The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-18 00:00:00

DR. CARPENTER ON ALCOHOLIC
DRINKS.

Dr. Carpenter has recently delivered an oration to
the Medical Society of London on "Alcoholic Drinks,
as Diets, as Medicines, and as Poisons." He said he

assumeel that the establishment of an annual oration
was not for the purpose of iproclaiming some new
discovery, or propoundiog some new theory, but
rather for reviewing the evidence which had been
obtained upon some given subject. From such a
stand'point he proposed to deal with "alcoholic
drinks." A review of the effects of alcohol upon
a healthy man, as well as of its therapeutic use,
'inight be ta.kesi under different aspects—viz., as a diet,
or as a medicine, or as a poison. He applied the term
alcoholic drinks" to all those liquors in common use
as articles of diet in the composition of which alcohol
found a place. The universal employment of this
particular class of liquids indicated a natural require-
ment of some kind. If a number of people were
deprived of sugar, fat, salt, vegetables, or water, the
effect was soon manifest. They were necessaries of
life, and if they were absent from the diet table, those
omitting to use them as articles of food suffered sooner
or later in their health from the exclusion ; but those
who never touched alcohol in any form never showed
any distinct signs of evil from its non-use. It was, not,
therefore, a necessary of life for ordinary people and
for common purposes, and if used as an article of diet,
it must be considered as a luxury and not as a neces-
sity. In what way might alcohol be beneficial when
used as a luxury? He would first dispose of some
arguments whieh were employed both for and against
its common use. There had been a conflict in all ages
of the world as to the good or evil effects of wine
and strong drink. It had been styled God's gift
'which cheers the heart of man, as well as the
"Devil's draught, which steals away his intellect ; but
so of sleep, "tired nature's sweet restorer," the author
of Proverbs says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard,
consider her ways, and be wise."
The first question they had to solve was whether
any force could be produced out of alcohol qua
alcohol, either as animal heat, muscular power, or
nervous energy. Is it capable of being utilized in the
animal economy? Dr. Parkes, from his practical
observations, was satisfied that it evolved heat, though
'it lowered the temperature for a short time afar being
taken; others, equally eminent, affirmed that there is
no utilization in the ordinary sense, and some said
that the whole of the alcohol was passed through the
body and expelled without any of it being changed into
force-producing matter. He could not endorse
this opinion, because it was contrary to almost
universal therapeutical experience. Life had been
prolonged for many mouths without any other
nourishment than that which was contained in
patient the spirituous liquors or wines which the
would alone consume. It had been shown that
dilute solutions containing alcohol of about the strength
in which it is likely to be found in the body—viz., 1 in
I,ooo—if passed several times through six inches of a
silicated carbon filter, metamorphosed the alcohol into
complex products non-volatile at the boiling point of
water. If this be a possible contingency, it might be
transformed into force in the human economy, and as
such it might be useful without danger as a luxury. If
alcohol were exhibited in potent doses to one unaccus-
tomed to its use, there was no doubt of its injurious
and even fatal results; but such would also be the
effect of the exhibition of phosphorus, sodium, or
potassium, and yet they existed as necessary elements
in many foods, and were absolutely required to enable
the body to be built up properly. Because, therefore,
a large dose of alcohol, phosphorus, or calcium was
injurious, it did not follow necessarily that a small
one was mischievous likewise. Lime and salt were
necessaries of life, and yet they were injurious in large
doses. Alcohol, like lime and salt, might be bene-
ficial if rightly used at the proper time, and it ought
not, therefore, to be absolutely prohibited as a common
article of commerce unless it could be shown that some
injurious sequence is sure to follow sooner or later
upon its use in small doses. It was stated by micro-
scopical observers that alcohol acted upon the blood
corpuscles as well as on the fibrine contained in the
liquor sanguiuis. It was stated that one part ot
aldohol mixed with 600 of blood interfered with the
poiver of the corpuscle to absorb oxygen; it abstracted
water from the blood discs and made them adhere to-
gether in masses in the blood vessels; it also caused
the plastic or fibrinous part of the blood to coagulate,
which then collected in the capillaries, and the
current might be thereby stopped. From fre-
quent observations he inclined to believe that this
was true, and that this result explained some of those
unfortunate cases which now and then occurred
to the obstetric practitioner. It had not been shown
that a similar result follows from the smaller quan-
tities which are found in the weaker drinks, such as
natural wines and weak beers. Alcohol is not cumu-
lative under ordinary circumstances, or the man who
takes his bottle of wine daily would suffer more and
sooner than he who only takes a bottle one day in the
week; but it is cumulative under some conditions at
present unknown. Alcohol transuded most rapidly
through membrane, the rapidity of transudation vary-
ing very much according to the dilution, and in its
transudation it acted upon the membrane, or was itself
acted upon. It was quickly conveyed to all parts of
the body, and we had no means of judging where it was
likely to manifest its greatest effects. The habitual use
of strong drink, even in a diluted form, for the purpose
of enabling the receiver to do more work was necessarily
hurtful, unless that dilution is much less than it usually
was. Whenever the consumption of alcoholic drink
exceeded the quantity which gave rise to the pro-
bability that more than one part of alcohol to 500 of
water might exist in any part of the circulation,
harm, in some form or other, must result. There vf,re
occasions in which stimulants might be useful, and
even necessary; but as habitual drinks they must be
hurtful unless more diluted than we were accustomed
to take them. Having come to this conclusion as
regards their use as common articles of food, Dr.
Carpenter next inquired when they were likely to be
beneficial as medicines. If an excess of stimulant
were taken at one time, it acted immediately on the
pepsin in the gastric juice, as well as the lining mem:
brene on the vessels, and destroyed the power of
digesting and re-arranging the materials oenWned in
the food. Dyspepsia was the first onteome of the use
of stimulants.

