IT CURSES THE BODY.
First as to the body. One would suppose, from the marred and scarred,and sometimes awfully disfigured forms and faces of men who haveindulged in intoxicating drinks, which are to be seen everywhere andamong all classes of society, that there would be no need of othertestimony to show that alcohol is an enemy to the body. And yet, strangeto say, men of good sense, clear judgment and quick perception in allmoral questions and in the general affairs of life, are often so blind,or infatuated here, as to affirm that this substance, alcohol, whichthey use under the various forms of wine, brandy, whisky, gin, ale orbeer, is not only harmless, when taken in moderation--each being his ownjudge as to what "moderation" means--but actually useful and nutritious!
Until within the last fifteen or twenty years, a large proportion of themedical profession not only favored this view, but made constantprescription of alcohol in one form or another, the sad results of whichtoo often made their appearance in exacerbations of disease, or in theformation of intemperate habits among their patients. Since then, thechemist and the physiologist have subjected alcohol to the most rigidtests, carried on often for years, and with a faithfulness that couldnot be satisfied with guess work, or inference, or hasty conclusion.
ALCOHOL NOT A FOOD AND OF DOUBTFUL USE AS A MEDICINE.
As a result of these carefully-conducted and long-continued examinationsand experiments, the medical profession stands to-day almost as a unitagainst alcohol; and makes solemn public declaration to the people thatit "is not shown to have a definite food value by any of the usualmethods of chemical analysis or physiological investigations;" and thatas a medicine its range is very limited, admitting often of asubstitute, and that it should never be taken unless prescribed by aphysician.
Reports of these investigations to which we have referred have appeared,from time to time, in the medical journals of Europe and America, andtheir results are now embodied in many of the standard and most reliabletreatises and text-books of the medical profession.
In this chapter we shall endeavor to give our readers a description ofthe changes and deteriorations which take place in the blood, nerves,membranes, tissues and organs, in consequence of the continuedintroduction of alcohol into the human body; and in doing so, we shallquote freely from medical writers, in order that our readers may havethe testimony before them in its directest form, and so be able to judgefor themselves as to its value.
DIGESTION.
And here, in order to give those who are not familiar with, the processof digestion, a clear idea of that important operation, and the effectproduced when alcohol is taken with food, we quote from the lecture ofan English physician, Dr. Henry Monroe, on "The Physiological Action ofAlcohol." He says:
"Every kind of substance employed by man as food consists of sugar,starch, oil and glutinous matters, mingled together in variousproportions; these are designed for the support of the animal frame. Theglutinous principles of food--fibrine, albumen and casein--areemployed to build up the structure; while the oil, starch and sugarare chiefly used to generate heat in the body.
"The first step of the digestive process is the breaking up of the foodin the mouth by means of the jaws and teeth. On this being done, thesaliva, a viscid liquor, is poured into the mouth from the salivaryglands, and as it mixes with the food, it performs a very important partin the operation of digestion, rendering the starch of the food soluble,and gradually changing it into a sort of sugar, after which the otherprinciples become more miscible with it. Nearly a pint of saliva isfurnished every twenty-four hours for the use of an adult. When thefood has been masticated and mixed with the saliva, it is then passedinto the stomach, where it is acted upon by a juice secreted by thefilaments of that organ, and poured into the stomach in large quantitieswhenever food comes in contact with its mucous coats. It consists of adilute acid known to the chemists as hydrochloric acid, composed ofhydrogen and chlorine, united together in certain definite proportions.The gastric juice contains, also, a peculiar organic-ferment ordecomposing substance, containing nitrogen--something of the nature ofyeast--termed pepsine, which is easily soluble in the acid just named.That gastric juice acts as a simple chemical solvent, is proved by thefact that, after death, it has been known to dissolve the stomachitself."
ALCOHOL RETARDS DIGESTION.
