooling it.

_STILL._ Machinery for distilling; the boiler which holds the liquid.

_THE WORM OF THE STILL._ The tube which passes from the still to a cask, in which it coils like a worm.

_WORM-TUB._ The cask which holds the tube or worm, and receives the distilled liquid.

_DISTILLED LIQUID._ A liquid formed by cooled steam.

_DISTILLED LIQUORS._ Liquors made by distilling alcoholic liquors.

_FERMENTED._ Changed by decay.

_FERMENTED LIQUORS._ Liquors which have been fermented or changed by decay, and contain alcohol.

_UNFERMENTED._ Not decayed.

_UNFERMENTED LIQUORS._ Liquors which contain no alcohol.

KINDS OF LIQUORS [5]UNFERMENTED. FERMENTED. DISTILLED. Grape juice, Hard cider, Gin, Sweet cider, (Malt liquors) Brandy, Root beer, Beer, Whiskey, Ginger beer. Lager beer, Rum. Perry. Ale, Porter,

Wine.

[5] These soon become fermented; they then contain alcohol.

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HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE BODY.

Raw alcohol does not do much harm to people because it is too strong for them to drink much of it; but the alcohol hidden in cider, ale, wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic drinks kills not less than _sixty thousand_ persons in this country every year, besides those who die from its use in other parts of the world.

There is great excitement when there is a mad dog around; and, if any one is bitten and dies from the dreadful hydrophobia, people are ready to destroy all the dogs of the neighborhood; but when a drunkard dies from delirium tremens or alcohol craziness, how few take any notice of the cause of his death, or do all they can to wage war against the use of alcoholic liquors.

But why do we say such hard things against these liquors which some people love so well and think so harmless? In what way do they hurt and kill people? Let us see. Where does what we drink go after it has been put into the mouth?--"Into the stomach." If it were the right thing to go into the stomach, into what would it be changed?--"Into something which helps to make good blood."

Learned men, who have examined and carefully studied about these things, tell us that _the stomach is hurt_ by alcohol, because the fiery fluid is not food, but poison which makes the stomach very sore, and gives it hard work to do. The veins of the stomach take it up and send it into the liver. The liver, which is a large organ weighing about four pounds, lies on the right side below the lungs; its work is, to help make the blood pure. It can do nothing with alcohol, so it drives it along to the heart; the heart sends it to the lungs; the lungs throw some of it out through the breath, which smells of the vile stuff that has been poisoning every part it has passed through since it entered the mouth.

Some of the alcohol does not get out of the lungs through the breath, but goes with the blood back to the heart, and from the heart is sent through the arteries to every part of the body. No part of the body wants it.

_The Skin_ drives some of it out, through its little pores, with the perspiration.

_The Kidneys_, which lie in the back below the waist, on each side of the spine, send off some of the poison.

Yet some of it gets into _the brain_, and there does very much mischief, of which you will learn more by and by. You know, if the brain is hurt, the mind cannot do its work of thinking properly; thus, alcohol does great _harm to the mind_ through the brain.

_The muscles_ and _the bones_ are hurt by not being supplied with pure blood; _the heart_ gets tired out with overwork, and _the lungs_ become diseased through this same terrible alcohol.

Therefore, if you would be strong and healthy, have nothing to do with alcoholic liquors; for

ALCOHOL POISONS The stomach, The liver, The blood, The heart, The lungs, The brain, The bones, The muscles, The skin, And every part of the body.

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IN THE STOMACH.

Children who have learned the Lesson on Digestion, and know about the coats of the stomach, about mastication and chyme-making, are easily made to understand why anything which has alcohol in it is unfit to go into the stomach.

If we touch a drop of alcohol to the eye, it will make it sore; so alcohol in the stomach irritates its coats and makes them sore.

Alcohol poisons the gastric juice. If we get some of this juice from the stomach of a calf which has just been killed, and mix alcohol with it, the alcohol will separate the watery part from the _pepsin_ or white part. This is what alcohol does in the stomach. It takes up water from the gastric juice, which prevents the pepsin from mixing well with the food, and hinders the change of the food into chyme, which cannot take place without pepsin.

The children have already learned that alcohol keeps meat from decaying, or going to pieces. We explain that food in the stomach must go to pieces to prepare it to make blood; when mixed with alcohol, it is preserved, and the gastric juice cannot melt or dissolve it. Thus the stomach is hindered from doing its work until it gets rid of the alcohol.

