THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE HUMAN BODY.
The body is made up mainly of cells, fibres and fluids. The cell is the
most important structure in the living body. Life resides in the cell,
and every animal may be considered a mass of cells, each of which is
alive, and each of which has its own work to accomplish in the building
up of the body.
The matter which forms the mass of a cell is called protoplasm, or
bioplasm. It resembles somewhat the white of a raw egg, which is almost
pure albumen. Cells make up the body, and do its work. Some are employed
to construct the skeleton, others are used to form the organs which move
the body; liver-cells secrete bile, and the cells in the kidneys
separate poisonous matters from the blood in order that they may be
expelled from the system.
These cells, composing the mass of the body, being very delicate, are
easily acted upon by substances coming into contact with them. If
substances other than natural foods or drinks are introduced into the
body, the cells are injuriously affected. Alcohol is especially
injurious to cells, "retarding the changes in their interior, hindering
their appropriation of food, and elimination of waste matters, and
therefore preventing their proper development and growth."
"Bioplasm is living matter; it is structureless, semi-fluid,
transparent and colorless. It is the only matter that can grow,
move, divide itself and multiply, the only matter that can take
up pabulum (food) and convert it into its own substance; and is
the only matter that can be nourished. The bioplasm in the cell
gets its nourishment by drawing in of the pabulum through the
cell wall, and in that way building up the formed material while
it is being disintegrated on the outer surface. This process is
continually being carried on, and is what is meant by nutrition.
Disintegration of the formed material is as essential as the
building up of it. All organic structure is the result of change
taking place in bioplasm. These small cell-like bioplasts are
the workmen of the organism. All wounds are repaired by them,
all fractures are united, and all diseased tissues brought back
to their normal and healthy condition, unless there is not
vitality enough to overcome disease, or they have been injured
or killed by poisonous material. The body is kept in repair by
this living matter, and all the functions of the body are but
the result of its action. We may examine, watch and study
bioplasm under the microscope; we see it take up pabulum and
convert that which is adapted to itself into its own substance,
while all other substances are rejected. We take a solution of
what we call a stimulant and immerse the bioplasm in it, and we
find that it increases its activity, moves faster, takes up more
pabulum, and divides more rapidly than in the unstimulated
condition. We next add an astringent, and it begins to move more
slowly, and soon contracts into a spherical shape and remains
contracted, or may move slowly to a limited extent, depending on
the strength of the solution. We next take a relaxant, and
gradually the living matter begins to spread in all directions,
in a laxy-like manner, and becomes so thin as to be almost
undiscernible, and takes up very little, if any, pabulum. If
sufficiently relaxed or astringed, the movements may entirely
cease so as to appear lifeless, but when a stimulant is again
added the same result is obtained as before--it begins to move,
and acts as vigorous as ever, which shows that it was not
injured in the least by the agents used. Alcohol is called a
stimulant. We take a weak solution of alcohol and try it in the
same way; but we find that almost instantly the living matter
contracts into a ball-like mass. Now, we may through ignorance
suppose that alcohol acts as an astringent, and so we try to
stimulate it with the same harmless agent before used, but no
impression is made on it; it does not move; it is dead matter.
These are demonstrable facts, and lie at the foundation of
physiology, pathology and the practice of medicine. Alcohol
destroys the very life force that alone keeps the body in
repair. For a more simple experiment as to the action of
alcohol, take the white of an egg (which consists of albumen,
and is very similar to bioplasm), put it into alcohol, and
notice it turn white, coagulate and harden. The same experiment
can be made with blood with the same result--killing the blood
bioplasts. Raw meat will turn white and harden in alcohol.
Alcohol acts the same on food in the stomach as it does on the
same substances before introduced into the stomach, and acts
just the same on blood and all the living tissues in the system
as out of it; and this alone is enough to condemn its use as a
medicine." From _Alcohol, Is It a Medicine?_ by W. F. Pechuman,
M. D., of Detroit, Michigan.
ALCOHOL AND STOMACH DIGESTION.
The nitrogenous portions of the food are the only ones digested in the
stomach. The oily and fatty, as well as the starchy portions, are
digested in the small intestines.
Very little was known about digestion until 1833, when Dr. Beaumont
published the results of his investigations upon the stomach of Alexis
St. Martin. St. Martin received a severe wound in the left side from a
shot-gun. The wound in healing left an opening into the stomach about
4/5 of an inch in diameter, closed on the inside by a flap of mucous
membrane. Through this opening the interior of the stomach could be
thoroughly examined. Dr. Beaumont made hundreds of observations upon
this young man, who was in his home several years. He says:--
"In a feverish condition, from whatever cause, obstructed
perspiration, _excitement by alcoholic liquors_, overloading the
stomach with food, fear, anger or whatever depresses or disturbs
the nervous system, the lining of the stomach becomes somewhat
red and dry, at other times pale and moist, and loses its smooth
and healthy appearance, the secretions become vitiated, greatly
diminished or entirely suppressed."
One day after giving St. Martin a good wholesome dinner, digestion of
which was going on in regular order, Dr. Beaumont gave him a glass of
gin. The digestive process was at once arrested, and did not begin again
until after the absorption of the spirit, after which it was slowly
renewed, and tardily finished.
Gluzinski made some conclusive experiments with a syphon. He drew off
the contents of the stomach at various times with and without liquor. He
concluded that alcohol entirely suspends the transformation of food
while it remains in the stomach.
Dr. Figg, of Edinburgh, fed two dogs with roast mutton; to one of them
he gave 1-1/2 ounces of spirit. Three hours later he killed both dogs.
The dog without liquor had digested the mutton; the other had not
digested his at all. Similar experiments have been made repeatedly with
like result.
The elements of our food which the stomach can digest depend upon the
pepsin of the gastric juice for their transformation. Alcohol diminishes
the secretions of the gastric juice, unless given in very minute
quantities, and kills and precipitates its pepsin. It also coagulates
both albumen and fibrine, converting them into a solid substance, thus
rendering them unfit for the action of the solvent principles of the
gastric juice. Hence, any considerable quantity of alcohol taken into
the stomach must for the time retard the function of digestion.
Many experiments have been made with gastric juice in vials, one, having
alcohol added, the other, not having alcohol. The meat in the vials
without alcohol, in time dissolved till it bore the appearance of soup;
in the vials to which alcohol was added the meat remained practically
unchanged. In the latter a deposit of pepsin was found at the bottom,
the alcohol having precipitated it. Dr. Henry Munroe, of England, one of
the experimenters in this line of research, says:--
"Alcohol, even in a diluted form, has the peculiar power of
interfering with the ordinary process of digestion.
"As long as alcohol remains in the stomach in any degree of
concentration, the process of digestion is arrested, and is not
continued until enough gastric juice is thrown out to overcome
its effects."--_Tracy's Physiology_, page 90.
