278 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



and the exhilaration resulting from its use is offered as a proof of this view. 

 What is a stimulant ? There are three classes of medicinal agents that produce 

 different chemical changes in the system and so sustain a different relation to the 

 production and expenditure of vital force. One class operates to produce an 

 increased expenditure of vital force without in any way affecting the supply of 

 that force. These are called stimulants. Of this class cayenne pepper, ammonia 

 and guaiacum will serve as examples. A second class increases both the amount 

 of the vital force and its expenditure; these are termed tonics. Iron, quinine, 

 and the active principle of the barks of poplar, willow and dogwood, and of tea 

 and coffee may be taken as samples of this class. A third class retards the chem- 

 ical changes of the system and so reduces both the production and expenditure 

 of vital force. Dullness, stupor, impaired sensibility and unconsciousness are 

 the results of this class. It is evident that alcohol belongs to this last group 

 The narcotic or ansesthetic effect of alcohol on the nerves and brain renders the 

 individual less sensible of all outward impressions. This diminished susceptibili- 

 ty renders the patient less sensible of heat and cold, weariness and pain. 



It has long been noticed as a paradox of human action that the same person 

 will claim that the same alcoholic drink will warm him when cold, cool him when 

 hot, rest him when weary and sooth him when afflicted. It has long been claim- 

 ed that when a person becomes weary a portion of alcohol will renew his vigor 

 and remove all sense of weariness. If exposed to heat or cold he feels the ef- 

 fects of these extremes less acutely if he has imbibed a portion of alcoholic 

 liquors. Now this sense of weariness, the pain felt in the presence of heat or 

 cold are but sendnels that nature has kindly placed to warn us of the vital powers 

 by these adverse conditions. 



When alcohol is taken under such circumstances it adds nothing to the 

 strength or the resisting power of the system ; simply renders it less sensible to 

 the evil that is going on — it bribes the sentinel, so to speak, to give no farther 

 warning while the ruin of the system is wrought. The sense of weariness is taken 

 away but the exhaustion goes on all the same. The sense of cold or heat is re- 

 moved, but this does not prevent the individual from dying with sunstroke on 

 the one hand or freezing on the other; but these fatal results are only hastened. 

 '■'■ But," it may be asked, "if alcohol is not a stimulant why is a man often 

 excited to great nervous and mental activity while under its influence?" 



This follows from the anaesthetic nature of the poison. When taken into the 

 stomach, as stated above, the alcohol is taken up at once and conveyed unchang- 

 ed to all parts of the system. Its first effects are felt at the extremities of the 

 nervous system. These nerve extremities under the paralyzing effects of this 

 narcotic poison lose their power of action and become inert. The vital force 

 that has been sent out from the great nerve-centre — the brain — to be expended at 

 these extremities, finding the nerve fibers inactive — the wires down — is returned . 

 toward the nerve-centre, producing increased activity in that organ, resulting in 

 exhilaration and increased nervous activity there. As the effects of the poison 

 move back along the nerve fibers, approaching nearer and nearer the brain, this 



