How to Live Part 21

Similar results were found in dogs and rabbits.

Weinburg[21] confirmed these results by the same methods, showing that 20 per cent. of the red cells lose their resistance after the administration of 450 cc. of champagne.

Parkinson,[22] in a series of careful tests, failed to establish any influence on phagocytosis (capacity of the white blood cells to destroy bacteria), except when large doses or continuous moderate doses were taken.

[Sidenote: Effect on Circulation]

On the heart and circulation, alcohol acts as a depressant, increasing the rate, but not the force, of the pulse. It causes depression of the nerve center controlling the blood vessels and thus lowers blood pressure. Large doses cause paralysis of these nerves and of the heart.

Miller and Brooks[23] found from small doses (6 to 12 cc. absolute alcohol) an increase in blood pressure in conscious (unanesthetized) animals, contrary to the findings of Crile,[24] Cabot,[25] Dennig,[26]

Hindelang and Grunbaum, Alexandroff[27] and others, _in man_; but the amounts were small and variable, according to individual susceptibility, _thus showing the drug to be, even on such evidence, uncertain and unserviceable as a heart stimulant_.

[Sidenote: Food Value]

At.w.a.ter and Benedict,[28] and Beebe[29] and Mendel,[30] have shown that alcohol is a "protein sparer," and can, to some extent, take the place of fats and carbohydrates. This is what is meant by calling alcohol a "food." Always, however, it fails to pa.s.s some test by which true foods are measured. Apart from its effect on the nervous system, among which must be figured its action on the blood vessels which causes a _loss of body heat_, Mendel has shown that in moderate doses (96 cc. daily) it increases the output of uric acid and allied (purin) bodies derived from the tissues, a fact which distinguishes it from all other foods. These poisonous or drug effects must always be considered, together with any alleged nourishing effects. Alcohol is still used by some as a rapidly available fuel-food in fevers, and when ordinary foods cannot be readily digested and made available. But this is done to a much less degree than formerly, now that its narcotic and poisonous effects are more fully understood. Sugar and water often serve quite as useful a purpose.

It seems reasonable, on the evidence herein presented, to cla.s.s alcohol among the narcotic or "deadening" drugs, such as ether or chloroform.

Indeed, Aschaffenburg[31] has recently called attention to the growth of the ether habit in eastern Germany, where this drug is used as a so-called stimulant, while in reality the effects are well known to be narcotic, or deadening.

The laboratory and the life insurance records simply give exact expression to what has long been a matter of common knowledge to the employer of labor and to leaders and commanders of men; to wit, that the influence of alcohol on any large group of men, whether they be artisans or soldiers, is harmful and lowers the efficiency of the group.

Individual susceptibility varies, but the man who thinks he is an exception and can indulge with safety may find that he is mistaken only after serious damage to the body has been done and perhaps a definite loss sustained in happiness and achievement.

[Sidenote: Effect on Offspring]

Stockard,[32] in his experiments on animals, has demonstrated conclusively that the germ cells of males can be so injured by allowing the subjects to inhale the fumes of alcohol that they give rise to defective offspring, although mated with vigorous untreated females. The offspring of those so treated when reaching maturity are usually nervous and slightly undersize. These effects are apparently conveyed through the descendants for at least three generations. Such evidence establishes at least the probability of the transmission of serious ill effects to human offspring through alcoholic indulgence of the male parent.

Much of the statistical evidence that has been produced on both sides of this question of the transmissibility of the effect of alcohol is misleading unless very critically a.n.a.lyzed, but the results of exact laboratory experiments can hardly be gainsaid.

Those who trifle with alcohol should at least take the precaution to be periodically examined in order to detect the earliest signs of ill-effect. One's own feelings are not safe guides, and may fail to warn of danger until serious damage has been done.

In 1914, at the annual meeting of the National Council of Safety, at which there were present representatives from several hundred large industries, the members unanimously voted to abolish liquor from their plants. It has been well stated by Quensel[33] that "work and alcohol do not belong together, especially when the work demands wideawakeness, attention, exactness and endurance."

The restrictive and prohibitive measures of the French and Russian governments, the well known opposition of the Kaiser to alcohol and the warnings uttered by Lord Kitchener and leading British statesmen, are sufficient evidence that the condemnation of alcohol represents the deliberate judgment of the world's strong men.

_REFERENCES_

[1] United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Inst.i.tution of London, Annual Report, 1910.

[2] Sceptre Life a.s.sociation, Annual Report, 1912.

[3] Scottish Temperance Life a.s.surance Company, Annual Report, 1912.

[4] The Abstainers and General Insurance Company, Ltd., Annual Report, 1912.

[5] McMahon, T. F.: _The Use of Alcohol and the Life Insurance Risk._ Proceedings of the a.s.sociation of the Life Insurance Medical Directors of America, 1911, Twenty-second Annual Meeting, p. 473; Medical Record, Lx.x.x, p. 1121.

[6] Lounsberry, R. L.: Proceedings of the Life a.s.surance Medical Directors. October, 1913.

[7] Moore, Roderick McKenzie: _On the Comparative Mortality Among a.s.sured Lives of Abstainers and Non-Abstainers from Alcoholic Beverages._ Transactions of the Inst.i.tute of Actuaries, 1913, x.x.xVIII, pp. 248-272.

[8] Report of Medico-Actuarial Mortality Investigation, IV, pp. 11-13.

[9] Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, Sixty-first Number, 1809-1913 (Wyman & Sons), London, 1914, p. 173; Statistical Abstract for the Princ.i.p.al and Other Foreign Countries, 1901-1912, Thirty-ninth Number, pp. 505, 506, 507; Statistical Abstract of the United States, Thirty-sixth Number, 1913, p. 516.

