In this condition a real disease of the brain is created,
called _oino-mania_, (see _Glossary_,) and the only remedy is total
abstinence, and that for a long period, from the alcoholic poison. And
what makes the danger more fearful is, that the brain-cells never are so
renewed but that this pernicious stimulus will bring back the disease in
full force, so that a man once subject to it is never safe except by
maintaining perpetual and total abstinence from every kind of alcoholic
drink. Dr. Day, who for many years has had charge of an inebriate
asylum, states that he witnessed the dissection of the brain of a man
once an inebriate, but for many years in practice of total abstinence,
and found its cells still in the weak and unnatural state produced by
earlier indulgences.
There has unfortunately been a difference of opinion among medical men
as to the use of alcohol. Liebig, the celebrated writer on animal
chemistry, having found that both sugar and alcohol were heat-producing
articles of food, framed a theory that alcohol is burnt in the lungs,
giving off carbonic acid and water, and thus serving to warm the body.
Pages:
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200