--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Oaks, L. Weston collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 30 number: 5 published: 1927-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Oaks, L. Weston, “Alcohol and Humanity,” *Improvement Era* 30, no. 5 (March 1927): 405–412." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3005unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3005unse start_page: 405 end_page: 412 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1927-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3005unse publication_year: 1927 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1927, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Alcohol and Humanity ALCOHOL AND HUMANITY By L. Weston Oaks, M. D. I Actual harm frequently results from misinformation, supplied by the poorly informed who have attempted to frighten their fellows into obeying mandates religious and civil. Temperance advocates have regularly defeated their own ends by gross exaggeration of facts concerning alcohol and its use by the human race. Mysterious dangers, painted in lurid terms, have long since proved strong attractions to the curious human animal; and our attempts to terrify, by dark promises exceeding the bounds of reason, serve only to whet desire for individual experience. Closer acquaintance does not verify in degree the reformer's zeal; and isuch truth as he may have presented is dis- countenanced. Believing that sane, earnest statement of facts may stimulate rational thought and lead to avoidance of harm-producing agents, through a desire from within to be free, the writer attempts herein to offer only such data as competent scientific authorities have presented. Material used here has been drawn from publications on file in the Library of the Surgeon General of the United States Army, as shown by the appended bibliography. The substance known as alcohol has had an interesting and variegated history. The name is of Arabic origin; and was long used to designate a very fine powder. It was first applied to distillates of fermented fruits and grains in the Thirteenth century. The earliest of these was greeted with great enthusiasm, and was called the "Elixir of Life." However, use of intoxicant beverages long antedated this time, and seems to have originated in China and India, where it is recorded as far back as 800 B. C. THE NATURE OF ALCOHOL In the chemist's mind, "alcohol" refers to a group of sub- stances whose molecular formulae contain a certain atomic entity; but to most of us the term may apply only to one of two poisonous drugs: viz., grain alcohol and wood alcohol. Of these, grain alcohol, or in chemist's parlance ethyl alcohol, is the one previously entering into the composition of intoxicating beverages. Ethyl alcohol was formerly made entirely by distilling fermented grains; but as its commercial demands grew, the supply was drawn from distillation of molasses fer- mented by yeast. Sorghum used for this purpose was the residue after available sugar had been removed. Originally this constituted a waste from cane sugar production. In controlled commercial manufacture, distillation gives up three classes of product. Coming over first is what the workmen designate as "heads;" then comes the heart of the run, called Cologne Spirit, and finally "tails." Of these, only Cologne 406 IMPROVEMENT ERA Spirit is sufficiently pure for medicinal use. "Heads" of the run contains aldehydes, especially acet-aldehyde, which is decidedly poison- ous when taken internally. "Tails" contains considerable fusel oil, also a poison chemical. Denatured Alcohol is a mixture of "heads" and "tails," to be used in commerce and manufacture only. Industrial Alcohol is grain alcohol rendered unfit for drinking, by adding to ninety parts of it ten parts of wood alcohol and one-half part of benzine or pyridine. POISONING BY VICIOUS CONCOCTIONS Ignorance, profits received, conditions of production, desire to make every drop of product gainful and complete lack of responsi- bility to their "patrons," combine to determine the nature of beverages supplied by bootleggers. Here there is no attempt to avoid contamina- tion; and their wares naturally represent the gross results of unguided distillation. Fusel oil and the aldehydes1 are regular, and many times not the most deadly constituents of liquors thus provided. Wood alcohol, a distillate of woods, frequently plays a role in these vicious concoctions. Hence it is scarcely strange that serious and even fatal poisoning results with growing frequency from imbibing them. That wood alcohol, now named by the chemist "methanol," is a poison comparable to potassium cyanide in its effect upon the human body, is fast becoming common knowledge. Prior to