In _The Human Body_, Dr. Newell Martin says:--
"A vast number of persons suffer from alcoholic dyspepsia
without knowing its cause; people who were never drunk in their
lives and consider themselves very temperate. Abstinence from
alcohol, the cause of the trouble, is the true remedy."
Sir B. W. Richardson:--
"The common idea that alcohol acts as an aid to digestion is
without foundation. Experiments on the artificial digestion of
food, in which the natural process is closely imitated, show
that the presence of alcohol in the solvents employed interferes
with and weakens the efficacy of the solvents. It is also one of
the most definite of facts that persons who indulge even in what
is called the moderate use of alcohol suffer often from
dyspepsia from this cause alone. In fact, it leads to the
symptoms which, under the varied names of biliousness,
nervousness, lassitude and indigestion, are so well and
extensively known.
"From the paralysis of the minute blood-vessels which is induced
by alcohol, there occurs, when alcohol is introduced into the
stomach, injection of the vessels and redness of the mucous
lining of the stomach. This is attended by the subjective
feeling of a warmth or glow within the body, and according to
some, with an increased secretion of the gastric fluids. It is
urged by the advocates of alcohol that this action of alcohol on
the stomach is a reason for its employment as an aid to
digestion, especially when the digestive powers are feeble. At
best this argument suggests only an artificial aid, which it
cannot be sound practice to make permanent in place of the
natural process of digestion. In truth, the artificial
stimulation, if it be resorted to even moderately, is in time
deleterious. It excites a morbid habitual craving, and in the
end leads to weakened contractile power of the vessels of the
stomach, to consequent deficiency of control of those vessels
over the current of blood, to organic impairment of function,
and to confirmed indigestion. Lastly, it is a matter of
experience with me, that in nine cases out of ten, the sense of
the necessity, on which so much is urged, is removed in the
readiest manner, by the simple plan of total abstinence, without
any other remedy or method."
In _Medicinal Drinking_, by John Kirk, M. D., this passage occurs:--
"Especially in the matter of support, it is essential to our
inquiry to examine fully into alcoholic influence on the change
by which food introduced into the stomach becomes capable of
passing into the circulation and constituent elements of the
living frame. It may be best to suppose a case for illustration.
Here, then, is a child of, say, six or seven years of age. This
child is of the slenderer sex and has been brought into a state
of extreme weakness as the consequence of fever. The fury of the
disease is expended, but it has, as nearly as may be,
extinguished life. The medical man's one hope for saving this
child is now concentrated in what he fancies to be 'support.'
Beef-tea, arrowroot and _port wine_ are prescribed. Let it be
kept in mind that the pure wine of the grape is discarded in
favor of alcoholic wine. Our question is, What effect will the
alcohol in this wine have on that process by which the food is
to prove really nourishing, and so to be that support which is
the only hope for this child? Will it help her? or will it so
hinder the necessary change in the food as to kill her, unless
she has sufficient strength left to get above its influence?
These are surely important questions. Neither of them can be set
at rest by the fact that she recovers; for she _may_ have
strength enough, as many have had, to survive even a serious
error in her treatment.
"What light, then, does true science throw on these important
questions? All who know anything on the subject are aware that
alcohol, instead of dissolving _food_, or aiding in its
dissolution, is one of the most powerful agents in preventing
that dissolution. On what principle, then, is it possible that
its being mixed with the materials of food, in this case, can
aid in their dissolution, so that they may more easily be
changed into the fresh blood required to sustain and recover
life in this child?"
He then refers to the experiments with gastric juice in vials, and
proceeds:--
"Here, then, is indisputable evidence that alcohol effectually
_prevents_ that process which is known as digestion, and which
is essential to food's being of any use to support life in man.
On what principle can the physician explain his introduction of
it into the stomach of a child whose thread of life is
attenuated to the slenderest hair?
"We urge the chemical truth that the alcohol, given to promote
support, is of such a nature as to prevent that which would
nourish, from effecting the end so much to be desired, and for
which true food is adapted."
The pure, unfermented juice of the grape, free from chemical
preservatives, is now used by many physicians where the miserable
concoction of drugs and alcohol, known as port wine, was once considered
essential. Unfermented grape juice contains all the nutriment of the
grape, without any of the poison, alcohol. After being opened it should
be kept in a cool place, or it will ferment and produce alcohol. Fruit
juices are very grateful to a fever patient, and should not be withheld
as they are in so many cases. Dr. J. H. Kellogg, and other
non-alcoholic physicians, recommend them highly. They are better than
milk, as milk frequently produces "feverishness," while fruit juices
allay it.
For those who think beer or ale an incentive to appetite, Dr. N. S.
Davis, and others, recommend an infusion of hops, made fresh each day.
It is the bitter which promotes appetite, not the alcohol. For the sake
of the little bitter in beer, it is not wise to vitiate the tone of the
stomach with the alcohol it contains, and which is its active principle.
Many mothers have become drunkards, secret drunkards, possibly, through
the use of beer as a fancied aid to digestion. Multitudes of men suffer
untold horrors from dyspepsia, caused by the beer which they mistakenly
suppose to be a friend to their stomach.
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BLOOD.
"The blood is a thick, opaque fluid, varying in color in different parts
of the body from a bright scarlet to a dark purple, or even almost
black." If a drop of blood be placed under a microscope, immense numbers
of small bodies will be seen. These are called blood-globules, or
corpuscles, or discs. There are both red, and white or colorless,
corpuscles. Each red corpuscle is soft and jelly-like. Its chief
constituent, besides water, is a substance called hemoglobin, which has
the power of combining with oxygen when in a place where that gas is
plentiful, and of giving it off again in a region where oxygen is
absent, or present only in small quantity. Hence, as the blood flows
through the lungs, which are constantly supplied with fresh air, its
corpuscles take up oxygen, which, as it flows on, is carried by them to
distant parts of the body where oxygen is deficient, and there given up
to the tissues. This oxygen-carrying is the function of the red
corpuscles.
Hemoglobin, as the coloring-matter of the blood is called, is dark
purplish-red in color; combined with oxygen it is bright "scarlet red."
Accordingly, the blood which flows to the lungs after giving up its
oxygen is dark red in color, its dark color being due to the impurities
it contains; and that which, having received a fresh supply of oxygen,
flows away from the lungs is bright scarlet--having been cleansed of its
impurities. The bright red blood is called _arterial_, and the dark red
_venous_.
The work assigned to the blood in the economy of the human system is:
first, to pick up nutriment in its course through the walls of the
alimentary canal, and oxygen, as it flows through the lungs, and convey
these to all other parts of the body. Second, to act as a sort of sewage
stream that drains off waste matter, and to carry this to the organs of
excretion by which waste is expelled from the body.
