PHYSIOLOGY OF DRUNKENNESS.
In administering medicines, the practitioner has a natural desire to
learn the means by which they produce their effects upon the body. Thus,
he is not contented with knowing that squill acts as a diuretic, and that
mercury increases the secretion of the bile. He inquires by what process
they do so; and understands that the first excites into increased action
the secretory arteries of the kidneys, and the last the secretory veins
of the liver. In like manner, he does not rest satisfied with the trite
knowledge that wines, and spirits, and ales, produce intoxication: he
extends his researches beyond this point, and is naturally anxious to
ascertain by what peculiar action of the system these agents give rise
to so extraordinary an effect.
All the agents of which we have spoken, with the exception of tobacco,
whose action from the first is decidedly sedative, operate partly by
stimulating the frame. They cause the heart to throb more vigorously,
and the blood to circulate freer, while, at the same time, they exert a
peculiar action upon the nervous system. The nature of this action, it
is probable, will never be satisfactorily explained. If mere stimulation
were all that was wanted, drunkenness ought to be present in many cases
where it is never met with. It, or more properly speaking, its symptoms,
ought to exist in inflammatory fever, and after violent exercise, such
as running or hard walking. Inebriating agents, therefore, with few
exceptions, have a twofold action. They both act by increasing the
circulation, and by influencing the nerves; and the latter operation,
there can be no doubt, is the more important of the two. Having stated
this general fact, it will be better to consider the cause of each
individual symptom in detail.
I. _Vertigo._—This is partly produced by the ocular delusions under which
the drunkard labours, but it is principally owing to other causes; as it
is actually greater when the eyes are shut than when they are open—these
causes, by the exclusion of light, being unaccountably increased.
Vertigo, from intoxication, is far less liable to produce sickness and
vomiting than from any other cause; and when it does produce them, it is
to a very inconsiderable degree. These symptoms, in ninety-nine cases out
of a hundred, arise from the disordered state of the stomach, and not,
as we have elsewhere mentioned, from the accompanying giddiness. There
are, indeed, a certain class of subjects who vomit and become pale, as
soon as vertigo comes over them, but such are few in number compared
with those whose stomachs are unaffected by this sensation. In swinging,
smoking, sailing at sea, on turning rapidly round, sickness and vomiting
are apt to occur; and there seems no doubt that they proceed in a great
measure from the vertigo brought on by these actions. The giddiness of
drunkenness, therefore, as it very rarely sickens, must be presumed to
have some characters peculiar to itself. In this, as well as in some
other affections, it seems to be the consequence of a close sympathy
between the brain and nerves of the stomach; and whatever affects the
latter organ, or any other viscus strongly sympathizing with it, may
bring it on equally with inebriating agents: calculi in the uterus or
biliary ducts are illustrations of this fact. In intoxication, the
giddiness is more strongly marked, because the powers both of body and
mind are temporarily impaired, and the sensorium so disordered as to be
unable to regulate the conduct.
A degree of vertigo may be produced by loading the stomach too rapidly
and copiously after a long fast. Common food, in this instance, amounts
to a strong stimulus in consequence of the state of the stomach, in which
there was an unnatural want of excitement. This organ was in a state of
torpor; and a stimulus which, in ordinary circumstances, would hardly
have been felt, proves, in reality, highly exciting. For the same reason,
objects have an unnatural luminousness when a person is suddenly brought
from intense darkness to a brilliant light.
II. _Double Vision._—The double vision which occurs in drunkenness may
be readily accounted for by the influence of increased circulation in
the brain upon the nerves of sight. In frenzy, and various fevers, the
same phenomenon occurs. Every nerve is supplied with vessels; and it is
conceivable that any unusual impulse of blood into the optics may so
far affect that pair as to derange their actions. Whence, they convey
false impressions to the brain, which is itself too much thrown off
its just equilibrium to remedy, even if that under any circumstances
were possible, the distorted images of the retina. The refraction of
light in the tears, which are secreted more copiously than usual during
intoxication, may also assist in multiplying objects to the eye.
