| ign="center"> | | | | When we take for our food a portion of animal |
| The parts which first suffer from alcohol are | | | | flesh, it is first resolved, in digestion, into a soluble |
| those expansions of the body which the | | | | fluid before it can be absorbed; in the blood it is |
| anatomists call the membranes. "The skin is a | | | | resolved into the fluid colloidal condition; in the |
| membranous envelope. Through the whole of the | | | | solids it is laid down within the membranes into |
| alimentary surface, from the lips downward, and | | | | new structure, and when it has played its part, it |
| through the bronchial passages to their minutest | | | | is digested again, if I may so say, into a |
| ramifications, extends the mucous membrane. | | | | crystalloidal soluble substance, ready to be carried |
| The lungs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys are | | | | away and replaced by addition of new matter, |
| folded in delicate membranes, which can be | | | | then it is dialysed or passed through, the |
| stripped easily from these parts. If you take a | | | | membranes into the blood, and is disposed of in |
| portion of bone, you will find it easy to strip off | | | | the excretions. |
| from it a membranous sheath or covering; if you | | | | "See, then, what an all-important part these |
| examine a joint, you will find both the head and | | | | membranous structures play in the animal life. |
| the socket lined with membranes. | | | | Upon their integrity all the silent work of the |
| The whole of the intestines are enveloped in a | | | | building up of the body depends. If these |
| fine membrane called peritoneum . All the muscles | | | | membranes are rendered too porous, and let out |
| are enveloped in membranes, and the fasciculi, or | | | | the colloidal fluids of the blood the albumen, for |
| bundles and fibres of muscles, have their | | | | example the body so circumstanced, dies; dies as |
| membranous sheathing. The brain and spinal cord | | | | if it were slowly bled to death. If, on the contrary, |
| are enveloped in three membranes; one nearest | | | | they become condensed or thickened, or loaded |
| to themselves, a pure vascular structure, a | | | | with foreign material, then they fail to allow the |
| network of blood-vessels; another, a thin serous | | | | natural fluids to pass through them. They fail to |
| structure; a third, a strong fibrous structure. The | | | | dialyse, and the result is, either an accumulation of |
| eyeball is a structure of colloidal humors and | | | | the fluid in a closed cavity, or contraction of the |
| membranes, and of nothing else. To complete the | | | | substance inclosed within the membrane, or |
| description, the minute structures of the vital | | | | dryness of membrane in surfaces that ought to |
| organs are enrolled in membranous matter." | | | | be freely lubricated and kept apart. In old age we |
| These membranes are the filters of the body. "In | | | | see the effects of modification of membrane |
| their absence there could be no building of | | | | naturally induced; we see the fixed joint, the |
| structure, no solidification of tissue, nor organic | | | | shrunken and feeble muscle, the dimmed eye, the |
| mechanism. Passive themselves, they, | | | | deaf ear, the enfeebled nervous function. |
| nevertheless, separate all structures into their | | | | "It may possibly seem, at first sight, that I am |
| respective positions and adaptations." | | | | leading immediately away from the subject of the |
| Membranous deteriorations | | | | secondary action of alcohol. It is not so. I am |
| In order to make perfectly clear to your mind the | | | | leading directly to it. Upon all these membranous |
| action and use of these membranous expansions, | | | | structures alcohol exerts a direct perversion of |
| and the way in which alcohol deteriorates them, | | | | action. It produces in them a thickening, a |
| and obstructs their work, we quote again from | | | | shrinking and an inactivity that reduces their |
| Dr. Richardson: | | | | functional power. That they may work rapidly and |
| "The animal receives from the vegetable world | | | | equally, they require to be at all times charged |
| and from the earth the food and drink it requires | | | | with water to saturation. If, into contact with |
| for its sustenance and motion. It receives colloidal | | | | them, any agent is brought that deprives them of |
| food for its muscles: combustible food for its | | | | water, then is their work interfered with; they |
| motion; water for the solution of its various parts; | | | | cease to separate the saline constituents properly; |
| salt for constructive and other physical purposes. | | | | and, if the evil that is thus started, be allowed to |
| These have all to be arranged in the body; and | | | | continue, they contract upon their contained |
| they are arranged by means of the membranous | | | | matter in whatever organ it may be situated, and |
| envelopes. Through these membranes nothing can | | | | condense it. |
| pass that is not, for the time, in a state of | | | | In summary, under the prolonged influence of |
| aqueous solution, like water or soluble salts. | | | | alcohol those changes which take place from it in |
| Water passes freely through them, salts pass | | | | the blood corpuscles, extend to the other organic |
| freely through them, but the constructive matter | | | | parts, involving them in structural deteriorations, |
| of the active parts that is colloidal does not pass; | | | | which are always dangerous, and are often |
| it is retained in them until it is chemically | | | | ultimately fatal. |
| decomposed into the soluble type of matter. | | | | |