Alcohol in relation to health / by B.W. Richardson.

  • Richardson, B. W.
Date:
[1880?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alcohol in relation to health / by B.W. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ALCOHOL IN RELATION TO HEALTH. By B. W. RICHARDSON, M.D., F.R.S. | [These notes by Dr. Richardson were in reply to a short series of questions submitted to him by Lady Jane Ellice, President of a Ladies’ National Temperance Convention, which assembled in London, May 22, 23, and 24, 1876. Lady Jane had often heard from ladies who spoke of total abstinence certain reasons why they should not or could not abstain. One said her digestion required alcohol; a second, that her feeble circulation required it; a third, that her general feebleness re- i quired it; a fourth, that she had tried to abstain from it, but had to fall back upon it for support. Lady Jane therefore submitted the series of questions to Dr. Richardson on these special points, and his replies are placed in the order suggested by the inquiries.] ! -— - | Question I. I Relating to the action of Alcohol on the Process of Digestion. 1 The common idea that alcohol acts as an aid to digestion is without foundation. Experiments on the artificial digestion of food, in which the natural process is very closely imitated, show that the presence of alcohol in the solvents employed interferes with and weakens the efficacy of the solvents. It is also one of the most definite of facts that persons who indulge even in what is called the moderate use of alcohol suffer often from dyspepsia from this cause alone. They ac- Ce*». / X&G A