PHYSIOLOGICAL POSITION OF ALCOHOL. 221 



for each contraction was sooner over. The heart, on the fifth and 

 sixth days after alcohol was left off, and apparently at the time when 

 the last traces of alcohol were eliminated, showed in the sphygmo- 

 graphic tracings signs of unusual feebleness ; and, perhaps, in conse- 

 quence of this, when the brandy quickened the heart again, the tra- 

 cings showed a more rapid contraction of the ventricles, but less power, 

 than in the alcoholic period. The brandy acted, in fact, on a heart 

 whose nutrition had not been perfectly restored. 



It is difficult, at first glance, to realize the excessive amount of work 

 performed by the heart under this extreme excitement. Little wonder 

 is it that, after the labor imposed upon it by six ounces of alcohol, the 

 heart should flag ; still less wonder that the brain and muscles which 

 depend upon the heart for their blood-supply should be languid for 

 many hours, and should require the rest of long sleep for renovation. 

 It is hard physical work, in short, to fight against alcohol ; harder than 

 rowing, walking, wrestling, carrying heavy weights, coal-heaving, or 

 the tread-wheel itself. 



While the heart is thus laboring under the action of alcoholic stim- 

 ulation, a change is observable in the extreme circulation that circu* 

 lation of blood which by varying shades of color in exposed parts of the ' 

 body, such as the cheek, is visible to the eye. The peripheral circulation 

 is quickened, the vessels distended. We see this usually in persons under 

 the influence of wine in the early stage, and we speak of it as the flush 

 produced by wine. The authors I have already quoted report upon it 

 in definite terms : " The peripheral circulation (during alcoholic excite- 

 ment) was accelerated, and the vessels were enlarged, and the effect 

 was so marked as to show that this is an important influence for good 

 or for evil when alcohol is used." 



By common observation the flush seen on the cheek during the 

 nrst stage of alcoholic excitation is supposed to extend merely to the 

 parts actually seen. It cannot, however, be too forcibly impressed on 

 the mind of the reader that the condition is universal in the body. If 

 the lungs could be seen, they, too, would be found with their vessels in- 

 jected ; if the brain and spinal cord could be laid open to view, they 

 would be discovered in the same condition ; if the stomach, the liver, 

 the spleen, the kidneys, or any other vascular organs or parts could be 

 laid open to the eye, the vascular enlargement would be equally mani- 

 fest. 



In course of time, in persons accustomed to alcohol, the vascular 

 changes, temporary only in the novitiate, become confirmed and per- 

 manent. The bloom on the nose which characterizes the genial toper 

 is the established sign of alcoholic action on vascular structure. 



Recently some new physiological inquiries have served to explain 

 the reason why, under alcohol, the heart at first beats so quickly and 

 why the pulses rise. At one time it was imagined that the alcohol 

 acted immediately upon the heart, stimulating it to increased action, 



