Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-01
Physiology Boiled Down.

1t may be promised that all physical
influences, whether for good or evil,
determine eventually on the nervous
of our structure. Mar
cotics attack directly. Stimulants in
through the circulation. AL
cohol is stimulant, and pushed to ex-
cess is an intoxicant, and yet no one
has yet settled where stimulation ends
and intoxicatlon begins. 1t is not a
difference in kind, but only in degree.
Cocculus Indicus, or fish berry, is
narcotic and also an intoxicant. So it
appears that drunkenness is matter
of the nervous system, attacked either
directly by narcotic or indirectly
through the circulation by stimulant.
The former blunts and depresses the
nervous system, the latter excites the
circulation. The result in both cases
is breaking up of the balance be-
tween the two systems.
We will first discuss Alcohol and
show its effects. A very interesting
article might be written showing how
defiant gas, which is the basis of alco-
hol, by breaking the adjustment of the
elementary principles of the blood
makes it incapable of nourishing the
brain. But we must enter our subject
farther ahead. Alcohol is incompati-
BILE with the whole human organiza-
ton. 1t does not contain one particle
of nourishment because it is not digest
ed by the gastric juices. If taken into
the system the circulating medium is
blood and alcohol. The oxygenation
of the blood in the lungs brings the al
cohol to the front, and its first effect is
on the left ventricle of the heart by
stimulation. Every foreign substance
in the blood is poison, and so the
presence of alcohol on the brain de-
ranges its functions and the result is
temporary insanity.
But as action and reaction are always
equal and opposite, so as soon as slim
ulatiOn has run its course the circula-
ton falls as far below the normal
standard as it had been raised above it,,
and condition which is practically
narcotism results. In this way see
saw arrangement is set up and both
the nervous and circulating systems
are radically impaired. The result of
this is general breaking down of the
system indica ted by sieenlossness. heal
ache, dizziness, muscular trembling,
epilepsy, palsy, insanity.
But alcohol gives rise to another
class of difficulties. Owing to its be-
ing incompatible with the human sys-
tenn the capillaries do not touch it ex-
cept under the protest. They remain
closed against it as far as possible. The
result of this is hardening of the It's
sue that lines all the hollow organs. of
the body, so that both those vessels
which remove the worn out material
from the organ and those that bring
nourishment are hindered in their
work.
AS those organs which handle the
most blood have to deal with the most
alcohol, the heart necessarily comes
first, especially the left ventr1cle. Then
the difficulty strikes the brain; then
the stomach and liver become involv-
ed. Chronic inflammation of the heart
and liver, followed often by fatty de-
generations of those organs and in the
stomach-we call it dyspepsia. Both
cardiac and renal dropsy are the train
of Alcohol. 1t has been alleged that it
produces Bright's Disease. There is
room there. however, for question.
Is Bright's Disease the result of Alec
holic or of stimulating drugs of which
Alcohol is only the vehicle? The
weight of evidence is in favor of the
latter theory. Alcohol is product of
fermentation. DistilIation only d.
vests it of its surroundings. In the
long ago an idea arose that all things
contained gold, and that if they were
dissolved the gold would be precipi-
tated. In the search after a universal
solvent an Arabian monk fermented
barley and evolved a substance which
he called Al Kohol or the sublimated
or distilled. AS it took apart all the
substances on which he tried it, he an
nounced the discovery of the universal
solvent. In the galvanic current ev-
cry known substance melts or VOLATILE
es, vet alcohol is ahead, for although
there are some materials which resist
it's power while they yield to galvan-
ism, vet alcohol has subjects which
galvanism cannot reach. Alcohol can
resolve the mind back to Chaos and
dissolve the connection between q man
and his health, happiness, wealth,
reputation, usefulness, wife, children,
home, heaven, and God.
The next article will treat of Narcot-
les. THOMAS CALLAHAN.