The Cecil Whig., 1874-01-31

; lney appear to be more plentiful IN th
spring, at which time they fly in pairs o
y in small punches of from three to five
) they decoy well. The white marking o,
the bill fades soon after death.
4 ---r=ees- ,-.sn.--
3 DISEASE DUE TO ALCOHOL.
: SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF THE EFF
, Feet UPON LIQUOR DEALERS OF DRINK
ING THEIR OWN BEVERAGES.
A paper by DR.. Dickinson, upon the
morbid effects resulting frem drinking
alcoholic liquors as shown in persons who
, trade in liquor, appears in the 56th volume
of The London Medico Chirurgscay Trans
actions, just published. The writer starts
with the assumption that those who have
alcoholic stimulant at their command at
any time, without being called upon to pay
for it, will probably take more of it than
those who are obliged to incur expense, or
to go TO some degree of trouble to satisfy
their craving. The remarkable and sug-
gestive conclusions reached by the author
are given in his own words. He says:
"We are led to conclusions which are
mainly with though in some respects
against old views. In the present state of
medicine it may be as useful to fortify old
truths as to assault old errors. The results
may be thus summed up: Persons who
trade in liquor drink on an average more
than those who do not, and their morbid
. ia N, 81,
Estimating the effects of alcohol Oh this
basis, by means of comparison between
the class described and persons similarly
! situated save in relation to liquor, the fol-
lowing conclusions have been reached:-
/ Alcohol Shortens life; 10 trade in NqWor costs
three and a haLf gears.
Reviewing the morbid results which
the examination of each organ has reveal
ed, they present a consistency which is in
some sort their warrant. Alcohol causes
fatty infftration and fibroid encroachment:
IL engenders tubercle, encourages suppura-
ton, and retards healing; it produces un-
timely atheroma invites hemorrhage, and
anticipates age. The most constant fatty
change, a replacement by oil Of the materi-
al of epithelal cells and muscular fibers.
though probably nearly universal, is most
noticeable in the liver, the heart, and the
kidney. The fibroid increase is little evil |
dent in the simply fibrous structures, such |
as fascia and tenGons, but occurs about the |
vascular channels and superficial invest
,nn &c If tl,n :.
ganic atrophy, cirrhosis, and granulation. |
OF this the liver has the largest share; the |
lungs are often similarly though less SIM
ply affected, the change being variously
complicated with or simulative or tubercle;
the kidneys suffer in like manner, but in a
more remote degree.
"Alcohol also causes vascular deteriora-
tlons which are akin both to the fatty and
theft brod. Besides tangible atheroma
there are minute dcteriorations of the arter-
lal walls, which show themselves by cardiac
hypertrophy and cerebral bemorrhage.-
Drink causes tuberculosis, which is evident
not only i'll the lung but in every organ
which is amenable 1t must be observed.
however, that from the tendency oftubercle
to odissemination it is only necessary that it
be planted in one organ to be found in
many. Drinl, promotes the suppurative at
tie expense of the adhesive process. This
is sufficiently seen in the results of pneu-
monia, Of pleurisy, and of pericarditis, in
difiuse inflammation after injuries, and in
the sloth and insecurity Of the healing pro-
cess.
" Descending from general conditions to
individual organs, the effect of alcohol |
upon the nervous system must be looked
upon as special, and taken by itself, since t
nervous matter presents to this agent |
singular excitability of function. or, in |
'ther words, singular susceptibility of S
for the purpose Of acting upon |
which mankind in all countries end in all G
ages have sought and used alcoholic drinks. v
Passing over those effects of intemperance il
which, like delirium tremens, are manifest S
ather during life than after death, we find
hat the BRAIN pays a large reckoning in d
he shape of Inflammation, atrophy, and e
lemorrhage. Alcohol multiplies infiam- t
natory states of the brain of every kind, t
10Th of the substance and the envelopes. il
whether tubeacular or not. 1t occasions "
,radual shrinking of the brain, as evinced Il
" the accumulation of fluid in spaces once @
He'd by cerebral substance. It causes a Il
liability to cerebral hemorrhage by means Il
f the arterial deterioration common to the
Geater part Of the body. b
With regard to other organs, they are h
amaged by alcohol much as they stand in Il
s line of absorption. Passing over the 1t
tomach, the changes in which, however W
umerous, are, save when it is liberated, e!
lore prominent during life than after IL
cath, we come to the liver This organ te
lffers more than any other, chiefly by way CT
cirrhosis and fatty impregnaton. Next ol
lie stress falls upon the lung, probably less
eavily than upon the liver, certainly more
eavily than upon any other part of the al
ody with the exclusion of the nervous y"
7stem. The mischief in the lung takes ~
pparently every shape of phthisis. 1t is ~
robable that the change most often is of V.
kind TO which the term tubercular would Va
richly apply, while there is evidence, not ''
'mprised in the present tables, of a libroid :"
'ergrowth, which apparently may either u
or stimulate tubercle. The VI
'terial deterioration need not be further 81
entioned than to assign its relative fire.
lency. Judging by its tangible results A
heroma, hemorrhage, and cardiac hyper
ophy-we should assign to this change a F.
rye share in the pathology Of intemper- p,
Ice. though, unless the connection be- p,
7een alcohol and tubercle has been much N
it would seem to play less fatal ",
lrt than disease of the tubercular kind. F,
astly, the kidneys, more remotely exposed, B,
i've smaller participation in the common re
image of alcoholism. They undergo con- "a a
'stive enlargement, fatty and tibroid Y,