New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-23
2.75 Beer and Even
Less Intoxicates.
Il DIR. Wiley Declares
opinion Obtained From
y Food Expert by Canon
Z Chase Sent to Governor
B Smith; 4 Stages Defined

From The TYibup,o's Washington Bureau
{ WASHINGTON. May 22.-=Dr. Har-
vey w. Wiley, the food expert. to-day
said that 2.75 beer was intoxicating
and that he had seen German students
made drunk from beer with even
smaller alcoholic content. The opinion
was obtained by Rev. Canon Chase, of
Brooklyn, chairman of the board Of
directors of the International Reform
Bureau. 1t was mailed to Governor
Smith of New York.
8 The statement said in pat:
AN intoxicating liquor is one which
when ingested into the stomach and
absorbed into the blood creates toxic
effect on any or all of the body organs
and functions. That effect may be
unnoticed by the subject or those who
surround him, or it may be of such q
character as to render him at once
evidently unbalanced in some way to
those who might happen to observe
him.
"Visible intoxication is not essen
tial to intoxication.
Four Stages of Intoxication
There are four we'll marked stages
of intoxication by alcoholic poison. The
first stage marks the beginning of the
toxic effect. If the quantity of alcohol
is small even the subject may not be
conscious of any toxic effect 1t may,
however, be measured by the delicate
methods now in use of determining the
changes produced in the brain and the
memory and in the nerve sensibility
Of the subject. These determinations
show that even in very small quaint
ties alcohol produces a distinctly
toxic effect. The functions of the in
tellect are at once harmfulIy affected
and the sensibility of the nerves of the
eye and the so-called knee jerks nerves
are TO measurable degree sensbly
affected.
The second stage Of alcoholic in.
toxication is one in which the subject
if he is at all attentive to such mat
ters, feels that his condition is un.
usual. There is q certain feeling OF
warmth wholly illusory and due to a
partial paralysis of the periphera1
nerves, which allows a greater guam
tlty of blood in the capillaries. There
is also q certain feeling of elation and
an apparent freedom of speech due to
specific influence on the coordinate
ing organs of the brain. There is at
the same time a great depression OF
intellectual aacuteness. This condition
may or may not be observed by the by
ISLANDERS just in proportion as the sub
lect has greater or less control of his
actions.
The third state of alcoholic intoxi-
cation is one in which the ordinary
symptoms of drunkenness are mani
rested. These symptoms vary with the
Individuality of the victim. He may
become taclturn and morose, or he may
be bolsterous and voluble, or even
hilarious. His control of locomotion
and other muscular movements are more
or less disturbed and he may display
an acute locomotor ataxia. All his
companions know that he is drunk.
8 Ruling in Flour Case
There is fourth state Of alcoholic
MtoXication in which the victim sinks
nlto entire insensblity. His face and
9reathln% remind one of a person suf-
fering from apopleXy. and in extreme
Gases death supervencs.
The Supreme Court in the Blan-
chard -four case, decided in Septem
Der, 1914, that any amount of poison
that may be dangerous to children may
be prohibited even though harmless to
the average adult. Therefore, in de-
timing intoXication' the question is not
What lntoXlcates the average person
but what may intoxicate the weakest
and Youngest"