FOOD ACCESSOBIES AND DEUGS 297 



The following (by Dr. Abel) appears to be a sound state- 

 ment of our present knowledge of this important subject: 



Alcohol is not found by psychologists to increase the quantity or 

 vigor of mental operations ; in fact, it clearly tends to lessen the power of 

 clear and consecutive reasoning. In many respects its action on the higher 

 functions of the mind resembles that of fatigue of the brain, though with 

 this action is associated a tendency to greater motor energy and ease. 



In speaking of a certain type of individual James says : " It is the 

 absence of scruples, of consequences, of considerations, the extraordinary 

 simplification of each moment's outlook, that gives to the explosive in- 

 dividual such motor energy and ease." This description aptly applies 

 to the individual who is under the influence of a " moderate " quantity 

 of alcohol. It tends to turn the inhibitive type of mind into the " hair- 

 trigger " type. We have said that the speech and the bearing of men, 

 the play of their features, all bear witness to the action of alcohol on 

 the brain ; that it removes restraints, blunts too acute sensibilities, dis- 

 pels sensations of fatigue, causes a certain type of ideas and mental 

 images to follow each other with greater rapidity, and gives a "cerebral 

 sense of richness." 



Larger quantities, such as are for most individuals represented by 

 one or two bottles of wine (ten per cent of alcohol), may, according to 

 the resistance and type of individual in question, cause a lack of con- 

 trol of the emotions ; noticeably affect the power of attention, of clear 

 judgment and reason ; and decidedly lower the acuteness of the several 

 senses. In many individuals such quantities will develop so marked an 

 anesthetic action that all phenomena of intoxication may be seen to 

 follow each other in due sequence, finally to end in the sleep of 

 drunkenness. 



There has been much discussion as to whether alcohol is in any 

 sense a stimulant for the brain. We have seen that pharmacologists of 

 high repute deny that it has this action, holding that alcohol is a seda- 

 tive or narcotic substance which belongs to the same class as paralde- 

 hyde and chloroform ; that its stimulating action is but fictitious ; and 

 that even the earlier phenomena of its action are to be referred to a 

 paralyzing action on cerebral (inhibitory) functions. This theory as- 

 sumes an unequal action on cerebral functions in the order of time. 

 Kraepelin, however, holds that this is a purely subjective analysis, and 

 that in the early stages of its action alcohol truly stimulates the motor 

 functions of the brain ; that a state of mental exhilaration, of " motor 

 excitability," may coexist with undiminished power of perception and 

 judgment. His psychological experiments on the action of alcohol, 

 taken all in all, do not, however, entirely prove his position. 



p 



