Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why Part 21

"The fact, which is well attested, that when a person enters the bath the urine may be strongly acid, but, on leaving the bath, after half an hour, it is markedly alkaline, shows that the bath has a strong effect upon the system."

Dr. Ridge says of _rheumatic fever_:--

"I would urge most strongly the desirability of avoiding every form of alcoholic liquor, from the very commencement of the disease, as affording the best chance for a speedy and safe recovery. The highest authorities are agreed on this point, but there is a lingering practice which makes reference necessary in order to confirm the wavering."

In Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, the hot blanket pack is used in acute rheumatism, almost to the exclusion of other methods. The pack should be continued two to four hours at least, and may be repeated two or three times within the twenty-four hours with advantage.

_Nature Cure_ says that thorough ma.s.sage, and half a dozen cups of hot lemonade will cure a severe case of sciatica:--

"The ma.s.sage should be commenced moderately, and increased as the patient can bear it. Rubbing and slapping of the muscles with bare hands will hasten a cure, and be agreeable to the patient. One to two hours treatment, if _vigorous_, will effect a cure."

SEA-SICKNESS:--Brandy is a common resort in this trouble, many taking it under such circ.u.mstances who would under no other. Yet it frequently adds to the sickness, instead of relieving it.

"Be sparing in diet for two or three days before the expected voyage. If very sensitive, take to your berth as soon as you go on board, or lie down on deck; get near the centre of the vessel, and lie with your feet to the stern. Go to sleep if possible. Iced water may be sipped, but nothing solid should be taken at first; after a while a cracker or wafer may be taken."

It is said upon good authority that if two or three apples are eaten shortly before going on board, or before rough water is encountered, sea-sickness is entirely averted. It will be well to partake of no other food for some hours previous to the voyage when trying this.

_Good Health_ says:--

"If any of our readers have occasion to cross the ocean in the stormy season, we recommend three things; keep horizontal, with the head low; put an ice-bag to the back of the neck, keep the stomach clean, free from greasy foods and meats, and eat nothing till there is an appet.i.te for food. A habitually clean dietary before going on board is doubtless a good preparation for such a voyage, as well as for any other nerve strain, or test of endurance. It pays to be good--to your stomach, as well as in other ways."

The following is guaranteed by a Russian physician to be an effective cure and a means of avoiding sea-sickness when the symptoms first make their appearance. Take long and deep inspirations. About twenty breaths should be taken every minute, and they should be as deep as possible.

After thirty or forty inspirations the symptoms will be found to abate.

This is recommended for dyspepsia also.

SORE NIPPLES:--"Alum water, or tannin, used for several months in advance will harden as effectually as brandy. If there is soreness on commencing to nurse, put a pinch of alum into milk, and apply the curd to the nipple."

SPASMS:--"These are caused by flatulence, as a result of indigestion. A little hot ginger tea, or capsic.u.m tea, may do all that is required. If these are not at hand, loosen every tight band, rub well the region of the heart and stomach, slap the face with the corner of a wet towel, and give sips of cold water."

SHOCK:--"In shock, or collapse, the state is similar in some respects to that which is present in fainting. Every function is almost at a standstill; absorption from the stomach and elsewhere is at its lowest point, because the circulation of the blood is so much interfered with. Hence much of the brandy which is so often given, and to such a wonderful amount, with very little apparent effect of intoxication, is really not absorbed at all, and is very often rejected from the stomach by vomiting, when reaction does occur, if not before.

"The patient should be wrapped up warmly, and put to bed as soon as possible. The limbs may be rubbed with hot flannels, and hot water bottles put to hands and feet. In some cases, also, towels wrung out of hot water may be wrapped around the head. Hot milk and water, hot water slightly sweetened, or with a little peppermint water in it, should be given as soon as the patient can swallow. Hot beverages will warm the skin more rapidly and powerfully than any alcoholic liquor.

"If the patient cannot swallow, an enema of hot water, or hot, thin gruel, should be administered, and may be of use in addition to hot drinks. Beef extract may be added to the hot water with advantage.

"In the vast majority of cases there need be no anxiety so far as the shock is concerned; reaction will occur in due time if ordinary care be taken, and will be more natural and steady if the system is not embarra.s.sed by the presence of the narcotic alcohol. In the state of collapse the voluntary nervous system is depressed; alcohol diminishes the power and activity of the nervous centres of the brain, hence its action is undesirable in shock or collapse."--DR. J. J. RIDGE, London.

"No procedure could be more senseless than the administering alcohol in shock. A stimulant of some kind is necessary in such cases, and alcohol, instead of being a stimulant is a narcotic.

* * * * * Alcohol causes a decrease of temperature, the very thing to be avoided in cases of shock."--DR. J. H. KELLOGG.

"I am perfectly sure that a large dose of alcohol in shock puts a nail in the coffin of the patient."--DR. H. C. WOOD of the University of Pennsylvania.

