Chapter III: Alcohol as a Producer of Disease

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 contain items regarding the death of children who have had access to whisky, 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 of a saloon have suddenly dropped dead.

Dr. Mussey says:--

"A poison is that substance, in whatever form it may be, which,
when applied to a living surface, disconcerts and disturbs
life's healthy movements. It is altogether distinct from
substances which are in their nature nutritious. It is not
capable of being converted into food, and becoming a part of the
living organs. 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."

Dr. Nathan S. Davis said in an address given in 1891:--

"When largely diluted with water, as it is in all the varieties
of fermented and distilled liquids, and taken into the stomach,
it is rapidly imbibed, or taken up by the capillary vessels and
carried into the venous blood, without having undergone any
digestion or change in the stomach. With the blood it is carried
to every part, and made to penetrate every tissue of the living
body, where it has been detected by proper chemical tests as
unchanged alcohol, until it has been removed through the natural
process of elimination, or lost its identity by molecular
combination with the albuminous elements of the blood and
tissues, for which it has a strong affinity.

"The most varied and painstaking experiments of chemists and
physiologists, both in this country and Europe, 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.

"I say, then, that from the facts hitherto adduced, whether from
accurate experimental investigations in different countries,
from the pathological results developed in the most scientific
societies, from the most reliable statistics of sickness and
mortality, as influenced by occupations and social habits, or
from the life insurance records kept on a uniform basis through
periods of ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years, it is
clearly shown that alcohol when taken into the human system not
only acts upon the nervous system, perverting its sensibility,
and, if increased in quantity, causing intoxication or
insensibility, but it also, _even in small quantities_, lessens
the oxygenation and decarbonization of the blood and retards the
molecular changes in the structures of the body. When these
effects are continued through months and years, as in the most
temperate class of drinkers, _they lead to permanent structural
changes, most prominently in the liver, kidneys, stomach, heart,
blood-vessels and nerve structures, and lessen the natural
duration of life in the aggregate from ten to fifteen years_.
Consequently there is no greater, nor more destructive error
existing in the public mind than the belief that the use of
fermented and distilled drinks does no harm so long as they do
not intoxicate.

"Another popular error is the opinion that the substitution of
the different varieties of beer and wine in the place of
distilled liquors promotes temperance, and lessens the evil
effects of alcohol on the health and morals of those who use
them. Accurate investigations show that beer and wine drinkers
generally consume more alcohol per man than the spirit drinkers;
and while they are not as often intoxicated, they suffer fully
as much from diseases and premature death as do those who use
distilled spirits. Again, the beer drinker drinks more nearly
every day, and thereby keeps some alcohol in his blood more
constantly; while a large percentage of spirit drinkers drink
only periodically, leaving considerable intervals of abstinence,
during which the tissues regain nearly their natural condition.
The more constant and persistent is the presence of alcohol in
the blood and the tissues, even in moderate quantity, the more
certainly does it lead to perverted and degenerative changes in
the tissues, _ending in renal _(kidney)_ and hepatic _(liver)_
dropsies, cardiac _(heart)_ failures, gout, apoplexy and
paralysis_."

Sir B. W. Richardson says:--

"Alcohol produces many diseases; and it constantly happens that
persons die of diseases which have their origin solely in the
drinking of alcohol, while the cause itself is never for a
moment suspected. A man may say quite truthfully that he never
was tipsy in the whole course of his life; and yet it is quite
possible that such a man may die of disease caused by the
alcohol he has taken, and by no other cause whatever. This is
one of the most dreadful evils of alcohol, that it kills
insidiously, as if it were doing no harm, or as if it were doing
good, while it is destroying life. Another great evil of it is
that it assails so many different parts of the body. It hardly
seems credible at first sight that the same agent can give rise
to the many different kinds of diseases it does give rise to. In
fact, the universality of its action has blinded even learned
men as to its potency for destruction.

"Step by step, however, we have now discovered that its modes of
action are all very simple, and are all the same in character;
and that the differences that have been and are seen in
different persons under its influence are due mainly to the
organs, or organ, which first give way under it. Thus, if the
stomach gives way first, we say that the person has indigestion
or dyspepsia, or failure of the stomach; if the brain gives way
first, we say the person has paralysis, or apoplexy, or brain
disease; if the liver gives way first, we say the man has liver
disease, and so on.

"All persons who indulge much in any form of alcoholic drink are
troubled with indigestion. When they wake in the morning they
find their mouth dry, their tongue coated, and their appetite
bad. In course of time they become confirmed 'dyspeptics,' and
as many of them find a temporary relief from the distress at the
stomach, and the deficient appetite from which they suffer by
taking more liquor, they increase the quantity taken, and so
make matters much worse. * * * * *

"There are a great number of diseases caused by alcohol, some of
which are known by terms that do not convey to the mind what
really has been the cause of the diseases." They are:

(a) Diseases of the brain and nervous system: indicated by such names as apoplexy, epilepsy, paralysis, vertigo, softening of the brain, delirium tremens, loss of memory and that general failure of the mental power called dementia. (b) Diseases of the lungs: one form of consumption, congestion and subsequent bronchitis. (c) Diseases of the heart: irregular beat, feebleness of the muscular walls, dilation, disease of the valves. (d) Diseases of the blood: scurvy, dropsy, separation of fibrine. (e) Diseases of the stomach: feebleness of the stomach and indigestion, flatulency, irritation and sometimes inflammation. (f) Diseases of the bowels: relaxation or purging, irritation. (g) Diseases of the liver: congestion, hardening and shrinking cirrhosis. (h) Diseases of the kidneys: change of structure into fatty or waxy-like condition and other changes leading to dropsy. (i) Diseases of the muscles: fatty changes in the muscles, by which they lose their power for proper active contraction. (j) Diseases of the membranes of the body: thickening and loss of elasticity, by which the parts wrapped up in the membrane are impaired for use, and premature decay is induced.

