he habitual use of
alcoholic liquors.

174. Effect of Alcoholic Drinks upon the Liver. It is to be noted
that the circulation of the liver is peculiar; that the capillaries of the
hepatic artery unite in the lobule with those of the portal vein, and thus
the blood from both sources is combined; and that the portal vein brings
to the liver the blood from the stomach, the intestines, and the spleen.
From the fact that alcohol absorbed from the stomach enters the portal
vein, and is borne directly to the liver, we would expect to find this
organ suffering the full effects of its presence. And all the more would
this be true, because we have just learned that the liver acts as a sort
of filter to strain from the blood its impurities. So the liver is
especially liable to diseases produced by alcoholics. Post mortems of
those who have died while intoxicated show a larger amount of alcohol in
the liver than in any other organ. Next to the stomach the liver is an
early and late sufferer, and this is especially the case with hard
drinkers, and even more moderate drinkers in hot climates. Yellow fever
occurring in inebriates is always fatal.

The effects produced in the liver are not so much functional as organic;
that is, not merely a disturbed mode of action, but a destruction of the
fabric of the organ itself. From the use of intoxicants, the liver
becomes at first irritated, then inflamed, and finally seriously diseased.
The fine bands, or septa, which serve as partitions between the hepatic
lobules, and so maintain the form and consistency of the organ, are the
special subjects of the inflammation. Though the liver is at first
enlarged, it soon becomes contracted; the secreting cells are compressed,
and are quite unable to perform their proper work, which indeed is a very
important one in the round of the digestion of food and the purification
of the blood. This contraction of the septa in time gives the whole organ
an irregularly puckered appearance, called from this fact a hob-nail liver
or, popularly, gin liver. The yellowish discoloration, usually from
retained or perverted bile, gives the disease the medical name of
cirrhosis.[29] It is usually accompanied with dropsy in the lower
extremities, caused by obstruction to the return of the circulation from
the parts below the liver. This disease is always fatal.

175. Fatty Degeneration Due to Alcohol. Another form of destructive
disease often occurs. There is an increa