The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-24

De
as mustard, horse tadish, and pepper retard di-
gestion. AT the close OF his invaluable work, DR..
Beaumont appends long list of "Infereuces,"
among which are the following:-"That solid
food of certain texture is easier of digestion
than fluid; that stimulating condiments are in
furious 10 the healthy system; that the use OF
ardent spirits always produces disease of the
stomach II persisted IN; that water, ardent spirits
and most other fluids are not affected by the gas
tre Juice, but pass from the stomach soon after
they have been received.n One thing appears to
have much surprised Or. Beaumont aud that was
| the degree TO which st. Martins system could be
| disordeTed without his being much inconven-
J enced by 1t. After drinking hard every day Tor
| eight or ten days, the stomach would show
| alarming appearances of disease; and yet the
| man would ouly feel slight headache and
| general dullness and anguor.
II there is no comfort for drinkers in DR..
| Beaumont's precious little volume it must be
also confessed that neither the dissectlng-knife
! nor the microscope afford us the least counte-
| nance. All that has yet been ascertalned of the
effects of alcohol, by the dissection of the body,
| favOrs the extreme position OF the extreme tee
! totalers. brain aicohozed the microscope
| proves to be brain diseased. Blood which has
| absorbed alcohol is unhealthy blood-the Micro
| scope shows 1t. The liver, the heart and other
! organs, which have been accustomed to absorb
| alcohol, all give testimony under the microscope
which produces discomfort in the mind of one
| who likes glass of wine, and hopes to be able
| to continue the enjoyment of it. The dissecting-
| knife and the microscope, so far, have nothing
| to say for us-nothlng at all; they are dead
OF all the experiments which have yet been
| undertaken with a view 10 trace the course of
alcohol through the human system, the most
| important were those made in Paris few years
| ago by Professors Lallemand, Perrin, and Duroy,
| distinguished physicians and chemists French
men have q way of cooperating with one
another, both in the investigation of scientific
| questions and in the production of literature,
which is creditable to their civilization and
beneficial to the world. The experiments con-
Quoted by these gentlemen produced the re-
| markable effect of causing the editor of q
| leading periodical to confess to the public
that he was not infsllble. Gn 1856, the West
minister ReUtelC contained an article by Mr..
Lewes, in which the teetotsl side of these 9ues-
| tlons was effectively rdlculed but in 1861
| the same periodical reviewed the work of the
French professors just ma med, and honored itself
by appending a note in which it said :-"Spce
the date of our former article scientific research
has brought to light important facts which ne
cessarlly modify the opinions we then expressed
concernlng The 9O'e of alcohol In the amin al
body Those facts were revealed or indicated
in the experiments OF Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin
and Duoy.
Ether and chloroform-their mode of opera
tion; why and how they render the living body
insensible to pain under the surgeons knife;
what becomes OF them after they have performed
that of1ice-these were the points which engaged
their attention, and in the investigation of which
they spent several years. They were rewarded
at length with the success due 10 patience and
ingenuity. BY the aid of ingenious apparatus,
after experiments almost numberless they ielt
themselves in q position to demonstrate that,
when etheris inhaled it is Immediately absorbed
By the blood, and by the blood is conveyed 10
the brain. If surgeon were 10 commit such
breach of professional etiquette as to cut off
! a patients head at the moment of COM
plete insensibility, he would be able to
distil from the brain great quantity
of ether. But it is not usual to take that
liberty except with dogs. The inhalation, there
fore, proceeds until the surgical operation is
finished, when the handkerchief is withdrawn
from the patients face, aud he is left to regain
his senses. What happens then? What be.
comes OF the ether? These learned Frenchmen
discovered that most OF it goes out OF the body
| by the road it came in at-the lungs. 1t was
breathed in; it is breathed out. The rest escapes
by other channels of egress; it all escapes, and
escapes without having LETT anything in the
| system. All that can be said of it is, that il
! entered the body, created morbid conditions in
the body, and then LETT the body. 1t cost these
patient men years to arrive at this result; but
any one who has ever had charge of patient
that has been rendered insensible by ether will
! find little difficulty In believing it.
! Having reached this demonstration the eX-
! perimenters naturally thought of applying the
| same method and similar apparatus to the in
vestigation OF the effects OF alcohol which Is
the fluid nearest resembling ether aud chloro-
| form. Dogs and men suffered in the cause. In
the moisture exhaled from the pores of
| drunken dogs skin, these cunning Frenchmen
| detected the alcohol which had made him
| drunk. They proved it to exist in the breath
of man, at O'Clock in the evening who had
drunk bottle of claret for breakfast at half
|
! at midnight, the alcohol of that bottle of wine
was still availing itself of other avenues Of
escape. They proved that when ale ohol is taken
| into the system in any OF its dilutons-wine,
cider, spirits, or beer-the whole animal econ
omy speedily busies itself with its expulsion
and continues to do so until it has expelled it.
The lungs exhale it; the pores OF the skin let
out little OF 1t; the kidneys do their part; and
| by whatever other road an enemy can escape il
seeks the outer air. Like ether alcohol enters
the body, makes a disturbance there, and goes
out of the body, leaving it no richer than 1t
found it. 1t is aguest that departs, after giving
great deal of trouble, without paying his bill
or remembering" the servants. Now, 10 make
| the demonstration complete it would be neces-
| sary to take some unfortunate man or dog give
| him q certain quantity of alcohol-say one ounce
and aitcrWard distil from his breath, persplra-
| tion, ETC., the whole quantity that he had swal-
| lowed. This has not been done; it never will be
done; it is obviously Impossible. Enough has
| been done to justify these conscientious and
! indefatigable inquirers in announcing, as a
thing susceptible of all but demonstration, that
alcohol contributes to the human system nothing
whatever, but leaves it undigested and wholly
unchanged They are fully persuaded (and so
will you be, reaoer, if you read their book) that,
| If you take into your system an ounce OF alcO-
| hol, the whole ounce leaves the system within
forty-eight hours just as good alcohol as it
| went in.
The Coming Man, then, so long as he enjoys
good health-which he usually will from in
fancy to hoary age-wlll not drink wine, nor, Of
course, any of the coarser alcoholic dlutIons
| To that unclouded and fearless intelligence
science will be the supreme law; il will be to
| him more than the Koran is 10 Mohammedan
and more than the InfallibIe Church is to the
Roman Catholic. Science, or, in other words,
the law of God as revealed in nature, life, and
history, and as ascertained by experiment,
observation and thought - this will be the