The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-09-28
TEMPERANCE READING.
ALCOHOLIC sTlMuLAnTs.

In our opinion the proofs are album
dant and decisive that heslthy men and
women are most likely to preserve
their health by sustaining from the
use OF alcohol altogether, and that
they can do more, and more continu-
ous.work without alcohol than with 1t.
Varied, repeated and prolonged ex-
perlence, and the testimony of army
medical men prove that troops endure
fatigue and the extremes Of climate
better If alcohol is altogethet alb
stained from. The experience of the
celebrated Moscow campaign showed
this; SO, also. quite recently, the Red
river expedition. During arduous
marches it has always been found that,
without alcohol, the health of the men
is exceptionally good; but as soon as
spirits are allowed disease breaks
out. Modern trainers recognize the
fact that the power of sustained exer-
ton and resistance to fatigue is best
promoted by abstaining from alcohol"
1t is well known that during the sew
eral expeditions toward the North
Poie those men who abstained from al
cohol bore the extreme cold with less
suffering or inconvenience than was
experienced by those who took it. But
the question: What are the effects of
alcohol on the animal system? de-
mands our attention here only in so
far as the brain is concerned; still,
what is known of those effects on the
constituents of the animal organism
generally affords US valuable assist
ance in our endeavors to understand
what is the nature of the influence ex-
erted by alcohol on the brain, and.
therefore. on its functions.
When alcohol is mingled with fresh
arterial blood it darkens its color, so
as to give 1t more or less of the ven
Gus aspect; in cases of fatal poisoning
by alcohol, even the blood in the left
cavities OF the heart, and in the sys-
temic arteries, which, normally, is of
a bright red color. is of dark or yen-
Gus hue. These facts justify the con-
clusion that when alcoholic beverages
are taken the alcohol they contain in
terferes with or impedes the normal
process of oxidation of the blood, and
thus lessons the vitality of the whole
organism to degree corresponding to
the amount of alcohol taken. During
the process of complete intoxication
alcohol seems first to attack the cere-
Drum; then the sensory ganglia, which
it surmounts; and lastly, thegmedella
oblongata, together with the spinal
cord itself. In such case, in which,
as remarked by DR.. Maudsley, leach
phase of an artifcially produced insan-
lty is successfully passed through in
brief space of time, we have the alb
stract and brief chronicle of insanity.
The first effect of alcohol is to produce
an agreeable excitement, lively flow
OF ideas, and a general activity of mind
"a condition not unlike that which
sometimes precedes an attack of mania,
then there follows, as in insanity, the
automatic excitations of ideas which
start up and follow one another with
out order, SO that more or less inco-
herence of thought and speech is ex-
hibited, while, at the same time, pas
sion is easily excited, which takes diff
ferent forms according to the individ-
ual temperament after this stage has
lasted for time, in some longer, in
others shorter, it passes into one of
depression and maudlin melancholy.
as CONFUSION passes into paralysis:
the last scene of all being one of de-
mentia and stupor."
The successive and increasingly
grave consequences just indicated, of
sudden intoxication of different degrees
OF Intensity. are impressive manifes-
tattons of the powerful poisonous in
f1uence of alcohol on the nervous sys-
tenn when the poison is taken in large
doses; and, at the same time, they init
mate, not less distinctly, that If it be
taken habitually, even in compare
lively very small doses, it can scarcely
fail, in the long run, to impair in a
preceptible degree the delicate struct-
ure and supremely important functions
of the brain. Besides ..transitory
MANIA" which may be directly i'm
duced by alcohol and delirum tremens,
a notorious consequence of its excess
sive use, it is one of the most potent
factors in the production OF many
other forms of insanity.
Persons who regard themselves, and
who are regarded by their intimate
friends, as decidedly temperate, who
habitually take moderate amount of
some alcoholic fluid with lunch and
dinner, and, it may be, what is called
might cap,n never imagine that by
doing SO they are imparing the quality
and functional power of their brains;
and it must be admitted that direct and
decisive evidence that they are doing
so is rarely forthcoming, and is not
easily obtained. But though evidence
of the effect of such habits on other
important organs of the body is album
dant; medical literature teens with it.
Irritation of the mucous membrane of
the stomach, with more or less nausea
and persistent dyspepsia, a disordered
state of the liver, various phases of
chronic Inflammation of the kidneys,
liable to develop into that fatal malady,
Bright's disease, and govt with its
abundant progeny of ills too numer-
Gus to mention, are diseases which, I'M
doubtedly, in very large proportion
of cases, are directly traceable to the
habitual but moderate use of alcohol
Now, if the various and grave dis
eases just enumerated are ordinary
and frequently recurring results of the
moderate use of Intoxicating liquors,
and if-as there is reason to believe is
the case-the affinity of alcohol for
nervous tissue is stronger than it is for
any other of the bodily structures, we
can not avoid the conclusion that the
habitual, though moderate, use of in
toxicating liquors exerts an especially