On food : Being lectures delivered at the South Kensington Museum / by E. Lankester.

  • Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir, 1847-1929.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On food : Being lectures delivered at the South Kensington Museum / by E. Lankester. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    This is one of the most important facts in the history of the action of alcohol on the system : it accounts for some of its well-known effects. Thus, there is no better-established fact than that alcoholic drinks give a tendency to the production of such diseases as rheu- matism and gout, which depend on the retention in the blood of certain compounds which ought not to be there. These compounds are probably due to this action of alcohol on the system. On the other hand, it is well known that in certain states of the system, when change in the tissue is going on too rapidly, that alcohol acts most beneficially. Thus, with the aged and infirm, small doses of alcohol arrest the too rapid changes of the tissues, and give them increased vigour and strength. Sanctorius called wine the milk of old age,'* and its value in certain cases of senile exhaustion can hardly be overrated. It is also undoubtedly due, in some mea- sure, to this conservative action of alcohol, that it has been found of so great value in the treatment of disease* attended with rapid change of the tissues and great exhaustion. I now come to speak of the action of alcohol on the nervous system. I have already given you some account of the nerves, and the great nervous centres, and their functions. It is upon this system that this remarkable substance exerts its greatest effects. These effects are the result of its direct application to the nerves, or of its indirect effects through the agencj'' of the blood. If we apply alcohol directly to a part, it acts immediately upon the nerves of that part, and excites their activity. In this way it is said to act as a local stimulant. If we