Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-12-05
A DOCTORS OPINION.
Significant Utterance Before the Tri-State
Medical Convention Is Held in
Memphis.
A Long Step in the Right Direction

met in its eleventh annual session yes
terday morning at the Gayoso Hote
ordinary. Over hundred physicians
from all parts of the three States rep
resented in the association, Tennessee
Arkansas and Mississippi, were pres
ent.
DR.. w. S. Weissinger, the president
delivered practical address on alco
hol, it's effects on the human system
and its uses in medicine. The doctor
embraced under the one name, alcohol
all those liquors containing this ele
ment. He said after brief INTRODUCED
ry sentences, in substance:
ut is poisonous to every animal, pro
ducing local or general anesthesia, ac
cording to it's mode of employment.
applied to the trunk of nerve il
paralyzes all it's branches, and to the
motion.
Objected into the veins in a concen-
trated state it coagulates the blood,
and diluted it causes intoxication. The
latter effect is observed in all animals
that have taken alcohol into the stom-
ach, and according as the dose is small
or large excitement, stupor or even
death supervenes.
"After death the stomach is more or
less injected, the vessels of the brain
contested and those of the postal sys-
tenn contain alcohol.
1.-The chief difference between hui
mans and animals kept for a consider
able time intoxicated is that with the
latter after short experience, their
instincts teach them to refuse the pois-
on which the intelligence of man does
not prevent his craving, though it de-
stroy him.
Taken by man internally in small
quantities, largely diluted, alcohol eX-
cites a sense of warmth in the stomach
and in a very susceptible individual, an
almost instantaneous glow throughout
the body, with acceleration of pulse
and an'increased force of heart. live
lier flow of ideas, which are according
to the temperament of the individual,
gay or gloomy, and conduct which in
like manner may be mirthful or malev-
olent
In larger doses alcohol induces SINH
lar symptoms for shorter time but
speedily induces state of impaired
perception and motor power which is
succeeded by total insensibility, the
phenomena being those of congestion
of the brain and usually of the whole
capillary system. In this condition
death has frequently occurred after an
excessive draught of distilled liquor.
Habitual excuses tend to increase fat
and diminish muscular tissue and to
render the capillary blood vessels ev-
erywhere turgid, giving to the face a
puffy, purplish look.
1.-The digestion becomes impaired, the
nervous system unsteady, the gait loses
it's elasticity, the hands grow tremu-
lous, the senses dull and the mind tor
pid, the sleep broken and unrefresh-
ing. After unusual excuses delirium
tremens is apt to occur, and habitual
drunkenness sooner or later, in most
cases, induces a state of imbecility
with partial paralysis.
'Taken into the stomach, alcohol
manifests or exerts decidedly unfa-
vorable influence on the course of nor
NAL gastric digestion. Even in small
quantities it tends to impair gastric
functions.
Two groups of children of ten fami-
lies each we're taken as illustrations
One group of fifty-seven was affected
more or less by alcohol. The other of
sixty -one was unaffected or but slight
ly SO. OF the first, twenty had inebri-
ate fathers, the mothers and grandpa
rents being moderate drinkers. Only
As per cent of these had healthy con-
stitutions; thirty-one had inebriated
father and grandparents, but temper
ate mothers and grandmOthers. Only
two of these or little over 6 per cent.
were healthy. OF sixty-one children
belonging to temperate families 81 per
cent were in good health.
"Now that we have shown the effect
of alcohol, both primary and seconda-
ny, to be poisonous to nearly every or
gan of the human body and deleteri-
Gus to every function of animal life
either directly or indirectly" contin-
ued the lecturer, '.the question con
fronts us as medical men, and the re-
sponsibility of meeting which we can
not shirk if we would, can we afford to