LIQUOR.
Is it advisable to take a "drink" before breakfast?
This is a question of the greatest importance, and requires a very clear
and impartial answer; for which our space is almost too limited.
Liquor is no article of food; if for a moment it were considered as
such, we should find that it is even less nutritious than water with
sugar in it. What makes liquor a necessary article, especially so to the
working-classes, is a certain quality it possesses, a quality just as
dangerous as it is good.
Liquor is a favorite beverage because of the alcohol it contains; this
is nothing else than sugar which has undergone fermentation. Alcohol may
be made from all those plants from which starch can be obtained; for, by
the proper process, starch may be changed into gluten, gluten into
sugar, and sugar into alcohol. Alcohol therefore conveys more nutriment
to the human body than sugar itself, while it has qualities that the
sugar does not possess, and which make it an article as popular as it is
dangerous. If taken in small quantities, alcohol affects the body like
medicine; in large portions, like poison. We are therefore not surprised
if partly we cannot do without it, and if, on the other hand, we hear it
condemned every day. What makes its enjoyment so very dangerous is, that
although it is no article of food, it offers to the hungry a kind of
substitute for food, and, what is worse, a substitute which is often the
cheapest, and of most rapid effect in regard to quieting one's
appetite. It is owing to this that its enjoyment may produce the most
fatal and pernicious evils that ever were inflicted upon unhappy man.
Let us now learn the medicinal qualities of liquor, so that we may see
that it is natural for it to be a favorite; and by exhibiting the
dangers of its enjoyment, we shall succeed best in showing that people
are justified in condemning its intemperate use; but it will also be
seen that, in spite of the evident hurtfulness, its entire banishment
would be a foolishness not resulting in good.
Liquor, if taken in a very small dose, possesses the quality of
increasing the quantity of gastric juices. It excites the sides of the
stomach, and by this promotes the secretion of the juice by which food
is dissolved. It often occurs, that if but a minute quantity of fat has
been taken, it envelops the food in the stomach; and as the gastric
juice dissolves fat only with great difficulty, this food often remains
undigested in the stomach, and nutrition then is carried on but
defectively. Digestion, therefore, may be greatly improved, if the
stomach is so affected as to secrete a greater quantity of gastric
juice; this is often done by means of spice--for example, by putting a
little pepper upon bacon or ham. The pepper itself does not help
dissolve food, but excites the salivary glands and the stomach, thus
increasing the gastric juice which performs digestion.
If fat has been eaten, the same effect may be produced by a little
liquor. Indeed, it is even preferable to spice, inasmuch as it contains
ether, which alone is able to dissolve fat.
Thus we have seen that liquor is a kind of medicine. And although every
one must strive to do without medicine, still he must not condemn it; he
should scorn rather the wantonness which throws itself on the mercy of
medicine. It is right to oppose the enjoyment of much fat; but if once
too much of it has been taken, there is no reason why we should
remonstrate against the medical application of a small quantity of
liquor. To those who believe that they see in alcohol the evil spirit
himself, it may some time or other happen, that even they eat a little
too much fat, and then seek relief by taking some patent or other
medicine, dropped on sugar. Most medicines used in such cases, however,
are nothing but mixtures of sulphuric ether and alcohol; and if alcohol
is the evil spirit, he is certainly not changed into an angel by putting
him on sugar.
But liquor has yet another effect of great importance.
The alcohol it contains is immediately conveyed to the blood; through
this it affects the brain and the nerves, exciting them to increased
activity. By also affecting the nerves of the heart, it accelerates the
circulation of the blood; this produces throughout the body a more rapid
vital activity.
"Wine," the Bible says, "maketh glad the heart of man."
