ALCOHOL'S DANGERS I T IS A sad THING to realize tlie growing number of women who are alcoholics in our nation. Such an in dividual is a very needy case, usually more so than the man. The family endeavors to cover up for her and they generally try to keep her inside. This usually compounds her problems. With the millions of dollars being spent by the beer and liquor industry advertising their products, we as par ents need to instruct our children very carefully concerning the problems and temptations they will face. For this reason I believe it would be profitable for us to spend a little time consider ing alcohol strictly from the stand point of science. After this we can make some psychological and spiritual applications. You see, alcohol, outside of the body is really a great blessing. Alcohol both dissolves and dehydrates. It is made through fermentation. Most of us can remember our mothers doing home canning and the great caution which was taken to avoid fermentation set ting in. The purpose of the steriliza tion, of course, was to kill any bac teria which might cause sickness. Al coholic fermentation does not “set up” in shalow liquids because the wild yeast gets the oxygen from the air. When wild yeast germs cannot get oxygen from the air they break down the sugar content by a process of fer mentation giving off carbon dioxide and thus making alcohol. There are, of course, very elaborate processes of chemically p ro du c ing alcohol, how ever, this is the basic way it happens in the home. Alcohol is a marvelous chemical. If we were on TV we would suggest an experiment which would graphically portray what we have been saying. To do this we would use 16 little bottles or test tubes. In eight of them we would place water and in the other eight, ethyl alcohol which is the basis
Dr. W . Robert Smith
of the beverage industry. By changing compounds there is actually an end less number of alcoholic compounds. All of them have these two properties in dissolving and dehydrating. With these little vials we would put some oil in one, some resin in an other, camphor in the next, and then a plant leaf, such as from a geranium or a violet in the fourth. Then we would put the same substances in al cohol, one to each little container. Before going any further let us check our experiment. For the first, water has no effect on oil while al cohol dissolves it. In water resin goes right to the bottom while in alcohol it dissolves. In water camphor floats while alcohol will dissolve it. In water a green leaf will remain that way while alcohol will take the color out of it. The other characteristics of alcohol is that it dehydrates. Continuing our experiment we take the remaining lit tle bottles this time using bread, sugar, meat and the white of an egg. In water sugar will dissolve while in alcohol it makes it harder sinking to the bottom of the glass. Bread in wa ter will cause it to become mushy and finally decay. In alcohol it hardens as it dehydrates. Meat in water causes it to putrify. Alcohol, a great pre servative, will dehydrate it so that Pictured below is Myers Hall of the Talbot Theo logical Seminary.
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