Alcohol at the bar : the highest medical and scientific testimony concerning its use / compiled by G.W. Bacon.
- Date:
- [between 1880 and 1889?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Alcohol at the bar : the highest medical and scientific testimony concerning its use / compiled by G.W. Bacon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Ellice, who stated that she had often heard from ladies certain reasons why they should not or could not abstain. One said her digestion required alcohol; a second, that her feeble circulation required it; a third, that her general feebleness required it; a fourth, that she had tried to abstain from it, but had to fall back upon it for support. Lady Jane therefore submitted the series of questions to Dr. Richardson on these special points, and his replies are placed in the order suggested by the inquiries. [Question 1.] “ Relating to the Action of Alcohol on the Process of Diges- tion.—The common idea that alcohol acts as an aid to digestion is without foundation. Experiments on the artificial digestion of food, in which the natural process is very closely imitated, show that the presence of alcohol in the solvents employed interferes with and weakens the efficacy of the solvents. It is also one of the most definite 01 facts that persons who indulge even in what is called the moderate use of alcohol suffer often from dyspepsia from this cause alone. They acquire the morbid feeling that they cannot take food in the absence of stimulants ; in some instances they are led to take more fluid and less solid food than is natural, and in other . instances more of both kinds of food than can be healthily assimilated and applied. Thus, the use of the stimulant leads to flatulency after meals, to tendency to sleep, to indolence of mind and body and to disturbed rest. In fact, it leads to the symptoms which, under the varied names of biliousness, nervousness, lassitude, and indiges- tion, are so well and extensively known. From the paralysis of the minute blood-vessels which is induced by alcohol, there occurs, when alcohol is intro- duced into the stomach* injection of the vessels and red- ness of the mucous lining of the stomach. This is attended by the subjective feeling of a warmth or glow within the body, and is followed by an increased secretion of the gastric fluids.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28057077_0040.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
