Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 27.

Health and Temperance.

EFFECTS OF STIMULANTS ON THE BLOOD.

THE effects of stimulants upon the circulation need careful consideration. There is no effect of alcohol more insidious than that produced by the nervous thrill it imparts to the action of the heart, and which is propagated all along the various vessels of the circulation. Even the temporary benefit derived from it, in cases of collapse, is most forcible evidence that its frequent or continued use is attended with most disturbing results.

The minute enlarged capillaries often seen upon the face, and the general redness of countenance produced by alcohol, in many who are regarded as temperate in its use, are the forcible declaration, that to the very tip ends of the circulating system it is capable of suspending contractile action, of paralyzing vaso-motor nerves, of weakening the caliber of the vessels, and of producing permanent engorgement or congestion in them. If this is true of the minute vessels of the face, it is equally true of those of the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, and other organs. When it is remembered that most of the vital organs are made up of millions of these little arterioles and veins, what takes place on the skin is the demonstration of far-reaching and abiding impairment of all vascular organs.

Induration of portions of the nervous centers, congestion of the respiratory organs, and shriveling and thickening of the coats of the stomach, are not unusual results of the frequent and habitual use of small quantities of alcohol. Still more serious is the effect upon the kidney and its functions. The power of alcohol to act upon the vaso-motor nerves of the capillary system, and to produce engorgement in minute vessels, is plainly shown in the reddened face and changed complexion of many habitual users who are not called excessive drinkers. The varied forms of renal disease which now destroy so many in middle life, or reduce them to invalidity, generally result from irritating substances which find their way into the renal vessels. No irritant so frequently has this effect as alcohol. So marked and general is its effect in the way of inducing congestion of the capillary circulation of the system and of most of its organs, and their subsequent destructive changes, that it has been well termed by Dickinson the very "genius of degeneration." The stomach, the liver, and the kidneys are generally the first organs to be embarrassed in their function by it. It then goes on to alter their structure so as to embarrass or suspend their service. One of the most constant and important revelations, both of pathology and of statistics, is that this occurs so uniformly in those who have been regarded as only moderate drinkers.

How the brain and the nervous system become involved in the disturbance is too well known, and too frequently attested by what we hear and see in the daily walks of life, to need extended comment. Alcohol retards the normal chemical changes which are essential to the processes of growth and repair. We need to give to the constructive forces full play. These are not stimulated, but blunted, by alcohol. We cannot successfully operate this wonderful machinery of life by forces which disturb circulation, disorder the nervous system, and embarrass vital organs both in structure and function.

When we come to examine the different forms of alcoholic mixtures we find them differing in their injurious effects as they differ in the amount of alcohol they contain. We of course cannot expect so rapid results from cider and beers, with from four to ten per cent. of alcohol, as we have from wines of from nine to twenty-six per cent.; and from brandy, whisky, and gin, with their fifty to sixty per cent. of alcohol. It is for the alcohol in them that they are used, and it is its use which constitutes the peril to health and to life. . . .

The deleterious effects of all alcoholic liquids have so impressed most Governments that restrictive measures have been adopted as to the sale of such liquors, and their sale entirely prohibited or discouraged, so far as minors are concerned. Many who will not practice total abstinence for themselves are in favor of bringing up men and women entirely without it for at least twenty-one years. The foods which are found adapted to the first twenty-one years of life are sufficient for the rest of life.

Against the use of liquids containing alcohol in any form must be urged, not only that they are not needed as foods, but that their use is likely to create an appetite for them which is dangerous to health and to life. In all grades, from the so-called moderate use to intensest intoxication, alcohol is fraught with fearful risks to health and life, as well as to character and success.

However proud we may be of our own powers of resistance, the universal testimony of experience is, that whatever tends to weaken our self-restraint is to be avoided. Fluids containing alcohol have shown such a wondrous ability to break down this power of self-control, and for creating a desire and appetite for such drinks, that, more than all other influences combined, they have overcome the resistance of the will, and proved the allurement and destruction of thousands.

Those who think they will stand, and those whom others have thought would stand, have fallen by multitudes. He who would do himself no harm must not run such a risk. The loss of self-control is a bodily as well as mental and moral infirmity often seen to pass from one generation to another. In any case it involves in its consequences many more than ourselves.

Hygiene has no more imperative law, and no more persuasive words in behalf of health, than to say, "Touch not, taste not, handle not." Character, education, health, happiness, and the hope of success, demand that life should be begun and carried through without indulgence at such a peril. It is a sad misnomer to call it drinking each other's health to drink alcohol. The fountain of health has not, and requires not, any such admixture.—Independent.