The Falls City tribune., 1911-01-06
GREAT ILLS OF ALCOHOLISM
Professor Strumpel, Leading Authority
on Nervous Diseases, Gives In
terestine Experiences.

Professor Strumpel. a leading au.
thority on nervous diseases in Flu.
rope. has been giving his medical col
leagues some interesting experiences
of his researches In the field of al
coholism as Viewed From the Medical
Standpoint" says a correspondent OF
the Chicago Daily News. In a private
talk before the most noted medical
scientists in Vienna the professor
outlined In an impassively judicial
manner an appalling number and
variety of physical and mental dis
eases resulting from the excessive use
of alcohol. He confined himself
chiefly to the subject of chronic alco-
holism. as acute alcoholism was gen
orally the result of isolated cases of
intoxlcation, the effects of which were
usually only temporary and without
any lasting consequences.
In the beginning he pointed out
that persons who regularly INDUCED
in large quantities of alcohol suffered
from chronic catarrh of the throat,
stomach and intestines, but, serious
as these were. they didn't usually de-
velop further complications and.
therefore, to the doctor. were of less
interest. But it was another thing
altogether when II concerns that or
gan which first introduces alcohol
into the blood-that Is. the liver. As
sufferers from liver diseases are for
the most part a~lcoholists one may
with justice assume an original con
neotion between such diseases and
the use of alcohol, all the more so as
the patients are usually imbibers of
"%schnapsa and spirits and not of beer
or wine, so that Is evident the connec
ton depends largely upon the quantity
and intensity of the alcohol con-
Bumed. Through the liver the alco-
hol enters the great arteries and cir
culates through the whole body. Thus
it begins an insidious attack upon the
vast network of blood vessels, devel-
Dping later into calcination of the
arteries and blood vessels. This dis
ease is frequently found among drunk
ards. But 1t would be scientifically
WHILE W dlAlIDhlC IN Aditiilltloh vi
the arteries solely to alcoholism, as
it may also result from excessive
smoking, extraordinary overwork,
| chronic infections, insufficient nutri-
ton and other causes.
A second symptomatic disease
among drinkers Is the beer heart"
This consists in an extraordinary en-
largement of the heart. with all the
indications of heart disease. Men
with beer hearts almost invariably
die at an age In which healthy men
have scarcely attained full power. BY
incorporate consumption of nourish-
ing matter fat is produced which can
not be got rid of In the same degree.
consequently il accumulates internally
and is responsible for the bloated cor.
pulency OF beer drinkers. Respiratory
diseases and cases Of s%uifocation are
The next consequence.
Professor str1mpel passed oyer the
effects OF alcohol ugou the nervous
system and the horrible mental dis
orders. delirium tremen5 and the like,
as these, he said, had been SO fre-
q|uently and emphatically set forth.
He went on to discuss the effects of
alcohol in disturbing the general fune.
tional workings of the body manifes-
ted in such complaints as govt. dia-
betes and kidney diseases, all which,
he said. we're found largely among
drinkers.
Among the indirect consequences of
alcoholism were an increased sensi-
~tiyeness with a weakened power OF
resistance in the physical system, rem
dering the subject liable to a number
OF rayaging diseases, chief among
which is tuberculosis. 1t had been
nbundantly proved that, whereas in
ordinary cases of Inflammation of the
lungs normal persons recover, to hard
drinkers the disease almost always
proves fatal.