The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1917-04-13

per cent of these are addicted to the
use of distilled liquor. Our mortality
averages about 200 deaths a year.
Because of the limited information
regarding the persons making up this
greater part of these patients, and for
the reason that many of the bodies
of persons supposedly drunk are
found, either during life or after
death, to have skull fractures and
other internal injuries, these deaths
have automatically become subject
of mcdico-legal inquiry and post-mor-
tenn examinations. for a number OF
years I witnessed or took part in
many of these examinations and since
that time information regarding the
condition found has become a routine
part of our record keeping. As is
widely known, the alterations pro-
duced by alcohol containing bever-
ages made by fermenting grains or
mailing processes, or by other pro-
ccsses of fermentation, such as wine
manufacture, are different from the
changes found where people die of
the alcohol produced by distillation.
In the first group the changes are
mostly in the trunk organs and are
largely associated with accumulation
of fat, or the formation of adipose
tissue. The alcohol containing bev-
eragcs made by distillation, especially
whisky, on the other hand, produce
changes in the central nervous sys-
tenn, principally a degeneration, an
atrophy of the brain, with widening
of the suloi and narrowing of the
convolutions, and dilation of the
ventric1es. This atrophy of the brain
is more pronounced in the frontal
lobes where the higher centers are
located, where a mans sense of right
and wrong exists, and this is the an
swer to the marked moral deteriora-
ton found in the chronic alcoholic.
] believe that alcohol today i'll the
form of distilled liquor, used as bev-
erage, is responsible for the reduction
of more brain capacity than all other
reasons combined. Chronic alcohol
intoxication depends upon chronic
degenerativc process i'll the central
nervous system, and is characterized
by a gradually progressive dementia
with defective memory, faulty judg-
ment, moral deterioration, occasional
decisions and Authorizations, with a
diminished capacity for work and va
-rious nervous symptoms.
Chronic Alcoholism Is Insanity
Unfortunately chronic alcoholism
is not recognized in our state as in
sanity. Since November, 1912, a
mental clinic has been conducted
every Wednesday bX DR.. Sidney kuh,
who no doubt will develop this phase
of the question.
Not a Beverage but a Poison
AS is we'll known, alcohol is not
beverage or food, and | do not
think much of it as medicinal REM
edy. 1t is a toxic narcotic and an
aesthetic. The toxicity of alcoholic
beverages increases directly with the
amount of alcohol they contain. |
have never seen case of delirium
tremens where fermentcd liquors
only were used; it has always been
caused by distilled liquors, principally
whisky. Also, alcoholic psychoses
are rarely caused by fermented liq-
uors.
The Fellow Who Feels Sure OF
Himself
lust a word in regard to the fell
low who is sure John Barleycorn
will never get him. Among our con-
frmed alcoholics we do not find one
in a hundred who deliberately start
ed out to become a drunkard. They
always thought that they could whip
John Barleyeorn and many of them
still tell you that they can leave it
alone.