Most people are concerned about themselves only to the extent of
securing the immediate satisfaction of their senses. The superficial
surroundings they utilize to cater to the enjoyment of such indulgences
of acquired taste, habit, passion, feelings or emotions, as prove most
gratifying to them, never thinking that their constitution is nothing
more than a vitalized chemical machine, temporarily passing through
its terrestrial cycle of physiological activity, beginning as a mass
of protoplasm, and terminating, when it has gone through all the phases
of animal existence, in the distribution of its chemical elements.
The deranging effect of alcohol on the nervous and muscular tissues
may be compared to the working of an ordinary battery. We know that
the action and the force depend on the elements that enter into the
composition of the battery, fluids and solids, zinc and copper,
and sulphuric acid--representing zinc, copper, sulphur, Oxygen,
and Hydrogen. The action of the zinc and copper depends upon the
fluids. Other fluids, though composed of three elements, would produce
either not the same effect, or no effect at all. It stands to reason
that, since we know the kind of fluid that will set the elements in
action, we certainly should be very unwise to use another fluid that
will either derange or destroy the battery's working capacity. The
forces or force are in this instance produced by the combination of
certain elements, and in order to continue the activity or action of
these elements one upon the other, a constant supply must be kept
up. The mechanism of muscular action, or nervous action, depends
upon the supply of certain elements; they are continually replacing
elements that are used up in the work they have to perform--that is,
the function of brain or muscle. The moment elements are introduced
that do not or cannot make up the loss of the working expenditure, that
tend rather to disorganize or decompose the tissues, the functions and
the natural forces are interfered with, weakened, or may be brought
to a standstill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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