The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-10-18
THE PACIFIC
Commercial A6bert1ser
SATURDAY, OCTOBER Is.
Use of Alcohol as a Stimulant.

Before about 1900 it was taught that nature
treated alcohol, whether in larger or smaller
quantities, simply as an intruder, to be expelled
from the human system with all speed, and by
every channel, whether by the lungs, the kid
neys, or tbe skin. The results of the older ex-
Perimenss (Percy, Strauch, Masing, Perrin, Lal-
lemandJ seem to indicate that this vas the case.
a physician OF the old school-Professor Miller,
OF Edinburg-sums up the old notions Of its ef-
feet IN the following words, which | quote as
summatory Of the last generations physiologic
creed upon the subject
Alcohol, he says, - is a narcotic stimulant
-One OF a class Of substances which, given in re-
peated small doses, will produce a stimulant ef-
feet, which may be kept mp some time-an eff
feet, however, which will be certainly followed
by a depression profound in proportion TO t he
length Of time during which it has been delusiVe-
ly postponed"
But within a few years this question has been
reinvestigated with great care. Prominent
among the contributors To our better knowledge
OF 1t are SchalInus, Anstie, Dupre, Subbotin and
Binz. IL was DR.. Anstie who first clearly show
ed to the English reading public, arguing from
original Investigations, that alcohol, IN small
doses, was not a poison that, on the eontratry,
It was a true food ; and that { was a stImulant
to the system in precisely the same sense as that
IN which food il a stimulant. He pointed out
that We have been using terms loosely that OK
ygen -, for instance, both a true stimulant and a
true food. :" IL prevents OF relieves pain, ayerts
the disposition to muscular cOnvulsion, tremor
and spasm, reduces extensive secretion, calms all
unduIy frequent circulation, removes general de-
bIIty and fatigue Of particular organs, duiets the
disturbed brain, compensates in a great measure
the absence of ordinary food, promotes local nu-
triton" And these, he adds, are also precisely
the effects that are produced by alcoholic slim
ulants in small doses.
So far had the doctrine Of stimulant effects as
distinguished from narcotic, and as closely allied
to the effects Of food. been carried by Anstic and
others IN 1864. Ii was based upon labOrious re-
search and experiments, which this Is not the
place to describe and a further series OF expert
ments was reported IN the Lancet of 1868. DIR.
Anstie died, his work still unfinished, in 1875
but subsequently, experimenters-especially sgd
ney Ringer, Blnx and Thudichum-have much
advanced our knowledge Of the question. Their
labOrs have tended TO verify and to complete the
80 reconstructed doctrine of stImulants put for
ward by Dr. Anstie, and have proved the view
that alcohol and other of the so called stimulants,
taken in small doses, are entirely assimilated IN
the system, and are to be regarded in some res
poets as true fOOds, rather than called by the IN
sufficiently descriptive name of stimulants. But
what is food? Let us define it as w have just
sought to define stimulants. The definition OF
DIR. Blnz, among many other good ones, is per-
haps the best. He says a. We must regard as a
food any substance which, when taken into the
system, can serve (1) toward building up the
tissues, or (2) toward supplying the warmth and
vital force necessary for the proper performance
Of the various functions OF the body . Alcohol
fails, perhaps, TO fulfill the first Office of food,
according to the foregoing definition, since it Is
incapable, as far as we know. OF supplying mate
rails to build up the tissues. But when given in
small doses, oft repeated, especially in the case
of a sick person, it may be said to surpass all
other substances as a species OF easily burning
fuel, from whose combustion the heat required to
generate vital force may be derived. Indirectly
it answers the first Of the aforesaid purposes
for though it may furnish actually no new
building material, it spares the reserve supply of
fat in the body, which would otherwise have to
be burned to give the necessary warmth" The
heating powers of alcohol, OF pure coal, Of cod
liver oil, and Of hydrogen gas are as Z, 8, 9, and
-34.5 respectively. Contrast with this, now a
mere -stimulant (etber). as filling exactly the
place WINCH the early Psychologists assigned to
alcohol The SINE writer says " Ether is a
cardiac stImulant, but az such it contributes no
new force to the heart, all it does being to ex-
cite the heart so az to make it put~fOrth what
force it already has more theoretically. In
stead Of contributing fresh power, it draws away
more rapidly that which is left. IL Titus
NJ COan, IN Harper's Magazine.