ALCOHOLS EFFECT UPON THE LUNGS
Here we can see how certainly the presence of alcohol interferes with the red corpuscles in their task of carrying oxygen. “Even so small a quantity as one part of alcohol to five hundred of the blood will materially check the absorption of oxygen in the lungs.”
The cells, unable to take up oxygen, retain their carbonic-acid gas, and so return from the lungs, carrying back, to poison the system, the refuse matter the body has sought to throw off. Thus the lungs no longer furnish properly oxygenized blood.
The rapid stroke of the heart, already spoken of, is followed by a corresponding quickening of the respiration. The flush of the cheek is repeated in the reddened mucous membrane lining the lungs.
When this “Vascular enlargement” becomes permanent, and the highly albuminous membrane of the air cells is hardened and thickened as well as congested, the Osmose of the gases to and fro through its pores can no longer be prompt and free as before. Even when the effect passes off in a few days after the occasional indulgence, there has been, during that time, a diminished supply of the life-giving oxygen furnished to the
system; weakness follows, and, in the case of hard drinkers, there is a marked liability to epidemics.
Physicians tell us, also, that there is a peculiar form of consumption known as Alcoholic Phthisis caused by long-continued and excessive use of liquor. It generally attacks those whose splendid physique has enabled them to “drink deep” with apparent impunity. This type of consumption appears late in life and is considered incurable. Severe cases of
pneumonia are also generally fatal with inebriates.
