STIMULANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 556, 21 October 1871, Page 2

STIMULANTS.

Pure air is a well-known stimulant, though) like li'dit, it would hardly be looked upon as. such, were we in the city not constantly in our every-day existence in a certain lack of supply, so that to us, and more particularly to those living in crowded rooms and streets, a weak or two in the pure air of the country becomes the most powerful stimulant of the restoration of health : hence the extreme value of country hospitals for the reception of those iv -whom impure air has produced disease or in whom tho shock of an accident or surgical operation cannot be recovered from without the stimulus of purer air than can be found even in our well-ventilated city hospitals.

The air of elevated reigoris is more truly stimulant, producing in its effect, no doubt, by quickening and deepening the respiration, and hastening the circulation of the blood through the lungs, brain and other organs. The effect of mountain air is to exhilarate the spirits, and induce a feeling of buoyancy and strength which is most pleasurable. In ordinary .conditions of health, apart from any special call upon the vital energies, iv persons taking a reasonable amount of mental and physical exercise, and enjoying an equally reasonable aiuout of rest, there is no actual necessity for taking stimulants of any kind ; but, in civilized countries, it is co universally customary to take stimulants in more or less moderate quantities, that it is now looked upon as a natural habit, ■ '

There is no habit which is so disposed to grow upon one as that of drinking. Even water-drinking, apparently so harmless, becomes, with some people, a most pernicious habit; they cannot exert themselves in any way without drinking water ; they arc regularly in the habit of drinking many glasses of water daily between weals-. This habit is an injurious one ; it groatly weakens digestive power, hastens waste, and very probably tends to produce corpulency. Unfortunately, however, water-drinking is far less frequent a habit than beer-drinking, which in quantities very far short of intoxciation,. is much more j injurious. By water-drinking we dilute pur tissues, by beer-drinking we contaminate them ; yot how common- it is to meet with people who never miss an opportunity' of taking a glas3 of beer —independently of that which they take at meal-time. When a train stops, or a coach changes horses, they rush to the counter; at races, fairs, cricket, matches, they take sundry glasses. We constantly meet such men ; they :are what is called temperate, frequently highly industrious and intellectual. The physician often meets them ; they come under his notice at about middle age, miserable hypochondriacs, suffering from all varieties of iudigestion, gout and liver disorders, and would be astonished to know that years have been taken off their

lives principally by the effects of a habit they have acquired so gradually and regard so lightly.

A still more dangerous habit than the last acquired in the same gradual manner, and* indulged in often wish the same ignorance of its results, is that of taking small quantities of spirits, either t: neat" or with a little water, ao intervals during the day—what is vulgarly called "nipping." This habit is most common with coach-drivers, ha-\ OTn and conductors. They are not drum V though, in too many instances they ultimlg, !&. become so. * |-5\ We have often sat by the side of the drifeer of a coach, a merry fellow well known all aJofcg the road, exchanging a word or a joke wh'h every one. lie stops some five or six times in a course of fifteen miles and usually has a small glass of spirits each time ; he cotmnoniy calls for a glass of gin and water cold with a defiant emphasis on the last word as much as to say, " I'm none of your fiery liquor drinkers." Poor fellow ! he is irremediably damagin*"** his health as surely as if ho chose the most ardent liquor distilled, but perhaps more slowly. Tj^g physician again meets these men, they die in hospitals of liver and kidney diseases. The immediate', or at least the primary reason for indulging in this habit, is the false idea that "it keeps the cold out," whereas it has been been proved over and over again, that spirits though they tenporarily cause a sensation of warmth, actually lower temperature, and hence it is that the unlucky " nippers" hare so often to renew their ftimulaut. 1 his habit is also largely, indulged in by women, and becomes even more fatal to them than it does to ■men. We have too frequently seen the miseries of debasement, disease and untimely death brought on by this habit, not to feel a responsibility in dealing with the topic. A very few words will suffice upon the effect of alcohol taken in intoxicating quantities. Intoxication is a temporary insanity, which is iv itself criminal, inasmuch as it is voluntarily induced ; hence it is regarded in law as no extenuation of crime ; it is " it 'derangement of the functions of the mind, and as these are in some way connected with those of the brain, it seems probable that it is by acting on this organ that spirits when taken into the stomach occasion death." Drunkards often become seized with a, peculiar delirium, called delirium tremens, from the nervous agitation mth which it is accompanied. We.will not pause to describe this terrible disease, which often terminates in sudden death.

Numerous cases of spontaneous combustion have been placed on record, and are firmly believed in by many j some have been described with great minuteness; and an eminent Italian physician and medical jurist relates the phenomena which occur in this accident. There is no doubt that corpulent spirit-drinkers are unusually combustible, and might be more readily set on fire than others; but there is no evidence to prove that they could ever catch fire spontaneously.

One of the effects of alcohol is to diminish the tissue change going on naturally in the body : and it might he argued that this effect can only be salutary and useful in persons who work hard and have but scanty food. This is an important use of alcohol as a drug in some exhausting disorders of short duration, from which, by keeping the patient alive for a short, time longer, he is enabled to recover while stimulants are withheld, he must die exhausted before the complaint in its natural cau-e has worked itself out; but we are here guided by a definite knowledge of the natural cause of acute diseases, and by alcohol sustain the patient, and, as it were, restrain the ravages of the fire within certain limits compatible ■with life, until it has burnt itself out.— Good Health,