THE EFFECTS OF MODERATE DRINKING. 191 



muscular tissue or the nerves supplying it, but actually to the 

 very reverse — namely, its paralyzing effects on the cardiac 

 nerve mechanism. This may appear a strange idea to those 

 unfamiliar with the advanced theories regarding the accelerat- 

 ing and restraining heart's nerve-forces. Nevertheless, it is 

 quite consonant with the results of modern physiological inves- 

 tigations, which go far to prove that every function of organic 

 life — no matter whether it be the expulsion of the urine, the 

 peristaltic movements of the intestines, the throbbings of the 

 heart, or involuntary respiration — acts under the immediate in- 

 fluence of a bifold nerve mechanism. For example, the human 

 heart is endowed with two entirely different and opposing centers 

 of nerve-force, and so retroactive are their respective functions 

 that the sole duty of the one appears to be to regulate and con- 

 trol the functions of the other. To the former has been given 

 the name of inhibitory or restraining mechanism ; to the latter 

 that of the exciting or accelerating nerve agency. Destroy or 

 paralyze the inhibitory nerve-center, or arrest its power of com- 

 municating with the heart by dividing the vagus, and instantly 

 its controlling effect on the cardio-motor mechanism is lost, and 

 the accelerating agent, being no longer under its normal restraint, 

 runs riot. The heart's action is increased, the pulse is quickened, 

 an excess of blood is forced into the vessels, and from their be- 

 coming engorged and dilated the face gets flushed and the retina 

 congested — all the usual concomitants of a general engorgement 

 of the circulation being the result. Instead of paralyzing the 

 vagus by section, and thereby arresting its inhibitory cardiac 

 nerve-power; paralyze it through the instrumentality of a toxic 

 agent, and precisely the same chain of phenomena will of neces- 

 sity be the result. The most powerful paralyzer of the vagus we 

 at present know of is atropia; and what happens when it is 

 given in a full dose ? Nothing more or less than the effects we 

 have here attributed to the section of the vagus — tumultuous 

 heart's action, quickened pulse, congested face and eyes, etc. 

 Alcohol acts on the heart, I believe, in precisely the same man- 

 ner as atropia does, although less strongly ; that is to say, it 

 quickens the heart's action, as well as apparently increases its 

 power, by paralyzing its restraining or inhibitory nerve mechan- 

 ism. This, however, is only the primary action of alcohol on 

 the cardiac organ, for no sooner is the quantity administered suf- 

 ficiently increased than all its at first apparently stimulating 

 effects vanish. From its now possessing adequate power to 

 paralyze the accelerating as well as the retarding cardiac nerve 

 mechanism, the heart's action, therefore, now becomes dimin- 

 ished pari passu with the amount of the paralyzing agent em- 

 ployed, until at length (if a sufficiency be given) the cardiac 



