Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why Part 7

On the 14th day, with eight fluid ounces, 25,488 times more.

But as there was ephemeral fever on the 12th day, it is right to make a deduction, and to estimate the number of beats in that day as midway between the 11th and 13th days, or 18,432.

Adopting this, the mean daily excess of beats during the alcoholic days was 14,492, or an increase of rather more than 13 per cent.

The first day of alcohol gave an excess of 4 per cent., and the last of 23 per cent.; and the mean of these two gives almost the same percentage of excess as the mean of the six days.

Admitting that each beat of the heart was as strong during the alcoholic period as in the water period (and it was really more powerful), the heart on the last two days of alcohol was doing one-fifth more work.

"Adopting the lowest estimate which has been given of the daily work of the heart; viz. as equal to 12.2 tons lifted one foot, the heart during the alcoholic period, did daily work excess equal to lifting 15.8 tons one foot, and in the last two days did extra work to the amount of 24 tons lifted as far.

"The period of rest for the heart was shortened, though, perhaps, not to such an extent as would be inferred from the number of beats, for each contraction was sooner over. The heart, on the fifth and sixth days after alcohol was left off, and, apparently at the time when the last traces of alcohol were eliminated, showed in the sphygmographic tracing signs of unusual feebleness; and, perhaps, in consequence of this, when the brandy quickened the heart again, the tracings showed a more rapid contraction of the ventricles, but less power than in the alcoholic period. The brandy acted, in fact, on a heart whose nutrition had not been perfectly restored."

Richardson quotes these experiments of Parkes and Wollowicz as if he agrees with them that increased heart-beat must of necessity mean increased work done by the heart. Dr. Nathan S. Davis, Dr. Newell Martin, Dr. A. B. Palmer, and some other investigators, show conclusively that mere increased frequency of beat above the natural standard is no evidence of increased force or efficiency in the circulation.

"The more frequent beats under the influence of alcohol const.i.tute no exception to the general rule, for while the heart beats more frequently, its influence on the vasomotor nerves causes dilatation of the peripheral and systemic blood-vessels, as proved by the pulse-line written by the sphygmograph, which more than counterbalances the supposed increased action of the heart. The truth is, that under the influence of alcohol in the blood the systolic action of the heart loses in sustained force in direct proportion to its increase in frequency, until, by simply increasing the proportion of alcohol, the heart stops in diastole, as perfectly paralyzed as are the coats of the smaller vessels throughout the system. This was clearly demonstrated by the experiments of Professor Martin of Johns Hopkins University, to determine the effects of different proportions of alcohol on the action of the heart of the dog; and those of Drs. Sidney Ringer and H. Sainsbury, to determine the relative strength of different alcohols as indicated by their influence on the heart of the frog. Professor Martin states that blood containing 1/4 per cent. by volume of absolute alcohol, almost invariably diminishes, within a minute, the work done by the heart."

(This estimate would equal in an adult man an amount equal to the absolute alcohol in two or three ounces of whisky or brandy.)

"These investigations of Professor Martin, being directly corroborated by those of Drs. Ringer and Sainsbury, complete the series of demonstrations needed to show the actual effects of alcohol on the cardiac, as well as on the vasomotor, and also on the direct contractability of the muscular structure, when supplied with blood containing all gradations in the relative proportion of alcohol, leaving no longer any basis for the idea, popular both in and out of the profession, that alcohol in any of its forms is capable of increasing, even temporarily the force or efficiency of the heart's action."--Dr. N. S. Davis in _Influence of Alcohol On the Human System_.

The following letter will be of great interest to all students of the physiological effects of alcohol:--

"CHICAGO, ILL., March 3, 1899.

"To MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN, "Syracuse, N. Y.,

"MADAM: Your letter asking my attention to the apparent contradiction of authorities concerning the _work_ done by the heart when influenced by alcohol was received yesterday.

"The explanation is not difficult. It depends entirely on the different views of what const.i.tutes the _work_ of the heart.

