A great variety of articles pass into circulation, by means of lacteal absorption, or direct imbibition from the coats of the stomach, from whence they have immediate access to the blood. The comparative rapidity of this operation varies in the different articles submitted to experiment. Several interesting facts tend to prove that alcohol does not undergo the digestive process. Magendie found spirit in the blood. Not a particle, however, was detected in the chyle. Dr. Trotter well remarks, that human blood and healthful chyle do not acknowledge alcohol to be an ingredient in their composition.* The presence of alcohol in the system is at all times repulsive to its healthy operations. Every part of the human frame with which it comes in contact, rejects it with significant marks of alarm, and vital efforts are made to get rid of its noxious influence. Under the excitement of alcoholic stimulus, the vessels of the brain receive an additional and unnecessary quantity of blood. It is at this period that these vessels relieve themselves from their tortured and distended condition by the effusion of serum, (or the watery particles of the blood,) on the surface, and in the ventricles of that organ. Coma and death speedily follow the deposit of alcohol in these vital regions. The same process takes place also in other organs of the body. The functions of the brain and nervous system, however, take precedence of all others in importance, inasmuch as they are essentially necessary to the vitality and healthy operation of all the other functions. The lungs also, and the kidneys, make strenuous efforts to relieve themselves of the injurious load. This circumstance is proved, in the one instance, by the breath of the drunkard, which, in cases of free drinking, exhales, from time to time, a spirituous odour; and, in the other, by the excited action sons, we discovered nearly four ounces of fluid in the ventricles, having all the physical qualities of alcohol, as proved by the united testimony of two other medical men who saw the body opened, and examined the fluid. The stomach also smelt of this fluid." [Dr. Ogston on intoxication, Edinburgh, Med. Journal, vol. xi, 1833, page 293.] Dr. Kirk, of Greenock, (Scotland,) relates the following additional case: "I dissected a man," says he, "who died in a state of intoxication. The operation was performed a few hours after death. In the two cavities of the brain, the lateral ventricles, was found the usual quantity of limpid fluidwhen we smelled it, the odour of the whiskey was distinctly visible; and when we applied the candle to a portion in a spoon, it actually burned blue; the lambent blue frame, characteristic of the poison, playing on the surface of the spoon for a few seconds. Essay on Drunkenness, p. 170. which is produced, and the copious evacuations which fol low, undue indulgence. The theory of death by intoxication may be thus explained. Effusion of matter into the ventricles of the brain, renders that organ incapable of efficiently performing its functions. The other functions. of the system are, by this means, essentially injured. The muscles of respiration are among the first of those which suffer. Respiration is not conducted with adequate effect. Dark blood is retarded in pulmonary vessels, and when it does reach its destination, returns still in the same state, not having undergone its usual and essential vital changes. When this unchanged blood reaches the brain, it soon extinguishes every remaining portion of its vitality. Loss of life is the speedy and inevitable result. Loss of temperature is indicated by paleness of the face, and coldness of the extremities. It is accounted for on the principle, that the changes which the blood undergoes in a healthy state of the lungs, are essentially necessary to animal temperature, and therefore every cause which retards this operation, must diminish the temperature of the system, as it paralyzes its vital energies. A careful consideration of these statements leads us to the conclusion, that alcohol, in all its combinations, is a positive and effectual poison. In its composition and effects, it is incapable of promoting in any way healthy existence, and to persons in a state of health, it is under all circumstances, both unnecessary and pernicious. The moderate proportion in which it may be taken, does not do away with its injurious consequences. They are only less so in degree, and in reality are, in the end, more destructive, because less observed, and less guarded against. It may in conclusion be affirmed, that there exists no safeguard against the evils of alcoholic stimulants, but in the total and permanent abandonment of their use, in all their varied and seducing combinations. CHAPTER XIV. DISEASES WHICH ARISE FROM THE USE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS "All maladies MILT THE diseases which directly or indirectly originate in the use of intoxicating liquors, form an exceedingly fruitful subject for investigation. These indeed are so numerous and obstinate in their character, as to form a very principal source of employment and emolument to the medical profession. It would be impossible in an Essay like the present, to enter into either a minute or professional investigation of the afflictive maladies which arise from the use of intoxicating liquors. It is intended to glance generally only at the most important of these, and in such familiar language, as will easily be understood by the popular reader. 