You may tell what is in the egg.--"A white liquid
and a yellow liquid." How could they be made hard?--"By making the egg hot;
by boiling." We will try what alcohol will do to the white part. You see
when it is poured upon the white of the egg it hardens this part as boiling
would harden it. This white portion is composed of water and something
called _albumen_. The alcohol dries up the water and thickens the albumen.
Albumen is found not only in eggs but in some seeds, as beans, peas, corn,
etc., also in the gray part of the brain and in the nerves.
We will talk first of the harm alcohol does to the nerves. You know they
are the grayish-white cords which pass from the brain and the spine to
every part of the body. What do they act like in the kind of work they
do?--"Like telegraph wires." What is their work?--"To carry messages to and
from the brain." What kinds of nerves have you learned about?--"Nerves of
feeling and nerves of motion."
When alcohol touches a nerve, it draws away the moisture or water from it,
and hardens the white part or albumen; this makes the nerve shrivel as if
it had been burned; it loses its power to feel and move, or, to use a long
word, is _paralyzed_.
Alcohol paralyzes all the nerves it touches.
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