"One cla.s.s of investigators, led by the original and valuable experiments of Parkes and Wollowicz base their estimate of the heart's work entirely on the _number of times it contracts or beats per minute_. Thus Dr. Parkes, finding that moderate doses of alcohol increased the number of contractions of the heart from three to six beats per minute more than natural, readily estimated the number of additional contractions that would occur in twenty-four hours, and thereby demonstrated a large amount of increased work done by the heart under the influence of alcohol.

All writers who speak of 'stimulating' or increasing the action of the heart by alcohol follow this method of measuring the amount of _work_ done. They generally add that it is like applying 'the whip to a tired horse.'

"The other cla.s.s of investigators who claim that _alcohol_ diminishes the actual _work_ done by the heart base their estimates on the amount _of blood the heart pa.s.ses through its cavities into the arteries in a given time_. This is the physiological function of the heart; i.e. to aid in circulating the blood. Professor Martin's experiments were admirably contrived to determine, not how frequently the heart beat, but the amount of blood it delivered per minute under the influence of alcohol and without alcohol.

"He, and all others who take this basis of work, found that alcohol in any dose diminished the efficiency of the heart in circulating the blood in direct ratio to the quant.i.ty taken.

"My own original experiments, made fifty years ago, uniformly showed that alcohol quickly increased the number of heart beats per minute, but at the same time diminished the efficiency of the circulation generally. Every experienced pract.i.tioner knows that the weaker the _heart_ becomes, the _faster_ it beats.

Consequently, the number of times the heart contracts per minute is no measure of the efficiency of its work in circulating the blood. Indeed the mechanism of the heart is such that there must be sufficient time between each of its contractions for its _cavities_ to _fill_, or it is made to contract on an insufficient supply, and the efficiency of the circulation is diminished.

"Yours respectfully, "N. S. DAVIS."

The International Medical Congress of 1876 adopted as its reply to the Memorial of the National Temperance Society, and of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union respecting "Alcohol as a Food and as a Medicine," the paper by Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, one conclusion of which was, "Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant."

As experiments conducted since that time show that it is not a cardiac stimulant, but a direct cardiac paralyzant, what excuse is there for using it as a medicine now?

"Whenever the heart is compelled to more rapid contraction than is natural, it has less time to rest. Although it seems to be constantly at work, it really rests more than half the time, so that, although the periods of relaxation are very short, they are so numerous that the aggregate amount of rest in a day is very great. Now, if the rapidity of the contractions is increased materially and continuously, although the aggregate amount of time for rest may be the same as before, yet the waste caused by the contractions is greater, while the time for rest after each one is shorter. This lack of rest produces exhaustion of the heart-muscle, ending in partial change of the muscular tissue into fat. The heart then becomes flabby and weak and its walls become thinner, a condition known to physicians as a 'fatty heart,' often resulting in sudden death."--_Tracy's Physiology_, page 158.

Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., has made many observations with the sphygmograph to learn the effects of alcohol upon the heart. He says:--

"On general principles, and clinically, the increased activity and subsequent diminution of the heart's action brings no medicinal aid or strength to combat disease. This is simply a reckless waste of force for which there is no compensation.

Without any question or doubt the increased heart's action, extending over a long period, is dangerous.

"The medicinal damage done by alcohol does not fall exclusively upon the heart, although this organ may show it more permanently than others."--_Transactions of Second Annual Meeting of A. M.

T. A._

Dr. I. N. Quimby, of Jersey City, N. J., in an address before the American Medical Temperance a.s.sociation, after describing two clinical cases which ended in death, made the following statement:

"There was nothing so strange about the death of these two patients, although they both died unexpectedly to the physician and their friends, but the declaration I am about to make may be somewhat new and startling, namely: That neither of these patients, in my candid judgment, died from the effect of disease, but rather from vasomotor paralysis of the heart, _superinduced by the administration of the alcohol_, which brought on a sudden and unexpected collapse and death."

Alcohol causes fatty degeneration of the heart and other muscular structures. Old age also causes these degenerations, hence alcohol is said to produce premature aging of the body.