SINKING SENSATIONS:--Many women have a feeling of weakness or "goneness"

at about eleven o'clock in the morning, and are led by it to the injurious practice of eating between meals. It is often due to indigestion, or to the use of beer or wine. A few sips of hot milk, of fruit juice, or even of cold water will often relieve it, especially if total abstinence is persevered in.

SUDDEN ILLNESS:--"Those taken suddenly ill are likely to fare best if placed in a rec.u.mbent position, with head slightly elevated, all tightness of garments about the neck or waist relieved, and a little cold water given in case of ability to swallow. A mustard plaster on the back of the neck, or over the stomach, and hot water or hot bottles to the feet, are never out of place, while vinegar, or smelling salts, or dilute ammonia to the nostrils is reviving."--EZRA M. HUNT, M. D., late secretary of New Jersey State Board of Health.

"Both the popular and professional beliefs in the efficacy of alcoholic liquids for relieving exhaustion, faintness, shock, etc. are equally fallacious. All these conditions are temporary, and rapidly recovered from by simply the rec.u.mbent position, and free access to fresh air. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of such cases pa.s.s the crisis before the attendants have time to apply any remedies, and when they do, the sprinkling of cold water on the face, and the vapor of camphor or carbonate of ammonia to the nostrils, are the most efficacious remedies, and leave none of the secondary evil effects of brandy, whisky or wine."--DR. N. S. DAVIS.

SUNSTROKE:--"There has lately been a correspondence in the _Morning Post_ on the subject of 'Sunstroke and Alcohol.' We quite agree with the statement that 'nothing predisposes people to sunstroke so much as this pernicious habit of taking stimulants (so-called) during the hot weather.' As far as this country is concerned, nearly every case of sunstroke might be more appropriately designated 'beerstroke.' One effect of alcohol is to paralyze the heat-regulating mechanism; the blood becomes overloaded with waste material, and the narcotism, and vasomotor paralysis, produced by the alcohol, is added to that produced by the heat. Abstainers, other things being equal, can always endure extremes of temperature better than consumers of alcohol."--_Medical Pioneer_, England.

"During the month of January, 1896, there occurred over three hundred deaths from sunstroke in Australia. When called upon to offer suggestions relative to its prevention, the medical board promptly informed the Colonial government that, of all the predisposing causes, none were so potent as indulgence in intoxicating liquors, and in its treatment nothing seemed to have a more disastrous effect than the administration of alcoholic stimulants."--_Medical News._

The _Bulletin of the A. M. T. A._ for August, 1896, contained the following:--

"Recently a leading medical man, a teacher in a college, warned his student audience against the anti-alcoholic theories urged by extremists and persons whose zeal was greater than their intelligence. He affirmed positively that the value of alcohol was well known in medicine, and established by long years of experience.

"Not long afterward a man was brought into his office in a state of collapse from sunstroke, and this physician and teacher ordered large quant.i.ties of brandy to be administered; the patient died soon after."

Dr. T. D. Crothers tells of a case where alcohol was administered to a child for partial sunstroke, and says, "there were many reasons for believing that the profound poisoning from alcohol gave a permanent bias and tendency that developed into inebriety later."

"When a person falls with sunstroke (or heatstroke) he should at once be carried to a cool, shady place. His clothing should be removed, and cold applications made to the head, and over the whole body. Pieces of ice may be packed around the head, or cold water may be poured upon the body. Cold enema may also be employed. In case the face is pale, hot applications should be made to the head and over the heart and the body should be rubbed vigorously."--DR. J. H. KELLOGG.

TYPHOID FEVER.

As many lives are lost by this disease, its treatment must ever be one of intense interest, not only to physicians, but also to all humanity.

Since non-alcoholic treatment has reduced the death-rate in typhoid to five per cent., the views regarding such treatment expressed by leading pract.i.tioners will doubtless be read with eagerness.

The following is a paper by Dr. N. S. Davis taken from the _Medical Temperance Quarterly_.

"ALLEGED INDICATIONS FOR THE USE OF ALCOHOL IN THE TREATMENT OF TYPHOID FEVER:--On the first page of the first number of a new medical journal bearing date July, 1895, may be found the following statement: 'The question of administering alcohol comes up in every case of typhoid fever. In mild cases, especially when the patient is young, healthy and temperate, stimulants are not needed so long as the disease follows the typical course. Here, as elsewhere, alcohol should be avoided when not absolutely demanded. There is, however, generally such a dangerous tendency toward nervous exhaustion, that in a majority of cases more or less alcohol is required. The indication which calls for its use is an inability to administer enough food. * * * * * Again, the existence of high temperature nearly always makes it necessary to stimulate the patient, as does threatened nervous exhaustion and heart failure, for immediate effect; likewise a weak, small, compressible, rapid pulse, with impaired cardiac impulse and systolic sound, is a frequent indication; other remedies may be required, but alcohol cannot be dispensed with.' The next paragraph continues: 'It is necessary to give alcohol in serious complications of typhoid fever, such as pneumonia, pleurisy, hemorrhage and severe bronchitis or diarrhoea. It is best to begin giving it early and in small quant.i.ties: two to six ounces is a moderate amount, eight to twelve ounces daily is not too much for adynamic or complicated cases.'

