The use of the stronger spirits leads to a degeneration of another kind--contraction of the liver, cirrhosis. The kidneys are the next to suffer severely by the alcoholic fluids. The whole blood is purified by the kidneys. The transit is very rapid; the elimination of impurities must necessarily be rapid. The body under the normal condition eliminates Nitrogen chiefly; this is the urea and uric acid found in the diurnal excretion of urine of fifty-two ounces in the twenty-four hours. But if instead of a man drinking the ordinary allowance of fifty-two ounces of water, a man takes in several hundred ounces, as in the case of some beer-drinkers, it is evident that the kidneys have a great deal more work to perform than usual, in addition to the constant irritability the kidneys, like the liver and other organs, are subject to. The sobering up of a man after a drunk, consists in receiving Oxygen sufficient in quantity into the tissues, to supply the amount he has lost. It takes several hours before sufficient Oxygen has been introduced into the tissues to establish the normal equilibrium. The theories on alcohol are various. I quote some of the more important ones, briefly stated: Liebig thought that alcohol disappeared by complete and rapid combustion. Lallemand and Perrin entertained the theory that alcohol was eliminated by the excretory organs. (That means, perhaps, that alcohol simply promenaded through the system.) Parks was of opinion that alcohol is directly absorbed by the blood-vessels without undergoing any change or decomposition. Another theory was that alcohol is converted into acetic acid (C2 H{4} O2); and that acetic acid is split up into carbonic acid (C O2) and water--which is impossible, as there is not Oxygen enough for both C O2 and H2 O. It appears, then, that alcohol does not disappear by rapid combustion, except when taken in very small quantities and during a state of exhaustion, and then not by combustion. That alcohol is excreted there is no doubt, but when taken in large quantities it is not excreted without leaving its permanent mark behind it. Nor is it absorbed by the blood-vessels without undergoing any change or decomposition, otherwise it would be excreted by the kidneys and skin.