nervous system. The impression is first received by the nerves of the stomach, from thence sympathetically conveyed to the cerebro-spinal centres, and in this manner to the whole system. An experiment made by Rayer, corroborates this theory of nervous communication. He injected a small portion of alcohol on the peritoneum of a rabbit (the highly sensitive and lining membrane of the bowels) which extinguished life in less than a minute. This can scarcely be supposed to have arisen from absorption, the time being too limited to have admitted of such an action. Magendie, also, the celebrated French Physiologist, in an experiment which he made upon a dog, came to the same conclusion. After tying up the outlet of its stomach, he injected into it a portion of alcohol, and in half an hour afterwards, he found a powerful odour of this fluid in the blood, in addition also to obtaining some of it by means of distilling some of the same substance. The experiments of M. Sigelas are equally conclusive. He found that diluted alcohol injected into the bronchial tubes or veins, or applied upon serous membranes produced intoxication as speedily as when taken into the stomach, and that this effect was retarded or accelerated by those circumstances, which in general, retard or quicken absorption.*

According to Mr. Hare, it is not difficult to conceive that intoxication depends on an actual transfer of volatile spirit from the stomach to the brain, and that errors of perception and general derangement of the sensorium, usually exhibited under the influence of strong liquors, are produced by the direct agency of such diffusible matter on the substance of the brain and its particular nerves.†

Several circumstances combine to shew, that the brain, is not acted upon by means of nervous sympathy only, but that the deleterious poison is conveyed to that organ directly through the medium of the circulation of the blood. Dr. Ogston is of opinion, that this fact is proved by the speedy re-action of alcohol on the kidneys, and its presence in the breath even after its entire removal

*Revue Med. tome ix, page 476.

Hare on the Stomach and Alimentary Organs. p. 169. Edition, 1821.

from the stomach. A strong odour of spirits has been observed in the breath, when none could be detected in the stomach, by careful examination of its contents after removal. *

A great variety of articles pass into circulation, by means of lacteal absorption, or direct imbibition from the coats of the stomach, from whence they have immediate access to the blood. The comparative rapidity of this operation varies in the different articles submitted to experiment.

Several interesting facts tend to prove that alcohol

*Hare on the Stomach and Alimentary Organs, page 293. Mr. Hare relates the following case by way of illustration: A healthy labouring man, about thirty years of age, engaged, "to drink an entire quart of gin for a wager." Having at a single effort accomplished this foolish feat, he fell down within a quarter of an hour in a state of intoxication. In this state he was conveyed to Westminster Hospital, where he died in less than three hours, and, on the following morning, underwent a post mortem examination. "The substance of the brain," remarks Mr. Hare, "had the most healthy appearance imaginable. On arriving at the ventricles, however, a strong smell of gin was emitted; and they contained a preternatural, though not very large, quantity of fluid, which had powerfully the same smell. Our next object of examination was the stomach, and this was found to contain a considerable quantity of undiluted gin. [Idem, p. 169, 170.] Dr. Ogston relates a similar circumstance. occurred under his own observation. "The body of a woman, aged 40, who was believed to have drowned herself in a state of intoxication, was found, on the 23rd of August, 1831, in the Aberdeenshire canal. In company with another medical man, I was requested to inspect the body, in order to report the cause of death, none having witnessed the act. In addition to the usual appearance in drowned persons, we discovered nearly four ounces of fluid in the ventricles, having all the physical qualities of alcohol, as proved by the united testimony of two other medical men who saw the body opened, and examined the fluid. The stomach also smelt of this fluid." [Dr. Ogston on intoxication, Edinburgh Med. Journal, vol. xi., 1833, page 293.]