"The blood is the great circulating market of the body, in which
all the things that are wanted by all parts, by the muscles, the
brain, the skin, the lungs, liver and kidneys, are bought and
sold. What the muscles want they buy from the blood; what they
have done with, they sell back to the blood; and so with every
other organ and part. As long as life lasts this buying and
selling is forever going on, and this is why the blood is
forever on the move, sweeping restlessly from place to place,
bringing to each part the thing it wants, and carrying away
those with which it has done. When the blood ceases to move, the
market is blocked, the buying and selling cease, and all the
organs die, starved for lack of the things they want, choked by
the abundance of things for which they have no longer any
need."--FOSTER.
This is one way of saying that the processes of repair and waste are
constantly going on in the body. Every action of the body, every impulse
of the mind uses up some cell-matter, which must then be passed from the
body as waste. This is called tissue disintegration. New cells to repair
tissue waste are built up from the nutriment which the blood carries
from the alimentary canal after the process of food digestion is
accomplished. This is called tissue construction, or the process of
assimilation. Technically, these are the metabolic, or destructive and
constructive processes. Both are essential to health and life. Any
substance taken into the body, which will interfere with these processes
of nutrition and waste is inimical to health, and in time of disease,
dangerous to life.
_Alcohol is such a substance._
The cells and tissues of the body which are touched by alcohol are more
or less hardened and injured by it, hence are less perfectly nourished
than they are when alcohol is not present in the blood. Even a
teaspoonful of alcohol to a 1/2 gallon of water hinders natural growth.
If liquor is given to puppies it keeps them small. Young growing-cells
are most affected by it, because they are most tender. There are
growing-cells in adults as well as in children, for people are growing
and changing all through their lives.
Hence, when alcohol is administered in sickness the cells are hindered
in the full performance of their function of taking up food for the
building up of tissue, and as a consequence, the patient's body is
really robbed of nutriment by the agent which is supposed to be "keeping
up his strength." Truly, "Wine is a _mocker_, strong drink is raging,
and whosoever is _deceived_ thereby is not wise."
That alcohol interferes with the passage of waste matter from the body
is generally conceded. Indeed this is claimed by the advocates of its
medicinal use as one of its virtues: the fact that less waste passes
from the body being urged as evidence that there is less waste, that in
some way alcohol preserves tissue from being used up in the natural way.
Those who speak thus seem to think that they know better than the
Creator how the body should be treated. He made the body so that in
health, work, waste and repair should be equal to one another.
Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says in _Alcohol as a Food and as a Medicine_:--
"We believe that any one who will candidly review the claims put
forth for alcohol, in that it delays in any of these
hypothetical ways, tissue-change, will conclude that it has no
such power _in a salutary sense_, and that it is unwarrantably
assumed that to retard tissue metamorphosis (change) is
equivalent to tissue nutrition."
Dr. N. S. Davis says:--
"It seems hardly possible that men of eminent attainments in the
profession should so far forget one of the most fundamental and
universally recognized laws of organic life as to promulgate the
fallacy here stated. The fundamental law to which we refer is,
that all vital phenomena are accompanied by, and dependent upon,
molecular or atomic changes; and whatever retards these retards
the phenomena of life; whatever suspends these suspends life.
Hence, to say that an agent which retards tissue metamorphosis
is in any sense a food, is simply to pervert and misapply
terms."
Non-alcoholic physicians unite in declaring that the retention of waste
matter in the system, caused by alcohol, invites disease, and tends to
inflammatory action; and in illness retards, and frequently prevents,
recovery, for the germs of disease remain longer in the body than they
would were it not for the delay in the passage of effete matter.
_Alcohol not only hinders the blood in its work of tissue nutrition; it
also prevents the full oxidation of the blood in the lungs._
"In order that a steam engine may work and keep warm it is not
merely necessary that it have plenty of coal, but it must also
have a draft of air through its furnace. Chemistry teaches us
that the burning in this case consists in the combination of a
gas called oxygen, taken from the air, with other things in the
coals; when this combination takes place a great deal of heat
is given off. The same thing is true of our bodies; in order
that food matters may be burnt in them and enable us to work and
keep warm, they must be supplied with oxygen; this they get from
the air by breathing. We all know that if his supply of air be
cut off a man will die in a few minutes. His food is no use to
him unless he gets oxygen from the air to combine with it; while
he usually has stored up in his body an excess of food matters
which will keep him alive for some time if he gets a supply of
oxygen, he has not stored up in him any reserve, or, if any, but
a very small one, of oxygen, and so he dies very rapidly if his
breathing be prevented. In ordinary language we do not call
oxygen a food, but restrict that name to the solids and liquids
which we swallow; but inasmuch as it is a material which we must
take from the external universe into our bodies in order to keep
us alive, oxygen is really a food as much as any of the other
substances which we take into our bodies from outside, in order
to keep them alive and at work. _Suffocation_, as death from
deficient air supply is named, is really death from
oxygen-starvation."--Martin's _Human Body_.
Much of the food taken into the body is burned to supply energy and
heat. This burning is called oxidation. When food is burned, or
oxidized, either in the body, or out of it, three things are produced,
carbon dioxide (_carbonic acid gas_), water and ashes. These are waste
matters, and must be expelled from the body, or they will clog up the
various organs, as the ashes and smoke of an engine would soon put its
fire out if they were allowed to accumulate in the furnace. It is the
duty of the lungs to pass the carbon dioxide out to the air. With every
breath exhaled, this poison gas, generated in the body through the
oxidation of food, passes from the system. With every breath inhaled
the life-giving oxygen is taken into the body; providing that the person
is not in a close room from which the fresh air is excluded.
Any substance taken into the body which interferes with the reception of
oxygen into the blood, and with the giving off of carbon dioxide from
the same is a dangerous substance.
_Alcohol is such a substance._
It has already been stated that it is the duty of the little red
corpuscles in the blood to take up oxygen in the lungs, and carry it to
every part of the body, and upon the return passage to the lungs to
convey the _debris_, or used-up material, from the tissues, called
carbon dioxide gas. A little vapor and ammonia accompany this gas. The
action of alcohol upon these little corpuscles, or carriers of the
blood, is to somewhat harden and shrivel them, so that they are unable
to take up and carry as much oxygen as they can when no injurious
substance is present in the blood. In consequence of this, the blood can
never be so pure when alcohol is present, as it may be in the absence of
this agent.
The following is taken from _The Temperance Lesson Book_, by B. W.
