The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-03-02
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
10 ALCOHOL A sTlMULANT9

Idmlllar, says Dr. Connolly OF HarV-
ard medical school, Boston "The best
bred man, indulging in wine with what
is considered permissible moderation,
no more escapes the minor physical
changes induced by it, than does it's
meaner slave fail of it's sense-destroy-
ing power when he drinks until he
remembers his misery no more.'"
One need be skilled neither in psyche
logy nor in pharmacology to note
these effects of alcohol. I'm the ma
jority of cases the first effects elected
are feelings of good-fellowship, we'll
being and liveliness, with increased
confidence in the mental and physical
| powers. This is often followed by
some excitement, marked by loquac-
.ity, laughter and exaggerated move
ments of all kinds. The face is
flushed, the eyes bright, and the pulse
and respiration are accelerated; the
individual may become more brilliant
in conversation, more witty, more So
cfal, more generous in sentiment
Not Stimulation But Paralysis.
But when these effects are more
closely investigated it becomes appar-
ent that not all of the cerebral func-
lions are facilitated by alcohol. We
notice that while the individual is
more witty, he is not so careful in
his statements and has not that con-
sideration for his position and that of
others which he ordinarily manifests.
He loses his self-restraint and there
by often proves more entertaining
and social than in ordinary life, but he
also loses his sense of responsibility
and his power of discriminating be-
tween the trivial and the important,
or between the merely plausible and
the actually proved. His feeling of
increased physical power proves on
careful tests to be erroneous; his in
creased mental energy proves illu-
sorry. Over and over again it has
been shown that the supposed effect
of alcohol in increasing the ability to
do work and increasing the resistance
to fatigue, is really contrary to prac-
f tical experience.
To adapt to present purposes
mechanical smile, which I am rather
fond of using, the brain may be COM
pared to the engine of an automobile
, fitted with powerful brakes. Suppose
the car proceeding carefully down an
incline. An increase in it's rate of
speed may be due either to an in
creased power of the engine (stimu-
lation), or to the brakes being raised,
and it may be very difficult for an
onlooker to determine which is the
true explanation. The apparent evil
dences of increased mental activity
under alcohol, in whatever dose, have
proved one and all illusory when
| carefully investigated. The closer
: one approaches to the engine, the
q more evident it becomes that what
appeared to be the result of increased
!, power Is really the effect of the re-
i moval of the brakes, of the loosening
of the associations which ordinarily
! control our actions and feelings.
Q Alcohol a True Narcotic.
+ This is why alcohol is, by common
e consent of pharmacologists, classed
8 not with the stimulants, because it is
not stimulant, but with narcotics,
drugs like ether, cholorform, choral,
~ sulphonal, to the action of which it Is
in it's action most closely allied. This
view of alcohol, first given promin-
ence by Schmiedeberg, and supported
by Krapelin, Bunge, Filehene, and
many others, has received the adher-
ence of practically all the workers in
e this field of knowledge
e In what l have so far said, and in
l. the experiments to which l have
n referred, the amount of alcohol taken
{ was small, in no case sufficient to in
L duce any of the more evident symp'
toms of intoxication. Of course,
L larger doses of alcohol than those
o which we have been considering are
It well known to lead to uncertainty and
l. incoordination of the movement,
e shown in difficult and stammering
speech and staggering gait, followed
e by a torpid slumber. Often nausea
e and vomiting set in, although these
n are entirely absent in some cases.
o On awakening from slumber very
y great depression is generally suffered,
Ii together with nausea and vomiting
}. and want of appetite, which may last
9 for several days.
y Very large quantities of alcohol
Il lead to deep torpid sleep which
= eventually passes into total uncon
e seriousness resembling the condition
g in chloroform anaesthesia, the respi
. ration becomes stertorous and slow
g and the face. which has hitherto been
. flushed, becomes pale and cyanotic
> the patient presenting an appearance
= i'm which the most enthusiastic adher
= ent Of the stimulation" theory would
. find 1t hard indeed to see any evi
. dence of stimulation.
The foundation of domestic happi