"In fatty degeneration the cells and fibres of the body become more or less changed into fat. If a muscular fibre undergoes fatty degeneration, the particles of which it is made disappear one by one, and particles of oil or fatty matter take their place, so that the degree or amount of degeneration varies according to the extent to which this change has gone on. When the fibres of which a muscle is composed have become thus altered by fatty degeneration they become softer according to the amount of it; they are more easily torn and may even tear across when the muscle is being used during life. The more a muscle is thus degenerated the weaker it is, because it contains less muscular substance and more fat. Not only do the heart and other voluntary muscles thus degenerate, but those of the arteries also.

"Fatty degeneration is promoted by alcohol because alcohol prevents the proper removal of fat, which has been seen to acc.u.mulate in the blood; alcohol prevents the proper oxidation or burning up of waste matters; growing cells which are affected by the chemical influence of alcohol are not quite natural or healthy, so are more liable to degeneration; alcohol hinders the proper removal of waste matter from individual cells and tissues."--DR. J. J. RIDGE, London.

Dr. Newell Martin says in _The Human Body_:--

"Although fatty degeneration of the heart may occur from other causes, alcoholic indulgence is the most frequent one. Fatty liver or fatty heart is rarely if ever curable; either will ultimately cause death."

Dr. Ridge says these degenerations occur in the tissues of thin people as well as in those of stout persons. In thin people they are usually in the fibres only, not between them.

It is because of this degeneration of the heart and other muscles caused by alcohol that athletes in training need to be so very careful to avoid the use of beer and other intoxicating drinks.

Diseases such as fevers, diphtheria, and pneumonia which interfere with the reception, and internal distribution of oxygen, favor granular and fatty degeneration of the heart and other structures of the body. Hence non-alcoholic physicians urge that alcohol and such other drugs, as have like action in hindering full oxidation of the blood, and causing fatty degenerations should be studiously avoided. These physicians attribute many of the deaths from heart-failure in such diseases to the combined action of the disease and the alcohol in exhausting the heart, and weakening its structure.

_Comparative death-rates with and without alcohol show conclusively the superiority of the latter treatment._

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LIVER.

The liver is a very large organ, the largest and heaviest in the body, weighing in a healthy adult from three to four pounds. It secretes the bile. Its cells also store up, "in the form of a kind of animal starch called glycogen," excess of starchy or sugary food absorbed from the intestine during the digestion of a meal. This it gradually doles out to the blood for general use by the organs of the body until the next meal is eaten.

Dr. William Hargreaves says:--

"The office of the liver is to take up new substances having not yet become blood, as well as the portions of integrated matter that can be worked over, and brought again into use. It is in fact the economist of the system. It excretes bile, and liver-sugar, and _renews_ the _blood_. When the liver is disordered the whole body is more or less deranged and the proper nutrition of its parts arrested."

Dr. Alfred Carpenter says:--

"The liver has to do several things; a considerable part of its duty is to purify the blood from _debris_ (waste matter), to filter out some things, to break up and alter others, and to expel them from the body in the form of bile. There are certain diseases in which the liver suddenly declines to do any more work. Acute atrophy of the liver is the name of this condition, and when it arises death rapidly results from suppression of the secretion of bile. It brings about a state of things called _acholia_; the patient is actually poisoned by the non-removal of those ingredients from the blood which it is the duty of the liver to remove. This corresponds in effect to the condition which alcohol can bring about by slow degrees."

The liver is the first important organ, next to the stomach and bowels, to receive the poisonous influence of alcohol.

"If alcohol is used habitually, though only in small quant.i.ties at a time, the liver may become the seat of serious changes.

There may be a great increase of fat deposited in the cells, producing what is called 'fatty liver,' or it may lead to a great increase of connective tissue (membrane) between the cells, and surrounding the blood-vessels. This newly-developed connective tissue gradually contracts, and in so doing crushes the cells and obstructs the blood-vessels, making the organ much smaller than natural, and causing the surface to be covered with little projecting k.n.o.bs, consisting of portions of liver-tissue that have been less compressed than the part that separates them. The pressure upon the liver-cells and the destruction of many of them, prevents the proper formation of bile and liver-sugar. The contraction of the newly-developed tissue, by obstructing the blood-vessels, interferes with the circulation.

Malt liquors seem to produce fatty degeneration, while the stronger liquors cause the development of connective tissue."--_Tracy's Physiology._