The Harrison times., 1912-05-18
ALCOHOL IS S0MATlC POISON
lnsidlousIy Attacks Highest Functions
Of Brain and Mind and over.
throws All the Faculties,

How alcohol destroys mans facul-
ties in an exactly inverse order to that
Of their requirement has been most
graphically depicted by DR., A, d.
Bush, the well known authority on
mental diseases, says Mr. Elliot Flint
in the Vindicator
Doctor Bush declares alcohol to be
somatic (body) poison which acts
upon the tissues destructyely and
produces more or less acute but well
marked psychoses arrangements Of
the nervous system).
Opium" he says, "oyerwhelms the
organism producing collapse; strych.
nine eXhausts the Centers OF respira-
tion; prussic acid paralyzes at once,
but alcohol insidiously attacks the
highest functions Of the brain and
mind and successfully and in inverse
order oyerthrows all the intellectual
faculties acquired by the evolutionary
process, reduces man to the level OF
the brute and finally to the gutter as
a mere animate being
One day Of heavy drinking is ac-
cording to Doctor Bush, sufficient to
overthrow the cumulative work Of
ages and to resolve man into his prim-
tive capacity Of simple nervous re-
sponse.
In the development Of the child the
emotion OF shame Is later acquire
ment than the emotion Of fear, and
hence In the process Of deyolution or
repression the former would be soon.
er lost, Likewise the faculty Of rea'
son, first manifested by the infant in
the fourth month, Is higher faculty
than that Of memory shown In the
second week Of life Con eQuently
the power Of reasoning would be sur.
rendered while memory remained ac.
tive And so with other faculties,
which will be enumerated presently,
the highest being the power Of dis
crimination and Of ser.control
Among the first faculties then which
man loses when he becomes lntoXI.
Gated are his fine self.conUol his dis.
elimination and his sense Of shame,
Hence he raises his voice and talks
inadyisedly, disagreements Of no mo-
ment IrrItato him, be becomes yolu'
bic and INDUCES in hIgh'hown rhe'
toric, In patriotic buncombs, or in
shallow sentimontality In short, al
cohol so weakens his Judgment that
he can no longer distinguish the tri'
vial from the important
Also he grows restless and walks
about gesticulatng wildly, for rs his
power for deliberatve movements is
impaired, 20 his ability for expressive
movements which was an earlier ac'
QuIrement, Is temporarily increased,
As a consequence, besides his gostIeu'
latlons with arms, shoulders and body,
he makes grimacos, w0gs his head
and laughs and cries by turns easily
and exec dIngly Next, this faculty
In rs turn weakening the initiative
faculty appears He now yelps, barks
and crows or initiates ridculously the
speech Of those about him Thon at
last his attention wancs and his move
ments become moro uncertain until
no longer able TO coordinate his mus
cles, he sinks to the floor where he
lies twitchIng, and then still breath
ing ftcrtorously THUS he returns by
the alcohol route to the helplossness
Of the babe
The superficial brIlliNncy OF speech
sometimes displayed By the lntoSl'
Gated comes from the loss Of the high
or faculty OF abstract thought and the
consequent Increase Of constructive
Imagination, with It's still more infer.
lor companion, reminiscent ImagIna.
tIon, but though the speech Of the
drunkard appear brilliant adorned as
It is with metaphor and eStravagant
imagery, his thoughts lack cohorenco
and nationality, and his seeming bril-
lIancy soon abNtos and ends In unln'
telIgible gIbbering