Some men in Edinburgh were paid their wages, one
Saturday, soon after they had eaten their dinner. They got drunk and
remained so till the next day at noon. When they became sober they had a
headache and were so ill that they sent for a doctor; he gave them some
medicine which brought up their Saturday's dinner just as it had gone down
into the stomach. The poor stomach could do nothing with dinner mixed with
whiskey or rum, because these liquors are half alcohol.
You have already learned that the stomach hurries to drive out the alcohol
into the liver; the liver sends it with the blood into the heart; the heart
pours it into the lungs; the lungs breathe it out through the nose and
mouth, and tell that some kind of alcoholic liquor has been taken into the
stomach.
Remember, that the alcohol which comes out in the breath is a part of that
which _went into the mouth_. It could not be changed. It did nothing but
mischief in its journey, which shows that it is not food, but poison. God,
who created the body, has not given any part of it power to change alcohol
into blood.
People sometimes take ale or wine because they think it gives them an
appetite. This is a great mistake. When any alcoholic liquor goes into the
stomach, there is such hard work to get it out that the pain of hunger is
not felt; when it is out, the stomach is tired and does not tell the brain
that it is hungry.
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