118 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



hol in tolerably full doses lowers the temperature of the body, although it 

 increases the force and frequency of the pulse ; and the experience of Arctic 

 voyagers is most decided in regard to the comparatively low value of Alco- 

 hol as a heat-producing material. It is certain that Alcohol is not without 

 its value under various corporeal conditions; and the views expressed by 

 Dr. Hammond, 1 that its effects, injurious or salutary, are in a great measure 

 dependent upon the quantity of food consumed with it, are probably true. 

 When the food is ample in quantity and varied in quality, and the diges- 

 tion good, Alcohol is unnecessary, exciting the circulation, and tending to 

 produce a plethoric condition of the system ; 2 but when the diet is insuf- 

 ficient, or the digestion feeble, the effects of Alcohol, when taken in mod- 

 erate quantities, seem decidedly beneficial, the body not only ceasing to 

 lose, but actually gaining in weight: the Alcohol either taking the place of 

 the food, or retarding the metamorphosis of the tissues. In conditions of 

 exhaustion it often proves of the greatest utility, and there is reason for 

 believing that it can exert an antiseptic power in certain states of blood- 

 poisoning, whilst it exerts a powerful influence over the formation of pus 

 in the inflamed parts; partly perhaps by restraining the movements of the 

 white corpuscles of the blood, partly by hardening the walls of the vessels 

 and preventing their escape, and partly by its general power of lessening 

 tissue-change and cell-genesis. The Physiological objections to the habit- 

 ual use of Alcoholic liquors rest upon the following grounds. First, they 

 are universally admitted to possess a poisonous character, exhibited when 

 they are taken in tolerably large doses by loss of appetite and diminished 

 muscular power and control over the voluntary movements, with partial 

 paralysis of the sympathetic nervous system, leading to dilatation of the 

 smaller vessels; whilst death is the speedy result of very large doses 

 through the suspension of nervous power, which their introduction into 

 the circulation in sufficient quantity is certain to induce. Secondly, when 

 habitually used in excessive quantities, universal experience shows that 

 Alcoholic liquors tend to produce a morbid condition of the body at large, 

 and especially of the nervous system ; this condition being such as a knowl- 

 edge of its modus operandi on the body would lead the Physiologist to pred- 

 icate. Thirdly, the frequent occurrence of more chronic diseases of the 

 same character, among persons advanced in life, who have habitually made 

 use of Alcoholic liquors in "moderate" amount, affords a strong probabil- 

 ity that they result from a gradual perversion of the nutritive processes, of 

 which that habit is the cause. This perversion manifests itself peculiarly 

 in the tendency to "fatty degeneration" of the muscular substance of the 

 heart, of the walls of the arteries, of the glandular substance of the kidney 

 and liver, and of many other parts; and thus gives rise to a great variety 

 of forms of disease. Fourthly, the special liability of the intemperate to 

 /ymotic diseases, seems an indication that the habitual ingestion of Alco- 

 holic liquors tends to prevent the due elimination of the azotized products 

 of the disintegration of the system, and thus to induce a " fermentable " 

 condition of the blood. Fifthly, extended experience has shown that, not- 

 withstanding the temporary augmentation of power which may result from 

 the occasional use of fermented liquors, the capacity for prolonged endur- 

 ance of mental or bodily labor, and for resisting the extremes of heat and 



1 Amer. Journ. of Mecl. Sciences Oct. 1850. 



2 According to Dr. Eel. Smith (Tnuisae. of Roy. Mod. Society of London, vol. i, 

 pt i, p. 1, IHtil), alrnhul interferes with alimentation, diminishes the excretion of 

 urea and the action of the skin, and increases the general activity of the vascular 

 system. Kum increases, but brandy and gin lessen the excretion of carbonic acid by 



the lungs. 



