These little bodies float in the fluid portion of the blood, and go to every part of the body to help keep it alive and healthy. When alcohol hurts them, they turn into a poor kind of fat, like suet, and cannot do any good. They stay in different parts and do much harm. Sometimes they lodge between the muscles, and make a person look strong because plump; but he is not strong, for his muscles are filled with fat.
Sometimes the liver or the heart, which are only large muscles, become so heavy and soft with fat that they cannot do their work properly; they become weak and diseased, wear out, and cause the death of their owner, who has poisoned them with ale, wine, or other alcoholic drink.
To the Skin.—Alcohol hurts the skin also, by feeding it with poisoned blood, by giving the pores extra work in carrying off some of the alcohol in the perspiration, and by making the little blood-vessels larger than they should be in a way you will learn more about by and by. These little blood-vessels become very full of blood, and cause the red face and blue nose which
mark the drinker of alcoholic liquors. This redness of the skin tells of the mischief which alcohol is doing inside of the body. It is the danger-signal which warns against the use of the fiery poison.
| ALCOHOL HURTS | ||
| THE BONES, By supplying them with bad blood. | THE MUSCLES, By supplying them with bad blood; By loading them with fat which makes them weak. | THE SKIN, By supplying it with bad blood; By over-working the perspiratory pores. |
TO THE BLOOD, THE LUNGS, AND THE HEART.
To the Blood.—The wonderful fluid which is the life of the body consists of a water-like liquid in which floats millions of the very little, circle-shaped, red particles which you have been taught to call corpuscles. You have also been told that alcohol kills these little bodies, and thus takes some of the life out of the blood, and fills it with useless, suet-like fat.
The blood, you know, flows everywhere through the body, giving its goodness to make every part grow and live, and carrying away the worn-out particles it meets. Blood, when poisoned with alcohol, goes through the body, giving disease and death instead of health and life. So, if you want good, red blood, do not let alcohol get into it.
To the Heart.—When alcohol comes with the blood from the liver, the heart begins to beat fast to get rid of the firewater; this makes it very tired, for it always has enough to do in carrying bad blood to the lungs, and pumping good blood into the arteries, without having the extra trouble of driving out alcohol. Wise people will not give it this extra work to do.