172 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



mental effects. These effects are apt to be described 

 as stimulation but it is doubtful whether the word is 

 wisely used. 



A group of men who have had some wine at dinner 

 are observed to become talkative and animated. They 

 gesticulate and laugh more than they would ordi- 

 narily. They may become decidedly uproarious. Is 

 this not stimulation? It has been generally held to be, 

 but another interpretation can be offered. The sug- 

 gestion has been made that what we are witnessing is 

 a withdrawal of inhibition, the paralysis of the highest 

 centers with a consequent release of the lower from 

 their regulation. If a train is descending a grade there 

 are two ways to account for an increase of speed: more 

 power may have been applied by the engine or the brakes 

 may have been taken off. The action of alcohol has 

 been denned by most writers as a taking off of the cerebral 

 " brakes." 



It may be an open question whether this removal of 

 inhibition is always an evil. Able thinkers have justified 

 the artifice. Men have resorted to it for ages to secure 

 social ease and to banish cares. But it does seem as 

 though abandoning oneself to convivial pleasures should 

 be a simple act of the will rather than a reaction secured 

 by a dose of narcotic. We have urged that the power of 

 detachment is an accomplishment to be desired and culti- 

 vated; one should not be obliged to depend on alcohol for 

 its realization. The wine opens a royal road to a goal 

 which it is often well to seek, but it is a downhill road 

 and the return cannot be so easily effected as the descent. 

 The man who is really master of himself can detach and 

 concentrate with equal success; the alcohol favors the 

 former but in the same measure is opposed to the latter. 



The tendency to form a habit in the use of alcohol is 

 not to be made light of. Two young men whose heredity 

 and principles seem to be equally good may differ abso- 

 lutely as to the degree of safety with which they can 

 drink. One may enjoy it from time to time and feel 



