"Massart and Bordet, Metchnikoff and Sims Woodhead, have proved that alcohol, even in very dilute solution, prevents the white blood corpuscles from attacking invading germs, thus depriving the system of the cooperation of these important defenders, and reducing the powers of resisting disease. The experiments of Richardson, Harley, Kales, and others have demonstrated the fact that one to five per cent of alcohol in the blood of the living human body in a notable degree alters the appearance of the corpuscular elements, reduces the oxygen bearing elements, and prevents their reoxygenation." Alcohol weakens Resistance to Disease.--In acute illnesses, grippe, fevers, blood poisoning, etc., substances formed in the blood termed "antibodies" antagonize the action of bacteria, facilitating their destruction by the white blood cells and neutralizing their poisonous influence. In a person with good "resistance" this protective machinery, which we do not yet thoroughly understand, works with beautiful precision, and the patient "gets well." Experiments by scientific experts have demonstrated that alcohol restrains the formation of these marvelous antibodies. Alcohol puts to sleep the sentinels that guard your body from disease. The Effect of Alcohol on the Circulation.--Alcoholic drinks affect the very delicate adjustment of the nervous center's controlling the blood vessels and heart. Even very dilute alcohol acts upon the muscles of the tiny blood vessels; consequently, more blood is allowed to enter them, and, as the small vessels are usually near the surface of the body, the habitual redness seen in the face of hard drinkers is the ultimate result. "The first effect of diluted alcohol is to make the heart beat faster. This fills the small vessels near the surface. A feeling of warmth is produced which causes the drinker to feel that he was warmed by the drink. This feeling, however, soon passes away, and is succeeded by one of chilliness. The body temperature, at first raised by the rather rapid oxidation of the alcohol, is soon lowered by the increased radiation from the surface. "The immediate stimulation to the heart's action soon passes away and, like other muscles, the muscles of the heart lose power and contract with less force after having been excited by alcohol."--MACY, _Physiology_. Alcohol, when brought to act directly on heart muscle, lessens the force of the beat. It may even cause changes in the tissues, which eventually result in the breaking of the walls of a blood vessel or the plugging of a vessel with a blood clot. This condition may cause the disease known as _apoplexy_.