The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-08-20
THE WAY 1T WORKS.
The Effects of Alcoholic Liquors ON the
Human System.

Auo GhectS Oh AIco1O1Ic Liquors on the
Human System.
In reply to correspondent who
wants to know the effect of alcoholic
liquors on the human system the To-
ledo Blade says:
Whether induced by fermented
liquors or by distilled spirits, it is
through the alcohol contained in either
that the effects of intoxication ensue.
The effects of alcohol, in single act
of intoxication, vary according to the
way in which the spirit has been taken.
If swallowed rapidly, in large guam
titles, or in a concentrated form, the
agency is that of q powerful narcotic
poison. The mode or action here is
partly through direct impression by
the alcohol on the nerves of the stom-
ach, and partly by its absorption into
the blood, and its transmission thus to
the brain, which is proved to take
place with great rapidity. The action
of any kind of alcoholic drink, in mod
crate doses, is that of a somewhat rapid
stimulant. The bodily and mental
powers are for a time excited beyond
their ordinary strength, after which
there is a corresponding depression.
Although the alcohol which is intro
duced into the system can not act as a
true food (for in that case it would not
pass through the system unchanged),
it indirectly takes the place of food, by
diminishing the wear and tear of the
system, and thus rendering less food
sufficient. In animals destroyed when
intoxicated, the portions of the brain
and ofthe liver are found to yield, weight
for weight, considerably more alcohol
than blood. The fact of the retention
and accumulation of alcohol in the
nervous centers and liver tends to
throw much light on the special dis
eases of drunkards, where the appe-
tite for ordinary food fails, the diges-
ton is impaired, the sleep is disturbed
and the vigor of frame and capacity
for exertion sink accordingly the
limbs often aching and trembling, and
the heart dropping with miserable
feeling of nervous exhaustion. Even
prior to this the drunkard is often liza
BILE to those minor illusions which end
in the full development of what is
known as the drunkard's delirium, or
delirium tremens, a form of temporary
insanity characterized by state of abb
ject terror, with shaking of the limbs,
the sufferer fancying that he is sur
rounded with monstrous phantasms,
or that he is devoted otherwise to hor-
rors, disasters or crimes. In this state,
if the miserable man does not take his
own life, he is ready, without any
provocation, to take the life of any
one with whom he comes in con-
tact. One effect, and a leading
one, of the customary presence
of alcohol in the blood of the drinker
is to reduce the vitality of that
fluid, so that it tends to sustain only
the lowest forms of nutrition and ami
mallzation, and deposits, in great part,
merely an inert fat within those organs
where it should minister to the growth
and maintenance of delicate con-
struction, destined for uses essential to
life. Thus we have fatty deposits, or
changes of higher structures into fat,
in the heart, the liver and in the
blood-vessels, the coats of the last be-
coming easily ruptured. Hence, liabiI-
ity to diseases of the heart and of the
live r, often followed by dropsies, or to
affd ctions of the other intestines. or to
Alta cks of apoplexy and palsy. If not
cut off abruptly in his career, the life
of Che drunkard becomes one long mall
adv towards its close, the final condi-
tio4 being usually one of imbecility of
min Id and body, yet with throes of suf-
fering to the last. It has been authori-
lively shown that, while the average
exp ectation of future life to the tenn
perate man at fifty may be reckoned
at twenty years, that of the drunkard |
at the same age is only four years.
Again, between the ages of twenty-one |
and thirty, the deaths among drunk |
ards have been found to be more than
five times, and between thirty-one and |
fifty, more than four times what occur
among the general community at the
like ages.