"The foregoing quotations purport to have been condensed from one of our recent authoritative works on practical medicine, and doubtless fairly represent the prevailing opinions concerning the use of alcohol in the treatment of typhoid and other fevers, both in and out of the profession. A careful reading will show that the whole is founded on the following four a.s.sumptions:

"1. That alcohol when taken into the living body acts as a general stimulant, and especially so to the cardiac and vasomotor functions. 2. That in mild, uncomplicated cases of typhoid fever in young and previously healthy subjects, stimulants are not required and no alcohol should be given. 3.

That in a 'majority of cases' the tendency toward dangerous 'nervous exhaustion' and 'heart failure' is so great that the giving of 'more or less alcohol is required.' 4. The amount required may vary from two to twelve or more ounces per day.

"In the two preceding numbers of this journal, I have endeavored to show that the chief causes of nervous exhaustion and heart failure, in typhoid and other fevers were impairment of the hemoglobin and corpuscular elements of the blood, deficient reception and internal distribution of oxygen, and molecular degeneration of the muscular structures of the heart itself.

These important pathological conditions are doubtless caused by the specific toxic agent or agents giving rise to the fever.

Consequently the rational objects of treatment are to stop the further action of the specific cause, either by neutralization, or elimination, or both; to stop the further impairment of the hemoglobin and other elements of the blood; and to increase the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, by which we will most effectually prevent further fatty or granular degeneration of cardiac and other structures. The language of the paragraphs I have quoted, fairly a.s.sumes that alcohol is a _stimulant_ capable of relieving nervous exhaustion and cardiac failures, regardless of the causes producing those pathological conditions, and consequently its use is necessary in the 'majority of cases' of typhoid fever.

"Can such an a.s.sumption be sustained by either established facts, or correct reasoning? Can nervous and cardiac exhaustion, induced by the presence of toxic agents in the blood, with deficiency of both hemoglobin and oxygen, be relieved by a simple _stimulant_, that neither neutralizes nor eliminates the toxic agents, nor increases either the hemoglobin or oxygen?

That alcohol does not neutralize or destroy toxic ptomaines, or tox-alb.u.mins, is proved by abundant clinical experience, and also by the fact that chemists use it freely in the processes for separating these substances from other organic matters for experimental purposes. That its presence in the living body r.e.t.a.r.ds metabolic changes generally, and thereby aids in retaining instead of eliminating toxic agents of all kinds, has been so fully shown in the pages of preceding numbers of the _Medical Temperance Quarterly_, that the leading facts need not be repeated here. That its presence does not increase the hemoglobin, or favor oxy-hemoglobin or increased internal distribution of oxygen, but decidedly the reverse, has been equally well demonstrated by numerous and reliable experimental researches in this and other countries.

"Then it must be conceded that alcohol is not capable of fulfilling either of the important indications presented in the treatment of typhoid fever as stated above. Nevertheless, the advocates of its use apparently recognize but two ideas or factors in these cases, namely, the popularly inherited a.s.sumption that alcohol is a _stimulant_, and as the patient is in danger from nervous and cardiac weakness, therefore the alcohol must be given, _pro re nata_ without the slightest regard to the existing causes of the weakness, or the _modus operandi_ of the so-called stimulant.

"This is proved by the fact that they group together as stimulants, and give to the same patient in alternate doses, remedies of directly antagonistic action, as alcohol and strychnine, or digitalis, etc.

"The accepted definition of a stimulant in medical literature, is some agent capable of exciting or increasing _vital activity_ as a whole, or the natural activity of some one structure or organ.

"For instance, both clinical and experimental observations show that strychnine directly increases the functional activity of the respiratory, cardiac and vasomotor nervous systems, and thereby increases the internal distribution of oxygen, which is nature's own special exciter of all vital action. Therefore it is properly a direct respiratory, cardiac and vasomotor stimulant and indirectly a stimulator of all vital processes.

But the same kind of clinical and experimental observations show that alcohol directly diminishes the functional activity of all nerve structures, pre-eminently those of respiration and circulation, and also of all metabolic processes, whether respirative, disintegrative or secretory. Consequently it not only acts as directly antagonistic to strychnine, but equally so to all true stimulants or remedies capable of increasing vital activity. Instead, therefore, of meriting the name of _stimulant_, alcohol should be designated and used only as an anaesthetic and sedative, or depressor of vital activity.

"And a thorough and impartial investigation will show that its use in the treatment of typhoid and other fevers, while deceiving both physician and patient, by its anaesthetic effect in diminis.h.i.+ng restlessness, both prolongs the duration and increases the ratio of mortality of the disease, by its impairment of vital activity in the organizable elements of both blood and tissues."

Equally interesting is the following outline of treatment pursued by Dr. W. H. Riley, of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

"The purpose of the present paper is to give briefly an outline of the method of treatment of typhoid fever as used by the writer in a considerable number of cases.