EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 275 



the medulla then becomes affected ; and at this stage there is 

 coma with stertorous breathing, while the action of the heart 

 still continues, even after respiration has stopped. There can 

 be no question that alcohol taken in sufficient quantities to 

 depress the higher centers of the brain does an infinite amount 

 of harm." 



Dr. Crothers, author of Diseases of Inebriety, says, " I have 

 often been made impatient in listening to the lecturer pre- 

 senting the ' scientific aspects of the alcohol question ' to an 

 audience, to see him illustrate extensively with charts, and 

 spend hours to show the effects of alcohol upon the coats of 

 the stomach, and upon the structure of the liver and the kid- 

 neys, and never allude once to the brain; when the fact is, 

 alcohol's principal effect is upon this organ, and the functions 

 of this organ so far transcend the functions of all the others, 

 that, I might say, there is no comparison." 



Some authors hold that the alterations in the tissues by 

 alcoholic drinks result from the injury to the nerve centers 

 that preside over these tissues ; for their nutrition depends 

 not merely on the direct effect of the blood and lymph supply, 

 but also upon the direct influences of the nerve centers ; they 

 even go so far as to maintain that there is a special set 

 of nerve fibers devoted to the control of the nutrition of the 

 cells, and these nerve fibers they call " trophic nerves " or 

 "trophic fibers." 



" It is clear that the nervous centers, independently of the 

 ill effects on their nutrition by the blood changes, have a cer- 

 tain chemical attraction for alcohol, which accordingly is 

 found in their tissue." - GROT HERS. 



Dr. Crothers, in common with many plrysicians, regards 

 inebriety as a disease. 



Dr. Clum, in his work entitled Inebriety, its Causes, its 

 Results, its Remedy, says, " The most important part of man 



