The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-04-18
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
THE PoPE's PHYSICIAN ON
ALCOHOL.

At the International Congress
Against Drunkenness, held in Milan
last autumn, the address that aroused
most interest was that of Prof. Ettore
Marchiafava, physician to His Holt
ness Pope Plus x. Prof. Marchiafava
has just been made Senator of the
Kingdom of Italy. The address dealt
with the effects that alcohol has upon
the human body. We subjoin some
extracts:
Alcohol is substance that receives
a special treatment from the stomach,
for, while water must pass out from
it to be absorbed, alcohol is quickly
absorbed by the blood vessels and
lymphatics of the stomach and passes
rapidly into the blood.
1t is interesting to note: That alco-
hol circulates unaltered in the blood
for several hours after it's ingestion;
that after five or six hours the alco-
hol decreases and vanishes, the time
varying with the kind of animal and
with the quality of the alcohol; that
the alcohol is found not only in the
blood, but in many organs-liver,
kidneys, brain, etc.-and in the sew
eral excretions-lymph, saliva, milk,
etc.
The use of alcohol occasions dim
mutton in the vigor of the corpuscles
and in the bactericidal power.
1t is no rare thing for us doctors
to be consulted by middle-aged men,
even intelligent and industrious men,
who attribute the symptoms of hard
ening of the arteries to weakness of
their nervous systems and continue
to drink wine and spirits in generous
quantities, ignorant of the fact that
they are aggravating an arterial dis
ease which, with sobriety, might per-
NIT them to live long and be moder-
ately active and useful in private and
public life.
All physicians admit that diseases
of the heart arise from abuse of al
cohol. Alcohol alters chiefly the
heart muscle and the arteries that
supply this with blood.
1t is well known that in Germany,
especially in Bavaria, enlargement of
the heart through the enormous abuse
of beer has been observed. The pa
biologist Bollinger called this beer
heart"
Alcohol is an enemy of the nervous
system, especially of the brain, or at
least of many brains-an enemy I'M
der the guise of a friend who brings
iOU q copco Of uoII- hoiD0 tho iI1uCioD
of warmth, oblivion of WEAKNESS, of
need for food, of the worries of the
mind.
Whatever opinions one may hold
about the abuse of alcohol beverages,
all should agree that for most men
mental labor, work that demands
steady attention and critical sense,
work that calls for assiduous preci-
sion of judgment and of action, work
which involves responsibility for the
lives of others and of ones self,
should be performed in abstinence
from any alcoholic drinks, since these
make the mind less vigilant, the per-
ceptions less keen, confusing the judg-
ment, dulling the critical faculty, OBJ
securing the feeling of responsibility
and duty.
To the psychic symptoms are to be
added the nervous, such as the we'll
known tremor, ataxia, palsy, pertur-
bations of vision, even to total blind
ness; epilepsy, of which there is
purely alcoholic form, etc.
Thus far the abuse of alcohol is a
direct cause of disease Now we must
add that this abuse may so affect the
body as to render it more apt to con-
tract disease of other origin.