A true story we have read will help you to remember how troublesome alcohol is to the stomach. Some men in Edinburgh were paid their wages, one Saturday, soon after they had eaten their dinner. They got drunk and remained so till the next day at noon. When they became sober they had a headache and were so ill that they sent for a doctor; he gave them some medicine which brought up their Saturday's dinner just as it had gone down into the stomach. The poor stomach could do nothing with dinner mixed with whiskey or rum, because these liquors are half alcohol.

You have already learned that the stomach hurries to drive out the alcohol into the liver; the liver sends it with the blood into the heart; the heart pours it into the lungs; the lungs breathe it out through the nose and mouth, and tell that some kind of alcoholic liquor has been taken into the stomach.

Remember, that the alcohol which comes out in the breath is a part of that which _went into the mouth_. It could not be changed. It did nothing but mischief in its journey, which shows that it is not food, but poison. God, who created the body, has not given any part of it power to change alcohol into blood.

People sometimes take ale or wine because they think it gives them an appetite. This is a great mistake. When any alcoholic liquor goes into the stomach, there is such hard work to get it out that the pain of hunger is not felt; when it is out, the stomach is tired and does not tell the brain that it is hungry. When alcohol is poured into it, day after day, it loses its desire for good, wholesome food, _and wants more and more alcoholic liquor_. It has an appetite for alcohol.

Alcohol makes the stomach sore and full of disease; people who take much of it in liquors always suffer much from dyspepsia.

So, if the stomach could speak, it would say: "Don't pour any alcohol into me, though you mix it and call it ale, cider, wine, or any other name that makes folks think it will do me no harm. You cannot deceive me. I know alcohol as soon as it comes down, and it always makes me suffer."

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BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

ALCOHOL--
Burns or inflames the coats of the stomach.
Spoils the gastric juice.
Makes the food hard to be dissolved.
Makes the stomach tired and weak.
Takes away the appetite for wholesome food.
Makes an appetite for alcoholic liquors.
Causes disease in the stomach and other digestive organs.

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QUESTION ON BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

What harm does alcohol do in the stomach?

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TO THE BONES, MUSCLES, AND SKIN.

_TO THE BONES._--You have already learned that the bones require to be supplied with good blood to make them strong and healthy, and that alcohol does not make good blood, so we need spend no time in deciding that alcoholic liquors do injury to the bones, and that the bones of those who drink these liquors are less likely to heal, when broken, than those of persons whose blood has not been poisoned by alcohol.

_TO THE MUSCLES._--The muscles, as you know, cover and move the bones; good blood makes them grow, and keeps them healthy and strong. People like to have plenty of good muscle, for this not only gives them strength, but makes them look plump and well.

Alcohol poisons the blood by killing many of the very little, round, red parts in it, called by a long name, which you can learn if you try. This hard name is _corpuscles_ [kor'pussls]; _corpuscle_ means _a little body_.

These little bodies float in the fluid portion of the blood, and go to every part of the body to help keep it alive and healthy. When alcohol hurts them, they turn into a poor kind of fat, like suet, and cannot do any good. They stay in different parts and do much harm. Sometimes they lodge between the muscles, and make a person look strong because plump; but he is not strong, for his muscles are filled with fat.

Sometimes the liver or the heart, which are only large muscles, become so heavy and soft with fat that they cannot do their work properly; they become weak and diseased, wear out, and cause the death of their owner, who has poisoned them with ale, wine, or other alcoholic drink.

_TO THE SKIN._--Alcohol hurts the skin also, by feeding it with poisoned blood, by giving the pores extra work in carrying off some of the alcohol in the perspiration, and by making the little blood-vessels larger than they should be in a way you will learn more about by and by. These little blood-vessels become very full of blood, and cause the red face and blue nose which mark the drinker of alcoholic liquors. This redness of the skin tells of the mischief which alcohol is doing inside of the body. It is the danger-signal which warns against the use of the fiery poison.

ALCOHOL HURTS
THE BONES, THE MUSCLES, THE SKIN,
By supplying them with By supplying them with By supplying it with
bad blood. bad blood; bad blood;
By loading them with By over-working the
fat which makes them perspiratory pores.
weak.

* * * * *

TO THE BLOOD, THE LUNGS, AND THE HEART.

_TO THE BLOOD._--The wonderful fluid which is the life of the body consists of a water-like liquid in which floats millions of the very little, circle-shaped, red particles which you have been taught to call _corpuscles_. You have also been told that alcohol kills these little bodies, and thus takes some of the life out of the blood, and fills it with useless, suet-like fat.

