Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-06-14

| lnSS Vi UQc SCOUldCn were reHucToU ell
tirely powerless to secrete, and resem-
bled the feshy side Of hemlock- tanned
sole-leather Weeks before his death,
no food could be made to digest in the
stomach. 1t was a case Of literal starv-
alton, case where no food could sustain
life, nor response to stimulants, or rem
edies, could be obtained; where the vi
tai forces necessary to sustain life were
destroyed or made powerless by the ac-
tion of alcohol.
End There are other more speedily
fatal results, often attending the use of
alcoholic beverages, Their action on
the numerous membranes and Innings of
the larger thoroughfares, through which
the blood courses, and the air cells and
pulmonary vessels Of the lungs, is fire.
quently :disastrously certain, and term
mates in inflammation and death The
lungs being of a sponge-like substance,
and composed of innumerable air-cells,
the membrane of which these cells are
composed being much more delicate than
the finest gauze, renders them vastly
susceptible to foreign influences. The
internal surface of the air-cells are cov-
cred with very fine and delicate mem
brane, sensible to the least foreign sub
substance, therefore, easily destroyed,
and, if the delicate structure be once
impaired by disease or violence, owing
to their constant motion, are hard to be
restored to any considerable degree of
health, on account of the difficulty to
reach them with remedies 1t is this
fact that constitutes the lungs an easy
prey to alcohol, and which may predis.
pose to consumption, aud other pulmo-
nary complaints The surface of the
air-cells alone is said to equal the entire
surface of the body, and the membranes,
were they spread out, would paper
good-sized room What wonder is it
then, that such an irritant as alcohol
should result In hemorrhages and con-
gestions, when used as a beverage
Bird. And that which may be said to
constitute the cause of sudden death, is
the heart. 1t is contained in mem
branous sack that secures it in it's prop
er position, and is continually contract
ing and dilating. At each pulsation it
throws the blood to every part Of the
system with great velocity, and the
number OF it's pulsations are computed
to amount to one hundred thousand in
single day.
Plato, speaking of the heart, calls it
the spring fountain of the blood, which
is carried impetuously around This
blood is thrown into the lungs to be-
come vitalized, and is again returned to
the heart to be distributed throughout
the system. This process is obtained
once in every four minutes, when all
| n In Of hn bod
NAL condition. Now, if morbid con-
dition prevails, and the forces become
impaired in consequence, or accelera-
tions be too great, and the solids be vol
luminous, a tendency to sincope, or ap-
oplexy must follow. Therefore, if the
mechanism of the physical structure, be
deranged by poisons or other means,
serious results must be the consequence,
and alcohol will, and has accomplished
these fatal results very many times.
How often individuals have died from
apoplexy, none can ever tell, since ap-
oplexy and heart disease are far more
popular terms to use to designate the
cause, than to have said, died drunk,
or from drunkenness. How often the
item is read in the papers, under the
caption of 'Found Dead," and then
goes on to suppose the cause, &C., and
chronicles heart disease or apoplexy.
Instead, it were possible to have quoted
the poets thought:
Found dead, dead and alone,
In rOof1eSS street, on pillow of stone,
Not pitying eye, or falling tear.
All alone, but his jug quite emptied of beer"
1t has been my effort pretty much,
thus far, to explain the physical effects
OF alcoholic drinks, as they predispose
the system to disease, by their various
processes OF absorption, and enabling
their poisons to effect, disease and dis
troy the vital forces of the organs
through the medium of circulation.
There is, however, one effect of alco-
hol, when introduced into the stomach,
always certain to produce some degree
of disaster to health and longevity of
life, and sometimes eliminate in speedy
death; namely, inflammation of the mem
branes of the alimentary canal, as well
as those of the stomach and lungs. The
length of this canal has an average of
forty-two feet, and the mucous men,
brane, which covers it's inner surface, if
spread out, would measure about four
teen feet. Their texture, though of
more firm character than those of the
lungs and bronchial tubes, is both deli
cate and sensitive, and when alcohol Is
taken into the stomach, these mem
branes are soon affected by poison it
contains, and often result in peritanites
and bowel complaints.
The diseases which alcoholic bever-
ages are, or may more speedily produce,
when persisted in, are, congestions, APP
oplexy, dyspepsia, peritanites, various
bowel complaints, infamations and fe-
yer, and often Bright's kidney, and
dropsy. All these, which are more
speedily fatal, alcohol induces, and, not
unfrequently may be included, paralysis
and heart disease, to say nothing of all
the entailed evils and long catalogue of
ills to which the alcoholic demon pre-
disposes the system, besides inca
pacitating the individual who drinks, of
much reliability for business and places
of trust sF
Having shown you something of the
physical effects of alcohol, and disease
resulting from the use of it, will brief
ly allude to it as remedy. For long
time, l have been led to doubt its bene-
ACo do ouCIi, anu yCt, L HCNCI CUuIu pCl-
suade myself to entirely abandon it's use,
but seldom use it other than for evap-
Grating baths, and even in these, have
found, many times, other applications
quite, or more, etfectual. 1t is we'll
known fact that it's use in making ex-
tracts is essential, but when compound
ed in medicines, its benefit l have some
times doubted. 1t is true | have ad-
ministered it in some instances when
there were manifested unmistakable re-
suits for good, and possibly saved life.
| believe, however, alcohol should be
used. if used at all, with the due amount
of caution that you would handle other
poisons, since you might create an ap-
petite for it, or excite and wake up the
slumbering demon of rum appetite,
which neither judgment or remedy
would be able to subdue. Alcohol is as
deadly as strychnine and arsenic, some
times slower tbs true, but as certainly
sure to destroy life, if persisted in its
use And it is destitute, in some par
ticulars, of the virtues of both strych-
nine and arsenic, for beside the misery
alcohol causes in the world, of want and
suffering, crimes of all grades, &C., its
effect is often hereditary. while none of