Object Lessons on the Human Body Part 19

Alcohol may also be obtained from other fruits, as grapes, and from some grains and vegetables. But all these must first become rotten before alcohol will come out of them. This is one reason why we think that G.o.d, who gives us good, wholesome food, did not intend alcohol to be a drink for man, else He would have put it into the delicious ripe fruit, and not made it impossible to get until they decay.

Now let us put upon the blackboard something which will help us remember what we have learned about

ALCOHOL.

DISCOVERED BY DESCRIPTION. MADE FROM Paracelsus. Water-like; with a Fruits, Grains, or pleasant odor; a Vegetables.

CALLED hot, biting taste; "The water of life." and will burn with a flame.

USES OF ALCOHOL.

We put some sugar into water; the children see that it melts; then some glue or sh.e.l.lac is placed in the same liquid; they see that this is not melted, but that, when alcohol is used instead of water, the glue or sh.e.l.lac is dissolved. From this experiment they learn that alcohol is used in making varnishes.

Some water is poured into one saucer, and alcohol into another; a lighted match is applied to each; the cla.s.s notices that the alcohol takes fire and burns, while the water does not.

Next, we fill a lamp with alcohol, and put a wick into it; when the wick becomes wet with the fluid it burns steadily and without smoke, as may be seen by holding a clean white saucer over the flame. This shows why jewellers and others, who wish to use a lamp to make things very hot, prefer alcohol to kerosene, which, as the children know, smokes lamp-chimneys, or anything else, so easily.

We show a thermometer; the children are told its use if they are not already familiar with the instrument; we talk about the quicksilver in the tube, about its rising or falling according to the degree of heat or cold; then we inform the cla.s.s that in some countries where it is very cold quicksilver freezes; for this reason alcohol, which does not freeze, is colored red and put into the thermometer tube to be used in these Arctic regions.

Another use for alcohol is to keep or preserve substances. This we ill.u.s.trate by placing a piece of meat into some alcohol. We explain that the water in the meat is that which causes it to decay. Alcohol has the power to take up or _absorb_ water; so when meat is put into this liquid the water from the meat is absorbed by it, and the meat does not become bad. Those who wish to preserve insects a long time, and doctors who desire to keep any portion of a human body after death, put these into alcohol, in which they may be kept for a long time.

Lastly, we let the children smell cologne or other perfumery, and tell them this is made from different oils mixed with alcohol.

At the close of this lesson the cla.s.s is ready to help us make the following BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

FACTS ABOUT ALCOHOL. GOOD USES OF ALCOHOL.

It melts gums. To melt gums.

Burns with a flame. To make varnishes.

Burns without smoke. To burn in lamps.

Will not freeze. To make camphene, etc.

Likes water. To put into thermometer Mixes with oils. tubes.

To preserve meats, etc.

To make perfumery.

In making jewelry.

USES OF ALCOHOL--_concluded_.

You see alcohol is very useful for some purposes; but do people ever drink it? Some of the children think not, and we grant that no one is foolish enough to drink _raw_ alcohol, because it is too strong. It would take only a little to make them drunk, and only a few ounces to kill them instantly.

We ask the pupils if they have ever seen a drunken person, and what made that person drunk? We soon obtain an answer, and place upon the board "Rum, gin, whiskey, brandy," as the names of drinks which will take away the good sense of those who drink them. To these are added "Wine, beer, ale, lager, and cider."

We explain that all these have alcohol in them, as may be known by smelling them, or by smelling the breath of those who have drunk even a little of them; and that because they contain alcohol they are called _alcoholic liquors_. If a person drinks any one of them he will be poisoned, more or less, according to how much he takes. The children are astonished at the word _poisoned_, but we explain that the very word, _intoxicated_, means poisoned. So a drunken man is a poisoned man. If enough alcohol, or alcoholic liquor, is drunk by anyone, he will drop down dead as quickly as if he were shot by a cannon ball.

When told that alcohol is not a food, but a poison, the cla.s.s readily understands what we mean, and we have no difficulty in having the following statements prepared and memorized:

FOOD.

That which makes the body grow, and helps to keep it alive.

POISON.

That which hurts the body, and makes it die.

