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Alcoholism.The habitual use of alcohol in excess causes an impairment of the bodily functions generally; the digestion is weakened, the blood is impoverished, the general nutrition is impaired, the power of the muscles is diminished, and emaciation frequently occurs. The effects on the mental faculties are no less injurious and marked than on the physical powers ; the mental and moral faculties are blunted and impaired, so that the individual finally drifts into a condition which has been called dipsomania, a form of derangement which is manifested by the patient's uncontrollable desire for drink. Before this stage is reached, there are various symptoms indicating the decay of the nervous system ; such are sleeplessness, headache, dizziness, tremblings of the muscles, occasional delusions, and a state of mental depression. Indeed, the impairment of the nervous system may be so pronounced that paralysis of movements or of the sense of feeling, or of bothr occur, and finally there results unmistakable insanity. Other affections, such as epilepsy and imbecility, are occasional manifestations of the effects of alcohol. This subject, the use and abuse of alcohol, has become one of the most important of the topics which medical men are called upon to treat and to consider, in most of the countries of the civilized world, and certainly in America. Although various forms of alcohol are used by preference in different countries of the world, yet the same general effects are manifested, since the injurious principle in all - alcohol - is the same. Yet it becomes a question whether the acquisition of the habit of drinking is not in some cases the result of previous disease of the brain ; it seems quite possible that we are attributing too much evil to alcohol when we ascribe all mental and moral wrecks which occur in inebriates to the use of this sub stance alone. It seems unquestionable that in many cases there is a previous condition of the individual which predisposes him to the use of stimulants. And while the excessive use of alcohol can and undoubtedly does aggravate and hasten the mental disease, yet it must be regarded merely as an agent whereby the individual grati fies an unnatural craving. For in modern society there is a wide spread yearning for unnatural stimulants, which finds gratification not only in the abuse of alcohol, but also in the excessive use of opium, chloral and other narcotics. Dr. Beard, who has devoted especial attention and study to this subject, remarks: " I would specially insist on the significance of civilization as the great predisposing cause of chronic alcoholism. Alcohol alone, in quantities however great, seems to be powerless to produce this disorder unless it acts on the nervous system previously made susceptible by indoor life and nerve-exhausted influences, such as the printing press, the telegraph and the railways, that are peculiar to our modern civilization. It is not necessary that we should become excessively nervous, but that we should become considerably so, before alcohol can produce chronic alcoholism. In this view I am justified by the fact that we have no clear evidence from history that chronic alcoholism exists as a disease among the savage or semisavage people who are the grossest abusers of alcoholic liquors; and it is far more frequent now than it was among our ancestors of but a few generations back, who indulged in intoxicating drinks to a degree that seems to us past belief. There never was a time in the recorded history of modern civilization when, in proportion to the numbers, there was so little use of alcoholic liquors among the respectable classes as now ; and there never was a time probably when there was so much of chronic alcoholism among these very classes ; indeed, it is but recently that attention has been called to this disease, and we may justly believe that its increase in frequency has compelled our scientists to give it attention. The Anglo-Saxons are by nature a race of gluttons and drunkards (although by grace and culture the better portion have become temperate and gentlemanly), and the climate in which the English, Americans and Scandinavians live is one specially calculated to foster the habit of inebriety ; and yet the alphabet of drinking is something that we have yet to learn. There are tribes in Africa and in the islands of the Pacific, who are drunk almost from birth to death ; their normal condition is to be drunk, as with us it is to be sober. " We are all aware that a century or so ago it was the custom among our ancestors, especially in Scotland, to celebrate every distinctive or trifling event - births, funerals, weddings, barn-raisings, house-warmings, etc., to infinity - with profuse imbibing of strong liquors. Now, among certain savage tribes this custom still prevails in most disgusting enormity. The East African drinks till he can no longer stand, lies down to sleep, and awakens to drink again. Reprove an Anglo-Negro for being drunk, and he will reply : 'Why, my mother is dead!' as if that were excuse enough. In our land the sight of a man who has been wounded and scarred in a drunken brawl is by no means common, save among the very lowest orders ; but in certain regions of Africa there are whole tribes, nearly all of whose members are thus disfigured. The truth is, that this whole habit of intemperate drinking is a survival of savagery ; it is a projection of barbarism into civilization, and, like other savage survivals, it is gradually disappearing among all those classes where civilization really prospers. " It is true that all savages in cold or hot climates are not intemperate, but that is because they can get nothing to drink. The North American Indians are generally sober, but for the same reason that the inmates of Sing Sing are sober ; they live under a rigid prohibitory law ; but open a cask of rum before a hundred Indians, and in an hour you will have a hundred drunkards. And yet, notwithstanding this enormous excess of savages, there is no evidence that I can find that chronic alcoholism prevails among them ; injured they must be by their prodigious potations, but probably not through any form of nervous disease. Among all