Dr. Richardson then proceeds to trace the known action of alcohol on the system still further; he shows that the flush seen on the cheek arising from the engorgement of the minute blood vessels on the surface, the consequence of their relaxation by partial paralysis, is universal in the body—not merely in the face, but in the brain, the lungs, the kidneys, liver, and spleen-a universal "vascular engorgement"—that the action of alcohol being continued beyond the first stage, the function of the spinal cord is influenced, and the automatic action, or that of a mechanical kind, which proceeds when we are thinking or speaking of other subjects; the process of breathing, digestion, secretion, elimination, and the like are interfered with and no longer correctly carried on.

It requires a distinct exertion of the "higher intellectual center" that the hand may reach its object or the foot be rightly planted; the nervous control of the muscles is lost and the er nervous stimulus more or less enfeebled; and the muscles fail in power, coming under the influence of the "paralyzing agent," their structure temporarily deranged and their contractile power reduced. Then the cerebral or brain centres are reduced in power, and the controlling influence of will and judgment are lost. These centres are thrown "into chaos; the rational nature of man gives way before the emotional, passional, or organic part. The reason is now off duty, or is fooling with duty, and all the mere animal instincts and sentiments are laid atrociously bare. The coward shows up more craven, the braggart more boastful, the cruel more merciless, the untruthful more false, and the carnal more degraded.

"In vino veritas" expresses even, indeed, to physiological accuracy, the true condition. The reason, the emotions, the instincts, are all in a state of carnival, and in chaotic feeble

ness.

"Finally, the action of the aiconol still extending, the superior brain centres are overpowered; the senses are beclouded, the voluntary muscular prostration is perfected, sensibility is lost, and the body lies a mere log, dead by all but one-fourth, on which alone its life hangs. The heart still remains true to its duty, and while it just lives it feeds the breathing power, and so the circulation and the respiration, in the otherwise inert mass, keep the mass within the bare domain of life until the

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31

poison begins to pass away and the nervous centres to revive again. It is happy for the inebriate that as a rule the brain fails so long before the heart, that he has neither power nor the sense to continue his process of destruction up to the act of the death of his circulation. Therefore he lives to die another day."

"Thus there are four stages of alcoholic action in the primary form; (a) a stage of vascular excitement and exhaustion; (b) a stage of excitement and exhaustion of the spinal eord, with muscular perturbation; (c) a stage of unbalanced reasoning power and of volition; (d) a stage of complete collapse of nervous function."

Prolonged use of the poison results in the aggravation of all the injuries already described, in disgusting external indications of the hellish work and destructive changes of the organs within.

CHAPTER III.

ALCOHOL NOT A FOOD.

Can it be a very Bad and a very Good Thing at the Same Time-How Ale and Beer Fatten-Dr. Richardson's Examination of the Qualities of Alcohol as a Food-No Claim to Efficacy in Structure Building-The Search of the Physicians for a Virtue in Alcohol-Four Stages of Change Produced on the Body by Liquor-How Alcohol gets out of the Body-If it is not a Food there is no Occasion for its Consumption as a Drink.

S

O far, we have traced the action of alcohol from its introduction to the body in its known effects, as demonstrated by actual experiment, or by the admitted facts of common experience. Its action, so far, is evil, and that continually. It would be singular if an agent which works such destruction, should also at the same time, in the same body, exert any beneficial effect. How can it be possible that the same thing which, in certain quantities and methods of administration, is known to paralyze the nervous force, to derange the circulation of the blood, dominate the muscular power, disintegrate the vital organs, drive the heart like a slave to its task with whip and scourge, dethrone reason and turn loose the faculties, emotions and passions, in full riot over the prostrate moral nature for the time, and, if long indulged, then for all time, completely effacing the image of God, and producing a hideous caricature abhorrent even to the beasts that perish-how can it be possible that the agency which is admitted to do all this, and more of horror which language cannot portray, is also a healing angel, a nourishing mother, a messenger of life and happiness to that normal and healthy organization which the Almighty bestowed upon man in the beginning? I speak not now of what may sometimes be done by poison to arrest disease, or to mitigate the agony of the surgeon's knife.

But how is it possible that this instrumentality, offensive to every unperverted nostril and palate-the alert natural guardians of the gate through which both structural and respiratory

ALCOHOL NOT A FOOD.

33

foods enter the stomach and lungs, their respective digestive laboratories-confessed to be the cause of all the destructive consequences already set forth to human beings in health, for whose continued welfare wholesome food and grateful beverages, wholly free from it, are necessary, can by possibility do them any good at all?

It is certain that we continue this search after the further action of alcohol and its final disposition in or by the body, with the strongest presumption that its history will be one of consistent hurt and misery to the end.

At this point arises the crucial question: Is alcohol in any quantity a food-nitrogenous, structure-building, or respiratory food-creating force?

If it be in either way, and in any manner, and in any quantity a food, then alcohol is a good thing when properly used— presumptions are in its favor-laws and restrictions should be directed not to the prohibition of a bad thing, but to the prohibition of the unreasonable use of a good thing.

This must be the logical result, or it must be shown satisfactorily that alcohol is a good thing, but so dangerous by reason of the inevitable wrongs and injuries which accompany it that for the general good it must be banished from use, regardless of the choice of the consumer.

This question also must be determined by science. While I am not aware that anything offensive to the unperverted taste is a natural beverage or food, yet there are substances and beverages which habit has made agreeable, which are injurious and even virulent poisons. Appetite and desire are not infallible judges of the truth in case like this.

The common knowledge of mankind is not to be discarded; all the evidence must go to the jury, but, as in all judicial investigations, if there be questions which are beyond the control of facts within common knowledge or experience, then those who have special competency to testify, either to facts or to opinions drawn from them, must be called in to settle the controversy, if so be that even their intelligence has yet comprehended the truth.

Is then alcohol a food?

One thing is conceded by all, and Dr. Richardson thus states this common ground of agreement:

"Alcohol contains no nitrogen, it has none of the qualities of these structure-building foods; it is incapable of being transformed into any of them; it is therefore not a food in the sense of its being a constructive agent in the building up of the body. In respect to this view there is, I believe now, no difference of opinion amongst those who have most carefully observed the action of alcohol."

The question arises then whether alcohol is a fat-forming food, and this is in dispute. Ale and beer fatten, but it appears to be settled that it is not the alcohol but the sugar or starch in them, and in some other drinks, which fattens. Dr. Richardson says: "This tallies also with the observations on the action of absolute alcohol upon inferior animals, for they certainly, under that influence, if they are allowed liberty to move freely, do not fatten."

Alcohol induces sleep, and the tendency to fatten may be facilitated in that way, but the sleep itself thus induced, if not medicinal, is an injury. "There is no chemical fact which supports the hypothesis" of the origin of fatty material direct from alcohol.

"In conclusion, therefore, upon this one point of alcohol, its use as a builder of the substantial parts of the animal organism, I fear I must give up all hope of affirmative proof. It does not certainly help to build up the active nitrogenous structures. It probably does not produce fatty matter, except by an indirect and injurious interference with the natural processes."

I submit that upon any such evidence as this, which is the most recent utterance of as competent a witness as is now living, and who, so far as I know, is uncontradicted by any witness whose investigations are recent and accepted as authority in the profession, while they are corroborated by many of his associates among its most eminent members, it cannot be claimed, that the strong presumption existing against the probability that there is any food-creating power in alcohol, is removed, far less is such beneficial quality established.

But may not alcohol burn in the lungs, and in the secret places where life does its invisible work, and thus give force and motion? What if this be so? All this is certainly done better without than with it. Certainly, a healthy person is no