Alcohol / by C.R. Francis.

  • Francis, C. R. (Charles Richard), 1821-1901
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alcohol / by C.R. Francis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and especially if life be advanced, the heart, in consequence of these continued demands upon it, will become more enfeebled, and its pulsation accelerated, until at length, the alcoholic influence being continuously maintained, it will come to a standstill,—death being the final event. The accelerated pul- sation of the heart is, by the public generally and by many medical practitioners, looked upon as a response to a beneficial spur:—in their estimation alcohol acts as a stimulant. Its paralysing nature, however, is evidenced by such cases as the following. A retired Indian officer of 60, liable to occasional attacks of tropical dysentery from which with careful dieting and total abstinence from alcoholic drinks he always soon re- covered, was dosed, in his last and fatal illness from the same disorder, with several ounces of brandy, daily. Palpitation of the heart, with spots of congestion in the legs below the knees, were striking, and (to his then medical attendant) unaccountable, symptoms towards the end. There had been no history of pre- vious heart disease nor of heart weakness. The case seems to be typically illustrative of how alcohol may enfeeble the heart, causing palpitation and congestion in a dependent part of the body. It is known that, under ordinary circumstances, the heart, in health, will, during each day and night, perform work equal to lifting a certain weight one foot from the ground. Dr. E. A. Parkes, the much esteemed Professor of Hygiene in the Army Medical School at Netley, made, with Count Wollowicz, a series of experiments to show the effect of alcohol upon the heart. They found that it was enabled, under the influence of this drug in full physiological doses, to lift from 15 to 24 tons extra weight—or some 122 tons altogether—to the same height during the same time. But, there was a season of corresponding debility in the heart, afterwards. THE HEART. I have said that, owing to continuous extra exertion, the heart might, at length, come to a standstill. But, meanwhile, it may be undergoing changes in some part of its structure. Its orifices and cavities may become enlarged in consequence of the prolonged strain, or the valves may be stretched and unable to adapt themselves, so as to prevent regurgitation;* or the muscular walls of the ventricles may be thinned, leading to heart-failure and sudden death, as I have seen in the cases of some of those given to alcoholic indulgence in India: or they * Each orifice in the heart is provided with valves which, closing across the opening, prevent the blood from flowing backwards—from regur- gitation. They promote the onward progress of the blood. Alcohol may injure these valves and destroy their symmetry.
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