born with one, but brought on by a temperate use of ardent spirit. These
facts are well known. They are published with the hope of their proving
a restraint to some one who, trusting in the strength of principle, may
occasionally taste this destructive poison.
"Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the
cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last it biteth like a serpent,
and stingeth like an adder." Go to God for strength to resist
temptation; practise entire abstinence from all that can intoxicate;
repent of sin, and trust in the mercy of Christ; and you shall be safe
for the present life, and that which is to come.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
THE
EFFECTS OF INTEMPERANCE
ON THE
MORAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND PHYSICAL POWERS.
BY THOMAS SEWALL, M. D.,
PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
IN THE COLUMBIAN COLLEGE, WASHINGTON CITY.
I address you, fellow-citizens, to enlist your sympathies and efforts in
behalf of an institution which, in accordance with the spirit of the
times, has been established through our land by the almost united voice
of the nation, and this for the suppression of one of the most alarming
evils that ever infested human society; a vice, too, so odious in its
nature, so injurious in its consequences, and attended with so many
circumstances of suffering, mortification, and disgrace, that it seems
difficult to understand how it should ever have become a prevalent evil
among mankind; and more especially how it should have come down to us
from the early periods of society, gaining strength, and power, and
influence, in its descent. That such is the fact, requires no proof. Its
devastating effects are but too obvious. In these latter times, more
especially, it has swept over our land with the rapidity and power of a
tempest, bearing down every thing in its course. Not content with
rioting in the haunts of ignorance and vice, it has passed through our
consecrated groves, has entered our most sacred enclosures: and O, how
many men of genius and of letters have fallen before it; how many lofty
intellects have been shattered and laid in ruins by its power; how many
a warm and philanthropic heart has been chilled by its icy touch! It has
left no retreat unvisited; it has alike invaded our public and private
assemblies, our political and social circles, our courts of justice and
halls of legislation. It has stalked within the very walls of our
capitol, and there left the stain of its polluting touch on our national
glory. It has leaped over the pale of the church, and even reached up
its sacrilegious arm to the pulpit and dragged down some of its richest
ornaments. It has revelled equally on the spoils of the palace and the
cottage, and has seized its victims, with an unsparing grasp, from every
class of society; the private citizen and public functionary, the high
and the low, the rich and the poor, the enlightened and the ignorant:
and where is there a family among us so happy as not to have wept over
some of its members, who have fallen by the hand of this ruthless
destroyer?
As a nation, intemperance has corrupted our morals, impaired our
intellect, and enfeebled our physical strength. Indeed, in whatever
light we view it, whether as an individual, a social, or national evil,
as affecting our personal independence and happiness, our national
wealth and industry; as reducing our power of naval and military
defence, as enfeebling the intellectual energies of the nation, and
undermining the health of our fellow-citizens; as sinking the patriotism
and valor of the nation, as increasing paupers, poverty, and taxation,
as sapping the foundation of our moral and religious institutions, or as
introducing disorder, distress, and ruin into families and society; it
calls to us, in a voice of thunder, to awake from our slumbers, to seize
every weapon, and wield every power which God and nature have placed
within our reach, to protect ourselves and our fellow-citizens from its
ravages.
But the occasion will not permit me to dwell on the general effects of
intemperance, nor to trace the history of its causes. I shall,
therefore, confine myself more particularly to a consideration of its
influence on the individual; its effects on the moral, intellectual, and
physical constitution of man--not the primary effect of ardent spirit as
displayed in a fit of intoxication; it is the more insidious, permanent,
and fatal effects of intemperance, as exemplified in the case of the
habitual dram-drinker, to which I wish to call your attention.
I. The effects of ardent spirit on THE MORAL POWERS. It is perhaps
difficult to determine in what way intemperance first manifests its
influence on the moral powers, so variously does it affect different
individuals. Were I to speak from my own observation, I should say that
it first appears in an alienation of those kind and tender sympathies
which bind a man to his family and friends; those lively sensibilities
which enable him to participate in the joys and sorrows of those around
him. "The social affections lose their fulness and tenderness, the
conscience its power, the heart its sensibility, till all that was once
lovely, and rendered him the joy and the idol of his friends, retires,"
and leaves him to the dominion of the appetites and passions of the
brute. "Religious enjoyment, if he ever possessed any, declines as the
emotions excited by ardent spirit arise." He loses, by degrees, his
regard to truth and to the fulfilment of his engagements--he forgets the
Sabbath and the house of worship, and lounges upon his bed, or lingers
at the tavern. He lays aside his Bible--his family devotion is not
heard, and his closet no longer listens to the silent whispers of
prayer. He at length becomes irritable, peevish, and profane; and is
finally lost to every thing that respects decorum in appearance, or
virtue in principle; and it is lamentable to mark the steps of that
process by which the virtuous and elevated man sinks to ruin.
