CHAPTER XXIV.

BAD EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN AND NERVES.


~1. Drunkenness.~--Did you ever see a man who was drunk? If you live in
a city it is very likely that you have. How did the drunken man behave?
Perhaps he was noisy and silly. Perhaps he was angry and tried to pick a
quarrel with some one.

~2.~ What made the man drunk? You say whiskey, but it may have been
wine, or beer, or hard cider that he drank. Anything that contains
alcohol will make a man drunk, for it is the alcohol which does all the
mischief.

~3. The Whiskey Flush.~--You can almost always tell when a man has been
drinking, even when he has not taken enough to make him drunk. You know
by his flushed face and red eyes. When a man's face blushes from the use
of alcohol, his whole body blushes at the same time. His muscles, his
lungs, and his liver blush; his brain and spinal cord blush also.

~4.~ When a man has taken just enough alcohol to make his face blush a
little, the extra amount of blood in the brain makes him think and talk
more lively, and he is very jolly and gay. This makes many people think
that alcohol does them good. But if we notice what a man says when he is
excited by alcohol, we shall find that his remarks are often silly and
reckless. He says very unwise and foolish things, for which he feels
sorry when he becomes sober.

~5. Alcohol Paralyzes.~--How does a drunken man walk? Let us see why he