ALCOHOLIC DRINKS, EFFECTS OF

In addition to the serious injury to health caused by an exce ive or imprudent indulgence in spirituous stimulants (see previous article), even a moderate and not injudicious use of them may often be attended with very disagreeable consequences—a more or le mild or modified form of poisoning, in fact—if the beverages themselves are, as very frequently happens, contaminated, either accidentally or intentionally, with certain objectionable ingredients. These ingredients are described under the articles Beer , Wines , and the various SPIRITS , such as Gin , Brandy , Absinthe , . Of spirit drinking it may be observed, that this dangerous practice is intensified by what is to be feared is the too prevalent custom of taking them undiluted, or “neat,” as it is termed. There is no doubt that they constitute the very worst form of alcoholic drinks, and shorten the lives of those who indulge in them to exce more summarily than any other intoxicating potion. The greatest and most ineradicable drunkards are almost always found to be spirit drinkers. Liebig remarked that le bread was consumed in families where beer was drunk, and there seems to be little doubt that the different species of beer, including porter and ale, when pure and free from adulteration, act, although in a small degree, as food. Probably there are some who will agree with, whilst others will di ent from, Benjamin Franklin, who said “there was more sustenance in a penny loaf than in a gallon of beer.” The starchy extractive matters of the beer no doubt perform the same function in the animal economy that sugar does. It is well known that those who drink freely of beer mostly become corpulent, as witne the portly forms of draymen. The hop contained in the beer has doubtle tonic and stomachic qualities. We can speak with le certainty about the free acids contained in malt fluids. It is very certain that some people cannot drink a gla of beer without experiencing rheumatic pains in the joints, which effect is generally ascribed to the acidity of the beer; but which is really supposed to be due to the decreased elimination of urea and pulmonary carbonic acid from the system caused by the alcohol of the beer. The heavy low-priced beers occasion drunkenne of a peculiarly violent and savage kind, a fact which strongly favours the inference that this form of intoxication is due to some toxic agent, used as an adulterant. Of wines, the clarets and subacid wines are undoubtedly antiscorbutic in properties, and light wines as beverages are preferable to the stronger. Port, sherry, beer, stout, and ale are almost universally condemned in cases where there is a tendency to gout. The light clarets and Rhine wines are far more desirable beverages when this is the case, and the German wines are said to be valuable drinks in many lithic affections. It seems probable that the ethers and the vegetable salts, together with the sugar contained in wines, perform the most important part in the human economy. It has been proposed to introduce the red subacid wines as drinks for our sailors, because of their antiscorbutic qualities. Some of the alcoholic drinks prepared in India frequently cause temporary madne .