[10] Kraepelin, Emil: _Ueber die Beeinflussung einfacher psychischer Vorgange durch einige Arzneimittel_, Verlag von Gustav Fisher, Jena, 1892; Aschaffenburg, Gustav: _Praktische Arbeit unter Alkoholwirkung, Psychologische Arbeiten_, 1896, I, pp. 608-626; Kurz, Ernest, and Kraepelin, Emil: _Ueber die Beeinflussung psychischer Vorgange durch regelma.s.sigen Alkoholgenuss, Psychologische Arbeiten_, 1901, III, pp. 417-457; Mayer, Martin: _Ueber die Beeinflussung der Schrift durch den Alkohol, Psychologische Arbeiten_, 1901, III, pp. 535-586; Rudin, Ernst: _Ueber die Dauer der psychischen Alkoholwirkung, Psychologische Arbeiten_, IV, pp. 1-44.

[11] Vogt, R.: _Om virkningen af 15-50 cm3 koncentrert spiritus paa erindringsevnen_, Norsk. Mag. f. Laegevidensh., 1910, LXXI, pp. 605-626; The Lancet (London), 1910, II, p. 1040.

[12] Aschaffenburg, Gustav: _Crime and Its Repression_, Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1913, p. 84.

[13] Schnyder, L.: _Alkohol und Muskelkraft_, Archiv fur Physiologie, 1902-3, XCIII, p. 451.

[14] h.e.l.lsten, A. F.: _Ueber den Einfluss von Alkohol, Zucker und Thee auf die Leistungsfahigkeit des Muskels_, Munchen Med. Wchnschr., 1914, LI, pp. 18-94.

[15] Bastedo, Walter A.: _Materia Medica Pharmacology and Therapeutics_, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia and London, 1913, p. 333.

[16] Laitinen, T.: The Norman Kerr Lecture on _The Influence of Alcohol on Immunity_, Med. Rec., LXXVI, 1909, pp. 445-446. Read before the Twelfth International Anti-Alcoholic Congress, held in London, July, 1909; _Uber die Einwirkung der kleinsten Alkoholengen auf die Widerstandsfahigkeit des tierischen Organismus mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der Nachkommenschaft_, _Ztschr. f. Hyg. u.

Infections-krankheiten_, LVIII, 1907-8, p. 139.

[17] Rubin, George: _The Influence of Alcohol, Ether, and Chloroform on Natural Immunity in its Relation to Leucocytosis and Phagocytosis_, Jour. Infct. Dis., 1904, I, pp. 425-444.

[18] Stewart, Chas. E.: _The Influence of Alcohol on the Opsonic Power of the Blood_, Mod. Med., 1907, XVI, pp. 241-246. Read before the American Society for the Study of Alcohol and Drug Neuroses, Atlantic City, June 4, 1907, and published in the Jour. of Inebriety.

[19] Craig, Chas. F., and Nichols, Henry J.: _The Effect of the Ingestion of Alcohol on the Result of the Complement Fixation Test in Syphilis_, Jour. A. M. A., 1911, LVII, pp. 474-76.

[20] Fillinger, F. V.: _Weitere Mitteilungen uber Resistenzverminderung der Erythrozyten nach Alkoholgenuss_, Deutsch. Med. Wchnschr., 1912, x.x.xVIII, p. 999.

[21] Weinburg, W. W.: _The Lowering of Stability of Erythrocytes in Alcoholic Intoxication_, Russky Vratch, 1912, II, p. 1324; New York Med.

Jour., 1912, XCVI, p. 1040.

[22] Parkinson, P. R.: _The Relation of Alcohol to Immunity_, The Lancet (London), 1909, VII, pp. 1580-82.

[23] Brooks, Clyde: _The Action of Alcohol on the Normal Intact Unanesthetized Animal_, Jour. A. M. A., 1910, LV, pp. 372-73. Read in the Section on Pathology and Physiology of the A. M. A. at the Sixty-first Session, St. Louis, June, 1910.

[24] Crile, George W.: _Blood Pressure in Surgery_, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1903. Cartwright Prize of the Alumni a.s.s'n of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City.

[25] Cabot, Richard C.: _Studies of the Action of Alcohol in Disease, Especially upon the Circulation_, Med. News, Lx.x.xIII, 1903, pp. 145-153.

Read before the a.s.sociation of American Physicians, May 13, 1903.

[26] Dennig, Hindelang und Grunbaum: _Uber den Einfluss des Alkohols auf den Blutdruck und die Herzarbeit in pathologischen Zustanden_, Namentlich beim Fieber, Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 1909, XCVI, pp. 153-162.

[27] Alexandroff, Emilie: _Ueber die a.n.a.leptische Wirkung des Alkohols bei pathologischen Zustanden_, Cor. Bl. f. schweiz. Aerzte., 1910, XL, pp. 465-475; Action of Alcohol During Febrile and other Pathologic Conditions, Jour. A. M. A., 1910, LV, p. 174.

[28] At.w.a.ter, W. A., and Benedict, F. G.: _An Experimental Inquiry Regarding the Nutritive Value of Alcohol_, National Academy of Science, 1902, Sixth Memoir.

[29] Beebe, L. B.: _The Effect of Alcohol and Alcoholic Fluids Upon the Excretion of Uric Acid in Man_, Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1904, XII, pp. 13-37.

[30] Mendel, L. B., and Hilditch, Warren W.: _The Influence of Alcohol Upon Nitrogenous Metabolism in Men and Animals_, Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1910, XXVII, pp. 1-23.