"It is an error to suppose that, after a good dinner, a glass of spiritsor beer assists digestion; or that any liquor containing alcohol--evenbitter beer--can in any way assist digestion. Mix some bread and meatwith gastric juice; place them in a phial, and keep that phial in asand-bath at the slow heat of 98 degrees, occasionally shaking brisklythe contents to imitate the motion of the stomach; you will find, aftersix or eight hours, the whole contents blended into one pultaceous mass.If to another phial of food and gastric juice, treated in the same way,I add a glass of pale ale or a quantity of alcohol, at the end of sevenor eight hours, or even some days, the food is scarcely acted upon atall. This is a fact; and if you are led to ask why, I answer, becausealcohol has the peculiar power of chemically affecting or decomposingthe gastric juice by precipitating one of its principal constituents,viz., pepsine, rendering its solvent properties much less efficacious.Hence alcohol can not be considered either as food or as a solvent forfood. Not as the latter certainly, for it refuses to act with thegastric juice.
"'It is a remarkable fact,' says Dr. Dundas Thompson, 'that alcohol,when added to the digestive fluid, produces a white precipitate, so thatthe fluid is no longer capable of digesting animal or vegetable matter.''The use of alcoholic stimulants,' say Drs. Todd and Bowman, 'retardsdigestion by coagulating the pepsine, an essential element of thegastric juice, and thereby interfering with its action. Were it not thatwine and spirits are rapidly absorbed, the introduction of these intothe stomach, in any quantity, would be a complete bar to the digestionof food, as the pepsine would be precipitated from the solution asquickly as it was formed by the stomach.' Spirit, in any quantity, as adietary adjunct, is pernicious on account of its antiseptic qualities,which resist the digestion of food by the absorption of water from itsparticles, in direct antagonism to chemical operation."
ITS EFFECT ON THE BLOOD.
Dr. Richardson, in his lectures on alcohol, given both in England andAmerica, speaking of the action of this substance on the blood afterpassing from the stomach, says:
"Suppose, then, a certain measure of alcohol be taken into the stomach,it will be absorbed there, but, previous to absorption, it will have toundergo a proper degree of dilution with water, for there is thispeculiarity respecting alcohol when it is separated by an animalmembrane from a watery fluid like the blood, that it will not passthrough the membrane until it has become charged, to a given point ofdilution, with water. It is itself, in fact, so greedy for water, itwill pick it up from watery textures, and deprive them of it until, byits saturation, its power of reception is exhausted, after which itwill diffuse into the current of circulating fluid."
It is this power of absorbing water from every texture with whichalcoholic spirits comes in contact, that creates the burning thirst ofthose who freely indulge in its use. Its effect, when it reaches thecirculation, is thus described by Dr. Richardson:
"As it passes through the circulation of the lungs it is exposed to theair, and some little of it, raised into vapor by the natural heat, isthrown off in expiration. If the quantity of it be large, this loss maybe considerable, and the odor of the spirit may be detected in theexpired breath. If the quantity be small, the loss will be comparativelylittle, as the spirit will be held in solution by the water in theblood. After it has passed through the lungs, and has been driven by theleft heart over the arterial circuit, it passes into what is called theminute circulation, or the structural circulation of the organism. Thearteries here extend into very small vessels, which are calledarterioles, and from these infinitely small vessels spring the equallyminute radicals or roots of the veins, which are ultimately to becomethe great rivers bearing the blood back to the heart. In its passagethrough this minute circulation the alcohol finds its way to everyorgan. To this brain, to these muscles, to these secreting or excretingorgans, nay, even into this bony structure itself, it moves with theblood. In some of these parts which are not excreting, it remains for atime diffused, and in those parts where there is a large percentage ofwater, it remains longer than in other parts. From some organs whichhave an open tube for conveying fluids away, as the liver and kidneys,it is thrown out or eliminated, and in this way a portion of it isultimately removed from the body. The rest passing round and round withthe circulation, is probably decomposed and carried off in new forms ofmatter.
