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Alcoholism
and Treatments
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That
alcohol is a poison is attested by all
chemists and other scientific men; taken undiluted
it destroys the vitality of the tissues of the body
with which it comes in contact as readily as creosote,
or pure carbolic acid. The term intoxicating
applied to beverages containing it refers to its
poisonous nature, the word being derived from the
Greek toxicon, which signifies a bow or an arrow;
the barbarians poisoned their arrows, hence, toxicum
in Latin was used to signify poison; from this
comes the English term toxicology, which is the
science treating of poisons. Druggists in selling
proof spirits usually label the bottle, “Poison.”
Apart from the testimony of science in regard to
its poisonous nature, it is commonly known that
large doses of brandy or whisky will speedily cause
death, particularly in those unaccustomed to their
use.
The newspapers frequently reported cases regarding the death of
children who have had
access to heavy liqueur, and drunk freely of it. Cases
are reported, too, of men, habituated to drink,
who after tossing off several glasses of brandy at
the bar have suddenly dropped dead. |
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The body is made up mainly of cells,
fibres and
fluids. The cell is the most important structure in
the living body. Life resides in the cell, and every
animal may be considered a mass of cells, each of
which is alive, and each of which has its own work
to accomplish in the building up of the body.
The matter which forms the mass of a
cell is called
protoplasm, or bioplasm. It resembles somewhat
the white of a raw egg, which is almost pure albumen.
Cells make up the body, and do its work. Some are
employed to construct the skeleton, others are used
to form the organs which move the body; liver-cells
secrete bile, and the cells in the kidneys separate
poisonous matters from the blood in order that they
may be expelled from the system.
These cells, composing the mass of the
body,
being very delicate, are easily acted upon by substances
coming into contact with them. If substances
other than natural foods or drinks are
introduced into the body, the cells are injuriously
affected. Alcohol is especially injurious to cells,
“retarding the changes in their interior, hindering their appropriation of food, and elimination of
waste matters, and therefore preventing their
proper development and growth.
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| Numerous experiments of chemists
and physiologists have shown
conclusively that the presence of alcohol in the blood diminishes
the amount of oxygen taken up through the air-cells of
the lungs; retards the molecular and metabolic changes of both nutrition and waste throughout the system and
diminishes the
sensibility and action of the nervous structures in direct proportion
to the quantity of alcohol present. By its stronger affinity
for water and albumen, with which it readily unites in all proportions,
it so alters the hemaglobin of the blood as to lessen
its power to take the oxygen from the air-cells of the lungs and
carry it as oxyhemaglobia to all the tissues of the body; and by
the same affinity it retards all atomic or molecular changes in
the muscular, secretory and nervous structures; and in the
same ratio it diminishes the elimination of carbon-dioxide, phosphates,
heat and nerve force. In other words, its presence
diminishes all the physical phenomena of life. |
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