Richardson, M. D.:--
"When the blood in the veins is floating toward the right side
of the heart, which communicates with the lungs, it carries with
it the carbonic acid (_carbon dioxide_), and, as I have found by
experiment, a great part of this gas is condensed in these
little bodies, the corpuscles. Arrived at the lungs, the blood
comes into such contact with the air we breathe, that the
oxygen gas in the air is freely absorbed by the little
corpuscles, while the carbonic acid is given up into the
air-passages of the lungs, and is thrown off with every breath
we throw out. In this process the blood changes in color. It
comes into the lungs of a dark color; it goes out of them a
bright red. * * * * * The parts of the blood on which alcohol
acts injuriously are the corpuscles and the fibrine. The red
corpuscles are most distinctly affected. They undergo a peculiar
process of shrinking from extraction of water from them. They
also lose some of their power to absorb oxygen from the air. In
confirmed spirit-drinkers the face and hands are often seen of
dark mottled color, and in very bad specimens of the kind, the
face is sometimes seen to be quite dark. This is because the
blood cannot take up the vital air in the natural degree. * * * * *
"If anything whatever interferes with the proper reception of
oxygen by the blood, the blood is not properly oxidized, the
animal warmth is not sufficiently maintained, and life is
reduced in activity. If for a brief interval of time the process
of breathing is stopped in a living person, we see quickly
developed the signs of difficulty, and we say the person is
being suffocated. We observe that the face becomes dark, the
lips blue, the surface cold. Should the process of arrest or
stoppage of the breathing be long continued the person will
become unconscious, will stagger and fall, and should relief not
be at hand, he will in a very few minutes die.
"I found by experiment that in presence of alcohol in blood the
process of absorption of oxygen was directly checked, and that
even so minute a quantity as one part of alcohol in five hundred
of blood proved an obstacle to the perfect reception of oxygen
by the blood. The corpuscles are reduced in size, when large
quantities of alcohol are taken, and become irregular in shape."
Dr. J. J. Ridge says in _Addresses on the Physiological Action of
Alcohol_:--
"It has been found by experiment that, when alcohol is taken,
less carbonic acid comes away in the breath than when it is not.
This is partly because the blood-corpuscles cannot carry so
much, and partly because so much is not produced, because there
is less oxygen to join with the food and produce it. Just as
burning paper smokes when it does not get enough oxygen, so
other things are formed and get into the blood when there is not
enough oxygen to make carbonic acid. These things make the blood
impure, and cause extra work and trouble to get rid of them.
This is why persons who drink alcohol are more liable to have
gout and other diseases, than total abstainers."
Dr. Alfred Carpenter, formerly president of the Council of the British
Medical Association, says in _Alcoholic Drinks_:--
"A blood corpuscle cannot come into direct contact with an atom
of alcohol, without the function of the former being spoiled,
and not only is it spoiled, but the effete matter which it has
within its capsule cannot be exchanged for the necessary oxygen.
The breath of the drunken man does not give out the quantity of
carbonic acid which that of the healthy man does, and the
ammoniacal compounds are in a great measure absent. Some of the
carbon and effete nitrogenous matter is kept back. The retention
of these poisonous matters within the body is highly injurious.
Let the drinker suffer from any wound or injury and this effete
matter in his blood is ready at a moment's notice to prepare and
set up actions called inflammatory or erysipelatous, or some
other kind; by means of which too often the drinker is hurried
into eternity, although, perhaps, he may have been regarded as a
perfectly sober man, and have never been drunk in his life."
In the light of these scientific facts, what can appear more utterly
foolish than the swallowing of alcoholic patent medicines which are
widely advertised as "Blood Purifiers"? That they will render the blood
impure is only too evident in the light of scientific truth.
Dr. Nathan S. Davis has written much in disapproval of the use of
alcohol in fevers, pneumonia and diphtheria, putting stress upon the
fact that these diseases, of themselves, interfere with the reception of
oxygen into the blood, and hence the use of all remedies that notably
diminish the internal distribution of oxygen, or impair the corpuscles
of the blood, should be avoided. Not only is alcohol of such a nature,
but all the coal-tar series of antipyretics also. Since the internal
distribution of oxygen, and the processes of tissue change are essential
to the repair of the body, and alcohol hinders the blood in the full
performance of its duties in these respects, it certainly seems clear
that those physicians, who are extremely cautious in the use of this
drug, or who do not use it at all, are more likely to be successful in
saving their patients than are those who use it freely. Death-rates,
with and without alcohol, show conclusively the superiority of the
latter treatment.
ALCOHOL AND THE HEART.
The organs of circulation are the heart and the blood-vessels. The
blood-vessels are of three kinds, arteries, capillaries and veins. The
arteries carry blood from the heart to the capillaries; the veins
collect it from the capillaries and return it to the heart. There are
two distinct sets of blood-vessels in the body, both connected with the
heart; one set carries blood to, through and from the lungs, the other
guides its flow through all the remaining organs; the former are known
as the _pulmonary_, the latter as the _systemic_ blood-vessels.
The smallest arteries pass into the _capillaries_, which have very thin
walls, and form very close networks in nearly all parts of the body;
their immense number compensating for their small size. It is while
flowing in these delicate tubes that the blood does its nutritive work,
the arteries being merely supply-tubes for the capillaries, through
whose delicate walls liquid containing nourishment exudes from the blood
to bathe the various tissues.
The quantity of blood in any part of the body at any given time is
dependent upon certain relations which exist between the blood-vessels
and the nervous system. The walls of the arteries are abundantly
supplied with involuntary muscular fibres, which have the power of
contraction and relaxation. This power of contraction and relaxation is
controlled by certain nerves called _vasomotor_ nerves, because they
cause or control motion in the vessels to which they are attached. When
arteries supplying blood to any particular part of the body contract,
the supply of blood to that part will be diminished in proportion to the
amount of contraction. If the nervous control be altogether withdrawn,
the arterial walls will completely relax, and the amount of blood in
the part affected will be increased correspondingly.
Alcohol, even in moderate doses, paralyzes the _vasomotor_ nerves which
control the minute blood-vessels, thus allowing these vessels to become
dilated with the flowing blood.
"With the disturbance of power in the extreme vessels, more
disturbance is set up in other organs, and the first organ that
shares in it is the heart. With each beat of the heart a certain
degree of resistance is offered by the vessels when their
nervous supply is perfect, and the stroke of the heart is
moderate in respect both to tension and to time. But when the
vessels are rendered relaxed, the resistance is removed, the
heart begins to run quicker like a clock from which the pendulum
has been removed, and the heart-stroke is greatly increased in
frequency. It is easy to account in this manner for the
quickened heart and pulse which accompany the first stage of
deranged action from alcohol."--RICHARDSON.
