Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/232

222 and from this idea—false idea, I should say—of the primary action of alcohol, many erroneous conclusions have been drawn. We have now learned that there exist many chemical bodies which act directly by producing a paralysis of the organic nervous supply of the vessels which constitute the minute vascular circuit. These minute vessels when paralyzed offer inefficient resistance to the stroke of the heart, and the heart thus liberated, like the mainspring of a clock from which the resistance has been removed, quickens in action, dilating the minute and feebly-acting vessels, and giving evidence really not of increased but of wasted power.

The phenomena noticed above constitute the first stage of alcoholic action on the body; we may call it the stage of excitement; it corresponds with a similar stage or degree caused by chloroform.

If the action of alcohol be carried further, a new set of changes is induced in another part of the nervous system—the spinal system. Whether this change be due simply to the modification of the circulation in the spinal cord, or to the direct action of the alcohol upon the nervous matter, is not yet known, but the fact of change of function is well marked, and it consists of deficient power of coordination of muscular movement. The nervous control of certain of the muscles is lost, and the nervous stimulus is more or less enfeebled. The muscles of the lower lip in the human subject usually fail first of all, then the muscles of the lower limbs, and it is worthy of remark that the flexor muscles give way earlier than the extensors. The muscles themselves by this time are also failing in power; they respond more feebly than is natural to the galvanic stimulus; they, too, are coming under the depressing influence of the paralyzing agent, their structure temporarily changed, and their contractile power everywhere reduced. This modification of the animal functions under alcohol marks the second degree of its action. In this degree, in young subjects, there is usually vomiting, and in birds this symptom is invariable. Under chloroform there is produced a degree or stage of action holding the same place in the order of phenomena.

The influence of the alcohol continued still longer, the upper portions of the cerebral mass, or larger brain, become implicated. These are the centres of thought and volition, and as they become unbalanced and thrown into chaos, the mind loses equilibrium, and the rational part of the nature of the man gives way before the emotional, passional, or mere organic part. The reason now is off duty, or is fooling with duty, and all the mere animal instincts and sentiments are laid atrociously bare. The coward shows up more craven, the braggart more braggart, the bold more bold, the cruel more cruel, the ignorant more ignorant, the untruthful more untruthful, the carnal more carnal. "In vino veritas" expresses faithfully, indeed even to physiological accuracy, a true condition. The spirits of the emotions are all in revel, and are prepared to rattle over each other in wild disorder;