The Wilmingtonian., 1884-11-01
UUNTINUED FKUM LAsTIWEEkJ.
Scientific Bases the Temperance Ref
OrInation.

Scientific Bases % the Temperance Ref
ormation.
BY DIR. BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON.
WHAT ARE THE EVILS WHICH STAND OUT
BEY9NDQUEsTIoN?
The first evil is a aefinite calendar of dis
ease largely pecsfSr ttvtre human family,
and incident to the esfsum ption OF alcohol.
Touching this calendar of disease, it is
well to note the words | have inst used,
peculiar to tie human family In the lower
forms of life, in our domestic animals, some
of the states of disease incidental to man do
not exist. Among these animals delrium
tremens has no place; the peculiar disease of
the liver called commonly gin drinkers
liver has no place; the various forms of
Bright's disease of the kidney are excep.
tionally present. Yet it is certain, from my
own experimental observations, that all
these diseases can be induced in these lower
animals by training them to the use of alco-
hol, and that other diseases, including
mama a pota, may be added to the list of
inducible maladies
But the calendar Of human diseases from
aleohol-m3rbi dlcOlOlict-is so large, it
makes distinctive study of itself, and now
that the eyes of physicians are opened to
recognize the truth, the study is expanding.
When |, twenty years ago, gave the name
of alcoholic phthisis to one particular class
of consumption of the lungs induced by
alcohol, the term was considered as an inno-
vation, and was for time resen-ed. The
late DIR. Francis SibsOn, Senior Physician to
St. Mary's Hospital in London, defended me
in the use Of the expression. Dir. Anstie
followed, and in time the word ''alcoholic. g"
as an adjectval distinction for denoting
origin of various affections, has come into
wide acception. Thus we are now accus-
toned to hear not only Of alcoholic phthisis
but of alcoholismus alcoholic eclampsia or
convulsion, alcoholic delirium, alcoholic
epilepsy, alcoholic cinhosis, alcoholic paral-
ysis, alcoholic renal disease alcoholic car
diac disease, alcoholic cerebral disease, alco-
holic fatty degenerative change; and, latest,
from the pens of one or two of our ablest
physicians, of an alcoholic dolor or pain in
| Iue CAIlGlulhleS, WHICH Has nlInertO passed
as an underlined detection.
Inotice, alsoS Nw~ TACT very generally
{ admitted among advanced medical scholars,
that the courses Of acute and chronic dis
eases, due pr marily to other causes than
alcohol, are much intensified, in respect to
danger, among those Who even slightly
indulge in spirituous beverages. This great
clinical truth is not new in medicine. It
was declared with impressive emphasis by
one OF the shrewdest practcing surgeons
who ever lived, Sir Ashley Patson Cooper.
1t was re-afiirmed by another surgeon
scarcely less observant and able, the late
MIR. Higginbottom, of Nottingham. l have
dared in these days to follow these distin-
guished men in their teaching, but | have
said nothing that could be more firmly said
than by two who have followed me, Profess
sor Flint, of New York, and Professor
Alonzo Palmer, of the University of Mich
igan.
Professor Flint observes: "The toxical
condition called alcoholism enters directly
into the constitution Of many affections such
as cirrhoss of the liver, fatty liver, epilepsy,
muscular tremors, gastritis, pyrosis, and
various dyspeptic disorders. Indirectly,
alcoholism favors the production of nearly
all diseases by lessening the power of resist
ing their causes, while it contributes to their
fatality by impairing the ability to tolerate
or overcome them
Professor Palmer, in his recent work on
the practice of Medicine" F." the most truly
practical volumes that have appeared on the
subject since Watson's famous lectures,
remarks upon alcOhol:-
"AbsOrbed it has special attration for
the nervous tissues, for the brain, and also
though to a less extent, for the liver. 1t
produces more or less paralysis of the vase.
motor nerves; it changes the relation Of the
blood aud tissues, it diminishes oxidation, it
causes congestion of the liver, the kidneys,
the lungs, aud the brain. It generally
increases the sugar in the liver and the
water secreted in the kidneys It increases
the tendency to the production of abnormal
fat in the tissues generally, ,and tends to pro
duce fatty degeneration. Above all, it acts
chemically upon the soft nervous tissue.
''It causes, in its continued use, the
proper nerve elements to waste, serons
fluid to be effused; it induces in the nervous
matter the production of granular fat and
it causes development Of the connective
fibrous tissue. All parts of the body under
its poisonous influence have lower vital
ity.
Such is one of the latest deductions of
science on the subject of the action Of alco-
hol on the living organization. l am pre-
pared to hear it said that the references
made above do not refer to the moderate
use of alcohol. Professor Palmer wisely
iorestalls this argument by adding that no
one has yet been able to define the limits of
moderation. That is true. What would be
moderate use in one would produce some of
these changes in another, and in all there
would be injury.
The evidence of science is decisive as to
certain local effects of alcohol on the organ |
ism, and especially on the liver, the brain,
and the heart To what extent the heart
suffers, even from so-called moderate doses
of alcohol, has been taught of late years
with what amounts nearly to mathematical
accuracy BY the Sphyguograph the aleo-
holic heart may be made to pulse out and
write out it's own history, -Four ounces of
alcohol per day make the heart of an adult