Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why: What Medical Writers SayAllen, Martha Meir
Science
Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why: What Medical Writers Say
Allen, Martha Meir
Alcohol -- Physiological effect; Temperance
"On the other hand, several observers have reported that the
flow of urine was increased by the use of alcohol. From as full
an examination of the subject as I have been able to make, it
appears that the diverse results obtained have depended upon the
previous habits of those experimented on, and the widely varying
quantities of water drank with the alcohol. When the alcohol is
taken with large quantities of water, as is usual with those who
use beer and fermented drinks generally, the total amount of
urine passed is usually increased, but not more than is found to
result from taking the same quantity of water without any
alcohol. When alcoholic drinks are taken by those already
habituated to its use, it has less marked effect on the quantity
and quality of the urine than when taken by those who had
previously been total abstainers. This was illustrated by the
experiments of Mohilansky on the fifteen men, some of whom were
habitual drinkers, some occasional drinkers, and others total
abstainers. When all were subjected to the same diet and drinks,
with alcohol, in two the daily amount of urine voided remained
unaltered, in five it was increased seven per cent., and in
eight it decreased twelve per cent. But whatever may be the
variations in the mere quantity of urine voided under the
influence of alcohol, the alterations in quality pretty
uniformly show an increase in the products of imperfect internal
metamorphosis or oxidation, such as uric acid, oxalates, casts,
leucocytes, albumen and potassium, with less of the normal
products, as urea and salts of sodium.
"During the past year I have met with three cases in which the
regular daily use of alcoholic drinks for several months, in
quantities not sufficient to produce intoxication, had so
altered the blood, and the renal function, that the urine
contained both casts and albumen, and some degree of oedema
was observable in the face and extremities. These changes were
so marked as to justify a diagnosis of incipient nephritis, or
Bright's disease. Yet after totally abstaining from the use of
alcoholic drinks and remedies, and taking such vasomotor tonics
as strychnine and digitalis, with a regulated diet and fresh
air, they completely recovered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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