7. Disease modifies greatly the effects of alcohol. In some diseases, as in inflammation of the lungs and in fevers, it can be given in large quantities without producing intoxication; and in these conditions it lowers the temperature. In other diseases, especially gout and kidney disease, its use is nearly always followed by bad results.
The Advisability of Alcohol as an Article of Diet in Health.—In dealing with this difficult point, two sets of facts require consideration, those obtained as the result of Physiological observations (see page [56]), and those which are the result of Experience. There can be no doubt that the former are much more reliable than the latter. Experience is very prone to give fallacious results, especially when questions of appetite are concerned. In making a trial of abstinence, the mistake has been commonly made of only prolonging the investigation for a few weeks, and then comparing results. Such a method is, however, very unfair, and is certain to lead to an unreliable conclusion.
The records of experience under certain conditions have, however, been so extensive, as to lead to trustworthy results. It has been abundantly proved that prolonged muscular work is best undergone during total abstinence from alcohol; and that the extremes of heat and cold and the exposure and exertions of marching armies, are best borne under similar conditions.
The artificial character of town life is commonly adduced as an argument for the moderate use of alcohol. In the case of healthy workers, this does not hold good; many of our hardest workers and thinkers take no alcohol.
The universality of the habit of taking stimulants is a curious argument on the same side, though if the habit be bad, this can be no more reason for continuing it than can the prevalence of vice be an excuse for indulgence in it.
The two chief physiological points bearing on the advisability of alcohol as a part of one’s daily diet are—its food properties, and its effect on the appetite and digestion.
It has been already stated that a quantity of alcohol under 1 or 1½ ounces may become oxidised in the system, and may thus form a source of heat. But in all probability, although it may be regarded as a food, it is a most inconvenient one, inasmuch as it diminishes the oxidation of other foods. It has been aptly compared in this respect to sulphur, which is an oxidisable material, but which, when it is burnt in a chimney, in which the soot is on fire, will put an end to the combustion of the latter. Its value as a food, under normal conditions, is practically nil.
Its Effect on the Digestive Organs is three-fold. (a) The contact of alcohol with the mucous membrane of the mouth and stomach, acts as a reflex nervous stimulus, which in moderation excites an increased flow of gastric juice. (b) It also increases the activity of the movements of the stomach. In cases of weak digestion, therefore, small doses of alcohol may, at times, be useful. (c) The effect of alcohol on the food taken varies with its degree of dilution. Concentrated alcohol coagulates albumin, and so stops digestion; largely diluted alcohol has no such effect.
The late Dr. Parkes, the greatest authority on the dietetic use of alcohol, has summarised the argument as to the dietetic use of alcohol as follows:—
“But what, now, should be the conclusion as to the use of alcohol in health after growth is completed? Admitting the impossibility of proving a small quantity to be hurtful, and at the same time acknowledging the dangers of excess, there arises an argument which seems to me somewhat in favour of total abstinence. No man can say when he has passed the boundary which divides safety from harm; he may call himself temperate, and yet may be daily taking a little more than his system can bear, and be gradually causing some tissue to undergo slow degeneration. He may be safe, but he may be on the verge of danger.