412 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND ORGANS OF SENSE 



It is agreed by investigators that in large or continued amounts alcohol 

 has a narcotic effect ; that it first dulls or paralyzes the nerve centers 

 which control our judgment, and later acts upon the so-called motor 

 centers, those which control our muscular activities. 



The reason then that a man in the first stages of intoxication talks 

 rapidly and sometimes wittily, is because the centers of judgment are 

 paralyzed. This frees the speech centers from control exercised by our 

 judgment, with the resultant rapid and free flow of speech. 



In small amounts alcohol is believed by some physiologists to have 

 always this same narcotic effect, while other physiologists think that 

 alcohol does stimulate the brain centers, especially the higher centers, 

 to increased activity. Some scientific and professional men use alcohol 

 in small amounts for this stimulation and report no seeming harm from 

 the indulgence. Others, and by far the larger number, agree that this 

 stimulation from alcohol is only apparent and that even in the smallest 

 amounts alcohol has a narcotic effect. 



The Relation of Alcohol to Disease. One of the most serious effects 

 of alcohol is the lowered resistance of the body to disease. It has been 

 proved that a much larger proportion of hard drinkers die from infectious 

 or contagious diseases than from special diseased conditions due to the 

 direct action of alcohol on the organs of the body. This lowered resistance 

 is shown in increased liability to contract disease and increased severity 

 of the disease. 



But many cases of illness are directly due to the action of alcohol on 

 the tissues. " Such chronic diseased conditions arise from the gradual 

 poisoning of the system by the continued use of beverages containing 

 alcohol. Even though we admit that alcohol in a definite small amount 

 is, in some cases at least, fully oxidized in the body, like the carbohy- 

 drates, and so supplies energy as food, we must never forget that different 

 constitutions may be differently affected, and conditions as to climate, 

 temperament, and habits of life may cause variations in its influence upon 

 health and character. We can never know perfectly the nature of all the 

 innumerable strains of hereditary tendency which unite to make an 

 individual what he is. Some one of these may have impressed upon the 

 nerve cells an instability, a weakness, a peculiar susceptibility to the in- 

 fluence of alcohol, so that the first taste may arouse the insatiable craving 

 which leads to dipsomania. In another case, the inherited weakness may 

 render the child of an inebriate an epileptic, an imbecile, or a consumptive. 

 We can never foresee just how the transmitted nervous weakness will 

 manifest itself, but as a rule the descendants of those whose systems are 

 poisoned by alcohol are enfeebled in body or mind or both. 



" But suppose a man to have derived from his ancestors a sound con- 

 stitution and to have become addicted to the moderate use of alcohol ; 

 the insidious nature of the dangerous substance may gradually lead him 

 to consume, insensibly perhaps, only a little more than the cells can oxidize. 