Dr. Parkes of England, assisted by Count Wollowicz, conducted inquiries
upon the effects of alcohol upon the heart, with a young and healthy
man. At first they made accurate count of the heart beats during periods
when the young man drank water only; then of the beats during successive
periods in which alcohol was taken in increasing quantities. Thus step
by step they measured the precise action of alcohol on the heart, and
thereby the precise primary influence induced by alcohol. Their results
are stated by themselves as follows:--
"The average number of beats of the heart in 24 hours (as
calculated from eight observations made in 14 hours), during
the first, or water period, was 106,000; in the earlier
alcoholic period it was 127,000, or about 21,000 more; and in
the later period it was 131,000, or 25,000 more.
"The highest of the daily means of the pulse observed during the
first, or water period, was 77.5; but on this day two
observations are deficient. The next highest daily mean was 77
beats.
"If, instead of the mean of the eight days, or 73.57, we compare
the mean of this one day; viz. 77 beats per minute, with the
alcoholic days, so as to be sure not to over-estimate the action
of the alcohol, we find:--
"On the 9th day, with one fluid ounce of alcohol, the heart beat
4,300 times more.
On the 10th day, with two fluid ounces, 8,172 times more.
On the 11th day, with four fluid ounces, 12,960 times more.
On the 12th day, with six fluid ounces, 20,672 times more.
On the 13th day, with eight fluid ounces, 23,904 times more.
On the 14th day, with eight fluid ounces, 25,488 times more.
But as there was ephemeral fever on the 12th day, it is right to
make a deduction, and to estimate the number of beats in that
day as midway between the 11th and 13th days, or 18,432.
Adopting this, the mean daily excess of beats during the
alcoholic days was 14,492, or an increase of rather more than 13
per cent.
The first day of alcohol gave an excess of 4 per cent., and the
last of 23 per cent.; and the mean of these two gives almost the
same percentage of excess as the mean of the six days.
Admitting that each beat of the heart was as strong during the
alcoholic period as in the water period (and it was really more
powerful), the heart on the last two days of alcohol was doing
one-fifth more work.
"Adopting the lowest estimate which has been given of the daily
work of the heart; viz. as equal to 12.2 tons lifted one foot,
the heart during the alcoholic period, did daily work excess
equal to lifting 15.8 tons one foot, and in the last two days
did extra work to the amount of 24 tons lifted as far.
"The period of rest for the heart was shortened, though,
perhaps, not to such an extent as would be inferred from the
number of beats, for each contraction was sooner over. The
heart, on the fifth and sixth days after alcohol was left off,
and, apparently at the time when the last traces of alcohol were
eliminated, showed in the sphygmographic tracing signs of
unusual feebleness; and, perhaps, in consequence of this, when
the brandy quickened the heart again, the tracings showed a more
rapid contraction of the ventricles, but less power than in the
alcoholic period. The brandy acted, in fact, on a heart whose
nutrition had not been perfectly restored."
Richardson quotes these experiments of Parkes and Wollowicz as if he
agrees with them that increased heart-beat must of necessity mean
increased work done by the heart. Dr. Nathan S. Davis, Dr. Newell
Martin, Dr. A. B. Palmer, and some other investigators, show
conclusively that mere increased frequency of beat above the natural
standard is no evidence of increased force or efficiency in the
circulation.
"The more frequent beats under the influence of alcohol
constitute no exception to the general rule, for while the heart
beats more frequently, its influence on the vasomotor nerves
causes dilatation of the peripheral and systemic blood-vessels,
as proved by the pulse-line written by the sphygmograph, which
more than counterbalances the supposed increased action of the
heart. The truth is, that under the influence of alcohol in the
blood the systolic action of the heart loses in sustained force
in direct proportion to its increase in frequency, until, by
simply increasing the proportion of alcohol, the heart stops in
diastole, as perfectly paralyzed as are the coats of the smaller
vessels throughout the system. This was clearly demonstrated by
the experiments of Professor Martin of Johns Hopkins University,
to determine the effects of different proportions of alcohol on
the action of the heart of the dog; and those of Drs. Sidney
Ringer and H. Sainsbury, to determine the relative strength of
different alcohols as indicated by their influence on the heart
of the frog. Professor Martin states that blood containing 1/4
per cent. by volume of absolute alcohol, almost invariably
diminishes, within a minute, the work done by the heart."
(This estimate would equal in an adult man an amount equal to the
absolute alcohol in two or three ounces of whisky or brandy.)
"These investigations of Professor Martin, being directly
corroborated by those of Drs. Ringer and Sainsbury, complete the
series of demonstrations needed to show the actual effects of
alcohol on the cardiac, as well as on the vasomotor, and also on
the direct contractability of the muscular structure, when
supplied with blood containing all gradations in the relative
proportion of alcohol, leaving no longer any basis for the idea,
popular both in and out of the profession, that alcohol in any
of its forms is capable of increasing, even temporarily the
force or efficiency of the heart's action."--Dr. N. S. Davis in
_Influence of Alcohol On the Human System_.
The following letter will be of great interest to all students of the
physiological effects of alcohol:--
"CHICAGO, ILL., March 3, 1899.
"To MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN,
"Syracuse, N. Y.,
"MADAM: Your letter asking my attention to the apparent
contradiction of authorities concerning the _work_ done by the
heart when influenced by alcohol was received yesterday.
"The explanation is not difficult. It depends entirely on the
different views of what constitutes the _work_ of the heart.
"One class of investigators, led by the original and valuable
experiments of Parkes and Wollowicz base their estimate of the
heart's work entirely on the _number of times it contracts or
beats per minute_. Thus Dr. Parkes, finding that moderate doses
of alcohol increased the number of contractions of the heart
from three to six beats per minute more than natural, readily
estimated the number of additional contractions that would occur
in twenty-four hours, and thereby demonstrated a large amount of
increased work done by the heart under the influence of alcohol.
All writers who speak of 'stimulating' or increasing the action
of the heart by alcohol follow this method of measuring the
amount of _work_ done. They generally add that it is like
applying 'the whip to a tired horse.'
"The other class of investigators who claim that _alcohol_
diminishes the actual _work_ done by the heart base their
estimates on the amount _of blood the heart passes through its
cavities into the arteries in a given time_. This is the
physiological function of the heart; i.e. to aid in circulating
the blood. Professor Martin's experiments were admirably
contrived to determine, not how frequently the heart beat, but
the amount of blood it delivered per minute under the influence
of alcohol and without alcohol.
"He, and all others who take this basis of work, found that
alcohol in any dose diminished the efficiency of the heart in
circulating the blood in direct ratio to the quantity taken.
"My own original experiments, made fifty years ago, uniformly
showed that alcohol quickly increased the number of heart beats
per minute, but at the same time diminished the efficiency of
the circulation generally. Every experienced practitioner knows
that the weaker the _heart_ becomes, the _faster_ it beats.
