When alcohol is taken into the system, it is almost immediately absorbed by the veins of the stomach, is carried at once by the portal vein to the liver, and returns from the liver by way of the hepatic vein to the inferior vena cava, to the right auricle, and to the lungs through the right ventricle. But the lungs cannot supply Oxygen enough to satisfy the Carbon of the alcohol. There is only one atom of Oxygen in the composition of alcohol, and three more atoms of Oxygen are needed to form Carbonic acid (C O2). Under ordinary, normal conditions, Oxygen enough is inspired to satisfy the wants of the tissues for combustion purposes, but in the case of alcohol an extra demand for Oxygen is made, and the lungs are not prepared to supply the demand. Since oxidation takes place in the tissues and not in the blood, the blood, being overcharged with heavy carburetted Hydrogen (C2 H4), unloads it into the tissue. The extra amount of Carbon arriving at the tissue, robs it of its Oxygen. The Oxygen arriving from the lungs being insufficient, the tissue loses Oxygen. The presence of Oxygen is necessary for the maintenance of irritability. From the fact that no free Oxygen is present in the muscular tissue the tension is nil or even less than nothing. When the Carbon of the alcohol robs the tissues of its Oxygen, the Hydrogen is set free. What becomes of it? The muscular and nervous tissues contain from 51 to 54 per cent of Carbon in their composition, and 6 to 7 per cent of Hydrogen. The free Hydrogen combines with the Carbon of the tissues and forms carburetted Hydrogen, with which the blood gets overloaded, and carries it to the other tissues. The nervous system, the brain, not receiving the Oxygen necessary, in consequence of the blood being overcharged with both Carbonic acid and carburetted Hydrogen, the nervous substance is first impaired, next exhausted, and lastly its normal activity extinguished. The muscles meantime through having been robbed of both Oxygen and Carbon--receiving no free Oxygen or very little--and through the presence in the circulating fluid of Carbonic acid and carburetted Hydrogen, lose the power to act. The cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, with all the other subordinate nervous centers, being impaired by the poison and the absence of Oxygen, the nerves of volition lose control, the cerebrum has its will power impaired or entirely subdued, and the cerebellum loses the power of muscular coördination. Thus, then, the master tissues become crippled. At first alcohol may have a stimulating effect on the nervous system; next, if the indulgence be continued, the nervous forces become exalted; finally, however, depression sets in, and proves at last a complete extinguisher of the intellectual faculties. The muscles first lose the power of coördination, the irritability and tension gradually cease, at length they refuse to act.