| Show deterioration thic following excellent article is taken from the westminster review toe the facts it contains are indisputable and the argument it embodies must ro recommend commend itself to every though thoughtful tf at r v 11 1 ii 1 re roads aids it we ask our buether wiit ither they are habitual I 1 U users sers of alcoholic beverages or botto not to give it their candid consideration in our opinion the proofs are abundant and decisive that healthy men and women are most likely to re serve their health by abstaining A from the use of alcohol altogether and that they can do more and more continuous work without alcohol than with it varied repeated and prolonged experience and the testimony of army medical men prove that troops endure fatigue and the extremes of climate better if alcohol is altogether abstained from the experience of the celebrated moscow campaign showed this so also quite recently the red giver expedition during daring arduous marches it has bile always been found that without alcohol the health of the men is exceptionally I 1 good but as soon as spirits are all allowed owed disease breaks out modern trainers recognize the fact thattie that the power of sustained exertion exert ibn and resistance to fatigue is best p promoted ro by abstaining from alcohol it is well known that during daring the several expedit expeditions lons toward the north pole those men who abstained from alco alcohol bol bore the extreme cold with less jess suffering or inconvenience than was experienced by those who took it but the ques question tion Wha tare the effects of alco not bol on the animal system demands our attention here only so far as the brain is concerned stilli still what Is i known of those effects on the cinalt constituents of the animal organism generally affords us valuable assistance in our endeavors to understand what is the nature of the influence exerted by alcohol on the brain and therefore on its functions when alcohol is mingled with fresh arterial blood it darkens its color so as to give it more or less dessot of the venous aspect 11 in cases casba of fatal poisoning b by alcohol even the blood in the leg left cavities of the heart and in the systemic arteries which normally nor Is of a normally malli bright red color is ota of a dark dar orv or englis hue these feets justify the conclusion that when alcoholic beverages are taken the alq they contain interferes or impedes the normal process of oxy oxidation dation of the blood and thus lessen the vitality of the whole organism to a degree corresponding to 0 the amount of alcohol tak taken q D during ayin g the process of complete intoxication alcohol seems first to attack the cerebrum then the sensory ganglia gan glio w rah ae h it surmounts and lastly the meeda bifia with the spinal cord itself in such a case in which aare as remarked by dr mandsley Ma adsley each phase phalle of an artificially produced insanity is successively passed through in a brief spa space ae of time we have the abstract and brief chronicle of insanity the first effect of alcohol is to produce an 1 agreeable r beable excitement a lively flow of ite ideas a and a general activity of mind a condition not unlike that which sometimes precedes an attack of mania then there follows as in insanity the automatic excitation of ideas which start up and follow one ona another without order so that more or less incoherence of thought and speech Is exhibited while at the same time p passion abalon is easily excited which takes different forms according to the individual temp temperament emment after this bis stage has lasted for a time in some longer in others shorter it passes into one of depression and maudlin melancholy as convulsion passes into paralysis the thelast last scean of all being one of dementia and at stupor or 11 the successive and increasingly il dufy grave consequences just indicated of a sudden udd 1 intoxication a t ox a tion of different alek degress ress tatje of int intensity eai 1 are impressive hanif manifestations es na of t the powerful poisonous influence of alcohol on the nervous system when the poison Is taken in large doses and at the ume same time they intimate not less distinctively that it it be taken habitually even in comparatively very small doses it can scarcely fail in the long run ran to impair in a perceptible degree the ael delicate structure and supremely important functions of ef the brain besides transitory mania which may be directly induced by alcohol and delirium tremens cremens tr emens a noth rions consequence of its excessive use Is one of the most potent factors in the production of many other forms forma of insanity persons who regard themselves and who are regarded by their intimate friends as decidedly temperate who habitually take a moderate amount of some alcoholic fluid with lunch and dinner and it may be what is called a 1 I nightcap night cap never ima imagine ne that by doing so they are impairing pa irving the quality alit and functional power of theao their araiys brains and it must be I 1 admitted witted that direct and decisive evidence that they are doing so is ra rarely i Is 18 not easily but bat though evidence of t e effects of such called ao temperate habits 11 or moderation in taking alcoholic ilu fluids ids on the brain is not easily obtained evidence of the effects of such habits on other important organs of th the body ie 12 abundant teems with it irritation of the membrane of the stomach with more mere or less nausea and persistent dyspepsia a disordered state of the liver various phases of chronic inflammation of the kidneys liable to develop into that fatal malady brights disease and gout with its abundant progeny of ills too numerous to mention are diseases which undoubtedly in ID a very large proportion of cases are directly traceable to the habitual but moderate use of alcohol now it if the various and grave diseases just enumerated are ordinary and frequently recurring re balits of the mod moderate irate use of i i i and it if as there Is reason ia u luel irVe la Is the case the affinity of alcohol tor for nervous tissue is stronger than it is for any other of the bodily structures we can not avoid the con causion that the habitual t h augh moderate use of intoxicating I 1 liquors I 1 quoos exerts an especially especial lv deter deteriorating lorati n g influence on the brain an in influence dence which though slow in its action and difficult to gauge or appreciate in individual cases is zone none the less real and the effects of which are at once dead ening and permanent |
