The evidence of Sir Wm. Gull, F.R.S., physician to her Majesty.

  • Gull, William.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The evidence of Sir Wm. Gull, F.R.S., physician to her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    You would hold the very o|)po«ite ? I Rhould hold the oppoKite. Would you say that a moderately temperate person might be benaflo <1 by a slight use of wine or alcohol ? / thould hold the oppoeile (u regurdjt the intellect; all alcohol, aiul all things of an alcoholic nature, injure the nerce tissues, jrro tempore, if not altogether; you may quicken the operations, but you do not improve them. Therefore the constant use of alcohol, even in a moderate measure, may injure the nerve tissues ? I'm, certainly, and he. deleterious to health. Have you known cases, may I ask, where the effects of alcohol have been quite manifest, although there has not been any outrageous drink- ing or obvious excess ? That is very common ; I should say that one of the commonest things in our society is that ]iei>ple are injured by drink without being drunkards. It goes on so quietly that it is very difficult to observe even. The effects are marked and distinct to your professional eye ? Perfectly, although in many cases even the man’s nearest friends will not know it. I might mention that on one occasion I was called to see a medical man who was so injured by drink that he was yellow like a lemon ; he was in a state of delirium tremens, and his system was satu- rated to the last degree with alcohol. I was surprised that I should be wnt for, but coming downstairs I said to his wife, “ I need not trouble you by saying what is the matter with your husband.” She said, “ Sir, I do not understand you.” I said, “ Your husband is an habitual drunkard.” She said, “ Drunkard, Sir, you never made a ^eater mistake in your life ; he only drinks water;” which was plain evidence to me how quietly a man may drink day by day, and almost kill himself with drink, and even his near friends not know it. Did you understand the cause in that case to be that he had drunk something every’ day. He was a sly drinker, drinking all day, most likely, in a sly way. But may I just come back for a moment to my former question; there is a point short of drimkenness in which a man may’ injure his constitu- tion considerably by means of alcohol ? Very materially; I should say from my experience that it is the most destructive agent that we are aware of in this country. Setting aside the drunken part of the community altogether, great in- jury is being done by the use of alcohol in what is supposed by the con- sumer to be a most moderate quantity ? Yes, I think so : I think that, taking it as a w’hole, there is a great deal of injury done to health by the habitual use of wines in their various kinds, and alcohol in its various shapes, even in so-called moderate quan- tities. Does that remark apply to both sexes ? Yes, and to people who are not in the least intemperate. Chairman: And people who are in good health. Yes, people who are supposed to be fairly well; I think drinking teaxts to the degeneration oj the tissues; it spoils the health, and it spoils the ‘Ardibishopof York: I think I gathered from you that you thought there was also a certain amount of degeneration of the nervous system ? - Where drinking is carried to excess. But not in the case of a moderate consumption ? It would be difficult to test the smaller effect^ In cases of weak digestion you would prescribe wme distinctly, would you not ?