Hygiene: a manual of personal and public health (New Edition)Newsholme, Arthur, Sir
Science
Hygiene: a manual of personal and public health (New Edition)
Newsholme, Arthur, Sir
Hygiene; Public health -- Great Britain; Sanitation
The =Effect on the Temperature= is to lower it; but unless the dose
is excessive, this effect is hardly appreciable. The resistance to
excessive cold is diminished by even moderate doses of alcohol, still
more by large doses. In the Arctic regions, this has been abundantly
proved. This effect is produced, notwithstanding the fact that alcohol
becomes oxidised in the system. The dilatation of the surface blood
vessels leads to a greater loss of heat than that produced by the
oxidation of the alcohol.
EFFECTS OF IMMODERATE DOSES OF ALCOHOL ON THE SYSTEM.—Bearing in mind
the definition given of a moderate dose, one is bound to admit that
a large number of individuals exceed this amount daily, apparently
without any very serious results. The system becomes habituated to
large doses, and if the occupation is a laborious one, they may in part
be oxidised in the system. Such, however, are exceptional cases. In
the majority of cases evil results are by no means confined to those
who indulge in very large quantities of alcohol at varying intervals.
In fact these very often escape comparatively free, while others who
never take a quantity sufficient to incapacitate them for their work,
are sowing the seeds of chronic and oft incurable disease. The labourer
who has a drinking bout at intervals is thoroughly nauseated; and the
condition of liver and stomach induced, enforces abstinence on him
for a time sufficient to bring his organs back to a normal condition;
while the city merchant who indulges more moderately, but whose organs
are almost continuously impregnated with alcohol, becomes gouty and
prematurely old.
The =Stomach= may become acutely inflamed, when a large dose of alcohol
is taken. The chronic irritation of alcohol, especially when taken
apart from meals, causes atrophy of the walls of the stomach, and a
change analogous to that in the liver.
The =Liver=, when alcohol is daily taken immoderately, becomes
seriously diseased. In some cases it becomes large and fatty; in others
the chronic irritation excites an overgrowth of fibrous tissue between
the lobules of the liver, which, gradually shrinking, squeezes the
liver cells and causes them to atrophy, at the same time obstructing
the small branches of the portal vein in the substance of the liver.
The consequence of this obstruction to the flow of blood through the
liver is that all the organs from which the portal vein brings blood
become overloaded with blood, and vomiting of blood and dropsy of the
abdomen occur at a later period.
The =Lungs= are irritated to a less extent by alcohol in large doses.
The tendency to chronic bronchitis is increased, followed by emphysema,
and sometimes an overgrowth of fibrous tissue (cirrhosis) like that in
the liver occurs.
The =Heart and Blood-vessels= tend to become diseased, owing largely to
the gouty condition of system developed.
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