Intoxication

“ Accordingly, poisons which affect the intelligence are ipso facto poisons of the sensibility. In this respect alcohol does not differ from chloroform. When alcoholic intoxication is only beginning, we find already a notable degree of insensibility; but at the comatose stage the insensibility is total, just as in the last stage of chloroform. Thus intoxication by chloroform and intoxication by alcohol proceed along parallel lines, and we can distinguish a first period of intoxication, properly so called, and a second period of sleep or coma. ”

“ Others, whose walk and demeanor would indicate a considerable degree of intoxication, might be mentally clear and unruffled and even stimulated by intoxicants to precise mental co-ordination and reasoning. ”

“ They are generally taken by the lowest class of people for the express purpose of intoxication; and they are much sooner prejudicial to the health than wine, and, indeed, when drunk unmixed, are no better than slow poison. ”

“ Alcohol is a narcotico-acrid poison. In small doses it occasions excitement and intoxication; in larger ones, delirium, somnolency, coma, apoplexy, and death. It acts as a violent nervous stimulant, and, by abstracting water from the soft tissues of the stomach and primæ viæ, destroys their organisation. It is alike poisonous to all animals;—2 drs. will kill a dog. All strong spirits act in the same way, the effect being proportionate to the state of concentration and the quantity taken. On plants it acts as a rapid and fatal poison. ”

“ We do not exaggerate the means nor the devotion to drunkenness in what we here state. The inducements to intoxication are double those which we have mentioned, and all vices and passions are made subservient to the work of selling liquor, while the effect of the poison sold is promotive of other vices. ”

“ Different persons are affected in different ways by the same poison. Indulgence in alcoholic drinks may act upon one or more of the cerebral organs; and, as its necessary consequence, the manifestations of functional disturbance will follow in such of the mental powers as these organs subserve. If the indulgence be continued, then, either from deranged nutrition or organic lesion, manifestations formerly developed only during a fit of intoxication may become permanent, and terminate in insanity or dypso-mania. ”

“ They are unlike instinct, inasmuch as they are not self-limiting. The intimate relation which they sustain to the stomach and nutritive functions is strikingly displayed in the habit of alcoholic intoxication. Spirituous drinks deprave the appetite, derange and destroy the stomach, poison the blood, and pervert all the functions of mind and body; and their injurious influence upon the nerves and basilar faculties is equally remarkable. They excite combativeness, selfishness, irritability, and exaggerate the influence of the animal organs. ”

“ But neither this combination of drugs nor any other combination known to man can prevent persons, after they are free from their addiction—be it alcohol or morphin—from going out and repoisoning themselves by taking again the drug which has poisoned them and led them on to their habitual intoxication. ”

“ And alcohol is not the only substance that inebriates. Opium, morphine, chloral, cocaine, and all drugs of a similar nature, are dangerous, and each not only inflicts its injury on the individual, but transmits its results to posterity in that nerve degeneration which renders the sufferer an easy victim to all forms of intoxication, and intoxication is nothing more nor less than poisoning. ”

“ Alcohol, and opium, if taken so as to induce slight intoxication, and the body be kept cool, and much diluting liquids taken along with them, have similar effect in producing for a time a greater flow of urine, as most intemperate drinkers must occasionally have observed. ”

“ Purification from the physical demand for alcohol at the place of commitment of men taken before the courts upon the charge of intoxication might save the public from a greater burden than any other available medical process. ”

“ The intoxication which follows the use of artificial compounds sold in all parts of the world as wines betrays in its course and symptoms the high percentage and toxic characters of the mixed alcohols which form their essential ingredients. ”

“ Some of the auto-intoxication or over-eating ills, are—biliousness, coated tongue, foul breath, clammy hands, clammy feet, dry lusterless hair, putty complexion, dulled hearing, dulled vision, dulled taste, dulled smell, early loss of memory, loss of continuous thought and attention, headaches, vertigo, dyspepsia, loss of strength, rheumatism, insomnia, fugitive pains and aches, hysteria, nervousness, nightmare, irregular heart, shortness of breath, brittle nails, dry harsh skin, cancer and premature old age of the doddering and slobbering kind. ”

