THE GISBORNE LITERARY AND DEBATING SOCIETY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1155, 23 September 1882, Page 2

THE GISBORNE LITERARY AND DEBATING SOCIETY.

ALCOHOL. (Continued from our Last.) Alcohol acts as a stimulant, as a medicinal agent ; if your horse moves slowly a touch of the spur will act as a stimulant; but a stimulant imparts no power whatever to the body, as the spur gives no new strength to the horse. Not very long ago a well-known pedestrian laid a bet that he would walk 50 miles in a certain number of hours. During his training he took no stimulants ; at the trial of strength be walked 48 miles, and was knocked up. He declared he could not go any further; what his backers advised him to do was to drink a class of brandy. He drank it, walked the two miles, and won the bet. That is just what alcohol can do, and nearly all it can do ; the stimulant did this, it drew a little bill on the future, and it enabled him to win his bet, just as a few men involved have to pay a big percentage for the accommodation to help them tide over present difficulties ; so it is with alcohol. Many a man on a bed of illness has lost all his pluck and is in danger of sinking, by the aid of this spur his medical adviser his able to save his life. Uuseful as alcohol is, in such hands and for such a purpose, yet let us not imagine the horse is fona of the perpetual spur or that man can walk for ever if he takes his brandy. This is about the best thing I shall be able to say for alcohol, but with the same breath let me remind you it costs us, as Englishmen, some £130,000,000 a year for all the benefits we get from this source. Suppose we take our glass or two of ale at dinner, and an occasional glass of wine in our rounds of visits, or we “ shout" once or twice for a friend or customer who pays his bill, and wind up at night with a wee drop of the unadulterated real Irish whiskey, what effect has the habitual use of the alcohol contained in these liquids on our bodily organism? The alcohol enters the etomach and there at once mixes with all the the water it can find, and passes immediately into the blood, and in a few seconds it goes the rounds of the body. The first ocular demonstration of this is seen in the flnshed cheek, soon followed if another glass be taken by excited conversation with a sense of cheerfulness, and, if you watoh a little more closely, you will notice the eye brightens and has an inflamed look ; with a little more spirits the hand begins to shake, the step is unsteady, and at length the body is no longer under the control of the man or woman, and he or she is in a hopeless state of intoxication. The action of the alcohol extending so far does not stop there; there is a cause for all these phenomena, and we will try to explain the reason for all these changes. The first organ that suffers is tha heart, with each beat of the heart a certain degree off resistance is offered by the vessels where the nervous supply is perfect, and the stroke of the heart is moderated both in respect to stroke and time by this resistance i lessen this nervous tension and the heart stroke is greatly increased in frequency, Alcohol has the power of deadening thia power of resistance ; the result is the of the heart is increased in proportion deadening influence. Dr. Parkes, of Netley Hospital, some valuable researches into the tion of alcohol on the heart. He result of bis observations as average number of beats of the hours in a healthy adult is 73'57 beats a minute when not each beat tlie two ventricles of up and force throughout the or Gozs. combined of blood, lent to a man lifting 110 tons of high during the entire day. This is done by the heart without u man takes one ounce of alcohol, remember, one small wineglass of heart boats 4,200 times more ; if two 8,172; If four ounces, 12,060; if six ounces, 18,432 beats more ; if eight ounces, 25,488 times more during the day. Adopting the average quantity of alcohol taken during these experiments, he says the heart was made by this means to do work In excess equal to lifting 15'8 tons one foot during the day, and with the larger amount of alcohol the heart’s work is increased to as much as lifting 24 tons as far. Don’t, after this, call our inveterate drinker a lazy man. This increased action of the heart produces a rapid circulation which causes the flushed cheek, etc. And with the increased dose of alcohol the nervous system ceases to act mechanically and its control is lost, and finally, the action of the alcohol still extending,the brain centres

are overpowered, the senses are beclouded, the voluntary muscular prostration is perfected, and the body lice luce a mere log, dead by all but one-fourth, on which alone its life hangs. The heart, ever remains true to its duty, like many a faithful servant overworked. The very natural enquiry suggested by thia statement in reference to the extra work done by this faithful servant is, what is the benefit to be derived, apart from the pleasurable sensations of cheerfulness, &c ? The most reliable witness of modern research informs us that its use neither nourishes or warms the body ; that it is not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a food. But, in a doctor’s hands, it can be made to take the place of food for a time (which, I doubt not, one of the professional gentlemen present, will readily explain to you); yet, as it is observed that many drinkers of alcohol grow stout, and even uncomfortably fat—let us consider the causes of this apparent nutrl; tion. It is to be found in the faot that alcohol lessens the waste of substances in the body, and also somewhat facilitates the absorption of the fatty portions of the food from the stomach. We also see why, from this faot, that those who drink alcohol, even moderately, are very likely to have fat deposited on some of the organs of the body, where its presence constitutes the disease, “fatty degeneration;" and, again, for this

