The physiology of temperance & total abstinence : being an examination of the effects of the excessive, moderate, and occasional use of alcoholic liquors on the healthy human system / by William B. Carpenter.

Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of temperance & total abstinence : being an examination of the effects of the excessive, moderate, and occasional use of alcoholic liquors on the healthy human system / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    becomes feeble, small, and slow, gradually ceasing to be perceptible; and tbe heart's action at last comes to a stand, not (as in the previous case) from the direct impression . made by the poison, but as a consequence of the obstruction:! to the passage of blood through the lungs, which is created I by its want of aeration. As might be expected, the tempe-- rature falls, especially in the limbs, with the diminution ini the vigour of the circulation; though that of the headl generally remains high to a late period. 5. In such cases of Alcoholic poisoning, the appearances^ usually resemble, more or less closely, those of Asphyxia;; the right side of the lieart, the pulmonary arteries, and the> systemic veins, being loaded with blood; whilst the left: cavities and the arterial system are comparatively empty,, the blood which they do contain being dark. The sinuses- and the whole venous system of the brain are ■ turgid with i dark blood; and serous effusion is usually found within the ventricles, or beneath the arachnoid; this, however, being: variable in its amount. The substance of the brain is; unusually Avhite and firm, as if it had lain in alcohol for am hour or two. The liver, spleen, and kidneys are loaded! with venous blood ; and the air-passages of the lungs contain i more or less of frothy mucus. The stomach usually exhibits ■ but little departure from its normal condition, except im cases where drunkenness has been habitual, or where the' fatal dose has been taken in a very concentrated form. ln\ the former case, the mucous coat'is usually found thicker,, softer, and more vascular than usual; this change some-- times extending even throughout the entire length of the • small intestines. In rarer instances, the coats of the stomach i are remarkably thickened and hardened.*' Amost important • alteration is usually observable in the condition of the Hood,, which is either flui'd or coagulates imperfectly; and altliougbi this may be partly attributed to the deficiency of respi-- ration (which has a tendency to produce the same con-- dition), yet there can be no doubt that it is partly the- consequence of the directly-poisonous influence of the? alcohol on the blood, since the same result happens when i • See Dr. Ogston's Memoir, in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical I Journal, vol. xl., and Dr. Peters, in New York Journal of Medicine, i vol. iii.