the last half decade, methanol was not a menace to human life and sight, since it was then a dark, foul-smelling, bad-tasting fluid which no one was tempted to drink. Now, however, by a new refining process, these objectionable attributes are removed, without changing its toxic quality in the least, so that it both looks and smells like pure grain alcohol. In this newer form, it may readily be — and frequently is — substituted for the other beverages, cheap flavoring extracts, essences and patent medicines. Since discarding its marks of identification, this deadly fluid has also assumed several aliases by which it is known in various social and commercial levels. Among these designations are: "Columbian Spirits," "Colonial Spirits," "Manhattan Spirits," "Pro Spirit," "Hastings Spirit," "Lion d'or" and "Acetone." THE CONTEMPTIBLE BOOTLEGGER Wood alcohol has a special affinity for the nerves of vision. As small an amount as one teaspoonful has caused total blindness: a larger quantity often causes death. The bootlegger, than whom there is no more contemptible being in existence, and who is so steeped in evasion of all law, moral and civil, that death of a patron means nothing more to him than one less to sell to, consistently uses anything that will furnish more profit in the preparation of his wares. Wood alcohol in its refined condition readily lends itself to such use. Some makers of cheap flavoring extracts use it as a solvent, because they argue that such a small quantity of their product is taken at a time ALCOHOL AND HUMANITY 407 that the methanol therein could not possibly cause trouble. This con- tention, however, does not save the vision or lives of boys who, in satisfying their adolescent curiosity, drink these extracts in sufficient amounts to produce intoxication. BLINDNESS FROM WOOD ALCOHOL Blindness resulting from wood alcohol has a characteristic his- tory. Its first result is a marked swelling of the optic nerves, which serves to pinch the delicate nerve filaments. The individual, too often a boy in his teens, awakes the morning after to find his world in darkness. Mental torture over such prospects reduces him almost to insanity. Then he joyously discovers he can begin to distinguish be- tween light and darkness, which means lessening of the swelling. Gradually vision returns, bringing with it earnest determination never again to risk such precious possession as his eyes. However, the damage has been done. Atrophy, or slow death of the nerves, has set in; and he finally reaches resignation, through an inferno of mental anguish and remorse, as the filaments of vision die, dimming his light to permanent darkness. The courageous anxiety of such a lad not to whine over disaster resulting of his own folly is a heart-rending spectacle to witness. Yet we, as American citizens, allow this sort of thing to go on, and even wink congenially when circumstances call upon us to witness the vending of deadly poison to our brothers and to our brothers' sons. Life has decreed that only the unfortunate must suffer; and, each of us who, through his own craftiness, or through the workings of an inscrutable Fate, escapes, readily finds justification in his own eyes for not being his brother's keeper. A report from New York City's health commissioner indicates that in that municipality alone eight hundred people lost their lives, during the year of 1925, from drinking alcoholic beverages! Nearly one thousand human lives cut short in sacrifice to our civic indifference! We loudly moan and wear sack cloth, when the war god stalks among us; and bitterly grieve his demands. Yet, as a nation, we seem unmindful of this super-fiend of destruction to which Thor must give obeisance! RESOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Grain alcohol has long been regarded as an important help in chemistry and commerce. In the doctor's practice, it was once thought to be of great benefit in certain conditions; and was used rather freely many years ago. Today physicians recognize in it a poison drug, susceptible of doing great harm when taken internally, and especially when taken as a beverage. So thoroughly have most doctors come to realize its injurious and dangerous attributes that, in 1918, The American Medical Association passed the following resolutions; "Whereas, we believe that the use of alcohol as a beverage is detrimental to the human economy; and, whereas, its use in therapeutics as a tonic or stimulant or as a food has no scientific basis; therefore, be it 408 IMPROVEMENT ERA Resolved that the American Medical Association opposes the use of alcohol as a beverage; Be it further Resolved that the use of alcohol as a therapeutic agent* should be discouraged." In other words, this means that among those men, by training