ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 345, 22 March 1910, Page 3

ALCOHOLOGY.

IS IT A POISON? (Published by Arrangement). Sir Victor Horsley and Dr. Sturge answer this question in their new book lecently (reviewed here:—"Alcohol (belongs to the class of medicines known as narcotics, the class which also includes chloroform and ether—drugs which have a twofold action, being: (1) Temporarily cxhilarant, for a short time; (2) depressant, for a much longer time. The temporary stage of exhilaration is followed, more or less rapidly, according to. the amount taken, by a stage of sleepiness or actual insensibility which lasts longer than the stage of excitement. For instance, if only a small quantity of ether or chloroform be inbaled, there is a pleasant ieeling of warmth and a sensation of vigor (this subjective sensation of increased vigor is, of course, delusive), followed later by drowsiness and a desire to sleep. In patients who are given these drugs in larger quantity, there is a short stage of exhilaration, garrulity, and loss of complete mental control fo; lowed by j the lowering of bodily temperature and a stage of deep sleep and loss or power to move or feet. Alcohol acts in precisely the same way. Its anaesthetic action (in vapor) was, in fact, made use of in 1839, in which year Dr. Collier performed a surgical operation on a negro who was rendered insensible by breathing the fumes of alcohol. This was the first published case in which an anaesthetic was used. Ether and chloroform' were discovered later.

Drugs are usually classified according to a quasi-scientific estimate of the degree of poisonous activity they exhibit j when introduced into the 'body. It is interesting to note that alcohol is always included among the 'poisons,' and in the pharmacological classification of 'poisons,' it is invariably placed ! side (by side -with chloroform and ether ! and described as a narcotic poison. This j is the .position assigned to alcohol by J the pharmacologists of all countries. For instance, the celebrated physician and clinician, Von Zieinssen, describes the action of alcohol in the following 'words: 'The outward symptoms are like those induced by other narcotics. . . The nerve centres have their function stimulated at first . . . then their i activity was gradually abolished for the time . . . modified by th2 quantity of the poison taken, and by the time the poison is working—so that we see a variety of phonomena—sometimes only the stage of excitement, sometimes the paralytic. ... The' baneful effects of the poison affect all communities.' Without doubt it is scientifically correct to speak of alcohol as. a poison, but as this statement has been questioned in the past, we cannot close this paragraph better than by quoting the following forcible sentence from the physiologist, Professor Tick: It is a daily occurrence to find persons unaccustomed to the use of alcoholic liquors after drinking a small glass of wine (30z.) complain oi dizziness, etc., indicating a oiiculatory disturbance. During these few moments it is hardly possible that more lhan onethird of the teaspoonful and a-half of alcohol in the three ounces of wine could be absorbed and find its way into the blood. The amount of alcohol in i the blood is thus less than one-half volume in a thousand, as (he total j amount of blood in the body is equal to about five quarts; and yet this almost inappreciable amount of alcohol in the blood causes a very decided disturbance in the action of'the nervous system. Hence, there is no reason for being in doubt as to the justice of calling this substance a poison."