If these things are borne in mind, the physiological action of Alcohol will be tolerably understood when it is said to be an Inebriant Narcotic. But it must be observed that when given in small quantities its stimulant effect may be the chief action manifested, its secondary sedative effect may hardly take place, and the production of Inebriation, or drunkenness, may be altogether avoided. So much is this the case that Alcohol is by some regarded as a Stimulant. But the same thing is remarked of Opium, though in a less degree. And the effects of a large dose of Alcohol are sufficiently obvious to indicate its place amongst Narcotics. For the state of Inebriation may even pass on into coma, and death.
In small quantities, for the purpose of producing exhilaration, and of overcoming various depressing causes which are of daily occurrence, alcoholic liquors of various kinds, Beer, Wine, and Spirits, are habitually employed by a large portion of mankind. On the broad and important question of their use and abuse as articles of diet this is not the opportunity to enter.
In the form of Brandy (which is more agreeable to the palate,) Alcohol is applicable as a medicine in low Fevers, in asthenic Erysipelas, in Typhoid forms of Pneumonia, and in Collapse or Syncope produced by surgical injuries or other causes. It restores the action of the heart, and enables the system to bear up against the disorder. The stimulant action may be maintained, and the secondary sedative effect prevented, by a continual repetition of the dose. Thus when once the employment of this stimulant has been determined upon, it should be steadily and unremittingly persevered in until decided symptoms of improvement have shown themselves in the patient.
The tendency of the practice of the present day is towards a freer use of Stimulants, and a more sparing employment of blood-letting and antiphlogistic agents, than was some time ago prescribed. And this is probably an advance in the right direction; for in morbid actions there is altogether very little that is really sthenic; and it is, as a general rule, a wiser thing to support the system against the wearing action of a disorder, than to add to the heap of its various troubles another depressing cause.
But Alcohol is a potent agent for evil as well as for good. When large quantities are taken continually for a considerable length of time, it is capable of producing a chronic injury of the brain and mind. By impairing the function of the former, it brings on the shaking paralysis of Delirium tremens. By an action on the mind, it causes the strange hallucinations and the habitual despondency which characterize that disorder. Habitual drinking may likewise cause a chronic inflammation of the liver, called Cirrhosis, which is succeeded by Dropsy. Alcohol is absorbed by the stomach; and, on passing through the Portal vein to the liver, may there produce this condition of the organ by the continual irritation which it excites.
When taken in considerable quantity Alcohol passes out of the system by the skin and kidneys, and thus acts as a Diaphoretic and Diuretic.
But Liebig states that when taken in small quantities it does not pass off in the secretions, but is consumed or burnt in the system into Carbonic Acid and water. He has found that persons who are accustomed to take Beer in moderation require less bread in their food. (Animal Chemistry, Part I., p. 96.) And as it contains more Hydrogen than starchy food, and by the combustion of this Hydrogen the animal heat is partly maintained, Vierordt has shown that during the use of alcoholic liquors the amount of Carbonic Acid exhaled by the lungs is diminished. Thus Alcohol may be regarded as one of the calorifacient articles of food. (Vide pp. 234, 237, 241, 255.)
CHLOROFORM.
Class II. Div. II. Ord. I. Narcotica Inebriantia.