New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-01-11

"a It a peace congress held at Frank
fort, Germany, the inn-keepers found
4 it necessary to increase the price of
board of the strangers attending the
congress, the majority Of whom We're
1 teetotalers, for the reason that their ap-
! petites required an amount of solid food
in excess of that usually consumed by
their own nationality, who are habitual
drinkers Of beer containing appreciable
amounts Of alcohol.
It is owing to the effects OF alcohol as
a paratriptic that the use Of alcoholics
slightly diminishes the amount Of car
bonic acid exhaled, as first stated by
Perrin (S1D, and subsequently con-
frmed by other investigators. By a
species of logical legerdemain which
has become somewhat fashionable in
certain quarters. this fact is frequently
employed to 'sprove", in the juggler's
sense Of the term, that all alcohol pass
es through the system unchanged. We
might as well claim that the quiet of
sound sleep is not the best time for the
assimilation of food because the dark
ness of night or the closing of the eyes
has paratriptic effect; for Otto Won
Platten and others have shown that the
absence of light diminishes tissue waste
and with it the amount of carbonic acid
exhaled.
| IA. STRUCTURAL CHANGES BY AL
CoHoL- = Some substances, as lime,
| sulpRuric acid and carbolic acid, have
so strong an attraction for water that.
if brought in contact with the tissues of
an organized body, these will be de-
stroyed. The affinity of ethyl alcohol
| for water is far less intense. A strong
alcoholic does notdecompose the tissues
with which it is brought in contact, but
it draws the free water from them. The
| frequent use of strong alcoholic drinks
| thus tends to harden the mucous men,
| brane that lines the mouth. gullet and
stomach. The effect varies with the de-
gree of dilution, the amount of alcohol
introduced and the degree in which the
membranes are exposed to the action OF
| | the liquid. Other Things being equal,
this effect is the most injurious when the
stomach is empty. If taken at all, al
coholic drinks should not be taken inn
mediately before a meal, but after
it. .a
The withdrawal of free water from
the alimentary canal produces the SEN
sation of thirst. Alcohol as such never
slakes thirst, put creates it. From this
we cannot infer, however, that all alco-
holic drinks create thirst. The edition
of the Eclectic Guide to Health pub
lisheda few years ago, con tained the
following concise statement relative to
this point: 1.-The large amount Of water
in some drinks, with the small portion
of alcohol they centain enables them to
[saliay thirst such is the action of beer.
Itis the water, however, and not the
alcohol, that gratifies the thirst 1t
is needless to say that the weaker alco-
holic drinks have ceased to quench
thirst Since the Eclectic Guide to Health
bears upon it's title-page the proud in
scription, I'm accordance with tic re-
quirements of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union" Persons with
more respect for truth than for require
ments still hold that the weaker alco-
holics allay thirst if introduced gradu-
ally and in sucn small quantities as to
prevent the accumulation of any con-
siderable amount of alcohol in the sys-
tenn. -.
! By continually depriving the walls of
the stomach of their free water, the
daily use of strong alcoholic drinks
gradually congresses and hardens the
gastric glands. In old topers, the
gastric glands often appear as .'hard,
projecting granules," and are entirely
unfit for secreting the gastric juice.
Small doses of ethyl alcohol, we'll di-
luted and gradually introduced into the
system, disappear in the same. Ii in
troduced in large and undivided doses,
most Of the alcohol will be present in
the blood for a considerable time before
the system has completed it's oxidation.
Habitual drinkers who frequently i'm
bibe larger quantities, may thus have
{their blood constantly charged with al
cohol. From the limited number of
observations on reco ord, it appears that
the constant presence of alcohol in the
blood more or less changes the form
and dfminishes the size (and numberp)
| of the red corpuscles. This inference,
though not as yet well enough estab-
lished 10 be given as a scientific fact.
would explain in a satisfactory manner
| the paratriptic effects Of alcohol and the
consequent diminution Of the quantity
of carEonic acid exhaled. The alleged
effect Of alcohol upon the form and size
OF the red corpuscles is probably due,
in part to the affinity of alcohol for
water.
! Afteralcohol has been introduced in
to the somach. it israpidly absorbed
by the blood. .nThe time required for
| the blo,d to circulate over the body and
return sgain to the heart is not more
thanfr,m twenty-five to thirty seconds" !"
The alohol in the blood is thus dis.
tributel over the entire system in an
exceedingly short time. It is everywhere
brough in contact with the nerve-ends,
which asdepriVes5 ff portion Of their
free wster. Fl fes abitual use of alco-
holics, therefore, ends to harden the
a. i 5 80 Il IL