190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



disease lias long been known, and the reason of this is not far 

 to seek, seeing that it is the special duty of the kidneys to elimi- 

 nate alcohol from the general circulation — as they do all other 

 foreign materials. And the more work that is thrown upon an 

 organ, the more prone are its tissues to become degenerated. Not 

 only, however, do we know that the kidneys eliminate the im- 

 bibed alcohol (from its being met with in urine), but we likewise 

 know that alcohol, as alcohol, saturates the renal tissue to such 

 an extent that I and others have been able to obtain pure alcohol 

 from the kidneys of persons who have died intoxicated by the 

 simple process of distillation. Besides all this, however, there is 

 a special reason why the kidneys should become diseased in so- 

 called moderate drinking ; and that is on account of the circula- 

 tion being incessantly increased in them, as it is elsewhere, from 

 the accelerated heart's action induced by the repeated imbibition 

 of stimulants in small quantities. For no doubt the diameter of 

 the renal blood-vessels is augmented by their engorgement, and 

 consequently they exert a deleterious pressure on the intervascu- 

 lar tissues, which will interfere with their proper nourishment. 

 While, further, this engorgement of the renal vessels will render 

 the kidneys more liable to the injurious effects of chills; and 

 chills are, as is well known, the most fruitful cause of kidney 

 disease. This view of the case appears to me to give not only 

 the clew to the reason why Bright's disease is so particularly 

 common among the inebriate, but likewise why transient attacks 

 of albuminuria are so frequently met with in moderate drinkers, 

 among both men and women. Spirit-drinking is said to be 

 mainly instrumental in inducing the variety of renal disease 

 named granular kidney; while beer-drinking is, on the other 

 hand, thought to be most potent in bringing about fatty degen- 

 eration of the renal tissues. Be that as it may, I well know, from 

 a long experience of urinary affections, that even small quanti- 

 ties of alcohol habitually indulged in sometimes bring on most 

 troublesome forms of albuminuria, without there being any well- 

 marked symptoms of the existence of either granular or fatty 

 degeneration of the tissues of the kidneys. 



Alcohol, when taken in small quantity, is in general said to 

 act as a direct cardiac stimulant, and its stimulating effect is 

 supposed to be due to its possessing the faculty of increasing the 

 muscular power of the heart. I take an entirely different view 

 of the matter, and shall now endeavor to show how the increase 

 in the force of the heart's movements, the quickening of the 

 pulse, the flushing of the face, the congestion of the retinal 

 blood-vessels, as well as all the other visible appearances of 

 accelerated cardiac functional activity, are in reality in no wise 

 due to the stimulating action of alcohol, either on the heart's 



