If the indulgence in alcohol is continued, these paralytic conditions become more and more marked. The flushed face becomes pale, the eyes lustreless, the loquaciousness diminishes, the speech is indistinct, the general activity subsides. Unconsciousness more or less marked, accompanied by a cold, clammy condition of the skin and slow, noisy breathing, follows, and the intoxicated individual recovers from his exuberance of spirits and deeds in a resting-place often involuntarily selected. Not uncommonly, twitching and convulsions may result from alcoholic indulgence, and in some persons the narcotic state may come on without any preliminary period of excite ment. Sudden death may ensue, and this has been observed where persons have taken large amounts of alcohol within a short time, as for a wager.
Repeated intoxication, or even the long-continued, apparently moderate indulgence in alcohol which in time exceeds certain limits, can gradually bring about an insidious poisoning of the system, which may be designated as chronic alcoholism. The stomach, being constantly exposed to the irritating effects of the alcohol, is the first organ to suffer, and it soon becomes the seat of a chronic catarrh. As a result of this, the appetite diminishes, nutrition is interfered with, and the entire system is thereby weakened. Morn ing vomiting is very common, the vomited material consisting largely of saliva swallowed during sleep, and of the excess of the mucus due to the catarrhal process. The liver becomes the seat of a slow degeneration ; it becomes fatty, or more often, new connective-tissue growth causes it to con tract ; the kidneys do not act as well, and also become cirrhotic ; the heart enlarges, particularly in beer drinkers, on account of the increased amount of fluid NVIIICh it is compelled to propel through the body ; it under goes fatty degeneration, and gets gradually weaker. :Men who drink a great deal without any apparent ill effects, often die very suddenly from cardiac weakness. In addition to the symptoms just enumerated, there are also developed various chronic catarrhs of the throat, larynx, and intestine ; and the arteries undergo hardening, which may go on to chalky hardening, or calcifica tion. Of great moment is the involvement of the blood-vessels of the brain and nervous system. An ordinary trembling of the hands is a common symp tom of over-indulgence. There may be sensory disturbances, such as pains in the arms or legs. These may gradually lead to inflammation of the nerves (neuritis), with loss of power to raise the wrist, or raise the toes ; or the brain itself may give out, and epilepsy and insanity develop.
In short, there is scarcely an organ of the body which is not influenced by alcohol sooner or later, and to some extent permanently damaged. In time
the higher mental faculties become affected, and the individual becomes dull, awkward, careless, and thick-witted, Character and self-control are lost, and the longer the habit has been present, the more difficult it becomes to overcome it. The drunkard's sense of his obligations to his family, to decency, and to custom, disappear, and soon he does not even realise the disgrace of his condition, having become wrecked both in mind and body. As the habit gradually diminishes the resisting powers of the organism, the alcoholic readily succumbs to diseases which the ordinary person withstands.
Delirium Tremens is a special type of acute poisoning N•hich frequently develops during the course of chronic alcoholism. It is apt to come on after a particularly prolonged debauch, and is fi'equently set off, as it were, by a severe general disease, such as pneumonia, by injuries, or by great mental excitement. The patients are at first very nervous ; they arc in constant motion, tremble, have no appetite, cannot eat, or keep anything but liquids in the stomach, and they sleep very badly. During the day they may keep control, hut as night comes on they frequently have hallucinations of sight and of hearing, these sights often being worse than the most dreadful of nightmares. In the severe cases the patients become wildly insane, mani acal ; they may commit murder if unrestrained. Under proper treatment they frequently recover, but often die of extreme exhaustion.
A great deal can be said concerning the close relation of alcoholism to crime, but it will be sufficient to call attention here to the fact that a large percentage of the cases of murder, assault, resistance to the law, bur glary, etc., can be attributed to the effects of this habit. Suicide, primarily or secondarily, may often be traced to alcoholic indulgence. Venereal dis eases are frequently contracted by men during a debauch and transmitted to their wives. How much more dangerous than the ordinary deadly poisons, is, therefore, this substance, which not only affects the one who imbibes it, but also numerous innocent persons, destroys families, and even manifests its evil influence in succeeding generations. Sympathy must be extended to those unfortunates who are weak-minded or insane because their fathers were drunkards, and to those who are predisposed to nervous or mental diseases, to which they sooner or later must succumb. Disease, asylums, prisons, early death, and suicide can all be laid at the door of this enemy of mankind, which, in the guise of banishing pain, has falsely been called one of the benefactors of the human race. It would be possible to abandon many prisons and asylums if the continual poisoning of the nations by alcohol could be stopped.