"When we know the course which the alcohol takes in its passage throughthe body, from the period of its absorption to that of its elimination,we are the better able to judge what physical changes it induces in thedifferent organs and structures with which it comes in contact. Itfirst reaches the blood; but, as a rule, the quantity of it that entersis insufficient to produce any material effect on that fluid. If,however, the dose taken be poisonous or semi-poisonous, then even theblood, rich as it is in water--and it contains seven hundred and ninetyparts in a thousand--is affected. The alcohol is diffused through thiswater, and there it comes in contact with the other constituent parts,with the fibrine, that plastic substance which, when blood is drawn,clots and coagulates, and which is present in the proportion of from twoto three parts in a thousand; with the albumen which exists in theproportion of seventy parts; with the salts which yield about ten parts;with the fatty matters; and lastly, with those minute, round bodieswhich float in myriads in the blood (which were discovered by the Dutchphilosopher, Leuwenhock, as one of the first results of microscopicalobservation, about the middle of the seventeenth century), and which arecalled the blood globules or corpuscles. These last-named bodies are, infact, cells; their discs, when natural, have a smooth outline, they aredepressed in the centre, and they are red in color; the color of theblood being derived from them. We have discovered in recent years thatthere exist other corpuscles or cells in the blood in much smallerquantity, which are called white cells, and these different cells floatin the blood-stream within the vessels. The red take the centre of thestream; the white lie externally near the sides of the vessels, movingless quickly. Our business is mainly with the red corpuscles. Theyperform the most important functions in the economy; they absorb, ingreat part, the oxygen which we inhale in breathing, and carry it to theextreme tissues of the body; they absorb, in great part, the carbonicacid gas which is produced in the combustion of the body in the extremetissues, and bring that gas back to the lungs to be exchanged for oxygenthere; in short, they are the vital instruments of the circulation.
"With all these parts of the blood, with the water, fibrine, albumen,salts, fatty matter and corpuscles, the alcohol comes in contact when itenters the blood, and, if it be in sufficient quantity, it producesdisturbing action. I have watched this disturbance very carefully on theblood corpuscles; for, in some animals we can see these floating alongduring life, and we can also observe them from men who are under theeffects of alcohol, by removing a speck of blood, and examining it withthe microscope. The action of the alcohol, when it is observable, isvaried. It may cause the corpuscles to run too closely together, and toadhere in rolls; it may modify their outline, making the clear-defined,smooth, outer edge irregular or crenate, or even starlike; it may changethe round corpuscle into the oval form, or, in very extreme cases, itmay produce what I may call a truncated form of corpuscles, in which thechange is so great that if we did not trace it through all its stages,we should be puzzled to know whether the object looked at were indeed ablood-cell. All these changes are due to the action of the spirit uponthe water contained in the corpuscles; upon the capacity of the spiritto extract water from them. During every stage of modification ofcorpuscles thus described, their function to absorb and fix gases isimpaired, and when the aggregation of the cells, in masses, is great,other difficulties arise, for the cells, united together, pass lesseasily than they should through the minute vessels of the lungs and ofthe general circulation, and impede the current, by which local injuryis produced.
"A further action upon the blood, instituted by alcohol in excess, isupon the fibrine or the plastic colloidal matter. On this the spirit mayact in two different ways, according to the degree in which it affectsthe water that holds the fibrine in solution. It may fix the water withthe fibrine, and thus destroy the power of coagulation; or it mayextract the water so determinately as to produce coagulation."
ON THE MINUTE CIRCULATION.
The doctor then goes on to describe the minute circulation through whichthe constructive material in the blood is distributed to every part ofthe body. "From this distribution of blood in these minute vessels," hesays, "the structure of organs derive their constituent parts; throughthese vessels brain matter, muscle, gland, membrane, are given out fromthe blood by a refined process of selection of material, which, up tothis time, is only so far understood as to enable us to say that itexists. The minute and intermediate vessels are more intimatelyconnected than any other part with the construction and with thefunction of the living matter of which the body is composed. Think youthat this mechanism is left uncontrolled? No; the vessels, small as theyare, are under distinct control. Infinitely refined in structure, theynevertheless have the power of contraction and dilatation, which poweris governed by nervous action of a special kind."
Now, there are certain chemical agents, which, by their action on thenerves, have the power to paralyze and relax these minute blood-vessels,at their extreme points. "The whole series of nitrates," says Dr.Richardson, "possess this power; ether possesses it; but the great pointI wish to bring forth is, that the substance we are specially dealingwith, alcohol, possesses the self-same power. By this influence itproduces all those peculiar effects which in every-day life are sofrequently illustrated."