The blood, you know, flows everywhere through the body, giving its goodness to make every part grow and live, and carrying away the worn-out particles it meets. Blood, when poisoned with alcohol, goes through the body, giving disease and death instead of health and life. So, if you want good, red blood, do not let alcohol get into it.

_TO THE HEART._--When alcohol comes with the blood from the liver, the heart begins to beat fast to get rid of the firewater; this makes it very tired, for it always has enough to do in carrying bad blood to the lungs, and pumping good blood into the arteries, without having the extra trouble of driving out alcohol. Wise people will not give it this extra work to do.

Besides, we told you, in the talk about the harm done by alcohol to the muscles, that the heart,--which is only a large muscle, or rather many muscles fastened together so as to make a pear-shaped organ about the size of your fist,--is hurt in another way by alcohol. It gets too much of the poor kind of fat from the blood, which fills between the muscles, and after awhile makes the walls of the heart so soft and weak, that we could almost push through them with a finger, if we could get at them.

Very often the tired, overworked, weakened heart suddenly stops beating, and the person who would keep on drinking beer, wine, brandy, or rum falls down dead. "Died from heart disease," people say, when the truth is, _died from drinking alcoholic liquors_.

_TO THE LUNGS._--What are the lungs?--"The breathing-machines of the body." What do they throw out?--"Bad air." What do they take in?--"Fresh air." In pure air there is a good kind of gas which is necessary to keep us alive; this gas is called _oxygen_.

When air is taken into the lungs, the oxygen mixes with the blood in them and makes it pure. If alcohol is in the lungs, it hardens the walls of their air-cells, and keeps out the oxygen or good gas; at the same time it keeps in the impure gas, called _nitrogen_, which ought to come out through the nose and mouth into the air. Thus the blood in the lungs cannot be properly purified, and goes back to the heart impure blood which is unfit to be used.

The lungs are also obliged to work faster when alcohol is in them, because with the heart they are striving to drive out the enemy. This makes the lungs tired, sore, and inflamed. They are not as strong to do their work, and are more likely to breathe in any contagious disease than are the lungs of people who do not drink alcoholic liquors.

Some people go on drinking these poisons for many years, and seem not to be hurt by them; but at last they suffer from what is called Alcoholic Phthisis, a kind of consumption which doctors cannot cure.

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL TO THE
HEART. BLOOD-VESSELS. LUNGS.
Overworks it. Hurries the blood through Makes them work too
Makes it tired. them. fast.
Loads it with fat. Stretches the small Heats and inflames
Softens and destroys arteries and makes them them.
it. unfit to work. Hardens the walls of
Poisons the blood in the their air-cells.
hair-like blood-vessels Keeps in the poisonous
(capillaries). gas.
Keeps out the good gas
(oxygen).
Weakens them and makes
them diseased.

* * * * *

THE BLOOD ("The life ... is in the blood")

Consists of
A colorless liquid (plasma), and
Little, red, circle-shaped bodies (corpuscles).

* * * * *

ALCOHOL (a blood-poison)

Mixes with the colorless liquid, and takes away some of its goodness.

Makes some of the corpuscles
Smaller.
Change shape.
Lose color.
Lose oxygen.
Die, and change into useless fat

* * * * *

TO THE BRAIN AND NERVES.

Where is your brain?--"In my skull." What color is it?--"Gray and white." What does it resemble?--"Marrow." What work is done in the brain?--"The work of thinking." You may repeat what you have learned about the membranes of the brain. (See Formula for the Lesson on the Nervous System.)

You say "the inner membrane is a net-work of blood-vessels." If these are blood-vessels in the membranes, what fills them?--"Blood." Do you think alcohol can get into the brain?--"Yes." How can it get there?--"It goes there with the blood." How can we know that alcohol does mischief in the brain? You cannot answer? Did you never see a drunken man? Now tell me how you might know his brain has been hurt by alcohol.--"He talks funny; he acts strangely; he is very cross; he does not know what he is doing; he walks crookedly; he falls down; sometimes he falls asleep, and is almost like a dead man; he is dead drunk."

