RESPIRATION. 103 



a large amount of extra blood, which, if frequently repeated 

 or kept up for a length of time, would cause a congestion of 

 those organs. How often do we hear of excessive drinkers 

 having attacks of severe cold, pleurisy and inflammation of 

 the lungs, which, if not immediately fatal, may lead on to 

 that most dreaded disease consumption. 



Besides being predisposed by the use of alcohol to those 

 diseases, the inebriate is more subject to them from the fact 

 of his more frequent exposure to cold and damp. Often 

 tT'''iiuj about with his clothes wet and with an empty stomach, 

 excepting for the whiskey it contains, it is little wonder he 

 is ultimately overtaken with the seeds of disease which take 

 root in one of the most vital parts. 



We have seen further that alcohol decreases animal heat 

 and lessens power to resist cold. A general chill may mean 

 a congested condition of some of the internal organs, and 

 most probably the lungs. If we drive the blood from one 

 part, as, for instance, the skin, it must appear in greater 

 quantities somewhere else. 



It is not while the stimulating effect of alcohol is felt that 

 a chill is likely to occur, but after the rapid loss of heat 

 by radiation and inactivity of body from general depression 

 have lowered the temperature below the normal. Reaction 

 in these cases sets in so slowly that it is often many hours, 

 and even davs, before the man feels the same warmth and 

 comfort of body he experienced before his debauch. 



No wonder that such abuse of the system leads to derange- 

 ment of function and irregularity of blood supply to the 

 various organs. Xo wonder that drunkards succumb more 

 readily to epidemic diseases than do total abstainers. It has 

 been observed over and over again in cholera-infected districts 

 there is always a larger percentage of deaths amongst those 

 addicted to the use of alcoholic beverages, than amongst those 

 who abstain from all such drinks. 



