The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-05-04

Every since the day that Paul ad
Tod Timothy to take a little wine
bis stomach's sake" there have
,oon Deople who asserted that alco-
,.,io 1iouors are beneficial in stom-
ob troubles. 1t is remarkable how
.,onv people are more than willing
=, onnlv this advice of Paul to their
,rrr living. who never appear to give
ttoroht to his other words: ''It
is good neither to eat flesh, nor to
5rink wine, nor anything whereby
~, brother stumbleth, or is Offend
~ or is made weak" Nor do these
aon1e stop to consider whether it
pp,ioh+ not be that Paul was recon-
Vending the pure, unfermented
mice Of the grape, which in the
yrosent age is known to be of great
larvice in some forms of stomach
weakness.
# is true that alcohol produces a
foo1ing of relief when taken after a
heavy meal which has caused a sensa-
ion of weight and uneasiness in the
stomach. 1t is therefore for the
+;ma being a seeming aid to the per-
con who eats too much, or who eats
imnroperly cooked food, and the
number of such persons is legion.
The benumbing action of alcohol eX-
Mains this feeling of relief. Any
other narcotic drug will produce a
similar effect.
digestion is one of the most i'm
nortant of all the bodily functions,
for bv it food is transformed into
blood and the activities of the body
are maintained. If alcohol aided this
process there would be good reason
for it's common use, and especially
for its use in the treatment of the
sick.
In the extensive experiments car
ried on of late years to determine the
truth about alcohol much has been
done in the study of it's effects upon
the stomach, and the consensus of
expert opinion is that it binders rath-
er than aids digestion. Parlow of
4 st. Petersburg has possibly studied
the stomach more than any other
person. He says that alcohol causes
an extremely free secretion of gas
trio Juice" This is thought by some
authorities to be the result not only
of it's irritant nature but also of its
narcotic influence upon the nerves
which control the supply of gastric
Juice. Thus the gastric glands are
caused to exhaust themselves pre-
maturely, and if alcohol is resOrted
to daily the end will be degenera-
ton of the secreting structures of the
stomach. This is the condition
found in sufferers from gastric ca
tarrh, a disease common among hard
drinkers. Parlow and other inves-
tigators say that this gastric juice so
freely poured out when alcohol is
swallowed is lacking in pepsin, one
! of the essential principles required
81 for digestion. 1t is foodstuffs alone
4 that stimulate the peptic glands.
Professor Crittenden of Yale Univer-
sity, in experiments upon a dog
found that strong alcohol caused a
flow of gastric fluid, but he observed
that water had the same effect. He
found a great difference in the fluids
thus produced; the gastric juice &C
cOmpanying the drinking of water
was possessed of much more power
full digestive properties than the
gastric juice which followed the
swallowing of alcohol
Some observers state that the
mouths of the glands which secrete
gastric juice become blocked with
dead cell matter, killed by the alec.
hol, and with Shiny mucus which the
stomach pours out to protect it's deli
1 cate lining from the irritant effects
OF the alcohol. This mucus is said
q to resemble that which is discharged
from the nostrils during a heavy
cold.
The well-known case of Alexis St
Martin, whose stomach could be ex-
ahmed through hole left from a
wound, shows that morbid conditions
caused by alcohol may exist for a
considerable time without any sense
of discomfort.
Sir William Roberts, an English
physician, made extensive investiga-
uons in which digestive processes
were conducted in glass tubes. He
used pepsin with foodstuffs and
round the time necessary to reduce
lhe food to a digested condition, with
ana without varying quantities of al
cohollc liquor. With brandy, wine
of gin 10 per cent. of alcohol caused
delay in digestion, the delay increas-
ing when stronger solutions were
used With a 40 per cent. solution
'nere was almost no digestion. DR..