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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    01 PEOPOSITION III. If til The Habitual MODERATE use of Alcoholic Liquoks has a tendency to produce morbid actions in those organs espe- jj, cially acted-on by them. which manifest themselves in various Chronic Diseases of advanced life. 81. The consequences of tbe excessive use of Alcoholic liquors, as proved by the experience of the medical profes- sion, and universally admitted by medical writers, having In thus been shown to be precisely such as the study of its elfects in poisonous and immediately fatal doses would lead ^ us to anticipate, we are further justified in expecting that ti the habitual use of these liquors, in smaller quantities, if oi sufficiently prolonged, will ultimately be attended, in a large ci proportion of cases, by consequences prejudicial to the hu- bi man system,—the morbid actions thus engendered being f likely to be chronic, rather than acute, in their character. 1 And, as such morbid actions are actually found to be among E the most common disorders of persons advanced in life, who c; have been in the habit of taking a moderate allowance of c; alcoholic liquors, there is very strong ground for regarding l them as in great degree dependent upon the asserted cause; p although the long postponement of their elfects may render ii it impossible to demonstrate the connection. , i 82. It may not be amiss to remark, at the outset of this it inquiry, that it is through the medium of the Water con- a tained in the animal body, that all its vital functions are c carried on. No other liquid than water can act as the i solvent for the various articles of food which are taken into . \ the stomach. It is water alone, which forms aU the fluid i portion of the blood, and thus serves to convey the nu- tritive material through the capillary pores into the sub- stance of the solid tissues. It is water, which, when min- gled in various proportions with the solid components of the various textures, gives to them the consistence which they severally require. And it is water, which takes up the