And wine itself is nothing else but an alcohol-combination. The
animating element in wine is the same as the one in liquor. But it makes
man's heart glad; which means as much as, it increases our vital
activity; it rouses; it strengthens the weary and him who is exhausted
bodily or mentally; it excites the body as well as the mind to move
vigorous action. Taken in very small quantity, liquor has the same
effect. It is therefore not only good for digestion, but also a prompt
remedy for exhaustion. The reanimation, however, produced by the use of
stimulants, is by no means a real gain; for he who feels tired and weary
is best restored by nature herself. Artificial stimulation is followed
by a greater reaction, by which all is lost again that has been gained
by artificial animation. Yet many cases occur in human life when there
is no time for the natural restoration of strength lost; thus, when it
is preferable to complete one's task without delay, without rest until
it is finished. In such cases the desire for artificial stimulants is
easily explained; then we ought not to condemn a moderate use of them,
because that use is necessary.
The wanderer on his travels, the soldier in camp or battle, have often
neither time nor opportunity to refresh themselves with a meal, or to
recruit strength by a good rest. With them it is important to complete
their journey or task, and to rest afterwards. A common workman may, at
times, be in the same situation. In such cases a little brandy is of
great service. It increases vital activity and courage; in many
countries the army is for this reason permitted to use liquor, although,
of course, sparingly.
Having now spoken of the medicinal use of liquor, we wish to examine
more closely its dangers, and to explain the reason why its enjoyment is
to many so great a temptation as often to become a passion.
A slight quantity of liquor taken at breakfast, makes one feel increased
vital activity. The pulse beats quicker, the mind is stirred up,
digestion easier, and before the food has been transformed into blood,
we feel animated to vigorous bodily activity and motion. The enjoyment
of spirit fills the long pause between the meal itself and its change
into blood. He who feels exhausted and eats, has yet but satisfied the
demands of the stomach, without therewith replenishing his blood. It
takes a long time, often from five to six hours, before the blood is
directly benefited. It is owing to this, that after dinner we do not
feel lively, but inactive, disposed to rest. Now, he who after dinner
cannot rest, but must continue to work, is anxious to stimulate himself
by a dram of liquor, because this will act more quickly than the food he
has taken. The spirits he took fill the long pause which exists between
his meal and its complete transformation into blood.
Is it any longer surprising, that it is the workmen who mostly are
subject to the use of spirits? No, we are not surprised; we feel sorry
that they are not taught better; that instead of imparting to the people
a knowledge of things useful to the preservation of health, we
constantly remind them of the "devil and hell;" and that in place of
teaching them, by the study of nature, how to avoid errors and dangers,
we merely try to frighten them with future punishments.
The danger of spirits consists in this, that their good qualities, their
advantageous effects, manifest themselves immediately, while their evils
appear later. Liquor is not unlike a man whose virtues are laid open to
every one; whose vices, however, are hidden, and who therefore is
seductive and dangerous. If we wish to warn our fellow-men against such
a one, we must not do it by denying or concealing his virtues; on the
contrary, we must openly tell all his good qualities; the warning in
which we lay bare his vices, will then be more, all the more readily
heeded.
True, liquor is a medicine; but, like every other medical remedy, it
becomes poisonous in the body of him who puts himself continually in
such a condition as to be obliged to use it.
He who wishes to preserve his health, must not try to help nature by
artificial means; he will only become weak. To illustrate this by an
example: it is a well-known fact, that milk contains all the constituent
parts of the blood; but if we were to feed a man merely on milk, those
organs given him by nature to digest solid food, would weaken to such a
degree that he would fall mortally ill. Man is healthy only when he
permits nature the free and unlimited exercise of her functions; if he
helps nature too much he may kill himself. It is similar with the use of
liquor. The person who only now and then corrects nature, that is, when
she actually needs it, is perfectly right. But he is very wrong and
harms himself greatly, who wishes to assist nature when she needs no
help. Unfortunately, the latter is very often the case, and the prime
source of evil. The ignorant, having once had the experience that brandy
promotes digestion, thinks it is good for him to continue to help his
stomach; but he is greatly mistaken. By accustoming his stomach to
secrete gastric juice only after the partaking of brandy, he weakens it;
the natural digestion becomes defective through this; and the enjoyment
of spirits, at first a medical remedy, rapidly becomes an indispensable
necessity, with all its evil consequences.