II. Its effects on THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS. Here the influence of
intemperance is marked and decisive. The inebriate first loses his
vivacity and natural acuteness of perception. His judgment becomes
clouded and impaired in its strength, the memory also enfeebled and
sometimes quite obliterated. The mind is wandering and vacant, and
incapable of intense or steady application to any one subject. This
state is usually accompanied by an unmeaning stare or fixedness of
countenance quite peculiar to the drunkard. The imagination and the
will, if not enfeebled, acquire a morbid sensibility, from which they
are thrown into a state of violent excitement from the slightest causes:
hence, the inebriate sheds floods of tears over the pictures of his own
fancy. I have often seen him, and especially on his recovery from a fit
of intoxication, weep and laugh alternately over the same scene. The
will, too, acquires an omnipotent ascendency over him, and is the only
monitor to which he yields obedience. The appeals of conscience, the
claims of domestic happiness, of wives and children, of patriotism and
of virtue, are not heard.
The different powers of the mind having thus lost their natural relation
to each other, the healthy balance being destroyed, the intellect is no
longer fit for intense application, or successful effort; and although
the inebriate may, and sometimes does, astonish, by the wildness of his
fancy and the poignancy of his wit, yet in nine cases out of ten he
fails, and there is never any confidence to be reposed in him. There
have been a few who, from peculiarity of constitution, or some other
cause, have continued to perform intellectual labor for many years,
while slaves to ardent spirits; but in no instance has the vigor of the
intellect or its ability to labor been increased by indulgence; and
where there is one who has been able to struggle on under the habits of
intemperance, there are thousands who have perished in the experiment,
and some among the most powerful minds that the world ever produced. On
the other hand, we shall find, by looking over the biography of the
great men of every age, that those who have possessed the clearest and
most powerful minds, neither drank spirits nor indulged in the pleasures
of the table. Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, Dr. Franklin, John Wesley,
Sir William Jones, John Fletcher, and President Edwards, furnish a
striking illustration of this truth. One of the secrets by which these
men produced such astonishing results, were enabled to perform so much
intellectual labor, and of so high a grade, and to arrive at old age in
the enjoyment of health, was a rigid course of abstinence. But I hasten
to consider more particularly,
III. Its effects on THE PHYSICAL POWERS. In view of this part of the
subject, the attention of the critical observer is arrested by a series
of circumstances, alike disgusting and melancholy.
1. The _odor of the breath_ of the drunkard furnishes the earliest
indication by which the habitual use of ardent spirit becomes known.
This is occasioned by the exhalation of the alcoholic principle from the
bronchial vessels and air-cells of the lungs--not of pure spirit, as
taken into the stomach, but of spirit which has been absorbed, has
mingled with the blood, and has been subjected to the action of the
different organs of the body; and not containing any principle which
contributes to the nourishment or renovation of the system, is cast out
with the other excretions, as poisonous and hurtful. This peculiar odor
does not arise from the accidental or occasional use of spirit; it marks
only the habitual dram-drinker--the one who indulges daily in his
potation; and although its density varies in some degree with the kind
of spirit consumed, the habits and constitution of the individual, yet
it bears generally a close relation to the degree of intemperance.
These observations are confirmed by some experiments made on living
animals by the celebrated French physiologist, Magendie. He ascertained
that diluted alcohol, a solution of camphor, and some other odorous
substances, when subjected to the absorbing power of the veins, are
taken up by them, and after mingling with the blood, pass off by the
pulmonary exhalants. Even phosphorus injected into the crural vein of a
dog, he found to pass off in a few moments from the nostrils of the
animal in a dense white vapor, which he ascertained to be phosphoric
acid. Cases have occurred, in which the breath of the drunkard has
become so highly charged with alcohol as to render it actually
inflammable by the touch of a taper. One individual in particular is
mentioned, who often amused his comrades by passing his breath through a
small tube, and setting it on fire as it issued from it. It appears,
also, that this has been the source of that combustion of the body of
the drunkard which has been denominated spontaneous, many
well-authenticated cases of which are on record.
2. The perspirable matter which passes off from the skin becomes charged
with the odor of alcohol in the drunkard, and is so far changed, in some
cases, as to furnish evidence of the kind of spirit drank. "I have met
with two instances," says Dr. McNish, "the one in a claret, and the
other in a port drinker; in which the moisture that exhaled from their
bodies had a ruddy complexion, similar to the wine on which they had
committed their debauch."
3. The _whole system_ soon bears marks of debility and decay. The
voluntary muscles lose their power, and cease to act under the control
of the will; and hence, all the movements become awkward, exhibiting the
appearance of stiffness in the joints. The positions of the body, also,
are tottering and infirm, and the step loses its elasticity and vigor.
