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.

    96/192 (page 88)
    For the excreting organs cannot be always kept in a con- dition of excessive activity; like other parts of the system, they suffer sooner or later from too great an exaltation of the'ir function; and if this should not pass, as it often does, i into an inflammatory condition, it is almost certain to be |e remotely followed by a state of depressed activity, in which the nutrition of the organ becomes impaired, so that it is left, during the remainder of life, in a state by no means equal to the performance of its regular duties. 95. We have been thus led to inquire into the pernicious influence exerted by the moderate use of Alcoholic stimulants upon the Excretory Organs, in augmenting the amount of labour they are called upon to perform, by favour- j ing the reception of too large an amount of alimentary matter into the system. But there is another point of view under \ which its results must be considered; namely, the direct , influence of the alcoholic stimulus upon the organs them- , selves, especially the Liver and Kidneys, in augmenting j their functional activity. This influence may for a time , be corrective of the other, and may thus aid in concealing ^ and retarding its evil consequences. But although a sys- , tem of compensation is thus maintained, whereby the efiects , of excess are neutralized for a time—it is only for a time; , for as surely as any organ is habitually exerted in ai^ excessive degree, so surely must its vital powers be pre- maturely exhausted; the remoteness of the period at which the flagging of its power begins to manifest itself, being inversely to the degree of its habitual over-excitement. Hence we have additional reason for imputing a consider- able proportion of those chronic disorders of the excretory organs to which reference has been more especially made, \ to the habitual employment of Alcoholic liquors, in what is ordinarily considered to be a moderate amount, and regarded as perfectly consistent with health, if not required to maintain it. 96. It would be absurd, however, to affirm that such diseases always proceed from this cause; since those who i practise total abstinence from Alcoholic liquors are by no ' means proof against other errors in dietetics; and in so > far as they habitually take more food than their system i needs, they will be liable to suffer from disorder of the '