Chronic poisoning by alcohol induces hardening and calcification in the walls of the arteries, degeneration of the nerve cells and dendrites, wasting or overgrowth of the heart muscle, and fatty degeneration of the liver and kidneys. The nerve centres that control the circulation of the blood are paralysed by it, and, as a sequence, the arteries and capillaries are diminished in calibre. This state in turn obstructs the flow of the blood, and the body is not nourished, nor are the waste and poisonous results of metabolism carried off as they should be. Alcohol prevents the haemoglobin of the blood from doing its office, which is to supply oxygen and remove carbon dioxid. It absorbs the necessary water from the tissues, and thus it acts as a corroding poison. It is also a functional toxin, because it depresses the activity of organs by injuring the innervation. The poison affects the brain, and as the cerebral gray matter, especially its pyramidal cells, are the physical instruments of thought, will, and memory, or the means of communication between the soul and the outer world, the exercise of these spiritual functions is checked or inhibited by it. A tendency to excess in the use of alcohol commonly {108} manifests itself before the thirtieth year, and in some cases it may be removed at the alcoholic climacteric, which is from the fortieth to the sixty-fifth year. Those that become drunkards are usually of a neuropathic constitution, through inheritance or abuse. Severe diseases, like influenza, syphilis, typhoid; injuries to the head, sunstroke, shock, worry; the disturbance that may accompany puberty, pregnancy, lactation, and so on,--cause a nervous depression which is soothed by alcohol, and thus a habit is fixed. The reckless prescription of alcohol by some physicians is another cause of the habit, and the use of proprietary medicines is a still more prolific source of drunkenness and the consequent misfortune. Cider, beer, ale, and porter contain from 4 to 6 per centum of real alcohol; light wines, red and white, and natural sherry, 10 to 12 per centum; strong sherry and port, 16 to 18 per centum; brandy, 39 to 47 per centum by weight, or 46 to 55 per centum by volume; and whiskey, 44 to 50 per centum by weight, or 50 to 58 per centum by volume. The effect of these liquors on the body is due primarily to alcohol, and secondarily to ethereal derivatives of alcohol. Some owe a part of their effect to non-volatile substances,--beer from which all alcohol has been boiled can still affect the body in a marked degree. The chemist of the Massachusetts State Board of Health (Document No. 34) gives the percentage of alcohol in the common proprietary medicines, and these percentages will be found in the article on _Social Medicine_. The weakest of these compounds are twice as strong in alcohol as beer, and they treacherously bring about the habit of drunkenness in disposed persons who may be very desirous to avoid such a calamity.