“ It is not inconceivable that any inhibiting poison or toxin is capable of producing its own addiction-mechanism, and it has seemed to me that my own clinical familiarity with the action and reaction of narcotic, inhibiting, or addiction-forming drugs and of addiction-mechanism upon circulation, glandular and intestinal and other function has been of no little assistance in the interpretation, control and remedy of other chronic intoxications. ”

“ Much of inhibition of function and autointoxication and of their manifestations, has been recognized and taught under their own heading and in connection with conditions other than narcotic drug addiction-disease. That the influence and importance of inhibition of function and autointoxication in the development, and manifestations of the narcotic drug addict has escaped general and widespread recognition, is evidence of the small amount of unbiased clinical study, and of analytical clinical interpretation of material physical phenomena, hitherto accorded to narcotic drug cases. ”

“ There was a kindliness about intoxication—there was that indescribable gloss and glamour it gave, like the memories of ephemeral and faded evenings. ”

“ Autointoxication is said to play a prominent rôle in the causation of melancholia. This supposes that there is a manufacture of poisonous materials within the system, whose transference to the nervous tissues causes functional disturbance of these delicate organs. Such poisons are especially liable to be manufactured when digestive disturbances have existed for long periods of time, or when chronic alcoholism is a feature of the case. ”

“ The Men of Faith will play the cup-bearers at this lifelong bacchanal, filling and ever filling again with the warm liquor that the Intelligences, in sad and sober privacy behind the scenes, will brew for the intoxication of their subjects.” ”

“ We all know that proper food is wrought into our bodies; the action of animal life occasions a constant waste, and new matter has to be taken in, which, after digestion, is carried into the blood, and then changed; but poison is incapable of this. It may indeed be mixed with nutritious substances, but if it goes into the blood, it is thrown off as soon as the system can accomplish its deliverance, if it has not been too far enfeebled by the influence of the poison. Such a poison is alcohol—such in all its forms mix it with what you may. ”

“ These poisons, taken in different quantities, according to their strength, produce nausea, dizziness, exhilaration of spirits with subsequent debility, and even total insensibility; in other cases, delirium and death; and alcohol does the same. These poisons weaken the stomach, impair the memory and all the powers of the mind, and sometimes bring on palsy, apoplexy, and other violent disorders; and so does alcohol. Do you say that ardent spirits, as they are commonly drank, do not produce these effects except in a very slight degree? ”

“ Stated otherwise, the question is this: Is alcohol a poison to the animal organism ? A poison being, in the ordinary acceptance of the word, an agent that may injuriously affect the tissues of the body, and tend to shorten life. ”

“ Richardson, "whether as spirit, wine, or ale, matters little when its specific influence is kept steadily in view. To say this man only drinks ale, that man only drinks wine, while a third drinks spirits, is merely to say, when the apology is unclothed, that all drink the same danger." In other words, the poisonous nature of alcohol, and the effects which result when it is taken into the stomach, are definite and immutable facts, which are not dependent upon any particular name or disguise under which the poison finds entrance. ”

“ Alcohol may cause the most intense redness and congestion of the stomach. The most inflamed stomach I ever saw, short of inflammation by the corrosive poisons, was that of a sailor, who died suddenly after a twenty-four hours’ drinking bout: all the organs of the body were fairly healthy, the man had suffered from no disease; analysis could detect no poison but alcohol; and the history of the case, moreover, proved clearly that it was a pure case of alcoholic poisoning. ”

