Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-06-04


The following II an abstract Of IN ad-
dress delivered by II. O. Hitchcock, N.
D., Of Kalamazoo, at the annual meeting
Of the Michigan State Board of Health,
April IA, 1874. which address has been
officially published by that body:
The group of facts growing out OF the
nature OF alcohol; Its physiological action
upon the tissues OF the human body; the
vast quantities OF IL which are used under
the various forms Of alcoholic drinks; the
pathological effects OF its use upon
Its consumers, and, above all, its
effects upon their posterity, are 80
great a. 10 demand the most pro-
found and earnest consideration OF
this Board. Alcohol Is hydrsted
oxide Of ethyle, 1t is nowhere TO be found
In any product OF nature; Is classed as
narcotic or narcotico-acrid poison by
every writer on toxicology.
1t Is the same identical thing wherever
found; In all intoxicating drinks in this
country it is the thing which intoxicates,
IFS proportions in them varying from per
cent. In some forms of ale TO SO per cent.
in brandy, rum and whisky. It 10 not
Jocd; nor does it any way aid In the di-
gestion Of the food; but on the contrary
the presence Of II In the stomach retards
or impedes digestion by precipitating the
active agent in that function, viz, the
pepsine These facts have been fully
established by many eminent physiolo'
gists.
While the alcohol taken with, just be-
fore, or Just after the food remains In the
stomach, digestion Is wholly arrested and
cannot go on until, fortunately very soon,
the offending article Is taken up into the
blood and Is on Its way unfortunately
through the whole system, TO the emunc'
tories, TO be cast out unchanged as the
offending devil alcohol. That the alcohol
is cast out Of the system unchanged by
the emunctories has been proved by the
new test for alcohol proposed by Dr. Ku-
dolph Masing, viz. A solution Of the
bichromate Of potash and sulphuric acid.
By this test, too, alcohol has been found
unchanged in all the tissues Of drunkards'
bodies.
Taken undiluted into the stomach II
would burn and destroy the tissues with
as much certainty and almost as speedily
as so much aqua fortis II has been
demonstrated by many physiological ex-
perimenters that alcohol, even when
largely diluted, coagulBtes the soluble al.
bumen OF the tissues and corrugates them.
1t changes their chemical relations and
properties so as greatly TO disturb the
normal series Of changes involved In the
nutritive operations. Changes In the
physical or chemical nature OF the ami.
NAL tissues involve also disorder In their
vital properties. Alcoholic liquors, ap-
piled to the skin or mucous membrane,
produces various degrees of irritation,
even to inflammation and death Of the
ri arnnrlipn n thnir atrannth ami the
length of time they are applied. II isa
stimulant and narcotic.
have availed myself of the following
facts as collected from reliable sources
by DIR. Chas. A. Story, of Chicago: There
were manufactured In the United States,
In the year 1867, 100000, 900 gallons Of
distilled spirits, or about three gallons to
every man, woman and child in the Repub,
lie. OF wines 20,000,000 gallons and i'm.
ported liquors 20y000,OOO.
The value of the sales by retail liquor
dealers In the United States during the
year 1866, according TO the report of
Commissioner Wells, was 81 ,4S3 491 1856,
or lust about $48.00 TO every man, woman
and child In the land. OF this vast sum
the people Of this State are said TO have
spent $52,874,170, or within fraction Of
$500 for every man, woman and child
In the State ut the present time. As now
one.fourth Of the total population would
more than cover all who drink, II follows
that, at very low estimate, there Is OK.
pended on an average each year for every
person in this State or the United States,
who drinks, the sum Of $4,000 In round
numbers.
Now the effect of the habitual use of
alcoholic drinks, however diluted. Ii
al 1,,s.. vNhuainl nDiata
and by the observation Of many eminent
physicians to be similar In nature though
not identical in degree to the effect OF
undiluted alcohol upon the tissues. AL
though II Is almost entirely cast out by
the emunctories, the skin, the lungs, the
liver and the kidneys, and always rs al.
cohol, vet In passing through all parts
of the system IL does as, we shall see,
leave everywhere the marks Of Its burning
footsteps.
The eminent French analytical chemist
Lecanu, found as much as lit parts Of fat
In 900 parts of drunkard's blood, the
highest estimate of the quantity in health
being Sk parts, while the ordinary guam
tity is not more than two or three parts,
80 that the blood Of the drunkard contains
forty times in excess Of the ordinary
quantity. When spirituous liquors are
taken into the stomach" says DIR. Aitken
in his Practice Of Medicine. =" they tend
to coagulate In the first place oil albumin.
GUS articles OF food or fluid with which
they come in contact. As an irritant they
stimulate the glandular secretions from
the mucous membrane and ultimately
lead to permanent congestion of the
vessels and to thickening Of the gastric
tissues Even diluted In the form of
beer or wine IL Ia found TO act injuriously
on the delicate membranes Of the stomach
and other digestive organs. When taken
In larger quantities in any Of the diluted
forms II acts most injuri0usly upon the
stomach, liver, brain, heart and other
organs of the body. The organs most
affected by alcohol when taken into the
stomach--the organs in which 1t Is found
most to accumulate--are the silver and the
substance of the brain. II in the blood 1t
Is represented by /, in the brain Il is 1.84,
In the liver 1.48.n
Let me call your attention to list of
diseases and dcgeneracies which are de-
veloped In and bequeathed to the indi-
yiduals themselves who habitually or ex.