Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-11-02


such, if rapidly brought on by alarge dose,
there is no antidote,known.' After stating
experiments made with it upon animals,
and cases of sudden death, and OF disease
resulting in death, where alcoho' was the
sole cause, DR.. Miller sums up the testimo-
ny in these words:
alcohol, then, kills in large doses, and
half kills in smaller ones. It produces in
sanity, delirinm, fits. It peisons the blood
and wastes the man. The brain suffers
most injury, both in structure and junction,
bnt there is no vital organ h Assrss-ay int
which there is not induced, sooner or later,
more or less disorder and disease
Our author next considers the place of
alcohol as medicine. Here his views are
so candid and wise that we cannot forbear
making several extracts:
From among the fercest poisons come
some of our most valued medicines-al
startling fact, perhaps, to the uninitiated
but nevertheless most true. A knife of
very keen edge, when used BY light and
dexterous hand, viii make cleaner apd
better wound than the blunter instrument |
which has to be pressed heavily on the
part. And so the remedy of greatest pow
er, when skillfully timed and apportioned
to the varying progress of the case, is often
more valuable in urgent and dangerous cir
cumstances than the 'simples' of the timid
practitioner. A few small doses of the one
may turn the current of disease, and save
valuable life while, under The other, large
and sustained dosings may prove compare
lively unvailing. Prussic aeid, aconite,
! strychnine, arsenic, opium, belladona, are
at once intense poisons, and admirable med
icines in the hands of the skillful. And
we venture to say that not week passes
in the experience Of any physician in large
practice, in which some of these are not
administered for the cure of disease, and
with the best effect
After giving cases when in acute disease
alcohol is valuable medicinal agent, he
earnestly protests against certain abuses of
!, it. a very common and sad one he states
as follows:
|, :" A patient is dying. An incurable dis
; ease is making its closing grasp on the VI
f tails, or old age is slowly passing on into
f extinction-the Pickering famc all but out
> The case is. manifestly hopeless; health
S can not be restored, and life can not be
5 prolonged beyond few hours at most. Il
: this case for alcoholic stimulants Mos
a certainly not. And vet the practitioner i.
5 apt to fall into the routine. of practice
and simply because it is state of sink
: ing to administer wine and brandy in tht
ordinary way. There is no need for eithet
n now there will be no tolerance in ths
, system; they will not stimulate and sup
1t port; they will inebriate, and, beside
it clouding that part of life which ought mos
- of all to be serene, will probably frustrat'
e, the professional intent, and, by producing
], reactive exhaustion, accelerate the end
O Let me go home sober, was the touching
n expostulatioa of one SO tried and she wa
e right" ..-...
h Alas how many die drunk becaus
t. physicians will stimulate to the last
Of DIR. Miller shows that the use of alcoho
ir to increase the working power of eithe
the manual or mental laborer is wrong
is "lt gives no addition to the amount of VI
s. tai strength; it only urges the more rapi
SIS and thorough using up of what you alread
D. have"
Us The common idea that alcohol is toni
" is thus disposed of:
s. People regard it as simple and com
10 mon tonic and are ready to accept its sur
posed help as such, in every form of weal
= ness and general disorder Of health. Br
US it is ordinarily no true tonic. In its pr
o. mary effect it is only a stimulant, as hs
le been stated, with narcotic reaction when
i'll large doses. And in its secondary actio
"a it is the reverse of tonic. For while irol
ep for example, enters the blood and acts bel
to efcally thereon, alcohol entering the bloc
acts injuriously-so injuriously, that eve
its advocates admit, there if constant
present the result would be fatal"
Our anthor next examines the claim
;al alcohol to be considered an article of foo
od d 1t is OF asolvent in the stomach, thus ali
&c ing digestion, as some suppose but ref
- ses to act with the gastric juice, nay Goa
es ulates the pepsin, and essential element
h. Lbo that juice, and thus interferes with its a
~ ton. 1t does not nourish the system,
od repair the waste of tissues, in any sense
of The effect of alcohol diet on the habitu
ba drinker is thus portrayed:
- "Be he beer-drinker, wine-drinker,
- -, dram-drinker, who lives thus snipe-like
- suction, the evidence of the feeding pow
!. of his diet stands thus. Besides the diseas
NV ~ of the various organs, already spoken
or manifesting themselves by the ordina
o. o. signs, the process Of genera, nutrition is Q
n yiously out of joint. The skin is discolor
m ow and diseased, and hangs loose and fab
on the parts beneath. These are soft al
doughy; and there is an excess of water
the cellular tissue, giving dropsieal a
nee pearance. Where there should be mi
nts cular firmness and rotundity, there is thi
ect ness and misery of limb; where fnen,
lol. and sharpness of ontline, there heavy a
rm- misshapen pulp. The eye is CLASSY a
ely unspeculative; the. tongue is foul, and I
f it so glib as was its wont; the breath is fet
ard and noisome eructations with filthiness
un- spit are ever and anon emerging. I
nth hands are hot and tremulous; the lin
ex- too, shake, and feebly totter as they 60
ant The clothes hang loose upon the skelet
to as this daily becomes more and more
lme parent; the check bones stare, the che
cle, themselves fall in; and the merest CT
may tell that the whole man, mental .
sive corporeal, is starving"
lacel Fourthly, the place of alcohol as
olo- ury is considered:
otes Like its brother narcotics, tobacco
eria4 onium alcohol has It's seductive nroor