Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/266

262 alcohol is narcotic, nevertheless the narcotic theory, as it has hitherto been presented, is very one-sided, and the truth in the narcotic theory as well as in the stimulation or intoxication theory is now brought into proper relief. One would not say that play and sport are narcotics. They seem to be very refreshing and stimulating. In the same way alcohol is stimulating, not directly, for its physiological action is wholly depressive, but indirectly by inhibiting the higher brain centers and setting free the older and more primitive psychoses. Thus it appears as a depressant of voluntary attention and effort, of logical associations and abstract reasoning, of foresight and prudence, of anxiety and worry, of modesty and reserve and the higher sentiments in general, while, on the other hand, it acts indirectly as an excitant of speech, laughter and song, of emotional feeling and expression, of sentimentality, and in increased doses, of still older and more basic impulses, such as garrulity, quarrelsomeness, recklessness, immodesty and, finally, of coarseness and criminal tendencies. Thus under the progressive influence of alcohol we see the whole life history of the race traversed in reverse direction, for the criminal life of to-day represents the normal life of primitive man.

We thus trace the desire for alcohol to the inherent need of mind and body for relaxation, a need normally supplied by all the varied forms of play and sport. Physiologically it is expressed by the need of rest felt by the higher brain centers upon which conditions of civilization bring so severe a strain. Psychologically it is the expression of the desire for release from the tension of the strenuous life. In a sense, therefore, it is the strenuous life which is responsible for the alcohol impulse, but it should be noted that the word "strenuous" is here used in a broad sense. It does not refer necessarily to an exciting, active, high-pressure life, but refers rather to any condition of unrelieved tension, where sustained effort is demanded with little opportunity for complete rest and relaxation. While these conditions are perhaps best (encouraged by the high-pressure life of our cities, they are also present in the unrelieved toil of the industrial worker.

We are in this way able to understand some of the facts which, as we have shown, must be considered in any theory of the alcohol motive. We may understand not only the increased desire for alcohol in modern life, but also the lesser need for it on the part of woman. Woman is less modified than man and presents less variation. Her life is calmer and more even. She is more conservative, representing the child type, which is the race type. Tier life is less strenuous. She is not keyed up to so high a pitch and hence has less need of relaxation and feels less demand for play and sport. Man, on the other hand, represents variation. The mental powers peculiar to advancing civilization are more developed in him. lie has to be in the vanguard of progress. With him, therefore, the stress of life, the tension, the