O'SHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 119 



influences which harm us; it can as clearly not increase our own 

 powers in so far as they enter into this conflict with the outside 

 world— it rather makes us less skillful and able. What can it do, 

 then? It can deceive us. It dulls our appreciation of powers out- 

 side of us until they seem so much smaller that we are sure we can 

 conquer them, and so we gain a feeling of satisfaction." 



Wilson 1 has shown most conclusively that the drunkard is 

 simply a person in whom has become permanent the inco-ordi- 

 nations, the lack of control which is always induced temporarily 

 by any single spree. The balance-wheel is thrown out of gear 

 for good. The man is a creature of impulse, and that unfortu- 

 nately of a low type; the regulating, the subduing, really the 

 spiritual mechanisms of his being, have been paralyzed so often 

 that they are at last rendered permanently inactive. This ex- 

 treme case is cited simply to throw into clearer light the ordi- 

 nary effects of alcohol, which, although when taken in small 

 quantities may never produce great damage to the organism, 

 yet there must always be grave danger in its use. Maudsley, 

 after lifelong study of the causes of mental derangement, has 

 much to say 2 of the baneful influence of this agent; and Mer- 

 cier, a student of insanity too, is unsparing in his condemna- 

 tion of alcohol, and a few of his words 3 may be quoted in sup- 

 port of the views presented in these paragraphs, — that alcohol 

 is a factitious force-producer, and when used habitually results 

 eventually in the dissipation of energy, and sooner or later dis- 

 turbs the delicate mechanisms by which the organism is held 

 under the control of a vigorous will. 



"Ask a man who has just left a city dinner to settle with you the 

 lease of a house, or a deed of partnership. He will naturally refuse. 

 If you press him, he will say that it is not a proper time to trans- 

 act business; and, if pressed further, will explain that to take him 

 now is unfair, for to such an important and delicate matter one 

 must come with a clear head. The admission is that the mind is 

 not now as vigorous as it will be tomorrow morning. There is a 

 slight enfeeblement. Partly from the fatigue of the day, partly from 



1 Drunkenness, Part I. See also Eichardson, Ten Lectures on Alcohol, pp. 

 123-179. 



2 See Responsibility in Mental Disease, pp. 285-286. 

 * Sanity and, Insanity, p. 316. 



