Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/201

Rh been prepared, without some special acquaintance with, the subject, for the information furnished, by the foregoing mortality tables of the potent action of alcohol on the liver, when only taken in small quantities at a time. And, although it may at first sight appear strange that the liver of all the organs of the body should be most potently affected by moderate drinking, I think one can scarcely be surprised at this if he is acquainted with the peculiar action of alcohol introduced into the liver by the portal vein. For it requires, I think, but a small amount of reflection on the part of those acquainted with the mechanism of digestion to understand how alcohol, when taken into the stomach, even in small quantities at a time, is a powerful agent in the production of hepatic disease. Seeing that most of the liquid products of our food are carried directly from the intestines to the liver by the portal vein, it consequently follows that almost every drop of the alcohol, be it small or be it great, taken into the stomach must be directly conveyed by the portal vein to the liver, and compelled to filter through its tissues before it can possibly get into the general circulation and reach any of the other organs of the body. The knowledge of the fact that all the imbibed alcohol is directly conveyed to the liver by the portal circulation not only gives a clew to why alcoholic stimulants are so prone to induce hepatitis, as well as to increase the formation of sugar and aggravate diabetes, but to bring about an attack of gout; seeing that the liver is regarded as the main source of both sugar and uric acid—the supposed gout-forming material. In addition to which, the direct conveyance of alcohol to the liver affords us a reasonable explanation of why alcohol taken along with the food is so much less detrimental to the constitution than when it is taken on an empty stomach. Moreover, it is now a well-known fact that the continuous excitement of the liver, kept up by habitual "nipping," is far more injurious to its functions than an occasional outburst of drunkenness followed by intervals of strict sobriety. It equally accounts for the fact that the liver is not alone the first organ of the body that becomes affected, but is at the same time the one most seriously disordered by moderate drinking.

The effects on the kidneys of moderate drinking are far less apparent than upon the liver; nevertheless, they are sufficiently marked to merit attention. The reason why the kidneys suffer so much less from the imbibed alcohol when it is taken in only small quantities at a time is sufficiently obvious, seeing that a large quantity of what passes through the liver never reaches the kidneys at all, from a considerable part of it having been eliminated by the breath during its passage in the blood through the lungs. That intemperance is a fruitful source of Bright's