1. The stomach, its functions and diseases.-The healthy performance of all the other functions of the human frame, principally depends on the functions of digestion. Hence the importance of the stomach and its operations. One of the first evils consequent on the use of alcoholic liquors, arises from the unnatural irritation and irregular action to which the stomach is thereby subjected. The application of alcohol in any of its varied forms, causes irritation or excitement of the coats of the stomach, in other words, diseased action. This undue excitement terminates in a loss of that natural sensibility to food, which previously had formed its most valuable property; in addition to incompetency to receive that peculiar and salutary stimulus, which actual contact of the food creates, and which is in a great degree necessary to healthy digestion. A thickened state of the coats of the stomach, which sometimes terminates in schirrus or cancer, is not unfrequently the result of alcoholic indulgence. Dr. Hodg kin remarks, that he has often found the membranes lining the stomachs of free-drinkers, thickened far beyond what was natural or healthy.* In a case which came under the observation of Dr. Ogston, "The whole of the stomach was found to be firm and the coats thickened, to at least three times their usual size." An intelligent physician relates the following interesting case:-"A middle-aged gentleman of wealth and standing, had long been accustomed to mingle in the convivial circle, and though by no means a drunkard, had indulged at times in the use of his old Cogniac with an unsparing hand. He was at length seized with pain in the region of his stomach, and a vomiting of his food an hour or two after he had taken it. In about eighteen months he died in a state of extreme emaciation. On opening the body after death, the walls of the whole of the right extremity of the stomach were found in a schirrus and cancerous condition, and thickened to the extent of two inches. The cavity of the organ was so far obliterated as scarcely to admit the passage of a probe from the left to the right extremity, and the opening which remained was so unequal and irregular, as to render it evident that but little of the nourishment he had received could have passed the lower orifice of the stomach for many months."+ Another injurious effect of alcoholic liquors arises from the circumstance, that they unnaturally accelerate the process of digestion; and partially prevent those important and effectual changes which are necessary to the complete conver sion of food into nutriment. The importance of the due Hodgkin's Lectures on Health, 1835, p. 152. † Ogston on Intoxication.-Edinb. Med. Journal, p. 292. An Address by a Physician, on the Effects of Ardent Spirits on the Moral Intellectual and Physical Powers, p. 5. detention of food in the stomach has been remarked from an early period. An old author, in a work originally written in Latin, A.D. 1648, remarks that wine should not be taken habitually after meals, because it unnaturally accelerates digestion, propels the food before it is properly digested, and lays the foundation of obstructions and putridity.* Dr. Cheyne and Dr. Thackrah make similar observations. ""T is true," remarks the former, "strong liquors by their heat and stimulation on the organs of concoction, by increasing the velocity of the motion of the fluids, and thereby quickening the other animal functions, will carry off the load that lies upon the stomach, with more present cheerfulness; yet besides the future damages of such a quantity of wine, to the stomach and to the fluids, by its heat and inflammation, the food is hurried into the habit, unconcocted, and lays a foundation for a fever, a fit of the cholic, or some chronical disease."+ "The detention of food," observes Dr. Thackrah, "is necessary to digestion. The gastric juice does not decompose substances, like the galvanic aura. Its operations are gradual: by the contractions of the muscular coat it is applied to successive portions of aliment. All articles, therefore, which by their stimulus produce a rapid action, are injurious. To this, I attribute the circumstance of bitters frequently impairing the digestive process. They habituate the stomach to propel its contents, before these have undergone the action of the solvent fluid. This observation applies, of course, to bitters taken with food, as the hop in ale and porter." The use of alcoholic stimulants excites an unnatural desire for improper dietetic indulgence, and thus in several ways lays the foundation for various forms of indigestion, impairing, to a considerable degree the QUALITY and QUANTITY of those natural secretions, without the aid of which, nutrition cannot be effectively carried on and perfected. This valuable and essential fluid is secreted from the mouths of certain vessels on the lining membrane of the stomach. By a necessary and beautiful adaptation of the Creator, it operates on dead matter only, and will dissolve substances of the most inflexible and impenetrable nature. After death, the gastric juice which remains in the stomach, has been found to ulcerate and perforate its coats; during life they * Citante per Sinclair's Rules to Prolong Life, vol. ii. p. 6. Essay on Health and Long Life, by George Cheyne, M.D., F.R.S. 9th ed p. 48-9. |