When alcohol is used for only a short time, the stomach can get well; but if it is used for months and years, the stomach will stay weak. Then the drinker can hardly eat at all. =77. What becomes of alcohol.=--In the stomach a great deal of gastric juice is mixed with the alcohol. So it is very weak when it reaches the intestine. Alcohol needs only a little digesting. It soon soaks into the blood from the intestine along with the other food. The blood flows fast and washes the alcohol away as soon as it leaves the intestine. Too little gets into the blood at once to harm it much. Alcohol goes to the liver, and is there destroyed; but it still does great harm. The liver has to attend to the alcohol, and so it does not change the food to good blood, and it does not take all the poisons out of the blood. Then the whole body becomes weak and sick. Alcohol hurts the liver first, and more than other parts of the body. On this account, drinkers often have bilious attacks and stomach troubles. =78. Bitters.=--Many medicines are made by dissolving drugs in alcohol. In taking a strong medicine, we use only a few drops, and so do not get much alcohol. Some kinds of medicines must be taken in large doses. Bitters are weak medicines, and must be taken by the tablespoonful. A tablespoonful of the medicine has more alcohol than a large drink of whisky. The bitters seem to make a person feel well, but it is because he is taking a large amount of strong drink. Jamaica Ginger is only common ginger dissolved in alcohol. It, too, is a form of strong drink. =79. Strong drink as medicine.=--People sometimes keep whisky or brandy in the house to give for colds or other slight forms of sickness. A drink of hot coffee does more good than the strong drink, and has none of its dangers. By using whisky or brandy for medicine, children learn to believe in strong drink, and so they will be likely to use it when they grow up. This reason alone ought to keep any one from giving it to a child. =80. Alcohol in cooking.=--In making bread, alcohol is formed in the dough by the yeast. When the bread is baked, all the alcohol is driven off by the heat, and so we do not eat any. Sometimes brandy or wine is put into desserts. If it is put in after the dessert is cooked, we shall get as much alcohol as if we had drunk it. If the liquor is put in before cooking, the heat will drive off the alcohol but the flavor of the liquor will remain. The flavor will do no harm in itself, but people will learn its taste, and from it may learn to like the strong drink itself. The alcohol in bread has no special flavor and does not leave any taste behind. So we cannot learn to like strong drink by eating bread. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. Fruit juice makes wine or cider. 2. All kinds of wine contain alcohol. 3. When the liquid from boiled grain has fermented, it becomes beer, or ale.