SIR LAUDER BRUNTON AND ALCOHOL

Evening Star, Issue 15907, 13 September 1915, Page 1

SIR LAUDER BRUNTON AND ALCOHOL

; Sir Lauder Bronbon, a distinguished i medical man, writes on 'Alcohol; What It j Does to Us, and What We Ought to Do. With It' in the ' Nineteenth Century' I (July). . ! " My friend, the late William Black, the j novelist, once told he that a single glass, of sherry was. enough to lake, the fine edge i off his intellect. Under its influence ho i seemed to hirr.solf to write more fluently, | quickly, and eloquently than usual, but j the manuscript he then produced would j not stand criticism next morning. ! " This effect of alcohol in making a per- j son feel batter, cleverer, and stronger j than he is in reality is one of the plea<- : sures which alcohol affords, and is an in- ' dueemont to its use. It also lessens the weight of care due to external circum- • stances. This, I think, wa6 verv well' put by a very able and admirable man I whose professional work entailed a great 1 deal of correspondence. | " One night, when dining with a friend j after a long and exhausting day, he pax- '. took freely of chajnpagne, and at the same time lamented the piles of letters which were lying unanswered upon his table. : His friend said to him : ' This champagne will mat liedp you to answer letters.' ' No,' said he, ' but it will make me feel that I do not care a damn whether they ; are answered or not.' " When I began to write this anecdote I felt inclined to leave out the oath,. because it is quite unnecessary, but on second thoughts 1 decided to leave it, be-, cause its employment shows that the narcotic action of the alcohol was already reaching the further stage when the subject of it was not only ceasing to regard the dictates of his own conscience, but was becoming careless of the opinion of those around him. When this state is fully de-: veloped, a man under the influence of al-! cohol will do and say things which in his sober moments he would condemn with contempt and disgust. He becomes more; and more self-centred, more and more re-1 gardlees of his environment, present or fu-! ture, until finally be becomes drowsy and ! falls into a deep sleep. Sever/al hours afterwards, when the alcohol has been , eliminated, he generally wakes from this' sleep, wretched and miserable, and is I tempted to relieve the depression by again' taking another glass of spirits, a-nd thus! making a further draft on his resources, j ' Such is the full narcotic action of al- j cohol, but the great majority of drinkers i stop before it is fully developed, and cease their potations while the action is still in the stimulant, or at most, just at the beginning of the narcotic stage. "As tlhe alcohol tends to letsen foresight and care for his surroundings, the subject of alcohol becomes more and more ready to indulge, in' spite of the indulgence bringing with it failure, poverty, fend misery, not only for himself, but for all his family." j