The agency of alcohol, as illustrated by accurate dissections : being an account of Professor Sewall's drawings of the stomach, exhibiting its state in health, and under the various stages of alcoholic excitement and disease.

  • Sewall, Thomas.
Date:
[©1843?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The agency of alcohol, as illustrated by accurate dissections : being an account of Professor Sewall's drawings of the stomach, exhibiting its state in health, and under the various stages of alcoholic excitement and disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    18/28 (page 30)
    StomncU of tlie moderate drinker of alcoholic poison Testimony of Dr. H. Green. CONFIEMATORY DISSECTIONS. The Journal of the American Temperance Union for May, 1843, contains the fol- lowing extract of a letter from Professor Sewall, to a physician at Albany. You ask upon what observation the stomach of the temperate drinker was made ? I answer, that all the plates were drawn from the observation of nature, as exhibited in my dissections, and of cases which came under my notice, as stated in the work; and if the testimony of such men as Ilorner, Mott, and Warren, does not establish their correctness, I need not exiject to satisfy the community, although I have the additional testimony of some of the most distinguished of the British physicians, who say, ' they are entirely accurate and faithful to nature.' I am not surprised that the stomach of the temperate drinker should be singled out, and that it should have given such deep offence. I know that with a certain class, this is a delicate and tender point, and the plate presents to them a painful, a revolting spectacle; and if I could, in justice to the cause of truth and humanity, have spared the feelings of the temperate drinker I would have done so; and even noAv, if he can mxike himself believe that there is no intermediate pathological state between the healthy stomach and that of the confirmed drunkard; if he can persuade himself that at one moment the stomach is entirely healthy, and that without any intermediate transition, the aggravated state of disease represented in the stomach of the confirmed drunkard, is developed all at once, then he may get rid of the annoyance, and quiet him self with the idea that though a temperate drinker, his stomach is still healthy and sound. The same Journal also contains a letter from Horace Green, Esq. M. D., confirming Dr. Sewall's dissections, and referring to a discussion which had been raised by Dr. Hun, of Albany, upon theoretical grounds only. Since my letter to you, of the 8th of March, I have had an opportunity of inspecting the stomach of a ' temperate [^moderate] drinker.' An individual died, after a short illness, of a disease in which the stomach was not in any degree involved. This individual had been accustomed for several years to drink moderately of wine, daily. Yet he had enjoyed for a long time preceding his death, almost uninterrupted health. On examination of the body, the cause of death was found to be remote from the stomach, and had not, in any degree, involved that organ. The stomach was removed, and I had an opportunity ofi comparing its coats directly with the plate ichich has occasioned so much discus- sion. The following is the note which I made at the time:—' The stomach was found empty, and nearly in a healthy condition, e.vcept the capillary rcsscls^ which were enlarged and congested, especially about the upper part of its greater' curvature, and around the cardiac orifice. Here the mucous mcmbranei coursing about one half of this organ, presents au appearance almost precisely- like that exhibited in the 2nd Plate of Dr. Sewall's delineations of the: morbid stomach; with these exceptions, that the branches of the vessels,, although equally distinct, wore shorter and more zigzag, and the whole nott highly colored as they are in the drawing.' This case was particularly interesting to mo, as I was confident, fromi knowing all the circumstances of the case, that this condition of the stomach. had its origin in the 'temperate' use of alcoholic drinks, and from the effects- of the disease, or the remedies employed; and yet I am well aware that such a* case cannot bo admitted as 'positive* testimony to the point, because, forr professional reasons, all the details and circumstances of the case cannot be given.