the alcohol.

A true story we have read will help you to remember how troublesome alcohol
is to the stomach. Some men in Edinburgh were paid their wages, one
Saturday, soon after they had eaten their dinner. They got drunk and
remained so till the next day at noon. When they became sober they had a
headache and were so ill that they sent for a doctor; he gave them some
medicine which brought up their Saturday's dinner just as it had gone down
into the stomach. The poor stomach could do nothing with dinner mixed with
whiskey or rum, because these liquors are half alcohol.

You have already learned that the stomach hurries to drive out the alcohol
into the liver; the liver sends it with the blood into the heart; the heart
pours it into the lungs; the lungs breathe it out through the nose and
mouth, and tell that some kind of alcoholic liquor has been taken into the
stomach.

Remember, that the alcohol which comes out in the breath is a part of that
which _went into the mouth_. It could not be changed. It did nothing but
mischief in its journey, which shows that it is not food, but poison. God,
who created the body, has not given any part of it power to change alcohol
into blood.

People sometimes take ale or wine because they think it gives them an
appetite. This is a great mistake. When any alcoholic liquor goes into the
stomach, there is such hard work to get it out that the pain of hunger is
not felt; when it is out, the stomach is tired and does not tell the brain
that it is hungry. When alcohol is poured into it, day after day, it loses
its desire for good, wholesome food, _and wants more and more alcoholic
liquor_. It has an appetite for alcohol.

Alcohol makes the stomach sore and full of disease; people who take much of
it in liquors always suffer much from dyspepsia.

So, if the stomach could speak, it would say: "Don't pour any alcohol into
me, though you mix it and call it ale, cider, wine, or any other name that
makes folks think it will do me no harm. You cannot deceive me. I know
alcohol as soon as it comes down, and it always makes me suffer."

* * * * *

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

ALCOHOL--
Burns or inflames the coats of the stomach.
Spoils the gastric juice.
Makes the food hard to be dissolved.
Makes the stomach tired and weak.
Takes away the appetite for wholesome food.
Makes an appetite for alcoholic liquors.
Causes disease