380 THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULAnON 



blood is allowed to enter them, and, as the small vessels are usually 

 near the surface of the body, the habitual redness seen in the face 

 of hard drinkers is the ultimate result. 



As a result of experiments performed in 1869, Zimmerberg declares : 

 " In the light of these experiments one is not only justified in denying to 

 alcohol any stimulating power whatever for the heart, but, on the con- 

 trary, in declaring that it lowers the working capacity of that organ." 



Dr. J. H. Kellogg, head of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, says : " The 

 full bounding pulse usually produced by the administration of an ounce 

 or two of brandy properly diluted, gives the impression of an increased 

 vigor of heart action; but it is only necessary to determine the blood 

 pressure by means of a Riva-Rocci instrument, or Gaertner's tonometer, 

 to discover that the blood pressure is lowered instead of raised. This 

 lowering may amount to twenty or thirty miUimeters, or even more. . . . 

 It can readily be seen, then, that the bounding pulse is not the result of 

 increased heart vigor, but indicates rather a weakened state of the heart, 

 combined with a dilated condition of the small vessels." 



In an address before the Liverpool Medical Association, Dr. James 

 Barr, president of the association, discussing the effects of medicinal doses 

 of alcohol upon the circulation, remarked : "It causes dilatation of the 

 arterioles and of all arteries well supplied with muscular fibers, owing to 

 its paretic effect upon the vasomotor nervous system, and its direct action 

 as a protoplasmic poison on the muscular fiber. It has a similar, though 

 less marked, action on the cardiac muscle. From these causes the systoUc 

 blood pressure is lowered, the systolic output from the heart is diminished, 

 and the cardiac energy is wasted in pumping blood into relaxed vessels ; 

 the large bounding pulse with comparatively short systolic period, which 

 gives a deceptive appearance of vigor and force in the circulation, is due 

 to the large wave in the dilated vessels." 



" The first effect of diluted alcohol is to make the heart beat faster. 

 This fills the small vessels near the surface. A feeling of warmth is pro- 

 duced which causes the drinker to feel that he was warmed by the drink. 

 This feeling, however, soon passes away, and is succeeded by one of chilli- 

 ness. The body temperature, at first raised by the rather rapid oxida- 

 tion of the alcohol, is soon lowered by the increased radiation from the 

 surface. 



" The immediate stimulation to the heart's action soon passes away 

 and, like other muscles, the muscles of the heart lose power and contract 

 with less force after having been excited by alcohol." — Macy, Physiology. 



Alcohol, when brought to act directly on heart muscle, lessens the force 

 of the beat. It may even cause changes in the tissues, which eventually 

 result in the breaking of the walls of a blood vessel or the plugging of a 

 vessel with a blood clot. This condition may cause the disease known as 

 apoplexy. 



