The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-03-24
Mysterious Workings of Alcoholic stimu-
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In late number of the Edinburgh
ReUietV is an exhaustive and carefully
written paper upon "The Physiological
Influence Of Alcohol" It is calm and
scientific, not emotional, but crowded
with facts and information. According
to this article, when spirituous drink
is taken into the body it does not simply
run through the digestive cavity of the
body, but it runs through the blood be-
fore it can find any escape, and it clings
to that blood for a considerable period,
flowing with it round and round through
the circling stream of its increasing pro-
gress. 1t goes everywhere, ia each fibre,
membrane, and tissue, and fills and sat
urates each vital organ-fesh, brain,
heart, liver, lung, kidney, skin, and Sc
creting apparatus Wherever there
should be blood under the natural ar
rangements of life, there is now blood
mingled with the alcoholic spirit.
Articles of food are "compleX bodies,
built up from simpler elements by the
effort of vegetable life.p Alcohol is not
such complex principle. The foods
| which furnish substance to the living
structures are, for the most part, COM
posed with the aid of nitrogen, and have
therefore an affinity with the vital parts
of the human structure. The fibrin of
the blood, the muscular flesh, the carti
Ilages and tendons, the membranes and
the skin, the soft nerve-pulp and the
brain, are all so many examples of nj
ltrogeniZed matter. But alcohol is en-
tirely devoid of nitrogen in any form.
In the exceptional cases where alcohol
has been found useful as medicine, an
II g
and physicians should determine when
stimulants as medicine are necessary.
The parts of the body which possess
the most energetic vitality, the brain,
the nerves and the nervous material of
the spinal cord, are principally COM
posed of the most pulpy consistence, so
soft that it may almost be termed melt
ing. This nerve-pulp is packed into
minute filmy sacks and tubes, discerna-
BILE only by microscopic aid. Through
these tiny and almost Invisible films
the blood is ''filtered" The nerve-pulp
appropriates such qualities of the blood
as nourish life and build up the struct-
ure, and at the same time they reject
and throw back into the stream their
own waste particles. Large quantities
of water enter into the composition of
this pulpy matter, and the first evil eff
! feet of alcohol is an "uncontrollable i'm
pulse" to draw water into itself. Excess
sive use of alcohol hardeDs and dries up
the nerve-pulp in such way as. to inn
pair, if not spoil it for its proper Office.
When excessive drinking does not pro-
duce intoxication it is because the nerve
pulp has become insensible as an ''Ofled
SILK" ... t -.
The flushed face upon the approach OF
inebriation is among the earliest signs
of the disturbance of these delicate
"filters' in their work, the face being
among the parts of the body exception
ally supplied with blood. The RESTRAIN
ing" or filtering work of the pulpy sub
stance is impaired, and hence the un-
natural reception of blood into the pulp
cells. If this unnatural process is re-
peated, or becomes habitual, the
blotched, red, swollen, or pimpled face
is the result of keeping the nerve-pull
saturated with alcohol, and the delicate
membranes, dried and dyed red, show
through the skin.
The first stages of intoxication are
shown in the want of command over the
lower lip and lower limbs. The nerve.
pulp of the spinal cord is touched. The
muscles feel the torpor. Trembling anC
I IN
of the brain comes under evil influence
and the control of the judgment and viii
disappears. When man is what is
termed "dead drunk" the paralysis o
the higher nerve-centers and of the
brain is carried to its full end. All inlet!
of the senses are closed;' all conscious
ness and sensation are destroyed, anC
power of voluntary movement is efaced
The heart-the seat of life-toils on. l
an enormous quantity of alcohol i
swallowed at once, as in the case o
foolish wagers, the toll of the heart sooI
ceases, and the man is dead indeed. Blu
in ordinary instances the torpor save
life, as it stops the drinker just at th,
point when further drinking would xii
him outright. .... .r "a.
With this general view of the effect
of alcohol, and the manner in which
they are produced, it is easy to under
stand why headache, sleeplessness
nausea, palpitation of the heart, and tn
trembling deliriumn accompany ant
follow the excessive use of alcohol.
poison in the stomach can be pumpet
out or voided. A poison in the bloOt
! must wait removal till the efforts o
[ nature effect it. But when nature it
self is abused or impaired, its recupera
n tive power soon becomes destroyed
The effects of continual alcohOliZatiol
upon the liver, kidneys, and stomach /
> is unnecessary to describe, as they ar
we'll understood. But where the mis-
. chievous process begins and how it j
continued are points new to the mos
: of non-medical readers.