The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1912-06-20

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ALCOHOL is soMATlc POISON
InsidiousIy Attacks Highest Functions
Of Brain and Mind and Over.
throws All the Faculties.

HOW alcOnOl destroys q mans 1ocUl.
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 indicator.
Doctor Bush declares alcohol to be
a somatic (body) poison which acts
upon the tissues destructively and
produces more or less acute but we'll
marked p%sychoses arrangements of
the nervous SYSTEM.
Opium" he says, "overwhelms the
organism producing collapse; strych.
nine exhausts the centers Of respira-
ton; prussic acid paralyzes at once,
but alcohol insidiously attacks the
highest functions of the brain and
mind and successfully and In inverse
order overthrows 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, &C
cording to Doctor Bush, sufficient to
overthrow the cumulative work of
ages and to resolve man into his prim-
tive capacity Of simple re-
Spouse.
In the development of the child the
emotion Of shame Is a later acquire
ment than the emotion Of fear, and
hence in the process Of d%evolution or
repression the former would be soon-
err lost. Likewise the faculty of ca
son first manifested by the infant in
the fourth month, is a higher faculty
than that Of memory shown In the
second week of life. Consequently
the power of reasoning would be sur
rendered while memory remained &C
tive. And so with other faculties.
which will be enumerated presently,
the highest being the power of dis.
elimination and of s%elf-control.
Among the first faculties then which
a man loses when he becomes intoxi-
Gated are his fine s%elf-control, his dis
elimination and his n of shame.
Hence he raises his voice and talks
inadvisedly, disagreements Of no mo-
ment irritate him, he becomes volu.
BILE and INDUCES in high-flown rhe.
toric, in patriotic buncombs,, or In
shallow sentimentality. 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 g%esticulating wildly. for, as his
power for deliberative movements Is
impaired, so his ability for expressive
movements which was an earlier ac-
quirement, is temporarily increased.
AS a consequence, besides his gesticu-
lations with arms, shoulders and body.
he makes grimaces, wags his head
and laughs and cries by turns easily
and exceedingly. Next, this faculty
in its turn weakening. the initiative
faculty appears. He now yelps, barks
and crows or initiates rfdiculously the
speech of those about him. Then at
last his attention wanes and his move
ments become more uncertain until
no longer able to coordinate his mus
cles, he sinks to the floor, where he
lies twitching, and then still breath
ing stertorously. Thus he returns by
the alcohol route to the helplessness
of the babe.
The superficial bripiancy of speech
sometimes displayed by the intoxi-
Gated comes from the loss of the high
er faculty of abstract thought and the
consequent increase Of constructive
imagination. with its still more. infer.
Tor companion, reminiscent magma
ton. But though the speech of the
drunkard appear brilliant, adorned as
it is with metaphor and e~xtravagant
imagery, his thoughts lack Conference
and nationality. and his seeming bril-
liancy soon abates and ends in unin-
telligible %gibbering.