The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-07-01
Effects of Alcoholic Stimulants on the HUI
man SyStcm.

At meeting of the National Temperance
Society, in Chicago, DR.. Davis read paper on
the effects of alcohol on the human system
from which we copy. In asserting that alcohol
reduces the temperature Of the body, he runs
counter to peoples senses, and, though sus-
tanned by scientific experiment, will find it as
difficult to convince the average American as
Audubon did to make him believe that buz
zard cannot smell:
The following propositions may be stated as
fully established scientific facts
First. The alcohol, when taken diluted in
the form of fermented or distilled spirits, is
rapidly absorbed without change, carried into
the blood, and with that fluid brought in con-
tact with every structure and part OF the hu-
man body.
Second. That, while circulating in the blood,
its presence retards those molecular or atomic
changes by which nutrition, disintegration and
secretion are maintained, and the phenomena
of life continued.
Third. That its presence retards the elimi-
nation of waste matter, impairs nerve-sensl-
bility, lessons muscular exctabilty, and lowers
the temperature of the body.
Fourth. That part, at least, of the amount
taken, is finally eliminated, or thrown out of
the system with the eXcretions, without having
These facts are as we'll established as any in
the domain of physiology, or in the whole field
of natural science. And they point with all
the cIearness and force of mathematical de-
monstration to the conclusion that alcohol is
in no sense food, neither furnishing material
for the tissues, nor fuel for combustion, nor
yet generating either muscular or nervous
force. Having thus determined experiment
tally, that alcohol is neither food nor genera
tor Of force in the living body, the question
recurs, What are its positive effects when taken
in the ordinary manner? I answer, simply
those Of an
EsTHETIC AND ORGANIC sEDATIvE.
Like ether and chloroform, its presence di-
minishes the sensibility of the nervous sys-
tenn and brain, thereby rendering the indi-
vidual less conscious of all outward and exte-
rior Impressions This dminution of sensi-
bility or anesthesia, is developed in direct
ratio to the quantity Of alcohol taken, and may
be seen in all stages from simple exemption
from all feeling of fatigue, pain and idea of
weight, exhibited by ease buoyancy, hilarity,
&c., to that of complete unconsclousness and
loss of muscular power. 1t is this anesthetic
effect of alcohol that has led to all the popular
errors and contradictory uses which have
proved so destructive to human health and
happiness. 1t has ever been one of the noted
paradoxes of human action that the same in
dividual would resort to the same alcoholic
drink to warm him in winter, to protect him
from the heat in summer, to strengthen when
weak or weary, and to soothe and cheer when
afflicted in body or mind. With the facts now
before US, the explanation of all this is appa-
rent The alcohol does not relieve the indi
vidual from cold by increasing his tempera-
ture; nor from heat by cooling him nor from
weakness and exhaustion by nourisbing his
tissues nor yet from afliction by increasing
nerve power; but simply by diminishing the
sensibility of his nerve structures, and thereby
lessening his consciousness of impressions,
whether from cold, or heat, or weariness, or
pain. In other words, the presence of the
alcohol has not in any degree lessened the
effects of the evils to which he is exposed, but
has diminished his consciousness of their ex
istence, aud thereby impaired his Judgment
the degree of their action upon
him.
1t is this property of alcohol to produce that
sense of ease, buoyancy, and exhllaratlon,
arising from moderate dlmlnutlon otnerve
sensibility, that gives it the
FASCINATING AND DELUs1vE POWER
over the human race, which it has welded so
for centuries gone by. But while
the presence of alcohol diminishes the sensi-
bility of the nervous structure, it also retards
all the molecular changes, thereby diminishing
the activity of nutrition, secretion, elimination,
and the evolution Of heat constituting true
organic sedative When taken in small quanti-
ties, repeated daily, the individual usually
slowly increases i'll weight, not from increased
nutrition, but from rctarding the waste and re-
fI,o old afo 1nOCrar N tho tlsur1p9
By some Investigators this power to retard
atomic changes and consequently to retain the
old atoms, has been regarded as equivalent to
nutrition, or the actual assimilation and addi-
ton of new atoms. 1t is on this basis that DR..
Hammond and few others persist in repre-
senting alcohol as indirect food. The fallacy
of such claim, and its mischievous tendency
will be fully apparent by reference to one of
the plainest laws governing living animal
matter. The law is, that all the phenomena
of animal life are associated with and depen-
dent on atomic changes, and that each indi-
vidual cell or aggregation of bioplasm consti-
tuting an organic atom, has its determinate
period of growth, maturity and dissolution.
Hence, to introduce into the living system any
agent that will retard atomic change, is equiv
alent to rctarding the phenomena OF life.
And if by retarding the atomic changes, cells
or atoms are retained in the tissues longer than
the natural duration of their activity, such re-
tention may increase the bulk and weight, but
in the same ratio it embarrasses the stimulus
with the presence of material which is con-
stantly becoming inert and tending to degen-
Grafton. Consequently the individual who
thus increases his bulk and weight by taking
lust enough of the weaker alcoholic drinks
daily to retard the processes of secretion and
waste, in the same proportion dinlinishes his
activity, his power Of endurance, and his abili-
tv to resist the effects of morbid agents of every
kind. This is abundantly illustrated by the
thousands Of bcor and wine drinkers who, from
twenty to twenty-five years of age, were mus
cular, active, capable of any reasonable en-
durance, with weigh tof 1870 pounds, but who,
after moderately retarding atomic changes and
retaining old atoms by the daily use of wine or
beer have acquired a weight of 200 pounds or
more, and have