|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 37
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.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|