IN HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY. 173 



41. Shoiv that alcohol is a narcotic poison. 



(See answer to Question 42.) 



42. If alcohol is not a stimulant, how does it cause the 

 heart to overwork ? 



Recently, physiological research has served to explain the 

 reason why, under alcohol, the heart at first beats so quickly, 

 why the pulses rise, and why the minute blood-vessels become 

 so strongly injected. 



At one time it was imagined that alcohol acts immediately 

 upon the heart, by stimulating it to increased motion ; and 

 from this idea false idea, I should say of the primary action 

 of alcohol, many erroneous conclusions have been drawn. We 

 have now learned that there exist many chemical bodies which 

 act in the same manner as alcohol, and that their effect is not to 

 stimulate the heart, but to weaken the contractile force of the 

 extreme and minute vessels which the heart fills with blood at 

 each of its strokes. These bodies produce, in fact, a paralysis 

 of the organic nervous supply of the vessels which constitute 

 the minute vascular structures. The minute vessels when para- 

 lyzed offer inefficient resistance to the force of the heart, and the 

 pulsating organ thus liberated, like the main-spring of a clock 

 from which the resistance has been removed, quickens in action, 

 dilating the feebly-resistant vessels, and giving evidence really 

 not of increased, but of wasted power. B. W. RICHARDSON. 



43. IVliy is the skin of a drunkard always red and 

 blotched ? 



It is the effect of alcoholic action on the vascular structure. 



44. What danger is there in occasionally using alco- 

 holic drinks ? 



Aside from injurious temporary effects, there is always the 

 supreme danger of forming a habit which will become uncon- 

 trollable. 



45. Wliat is meant by a fatty degeneration of the 



heart ? 



(See Physiology, p. 143.) 



In this disease, fat is substituted for true muscular tissue. 



