THE DIGESTION 22$ 



pigment resulting from the destruction in the liver of worn- 

 out red corpuscles. The bile is partly an excretory prod- 

 uct, but such is the economy of the system that it serves 

 to aid digestion, and to keep the alimentary canal in an 

 aseptic condition on its way out of the body. A man could 

 not smoke were it not for the liver. This organ takes up 

 the nicotine, if not too great in amount, and destroys it. 

 If one drinks alcohol, the liver endeavors to oxidize it and 

 get rid of it, so that the body may not suffer harm and in- 

 jury from it, and oftentimes the liver of a habitual drinker 

 is crippled or destroyed by its long struggle with alcohol. 



399. It has been shown by experiments upon frogs and 

 other animals that twice as large a dose of poison is required 

 to kill an animal that has a liver as to kill one that has 

 been deprived of this organ. Similarly, it requires twice 

 as much poison to kill a man when it is given through the 

 stomach and passes through the liver, as when it is injected 

 through the skin. Those who take morphine by hypoder- 

 mic injection are more hopelessly bound to the habit than 

 those who take it by the mouth. 



400. A man would live many years longer than he does 

 if he were not all the time producing waste products in his 

 body by his ordinary activities. The excretory organs are 

 taxed to remove them. In the young child as it is growing 

 and developing, the skin is so active, the kidneys are so 

 healthy, and the liver is so vigorous, that the waste is all 

 removed and the blood is pure. That is why a healthy 

 child has so sweet a breath, such bright eyes, and so fair a 

 skin. When he becomes old it is different. The same is 

 true of a dog ; the puppy's breath is pure, its body is clean, 

 so that it may lie in a lady's lap or on a sofa and leave no 

 unpleasant odor. But when he is old, the dog becomes so 

 offensive that he has to be driven out of the house. The 

 strong odor results from the accumulation of waste sub- 

 stances in the body. 



Q 



