MAKING A MAN DRUNK

Hokitika Guardian, 11 May 1920, Page 3

MAKING A MAN DRUNK

LIQUOR BOARD’S TESTS

LONDON, March 10,

The tale of a man who vf.luutep.icd to gee drunk periodically to proyidc* the authorities with physiological data will be found in a report to be issued shortly by the Liquor Control Bo.aicj. The man was sent hpiu.e. at night' in a taxicab from a London hospital, wheie he drank various liquors under the direction of the Professor-of Physiology, Household and Social Science Oem;tment, of King’s College for Women, Kensington, W. “The patient,” said the professor, “drank different liquors on each occasion, the amount of' alcohol being the same. To mark the stages of intoxication I got him to draw a diagram every half hour, “The alcohol goes front the stomach into the blood and thence to the brain. The man first lost bis judgment; then bis memory and power of concentration weakened. As an offset, bis natural

qualities were given freer expression. Thus a man of’ naturally cheerful disposition becomes more merry; it taciturn, -quieter; if talkative, garrulous. “Wo, found that a pint pf milk taken before a drinking bout considerably reduced the intoxicating powers of liquor, mid the same may be spul of all fatty foods. This is convincing evidence of the needs of good food being always obtainable in public-houses. “The drinking power of men genejaliv is much smaller tiffin is generally beiievod. Six pints of good stout consumed in two hours made the patient very drunk- by the end of the following hour. The same quantity of alcohol in the form of whisky taken in half an hour made him helpless after another half hour. It appeared to be a matter of great difficulty to produce real drunkenness on beer containing 3 per cent of alcoho(. "When given in small dpsps at sjiort intervals alcohol will, without proclucing intoxication, supply the same energy to tlie body as if given in one large dose,” It was found tliat the quickest way to get a man sober is to give him a walk or exorcise in the open air.