and experience best fitted to judge, belief in the harmful effects of this drug is so strong they prefer to cast it aside in their battling of disease, that its promiscuous^ use might stop. Until a few years ago, alcohol was thought to be a stimulant. According to Dorland's Medical Dictionary, a stimulant is "an agent which excites to functional activity." Scientific investigation, center- ed upon the action of alcohol in the human body, has shown beyond a doubt that, as a drug, it exerts none but a depressant action. Conse- quently it has finally received its proper classification as a narcotic, which, in plain speaking, means something that lessens function. Analysis of alcohol's action upon the human body and mind in- dicates that changes are wrought and effects produced in one or more of four ways. Of these the two first named are obviously of little moment in every-day life: while the others are both of fatal import in subversion of health, personal and racial. They are: ( 1 ) A small quantity of alcohol is burned up by the body to yield energy. (2) Alcohol acts as a solvent and as an irritant to delicate membranes lining mouth and stomach. (3) Habitual drinking of alcoholic beverages has profound ef- fect upon the germ cell. (4) Ingestion of alcohol, even in small amounts, powerfully depresses the whole nervous system; and the more complex or delicately specialized talents or faculties suffer greatest diminution. The dissimilar natures of these several avenues of influence seem to justify consideration of each separately. ALCOHOL AS A BODY FUEL Dr. H. A. Hare, after many years of clinical study and expe- rience, concludes that in typhoid fever, tuberculosis or diabetes, very small amounts of alcohol give help by acting as a fuel to furnish energy and save the tissues of a sufferer's body. In the presence of these diseases in active form, foods are poorly handled; and nutritive elements cannot be supplied to meet the demands of sustaining such grave battle against destruction. Therefore, Nature draws upon body tissues for fuel. This necessarily results in emaciation, pallor and ex- treme weakness. Under such conditions, minute quantities of alcohol are burned by the system to provide required energy, and to some extent do save vital tissues. Only decidedly limited amounts of the drug can be used in this way by the human body, even under such conditions, before the excess begins to appear upon the breath. Just so soon as the alcoholic odor is exhaled, it means that more has been * "Therapeutic agent" refers to any substance used in the treatment of disease. ALCOHOL AND HUMANITY 409 given than can be utilized and harm will result. In some persons, the quantity given must not exceed one or two teaspoonfuls, every three or four hours. It is also believed by some observers that, where a person is in the throes of severe disease, such as so-called "blood poisoning," pneumonia, etc., guarded administration of alcohol increases the in- dividual's chances of survival. While use of the drug is probably of benefit, under the above named conditions, it fails of being useful where wasting disease is not present. Taken into a normal body, its readiness of oxidation attracts the processes of the system; and that quantity possible to be used is burned at the expense of normal utilization of foods eaten. This interferes with sane tissue processes and furnishes greatly increased waste material to overburden those important organs of elimination, the kidneys. Graphically to picture this situation, Dr. H. A. Hare says: "Placing more coal in the grate, when the coal is nearly burned out, accomplishes a useful purpose; but placing an easily oxidized fuel, like cotton waste, on top of live coals does not improve the fire in the grate, but to use the words of the engineer, 'baffles' the fire upon which he wishes to depend." Healthy operation of the human machine depends upon delicately balanced, inter-related separate functions. Disturbing of one process is sure, in time, to upset the whole mechanism. Just as happens in our automobile, if a part fails to perform perfectly its appointed task, wear occurs, affecting one or more other parts, until we soon be- come aware of loss of power with unnatural sounds putting in ap- pearance. For the. car we can replace worn parts and eliminate trouble which has been occasioned by lack of intelligent care in our use of the machine. But few indeed are the replaceable parts of a human machine, even if a source of supply were available! Each of us gets one complete mechanism, upon which he must depend for the length, as well as the happiness or misery of the life he lives. When parts are damaged, as a result of ignorance or willful indiscretion, Nature has but one recourse in their repair. She