“ To these are added "Wine, beer, ale, lager, and cider."
We explain that all these have alcohol in them, as may be known by smelling them, or by smelling the breath of those who have drunk even a little of them; and that because they contain alcohol they are called alcoholic liquors. If a person drinks any one of them he will be poisoned, more or less, according to how much he takes. The children are astonished at the word poisoned, but we explain that the very word, intoxicated, means poisoned. So a drunken man is a poisoned man. ”

“ You will rise with the conviction that alcohol is not merely a poison, but the most subtle, the most far-reaching, and, judged by its ultimate effects, incomparably the most virulent of all poisons.
Alcohol and Disease Here are a few corroborative facts, stated baldly, almost at random: Rauber found that a ten per cent. solution of alcohol "acted as a definite protoplasmic poison to all forms of cell life with which he experimented — including the hydra, tapeworms, earthworms, leeches, crayfish, various species of fish, Mexican axolotl, and mammals, including the human subject." ”

“ Among the poisons which must be kept out of the body should be mentioned habit-forming drugs, such as opium, morphine, cocain, heroin, chloral, acetanilid, alcohol, caffein, and nicotin. The best rule for those who wish to attain the highest physical and mental efficiency is total abstinence from all substances which contain poisons, including spirits, wine, beer, tobacco, many much-advertised patent drinks served at soda-water fountains, most patent medicines, and even coffee and tea. ”

“ Poisons. A poison is a substance which, if taken into the system in sufficient amounts, will cause serious trouble or death. For convenience poisons may be divided into two classes, irritants and narcotics.
The effects of irritant poisons are evident immediately after being taken. They burn and corrode the skin or membrane or other parts with which they come in contact. There are burning pains in the mouth, throat, stomach, and abdomen, with nausea and vomiting. A certain amount of faintness and shock is also present.
With narcotic poisoning, the symptoms come on more slowly. ”

“ When a person dies from the effect of poisoning, it is simply because the system was unable to eliminate the offending substance and was exhausted in the effort. There is a tolerance of some substances which frequently results in chronic disease, and again it is shown in what is called the cumulative effect or acute disease.
“Those who would hold that a substance is at one time a medicament, and at another time a poison, have much trouble in drawing the line between the beneficial and the poisonous effect. ”

“ In other words, in narcotic drug addiction some antidotal toxic substance has become the constantly present poison, and the narcotic drug itself has become simply the antidote demanded for its control. ”

“ In animals, the symptoms are—nausea, vomiting, purging, convulsions, stupor, and death. The heart becomes paralysed. One drop of the empyreumatic oil on the tongue of a cat killed it in two minutes, the animal dying in convulsions.
Post-mortem Appearances.—These are by no means uniform or characteristic. If much vomiting precedes death, the vessels of the brain may be engorged with blood. Inflammation of the stomach and intestines is also present in some cases. The odour of nicotine may be detected in the vomit or the stomach contents. ”

“ Even if the stomach does not at once eject the poison, it refuses to adopt it as food, for it does not pass along with the other food material, as chyme, into the intestines, but is seized by the absorbents, borne into the veins, which convey it to the heart, whence the pulmonary artery conveys it to the lungs, where its presence is announced in the breath. But wherever alcohol is carried in the tissues, it is always an irritant, every organ in turn endeavoring to rid itself of the noxious material. ”

“ The poisonous nature of tobacco could be taken for granted in a subordinate clause; but the poisonous nature of alcohol needs to be asserted in an independent sentence. "Pure alcohol, though a product of highly nutritive substances, is a mere poison,—an absolute poison,—the mortal foe of life in every one of its forms, animal and vegetable." ”

“ Acute.—In most cases the symptoms come on within a few minutes after the poison is swallowed. Giddiness, confusion of ideas, and a difficulty in walking straight are among the first effects produced, these being followed by stupor and coma. Nausea and vomiting are the early signs of recovery. In some cases there may be no premonitory symptoms, sudden and complete stupor supervening some time after a large dose of alcohol has been taken.
The patient not infrequently recovers from the first symptoms. A relapse takes place; he becomes insensible, and dies convulsed. ”