ALCOHOL.

QUALITIES. GOOD USES.

Water-like, _looks like To melt gums.

water_. To make varnishes.

Transparent, _may be seen To burn in lamps.

through clearly_. To make camphene, etc.

Odorous, _has a smell_. To put in thermometer Pungent, _has a hot, biting tubes.

taste_. To preserve meats, insects, Liquid, _will flow in etc.

drops_. To make perfumery.

Poisonous, _hurts the In making jewelry.

body_.

Intoxicating, _takes away the BAD USE.

senses; makes drunk_. To drink.

Absorbent, _takes up or absorbs water_.

Inflammable, _burns with a flame_.

Uncongealable, _will not freeze_.

Innutritious, _not good for food_.

ABOUT FERMENTATION AND FERMENTED LIQUOR.

_ALCOHOL._--Alcohol may be obtained from any substance which contains sugar or starch, or both sugar and starch, as apples, pears, grapes, potatoes, beets, rice, barley, maple, honey, etc.

Alcohol can be obtained only by _fermentation_. By fermentation we mean the change which takes place when a juice containing sugar decays, or goes to pieces. You know decay always makes things fall to pieces.

You ask, what pieces is sugar made of? Very, very little pieces, called _atoms_. There are different kinds of sugar. In that made from grapes, called _grape sugar_, there are six atoms of carbon, twelve of hydrogen, and six of oxygen. What are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen? Oxygen is the kind of gas which keeps animals alive, and makes things burn. Hydrogen is another kind, which you have smelled perhaps when water has been spilled on a hot stove; the gas burned in street-lamps is hydrogen that has been driven out of coal. Carbon you see in charcoal and soot; the black lead of your lead-pencils is mostly composed of carbon and iron; lamp-black is pure carbon, without form or shape.

We will let these circles of colored paper stand for the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in grape sugar,--the largest, which are red, for the oxygen; the second size, which you notice are black, will represent atoms of carbon; while the little blue ones will make you think of hydrogen.

If you remember that it takes one atom of carbon and two of oxygen to make carbonic acid gas; also, that two atoms of carbon, one of oxygen, and six of hydrogen to form alcohol, you can easily find that two atoms of carbonic acid gas and two atoms of alcohol may be formed from an atom of sugar. So the more sugar a juice contains the more alcohol may be formed from it.

_CIDER._--Cider is made by pressing the juice out of apples. This sweet cider ferments, and the sugar part of it changes into carbonic acid gas and alcohol. People who do not understand this go on drinking cider, not knowing that it makes drunkards of those who drink much of a beverage which seems so pleasant and harmless.

_WINES._--Wines are made from the juices of fruits which have sugar in them, especially grapes. Sometimes people have what they call _home-made wines_, which they make from blackberries, currants, elderberries, gooseberries, cherries, or other fruits. They may ask you to take some, saying, "This will do you no harm; we did not put any alcohol into it."

They do not know what you have learned, that alcohol is always formed in fermented juices which contain sugar. It does not wait to be put into the home-made wines; it quietly comes in as they are getting made, at home or any other place, and will make people drunk as surely as when it is found in brandy or any other liquor.

Some of the wines in the stores are made from grape juice, but many more are made by mixing hurtful and poisonous things together to make the liquor strong, and give it what is called a fine color and good taste.

_BEER AND ALES._--These are made from grains and hops, which contain no sugar, it is true, but are composed of starch, which may be changed into sugar. When a seed of grain is put into the ground and begins to grow, the starch in it becomes sugar, which feeds the young plant. When a brewer wishes to make beer, he takes some grain, puts it in a dark place, wets it, and leaves it to sprout, or begin to grow. Then he puts it into an oven to dry it, and make it stop growing. This makes what is called _malt_. The malt is mashed and soaked in warm water to get the sugar out of it; this forms a liquid called _sweet wort_. The wort is separated from the mashed grain and boiled; yeast is mixed with it to help it to ferment more quickly; it soon becomes changed; a dirty yellow sc.u.m filled with bubbles comes to the top, which we know is the poisonous carbonic acid gas; the other poison, alcohol, stays in the liquid and makes the beer taste good to those who like it.