Effect on Brain and Nervous System
Kraepelin[10] and his pupils have contributed most extensively to our knowledge on this subject. According to such authorities, a half to a whole liter of beer is sufficient to lower intellectual power, to impair memory, and to retard simple mental processes, such as the addition of simple figures. Habitual association of ideas, and free association of ideas are interfered with.
As far back as 1895, Smith demonstrated the influence of small doses of alcohol in impairing memory, and these results have been confirmed by Kraepelin and quite recently by Vogt[11] in experiments on his own person—15 cc. (about 4 teaspoonfuls) of whisky on an empty stomach, or 25 cc. with food, being sufficient to distinctly impair the power to memorize.
Careful and exact experiments have shown the influence of moderate doses of alcohol in lessening the amount of work performed by printing compositors. There has also been shown a disturbance in the sequence of ideas. The time that elapses between an irritation and the beginning of a responsive movement can be measured within one one-thousandth of a second. According to Aschaffenburg,[12] under the influence of even very small doses of alcohol this reaction period is disturbed and shortened. It is below the normal, the acceleration being attained at the expense of precision and reliability. Indeed, the reaction is often premature, and constitutes a false reaction—“the judgment of the reason comes limping along after the hasty action.”
It is now conceded that alcohol is not a real brain stimulant, but acts by narrowing the field of consciousness. By gradually overcoming the higher brain elements the activities of the lower ones are released, hence the so-called stimulation and the lack of judgment and common sense often shown by those even slightly under the influence of alcohol. The man who wakes up under alcohol is really going to sleep, as far as his judgment and reason are concerned. Complete abolition of consciousness is brought about by sufficient doses as when ether or chloroform is taken.
Under moderate doses, muscular efficiency is at first increased a little and then lowered, the total effect being a loss in working power, as shown by the experiments of Dubois, Schnyder,[13] Hellsten,[14] and others.
Influence on Bodily Resistance to Disease
Muller, Wirgin and others[15] have shown that alcohol restricts the formation of antibodies (the function of which is to resist infection in the blood) in rabbits, and Laitinen[16] has shown that the prolonged administration of small doses in men (15 cc.) is sufficient to lower vital resistance, especially to typhoid fever.
Rubin[17] has demonstrated that alcohol, ether and chloroform, injected under the skin, render rabbits more vulnerable to streptococcus (blood poison) and pneumnococcus infection (pneumonia); Stewart,[18] that small amounts lower the resistance to tuberculosis and streptococcus infection; Craig and Nichols,[19] that moderate doses of whisky were sufficient to cause a negative Wassermann reaction in syphilitic subjects; Fillinger[20] found the resistance of red blood cells much reduced after the administration of champagne to healthy human subjects. Similar results were found in dogs and rabbits.
Weinburg[21] confirmed these results by the same methods, showing that 20 per cent. of the red cells lose their resistance after the administration of 450 cc. of champagne.