barbarous people insanity, hysteria, neuralgia, insomnia and nervous, dyspepsia, and all other functional diseases are either rare or utterly unknown. Chronic alcoholism is one of a large number of diseases for which we have to thank the 19th century. It seems to increase as the habit of drinking diminishes. Formerly any amount of drinking would not cause it; now it may follow excesses comparatively slight. " Granting that in the long lapse of ages, in the slow evolution of humanity, through we know not how many millions of centuries, race is a result of climate ; yet in appreciable historic time, that is within the past three or four thousand years, race rises everywhere more or less superior to climate, and within certain limits prevails over it; and this habit of drinking is one of the features in which the dominance of race seems prominent. Most strikingly is this illustrated by the history of the Hebrews. This peculiar people have gone out through all the world, and their descendants to the very ends of it, under all climes and in the presence of all forms of alcohol, and yet chronic alcoholism is very rare among them, if indeed "it can be said to have with them any existence. "They are not abstainers ; they drank the wines of their native Palestine. They drink the beers and wines of Germany and America ; there is no other race that so universally drink, there is no other race that is so universally sober-they drink, but are not drunkards ; but there seems to be in their nervous system some subtle and never-failing transmissible force or quality, as much a part of their constitution as their physiognomy or avarice, which, mightier than climate and stronger than all temptation, enables them to take coals in their hands without being burned; which can always say to alcohol, under all its disguises, * hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall your fiery power be staid.' " There are no other people who have gone into all climates to the extent that the Jews have, and yet retain so successfully the habits of temperance. The Italians and Spaniards are much less disposed to chronic alcoholism than the more Northern nations. In recent times the disease seems to have been increasing in France, where formerly it was uncommon. But the race above all others predisposed to this disorder, is the Anglo-Saxon. It is indeed in England and America and among the Scandinavians that attention was first and most earnestly called to this disease. " In regard to the influence of climate, independently of race, my researches seem to show that the disease is most frequent in temperate and cold climates. The habit of excessive drinking is not confined to any climate ; it most abounds in the tropics and in the coldest regions of the North ; but between the temperate and tropic regions there is what I have termed the temperate belt, which embraces the southern of the north temperate and the northern part of the torrid zone, and in which, all around the globe, there is less intemperance than in any other inhabited region, either north or south of it. This belt includes Spain, Italy, Southern France, Turkey, Syria, Persia, North Africa, Southern China, and Mexico. The excessive drinking of hot, or even of warm climates, induces diseases of the liver, but not chronic alcoholism, at least among the natives. The chosen home of this disease, so far as we know, is the belt including Sweden, Great Britain, and the United States. It is a noteworthy fact, that not only alcoholic liquors, but coffee, also, can be used more freely in warm than in cold climates. In a most interesting way this is illustrated in our own country, where the Southerners of the respectable class drink far more freely than their Northern friends of the same class, and show it less. Moisture and dryness, and probably also atmospheric electricity and ozone, and especially the alternations of heat and cold in the northern part of the United States, are factors that give us a partial explanation of the unparalleled nervousness of the Americans, and also of the great prevalence of chronic alcoholism, in spite of the fact that in our better classes there is more of total abstinence than in any other civilized nation. The air of California is exceptionally dry, and nervous diseases are alarmingly frequent there, and the effects of inebriety are of the most serious character, even in the wine-producing districts. " Chronic alcoholism is regarded by many, as by the author just quoted, as essentially a disease of the nervous system, not produced by intoxication, but manifesting itself in such intoxication, and hastened by the abuse of alcoholic beverages. Treatment.- The object of treatment is to restore the nervous system to a condition wherein the individual shall lose the desire for excessive stimulation, and at the same time lose the necessity for the use of intoxicating liquors. The treatment should therefore be essentially Unic. All those measures should be employed which can assist in toning up the deteriorated nervous system. For this purpose the most important agents are quinine, strychnine, phosphorus and cod liver oil. The following prescription may be given : Pyrophosphate of iron, - Forty grains. Quinine, - Twenty grains. Extract of nux vomica, - Five grains. Mix and make twenty pills. Take one before meals. In many cas'es the oxide of zinc has been found useful. Of this preparation one to two grains may be given three times a day, either dry in the form of powder or made up into pills. The cod liver oil is a valuable tonic, and may be given first as teaspoonful doses after meals. As the patient becomes accustomed to it the quantity may be increased to one or two tablespoonfuls. In some cases benefit has been derived from the use of electricity applied along the spine. This is a measure which can be administered only by one thoroughly familiar with the method and well provided with electrical apparatus. An incident in chronic alcoholism is Delirium Tremens. But first, if you want to come back to this web site again, just add it to your bookmarks or favorites now! Then you'll find it easy! Also, please consider sharing our helpful website with your online friends.
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