Alcohol first affects membranes, in anatomy. The skin is a membranous envelope. Through the whole of the alimentary surface, from the lips downward, and through the bronchial passages to their minutest ramifications, extends the mucous membrane. Delicate membranes fold the lungs, the heart, the liver, and the kidneys, making it easy to remove them from these parts. If you take a portion of bone, you will find it simple to strip off from it a membranous sheath or covering; if you examine a joint, you will find both the head and the socket lined with membranes. A fine membrane known as the peritoneum envelops the entire intestines. Membranes envelop all muscles, while the fasciculi, or bundles and fibers of muscles, possess their own membranous sheathing. Three membranes envelop the brain and spinal cord: the closest one is a pure vascular structure, a network of blood vessels; another is a thin serous structure; and a third is a strong fibrous structure. The structure of the eyeball consists solely of colloidal humors and membranes. Membranous matter enrolls the minute structures of the vital organs to complete the description.
These membranes are the filters of the body. "In their absence, there could be no building of structure, no solidification of tissue, nor organic mechanism. Despite their passive nature, they manage to separate all structures into their respective positions and adaptations."
Membranous deteriorations.
-------------------------
To provide you with a clear understanding of the action and use of these membranous expansions, as well as how alcohol deteriorates and obstructs their function, we will quote Dr. Richardson once more:
"The animal receives from the vegetable world and from the earth the food and drink it requires for its sustenance and motion. It receives colloidal food for its muscles: combustible food for its motion; water for the solution of its various parts; salt for constructive and other physical purposes. The body arranges all these substances through the membranous envelopes in their proper order. Through these membranes nothing can pass that is not, for the time, in a state of aqueous solution, like water or soluble salts. They allow the free passage of water and salts, but they retain the colloidal constructive matter of the active parts until they undergo chemical decomposition into soluble matter. When we eat animal flesh, it is broken down into a soluble fluid before it can be absorbed. In the blood, it is broken down into a colloidal fluid, and in the solids, it is laid down within the membranes into a new structure. After it has done its job, it is broken down again, if I may say so, into a crystalloidal soluble substance that is ready to be carried away and replaced by new matter. It is then dialyzed, or passed through the membranes into the blood, and it is thrown away in the waste.
"See, then, what an all-important part these membranous structures play in animal life. On their integrity, all the silent work of building the body depends. If these mFor example, if these membranes become excessively porous and allow the blood's colloidal fluids to escape, the albumen undergoes a gradual death. , if these membranes become condensed, thickened, or loaded with foreign material, they become incapable of allowing the natural fluids to pass through them. They fail to dialyze, and the result is either an accumulation of the fluid in a closed cavity, contraction of the substance enclosed within the membrane, or dryness of the membrane on surfaces that ought to be freely lubricated and kept apart. In old age, we observe the effects of naturally induced membrane modification; we witness a fixed joint, a shrunken and feeble muscle, a dimmed eye, a deaf ear, and a weakened nervous system.
"At first glance, it might appear that I am diverting from the topic of alcohol's secondary action. However, this is not the case." It is not so. I am leading directly to it. Upon all these membranous structures, alcohol exerts a direct perversion of action. Alcohol causes a thickening, shrinking, and inactivity in these membranous structures, thereby reducing their functional power. For them to function swiftly and consistently, they necessitate a constant supply of water until they reach saturation. If any agent deprives them of water, they stop separating the saline constituents, and if the evil is allowed to continue, they contract their contained matter in whatever organ it is in and condense it.
"In brief, under the prolonged influence of alcohol, the changes that occur in the blood corpuscles extend to the other organic parts, resulting in structural deteriorations, which are always dangerous and often ultimately fatal."
Post a Comment for "EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE MEMBRANES"