75. Strong drink and thirst.—When a man is thirsty, water will satisfy him but strong drink will not. Sometimes the mouth is dry and dirty and then a man feels thirsty. Rinsing the mouth with water, and rubbing the tongue and teeth clean will help the dryness and stop the thirst. At any rate, strong drink will only make the mouth dryer.
Some men drink only when they are tired. Then a cup of strong and hot tea or coffee will make them feel much better than a glass of strong drink, and will not harm them so much.
When strong drink is swallowed, its alcohol takes water from the mouth. When your mouth is dry, you feel thirsty. Strong drink makes the mouth dry, and so a drink makes a man more thirsty. The alcohol also makes the mouth smart. Men need another drink to cool the mouth after the first one. So one drink leads to another. All the while a person drinks water with the alcohol until he has too much water. But his mouth is dry and he feels as thirsty as ever.
76. Effect of alcohol upon the stomach.—When strong drink is swallowed it makes the stomach smart just as it does the mouth. So the stomach feels warm, but it is really no warmer. This harms the stomach and keeps it from working well.
Alcohol also keeps the gastric juice from changing albumin to a liquid. Alcohol keeps flesh from decaying in a museum. In the same way it may hinder the digestion of food in the stomach.
When alcohol is used for only a short time, the stomach can get well; but if it is used for months and years, the stomach will stay weak. Then the drinker can hardly eat at all.
77. What becomes of alcohol.—In the stomach a great deal of gastric juice is mixed with the alcohol. So it is very weak when it reaches the intestine. Alcohol needs only a little digesting. It soon soaks into the blood from the intestine along with the other food. The blood flows fast and washes the alcohol away as soon as it leaves the intestine. Too little gets into the blood at once to harm it much.
Alcohol goes to the liver, and is there destroyed; but it still does great harm. The liver has to attend to the alcohol, and so it does not change the food to good blood, and it does not take all the poisons out of the blood. Then the whole body becomes weak and sick. Alcohol hurts the liver first, and more than other parts of the body. On this account, drinkers often have bilious attacks and stomach troubles.
78. Bitters.—Many medicines are made by dissolving drugs in alcohol. In taking a strong medicine, we use only a few drops, and so do not get much alcohol. Some kinds of medicines must be taken in large doses. Bitters are weak medicines, and must be taken by the tablespoonful. A tablespoonful of the medicine has more alcohol than a large drink of whisky. The bitters seem to make a person feel well, but it is because he is taking a large amount of strong drink.
Jamaica Ginger is only common ginger dissolved in alcohol. It, too, is a form of strong drink.