The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-01-23

WHY MEN GET DRUNK.
Inherent Tendency and Not the Easy
Obtaining of Liquor Is the Cause.


Inherent Tendency and Not the Easy
Obtaining of Liquor Is the Cause.
New York sun.
IntoxieatioD depends as much on mans
nerves, stomach, ability. constitution and
head as it does on the amount Of liquor he
has been drinking. The difference between
a man who has made glutton OF himself
eating and the man who. is intoxicated Is
that one has taken too much food while the
,other has taken too much liquor. Intoxica-
ton may thus be defiued to be gluttony ID
liquor.
These are facts which the doctors have
recognized for some time, but which few
persons, especially few prohbitionists or
temperance people, admit to themselves.
The football game at the Manhattan Field
on Thanksgiving day taught great many
people that The effects of liquor are not alb
solute, but relative, Ike the effects of mince
pie or plum pudding. Any man who eats
too much plum pudding will suffer for 1t.
and IL he takes great deal 1T may Kill him.
The effect OF IN absolute number oil pieces
depends on the amount OF exercise he has
been taking and takes aiterward, what ne
eats and drinks with the plum pudding. and
what kind OF a stomach, constitution and
head he has. Five portions of plum Dud-
ding will have more injurious effect on
uDOSb iDOu bnhu nfO VI Nuiohg'
AS people who go to any outdoor sport or
who exercise out Of doors know, much
greater amount of liquor may bedrank under
such conditions than in warm room. In
the same way that day laborer can eat
more iBdgestible food than a lawyer or
bankteller, so he can drink more liquor,
because the active physical work disposes
of the liquor as II does of the lo0d.
The cures Of intoxication and for
drunkards which used to be attempted
failed because they did not recognize that
TO become drunkard man must have
certain sort OF constitution and certain
soil from which drunkard can de-
velOp. There are some men who
never could be made druBkards, just as
there are men who dislike to smoke and
men who are unable TO learn TO like olives
To the man whose system is unused TO
smoking, cigar has sickening effect, and.
il the TepugnaGce of his system TO nicotine
is strong enough, any number of attempts
to smoke will not make an 1nyeterate
smoker of him. So it is with LIQUOR. There
are men W no take 10 drinking as duck
takes to water. while there are other men
who could never DC made into drunkards
because after drink or TWO they have 10
force themselves 10 take liquor, as q man
who has already had enough to eat has to
force himself il be is going TO eat more.
Chs truth is the foundation of the only
successful cures for drunkenness. a man
may keep himself from drinking by will
power. just as man may stop smoking by
will power. Hi may continue this so long
that his system rea6justs itself TO he
changed conditions, and in time the taste
Of liquor or tobacco may become abhorrent
10 it, But in most cases the abstinence,
which comes only by the use of the Will
power breaks down utterly the moment the
will power is weakened, and the collapse is
| all the greater Tor the length of time the
desire has been damned mp. II is like a
reservoir constructed by damming a flowing
stream. IL there are no siuices or waste
| weir. the dam has 10 be built higher ana
| higher to hold back the flow. With porous
| soil and strong sun the water may be evap-
| Grated and soaked into the ground as fast
as the additions are made by the flow of
the stream, but in most cases such dam
would give way.
The specialists who most successfully
cure inebriates recognize these facts and
act on them. Their effort is TO alter the
tendencies OF the system so that 1t shall he
repugnant to liquor instead of attracted by
il. 1t is a saying among doctors that aman
who has had delirium tremens three times
is as good as dead, because the vital force
and will power are almost all gone. In
other words, there is not enough left of him
to reconstruct Such doctors recognize
drunkenness as a disease which must be
treated as a disease governed only slightly
by volition. which 10 an extent can deter
mine the periods and occasions. but nothing