270 INOKOANIC AGENTS 



highly and recently organized, such as are employed in 

 writing, and then the muscular movements more remotely 

 developed are affected, and the person is unable to walk, 

 and fiually there is complete paralysis of the motor centres 

 and muscles. The staggering and uncertain gait of drunken 

 people occurs not only because the cerebral motor and 

 cerebellar centres are depressed by alcohol, but also because 

 of loss of sensation and touch, or muscular sense, which is 

 essential in maintaining the equilibrium. In relation to the 

 spinal cord, primary stimulation of the reflex centres is 

 more marked in animals than in man, as has been pointed 

 out. In animals this stimulation causes motor excitement, 

 so that the patient trembles, jumps about, or strikes out 

 with the feet. Depression of the reflex centres occurs in 

 the latter stage of poisoning, and is exhibited by involuntary 

 defsecation and micturition ; sensation and voluntary motion 

 are lost. The motor nerves and muscles are not generally 

 paralyzed, except by the local action of alcohol. The 

 medulla finally becomes depressed and paralyzed, so that 

 respiration, which is first stimulated, now fails, and the 

 heart muscle becomes paralyzed and stops beating. 



The action of alcohol upon the nervous system may be 

 summarized with a fair degree of accuracy, as stimulation 

 and then depression of the parts enumerated below, and in 

 the following order : 



Cerebral psychical centres. > Spinal centres. 

 Cerebral sensory centres. Sensory, reflex and motor. 



Cerebral motor centres. Medullary centres. 



Cerebellum. Vasomotor (early depression) . 



Respiratory. 



Horses and dogs are comparatively susceptible to alco- 

 hol, ruminants slightly so. An amount of alcohol equivalent 

 to a pint of whiskey has killed a sound horse, while four 

 ounces of whiskey will cause death in dogs if vomition be 

 prevented by ligature of the oesophagus. 



Primary motor excitement is followed by unsteady, 

 staggering gait, and coma in fatal cases. 



