The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-03-14
WORK OF ALCOHOL.
Vivid Picture of the Terrible Ravages 1t
Makes ON the Human sYstem.

Vivid Picture of the Terrible Ravages 1t
Makes on the Human System.
Gin the dead house of the Philadel-
phia hospital two hundred and fifty
bodies were recently dissected and
their contents analyzed. Not quite /
per cent had normal kidneys. In 60
per cent. the stomach was nAamed or
degenerated. In 90 per cent. the brain
was cOngested or diseased with dropsy,
and in 80 per cent. the liver had under
gone fatty degeneration. What iuflu-
ences had been at work producing such
disorders? What had been done to
these bodies during life? They had
been used as bottles for the storage of
alcohol. Liquors had been poured into
them day after day for months and
years. Now it was whisky, now it was
brandy, now it was gin; now wine,
now beer. Few suspected it, but all
the time the brain, liver, stomach and
Kidneys were becoming vitiated and
death was induced.
NO one needs to be told that the
use of ardent spirits has a peculiar eff
feet upon the circulation. Few, how
ever, who take it, are aware of the ex-
tent of the arrangement | shall let
Joseph Cook, the famous Boston lee
tuIer, tell of the results OF his investi-
cations Alcohol, he reminds us. has
such affinity for water that it
absorbs the fluid elements in the
albumen, and leaves it leathery
and hard. Pour alcohol on the white
OF an egg-what happens? 1t gradual
Iy thickens, and at length you can
take it out with your fingers or on the
end of a rod. The alcohol has drained
it of its water, leaving only 4 toug h CO.
agulated mass. The same process is
carried on inside of the body, upon the
Introduction of alcohol in any large
quantity. The albuminous or glue
like substances are hardened. And
tLen what? That paralyzes the small
nerves, producing artcrial relaxation
and deranging the circulation. Then
the heart begins to beat with I'M
usual rapidity, then the face is flushed
with that rcdd, ming which is not, as
some think, IL sign of health, but an
indication of disease. The permanent
Aush on the face of a drunIard indi-
Va a pei ~ VI TIC D4OOu
vessels.
The liver, the stomach, the kid
2cys, the circulation and the heart,
are all injuriously affected by the use
of alcohol
Joseph Cook has also something to
say of its disastrous effects upon the
blood. 1t Injuries it by changing the
color of the chemical composition of its
corpuscleS. The red disks are distorted
in shape By its action and under the
microscope one can see SprOut pro-
tracing itself from the side of the cor
puscle. DR.. Hartman, an expert, has
been repeatedly called before juries.
and says that certain peculiar Sprout
is plainly visible hanging from the
corpuscle. and he never saw it save in
the veins of confirmed drunlsard. 1t
has also been discovered that the ply
steal effects of alcoholism i'll the blood
closely resemble those of leprosy.
The action of alcoholism on the
brain should also be accentuated
Every physician knows that when the
brain substance is placed in alcohol it
loses its water and becomes more firm
nerve matter is robbed Of its mobility,
it must lose its power to throw off the
waste matter which comes its way. As
it hardens it abSorbs what it should re-
ject, and the result is disease and
death.
Alcohol, too, has local affinity for
the brain. Lead fastcns first upon the
muscles of the wrist, producing what
is known among painters as a ''.rist-
drop Iodine seizes upon the Emphatic
glands, mercury upon the salivary
glands and mouth oil of tobacco para
Ives the heart. The local affinity of
alcohol, like that Of opium, prussic
acid, belladonna, is for the brain.
That is the place it first affects, to
which it rushes at once There is
ease on record in which the brain
liquid of man who died in intoxica-
ton, on being put into spoon over