The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-11-15
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AObertistr
SATURDAY. NOVEMBER Is.
Action Of Alcohol.

DIR. Lionel ;. Beale is quoted by the Medical
Union upon the action Of alcohol, in summary as
follows
/. In external wounds, and internal diseases
where alcohol acts benefcially, the good result, is
in part at least, due to the alcohol checking the
increased action already established.
-. Alcohol does not act as food IL does uot
nOurish tissues. 1t may diminish waste bv alter
ing the consistence and chemical properties OF
fluids and solids. 1t cuts short the life of rapidly
growing bioplasm, or causes it 10 live more slowly,
and thus tends 70 cause = diseased texture. IN
which vital changes are abnormally active to
return TO its normal and much less active condi-
ton.
). In d" exhausting - diseases alcohol seems 10
act partly by diminishing very rapidly the abnor-
mally-increased growth of bioplasm. The guam
tity required will depend upon the extent TO
which the changes alluded to have proceeded. In
extreme cases half an ounce of brandy, or even
more, may be given for 4 time Tin some cases even
for several days. every half hour and there is
reason to believe that in desperate cases life Is
sometimes saved by this treatment.
Practical conclusions Lastly, | shall venture
to repeat here the conclusions arrived at many
years ago concerning the great value of the alec
hol treatment of low fevers and in1ammations
Increased experience has afforded further conir-
nation of the correctness of the statements made
in the paragraphs below. l do not, of course,
refer to slight cases of fever, pneumonia, etc, IN
which no sLlmuldnL NudVSNeI may De required.
but to very severe cases of disease only.
l. In what appeared hopeless cases, as much
brandy as the patient could be made to swallow
Ian ounce and a half to two ounces in an hour)
has been given for several hours in succession,
and then as much as 80 ounces a day for several
days, not only without producing the slightest
intoxication, vomiting or headache, but the treat
ment has been followed by recovery.
>. [ would adduce the fact that a man not ac-
customed TO drink, when suffering from acute
rheumatism, complicated with pericarditis with
effusion, pneumonia at the base of one lung and
pleurisy on the opposite side, has taken "a ounces
of brandy a day for eleven days, the tongue being
moist and the mind calm during the whole time.
While under this treatment infanmatory pro-
ducts were absorbed, and the general state of the
patient much improved.
3. | have been compelled to give a very weak
child, weighing less than four stone, u ounces of
brandy a day for ten days, while suffering from
This quantity did not produce the slightest ten
dency to intoxication, or exert other than a favor
able effect upon the disease. The patient did not
begin to improve until the quantity of brandy,
gradually increased, had reached the amount
stated.
4. 1 would state that among the general con-
clusions L have reached, after carefully watching
more than 100 cases of acute disease treated with
large quantities of stimulants, are the following
That intoXication is not produced that delirium,
if it has occurred, ceases, or is prevented from
occurring at all in the course of the case; that
headache is not occasioned ; that the action of the
skin, kidneys and bowels goes on freely that the
tongue remains moist, or, if dry and brown, often
becomes moist that the pulse falls in frequency
and increases in force that respiration is not i'm
peded, but that, where even one entire lung is
hepatized, the distress of breathing is not in
creased, and it appears that the respiratory
changes go on under the disadvantageous circum-
stances present as we'll as if no alcohol had been
given.
The conclusion from all this is, most certainly,
that alcohol does not do harm in fevers and acute
inflammations that it does not produce intoxica-
ton in the persons suffering from eXhausting dis
eases and that large quantities (from IL to 80
o%unces) may be given in cases which appear very
unlikely to recover, and sometimes the patient
will be saved. The conviction is forced upon the
observer that in desperate cases these large guam
titles of alcohol are directly instrumental in
saving life, not by exciting or stimulating to in
creased action, but by moderating actions already
excessive, and at the same time by causing the
heart to contract more vigorously, and so con-
tinue to drive the blood through the impeded
capillaries.