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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![It is urged by the advocates of alcoliol that this action on the stomach is a reason for its employment as an aid to digestion, especially when the digestive powers are feeble. At best, the argument suggests only an artificial aid which it cannot be sound practice to make permanent,, in place of the natural process of digestion. In truth, the arti- ficial stimulation, if it be resorted to even moderately, is in time deleterious. It excites a morbid habitual craving for a stimulant; it excites over-secretion of the stomach and acidity, and in the end, it leads to weakened contractile power of the vessels of the stomach, to conse- quent deficiency of control of those vessels over the current of blood, to organic impairment of function, and to confirmed indigestion. On these grounds alone I infer that alcohol is no proper aid to digestion. I know from daily observation that when it is felt to be a necessary aid, it is doing actual mischief, the very feeling of the necessity being the best proof of the injury that is being inflicted. Lastly, on this head, it is matter of experience with me that, in nine cases out of ten, the sense of the necessity, on which so much is urged, is removed in the readiest manner by the simple plan of total abstinence, without any other remedy or method. When, in exceptional cases, total abstinence fails, other remedies, as a rule, also fail, and the indication is supplied that the natural functional activity of the digestive organs is irrevocably destroyed. [Question 2.] Relating to Feebleness of the Circulation.—The effect of alcohol on the circulation of the blood is to quicken the circulation. The heart beats more quickly after alcohol is imbibed ; the vessels of the minute circulation are dilated, and, at the same time, are reduced in their contractile power. A moderate degree of cold applied to the vessels of the body produces the same effects, and hence cold and alcohol go hand-in-hand together in inducing torpidity and general failure of vital activity. During the time](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28057077_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