pours new tissue into the worn or broken places; but can never, except in case of bone, skin covering, and some elements of the nervous system, supply the same kind that existed there before. Healing processes always occur by the laying down of soft, cellular material, which later becomes contracted, almost bloodless scar tissue. If we wear out our kidneys, or other vital structures, by over-loading them, non-functioning scar tissue replaces the broken- down elements, and our processes of eliminating waste materials are soon seriously hampered. Alcohol has long been recognized as a con- tributing cause of Bright's disease. A few physicians feel that small amounts of alcohol are help- ful in the aged and infirm, where body activities are lacking in normal vitality, and senile decline is somewhat advanced. 410 IMPROVEMENT ERA EFFECT UPON DIGESTIVE MECHANISM Much energetic argument has been presented, pro and con, to establish whether alcohol is or is not truly a food. This contention simmers down, in its last analysis1, to pivot upon our scientific defi- nition of a food. Briefly, as stated by Dorland, a food is anything taken into the body which goes (a) to build up body tissues, or (b) to produce heat. There is now unanimity of opinion among investigators, that alcohol is never made use of in building up tissues. Such a state- ment may sound doubtful, in view of our individual observation that chronic alcoholics frequently tend to grow fat. Attention has already been directed to alcohol's interference with normal processes of oxi- dation in the body; and it is well known that when oxidation fails to be applied to suitable food materials absorbed into the blood stream, they are either eliminated or laid down as fat. Alcoholic poisoning of the body cells impairs their customary energetic efficiency; and the presence of this drug in the circulation draws heavily upon their oxygen supply, as it combines more readily with oxygen than do ordinary foods. Left unused, normal nutritive materials must be hurriedly disposed of to avoid hampering the whole metabolic process; and such of them as cannot be speedily prepared for elimination and handled by the kidneys, are hastily dumped into any convenient localities as fat, to keep roadways open for a constant supply coming from the digestive tract. Consequently upon this are the alcoholic's puff- iness under his eyes, flabbiness of body tissues, fatty degeneration of liver and of heart muscle, and "blooming" nose, all of which loudly presage his inability to cope with disease. Supporting the above conclusion, is an added fact, commonly observed, that any person who cannot digest and absorb the usual food principles will never gain in weight upon alcohol, no matter how much may be ingested. Alcohol also differs from true foods in the fact that its use tends to give no feeling of having had enough. Under its influence, an individual will continue to drink until so thoroughly poisoned he can no longer lift the container to his lips. In other words it fosters an unnatural appetite; and there is no way to tell how little may be taken habitually without harm. As has already been explained, in discussing alcohol as a body fuel, such of it as can be utilized is burned to produce heat in the body. And upon that fact hangs the contention that alcohol is a food. It is interesting to note, however, that no matter how sorely in need of nutrition and fuel the individual may be, the amount of alcohol he can consume, before it begins to appear upon his breath, is not materially increased over what it was when he was not starving. While speaking of body heat, it seems advisable to mention the notion that taking alcohol conserves body warmth when going out into the cold. Many men have lost their lives as a direct result of be- lief in this fallacy. A drink of alcoholic beverage rapidly produces relaxation of blood vessel walls in the skin, with a consequent flushing, ALCOHOL AND HUMANITY 411 the result of greatly increased blood supply. With this, there is also a feeling of warmth, promoted by the flushing as well as by an irritant action of alcohol upon lining membranes of esophagus and stomach. Observation of these facts alone, though, fails to take cognizance of an important and vital physiologic fact. The blood stream is a great distributing mechanism. Among its other functions, it also officiates in transmitting excess heat to the body's surface where it is dissipated by contact with a cooler medium, or by evaporating of perspiration produced. How much blood shall be exposed to surface cooling action is governed by a delicate nerve mechanism, controlled through a heat centre in the brain. Alcohol quickly depresses part of this mechanism so that an excess of blood rushes) into the