The Morning herald., 1875-08-31
THE HERALD.
WILMINGTON, AUGUST 81, 1875.
THE PHYSlOL0GICXLI INFLUENCE
OF ALCOHOL.

THE PHYSIOLOGICXLI INFLUENCES
OF ALCOHOL.
This is subject we'll worth studying, Sc
it is the soul of the temperance question.
If physiologically Alcohol is bene6cent'
then it is useless to war against its use, as
nee. ss;ty will compel patients needing it,
to drink, The use and abuse, Of Alcohol
is in all probability, coeval with the
earliest civilization Of our race.
Sacred History says:
"Now, a husbandman, began to till
The ground, and planted u vineyard.
And drinking of the wine was made
Drunk, and was uncovered in his tent.
Wine, in the sense of a fermented beverage,
was we'll known alike to the Egyptians,
the Greeks, and the Romans. From the
frequent allusions made Of intoxicating wine
by the later poets, and Greek authors it is
evident, that inebriety, was not uncommon,
among the Greeks and Romans.
In the eleventh century the Arabian
Alchemists produced alcohol. b, distilla-
ton; but it was not unit! about the
eleventh century.
Gin was not known as a word in any
civilized language until about 1910; Us
quehaugh, or whiskey first makes its ap-
pearance about fifty years later. ,"Bran,-
vein" or brandy was introduced into our
tongue abeut the same time as whiskey.
At the head of the school. DENYING in
toto, any nutri,ive power in alcohol is Dr..
Richardson, Of London. DR.. Anstie, Of
the same city may be looked upon as the
leader of the opposite school Of physiolo-
gists.
The theory of DR.. Richardson, in his
Cantor Lectures, is unanswerable. The
deductions from practice, and well attend
ded cases OF the nutri;ive power of alcohol,
cited by DIR. Austie, as facts over,hrows
entirely the theory Of his opponent.
DR.. Richardson first clearly states from
the stand point of the chemist, what is
food. then Or. Richardson, in his Cantor
Lectures, attirms that pure alcohol is en-
ti,ely without nonri>hins power. There
i, Of coarse, even with him, no question
as 20 the fac, that some forms OF fermen,ed
beverages which have their spirit mingled
wiki other ingredients OF glu,inous
and >usarv character, rs in the case of
beer. do nourish to considerable degree.
Blu, Or. Richardson roundly asserts that
this is due to The other ingredients which
are mingled with the spirit, and tina. if all
the spirit were taken away from them
their nourishing powers would remain the
same. and possible he increased rather than
diminished by its abstraction.
The technical reasons for this doctrine
rests, upon the well known fact, that nc
trace of nitrogen, can be found in alcohol,
hence it cannot Contribute in any desree to
the construeur OF living structure. As
theoretical averment this is unassumable
without combating DR.. -An>,ie's answer BY
fac: notably the following:
There are, on the other hand, some facts
which have been noted by other high au-
thori,ies which it does not seem possible to
reconcile altogether with this view. DR..
Aus,ie. for instance. has recorded one verv
noticeable ca>e-:hat Of an old soldier who
Was under his cage a: the Westminster
Hospital in 1861, who had lived for twenty
years on die, composed OF a bottle OF un-
swee,enei gin and one small 6nser-length
o: toasted bread Per day. and who MAIN
tanned the structures Of his body for this
long period upon that very remarkable re-
gimea. The instances are also very nu-
merous in which patients suffering from
acute and tebgile diseases have been cup
ported through critical periods Of the dis
order bv the bold administration OF spiri.
and wine. Dr.. An>,ie refers 10 one very
instructive case Of this charac-er which
also under his care in J S6l, and which Of
viously left a grea. impression upon his
mind. \ young man. orlv eighteen years
ot age, was 50 reduced by q severe
attack Of acute rheumatism tina, he WAS un-
able 10 retain icoi Of any kind upon his
stomach. He was consequently sustained
for several days upon an allowance OF
twelve ounces Of water and twelve ounces
OF gin per day. His recovery under this
trea,men, was very rapid and complete.
and almost withou, any trace of the ema-
citation and wasting that ordinarily follow
upon such disease. The lad. previous to
this illness, was Of a strictly sober and tenn
pera,e habit. and during the Use of the