The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1895-06-29
WHAT WHISKY DOES.
ACTIONS OF DRUNKARO ARE THOSE
OF A MANIAC.

The Course and Symptoms of InebrietJ
Resemble the Progress of Insanity-Hoy
Alcohol Effects the Nerves-Paralysis and
Death.
Alcoholic intoxication is insanity.
The higher cerebral nerve centers arc
rendered inco-ordinate. The drunken
man is a maniac and quite frequently,
IN the excitable stage, requires re
straint. When young man drinks wine
at a party or cOnviyially, he becomes
excited, hilarious, more or less CON
fused, inco-Ordinate, then stupid, and
then goes off into q cOmatOSe sleep until
the poison is consumed, when he is re-
stored once more to sanity.
Viewed entirely from the standpoint
of physical pathology, without q knowl-
edge Of the cause, this debauch can only
be called an attack of insanity. Now,
it viii be noted that the course and
symptoms Of drunken TT resemble the
whole course and progress of insanity.
In the first stage is elevation" of the
higher cerebral centers-eXaltatiOn Of
self and visions of grandeur. The man
Is conscious Of everything except that
he is drunk. & few more drinks, and
then the higher centers take Oh cOnfu-
sion, the lower center8 become para
lyzel, speech is thickencd, the gait is
staggering, the man reels, mutters,
grows stupid and relapses into coma and
general paralysis and is dead drunk
This is the typical course Of the disease
known rs general paralysis. In the first
stage If this disease there is mental
If.4fiCI fba1l 1y,oD+11 T,a,,-o--50I, thor,
the low Centers become involved, and
finally the scene ends with coma and
general paralysis.
In debauch alcohol first attacks the
higher nerve centers-cerebrum and GER
ebellam. The reason is because these
centers have less resistance than the
lower to alcohol. The lower centers arc
involved later and are affected least.
Bnt cases are numerous in which the
lower centerS are poisoned with fatal
effects. The debauchee sinks into deep
coma; the poisoning fatally involves
and paralyzes the lower nerve centers,
which causes the heart and respiration
to fail. and the coma fades away into
obliTion-the inebriate is dead.
Nerve cells are very impressionable.
They have the power of becoming edu-
Gated. Repeated Impressions made upon
them from any source Will cause this
training or conduct CT mode Of action
or education. When the brain cells are
educated, they perform their functions
according to the form and type of this
training. They act as they are taught to
act
Now all inebriety is periodical, though
many cases may be constant
or continuous, but in every case this
periOdicity may be found, though it va
ries from part of day to part of dec
ade Ill duration. The real reason of this
is because the nerve cells were taught to
demand and resist alcohol in this peri
Odical manner. No man drinks just as
much every hour. He leaves intervals
between drinks and between debauches.
When he has established a carving for
liquor, he will automatically initiate
the method of drinking as it was first
indulged.
But repeated debauches educate the
cells into inebriety. The mental mani
of inebriety are those of in
sanity. I consider an inebriate an insane
person. | regard his insanity as the cir
,ular variety and will give my reasons
KirchhOff says circular insanity is a
periodical attack of mania, succeeded
oy an interval of melancholy or even
interval of apparent sanity.
The periodical inebriate fills these in
locations. He is periodically maniac.
His debauches are followed by an in
erval of apparent freedom from liquor
md mania. I do not say that all in
briates should be confined in an asy-
um, but certainly do say that were
hey not known to be drinking men
heir mental manifestations and conduct
would convict all of them of insanity
a the courts, and they would be sent to
sylums. -Dr. Kelley in Arena.