skin capillaries. In the presence of severe cold, heat loss from the surface under such condi- tions greatly exceed its production in the body, vital processes are rapidly overcome and death frequently results. Experimental work, by several able investigators, points to the fact that alcohol interferes with digestion in the stomach. It has been shown that when alcohol comes into contact with the stomach's lining membrane, there is an outpouring of gastric juice to dilute it and offset the irritation it produces. This hastily provided secretion, however, contains decidedly less pepsin than normal. Only proteids are digested in the stomach; and pepsin is the enzyme which officiates in their dissolution. Consequently, it would appear that our old no- tion regarding a little alcohol taken before meals, where digestion is impoverished, is not well grounded in fact. The drug is much used in chemistry and medicine as a powerful solvent. In man's stomach, it dissolves or washes out the pepsin from those minute glands which produce it; and so long as alcohol is present, no more enzyme is secreted by them. In his book The Action of Alcohol Upon Man, Dr. Ernest H. Startling notes that alcohol in the stomach, in the strength of five to ten parts in one hundred, distinctly retards di- gestion there; and further, the more alcohol present the greater re- tardation. EFFECT OF ALCOHOL UPON PARENTHOOD AND THE UNBORN Quite general, among investigators, is the conclusion that alcohol profoundly influences reproduction, both in man and in animals. Carefully controlled experiments with white rats have shown that animals treated throughout their lives with alcohol fumes are decidedly modified in this respect. The number of litters born to these alcoholic individuals, compared with the average among others untreated, was considerably lessened. In addition to this, the size of litters was con- sistently reduced ten per cent. Such depression of reproduction faculty was found to continue two generations beyond the alcohol-treated parents. This, of course, means that alcoholic poisoning of these rats not only reduced their power to procreate their kind, but also extended the subjugation to their children and their grandchildren. Such 412 IMPROVEMENT ERA result undeniably means modification of the germ cell; and carries an ominous portent when applied to man of today. Professor A. Forel, of Germany, wrote in 1906: "A serious matter is the prevalence of alcoholic habits, which tend directly to the deterioration of the genital glands and the products of their activity. The vigor of the embryo cannot be affected by accidents as the loss of a leg, and by local disease only so far as it reduces the general strength; but it is powerfully influenced by such general poisons as, entering the circulation, are carried to every tissue. That alcohol is such a poison is well known; and even when taken in small doses for a considerable period, it has a pernicious effect upon the off-spring." Corroborating Dr. Forel's idea is the work of Dr. Louise Mcllroy, working in England. She writes, in 1923: "I think it is not an exaggeration to state that alcohol is a poison; and that the foetus (unborn babe) of a chronic alcoholic mother is itself a chronic alcoholic, absorbing alcohol from the mother's blood, and subsequently from her milk. * * * Daughters of alcoholic fathers are said to be in- capable of supplying milk to their infants." Another writer, Dr. W. C. Sullivan, says: "Maternal inebriety is a condition peculiarly noxious to the vitality and the normal development of the offspring." This author also goes further and states that families where the mothers are addicted to the use of alcohol tend to follow a definite course as to child morality. The first-born children may be normal; then come more or less defective children, who live beyond infancy: then babies dying in infancy; then stillbirths and finally repeated miscarriages. Dr. Ashby, in the Cambridge Public Health Series, concludes there is an increase in stillbirths, as well as an increase in death rate of children born alive, maintaining an almost constant relation to alcoholism in the mother. A careful search of the literature revealed no record of investiga- tion or observation which cast any doubt upon alcohol's leading to intoxication of the human germ cell, with consequent defectiveness, poor health through lowered resistance, and even death of the off- spring. Provo, Utah (To be concluded) A Prayer "Thy will, O God, not mine be done," The hardest words that human tongue In true humility can say. O Father, give me strength, this day, That I may wish thy will to do, That I may answer unto you In true humility of tongue: "Thy will, O God, not mine, be done." Springville, Utah DOROTHY DAVENPORT