The Brookhaven leader., 1886-01-14
TEMPERANCE.
FULLY ESTABLISHED.
The Medical Experience OF = Centur
Proves Alcohol a Poison.


Proves Alcohol q Poison.
Among the many interesting papers
of the forthcoming centennial volume,
lone Hundred Years of Temperance"
soon to be published by the National
Temperance Society, is one of great
value by DR.. N. S. Davis, of Chicago,
the father and founder of the American
Medical Association, entitled "The
Centennial Verdict of Science" from
which we quote the following:
''In tracing the progress of scientific
knowledge concerning the nature and
effects of alcoholic drinks, we find the
following propositions have been clear
ly and fully established, by strictly SCI
entific investigation and experiment,
without the slightest regard to social
or moral considerations on the part of
the investigators:
~. That the active agent in all the
varieties of fermented and distilled
liquids in use is alcohol or ethylic ether,
the properties of which are the same
in all, 1t differing only in quantity in
the different liquids.
"2. That this alcohol belongs, chem
ically, to the same group OF hydro-car-
bons as the different varieties of ether
and chloroform now generally called
anesthetics-in other words, it is ethy-
lie ether, composed of hydrogen, oxy-
gen and carbon-and Can be produced
only by process of fermentation in sub
stances containing saccharine matter.
"3. The alcohol, wherever found,
whether in fermented or distilled
liquids. when taken into the human
stomach is absorbed and enters the
blood unchanged, and circulates with
that fluid through every organ and
structure of the body, until the greater
part Gf not alD of it is eliminated
through the skin, lungs and kidneys.
~. That while In the blood the al
cohol produces all the effects of "A pure
anesthetic and sedative, directly di-
minishing nerve sensibility, muscular
contraction and molecular movements
throughout the system.
at is the dimuniton of nerve sensi-
bility that renders the individual first
light, airy and lu.rious, giving the
popular idea of excitement or stmula-
ton; second, dull, hesitating, or inco-
herent in thought and speech, and un-
steady or staggering in gait, popularly
recognized as incipient intoxication;
and, third, entire Inconsistencies and
muscular paralysis, constituting dead
drunkenness or complete anesthesis.
These successive stages are developed
in direct ratio to the quantity taken.
'5 That the habitual use of alco-
holic liquids, either fermented or dis
titled, by the anesthetic effect of the
alcohol on the nervous system, tends
to create demand for more, and con
sequently moderation in the beginning
very generally leads directly to excess
sooner or later.
sc. That alconol while in the blood
in contact with the structures of the
body, is not appropriated as food, Out
by its strong affinity for the albumin
Gus constituents of the living structures
it retards the natural molecular changes
constituting nutrition and waste, anC
thereby weakens all the processes anC
functions of life. If taken in large
quantities at once, or in smaller quaint
ties frequently repeated, it is capable
VI 50 COHlplctoiy pol aly HluS Vho hoI v
Gus system and arresting molecular
changes as to produce spe, dy death
In small quantities repeated from day
to day it simply lessons nerve sensible
ity, blunts metal and moral perceptions
and slowly but surely prevents the nu'
triton of structures in such a way as tC
make the system more readily yield tc
almost all the causes of disease, and to
specially favor the development OF
either sclerosis or fatty degeneration
in most of the structures of the body,
and especially in the liver, kidneys,
heart and brain.
~. That it can not be taken in
health without injury, and though, in
skillful hands, it may be used to very
limited extent as medicine. it is not
necessary, since in the limited number
of cases or diseased conditions in which
it could be used with benefit there are
other agents still more beneficial that
can be substituted for it. Irish World.
-