Consequently, the number of times the heart contracts per minute
is no measure of the efficiency of its work in circulating the
blood. Indeed the mechanism of the heart is such that there must
be sufficient time between each of its contractions for its
_cavities_ to _fill_, or it is made to contract on an
insufficient supply, and the efficiency of the circulation is
diminished.
"Yours respectfully,
"N. S. DAVIS."
The International Medical Congress of 1876 adopted as its reply to the
Memorial of the National Temperance Society, and of the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union respecting "Alcohol as a Food and as a
Medicine," the paper by Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, one conclusion of which was,
"Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant."
As experiments conducted since that time show that it is not a cardiac
stimulant, but a direct cardiac paralyzant, what excuse is there for
using it as a medicine now?
"Whenever the heart is compelled to more rapid contraction than
is natural, it has less time to rest. Although it seems to be
constantly at work, it really rests more than half the time, so
that, although the periods of relaxation are very short, they
are so numerous that the aggregate amount of rest in a day is
very great. Now, if the rapidity of the contractions is
increased materially and continuously, although the aggregate
amount of time for rest may be the same as before, yet the waste
caused by the contractions is greater, while the time for rest
after each one is shorter. This lack of rest produces exhaustion
of the heart-muscle, ending in partial change of the muscular
tissue into fat. The heart then becomes flabby and weak and its
walls become thinner, a condition known to physicians as a
'fatty heart,' often resulting in sudden death."--_Tracy's
Physiology_, page 158.
Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., has made many observations with
the sphygmograph to learn the effects of alcohol upon the heart. He
says:--
"On general principles, and clinically, the increased activity
and subsequent diminution of the heart's action brings no
medicinal aid or strength to combat disease. This is simply a
reckless waste of force for which there is no compensation.
Without any question or doubt the increased heart's action,
extending over a long period, is dangerous.
"The medicinal damage done by alcohol does not fall exclusively
upon the heart, although this organ may show it more permanently
than others."--_Transactions of Second Annual Meeting of A. M.
T. A._
Dr. I. N. Quimby, of Jersey City, N. J., in an address before the
American Medical Temperance Association, after describing two clinical
cases which ended in death, made the following statement:
"There was nothing so strange about the death of these two
patients, although they both died unexpectedly to the physician
and their friends, but the declaration I am about to make may be
somewhat new and startling, namely: That neither of these
patients, in my candid judgment, died from the effect of
disease, but rather from vasomotor paralysis of the heart,
_superinduced by the administration of the alcohol_, which
brought on a sudden and unexpected collapse and death."
Alcohol causes fatty degeneration of the heart and other muscular
structures. Old age also causes these degenerations, hence alcohol is
said to produce premature aging of the body.
"In fatty degeneration the cells and fibres of the body become
more or less changed into fat. If a muscular fibre undergoes
fatty degeneration, the particles of which it is made disappear
one by one, and particles of oil or fatty matter take their
place, so that the degree or amount of degeneration varies
according to the extent to which this change has gone on. When
the fibres of which a muscle is composed have become thus
altered by fatty degeneration they become softer according to
the amount of it; they are more easily torn and may even tear
across when the muscle is being used during life. The more a
muscle is thus degenerated the weaker it is, because it contains
less muscular substance and more fat. Not only do the heart and
other voluntary muscles thus degenerate, but those of the
arteries also.
"Fatty degeneration is promoted by alcohol because alcohol
prevents the proper removal of fat, which has been seen to
accumulate in the blood; alcohol prevents the proper oxidation
or burning up of waste matters; growing cells which are affected
by the chemical influence of alcohol are not quite natural or
healthy, so are more liable to degeneration; alcohol hinders the
proper removal of waste matter from individual cells and
tissues."--DR. J. J. RIDGE, London.
Dr. Newell Martin says in _The Human Body_:--
"Although fatty degeneration of the heart may occur from other
causes, alcoholic indulgence is the most frequent one. Fatty
liver or fatty heart is rarely if ever curable; either will
ultimately cause death."
Dr. Ridge says these degenerations occur in the tissues of thin people
as well as in those of stout persons. In thin people they are usually in
the fibres only, not between them.
It is because of this degeneration of the heart and other muscles caused
by alcohol that athletes in training need to be so very careful to
avoid the use of beer and other intoxicating drinks.
Diseases such as fevers, diphtheria, and pneumonia which interfere with
the reception, and internal distribution of oxygen, favor granular and
fatty degeneration of the heart and other structures of the body. Hence
non-alcoholic physicians urge that alcohol and such other drugs, as have
like action in hindering full oxidation of the blood, and causing fatty
degenerations should be studiously avoided. These physicians attribute
many of the deaths from heart-failure in such diseases to the combined
action of the disease and the alcohol in exhausting the heart, and
weakening its structure.
_Comparative death-rates with and without alcohol show conclusively the
superiority of the latter treatment._
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LIVER.
The liver is a very large organ, the largest and heaviest in the body,
weighing in a healthy adult from three to four pounds. It secretes the
bile. Its cells also store up, "in the form of a kind of animal starch
called glycogen," excess of starchy or sugary food absorbed from the
intestine during the digestion of a meal. This it gradually doles out to
the blood for general use by the organs of the body until the next meal
is eaten.
Dr. William Hargreaves says:--
"The office of the liver is to take up new substances having
not yet become blood, as well as the portions of integrated
matter that can be worked over, and brought again into use. It
is in fact the economist of the system. It excretes bile, and
liver-sugar, and _renews_ the _blood_. When the liver is
disordered the whole body is more or less deranged and the
proper nutrition of its parts arrested."
Dr. Alfred Carpenter says:--
"The liver has to do several things; a considerable part of its
duty is to purify the blood from _debris_ (waste matter), to
filter out some things, to break up and alter others, and to
expel them from the body in the form of bile. There are certain
diseases in which the liver suddenly declines to do any more
work. Acute atrophy of the liver is the name of this condition,
and when it arises death rapidly results from suppression of the
secretion of bile. It brings about a state of things called
_acholia_; the patient is actually poisoned by the non-removal
of those ingredients from the blood which it is the duty of the
liver to remove. This corresponds in effect to the condition
which alcohol can bring about by slow degrees."
The liver is the first important organ, next to the stomach and bowels,
to receive the poisonous influence of alcohol.
"If alcohol is used habitually, though only in small quantities
at a time, the liver may become the seat of serious changes.
There may be a great increase of fat deposited in the cells,
producing what is called 'fatty liver,' or it may lead to a
great increase of connective tissue (membrane) between the
cells, and surrounding the blood-vessels. This newly-developed
connective tissue gradually contracts, and in so doing crushes
the cells and obstructs the blood-vessels, making the organ much
smaller than natural, and causing the surface to be covered with
little projecting knobs, consisting of portions of liver-tissue
that have been less compressed than the part that separates
them. The pressure upon the liver-cells and the destruction of
many of them, prevents the proper formation of bile and
liver-sugar. The contraction of the newly-developed tissue, by
obstructing the blood-vessels, interferes with the circulation.
