The Brookhaven leader., 1883-10-11
Temperance.
Alcohol and Digestion.

It has long been claimed-by GER
tain class that alcoholic preparations
aid digestion, by stimulating the diges-
tive organs, thus promoting strength
and health. This has been denied on
general principles, those relating TO the
well-known law of the reaction, the
necessary debility following undue ex-
citement, and the antiseptic character
of alcohol. etc. The fact that the di-
gestive fluids and solvents are so largely
composed of watcr-so unlike alcohol
in all its properties ies-inferentially proves
that the latter can not but impair di-
gestivc power. The saliva contains of
water, 80 per cent; gastric juice. 81;
paDcreatic juice, 80; bile, 81; while the
blood contains 70, and even the bones
10 per cent. Now, it is presumable
that these fluids are just what they
ought to be to digest our food in the
best possible manner, with no active
stimulants, no exciting power, simply
effecting the changes in the necessary
time, in a manner to do the least
possible harm to the system. The base
water-is one of the simplest and most
harmless of substances, the marked OPP
posite of alcohol. We may reasonably
infer, therefore, that any deviation from
this natural simplicity would derange
the process. II, for example, we should
change the per cent of water in the
saliva, from SO to 10, supplying the de-
become so changed as to render diges-
tion imperfect, if not impssible.
A series of experiments have been
made by DR.. Buchner Germany in the
matter of artificial digestion, from which
we MAJ Judge of the effects of alcohol
in the true digestion. He found that
when it is added so rs to form twenty
per cent. of the digestive fluid it slows
artificial digestion. In larger proper
tions it completely arrests it. Beer un-
diluted completely stops artificial di-
gestion, and diluted shows the process.
Red and sweet wines gave similar
action, while white wines, even when
undiluted, only slow digestion. Both
beer and wines hinder digestion in the
stomach, even in small quantities.
When the processes of absorption and
secretion are already disturbed, wine
and beer may completely arrest diges-
ton. The above testimony-deduced
from extensive eXperiments-bu cor
roborates the statements of DIR. Beau
mont, who had the best possible means
of Judging of the action of the digcs-
tive solvents and the effects of alcohol
on the coats of the stomach. On ex-
amining St. Martins stomach after he
had been indulging in the free use of
ardent spirits for few days, DIR. b.
found "its mucous surface covered
with inllammatory and ulcerOus
patches, the secretions vitiated, the
gastric juice diminished in quantity,
viscid and unhealthy, although he COM
planned of nothing, not even of an i'm
paired appetite" Two days later, he
says, 1.-The inner membrane of the
stomach was unusually morbid. the in
tlammatory appearance more extensive,
the spots more livid than usual, from
the surface eXuded small drops of blood,
the patches were larger, the mucous
membrane thicker, and the gastric Sc
cretions more vitiated." If such effects
follow the use of ardent spirits for only
few days, and that by man of unu-
sual natural health and vigor, we need
not be surprised, as stated by DR..
COmbe, that general intemperance will
explain at once the miserable digestion
and impaired appetite of the habitual
drunkard; and it would be well for those
in danger of becoming the victims of
the habit, were they early impressed
with some of these striking and impor-
tant truths. If these are the uniform
effects, the legitimate results of the use
of alcohol, l am unable to see how it
is possible for the sick, those who have
impaired digestion, to use any of the
alcoholic beverages, with advantage, as
''aids to digestion. - Golden RuLe.