Drunkenness / by George R. Wilson.

  • Wilson, George R. (George Robert)
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drunkenness / by George R. Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    but most of all with the nervous system. A kind of “ elective affinity ” seems to exist between brain-tissue and alcohol ; and it is on this ac- count that we regard drunkenness as essentially a nervous affection. This organic selection is not exclusive, for other systems, such as the di- gestive, may be materially impaired. But it is essential, for, while a man might drink to excess and yet preserve his digestion, a drunkard who exhibited no impairments of movement or de- fects in intelligence would be an anomaly. Most of the drugs which select the nervous system have the further property of acting mainly on a particular part of it. Strychnine, for example, acts chiefly on certain elements in the spinal cord ; bromides affect the mechan- ism of the middle level primarily; and sulphonal has its deepest effects on certain functions of the highest level. Alcohol is usually under- stood to have a general action. But before that general narcotic effect is brought about, it has a primary selective action on the nerve-centres which regulate the blood-supply, and, in par- ticular, the blood-supply of the nervous system. This immediate result of alcohol is called “stimu- lation,” and occurs for the most part before the
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