The muscles, and especially those of the face and lips, are often
affected with a convulsive twitching, which produces the involuntary
winking of the eye, and quivering of the lip, so characteristic of the
intemperate. Indeed, all the motions seem unnatural and forced, as if
restrained by some power within. The extremities are at length seized
with a tremor, which is more strongly marked after recovery from a fit
of intoxication. The lips lose their significant expression, and become
sensual; the complexion assumes a sickly, leaden hue, or is changed to
an unhealthy, fiery redness, and is covered with red streaks and
blotches. The eye becomes watery, tender, and inflamed, and loses its
intelligence and its fire. These symptoms, together with a certain
oedematous appearance about the eye, bloating of the whole body, with
a dry, feverish skin, seldom fail to mark the habitual dram-drinker; and
they go on increasing and increasing, till the intelligence and dignity
of the man is lost in the tameness and sensuality of the brute.
But these effects, which are external and obvious, are only the "signals
which nature holds out, and waves in token of internal distress;" for
all the time the inebriate has been pouring down his daily draught and
making merry over the cup, morbid changes have been going on within; and
though these are unseen, and, it may be, unsuspected, they are fatal,
irretrievable. A few of the most important of these changes I shall now
describe.
4. The _stomach_ and its functions. This is the great organ of
digestion. It is the chief instrument by which food is prepared to
nourish, sustain, and renovate the different tissues of the body, to
carry on the various functions, and to supply the waste which
continually takes place in the system. It is not strange, therefore,
that the habitual application to the organ of any agent, calculated to
derange its functions, or change its organization, should be followed by
symptoms so various and extensive, and by consequences so fatal. The use
of ardent spirit produces both these effects; it deranges the functions
of the stomach, and if persisted in, seldom fails to change its organic
structure.
The inebriate first loses his appetite, and becomes thirsty and
feverish; he vomits in the morning, and is affected with spasmodic pains
in the region of the stomach. He is often seized with permanent
dyspepsia, and either wastes away by degrees, or dies suddenly of a fit
of cramp in the stomach.
On examining the stomach after death, it is generally found irritated,
and approaching a state of inflammation, with its vessels enlarged, and
filled with black blood; and particularly those of the mucous coat,
which gives to the internal surface of the stomach the appearance of
purple or reddish streaks, resembling the livid patches seen on the face
of the drunkard.
The coats of the stomach become greatly thickened and corrugated, and so
firmly united as to form one inseparable mass. In this state, the walls
of the organ are sometimes increased in thickness to the extent of ten
or twelve lines, and are sometimes found also in a scirrhous or
cancerous condition.
The following case occurred in my practice several years since. A
middle-aged gentleman, of wealth and standing, had long been accustomed
to mingle in the convivial circle, and though by no means a drunkard,
had indulged at times in the use of his old cogniac, with an unsparing
hand. He was at length seized with pain in the region of the stomach,
and a vomiting of his food an hour or two after eating. In about
eighteen months he died in a state of extreme emaciation.
On opening the body after death, the walls of the whole of the right
extremity of the stomach were found in a scirrhous and cancerous
condition, and thickened to the extent of about two inches. The cavity
of the organ was so far obliterated as scarcely to admit the passage of
a probe from the left to the right extremity, and the opening which
remained was so unequal and irregular as to render it evident that but
little of the nourishment he had received could have passed the lower
orifice of the stomach for many months.
I have never dissected the stomach of a drunkard, in which the organ did
not manifest some remarkable deviation from its healthy condition. But
the derangement of the stomach is not limited to the function of
nutrition merely. This organ is closely united to every other organ, and
to each individual tissue of the body, by its sympathetic relations.
When the stomach, therefore, becomes diseased, other parts suffer with
it. The functions of the brain, the heart, the lungs, and the liver,
become disordered; the secretions are altered, and all the operations of
the animal economy are more or less affected.
5. The _liver_ and its functions. Alcohol, in every form and proportion,
has long been known to exert a strong and speedy influence on this
organ, when used internally. Aware of this fact, the poultry-dealers of
England are in the habit of mixing a quantity of spirit with the food of
their fowls, in order to increase the size of the liver; so that they
may be enabled to supply to the epicure a greater abundance of that part
of the animal, which he regards as the most delicious.
The influence of spirit on the liver is exerted in two ways: first, the
impression made upon the mucous coat of the stomach is extended to the
liver by sympathy; the second mode of action is through the medium of
the circulation, and by the immediate action of the alcoholic principle
on the liver itself, as it passes through the organ, mingling with the
blood. In whichsoever of these ways it operates, its first effect is to
increase the action of the liver, and sometimes to such a degree as to
produce inflammation. Its secretion becomes changed from a bright yellow
to a green or black, and from a thin fluid to a substance resembling tar
in its consistence. There soon follows also an enlargement of the
liver, and a change in its organic structure. I have met with several
cases in which the liver has become enlarged from intemperance, so as to
occupy a greater part of the cavity of the abdomen, and weighing from
eight to twelve pounds, when it should have weighed not more than four
or five.
