stupid that
they cannot understand what the brain says to them, and they do not carry
the right messages back to it. For instance: when the nerves of the stomach
are poisoned by the alcohol in beer, wine, etc., they do not feel the pain
of hunger as much as they otherwise would, and they let the brain think the
stomach is satisfied and does not need any more food, when it is only
stupefied by these liquors.

Again, it is the work of some nerves to tell the muscles of the small
arteries to tighten, or contract, when too much blood is coming into them.
Alcohol so paralyzes these nerves that they do not carry their message; the
arteries let in the blood, and become swollen and enlarged. They tell the
mischief done to them, by causing the skin to be red or flushed. If people
drink much of any intoxicating liquor, and often, their skin is always a
bad color, or, as grown folks say, becomes permanently discolored. All this
because the nerves have been made unfit to do their duty by alcohol poison.

The nerves also lose power over the muscles of the limbs. This is plainly
seen in the trembling of the hands and the unsteady walking of the
drunkard; but is equally true of those who drink only a little now and
then. Their nerves are not as strong and wide-awake to control the
machinery of the body as they would be if no alcohol were troubling them.

Sometimes the nerves of hearing and sight tell the brain queer stories, and
the poor brain believes them all, for it, too, is stupefied by the same
fire-water which has hurt the nerves. Indeed, the harm done by alcohol to
the brain is greater than that done to any other part of the body. It takes
the water from the albumen, and makes the white part of the brain hard, as
if it had been cooked. It kills the little, circle-shaped, red parts of the
blood--the corpuscles; these collect in the blood-vessels of the brain, and
keep the blood from flowing as fast as it ought, which causes disease and
very often death. Sometimes the brain is so much injured by the poison that
the drinker becomes crazy, and is a great deal of trouble to himself and
everybody else.

Since all this is true, wise children will let cider, lager, ale, wine, and
every other kind of alcoholic drink alone, and never, NEVER,

"Put an enemy into their mouths,
To steal away their brains."

* * * * *

HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL TO THE
NERVES. BRAIN