On examining the stomach after death, it is generally found irritated,
and approaching a state of inflammation, with its vessels enlarged, and
filled with black blood; and particularly those of the mucous coat,
which gives to the internal surface of the stomach the appearance of
purple or reddish streaks, resembling the livid patches seen on the face
of the drunkard.
The coats of the stomach become greatly thickened and corrugated, and so
firmly united as to form one inseparable mass. In this state, the walls
of the organ are sometimes increased in thickness to the extent of ten
or twelve lines, and are sometimes found also in a scirrhous or
cancerous condition.
The following case occurred in my practice several years since. A
middle-aged gentleman, of wealth and standing, had long been accustomed
to mingle in the convivial circle, and though by no means a drunkard,
had indulged at times in the use of his old cogniac, with an unsparing
hand. He was at length seized with pain in the region of the stomach,
and a vomiting of his food an hour or two after eating. In about
eighteen months he died in a state of extreme emaciation.
On opening the body after death, the walls of the whole of the right
extremity of the stomach were found in a scirrhous and cancerous
condition, and thickened to the extent of about two inches. The cavity
of the organ was so far obliterated as scarcely to admit the passage of
a probe from the left to the right extremity, and the opening which
remained was so unequal and irregular as to render it evident that but
little of the nourishment he had received could have passed the lower
orifice of the stomach for many months.
I have never dissected the stomach of a drunkard, in which the organ did
not manifest some remarkable deviation from its healthy condition. But
the derangement of the stomach is not limited to the function of
nutrition merely. This organ is closely united to every other organ, and
to each individual tissue of the body, by its sympathetic relations.
When the stomach, therefore, becomes diseased, other parts suffer with
it. The functions of the brain, the heart, the lungs, and the liver,
become disordered; the secretions are altered, and all the operations of
the animal economy are more or less affected.
5. The _liver_ and its functions. Alcohol, in every form and proportion,
has long been known to exert a strong and speedy influence on this
organ, when used internally. Aware of this fact, the poultry-dealers of
England are in the habit of mixing a quantity of spirit with the food of
their fowls, in order to increase the size of the liver; so that they
may be enabled to supply to the epicure a greater abundance of that part
of the animal, which he regards as the most delicious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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