PARALYZES THE MINUTE BLOOD-VESSELS.
It paralyzes the minute blood-vessels, and allows them to become dilatedwith the flowing blood.
"If you attend a large dinner party, you will observe, after the firstfew courses, when the wine is beginning to circulate, a progressivechange in some of those about you who have taken wine. The face beginsto get flushed, the eye brightens, and the murmur of conversationbecomes loud. What is the reason of that flushing of the countenance? Itis the same as the flush from blushing, or from the reaction of cold, orfrom the nitrite of amyl. It is the dilatation of vessels following uponthe reduction of nervous control, which reduction has been induced bythe alcohol. In a word, the first stage, the stage of vascularexcitement from alcohol, has been established."
HEART DISTURBANCE.
"The action of the alcohol extending so far does not stop there. Withthe disturbance of power in the extreme vessels, more disturbance is setup in other organs, and the first organ that shares in it is the heart.With each beat of the heart a certain degree of resistance is offered bythe vessels when their nervous supply is perfect, and the stroke of theheart is moderated in respect both to tension and to time. But when thevessels are rendered relaxed, the resistance is removed, the heartbegins to run quicker, like a watch from which the pallets have beenremoved, and the heart-stroke, losing nothing in force, is greatlyincreased in frequency, with a weakened recoil stroke. It is easy toaccount, in this manner, for the quickened heart and pulse whichaccompany the first stage of deranged action from alcohol, and you willbe interested to know to what extent this increase of vascular actionproceeds. The information on this subject is exceedingly curious andimportant."
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"The stage of primary excitement of the circulation thus induced lastsfor a considerable time, but at length the heart flags from itsoveraction, and requires the stimulus of more spirit to carry it on inits work. Let us take what we may call a moderate amount of alcohol, saytwo ounces by volume, in form of wine, or beer, or spirits. What iscalled strong sherry or port may contain as much as twenty-five percent. by volume. Brandy over fifty; gin, thirty-eight; rum, forty-eight;whisky, forty-three; vin ordeinaire, eight; strong ale, fourteen;champagne, ten to eleven; it matters not which, if the quantity ofalcohol be regulated by the amount present in the liquor imbibed. Whenwe reach the two ounces, a distinct physiological effect follows,leading on to that first stage of excitement with which we are nowconversant. The reception of the spirit arrested at this point, thereneed be no important mischief done to the organism; but if the quantityimbibed be increased, further changes quickly occur. We have seen thatall the organs of the body are built upon the vascular structures, andtherefore it follows that a prolonged paralysis of the minutecirculation must of necessity lead to disturbance in other organs thanthe heart."
OTHER ORGANS INVOLVED.
"By common observation, the flush seen on the cheek during the firststage of alcoholic excitation, is presumed to extend merely to the partsactually exposed to view. It cannot, however, be too forcibly impressedthat the condition is universal in the body. If the lungs could be seen,they, too, would be found with their vessels injected; if the brain andspinal cord could be laid open to view, they would be discovered in thesame condition; if the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys orany other vascular organs or parts could be exposed, the vascularengorgement would be equally manifest. In the lower animals, I have beenable to witness this extreme vascular condition in the lungs, and thereare here presented to you two drawings from nature, showing, one thelungs in a natural state of an animal killed by a sudden blow, the otherthe lungs of an animal killed equally suddenly, but at a time when itwas under the influence of alcohol. You will see, as if you were lookingat the structures themselves, how different they are in respect to theblood which they contained, how intensely charged with blood is the lungin which the vessels had been paralyzed by the alcoholic Spirit."
EFFECT ON THE BRAIN.
"I once had the unusual, though unhappy, opportunity of observing thesame phenomenon in the brain structure of a man, who, in a paroxysm ofalcoholic excitement, decapitated himself under the wheel of a railwaycarriage, and whose brain was instantaneously evolved from the skull bythe crash. The brain itself, entire, was before me within three minutesafter the death. It exhaled the odor of spirit most distinctly, and itsmembranes and minute structures were vascular in the extreme. It lookedas if it had been recently injected with vermilion. The white matter ofthe cerebrum, studded with red points, could scarcely be distinguished,when it was incised, by its natural whiteness; and the pia-mater, orinternal vascular membrane covering the brain, resembled a delicate webof coagulated red blood, so tensely were its fine vessels engorged.