Let us study to learn why the drunken man does such strange things. The alcohol in this bottle, and this egg which you see, will help us find the cause of the mischief. You may tell what is in the egg.--"A white liquid and a yellow liquid." How could they be made hard?--"By making the egg hot; by boiling." We will try what alcohol will do to the white part. You see when it is poured upon the white of the egg it hardens this part as boiling would harden it. This white portion is composed of water and something called _albumen_. The alcohol dries up the water and thickens the albumen.

Albumen is found not only in eggs but in some seeds, as beans, peas, corn, etc., also in the gray part of the brain and in the nerves.

We will talk first of the harm alcohol does to the nerves. You know they are the grayish-white cords which pass from the brain and the spine to every part of the body. What do they act like in the kind of work they do?--"Like telegraph wires." What is their work?--"To carry messages to and from the brain." What kinds of nerves have you learned about?--"Nerves of feeling and nerves of motion."

When alcohol touches a nerve, it draws away the moisture or water from it, and hardens the white part or albumen; this makes the nerve shrivel as if it had been burned; it loses its power to feel and move, or, to use a long word, is _paralyzed_.

Alcohol paralyzes all the nerves it touches. It makes them so stupid that they cannot understand what the brain says to them, and they do not carry the right messages back to it. For instance: when the nerves of the stomach are poisoned by the alcohol in beer, wine, etc., they do not feel the pain of hunger as much as they otherwise would, and they let the brain think the stomach is satisfied and does not need any more food, when it is only stupefied by these liquors.

Again, it is the work of some nerves to tell the muscles of the small arteries to tighten, or contract, when too much blood is coming into them. Alcohol so paralyzes these nerves that they do not carry their message; the arteries let in the blood, and become swollen and enlarged. They tell the mischief done to them, by causing the skin to be red or flushed. If people drink much of any intoxicating liquor, and often, their skin is always a bad color, or, as grown folks say, becomes permanently discolored. All this because the nerves have been made unfit to do their duty by alcohol poison.

The nerves also lose power over the muscles of the limbs. This is plainly seen in the trembling of the hands and the unsteady walking of the drunkard; but is equally true of those who drink only a little now and then. Their nerves are not as strong and wide-awake to control the machinery of the body as they would be if no alcohol were troubling them.

Sometimes the nerves of hearing and sight tell the brain queer stories, and the poor brain believes them all, for it, too, is stupefied by the same fire-water which has hurt the nerves. Indeed, the harm done by alcohol to the brain is greater than that done to any other part of the body. It takes the water from the albumen, and makes the white part of the brain hard, as if it had been cooked. It kills the little, circle-shaped, red parts of the blood--the corpuscles; these collect in the blood-vessels of the brain, and keep the blood from flowing as fast as it ought, which causes disease and very often death. Sometimes the brain is so much injured by the poison that the drinker becomes crazy, and is a great deal of trouble to himself and everybody else.

Since all this is true, wise children will let cider, lager, ale, wine, and every other kind of alcoholic drink alone, and never, NEVER,

"Put an enemy into their mouths,
To steal away their brains."

* * * * *

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL TO THE NERVES. BRAIN. Takes away their moisture, and Fills or congests its paralyzes them. blood-vessels with impure Takes away their power to blood. control the muscles. Collects in it, and paralyzes Makes them unfit to carry it. messages to and from the Hardens its albumen. brain. So hurts it as to cause craziness (insanity) and death.

* * * * *

MORE ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL.

In the lessons you have learned you have been taught about the harm done by alcohol to the body and the mind; can you tell, from what you have seen of drunken people, in what other way alcoholic liquors hurt them?--"They make people waste their money; they make them waste their time; they make them cross; they make them fight; they make them say silly and wicked words; they sometimes make fathers and mothers hurt their children; they make people lose their good name; they often make them do things for which they are sent to prison."

Yes, this is only some of the mischief done by alcohol. If you could fly around the world and see everybody who has been hurt in any way by this terrible poison, what a sad, sad sight you would behold! At least half the trouble in the world comes from strong drink.

Are _you_, little girl, little boy, going to join the army of drunkards? No, indeed! you think; but probably no one who has become a drunkard ever intended to do so. They all began with one glass, a few drops of some alcoholic liquor,--cider, wine, or beer perhaps,--and thus learned to love the taste of alcohol, and soon became its slaves. For this poison has the strange power of making those who drink it want more and more of itself, though they know it is doing them harm.

The only safety is in letting alcoholic liquors alone, forever.

