The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-10-28
WOMANS TEMPERANCE COL.
UMN.
Cardiac Stimulant.

The International Medical Congress
has decided that "acohol is not shown to
have definite food value" This upsets
tho theory which DR.. Edward Curtis
teaches the pupils in one Of our New
York medical colleges. The Information.
oil Congress also declares that its use as
medicine is chiefly that ola cardiac stim-
ulant, or in plain language, it directly
stimulates the heart. This subject has
beenl scientifically investigated by DR..
Parkes and Count Wallowiczs, men Of
the highest eminence ip all matters con.
nected with tho laws Of health, The sub.
iect upon which they experimental was
healthy adult man. They counted the
beat Of the heart when the person upon
whom they were experimenting drank
nothing but water, and then, when alcohol
was taken daily in increasing quantities,
and state Tho result Of their investigations
as follows: The average number Of beats
Of the heart in twenty-four hours was
about 100000. These investigations
were continued eight days. On the ninth
day the subject took ona fluid ounce of
alcohol (about one wine glass fully; the
heart beat 1900 times moro. On the
tenth day, with two fluid ounces. S,172
times more. On the eleventh day, with
four fluid ounces, 1860 times more. On
the twelfth day, with six fluid ounces,
30,672 times more. On the thirteenth
day, with eight fluid ounces, 23, ,904 times
more. On the fourteenth day, with
eight fluid ounces 25,4SS times more.
Bot as there was cphemoral fever on the
twelfth day, it was right 10 make q dc.
duction, and to estimate the number of
beats in that day as midway between the
eleventh and thirteenth days, or 1892.
Adopting this, the mean daily excess of
beats during the alcoholic days was a..
492, or an increase Of rather more than
13 per cent. The first day Of alcohol
gave an excess Of 4 per cent, and the
last OF % per cent, and the mean Of
these gives almost the same percentage
as the mean of the six days. Admitting
that such beats of tho heart were as
strong during the alcoholic period as the
water period land it was really more
powerfully the heart during the last two
days Of alcohol was doing onc.ffth more
work. Adopting the lowest estimate
which has been given of the daily work Of
the heart, viz as equal to 122 tons lifted
one foot, the heart during the alcoholic
period did daily work in excess equal to
lifting l5.S tons one foot, and in the last
two days did extra work to the amount
of "a tons lifted as far. This experiment
sufficiently explains the reason why the
physical and moral nature of man is
injured and his life cut short by the use
OF alcohol. No fact is clearer than the
fact that "excitcment is wasted force,
The running down of o machine before it
has served out its time of motion" When
alcohol is coursiDg through mans arte.
ries and veins, he is like a clock from
which the weight on the pendulum has
been removed the clock runs with tire.
mendous velocity and performs in one
hour the work of perhaps twenty. four
hours but the clock and the man are
alike drunk, and this increase Of action
is the destruction of both.-I G. D. in
Vermont Witness.