n the singular fact that alcohol
diminishes the power of the gastric juice to do its proper work. Alcohol
coagulates the pepsin, which is the dissolving element in this important
gastric fluid. A very simple experiment will prove this. Obtain a small
quantity of gastric juice from the fresh stomach of a calf or pig, by
gently pressing it in a very little water. Pour the milky juice into a
clear glass vessel, add a little alcohol, and a white deposit will
presently settle to the bottom. This deposit contains the pepsin of the
gastric juice, the potent element by which it does its special work of
digestion. The ill effect of alcohol upon it is one of the prime factors
in the long series of evil results from the use of intoxicants.

173. The Final Results upon Digestion. We have thus explained three
different methods by which alcoholic drinks exercise a terrible power for
harm; they act upon the food so as to render it less digestible; they
injure the stomach so as seriously to impair its power of digestion; and
they deprive the gastric juice of the one principal ingredient essential
to its usefulness.

Alcoholic drinks forced upon the stomach are a foreign substance; the
stomach treats them as such, and refuses to go on with the process of
digestion till it first gets rid of the poison. This irritating presence
and delay weaken the stomach, so that when proper food follows, the
enfeebled organ is ill prepared for its work. After intoxication, there
occurs an obvious reaction of the stomach, and digestive organs, against
the violent and unnatural disturbance. The appetite is extinguished or
depraved, and intense headache racks the frame, the whole system is
prostrated, as from a partial paralysis (all these results being the voice
of Nature's sharp warning of this great wrong), and a rest of some days
is needed before the system fully recovers from the injury inflicted.

It is altogether an error to suppose the use of intoxicants is necessary
or even desirable to promote appetite or digestion. In health, good food
and a stomach undisturbed by artificial interference furnish all the
conditions required. More than these is harmful. If it may sometimes seem
as if alcoholic drinks arouse the appetite and invigorate digestion, we
must not shut our eyes to the fact that this is only a seeming, and that
their continued use will inevitably ruin both. In brief, there is no more
sure foe to good appetite and normal digestion than t