III. _Staggering and Stammering._—These symptoms are, in like manner,
to be explained from the disordered state of the brain and nervous
system. When the organ of sensation is affected, it is impossible that
parts whose actions depend upon it can perform their functions well.
The nervous fluid is probably carried to the muscles in a broken and
irregular current, and the filaments which are scattered over the body
are themselves directly stunned and paralyzed; hence, the insensibility
to pain, and other external impressions. This insensibility extends
everywhere, even to the organs of deglutition and speech. The utterance
is thick and indistinct, indicating a loss of power in the lingual nerves
which give action to the tongue; and the same want of energy seems to
prevail in the gustatory branches which give it taste.
IV. _Heat and Flushing._—These result from the strong determination of
blood to the surface of the body. This reddens and tumefies the face and
eyes, and excites an universal glow of heat. Blood is the cause of animal
heat, and the more it is determined to any part, the greater is the
quantity of caloric evolved therefrom.
V. _Ringing in the Ears._—This is accounted for by the generally
increased action within the head, and more particularly by the throbbing
of the internal carotid arteries which run in the immediate neighbourhood
of the ears.
VI. _Elevation of Spirits._—The mental pleasure of intoxication is not
easily explained on physiological principles. We feel a delight in
being rocked gently, in swinging on a chair, or in being tickled. These
undoubtedly act upon the nerves, but in what manner, it would be idle to
attempt investigating. Intoxicating agents no doubt do the same thing.
The mental manifestations produced by their influence depend almost
entirely upon the nerves, and are, unlike the corporeal ones, in a great
measure independent of vascular excitement. The power of exciting the
feelings inherent in these principles, can only be accounted for by
supposing a most intimate relation to subsist between the body and the
mind. The brain, through the medium of its nervous branches, is the
source of all this excitement. These branches receive the impressions
and convey them to their fountain-head, whence they are showered like
sparkling rain-drops over the mind, in a thousand fantastic varieties.
No bodily affection ever influences the mind but through the remote or
proximate agency of this organ. It sits enthroned in the citadel of
thought, and, though material itself, acts with wizard power both upon
matter and spirit. No other texture has the same pervading principle. If
the lungs be diseased, we have expectoration and cough; if the liver,
jaundice or dropsy; if the stomach, indigestion; but when the brain is
affected, we have not merely many bodily symptoms, but severe affections
of the mind; nor are such affections ever produced by any organ but
through the agency of the brain. It, therefore, acts in a double capacity
upon the frame, being both the source of the corporeal feelings, and of
the mental manifestations. Admitting this truth, there can be little
difficulty in apprehending why intoxication produces so powerful a mental
influence. This must proceed from a resistless impulse being given to
the brain, by virtue of the peculiar action of inebriating agents upon
the nerves. That organ of the mind is suddenly endowed with increased
energy. Not only does the blood circulate through it more rapidly, but an
action, _sui generis_, is given to its whole substance. Mere increase of
circulation, as we have already stated, is not sufficient: there must be
some other principle at work upon its texture; and it is this principle,
whatever it may be, which is the main cause of drunkenness. At first,
ebriety has a soothing effect, and falls over the spirit like the hum of
bees, or the distant murmur of a cascade. Then to these soft dreams of
Elysium succeed a state of maddening energy and excitement in the brain.
The thoughts which emanate from its prolific tabernacle, are more fervid
and original than ever—they rush out with augmented copiousness, and
sparkle over the understanding like the aurora borealis, or the eccentric
scintillations of light upon a summer cloud. In a word, the organ is
excited to a high, but not a diseased action, for this is coupled with
pain, and, instead of pleasurable, produces afflicting ideas. But its
energies, like those of any other part, are apt to be over-excited.
When this takes place, the balance is broken; the mind gets tumultuous
and disordered, and the ideas inconsistent, wavering, and absurd. Then
come the torpor and exhaustion subsequent on such excessive stimulus.
The person falls into drowsiness or stupor, and his mind, as well as his
body, is followed by languor corresponding to the previous excitation.
Such is a slight and unsatisfactory attempt to elucidate some of the
more prominent phenomena of drunkenness. Some are omitted as being too
obvious to require explanation, and others have been elsewhere cursorily
accounted for in different parts of the work.