52 THE MUSCLES 



by the use of alcohol. The test recently made upon the British 

 troops during the war in the Soudan, showed that the exhaust- 

 ing work, privation, and the burning heat of the desert can be 

 better endured by those who have not, than by those who have 

 the ration of grog. The time is coming when this ration will 

 be a thing of the past, and that, too, for good scientific reasons. 



39. Abnormal Movements due to Alcohol. The amount of 

 disturbance in the muscular system that is produced by alcohol 

 varies greatly under different circumstances. It may be very 

 great or very slight according as a great or small dose of liquor 

 is taken. The tongue, the organ of speech, is a muscle that 

 early betrays the presence of drink. This is the cause of what 

 is called the " thick " speech of the drunken man, whose words 

 are not correctly uttered but are dropped, cut short or run 

 together- in an unusual and oftentimes unintelligible manner. 

 " Seeing double " is another muscular disturbance observed in 

 drunkenness. At a certain stage of the drunken fit every 

 single object appears to the victim to be double. In this case 

 the muscles that move the eyeballs are at fault; they are 

 temporarily deranged, so that the two eyeballs cease to move 

 harmoniously and are no longer brought to bear upon the 

 objects before them, as in health, and the images of two objects 

 are reported to the brain, while in reality there is only one. 

 Then, too, objects that are at rest appear to be in motion, 

 because the eyeballs are affected by an unsteady, rolling 

 motion. This is one reason why, at a certain stage, the 

 drunken man who tries to walk abroad, begins to stagger from 

 side to side over the sidewalk, to stumble and perhaps to fall, 

 and sober men appear to him to stagger and be drunk. The 

 muscles of his limbs also, in their turn, becoming weakened, 

 or not being properly controlled, may refuse to sustain the for- 

 lorn pedestrian, and he may be seen clinging for support to 

 some friendly lamp-post, or, later on, sinking powerless into 

 the gutter. 



39. Does alcohol derange the muscles ? What effect upon the tongue ? The eyes and 

 limbs? 



