7& PHYSIOLOGY AND TEMPERANCE. 



of blood is really a congestion just such a condition as we 

 see brought about in the eye in a very few minutes if a speck 

 of dust or a small insect chances to get into it. 



Now, if this injected and distended state of the vessels be 

 kept up by a continuous "tippling," the mucous membrane 

 becomes inflamed, thickened and softened. The stomach shows 

 signs of derangement. The gastric glands, which at first 

 were stimulated to over-work and over-supply of gastric juice, 

 are now interfered with, and the secretion is checked. The 

 appetite for food is lost, and is often replaced by a morbid 

 desire for more stimulants. The pepsin, so necessary to the 

 digestion of food in the stomach, acts very imperfectly, and 

 if the quantity of liquor taken be large, will cease to act at 

 all. The stomach is upset, and the inebriate suffers from 

 dyspepsia, indigestion, chronic catarrh, acidity and even neu- 

 ralgia of that organ. 



If this state is continued for some time, the lining mem- 

 brane may ulcerate, a condition attended with considerable 

 danger on account of the possibility of profuse bleeding from 

 these ulcers, and the probability of some one or more of them 

 eating through the stomach, and causing death. 



Further action of the persistent use of alcohol is shown in 

 its extension to all the coats, thickening and hardening them, 

 until the stomach is of little use as a digestive organ. Think 

 of the condition of the poor unfortunate drunkard ; appetite 

 gone, nausea, vomiting, intense thirst, pain in the head, red 

 eyes, bloated face, coated and red tongue, frequent pulse, and 

 often fever. 



29. Effects of Alcohol on the Liver. It is not alone 



in the stomach that the habitual drinker suffers. The small 

 intestines are also involved. Functional derangement, and 

 subsequent changes, such as we have described in the stomach, 

 are likely to take place here. The pancreas, also, is affected. 

 But it is in the liver we find the most marked changes of 



