What harm do alcoholic liquors do to the heart?—­“They make it tired, and sometimes wear it out.”

In what way do they make it tired?—­“They make it beat too fast.”

Why does it beat too fast?—­“Because it is hurrying to drive the alcohol out of the body.”

In what other way do alcoholic liquors hurt the heart?—­“They produce disease in it.”

Tell one way by which the heart becomes diseased through alcoholic liquors?—­“Alcohol softens the fibres of the muscles of the heart, and fills them with fat.”

What harm does this do to the heart?—­“It makes it too weak to do its work, which is to pump the blood through the body.”

What sometimes happens when the heart is thus weakened?—­“It stops beating, which causes sudden death.”

What harm does alcohol do to the blood?—­“It uses up the water of the blood; it destroys the goodness of the red part; it makes the blood thin, impure, and unfit to do its work.”  See Appendices on Alcohol and Tobacco.

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[Illustration:  THE LUNGS.]

1, 2, the larynx, the upper part of the windpipe. 3, the windpipe, or trachea. 4, where the windpipe divides to right and left lungs. 5, the right bronchial tube. 6, the left bronchial tube. 7, outline of the right lung. 8, outline of the left lung. 9, the left lung. 10, the right lung.

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PART IX.

FORMULA FOR THE LESSON ON THE LUNGS AND RESPIRATION.

1.  My lungs are the bellows or breathing machines of my body.

2.  They are composed of a soft, fleshy substance, full of small air-cells and tubes.  They are porous and spongy when healthy, but in some diseases become an almost solid mass, through which the air cannot pass.

3.  I breathe by drawing the air through my windpipe, along the tubes into the cells of my lungs, swelling them out, and causing my chest to expand; then the chest contracts, and the impure vapor in my lungs is pressed out through the same tubes, windpipe, nose, and mouth, into the atmosphere.

4.  I cannot live without breathing, because if the air does not go down into my lungs, the dark blood in them is not changed into pure red blood, and goes back through my body dark blood, which cannot keep me alive.

5.  If I would have healthy lungs,
    I must breathe pure air,
    I must live in the sunlight,
    I must keep my body clean,
    I must wear loose clothing,
    I must wear clean clothing,
    I must sit and stand erect,
    I must keep all parts of my body warm,
    I must not change my winter clothing too early in the spring,
    I must avoid draughts of cool air,
    I must not rush into the cold when I am in a perspiration,
    I must not poison my lungs with alcohol or tobacco.