The liver sometimes, however, even when it manifests great morbid change
in its organic structure, is rather diminished than increased in its
volume. This was the case in the person of the celebrated stage-actor,
George Frederick Cook, who died a few years since in the city of New
York. This extraordinary man was long distinguished for the profligacy
of his life, as well as for the native vigor of his mind and body. At
the time of his death, the body was opened by Dr. Hosack, who found that
the liver did not exceed its usual dimensions, but was astonishingly
hard, of a lighter color than natural, and that its texture was so dense
as to make considerable resistance to the knife. The blood-vessels,
which, in a healthy condition, are extremely numerous and large, were in
this case nearly obliterated, evincing that the regular circulation
through the liver had long since ceased; and tubercles were found
throughout the whole substance of the organ.
I have met with several cases in the course of my dissections, in which
the liver was found smaller than natural, shrivelled, indurated, its
blood-vessels diminished in size and number, with the whole of its
internal structure more or less changed. In consequence of these morbid
changes in the liver, other organs become affected, as the spleen, the
pancreas, etc., either by sympathy or in consequence of their dependence
on the healthy functions of the liver for the due performance of their
own.
6. Of _the brain_ and its functions. Inflammation and engorgement of
this organ are frequent consequences of intemperance, and may take place
during a debauch--or may arise some time after, during the stage of
debility, from a loss of the healthy balance of action between the
different parts of the system. This inflammation is sometimes acute, is
marked by furious delirium, and terminates fatally in the course of a
few days, and sometimes a few hours. At other times it assumes a chronic
form, continues much longer, and then frequently results in an effusion
of serum, or an extravasation of blood, and the patient dies in a state
of insensibility, with all the symptoms of compressed brain. Sometimes
the system becomes so saturated with ardent spirit, that there is good
reason to believe the effusions, which take place in the cavities of the
brain, and elsewhere, are composed, in part at least, of the alcoholic
principle. The following case occurred, not long since, in England, and
is attested by unquestionable authority.
A man was taken up dead in the streets of London, soon after having
drank a quart of gin, on a wager. He was carried to the Westminster
Hospital, and there dissected. "In the ventricles of the brain was found
a considerable quantity of limpid fluid, distinctly impregnated with
gin, both to the sense of smell and taste, and even to the test of
inflammability. The liquid appeared to the senses of the examining
students, as strong as one-third gin, and two-thirds water."
Dr. Armstrong, who has enjoyed very ample opportunity of investigating
this subject, speaks of the chronic inflammation of the brain and its
membranes, as frequently proceeding from the free use of strong liquors.
It is a fact familiar to every anatomist, that alcohol, even when
greatly diluted, has, by its action on the brain after death, the effect
of hardening it, as well as most of the tissues of the body which
contain albumen; and it is common to immerse the brain in ardent spirit
for a few days, in order to render it the firmer for dissection.
On examining the brain after death of such as have long been accustomed
to the free use of ardent spirit, it is said the organ is generally
found harder than in temperate persons. It has no longer that delicate
and elastic texture. Its arteries become diminished in size, and lose
their transparency, while the veins and sinuses are greatly distended
and irregularly enlarged.
This statement is confirmed by my own dissections, and they seem also to
be in full accordance with all the intellectual and physical phenomena
displayed in the drunkard, while living.
7. The _heart_ and its functions. It has generally been supposed, that
the heart is less frequently affected by intemperance, than most of the
other great vital organs; but, from the history of the cases which have
come under my own observation, I am convinced that it seldom escapes
disease under the habitual use of ardent spirit. And why should it,
since it is thrown almost perpetually into a state of unnatural
exertion, the very effect produced by the violent agitation of the
passions, the influence of which upon this organ is found so injurious?
The following case came under my notice, a few winters since. A large
athletic man, long accustomed to the use of ardent spirit, on drinking a
glass of raw whiskey, dropped instantly dead. On carefully dissecting
the body, no adequate cause of the sudden cessation of life could be
found in any part, except the heart. This organ was free from blood, was
hard and firmly contracted, as if affected by spasms. I am convinced
that many of those cases of sudden death which take place with
intemperate persons, are the result of a spasmodic action of the heart,
from sympathy with the stomach, or some other part of the system. The
use of ardent spirit, no doubt, promotes also the ossification of the
valves of the heart, as well as the development of other organic
affections.
8. _The lungs_ and their functions. Respiration in the inebriate is
generally oppressed and laborious, and especially after eating or
violent exercise; and he is teased with a cough, attended with copious
expectoration, and especially after his recovery from a fit of
intoxication; and these symptoms go on increasing, and unless arrested
in their progress, terminate in consumption.