Besides, we told you, in the talk about the harm done by alcohol to the muscles, that the heart,—which is only a large
muscle, or rather many muscles fastened together so as to make a pear-shaped organ about the size of your fist,—is hurt in another way by alcohol. It gets too much of the poor kind of fat from the blood, which fills between the muscles, and after awhile makes the walls of the heart so soft and weak, that we could almost push through them with a finger, if we could get at them.
Very often the tired, overworked, weakened heart suddenly stops beating, and the person who would keep on drinking beer, wine, brandy, or rum falls down dead. "Died from heart disease," people say, when the truth is, died from drinking alcoholic liquors.
To the Lungs.—What are the lungs?—"The breathing-machines of the body." What do they throw out?—"Bad air." What do they take in?—"Fresh air." In pure air there is a good kind of gas which is necessary to keep us alive; this gas is called oxygen.
When air is taken into the lungs, the oxygen mixes with the blood in them and makes it pure. If alcohol is in the lungs, it hardens the walls of their air-cells, and keeps out the oxygen or good gas; at the same time it keeps in the impure gas, called nitrogen, which ought to come out through the nose and mouth into the air. Thus the blood in the lungs cannot be properly purified, and goes back to the heart impure blood which is unfit to be used.
The lungs are also obliged to work faster when alcohol is in them, because with the heart they are striving to drive out the enemy. This makes the lungs tired, sore, and inflamed. They are not as strong to do their work, and are more likely to breathe in any contagious disease than are the lungs of people who do not drink alcoholic liquors.
Some people go on drinking these poisons for many years, and seem not to be hurt by them; but at last they suffer from what is called Alcoholic Phthisis, a kind of consumption which doctors cannot cure.
| HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL TO THE | ||
| HEART. Overworks it. Makes it tired. Loads it with fat. Softens and destroys it. | BLOOD-VESSELS. Hurries the blood through them. Stretches the small arteries and makes them unfit to work. Poisons the blood in the hair-like blood-vessels (capillaries). | LUNGS. Makes them work too fast. Heats and inflames them. Hardens the walls of their air-cells. Keeps in the poisonous gas. Keeps out the good gas (oxygen). Weakens them and makes them diseased. |