Desultory notes on the origin, uses, and effects of ardent spirit / by a physician.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Desultory notes on the origin, uses, and effects of ardent spirit / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    heightened, and the brain is powerfully excited—but its actions exhi- bit the greatest diversities, according to the individual. The ideas are, in some, prompt and energetic—in others, dull and soperose—they become deranged and confounded by the various impulses which are simultaneously felt. The impressions upon distant organs are accu- mulated by their increased exertions. The liver,* which in drunkards is almost always diseased, enters largely into this embarrassment—and every other organ and function has part in it, and is strongly tested in its integrity and health. The first impressions soon subside, leaving, as the consequences of excess—debility, languor, stupidity, pain, and nausea. These results are much modified, as we have already noticed, by the character and composition of the liquor drank, as well as by the peculiarities of the individual. Ale, beer, wines, cider, and spirit, in its stronger combinations, operate very differently in the per- manency of their effects, although the general result is the same by their intemperate use. When narcotic and poisonous substances are mingled with these liquors, their influences are in proportion more dangerous and fatal—and more likely, from the interruption they give to the instincts of health, to lead to future imprudence. In contemplating the variety of instinctive impulses which influence so extensively our sense and reason, we regard them as portions of the comprehensive design of our Creator—and, therefore, not to be despised or contemned without serious consequences to our happiness. They guide, in great degree, the curious movements of animal life, in its dependent forms; and although man does possess the power to control them, while in health, by his superior faculties, they occasion, by the depravations of disease, many of the results which are most injurious to society. A knowledge of their origin, location, bearing, and tendencies, may therefore greatly assist to prevent future infirmi- ty, disaster, and crime. Our instinctive sensations give the desire for action—by the opera- tions of the mind wc reflect, compare, and judge of them—and hence the necessity of judicious instruction. But the organic and functional perversions of our systems regulate, in a large measure, our capacity to exert its designed influences. The will can excite the senses to action, and the instincts can do the same.] The instincts, (which we consider the incitements of the internal as well as of the external senses) appear to be accompanied bv less complicated or extensive actions than those of reason ; but neither of them are very simple processes. A peculiar sensation of an * In distilleries and breweries, where liogrs and poultry are fed on the sedi- ments of the barrels, their livers and other viscera are observed to be enlarged and hardened, like those of the human body,—and were these animals not killed at a certain period, their flesh would be unfit to eat; and their bodies become ema- ciated. Trotter on Drunkenness, 115. Sir John Sinclair, in his remarks upon this subject, adds : But this is owing to their want of fresh air and exercise, and their being almost entirely fed on the dregs, or refuse of the distilleries. Code of Health, i. 337. Note. Some fowl-dealers in London are said to mix gin with the food of the birds by which means they are fattened, and their livers swell to a great size. Anat. of Drunkenness, 132. t Philosophy of Zoology, i. 312,