Parkinson,[22] in a series of careful tests, failed to establish any influence on phagocytosis (capacity of the white blood cells to destroy bacteria), except when large doses or continuous moderate doses were taken.
Effect on Circulation
On the heart and circulation, alcohol acts as a depressant, increasing the rate, but not the force, of the pulse. It causes depression of the nerve center controlling the blood vessels and thus lowers blood pressure. Large doses cause paralysis of these nerves and of the heart.
Miller and Brooks[23] found from small doses (6 to 12 cc. absolute alcohol) an increase in blood pressure in conscious (unanesthetized) animals, contrary to the findings of Crile,[24] Cabot,[25] Dennig,[26] Hindelang and Grünbaum, Alexandroff[27] and others, in man; but the amounts were small and variable, according to individual susceptibility, thus showing the drug to be, even on such evidence, uncertain and unserviceable as a heart stimulant.
Food Value
Atwater and Benedict,[28] and Beebe[29] and Mendel,[30] have shown that alcohol is a “protein sparer,” and can, to some extent, take the place of fats and carbohydrates. This is what is meant by calling alcohol a “food.” Always, however, it fails to pass some test by which true foods are measured. Apart from its effect on the nervous system, among which must be figured its action on the blood vessels which causes a loss of body heat, Mendel has shown that in moderate doses (96 cc. daily) it increases the output of uric acid and allied (purin) bodies derived from the tissues, a fact which distinguishes it from all other foods. These poisonous or drug effects must always be considered, together with any alleged nourishing effects. Alcohol is still used by some as a rapidly available fuel-food in fevers, and when ordinary foods cannot be readily digested and made available. But this is done to a much less degree than formerly, now that its narcotic and poisonous effects are more fully understood. Sugar and water often serve quite as useful a purpose.
It seems reasonable, on the evidence herein presented, to class alcohol among the narcotic or “deadening” drugs, such as ether or chloroform. Indeed, Aschaffenburg[31] has recently called attention to the growth of the ether habit in eastern Germany, where this drug is used as a so-called stimulant, while in reality the effects are well known to be narcotic, or deadening.
The laboratory and the life insurance records simply give exact expression to what has long been a matter of common knowledge to the employer of labor and to leaders and commanders of men; to wit, that the influence of alcohol on any large group of men, whether they be artisans or soldiers, is harmful and lowers the efficiency of the group. Individual susceptibility varies, but the man who thinks he is an exception and can indulge with safety may find that he is mistaken only after serious damage to the body has been done and perhaps a definite loss sustained in happiness and achievement.
Effect on Offspring
Stockard,[32] in his experiments on animals, has demonstrated conclusively that the germ cells of males can be so injured by allowing the subjects to inhale the fumes of alcohol that they give rise to defective offspring, although mated with vigorous untreated females. The offspring of those so treated when reaching maturity are usually nervous and slightly undersize. These effects are apparently conveyed through the descendants for at least three generations. Such evidence establishes at least the probability of the transmission of serious ill effects to human offspring through alcoholic indulgence of the male parent.