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

ous beyond those OF any other member oil the
'The more work have to do, the more have
Tesorted to the pump of the teapot.p On this
branch OF the subject, all the testimony Is
against alcoholic drinks Whenever the point
has been tested-and it has often been tested
the truth has been confirmed, that he who
would do his very best aud most, whether
IN lowing, lifting, el,1I running, watch, watching,
writing, must not admit into his sys.
tenn one drop OF alcohol. Trainers used to
allow their men pint Of beer per day, and
severe trainers balf pint; but now the know
ing ones have cut off even that moderate
allowance, and brought their men down TO csld
water, and not too much of that, the soundest
digesters requiring little liquid of any kind:
Mr.. Bigeow, by his happy publication lately OF
the correct version of FraDklns Autobiography,
has called to mind the famous beer passage in
that immortal work:-"I drank only water; the
other wcrkmen, near fifty in number, were
great guzzlers of beer. On occasion carried
up and down stairs Il large form of types in
each hand, when others carried but one in both
hands, have long list OF references on this
point; but, IN these crlcketing, boatraciug,
pT1ze-hghting days, the fact has become too
familiar to require proof. The other morning,
Horace Greeley, teetotaler, came to- his olhce
after an absence oil several days, aud found
letters and arrears of work that would have
been appalling 10 any man but him.
He shut himself in at 10 A.. NJ, and wrote
steadily without leaving his room, till II P. M,
thirteen hours. When he had finished he had
some difficulty in getting down stairs owing to
the stiffness of his joints. caused by the long
inaction; but he was as fresh and smiling the
next morning as though he had done nothing
extraordinary. Are any Of us drinkers of beer
and wine capable of such a feat? Then, during
the war, when he was writing his history, he
performed every day, for two years, two days
woTk-one from 8 TO on his book, the other
from7 TO ii, upon the Tribune and, IN addition,
he did more than would tire an ordinary man in
the way OF correspondence aud public speaking.
] may also remind the reader that the clergy
man who, OF all Others in the United States, ex-
pends most vitality, both with tongue aud pen,
and who does his work with least fatigue and
most gayety of heart, Is another of Frankiin'e
"water Americans"
The few experiments which have been made,
with view to trace the course of alcohol in
the living system, all confirm what all drinkers
1t has passed the lips. Some innocent dogs
have suffered and died in this investigation. DR..
Percy, a British physician, records, that he
injected two ounces and a half of alcohol into
the stomach of dog, which caused its almost
instant death. The dog dropped very much as
he would if be had been struck upon the head
with club. The eXperimenter without a
moments unnecessary delay, removed the AMI
maTs brain, subjecting il to distillation and
extracted from 1t surprising quantity OF
acohol-a larger proportion than he could
distil from the blood or liver. The alcohol
seemed TO have rushed to the brain; it was a
blow upon the head which killed the dog
Dr.. Percy introduced into the somachs Of
other dogs smaller quantities of alcohol,
killing the dogs, and subjecting the brain,
the blood the bile, the liver and other portions
OF the body to distillatiop, he invariably found
more alcohol in the brain than in the same
weight of the organs. He injected alcohol into
the blood OF dogs, which caused death; but the
deadly effect was produced not upou the sub
stance of the blood, but upon the brain. His
experiments go far towards explaining why the
drinking of alcoholic liquors does not sensibly
retaTd digestion. 1t seems that, when be take
wine at dinner the alcohol does not remain in
the stomach, but is Immediately absorbed into
the blood and swiftly conveyed to the brain and
other organs. If one OF those "tour-bottle men"
OF the last generation had fallen down dead,
after Doozpg till past midnight, and he had been
his liver, and all the other centres of power
would have yielded alcohol in abundance; his
blood would have smelt il; his flesh would
have contained it; but there would
men were able TO drink four, six, and seven
bottles of wine at sitting, because the sitting
time for the alcohol to be distributed over the
system. But instances have occurred of labor
ing men who have kept themselves steadily
drunk for 4S hours, and then died The bodies
Of two such were dissected some years ago in
England, and the food which they had eaten OF
the beginning of the debauch was undigested.
1t had been preserved in alcohol as we preserve
snakes.
Once, and only once, in the lifetime OF man,
an intelligent human eye has been able to look
Into the human stomach, and watch the process
OF digestion. In 1922 at the United states
military post of Michillimackinac, Alexis st.
Martin, Canadian of French extraction,
received accidentally a heavy charge of duck
shot in his side, while he was standing one yard
from the muzzle of the gun. The wound was
frightful. One OF the lungs protruded, and
from an enormous aperture in the stomach the
food recently eaten was oozlng. DR.. William
Beaumont, u. s. A., the surgeon of the post, was
notified, and dressed the wound. In exactly
one year from that day the young man was well
enough TO get out of doors and walk about the
fort; and he continued to improve in health and
strength, until he was as strong and hardy as
most Of his race. He married, became the
father Of large family, and performed for
many years the laborious duties appertaintng to
an officers servant at frontier post. Bat the
aperture into the stomach never closed, and the
patient would not submit to the painful opera
tion by which such wounds are sometimes closed
artihcially. He wore a compress arranged by
the doctor, without which his dinner was not
safe after he. had eaten it.
By most blessed chance it happened that this
DR.. William Beaumont, stationed there on the
outskirts OF creation, was an intelligent inquisi-
tive human being, who perceived all the value
of the opportunity afforded him by this unique
event. He set about improving that opportu-
nifty. De took the young man into his service,
ana at intervals, Tor eight years, he expert
nIented upon him. He alone among the sons of
men has seen liquid flo wing into the stomach Of
@ living person while yet the vessel was at the
drinkers lips. Through the aperture (Which
renamed tWo-anda-half inches in circum.
feIencel he. could watch the, entire !ope-
dreds Of times, If the mans stomach 9chei,
he could look into il and see what was
the matter; and having found out, he would
drop a rectifying pill into the aperture. He
ascertained the time 1t takes 10 digest each OF
the articles of food commonly eaten, and the
effects OF all the usual errors in eating and
drinking, In 1888 he published thin volume,
at Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, in which the
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