membrane of the stomach becomes highly reddened and injected, just as if
inflammation had already been produced by the presence of the stimulant.
Thus far you probably follow me:--but this is not all--the vessels thus
excited have an absorbing power; they suck up (as it were) and carry
directly into the stream of the circulation a portion (at all events) of
the alcohol which thus irritates them. The result is, that alcohol is
thus mixed with the blood and brought into immediate contact with the
minute structure of all the different organs of the body."

"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 why 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 f