lood is brought from the inside of the body to
the outside, where it is cooled very rapidly; and thus the body loses
heat, instead of gaining it, under the influence of alcohol. This is not
true of any proper food substance.
~30. Alcohol in the Polar Regions.~--Experience teaches the same thing
as science respecting the effect of alcohol. Captain Ross, Dr. Kane,
Captain Parry, Captain Hall, Lieutenant Greely, and many other famous
explorers who have spent long months amid the ice and snow and intense
cold of the countries near the North Pole, all say that alcohol does not
warm a man when he is cold, and does not keep him from getting cold.
Indeed, alcohol is considered so dangerous in these cold regions that no
Arctic explorer at the present time could be induced to use it. The
Hudson Bay Company do not allow the men who work for them to use any
kind of alcoholic liquors. Alcohol is a great deceiver, is it not? It
makes a man think he is warmer, when he is really colder. Many men are
frozen to death while drunk.
~31. Alcohol in Hot Regions.~--Bruce, Livingstone, and Stanley, and all
great African travellers, condemn the use of alcohol in that hot country
as well as elsewhere. The Yuma Indians, who live in Arizona and New
Mexico, where the weather is sometimes much hotter than we ever know it
here, have made a law of their own against the use of liquor. If one of
the tribe becomes drunk, he is severely punished. This law they have
made because of the evil effects of liquor which they noticed among the
members of their tribe who used to become intoxicated. Do you not think
that a very wise thing for Indians to do?
~32. Sunstroke.~--Do you know what sunstroke is? If you do not, your
parents or teacher will tell yow that persons exposed to the heat of the
sun on a hot summer day are sometimes overcome by it. They become weak,
giddy, or insensible, and not infrequently die. Scores of people are
sometimes stricken down in a single day in some of our large cities. It
may occur to you that if alcohol cools the body, it would be a good
thing for a person to take to prevent or relieve an attack of sunstroke.
On the contrary, it is found that those who use alcoholic drinks are
much more liable to sunstroke than others. This is on account of the
poisonous effects of the alcohol upon the nerves. No doctor would think
of giving alcohol in any form to a man suffering with sunstroke.
~33. Effects of Alcohol upon the Tissues.~--H
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