"But how," asked the merry-faced guest,
"can this be known? Who ever saw into
the stomach of a living man?"

''Strange as it may appear to you, that has
been done, and all the circumstances
connected with the digestion of solids and fluids
in the stomach have been very accurately
observed. It happened, in the year 1822, that
a young Canadian, named Alexis St. Martin,
was accidentally wounded by the discharge of
a musket, which carried away a portion of his
ribs, perforating and exposing the interior of
the stomach. After the poor fellow had
undergone much suffering, all the injured
parts became sound, excepting the perforation
into the stomach, which remained some two
and a half inches in circumference; and upon
this unfortunate individual his physician,
Dr. Beaumont, when he was sufficiently well,
made a series of very careful observations,
which have determined a great variety of
important points connected with the
physiology of digestion. Fluids introduced into
the stomach rapidly disappeared, being taken
up by these vessels and carried into the
system. We cannot, therefore, be surprised
to hear that so subtile and penetrating a fluid
as alcohol should very speedily find its way
into all the tissues of the body. Its presence
may be smelt in the breath of persons addicted
to spirituous liquors, as well as in their
secretions generally."

"But to what do you attribute the noxious
effects of alcohol, allowing it to be thus carried
by direct absorption into the circulation?"
asked the Host.

"To the excess of carbon," answered the
Doctor, "which is thus introduced into the
system; and explains wliy the liver, in hard
drinkers, is generally found diseased."

"How so?" inquired the Host. "I have
heard of the 'Gin Liver.'"

"It is well known that a long residence in
India," interposed the Clergyman, "will give
rise to enlargement and induration of this
organ."

"And for the same reason," answered the
Doctor, "the liver acts as a substitute for the
lungs — just as the skin acts vicariously for
the kidneys."

"Not a word of this do I understand," said
the merry-faced guest.

"Well then," continued the Doctor, " I will
endeavour to explain it. By a wonderful
provision of Nature, which appears to come
under the law of compensation, when one
organ, by reason of decay, is unable to
perform its functions, another undertakes its
functions, and, to a certain extent, supplies
its place. You all know that blind people
acquire a preternatural delicacy in the sense
of touch, which did not, escape the philosophical
observation of Wordsworth, who speaks of

"A watchful heart,
Still couchant—an inevitable ear;
And an eye practised like a blind Man's touch."

Now, it is the office of the vessels of the skin
to throw off by perspiration, the watery parts
of the blood; the kidneys do the same; and
under a great variety of circumstances which
must be familiar to all, these organs
frequently act vicariously for one another. The
office of the liver, and the lungs also, is in like
manner, to throw off carbon from the system,
and when during residence in a Tropical climate
the lungs are unable, from the state of the
atmosphere, to perform their functions, the
liver acting vicariously for this organ is
stimulated to undue activity, and becomes
consequently diseased. Applying these
remarks to the Spirit Drinker, it is obvious that
the excess of carbon introduced into the system
by alcohol is thrown upon the liver, and
by stimulating it to undue activity produces
a state of inflammation."

"This I understand," observed the Clergyman,
"but how does it act upon the brain?
Does the alcohol itself actually become
absorbed, and enter into the substance of the
brain?"

"The effect of an excess of carbon, in the
blood-vessels of the brain, is to produce sleep
and stupor; hence the drunkard breathes
thick, and snores spasmodically, and after
this state, ends in confirmed apoplexy and
death—just as dogs become insensible
when held over the Grotto del Cane, in
Italy, where they inhale this deleterious gas.
But in addition to this it has been clearly
proved, that alcohol does enter into the
substance of the brain, for it has been detected
by the smell, upon examining the brain of
persons who have died drunk; besides
which, alcohol, after having been introduced
by way of experiment, into the body of a
living dog, has afterwards been procured
absolutely as alcohol by distillation from the
substance of the brain. It is so subtile a fluid
that Liebig says, it permeates every tissue
of the body."

"But how do you explain the circumstance
that death sometimes happens suddenly
after drinking spirits," asked the Host,
"before there can be time for absorption to take
place?"

"I remember, not many years ago,"
interposed the merry-faced guest, "a water-man in
attendance at the cab-stand at the top of the
Haymarket, for a bribe of five shillings, tossed
off a bottle of gin, upon which he dropped
down insensible, and soon died."

"This may clearly be accounted for,"
observed the Doctor. "The stomach as I
premised, is plentifully supplied with nerves, and
is connected with one of the great nervous
centres in the body, so that a sudden impression
produced upon these nerves, by the
introduction of a quantity of such stimulus, gives
a shock to the whole nervous system, which
completely overpowers it. From the centre
to the circumference it acts like a stroke ot
lightning, and the death is often
instantaneous. A draught of iced water taken