It

Dr. Kirk, of Greenock, (Scotland,) relates the following additional case: "I dissected a man," says he, "who died in a state of intoxication. The operation was performed a few hours after death. In the two cavities of the brain, the lateral ventricles, was found the usual quantity of limpid fluid-when we smelled it, the odour of the whiskey was distinctly visible; and when we applied the candle to a portion in a spoon, it actually burned blue; the lambent blue flame, characteristic of the poison, playing on the surface of the spoon for a few seconds.

does not undergo the digestive process. Magendie found spirit in the blood. Not a particle, however, was detected in the chyle. Dr. Trotter well remarks, that human blood and healthful chyle do not acknowledge alcohol to be an ingredient in their composition.

*

The presence of alcohol in the system is at all times repulsive to its healthy operations. Every part of the human frame with which it comes in contact, rejects it with significant marks of alarm, and vital efforts are made to get rid of its noxious influence. Under the excitement of alcoholic stimulus, the vessels of the brain receive an additional and unnecessary quantity of blood. It is at this period, that these vessels relieve themselves from their tortured and distended condition by the effusion of serum, (or the watery particles of the blood,) on the surface, and in the ventricles of that organ. Coma and death speedily follow the deposit of alcohol in these vital regions. The same process takes place also in other organs of the body. The functions of the brain and nervous system, however, take precedence of all others in importance, inasmuch as they are essentially necessary to the vitality and healthy operation of all the other functions. The lungs also, and the kidneys make strenuous efforts to relieve themselves of the injurious load. This circumstance is proved, in the one instance, by the breath of the drunkard, which, in cases of free drinking, exhales, from time to time, a spirituous odour; and, in the other, by the excited action which is produced, and the copious evacuations which follow, undue indulgence. The theory of death by intoxication may be thus explained. Effusion of matter into the ventricles of the brain, renders that organ incapable of efficiently performing its functions. The other functions of the system are, by this means, essentially injured. The muscles of respiration are among the first of those which suffer. Respiration is not conducted with adequate effect. Dark blood is retarded in pulmonary vessels, and when it does reach its destination, returns still in the same state, not having undergone its usual and essential vital changes. When this unchanged blood reaches the brain, it soon extinguishes every re

maining portion of its vitality. Loss of life is the speedy and inevitable result.

Loss of temperature is indicated by paleness of the face, and coldness of the extremities. It is accounted for on the principle, that the changes which the blood undergoes in a healthy state of the lungs, are essentially necessary to animal temperature, and therefore every cause which retards this operation, must diminish the temperature of the system, as it paralyzes its vital energies.

A careful consideration of these statements leads us to the conclusion, that alcohol, in all its combinations, is a positive and effectual poison. In its composition and effects, it is incapable of promoting in any way healthy existence, and to persons in a state of health, it is under all circumstances, both unnecessary and pernicious. The moderate proportion in which it may be taken, does not do away with its injurious consequences. They are only less so in degree, and in reality are, in the end, more destructive, because less observed, and less guarded against. It may in conclusion be affirmed, that there exists no safeguard against the evils of alcoholic stimulants, but in the total and permanent abandonment of their use, in all their varied and seducing combinations.

CHAPTER XIV,

DISEASES WHICH ARISE FROM THE USE OF INTOXICATING

LIQUORS.

"All maladies

Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms
Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestine stone and ulcer, cholic pangs,
Demoniac phrenzy, moping melancholy,

And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy
Marasmus, and wide wasting pestilence,
Dropsies and asthmas, and joint racking rheums."

MILTON.

THE diseases which directly or indirectly originate in the use of intoxicating liquors, form an exceedingly fruitful subject for investigation. These indeed are so numerous and obstinate in their character, as to form a very principal source of employment and emolument to the medical profession.

It would be impossible in an Essay like the present, to enter into either a minute or professional investigation of the afflictive maladies which arise from the use of intoxicating liquors. It is intended to glance generally only at the most important of these, and in such familiar language, as will easily be understood by the popular reader.

1. The stomach, its functions and diseases.-The healthy performance of all the other functions of the human frame, principally depends on the functions of digestion. Hence the importance of the stomach and its operations.