The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-02-07
DAILY USE OF ALCOHOL.
A Doctor Sets Forth the Constant an&
Fearful Damage Done to the
Brain and Whole Body.

advanced pathology teaches the wide
| ly observant physician of the effects
of daily alcoholic rotations on the
human organism the use of alcohol
and its principal compounds, natural
or artificial, as a nabitual daily bev-
erage, would be Stunned as viper
is avoided. Daily rotations of strong
drink persevesed in, except in most
exceptional moderation, will ultimate
ly undermine the strongest constitu-
| tons as insidiOusly as the wiles of
| DeIlah conquered the mighty Sam
son. Tridaily rotations of strong
| drink are stitches in the shroud and
nails in the coffin of the drinker, by
which the garment of life's span is
prematurely finished and the funeral
casket that transports us to the end
of earth is prematurely ready for us.
Alcohol thus INDUCED in and not
physiologically counteracted by an
exceptional organism endowed with
unusual power of resistance makes
morbid changes in the brain. its blood
vessels, its coverings and its sub
stance, as well as in the heart and
other organs of the body.
The blood vessels of the brain are
the first to feel the effects of alcoholic
intemperance. They become enor-
mously and unequally distended, and
! the brain suffers from blood pressure
| symptoms. Locomotion, perception
and ideation are at first embarrassed
>and finally permanently impaired or
destroyed. eve are struck" says the
author previously quoted, ''by the
large number of extremely coarse di-
lated vessels which afford us evidence
also of grave structural change"
Neither does the spinal cord escape,
for throughout its whole extent we
find increased vascularity. The change
in the vessels of the spinal cord is
like that which has long been recog-
nized in chronic Bright's disease, says
Bevan Lewis.
Through the medium of the blood
vascular system, alcohol, by its ready
absorption and permeability, is rap
idly conveyed to the most distant
parts of the organism, establishing
widespread constitutional disturb
ances; while through the peculiar Sc
lective capacity of the nervous CEN
tiers for this poison it thereupon ex-
| ponds its primary and most potent
influence. Although in all cases the
nervous centers bear the chief brunt
of its attack, it by no means follows
that the subjects of chronic alcohol
ism suffer in the same way. In one,
! the gastric (stomach); in a second,
the hepatic Qiver); in a third, the
renal (kidneys) and cardiac (hearD
! symptoms may come to the front;
while in others the nervous centers
| express the special virulence of the
| agent in their direction.
The general effect of alcoholic ex-
cess is depravity of nutrition and inn
| pairment of the nutritional fluids and
| functions: the digestion becomes dis
ordered. the excretory functions be-
come deranged and the nerves ex-
hausted or destroyed. Inc higher CEN
! ters of the brain break down in de-
lirium tremens, insanity, dementia or
| paralysis. or lesser degrees of mental
| impairment - paresis. or lesser
| paralysis, of speech or motion, and
| aphasia, or speech forgetfulness, and
memory failure in general sets in, and
| thus science confirms the truth of all
observation that wine is mocker, and
whosoever is deceived thereby is not
wise. and to him who tarrieth long
| thereat or imbibeth oft it's organic
consequences are physical ruin and
dissolution. This temple of the human
| soul in which a god might dwell and
angels walk about can by the unwis-
dom of the alcoholic inha bitant become
transformed into dwelling place of
| fiends and furies, can by the diseases
ii engenders be made the dwelling
place of misery and woe, of mind and
| body, as the testimony of our advan-
cling civilization, with the human
wrecks in its dreadful wake, distort-
ed, crippled, dethroned and dead, fear
fully prove.
Besides the mental and physical de-
struction revealed by science in the
| pathway of alcohol as its immediate
effects, she points with plying finger
to woes innumerabls in the aftermath
of its devastating violence which the
hand of municipal and individual char
ity gathers into the hospitals for the
insane, the homes for the feeble
minded, the colonies for epileptics, the
almshouses and penitentiaries of the
. land.
She points the transgressor with
warning hand to the mentally and
nervously manned of the children and
children's children of the drunkard
Alas that one should put an enemy
in his mouth not only to steal away
his own brains but to rob an unerring
heritage of that normal mentality
which is or should be the inherent
right of the innocent and unfit poster
ity for the battle of life. The testi-
Aony of science says: Be cautiousl
| beware! For in the last it biteth
like a serpent" 1t poisons the blood,
the heart, the brain and the nerves.
1t distorts, depraves, degenerates the
organism. 1t destroys the delicate
mechanism of the minds display and
pollutes the fountain source of the
souls manifestation. 1t burns out the
machinery of the mind with fire in
, fernal, and where a spark of divinity
miOht dwell IL leaves lint tho o;ndo-s.