Malt liquors seem to produce fatty degeneration, while the
stronger liquors cause the development of connective
tissue."--_Tracy's Physiology._
Speaking of diseases of the liver, Dr. Trotter said in his _Essay on
Drunkenness_:--
"The chronic species is not a painful disease; it is slow in its
progress, and frequently gives no alarm, till some incurable
affection is the consequence. Hence, the fallacy and danger of
judging merely by the feelings of the beneficial effects of the
use of intoxicating drinks; for the liver and stomach may be
seriously diseased, while a man imagines himself in moderate
health."
Hardening of the liver, or "hob-nailed" liver, is said to be the result,
largely, of taking liquor upon an empty stomach. Dr. E. Chenery, of
Boston, in his excellent book, _Facts for the Millions_, tells of a
patient of his who was well up to the evening before, when he went out
and drank with some companions, taking the liquor on an empty stomach.
That night, vomiting and pain in the right side came on, with high
fever. Headache began and increased, followed by delirium and a general
jaundiced condition. He died as a result. The disease was acute
inflammation of the liver, brought on by the one broadside of alcohol
poured "point blank" into the organ.
Dr. Chenery says further on in the same book:--
"There is another disorder of a very serious nature which
science is now laying at the doors of the liver--_diabetes
mellitus_, or sugar in the urine. Till quite recently, this
formidable affection has been regarded as having its seat in the
kidneys; and it is so classified in medical writings. Later
researches, however, show that the sugar has been formed in the
economy before it reaches the kidneys, and that these organs act
only as strainers with respect to it, removing it from the blood
as they remove salt and various other substances. In seeking for
the fountain-head of diabetic sugar, it is found that the liver
is the great glycogenic, or sugar-originating factory of the
body. In an ordinary state of health this substance is produced
in just the proper amount for the uses for which it is intended,
so that it is all disposed of in the organism, and does not pass
off by the kidneys. If any cause interrupts the processes by
which the sugar is consumed, while its manufacture goes on
normally, there will come to be an over-supply of sugar in the
blood, which, when it reaches 3 parts to 1,000 of the blood,
will begin to pass off by the kidneys and appear in the urine.
On the other hand, if an undue amount of it is formed, the
consumption remaining normal, it will also accumulate in the
circulation, and be eliminated by the kidneys. In either case we
have diabetes, the sugar irritating and diseasing the kidneys as
it passes."
Dr. Harley, of the Royal Society of London, has made the subject of
alcohol and diabetes matter for considerable study. He says a small
quantity only of alcohol injected into the portal (liver) circulation of
healthy animals will cause diabetic urine.
"If any one doubt the truth of the assertion that alcohol causes
diabetes, let him select a case of that form of the disease
arising from excessive formation, and after having carefully
estimated the daily amount of sugar eliminated by the patient,
allow him to drink a few glasses of wine, and watch the result.
He will soon find the ingestion of the liquor is followed by an
increase of sugar. If alcoholics increase the amount of
saccharine matter in the urine of the diabetic, we can easily
understand how their excessive use may induce the disease in
individuals _predisposed_ to it."--DR. HARLEY.
Some physicians claim that in jaundice and certain other bilious
disorders even medicines prepared in alcohol are decidedly prejudicial
and aggravating.
Dr. J. H. Kellogg, and other writers draw attention to the effects of
alcohol in hindering the liver in its duty of destroying the toxic
substances generated within the system of a sick person by the specific
microbes to which the disease owes its origin, saying that the activity
of the liver in destroying these poisons is one of the physiologic
processes which stand between the patient and death.
The more this question is studied the more apparent is it that, other
things being equal, the sick person who is cared for by a non-alcoholic
physician has a much better chance of recovery than the one dosed by "a
brandy doctor."
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE KIDNEYS.
"The kidneys, being the chief organs for the excretion of
nitrogen waste, are among the most important organs of the body.
Any defect in their healthy activity leads to serious
interference with the working of many organs, due to the
accumulation in the body of nitrogenous waste products. If both
kidneys be cut out of an animal, it dies in a few hours from
blood-poisoning, due to the accumulation of waste poisonous
substances which the kidneys should have got rid of. Serious
kidney-disease amounts to pretty much the same thing as cutting
out the organs, since they are of little use if not healthy. It
is always fatal if not checked, and often kills in a short time.
The things which most frequently cause kidney disease are undue
exposure to cold, and indulgence in alcoholic drinks."--Martin's
_Human Body_.
"The kidneys are supplied with arterial blood, which, having
given up water, urea, salt, and certain other substances, either
secreted or simply strained from it, returns to the kidneys
nearly as bright and fresh as when it entered them. While the
lungs are concerned in removing carbonic acid--the ashes of the
furnace--it is the peculiar province of the kidneys to remove
the products of the wear and tear of the bodily machinery--the
wasted nerve and muscle--in the form of urea, or other
crystallizable substances, the presence of which in the economy
for any considerable time is attended with disastrous results.
"Now, nature has put these organs, charged with so important
work, as far away as possible from any source of irritation.
Could alcohol get as direct access to them as to the liver,
there is no doubt that their function would be destroyed almost
at once, since the change in arterial blood by alcohol is much
more extensive and damaging than that wrought in such venous
blood as the liver receives from the portal veins. Thus while
the liver takes the alcohol immediately from the alimentary
canal, the kidneys receive it only after it has passed through
the liver, the heart, the lungs, and the heart again; by which
time much of it has escaped, while the remainder has been
greatly diluted by the blood of the general circulation; yet
coming to the kidneys even so considerably diluted, it has power
to congest, irritate, and excite them to the excretion of an
unusual amount of the watery elements of the urine, as if to
wash the irritant away.
"But it is only the watery element that is increased, not the
urea, which is the substance representing the waste of vital
action, and is a poison to the system; this it is the special
office of the kidneys to remove. Not only does alcohol not
increase its elimination, but actually lessens the discharge.
And should the irritation of the spirit continue, or be
augmented in force, inflammation would follow, and the excretion
of urea nearly or entirely cease and life be in the greatest
jeopardy. Relief or death then must speedily follow."--Dr. E.
Chenery, of Boston, in _Alcohol Inside Out_.