But it constantly happens that when deaths from these diseases are recorded and alcohol has been the primary cause, some other cause is believed to have been at work.

While drinking parents by virtue of a strong constitution sometimes escape the penalty of their bibulous habit, it is not uncommon to see their children suffering from some disease or nervous weakness such as is caused by alcohol, "the sins of the father being visited upon the children."

Erasmus Darwin says upon this point:--

"It is remarkable that all the diseases from drinking spirituous
or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary, even to
the third generation, gradually increasing, if the cause be
continued, till the family become extinct."

Prof. Christison, of Edinburgh, in answer to inquiries from the Massachusetts State Board of Health, says of general diseases due to alcohol:--

"I recognize certain diseases which originate in the vice of
drunkenness alone, which are _delirium tremens_, cirrhosis of
the liver, many cases of Bright's disease of the kidneys, and
dipsomania, or insane drunkenness.

"Then I recognize many other diseases in regard to which excess
in alcoholics acts as a powerful predisposing cause, such as
gout, gravel, aneurism, paralysis, apoplexy, epilepsy, cystitis,
premature incontinence of urine, erysipelas, spreading cellular
inflammation, tendency of wounds and sores to gangrene,
inability of the constitution to resist the attacks of
epidemics. I have had a fearful amount of experience of
continued fever in our infirmary during many epidemics, and in
all my experience I have only once known an intemperate man of
forty and upwards to recover."

Professor Christison also claims that three-fourths, or even four-fifths, of Bright's disease in Scotland is produced by alcohol.

Dr. C. Murchison, in speaking of alcohol as a preventive of disease, says:--

"There is no greater error than to imagine that a liberal
allowance of alcoholic liquids fortifies the system against
contagious diseases."

In a paper read before the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, Oct. 22, 1872, Dr. W. Dickinson gave the following conclusions:--

"Alcohol causes fatty infiltration and fibrous encroachments; it
engenders tubercles; encourages suppuration, and retards
healing; it produces untimely atheroma (a form of fatty
degeneration of the inner coats of the arteries), invites
hemorrhage, and anticipates old age. The most constant fatty
changes, replacement by oil of the material of epithelial cells
and muscular fibres, though probably nearly universal, is most
noticeable in the liver, the heart and the kidneys. _Drink
causes tuberculosis_, which is evident not only in the lungs,
but in every amenable organ."

Dr. William Hargreaves says:--

"Brandy is not a prophylactic. To the temperate it is an active,
exciting cause. It is well known that a single act of
intemperance during the prevalence of cholera, will often
produce a fatal attack. The sense of warmth and irritation
(called stimulation) produced by alcoholic liquors, has led to
the erroneous notion that they may prevent cholera. But the
contrary we have seen is the truth, for the effects of
alcoholics are to reduce the temperature of the body, and
instead of stimulating, they narcotize, and reduce the
life-forces, and predispose the system to all kinds of disease."

The following testimonies are culled from the writings of eminent physicians:--

Sir Andrew Clark, M. D., F. R. C. P., London, Physician in
Ordinary to the Queen, Senior Physician at the London Hospital:
"As I looked at the hospital wards to-day, and saw that seven
out of ten owed their diseases to alcohol, I could but lament
that the teaching about this question is not more direct, more
decisive and more home-thrusting. * * * * * Can I say to you any
words stronger than these of the terrible effects of alcohol?
When I think of this I am disposed to give up my profession, and
go forth upon a holy crusade, preaching to all men--_Beware of
this enemy of the race._"

Sir William Gull, F. R. S. (late Physician to her Majesty): "I
should say, from my experience, that alcohol is the most
destructive agent that we are aware of in this country. I would
like to say that a very large number of people in society are
dying day by day, poisoned by alcohol, but not supposed to be
poisoned by it."

Dr. Abernethy: "If people will leave off drinking alcohol, live
plainly, and take very little medicine they will find that many
disorders will be relieved by this treatment alone."

Dr. Forel, of the University of Zurich, Switzerland: "Life is
considerably shortened by the use of alcohol in large
quantities. But a moderate consumption of the same also shortens
life by an average of five to six years. This is consistently
and unequivocally seen in the statistics kept for thirty years
by English insurance companies, with special sections for
abstainers. They give a large discount, and still make more
profit, as not nearly so many deaths occur as might be expected
under the usual calculations. According to federal statistics in
the fifteen largest towns of Switzerland, over ten per cent. of
the men over twenty years of age die solely, or partly of
alcoholism."

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Mich.: "Every organ feels the
effect of the abuse through indulgence in alcohol, and no
function is left undisturbed. By degrees, disordered function,
through long continuance of the disturbance, induces tissue
change. The most common form of organic or structural disease
due to alcohol is fatty degeneration, which may effect almost
every organ in the body. * * * * * No class of persons are so
subject to nervous diseases due to degeneration of nerves and
nerve-centres as drinkers. Partial or general paralysis,
locomotor ataxia, epilepsy and a host of other nervous
disorders, are directly traceable to the use of alcohol."

One of the visiting physicians of Bellevue Hospital, New York, states that at least two-thirds of all the diseases treated there originated in drink.

Dr. W. A. Hammond: "It is of all causes most prolific in
exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal cord, and the
nerves."