The pathology of drunkenness, or, The physical effects of alcoholic drinks : with drawings of the drunkard's stomach : a letter addressed to Edward C. Delavan / by Thomas Sewall.

  • Thomas Sewall
Date:
1841
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology of drunkenness, or, The physical effects of alcoholic drinks : with drawings of the drunkard's stomach : a letter addressed to Edward C. Delavan / by Thomas Sewall. 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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    excited by stimulating drinks, the sleep, though it may be profound, is never tranquil and refreshing. The system being raised to a state of feverish excitement, and its healthy balance disturbed, its exhausted excitability is not restored. The individual awakes, but finds himself fa- tigued rather than invigorated. His muscles are relaxed, his senses obtuse, his intellect impaired, and his whole sys- tem disordered; and it is not till he is again under the influ- ence of food and stimulus that he is fit for the occupations of life. And thus he loses the benefits of this wise provis- ion of repose designed for his own preservation. Nothing, probably, tends more powerfully to produce premature old age than disturbed and unrefreshing sleep. It is also true, that artificial stimulus, in whatever way applied, tends constantly to exhaust the principle of excita- bility of the system, and this in proportion to its itensity, and the freedom with which it is applied. But there is still another principle on which the use of alcohol predisposes the drunkard to disease and death. It acts on the blood, impairs its vitality, deprives it of its red color, and thereby renders it unfit to stimulate the heart, and other organs through which it circulates; unfit, also, to supply the materials for the different secretions, and to renovate the different tissues of the body, as well as $ to sustain the energy of the brain; offices which it can perform only while it retains the vermillion color, and other arterial properties. The blood of the drunkard is several shades darker in its color than that of tem- perate persons, and also coagulates less readily and firmly, and is loaded with serum ; appearances which indicate that it has exchanged its arterial properties for those of venous blood. This is the cause of the livid complexion of the in- ebriate, which so strongly marks him at the advanced stage of intemperance. Hence, too, all the functions of his body are sluggish, irregular, and the whole system loses its tone and energy. If alcohol, when taken into the system, ex- hausts the vital principle of the solids, it destroys the vital principle of the blood also ; and if taken in large quantities produces sudden death; in which case the blood, as in death produced by lightning, by opium, or by violent- and long continued exertion, does not coagulate. The principles laid down are plain, and of easy applica- tion to the case before us.] The inebriate havings by the habitual Use of alcoholic drinks, exhausted to greater or less extent the principle of excitability in the solids, the power of reaction, and the blood having become incapable of performing its offices also, he is alike predisposed to every disease, and rendered liable to the inroads of every invading foe. So far, there- fore, from protecting the system against disease, intemper- ance ever constitutes one of its strongest predisposing causes. Superadded to this, whenever disease does lay its grasp upon the drunkard, the powers of life being already enfee- bled by the stimulus of alcohol, he unexpectedly sinks in the contest, but too frequently to the mortification of his physician, and the surprise and grief of his friends. Indeed, inebriation so enfeebles the powers of life, so modifies the character of disease, and so changes the operation of medi- cal agents, that unless the young physician has studied thoroughly the constitution of the drunkard, he has but par- tially learned his profession, and is not fit for a practitioner of the present age. These are the reasons why the drunkard dies so easily, and from such slight causes. A sudden cold, a pleurisy, a fever, a fractured limb, or a slight wound of the skin, is often more than his shattered powers can endure. Even a little excess of exertion, an ex- posure to heat or cold, a hearty repast or slight emotion of the mind, not unfrequently extinguishes the small remains of the vital principle. The fearful epidemic, the Asiatic Cholera, which so lately spread consternation and dismay over more than half the civi- lized world, wherever it appeared, singled out the intemper- ate for its victims, in a marked and most extraordinary man- ner. If in some instances the sober and temperate were borne off in the common ruin, it was seldom, except when some powerful predisposing or exciting cause, overwhelmed the system. I have thus endeavored, according to your request, to fur- nish a few remarks upon the pathology of drunkenness. The sketch I have given you is brief and imperfect, and forms a mere outline of this important subject, out so far as it extends, it is based upon facts, which I have no fear will bear the test of future observation. You will perceive that a few passages are extracted from my address, already before the public, but they are here introduced as applicable to the occasion. Allow me in conclusion, to congratulate you, and your co-laborers, upon the good already achieved by your efforts. Multitudes have been emancipated from a state of the most degrading servitude ; disease has been arrested in its rava- ges ; enterprise brought back in a thousand instances, fresh and vigorous to the great purposes of the age; banished happiness restored to the social circle ; and new worship- pers called around the altar of God. For the universal con- summation of such blessings, every philanthropist will pray, and every patriot extend the helping hand.
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