There was another elaas of disease not always so
clearly identified with the exhibition of alcohol. We
seldom meet with acute neuralgia in the total ab-
stainer, while hysteeia was in a great measure absent
in those families whose ancestors had been perfectly
temperate people. Many kinds of so called rheu-
matism had a similar origin. There was also a class
of cases, not so generally attributed to alcohol as a
cause, which Dr. Carpenter believed to have their
origin in its habitual use, which were due to spinal
irritation, and were sometimes called spinal neuralgia.
The habitual drunkards and so-called dipsomaniacs
were persons who had produced so much mischief in
their nerve centres, that they were unable to take
even a moderate amount of stimulant without a
catarrhal state of the stomach supervening, which
at once gave rise to an irresistible drink craving. -
The principle upon which we proposed to cure the
habitual drunkard 'gas to rest Fain him from the use
ofi his liquor, en that he might entirely recover his
health a 1 his power of self-control. There were
seyeral stages in this process. First, his digestix e
power had to be restored, a very difficult and a very
slow process. Then the deposits which had already
occurred in his glandular system, his blood vessels
and nervous oentres had to be removed, and altered
membrane had to be restored. Simple food with
healthy habits of body reduced the alcoholic satura-
tion to a minimum, and enabled the patient to
get healthy digestive power. The work and labour
required to return to the right path is greater than
most men unaided by restraint were able to use.
So far the effect of alcoholic drinks seemed to be for
evil and not for good, and some persons ask very per.
tinently why they should be retained at all in the
pharmacopeia as therapeutic agents, when other
stimulants might be used with as 4-Aua advantage in
those cases in which they appeared to be required.
But so powerful a means for evil may be use n bene-
ficially if used ar!oglit.. There were conditions of the
body in w'ssicis it performed a duty more satisfactorily
thzp any other stimulant. It seemed to preserve the
body from decay, performing a vicari?ol duty, being
sacrificed itself, and so saving the patient's life. In
certain forms of disease, when the blood was rendered
impure by the retention of those matters which should
be excreted, if the retention had not been caused by
alcohol, and great heat was developed in consequence
of the combustion or oxidation of such matters,
alcohol seews to take the place of those of the tissues
which are oxidising ; it lessens temperature and Eavea
the fabric from death. The therapeutic effects of al-
cohol, when exhibited in certain typical forms of fever,
were most marked. There is a class of persons to whom
alcohol may be useful even in comparative health.
When the powers of life begin to decay, when the force
of the heart la not enough to transmit the blood to the
extremities of the body, and the agod person feels
the influence of cold, the blood scarcely passes through
the unfilled cutaneous capillaries. By dilating them
and diminishing their tension the heart is relieved,
and the functions of the skin and other organs are more
efficiently performed. So long as alcohol is taken
only in such quantities that it becomes utiliztsd at once
in the equalization of animal heat, no liarm can re-
sult, but if there is more than esi,aieient to do this, and
its specific action is pi:ad-cooed on the blood itself, mis-
chief sooner ex: laWe'results. The poisonous natuee of
alcohol in large and continuous doses had -never been
daubted. The occupations which briar men into con-
tact with the sale of alcoholic drinks materially
shorten their lives. Alcohol in any of its forms might
be a good reedieine, but it was a bad diet, and its
action az a poison was visible among all ranks of
saaiety.

Noticing the above aubiect, "Inquirer irrilies to
Tise - .
Sir,—The question what to eat, drink, or avoid appears as
far from settlement as ever. Ur. Carpenter's lecture before
the Medical Society upon the use of alcohol does not present
anything particularly new as far as regards the subject
in dispute, and the only thing that exercises the non-
medical mind is whether—with the disagreement between
the members of the medical profession on this subject,
and the fact thatsin all time and in all states of society,
civilised and semi-civilized, alcohol in some form or
other is or has been consumed without any deterioration
of race—there is much to be alarmed at in the statements
of the evil attending the moderate use of spirits's:mg Oinks
When one reviews the past few years one feels hut little
inclined to attach much value to the utterawes of even
prominent members of the 4retic.4l professiOn an this sub-
ject: for it is wlthin the 4notlNge ol most of us that not
long ago TIQU3 vjcZO UleVe ready than the members of that
professkon'th'press upon those who sought their advice the
adiisability of taking stimulants in some farm or other—
in one case sherry, in another whisky, and so on. If this
sort of prescription was right then, is it wrong now?
wrong now, what faith can we have in the judgment vY..ch
now protests against the use of stimulant?", Tyhe tact is,
alcohol, like many other things, may 70,•and is, abused to
the serious detriment o!, yicttra; but until science is
able to exply; \/hy, with all 'the evils now spoke,;, oi
attentling 'RS tise, E 0 many hundreds of generations of
fidnan beinga hate grown up in igaorano of their danger,
and, in spite of these danger:, living and flourishing and
attaining a high duwee of civilisation—not only not
shortening their days, but living longer in spite ol the fact
that they ought not to do so—things 'nay go on as usual
without much danger. For my part I am afraid that, unless?,
niankind have physically changed of late, there is not much
to be alarMed at in the moderate t;se of alcohol. I; theory
affirms the contrary, I aPpeal to facts to show that the evil
complained of must be small—so' small indeed that,
altlifth a waYning may pot be out of plath, yet it is abstird
to FOclaira that abistiAdOe Iritot only a virtue, hilt a

necessity. If it is, let all return to a simpler and severer
mode of living; but, before doing so, I,st us be sure we are
right. Is it not, however, possible that your pages are
giving publicity to one snore crochet, from which evcn the
meilcal profession in the present, as in the past, is not
always free?