[1]
Opium, as used in moderation by Orientals, has not been proved to exercise any deleterious effects. Very likely it is a healthful stimulant; but it does not appear to agree with the constitutions of the Western races. See Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. xi. p. 364. Probably tea, tobacco and alcohol are the only stimulants adapted alike to all races, and to nearly all kinds of people.
  [2]
Lewes, Life of Goethe, vol. II. p. 267.
  [3]
In illustration it may be noted that as soon as a man has just transgressed the physiological limit which divides stimulation from narcosis, he is liable to throw overboard all prudential considerations and drink until he is completely drunk. This is one of the chief dangers of convivial after-dinner drinking.
  [4]
For the physiology of this pupil-change, not uncommon in various kinds of acute narcosis, see the Appendix to Anstie.
  [5]
Stimulants and Narcotics, pp. 174-178.
  [6]
For this and parallel cases see Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics, Lect. XVIII.
  [7]
It has been asserted by teetotalers that the mortality from intemperance is 50,000 a year in the United States alone!! It is to be regretted that friends of temperance are to be found who will persist in injuring the cause by such wanton exaggerations. In the United States, in 1860, the whole number of deaths from all causes was a trifle less than 374,000: the whole number of deaths from intemperance was 931,—that is to say, less than one in 374. See the admirable pamphlet by the late Gov. Andrew, on The Errors of Prohibition, p. 112. In view of these facts, it appears to us many leagues within the bounds of probability to say that hardly one person in ten is a
  [8]
See Anstie, op. cit. pp. 215, 216, 218.
  [9]
This is not always true, however: it is well to look sharp before making a sweeping statement. The digesting power of gastric juice is increased by diluting it with a certain amount of water. See Lehmann, Physiologische Chemie, II. 47.
  [10]
Dunglison, Human Physiology, vol. I. p. 148; Lewes, Physiology of Common Life, vol. I. p. 170.
  [11]
Dunglison, op. cit. I. 196.
  [12]
Lewes, loc. cit.
  [13]
A good summary will be found in the American Journal of Medical Sciences, July, 1859.
  [14]
Chemistry of Common Life, vol. I., p. 288.
  [15]
Except that of contemporary physiologists. Among these there are few greater names than that of Moleschott; whose testimony to the strengthening properties of alcohol may be found in his Lehre der Nahrungsmitiel, p. 162.
  [16]
We presume Mr. Parton thinks these three unprofessional opinions enough to outweigh the all but unanimous testimony of physicians to the tonic effects of beer, wine and brandy.
  [17]
Anstie, op. cit. pp. 381—385.
  [18]
In view of these and similar facts, Dr. Anstie remarks that "the effect of nutritious food, where it can be digested, is undistinguishable from that of alcohol upon the abnormal conditions of the nervous system which prevail in febrile diseases." p. 385. For the use of wine or brandy in infantile typhoid and typhus, see Hillier on Diseases of Children, a most admirable work.
  [19]
See Chambers, Digestion and its Derangements, p. 249; and in general, Johnston, Von Bibra, and the paper of Dr. Hammond above referred to.
  [20]
Carpenter, Human Physiology, p. 387.
  [21]
Anstie, op. cit., p. 359.
  [22]
Baudot, De la Destruction de l'Alcool dans l'Organisme, Union Médicale, Nov. et Déc., 1863. See also the elaborate criticism in Anstie, op. cit., pp. 358-370.
  [23]
De la Digestion des Boissons Alcooliques, in Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 1847, tom. xxi.
  [24]
Ueber das Verhalten des Alkohols im thierischen Organismus, in Vierteljahrsschrift für die praktische Heilkunde, Prague, 1833.
  [25]
See Moleschott, Circulation de la Vie, tom. ii. p. 6.
  [26]
So decisive is the paralyzing power of a narcotic dose of alcohol upon the stomach in some cases, that we have seen a drunken man vomit scarcely altered food which, it appeared, had been eaten fourteen hours before. The sum and substance of the above argument is that, as the narcotic dose of alcohol prevents the digestion of other food, it will also prevent the digestion of itself.
  [27]
In typhoid and typhus the "poison-line" of alcohol is shifted, so that large quantities may be taken without risk of narcosis. Women, in this condition, have been known to consume 36 oz. of brandy (containing 18 oz. of alcohol) per diem.
  [28]
It is not certain, however, that alcoholic drinks, as usually taken, materially retard the waste of tissue. These drinks contain but from 2 to 50 per cent of alcohol; the remainder being chiefly water, which is a great accelerator of waste. The weight-sustaining power of brandy, or especially of wine and ale, can, therefore, perhaps be hardly accounted for without admitting a true food-action.
  [29]
Dalton, Human Physiology, p. 363.
  [30]
Payen, Substances Alimentaires, p. 482.
  [31]
The liquid food may be taken in the shape of free water, or of water contained in the tissues of succulent vegetables. See Pereira, Treatise on Food and Diet, p. 277.
  [32]
Physiological Memoirs, Philadelphia, 1863, p. 48.
  [33]
Anstie, op. cit. p. 388.
  [34]
Brinton, Treatise on Food and Digestion; and Cornhill Magazine, Sept. 1862; cited in the pamphlet of Gov. Andrew, above-mentioned.
  [35]
Liebig, Letters on Chemistry, p. 454.
  [36]
Anstie, op. cit. p. 401.

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