Persons of tender or compassionate minds are particularly subject, during
intoxication, to be affected to tears at the sight of any distressing
object, or even on hearing an affecting tale. Drunkenness in such
characters, may be said to melt the heart, and open up the fountains
of sorrow. Their sympathy is often ridiculous, and aroused by the most
trifling causes. Those who have a living imagination, combined with this
tenderness of heart, sometimes conceive fictitious causes of distress,
and weep bitterly at the wo of their own creating.
There are some persons in whom drunkenness calls forth a spirit of
piety, or rather of religious hypocrisy, which is both ludicrous and
disgusting. They become sentimental over their cups; and, while in a
state of debasement most offensive to God and man, they will weep at the
wickedness of the human heart, entreat you to eschew swearing and profane
company, and have a greater regard for the welfare of your immortal soul.
These sanctimonious drunkards seem to consider ebriety as the most venial
of offences.
During a paroxysm of drunkenness, the body is much less sensible to
external stimuli than at other times: it is particularly capable
of resisting cold. Seamen, when absent on shore, are prone to get
intoxicated; and they will frequently lie for hours on the highway,
even in the depth of winter without any bad consequences. A drunk man
seldom shivers from cold. His frame seems steeled against it, and he
holds out with an apathy which is astonishing. The body is, in like
manner, insensible to injuries, such as cuts, bruises, &c. He frequently
receives, in fighting, the most severe blows, without seemingly feeling
them, and without, in fact, being aware of the matter till sobered.
Persons in intoxication have been known to chop off their fingers, and
otherwise disfigure themselves, laughing all the while at the action.
But when the paroxysm is off, and the frame weakened, things are changed.
External agents are then withstood with little vigour, with even less
than in the natural state of the body. The person shivers on the
slightest chill, and is more than usually subject to fevers and all sorts
of contagion.
External stimuli frequently break the fit. Men have been instantly
sobered by having a bucket of cold water thrown upon them, or by falling
into a stream. Strong emotions of the mind produce the same effect,
such as the sense of danger, or a piece of good or bad news, suddenly
communicated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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