gen.
Die, and change into useless fat

* * * * *

TO THE BRAIN AND NERVES.

Where is your brain?--"In my skull." What color is it?--"Gray and white."
What does it resemble?--"Marrow." What work is done in the brain?--"The
work of thinking." You may repeat what you have learned about the membranes
of the brain. (See Formula for the Lesson on the Nervous System.)

You say "the inner membrane is a net-work of blood-vessels." If these are
blood-vessels in the membranes, what fills them?--"Blood." Do you think
alcohol can get into the brain?--"Yes." How can it get there?--"It goes
there with the blood." How can we know that alcohol does mischief in the
brain? You cannot answer? Did you never see a drunken man? Now tell me how
you might know his brain has been hurt by alcohol.--"He talks funny; he
acts strangely; he is very cross; he does not know what he is doing; he
walks crookedly; he falls down; sometimes he falls asleep, and is almost
like a dead man; he is dead drunk."

Let us study to learn why the drunken man does such strange things. The
alcohol in this bottle, and this egg which you see, will help us find the
cause of the mischief. You may tell what is in the egg.--"A white liquid
and a yellow liquid." How could they be made hard?--"By making the egg hot;
by boiling." We will try what alcohol will do to the white part. You see
when it is poured upon the white of the egg it hardens this part as boiling
would harden it. This white portion is composed of water and something
called _albumen_. The alcohol dries up the water and thickens the albumen.

Albumen is found not only in eggs but in some seeds, as beans, peas, corn,
etc., also in the gray part of the brain and in the nerves.

We will talk first of the harm alcohol does to the nerves. You know they
are the grayish-white cords which pass from the brain and the spine to
every part of the body. What do they act like in the kind of work they
do?--"Like telegraph wires." What is their work?--"To carry messages to and
from the brain." What kinds of nerves have you learned about?--"Nerves of
feeling and nerves of motion."

When alcohol touches a nerve, it draws away the moisture or water from it,
and hardens the white part or albumen; this makes the nerve shrivel as if
it had been burned; it loses its power to feel and move, or, to use a long
word, is _paralyzed_.

Alcohol paralyzes all the nerves it touches. It makes them so