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS HURT
The body,
The mind, and
The soul;
AND MAKE PEOPLE
WASTE LOSE UNFIT TO UNFIT TO SERVE
Money, Strength, Think, or Themselves,
Talents, and Health, and Work. Their neighbor,
Time. Good name. or GOD.

* * * * *

STORIES ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL.[6]

A YOUNG BEGINNER.--The hardest drinker I ever knew commenced on cider when he was only five years old. He would go to the barrel of cider in the cellar, which had been put there to make vinegar, and, getting a straw, would suck all the cider he wanted; and then, after he had played awhile, he would go back and get more. He kept on drinking alcoholic liquors of some kind, until he died a drunkard.

CIDER DELIRIUM.--Dr. J.H. Travis, of Masonville, N.Y., was once called to a child six years old, who was raving in the wildest delirium. His symptoms were so peculiar that he questioned the family closely, and found that the day previous, at a raising, the child had drank freely of cider. After the men left he had procured a straw and gone to the barrel and drank till he was senseless, and after this the delirium came on. He exhibited undoubted symptoms of delirium tremens. Cider was the common beverage of the family. Dr. Travis has been called to several other cases of delirium tremens from the use of cider.--_Mrs. E.J. Richmond._

A CAUTION TO MOTHERS.--One of the first literary men in the United States said to a temperance lecturer: "There is one thing which I wish you to do everywhere; entreat every mother never to give a drop of strong drink to a child. I have had to fight as for my life all my days to keep from dying a drunkard, because I was fed with spirits when a child. I thus acquired an appetite for it. My brother, poor fellow, died a drunkard."

A GIRL DRUNKARD.--A young girl of eighteen, beautiful, intelligent, and temperate, the pride of her home, was recommended to take a little gin for some chronic ailment. She took it; it soothed the pain; she kept on taking it; it created an artificial appetite, and in four years she died a drunkard.--_Medical Temperance Journal._

"A LITTLE WON'T HURT HIM."--I was the pet of the family. Before I could well walk I was treated to the sweet from the bottom of my father's glass. My dear mother would gently chide with him, "Don't, John, it will do him harm." To this he would smilingly reply, "This little sup won't hurt him." When I became a school-boy I was ill at times, and my mother would pour for me a glass of wine from the decanter. At first I did not like it; but, as I was told that it would make me strong, I got to like it. When I became an apprentice, I reasoned thus: "My parents told me that these drinks are good, and I cannot get them except at the public-house." Step by step I fell.... I have grown to manhood, but my course of intemperance has added sin to sin. My days are now nearly ended. Hope for the future I have none.--_Dying Drunkard._

DANGER.--In one of Mr. Moody's temperance prayer meetings at Chicago, a reformed man attributed a former relapse of drunkenness wholly to a physician's prescription to take whiskey three times a day!

KILLED BY THE POISON.--Many years ago, when stage coaches were in use in England, during a very cold night, a young woman mounted the coach. A respectable tradesman sitting there asked her what induced her to travel on such a night, when she replied that she was going to the bedside of her mother, of whose illness she had just heard. She was soon wrapped in such coats, etc., as the passengers could spare, and when they stopped the tradesman procured her some brandy. She declined it at first, saying she had never drank spirits in her life. But he said, "Drink it down; it won't hurt you on such a bitter night." This was done repeatedly, until the poor girl fell fast asleep, and when they arrived in London she could not be roused. She was stiff and cold in death, and the doctor, on the coroner's inquest, said that she had been killed by the brandy.--_Mrs. Balfour._

IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK.--In the winter of 1796 a vessel was wrecked on an island of the Massachusetts coast, and five persons on board determined to swim ashore. Four of them drank freely of spirits to keep up their strength, but the fifth would drink none. One was drowned, and all that drank spirits failed and stopped, and froze one after another, the man that drank none being the only one that reached the house at some distance from, the shore, and he lived many years after that.

IT EXHAUSTS STRENGTH.--Concerning one cold winter when there were very severe snow-storms in the Highlands of Scotland, James Hogg, the poet, says: "It was a received opinion all over the country that sundry lives were lost, and a great many more endangered, by the administration of ardent spirits to the sufferers _while in a state of exhaustion_. A little bread and sweet milk, or even bread and cold water, proved a much safer restorative in the fields. Some who took a glass of spirits that night never spoke another word, even though they were continuing to walk and converse when their friends joined them. One woman found her husband lying in a state of insensibility; she had only sweet milk and oatmeal cake to give him, but with these she succeeded in getting him home and saving him."--_Bacchus._