| Oz. | |||
| Starch and sugars, | about | 20 | |
| Meats, proteids, | about,, | 15 | |
| Fats, | about,, | 3 | ½ |
| Water, | about,, | 52 | |
About 32 ounces of saliva converts the starch into sugar. That is, the saliva changes starch (C18 H30 O15) into sugar (C6 H11 O5). Meats are acted upon by the gastric juice, it requiring about ten to twenty pints to dissolve three-quarters to one pound of meat-stuff; and the substances in the stomach are changed into chyme. The fats are emulsified by the gall from the liver—about 30 to 40 ounces for 3 to 4 ounces of fat. And the pancreatic juice completes the work and still farther dissolves all three kinds of substances, so that, with the aid of the succus entericus, the whole mass is changed into a substance called chyle. All the carbohydrates and proteids in solution, together with the fluids taken into the system, are taken up by the veins of the abdominal organs and conveyed by the portal vein to the liver. Passing through the liver, the blood is collected by the hepatic vein and emptied into the inferior vena cava. The fatty substances are taken up by the lacteals to the receptaculum chyli, passed up the thoracic duct, and poured into the left subclavian vein, which empties its contents into the superior vena cava.
Both streams of blood—venous blood—from the superior and inferior vena cava, pass into the right auricle, thence to the right ventricle, through the pulmonary artery into the lungs, there exchange the Carbonic acid for Oxygen, and return by means of the pulmonary veins into the left auricle, thence to the left ventricle, through the aorta into the general system—and to the master tissues.
In the tissues the Oxygen is taken up. That is, the Oxygen passes from the blood to the tissues and the tissues throw off the Carbonic acid, which the veins again carry to the right side of the heart.
Alcohol is composed of Carbon two (2), Hydrogen six (6), and Oxygen one (1) (C2 H6 O1). Alcohol, like all poisonous substances, carries a small amount of Oxygen. In composition it resembles very much, and probably is, a union of C2 H4 + H2 O, C2 H4 = ethane, olefiant gas, or heavy carburetted hydrogen. It is, in fact, a constituent of the gas we burn, procured from the destructive distillation of coal—in other words, coal gas. To make it plainer, ethane contains two of Carbon, four of Hydrogen + one molecule of water.
When alcohol is taken into the system, it is almost immediately absorbed by the veins of the stomach, is carried at once by the portal vein to the liver, and returns from the liver by way of the hepatic vein to the inferior vena cava, to the right auricle, and to the lungs through the right ventricle.
But the lungs cannot supply Oxygen enough to satisfy the Carbon of the alcohol. There is only one atom of Oxygen in the composition of alcohol, and three more atoms of Oxygen are needed to form Carbonic acid (C O2). Under ordinary, normal conditions, Oxygen enough is inspired to satisfy the wants of the tissues for combustion purposes, but in the case of alcohol an extra demand for Oxygen is made, and the lungs are not prepared to supply the demand.
Since oxidation takes place in the tissues and not in the blood, the blood, being overcharged with heavy carburetted Hydrogen (C2 H4), unloads it into the tissue. The extra amount of Carbon arriving at the tissue, robs it of its Oxygen. The Oxygen arriving from the lungs being insufficient, the tissue loses Oxygen. The presence of Oxygen is necessary for the maintenance of irritability. From the fact that no free Oxygen is present in the muscular tissue the tension is nil or even less than nothing.
When the Carbon of the alcohol robs the tissues of its Oxygen, the Hydrogen is set free. What becomes of it? The muscular and nervous tissues contain from 51 to 54 per cent of Carbon in their composition, and 6 to 7 per cent of Hydrogen. The free Hydrogen combines with the Carbon of the tissues and forms carburetted Hydrogen, with which the blood gets overloaded, and carries it to the other tissues. The nervous system, the brain, not receiving the Oxygen necessary, in consequence of the blood being overcharged with both Carbonic acid and carburetted Hydrogen, the nervous substance is first impaired, next exhausted, and lastly its normal activity extinguished.
The muscles meantime through having been robbed of both Oxygen and Carbon—receiving no free Oxygen or very little—and through the presence in the circulating fluid of Carbonic acid and carburetted Hydrogen, lose the power to act. The cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, with all the other subordinate nervous centers, being impaired by the poison and the absence of Oxygen, the nerves of volition lose control, the cerebrum has its will power impaired or entirely subdued, and the cerebellum loses the power of muscular coördination.