52 APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY 



dilute it just as the mouth poured out saliva. If it were 

 not for this protection, a drink of strong liquor would 

 quickly destroy the stomach. Our bodies can stand a 

 great deal of abuse, because nature has provided us with 

 protection against all ordinary abuse. Still, after a time, 

 the drinking of alcohol and all other abuses are certain to 

 do great harm. 



99. Digestion of alcohol. Alcohol itself needs little or 

 no digestion. After it has been much diluted by the fluids 

 in the stomach and intestine, it soaks into the blood tubes 

 along with the food of the body. There it is washed away 

 in the rapid blood stream, so that not enough collects at 

 one time to damage the blood directly. It is carried to the 

 liver and there disappears at once. Little or none can 

 ever be found in the body beyond the liver. It is probably 

 oxidized like sugar, only very much more rapidly. 



100. Poisons produced by alcohol. Destroying or oxi- 

 dizing alcohol uses oxygen, so that there will be too little 

 left for the body and its food. When a stove gets too 

 little oxygen through its draft, it produces poisonous smoke. 

 If the albumin, sugar, and fat of the food get too little 

 oxygen, they, too, give rise to foul substances. These new 

 products go through the whole body with the blood, and 

 produce far more poisonous effects than alcohol itself. 

 Even after alcohol is destroyed, its harm continues as great 

 as ever. 



Trying to use alcohol as a drink is like trying to burn 

 kerosene in a coal stove. By using great care a little 

 kerosene can be burned without doing much harm, but it 

 smokes and smells bad and cannot be controlled. Alcohol 

 behaves like the kerosene. It gives rise to poisonous sub- 

 stances, and may overcome the body at any time. 



101. How alcohol weakens the cells. When alcohol is 