reason, it Is particularly injurious to growing children and young persons, as it is undoubtedly prejudicial to their physical development. Dr. Hammond, a distinguished physician of America, tested the food value of alcohol upon himself in this way i During a few days he lived on a diet that was sufficient to maintain the body at the usual weight and in a healthy condition. During a second equal number of days he lived on a diet that was insufficient to maintain the body at the usual weight, for while living upon this diet weight was lost, and during a third equal number of days, he lived on a diet that was more than sufficient to maintain the body at the usual weight. During each of these three series of days, he dally took the same, and only a moderate, qnan' tity of alcohol in the form of wine. He found that the addition of alcohol had the effect of increasing the weight of the body whether sufficient, Insufficient, or more than sufficient—a result which wa are not unprepared to learn. He found, however, that while the alcohol seemed to supplement tha insufficiency of food whore an insufficient diet waa taken, it produced disturbance in health when the food was either sufficient or excessive in amount, Such disturbances for example, as palpitation, rapid pulse, dy».' pepsla, laziness and indisposition for physical and mental exertion; the dieturbanoe of health being greater during the davs when an excessive amount was taken. These experiences most emphatically teach that alccoholic stimulants are altogether unnoceeurv as foods, where a Sufficient quantity of ordinary food is being taken. Nor does it warm the body, as you can y. Ml ‘y dlteover for yourself by applying the therawnaetar, m the pellet' are required to do

in London, to any one in helpless drunkenness (to distinguish between drunkenness and a fit of apoplexy), and it is found that the temperature of the Ixxly of the man suffering from drunkenness is below the natural standard 98', and the apparent heat is caused really by a process of cooling. Add to this the experience of recent campaigns which have been successfully conducted°on total abstinence principles, and we have a proof that men in a healthy condition, and supplied with a sufficient amount of food, retain their health and are capable of performing the most arduous work in every variety of climate without alcohol. Its application as a food I maintain should therefore be entirely restricted to its medicinal use. From this I pass on to consider some of the more common derangements caused by its habitual use as a stimulant, and its occasional use in excess. Of all the organs in the system that suffer under this sustained excitement and deadening influence two are injured most detrimentally, viz., the digestive and nervous. The stomach begins soon to suffer on account of the worst form of indigestion. The skin at one moment is flushed and perspiring—at the next cold and clammy. There is an oppressed sense of emptiness, prostration, and distention—a loathing for food, with a craving for more drink. This continues in not a few cases with a permanent disorder called dyspepsia, and is caused by the absorption of the natural digestive fluid by the alcohol. Then follows as a matter of course sooner or later certain organic deteriorations. The organ of the body that undergoes the greatest changes is most frequently the liver. Under the influence of alcohol the liver is said to become the shrunken, hardened, roughened mass, called by a very expressive term hob-nailed. Sometimes this derangement takes the form of what is called fatty degeneration. In the course of the early stages of the deterioration of the function of the liver the organic changes of the structure causes another malady called diabetes fi*om the formation of grape sugar in an enormous quantity interfering with the action of the kidneys. The kidney soon loses its due elasticity and power of contraction by overwork, and disease sets in of a moat unpleasant character. The lungs do not escape the evil. The vessels of the lungs are easily relaxed by alcohol, and from exposure to oold and heat during this paralysed state fatal congestions of tiie lungs are produced, and what is known as the consumption of drunk* ards speedily follows. You will be prepared to hear the heart rebels occasionally against all its extra work and the muscular structure fails. The blood being thickened from a want of oxidization the valves of the heart become slightly clogged and do not work regularly. There is also a often fatty degeneration of this organ produced by the fatty cells taking the place of muscular fibre. Lastly, the brain and spinal cord, together with all the nervous tissues, suffer more or loss, and show the influence of alcohol in the worst forms of nervous disease—epilepsy, paralysis (local or general), and insanity. The worst sign of nervous derangements is muscular instability, irrespective of the will. In addition to this there are certain mental phenomena induced by alcohol, loss of me* morv, loss of speech, loss of will power, all producing the most painful degrading effects on its miserable object. [Owing to pressure on our space we are compelled to hold over the remaining tion of the above lecture.]