Nervous derangements follow as a matter of course, for the delicate
membranes which envelope and immediately surround the nervous cords, are
affected by the alcohol more readily than the coarser membranous
textures of other parts of the body, and give rise to a series of
troublesome conditions, which are too often attributed to other than the
true causes. Some of these are thus described: "The perverted condition
of the membranous covering of the nerves gives rise to pressure within
the sheath of the nerve, and to pain as a consequence. To the pain thus
excited the term neuralgia is commonly applied, or 'tic;' or, if the
large nerve running down the thigh be the seat of the pain, 'sciatica.'
Sometimes this pain is developed as a toothache. It is pain commencing,
in nearly every instance, at some point where a nerve is inclosed in a
bony cavity, or where pressure is easily excited, as at the lower
jawbone near the centre of the chin, or at the opening in front of the
lower part of the ear, or at the opening over the eyeball in the frontal
bone."


DEGENERATION OF THE LIVER.

The organic deteriorations which follow the long-continued use of
alcoholic drinks are often of a serious and fatal character. The same
author says: "The organ of the body, that, perhaps, the most frequently
undergoes structural changes from alcohol, is the _liver_. The capacity
of this organ for holding active substances in its cellular parts, is
one of its marked physiological distinctions. In instances of poisoning
by arsenic, antimony, strychnine and other poisonous compounds, we turn
to the liver, in conducting our analyses, as if it were the central
depot of the foreign matter. It is, practically, the same in respect to