"Alcohol causes kidney-disease in several ways. In the first
place it unduly excites the activity of the organs. Next, by
impeding oxidation it interferes with the proper preparation of
nitrogen wastes: they are brought to the kidneys in an unfit
state for removal, and injure those organs. Third, when more
than a small quantity of alcohol is taken, some of it is passed
out of the body unchanged, through the kidneys, and injures
their substance. The kidney-disease most commonly produced by
alcohol is one kind of "Bright's disease," so called from the
physician who first described it. The connective tissue of the
organ grows in excess, and the true excreting kidney-substance
dwindles away. At last the organ becomes quite unable to do its
work, and death results.
"The three most common causes of Bright's disease are an acute
illness, as scarlet fever, of which it is a frequent result;
sudden exposure to cold when warm (this often drives blood in
excessive quantity from the skin to internal organs, and leads
to kidney-disease); and the habitual drinking of alcoholic
liquids."--Dr. Newell Martin in _The Human Body_.
"Every physician knows or should know, that the quantity and
quality of the effete, or waste, material separated from the
blood by the kidneys and voided in the urine, is such as to
render a knowledge of the action of any remedy or drink on the
function of these organs, of the greatest importance in the
treatment of all diseases, and especially those of an acute
febrile character. As was long since demonstrated by clinical
observation, and more recently by patient and accurate
experiments by Bouchard and others, the amount of toxic, or
poisonous, material naturally separated from the blood by the
kidneys and passed out in the urine is so great that if wholly
retained by failure of the kidneys to act for two or three days,
speedy death ensues. Equally familiar to every observing
physician is the fact that in all the acute febrile and
inflammatory diseases, not only is the quantity of the urine
secreted generally diminished, but its quality or constituency
is also changed to a greater degree than even its quantity.
Thus, some of the more important constituents are increased,
others diminished, and often new or foreign elements are found
present, all resulting from the disordered metabolic processes
taking place throughout the system during the progress of these
diseases.
"It is, therefore, hardly necessary to remind the physician that
it is of the greatest importance to know as correctly as
possible both the direct and the indirect influence of every
medicine or drink on the action of the kidneys and all other
eliminating organs and structures, lest he unwittingly allow the
use of such as may not only retard the elimination of the
specific causes of disease, but also favor auto-intoxication by
retarding the elimination of the natural elements of excretion.
"That the presence of alcohol in the living system positively
lessens the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, and
consequently retards the oxidation processes of disassimilation
by which the various products for excretion are perfected and
their elimination facilitated, is so fully demonstrated, both by
observation and experiment, as no longer to admit of doubt.
"As nearly all the toxic elements of urine are the results of
these oxidation processes, the presence of alcohol in the system
could hardly fail to interfere with them in a notable degree.
"The direct and somewhat extensive series of experiments
instituted by Glazer, as published in the _Deut. Med.
Wochensch._, Leipsic, Oct. 22, 1891, demonstrated this, as shown
by the following conclusions:--'Alcohol, in even relatively
moderate quantities, irritates the kidneys, so that the
exudation of leucocytes and the formation of cylindrical casts
may occur. It also produces an unusual amount of uric acid
crystals and oxalates, due to the modified tissue changes
produced by the alcohol. The effect of a single act of
over-indulgence in alcohol does not last more than thirty-six
hours, but it is cumulative under continued use.'
"Dr. Chittenden kept several dogs under the influence of alcohol
eight or ten days, and found it to increase the amount of uric
acid in their urine more than 100 per cent. above the normal
proportion.
"Mohilansky, house-physician to Manassein's clinic, in the
conclusions drawn from his interesting experiments on fifteen
young men to determine the effects of alcohol on the metabolic
processes generally, stated that 'it does not possess any
diuretic action: but rather tends to inhibit the elimination of
water by the kidneys.' It is further stated that this result is
owing to the coincident effect of diminished systemic oxidation
and of blood pressure.
"On the other hand, several observers have reported that the
flow of urine was increased by the use of alcohol. From as full
an examination of the subject as I have been able to make, it
appears that the diverse results obtained have depended upon the
previous habits of those experimented on, and the widely varying
quantities of water drank with the alcohol. When the alcohol is
taken with large quantities of water, as is usual with those who
use beer and fermented drinks generally, the total amount of
urine passed is usually increased, but not more than is found to
result from taking the same quantity of water without any
alcohol. When alcoholic drinks are taken by those already
habituated to its use, it has less marked effect on the quantity
and quality of the urine than when taken by those who had
previously been total abstainers. This was illustrated by the
experiments of Mohilansky on the fifteen men, some of whom were
habitual drinkers, some occasional drinkers, and others total
abstainers. When all were subjected to the same diet and drinks,
with alcohol, in two the daily amount of urine voided remained
unaltered, in five it was increased seven per cent., and in
eight it decreased twelve per cent. But whatever may be the
variations in the mere quantity of urine voided under the
influence of alcohol, the alterations in quality pretty
uniformly show an increase in the products of imperfect internal
metamorphosis or oxidation, such as uric acid, oxalates, casts,
leucocytes, albumen and potassium, with less of the normal
products, as urea and salts of sodium.
"During the past year I have met with three cases in which the
regular daily use of alcoholic drinks for several months, in
quantities not sufficient to produce intoxication, had so
altered the blood, and the renal function, that the urine
contained both casts and albumen, and some degree of oedema
was observable in the face and extremities. These changes were
so marked as to justify a diagnosis of incipient nephritis, or
Bright's disease. Yet after totally abstaining from the use of
alcoholic drinks and remedies, and taking such vasomotor tonics
as strychnine and digitalis, with a regulated diet and fresh
air, they completely recovered.
"When it is remembered that in diphtheria, pneumonia and typhoid
fever, the acute diseases in which a large part of the
profession administer most freely alcoholic remedies, the
function of the kidney is altered in almost the same direction
as are found to take place under the influence of alcohol, it
should certainly cause every practitioner to pause and
critically review the pathological basis on which he has been
prescribing. An anaesthetic, like alcohol, may certainly render a
patient with diphtheria, pneumonia or typhoid fever more quiet,
and cause him to say he feels better, but if it at the same time
diminishes the internal distribution of oxygen, retards the
oxidation and elimination of waste and toxic products through
the kidneys and lungs, and lessens vasomotor force, it cannot
fail to protract the duration of disease, and increase the
ratio of mortality."--Dr. N. S. Davis, _A. M. T. A. Quarterly_,
April, 1894.
Dr. J. H. Kellogg, by a series of carefully executed experiments,
conclusively demonstrated that alcohol hinders the elimination of
poisonous matter by the kidneys. This property of alcohol is one of the
objections which he sees to its use as a medicine. He says:--
"Water applied externally stimulates elimination by the pores of
the skin, and employed freely internally by water drinking, and
enemas to be retained for absorption, aids liver and kidney
activity. If the patient dies it is because his liver and
kidneys have failed to destroy and eliminate the poisons
generated with sufficient rapidity to prevent their producing
fatal mischief in the body."