Object Lessons on the Human Body Part 20

Liquors made from grain are called _malt liquors_. Lager beer, and all kinds of ales and porters, are malt liquors. They make people dull, sluggish, and stupid who drink much of them. They do much mischief in the body, though it takes a larger quant.i.ty of any one of them to make a person drunk than it does of whiskey or brandy.

AN ATOM OF GRAPE SUGAR. CARBONIC ACID GAS. ALCOHOL.

Carbon, 6 atoms. Carbon, 1 atom. Carbon, 2 atoms.

Oxygen, 6 atoms. Oxygen, 2 atoms. Oxygen, 1 atom.

Hydrogen, 12 atoms. Hydrogen, 6 atoms.

SUB-FERMENTED GRAPE SUGAR MAKES 2 atoms of carbonic acid gas and 2 atoms of alcohol.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS MADE FROM FRUITS. GRAINS.

_Cider._ _Wines._ _Beer, Ales, etc._ Apples. Grapes, Gooseberries, Barley, Oats, _Perry._ Currants, Elderberries, Wheat, Peas, etc.

Pears. Blackberries, Cherries, etc. Corn, (with hops).

DISTILLATION.

How does the sugar in grapes and other fruits become alcohol?--"By fermenting." Yes, and liquors made by fermenting are called _fermented liquors_. What other alcoholic drinks have you heard about beside cider, wines, beer, and ales?--"Gin, whiskey, brandy, rum." These are stronger than the fermented liquors, that is, they contain more alcohol; they are made by what is called _distillation_.

If you boil water, and let the steam from it fall upon a cold plate, the steam will change back into liquid and become _distilled_ water. Making a liquid boil, catching the vapor or steam and cooling it, is what we mean by distillation.

If two or more liquids are mixed together, the one that boils with the least heat will be drawn off first. The alcohol of beer, cider, and wines is mixed with water; it boils at a lower heat than water, so can be drawn off from it very easily. This does not make more alcohol, it only makes the alcohol stronger by separating it from the water.

When beer or any other alcoholic liquor is to be distilled, it is poured into a large copper boiler, called a _still_, and boiled. A tube carries the vapor from the boiler into a cask filled with cold water. This tube is coiled like a spiral line or worm through the cask; it is called _the worm of the still_, and the cask is _the worm-tub_. As the vapor pa.s.ses through the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or distilled.

In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented mola.s.ses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them.

But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when they have become drunkards.

DEFINITIONS.

_DISTILLATION._ Drawing the vapor from a boiling liquid and cooling it.

_STILL._ Machinery for distilling; the boiler which holds the liquid.

_THE WORM OF THE STILL._ The tube which pa.s.ses from the still to a cask, in which it coils like a worm.

_WORM-TUB._ The cask which holds the tube or worm, and receives the distilled liquid.

_DISTILLED LIQUID._ A liquid formed by cooled steam.

_DISTILLED LIQUORS._ Liquors made by distilling alcoholic liquors.

_FERMENTED._ Changed by decay.

_FERMENTED LIQUORS._ Liquors which have been fermented or changed by decay, and contain alcohol.

_UNFERMENTED._ Not decayed.

_UNFERMENTED LIQUORS._ Liquors which contain no alcohol.

KINDS OF LIQUORS [5]UNFERMENTED. FERMENTED. DISTILLED.

Grape juice, Hard cider, Gin, Sweet cider, (Malt liquors) Brandy, Root beer, Beer, Whiskey, Ginger beer. Lager beer, Rum.

Perry. Ale, Porter,

Wine.

[5] These soon become fermented; they then contain alcohol.

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE BODY.

Raw alcohol does not do much harm to people because it is too strong for them to drink much of it; but the alcohol hidden in cider, ale, wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic drinks kills not less than _sixty thousand_ persons in this country every year, besides those who die from its use in other parts of the world.

There is great excitement when there is a mad dog around; and, if any one is bitten and dies from the dreadful hydrophobia, people are ready to destroy all the dogs of the neighborhood; but when a drunkard dies from delirium tremens or alcohol craziness, how few take any notice of the cause of his death, or do all they can to wage war against the use of alcoholic liquors.

But why do we say such hard things against these liquors which some people love so well and think so harmless? In what way do they hurt and kill people? Let us see. Where does what we drink go after it has been put into the mouth?--"Into the stomach." If it were the right thing to go into the stomach, into what would it be changed?--"Into something which helps to make good blood."

Learned men, who have examined and carefully studied about these things, tell us that _the stomach is hurt_ by alcohol, because the fiery fluid is not food, but poison which makes the stomach very sore, and gives it hard work to do. The veins of the stomach take it up and send it into the liver.

The liver, which is a large organ weighing about four pounds, lies on the right side below the lungs; its work is, to help make the blood pure. It can do nothing with alcohol, so it drives it along to the heart; the heart sends it to the lungs; the lungs throw some of it out through the breath, which smells of the vile stuff that has been poisoning every part it has pa.s.sed through since it entered the mouth.

Some of the alcohol does not get out of the lungs through the breath, but goes with the blood back to the heart, and from the heart is sent through the arteries to every part of the body. No part of the body wants it.

_The Skin_ drives some of it out, through its little pores, with the perspiration.

_The Kidneys_, which lie in the back below the waist, on each side of the spine, send off some of the poison.

Yet some of it gets into _the brain_, and there does very much mischief, of which you will learn more by and by. You know, if the brain is hurt, the mind cannot do its work of thinking properly; thus, alcohol does great _harm to the mind_ through the brain.

_The muscles_ and _the bones_ are hurt by not being supplied with pure blood; _the heart_ gets tired out with overwork, and _the lungs_ become diseased through this same terrible alcohol.

Therefore, if you would be strong and healthy, have nothing to do with alcoholic liquors; for

ALCOHOL POISONS The stomach, The liver, The blood, The heart, The lungs, The brain, The bones, The muscles, The skin, And every part of the body.

IN THE STOMACH.

Children who have learned the Lesson on Digestion, and know about the coats of the stomach, about mastication and chyme-making, are easily made to understand why anything which has alcohol in it is unfit to go into the stomach.

If we touch a drop of alcohol to the eye, it will make it sore; so alcohol in the stomach irritates its coats and makes them sore.

Alcohol poisons the gastric juice. If we get some of this juice from the stomach of a calf which has just been killed, and mix alcohol with it, the alcohol will separate the watery part from the _pepsin_ or white part. This is what alcohol does in the stomach. It takes up water from the gastric juice, which prevents the pepsin from mixing well with the food, and hinders the change of the food into chyme, which cannot take place without pepsin.

The children have already learned that alcohol keeps meat from decaying, or going to pieces. We explain that food in the stomach must go to pieces to prepare it to make blood; when mixed with alcohol, it is preserved, and the gastric juice cannot melt or dissolve it. Thus the stomach is hindered from doing its work until it gets rid of the alcohol.

A true story we have read will help you to remember how troublesome alcohol is to the stomach. Some men in Edinburgh were paid their wages, one Sat.u.r.day, soon after they had eaten their dinner. They got drunk and remained so till the next day at noon. When they became sober they had a headache and were so ill that they sent for a doctor; he gave them some medicine which brought up their Sat.u.r.day's dinner just as it had gone down into the stomach. The poor stomach could do nothing with dinner mixed with whiskey or rum, because these liquors are half alcohol.