"I should add that this condition extended through both the larger andthe smaller brain, the cerebrum and cerebellum, but was not so marked inthe medulla or commencing portion of the spinal cord."
THE SPINAL CORD AND NERVES.
"The action of alcohol continued beyond the first stage, the function ofthe spinal cord is influenced. Through this part of the nervous systemwe are accustomed, in health, to perform automatic acts of a mechanicalkind, which proceed systematically even when we are thinking or speakingon other subjects. Thus a skilled workman will continue his mechanicalwork perfectly, while his mind is bent on some other subject; and thuswe all perform various acts in a purely automatic way, without callingin the aid of the higher centres, except something more than ordinaryoccurs to demand their service, upon which we think before we perform.Under alcohol, as the spinal centres become influenced, these pureautomatic acts cease to be correctly carried on. That the hand may reachany object, or the foot be correctly planted, the higher intellectualcentre must be invoked to make the proceeding secure. There followsquickly upon this a deficient power of co-ordination of muscularmovement. The nervous control of certain of the muscles is lost, and thenervous stimulus is more or less enfeebled. The muscles of the lower lipin the human subject usually fail first of all, then the muscles of thelower limbs, and it is worthy of remark that the extensor muscles giveway earlier than the flexors. The muscles themselves, by this time, arealso failing in power; they respond more feebly than is natural to thenervous stimulus; they, too, are coming under the depressing influenceof the paralyzing agent, their structure is temporarily deranged, andtheir contractile power reduced.
"This modification of the animal functions under alcohol, marks thesecond degree of its action. In young subjects, there is now, usually,vomiting with faintness, followed by gradual relief from the burden ofthe poison."
EFFECT ON THE BRAIN CENTRES.
"The alcoholic spirit carried yet a further degree, the cerebral orbrain centres become influenced; they are reduced in power, and thecontrolling influences of will and of judgment are lost. As thesecentres are unbalanced and thrown into chaos, the rational part of thenature of the man gives way before the emotional, passional or organicpart. The reason is now off duty, or is fooling with duty, and all themere animal instincts and sentiments are laid atrociously bare. Thecoward shows up more craven, the braggart more boastful, the cruel moremerciless, the untruthful more false, the carnal more degraded. 'Invino veritas' expresses, even, indeed, to physiological accuracy, thetrue condition. The reason, the emotions, the instincts, are all in astate of carnival, and in chaotic feebleness.
"Finally, the action of the alcohol still extending, the superior braincentres are overpowered; the senses are beclouded, the voluntarymuscular prostration is perfected, sensibility is lost, and the bodylies a mere log, dead by all but one-fourth, on which alone its lifehangs. The heart still remains true to its duty, and while it just livesit feeds the breathing power. And so the circulation and therespiration, in the otherwise inert mass, keeps the mass within the baredomain of life until the poison begins to pass away and the nervouscentres to revive again. It is happy for the inebriate that, as a rule,the brain fails so long before the heart that he has neither the powernor the sense to continue his process of destruction up to the act ofdeath of his circulation. Therefore he lives to die another day.
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"Such is an outline of the primary action of alcohol on those who may besaid to be unaccustomed to it, or who have not yet fallen into a fixedhabit of taking it: For a long time the organism will bear theseperversions of its functions without apparent injury, but if theexperiment be repeated too often and too long, if it be continued afterthe term of life when the body is fully developed, when the elasticityof the membranes and of the blood-vessels is lessened, and when the toneof the muscular fibre is reduced, then organic series of structuralchanges, so characteristic of the persistent effects of spirit, becomeprominent and permanent. Then the external surface becomes darkened andcongested, its vessels, in parts, visibly large; the skin becomesblotched, the proverbial red nose is defined, and those other strikingvascular changes which disfigure many who may probably be calledmoderate alcoholics, are developed. These changes, belonging, as theydo, to external surfaces, come under direct observation; they areaccompanied with certain other changes in the internal organs, which weshall show to be more destructive still."