DIGESTION. 79 



structure. The liver and the brain are the two organs which 

 seem to receive the largest percentage of the alcohol taken 

 into the system. Continual congestion of the liver resulting 

 from alcoholic drinks inevitably leads to an alteration in its 

 texture, and deranges its function. At first it is inflamed, 

 enlarged, and soft. Afterwards it contracts and hardens, 

 and presents an uneven surface. This is called a "hob-nail," 

 or gin-drinker's liver. From the first, the bile secreted is 

 unhealthy, and is not fit to perform its part in the intestinal 

 digestion. The frequent drinker suffers from "biliousness," 

 and other intestinal disturbances. 



Sometimes the liver is very greatly enlarged by the de- 

 posit of fat in its substance. This is the disease spoken of 

 in connection with the muscular system as fatty degenera- 

 tion. In some cases the liver reaches an enormous weight, 

 fifteen, and even twenty to twenty-five, pounds being not 

 uncommon. 



30. The Effect of Tobacco on Digestion. It is in 

 stimulating and increasing the flow of saliva, which is thus 

 lost to the system, that tobacco chiefly affects the digestive 

 organs. The, sense of taste, so necessary to the proper appre- 

 ciation of food, and desire for eating it, is numbed by the 

 use of tobacco. Hence it really checks, or in a sense satisfies, 

 the appetite for food. 



It frequently inflames the throat, and keeps up a chronic 

 catarrh, or " smoker's sore- throat," which may extend to the 

 stomach, and cause a feeling of general distress, with derange- 

 ment of this and other organs. 



