ity so much as to render the system unusually
susceptible to that fatal disease."--R. S. Tracy, M.D., Sanitary
Inspector of the N. Y. City Health Dept.

"In thirty cases in which alcoholic phthisis was present a dense,
fibroid, pigmented change was almost invariably present in some portion
of the lung far more frequently than in other cases of
phthisis."--_Annual of Medical Sciences_.

"There is no form of consumption so fatal as that from alcohol.
Medicines affect the disease but little, the most judicious diet fails,
and change of air accomplishes but slight real good.... In plain terms,
there is no remedy whatever for alcoholic phthisis. It may be delayed in
its course, but it is never stopped; and not infrequently, instead of
being delayed, it runs on to a fatal termination more rapidly than is
common in any other type of the disorder."--Dr. B. W. Richardson in
_Diseases of Modern Life_.

229. Other Results of Intoxicants upon the Lungs. But a more potent
injury to the lungs comes from another cause. The lungs are the arena
where is carried on the ceaseless interchange of elements that is
necessary to the processes of life. Here the dark venous blood, loaded
with effete material, lays down its carbon burden and, with the
brightening company of oxygen, begins again its circuit. But the enemy
intrudes, and the use of alcohol tends to prevent this benign interchange.

The continued congestion of the lung tissue results in its becoming
thickened and hardened, thus obstructing the absorption of oxygen, and the
escape of carbon dioxid. Besides this, alcohol destroys the integrity of
the red globules, causing them to shrink and harden, and impairing their
power to receive oxygen. Thus the blood that leaves the lungs conveys an
excess of the poisonous carbon dioxid, and a deficiency of the needful
oxygen. This is plainly shown in the purplish countenance of the
inebriate, crowded with enlarged veins. This discoloration of the face is
in a measure reproduced upon the congested mucous membrane of the lungs.
It is also proved beyond question by the decreased amount of carbon dioxid
thrown off in the expired breath of any person who has used alcoholics.

The enfeebled respiration explains (though it is only one of the reasons)
why inebriates cannot endure vigorous and prolonged exertion as can a
healthy person. The hurried circulation produced by intoxicants involves
in turn quickened respiration