Where and How Intemperance Begins
By William S. Sadler
By William S. Sadler, M.D. THE great physiological action of alcohol is to lower the blood pressure; that is, it causes a dilatation of the capillaries and small blood-vessels of the skin and internal organs. In this way it produces the rum-blossom nose, the red skin, the reddish flush of the skin, and accordingly gives one that deceptive feeling of warmth in cold weather. By thus dilating the blood-vessels it lowers the blood pressure, and this great physiological action of alcohol must be borne in mind by parents in the education and training of their children, as well as by temperance advocates and reformers. Now it must be easy to discern that alcohol, since it dilates the blood-vessels and lowers the blood pressure, would afford relief from any and all conditions which contract the blood-vessels and thereby raise the blood pressure, producing those physical states of tension, excitability, and highly-wrought activities. Modern scientific experiments and observations have discovered a series of mental, moral, and physical influences which, grouped together, constitute the causes of our modern high-pressure life, and which may be more or less antidoted by the use of alcohol. That is, any of those physical or mental transgressions which raise the blood pressure can be offset for the time being by the use of alcohol, which lowers the blood pressure; and this is the secret of the continuous and increased use of alcohol on the part of civilized nations. There follows here a general classification of mental, moral, and physical practises which raise the blood pressure and which therefore create an unconscious demand and clamoring on the part of the unfortunate victims for alcohol or some other drug which will lower the blood pressure. This same fact also accounts for the use of morphin, which, like alcohol, lowers the blood pressure. Common Causes of High Blood Pressure.
I. Drugs.- Cocain.
- Tobacco.
- Tea and Coffee.
II. Diet and Physical Habits.- Condiments.
- Flesh foods.
- Overeating, or hasty eating.
- Auto-intoxication—Self-poisoning.
- Constipation.
- Exposure—chilling of the skin.
- Arterial sclerosis.
III. The Mental State.- Worry and anxiety.
- Disappointment and grief.
- Anger.
- Modern excitements and amusements.
IV. Moral Causes.- Guilty conscience.
- Doubts and unbelief.
The above outline of high blood pressure causes should be carefully studied by all parents and those who have the care of children. While the use of certain articles of diet, such as condiments, creates a thirst which water can not quench and indirectly leads to the taking of alcohol, it must not be overlooked that the great purposes for which alcohol is used are just three: - To overcome high blood pressure from any or all of the above numerous causes.
- To attempt to silence the dictates of conscience or the chiding of the higher centers of reason and judgment.
- In chronic alcoholism the liquor is taken merely to relieve the body of various indescribable and vague sensations of pain, etc., which appear when the nervous system begins to recover from the influence of the drug.
An effort should be made to rear the children with a well-balanced nervous system. Develop in them self-control. Study carefully the list of high-pressure causes and eliminate them from the lives of your children. It would be impossible in the confines of this single article to adequately deal with this great question—the beginnings of intemperance. I have therefore sought in its preparation to give to parents and teachers an outline of the causes of modern high tension as demonstrated by scientific research, and exhort my readers, after careful study of this outline, to seek to eliminate from their own lives and the lives of the little ones whom God has placed under their care and protection, all those influences of mind and body which elevate the blood pressure and which therefore directly or indirectly create a clamoring of the appetite and a longing of the nervous system which only alcohol or some pressure-lowering drug can possibly satisfy.