Alcoholism
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Effect of Alcohol on the Membranes
The parts which first suffer from alcohol are those
expansions of the body which the anatomists call the membranes.
"The skin is a membranous envelope. Through the whole of the
alimentary surface, from the lips downward, and through the
bronchial passages to their minutest ramifications, extends the
mucous membrane.
The lungs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys are folded in
delicate membranes, which can be stripped easily from these
parts. If you take a portion of bone, you will find it easy to
strip off from it a membranous sheath or covering; if you
examine a joint, you will find both the head and the socket
lined with membranes. The whole of the intestines are enveloped
in a fine membrane called peritoneum.
All the muscles are enveloped in membranes, and the fasciculi,
or bundles and fibres of muscles, have their membranous
sheathing. The brain and spinal cord are enveloped in three
membranes; one nearest to themselves, a pure vascular
structure, a network of blood-vessels; another, a thin serous
structure; a third, a strong fibrous structure. The eyeball is
a structure of colloidal humors and membranes, and of nothing
else. To complete the description, the minute structures of the
vital organs are enrolled in membranous matter."
These membranes are the filters of the body. "In their
absence there could be no building of structure, no
solidification of tissue, nor organic mechanism. Passive
themselves, they, nevertheless, separate all structures into
their respective positions and adaptations."
Membranous deteriorations.
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In order to make perfectly clear to your mind the action and
use of these membranous expansions, and the way in which
alcohol deteriorates them, and obstructs their work, we quote
again from Dr. Richardson:
"The animal receives from the vegetable world and from the
earth the food and drink it requires for its sustenance and
motion. It receives colloidal food for its muscles: combustible
food for its motion; water for the solution of its various
parts; salt for constructive and other physical purposes. These
have all to be arranged in the body; and they are arranged by
means of the membranous envelopes.
Through these membranes nothing can pass that is not, for the
time, in a state of aqueous solution, like water or soluble
salts. Water passes freely through them, salts pass freely
through them, but the constructive matter of the active parts
that is colloidal does not pass; it is retained in them until
it is chemically decomposed into the soluble type of matter.
When we take for our food a portion of animal flesh, it is
first resolved, in digestion, into a soluble fluid before it
can be absorbed; in the blood it is resolved into the fluid
colloidal condition; in the solids it is laid down within the
membranes into new structure, and when it has played its part,
it is digested again, if I may so say, into a crystalloidal
soluble substance, ready to be carried away and replaced by
addition of new matter, then it is dialysed or passed through,
the membranes into the blood, and is disposed of in the
excretions.
"See, then, what an all-important part these membranous
structures play in the animal life. Upon their integrity all
the silent work of the building up of the body depends. If
these membranes are rendered too porous, and let out the
colloidal fluids of the blood the albumen, for example the body
so circumstanced, dies; dies as if it were slowly bled to
death. If, on the contrary, they become condensed or thickened,
or loaded with foreign material, then they fail to allow the
natural fluids to pass through them. They fail to dialyse, and
the result is, either an accumulation of the fluid in a closed
cavity, or contraction of the substance inclosed within the
membrane, or dryness of membrane in surfaces that ought to be
freely lubricated and kept apart. In old age we see the effects
of modification of membrane naturally induced; we see the fixed
joint, the shrunken and feeble muscle, the dimmed eye, the deaf
ear, the enfeebled nervous function.
"It may possibly seem, at first sight, that I am leading
immediately away from the subject of the secondary action of
alcohol. It is not so. I am leading directly to it. Upon all
these membranous structures alcohol exerts a direct perversion
of action. It produces in them a thickening, a shrinking and an
inactivity that reduces their functional power. That they may
work rapidly and equally, they require to be at all times
charged with water to saturation. If, into contact with them,
any agent is brought that deprives them of water, then is their
work interfered with; they cease to separate the saline
constituents properly; and, if the evil that is thus started,
be allowed to continue, they contract upon their contained
matter in whatever organ it may be situated, and condense
it.
"In brief, under the prolonged influence of alcohol those
changes which take place from it in the blood corpuscles,
extend to the other organic parts, involving them in structural
deteriorations, which are always dangerous, and are often
ultimately fatal."
Arthors Bio:
Jimmy Oakley is publisher of http://maybrockpublishing.com and
is also an accomplished arthor and writer.
His newest ebook release is titled
"Addiction Education, You have Questions, I Have Answers!",
a comprehensive authority guide and addiciton resource
that is sweeping the addiction community in it's new
found popularity. Jimmy invites you to subscribe to his
exceptionally informative new 10-part ecourse by
visiting http://addictioneducation.net/ecoursesignup.html. Or visit the books main website at
http://addictioneducation.net
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To find other selections Jimmy has published,
visit http://maybrockpublishing.com. Some
of Jimmy's other books include The Body Detox Method,
Fitting Esercise into Your Busy Schedule, How to Reduce
Stress in Your Life, Banish Bad Habits, Vibrant Health
& Wellness Audio Program, Getting to Know Anxiety,
How to Boost Your Metablolism plus others excellent
resources for you to take advantage of.
Visit Jimmy's blog at http://jimmyoakley.com for
enlightening up to date information about marketing and other
miscellaneous topics of interest.
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