LECTURE ON NARCOTICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5509, 14 July 1879, Page 6

LECTURE ON NARCOTICS.

Mr. Robertson's fifth lecture on physiology j and food was delivered in the usual place, on Saturday evening. The lecturer included tea, coffee, opium, tobacco, wines, spirits, and beers uuder this head. This classification was grounded on the fact that all these, in their essential effect, were used by human beings becauae of their influence on tha nervous system. In regard to the other classes of substances previously treated, there was a ecientifio agreement in regard to their uses in the animal economy, but this was not the case in regard to narcotics. The facts, however, connected with their consumption were of the utmoßt importance. Their consumption likewise was limited to man, althongh in experiments which had been performed their effects upon the lower animals were similar to their effects upon human beings. The lecturer gave a detailed account of the chemical composition of the essential principles of tea, coffee, opium, &c., their production and manufacture, pointing out how immensely the consumption had increased and was increasing. In Great Britan alone more than 600,000,0001b5. of tea were annually consumed, and the Americans were much geater tea-drinkers than the British. Its charm for human beings lay in the substance—a nitrogen compound—called theine, which was a strong narcotic in its pure Btate. Opium was thle most strongly marked of its class in its narcotic effects, acquiring a tremendous power over the mind, to the extent of paralysing the will. The consumption of opium was increasing among the British, and was sold under the name of laudanum—a tincture of opium—ostensibly as a medicine, but evidently as an excitant of the nervous system, at in Eastern nations. In regard to alcoholics, a very lucid explanation of fermentation was given. He seated that yeast was identical in derivation with our word ghost, and gist was really a plant, a species of fungus, and that no vinous or sugar fermentation could t*ko place if the Bolid particles of socula, or yeast germ, were shut out. The yeast lived and propagated itself on the sugary solution, and in doing so decomposed the sugar into carbonio acid, gas, and alcohol. Some fermentation, however, arose from animal seed germs. Through the investigation of the process of fermentation the basis had been laid of the germ theory of disease, and also the protoplasmic theory of the origin of vegetable and animal life. The yeast germ was a small bag or cell containing a fluid, which, on chemical analysis, proved to be identical with the albumen of blood or whito of egg. All plants, in a certain sense, were aggregations of these cells, each of which had. a life of its own, and that this was, with c»rtain modifications, true likewise of animal structures. Mr. Robertson then entered into the most important facts connected with the growth of the vine and tho history of wine-making, stating that at no time in the world's history was its manufacture unknown. Ardent spirits however, were comparatively a modern invention. The consumption of ardent spirits had increased in England since 1750 from 900,000 gallons to 12,000,000 gallons. In Scotland, and Ireland the increase was much greater, and in America it was greater still. In Great Britain and Ireland the consumption of wiuo had decreased immensely in that time. The lecturer gave a description of a variety of alcoholic compounds used in various parts of the world. In regard to the physiological action of these he quoted from Dr. Ed. Smith and others as to the results of a number of experiments, in which it appeared that generally, as betweon the narcotics of the tea series and the alcoholic, the former acted upon the brain and the spinal column, while the latter acted chiefly upon tho sympathetic cord and ganglia. What that influence was exactly was not demonstrated. Certain alcoholics—good wine, beer and rum—affected tho vital action as true foods in a minor degree, but Bpirits, I whiskies and brandies produced effects similar to those of medicines, lowering the actiou of the vital organs, although all of them, for a time, at least, increased the pulsation. The most important point in tho physiologic sense was, whether or not tho alcohol was decomposed in the body. If it were, a prima facie case would bo established in favour of alcohol as a true or accessory heat-giver. Its chemical composition, as the king of the carbon compounds, indicated this as probable. So far. the question was not absolutely settled, but the results of the experiments were contrary to this hypothesis. Ihe difficulties in carrying out such an experiment were very great, as it involved collecting every particle of matter proceeding from tho subject of tho experiment for a period of forty hours. These experiments, except for theoretical reasons, the lecturer deemed must be practically valueless, as alcoholic compounds wcro nowhere qpnaumed aa food, either as heat-givers or flesh-fermers. Their effect was upon the nervous system, not in the way of supplying either fuel or blood. Through the nervous substance they produced a mental effect. So long as we were ignorant of the real or true functions cf tho nervous substance in its relations to what we call our sensations, feelings, emotions, ftc., there would not be any rational explanation of tho immense consumption of these substances. It was a remarkable fact that the higher tho average intelligence, the greater the energy and the wealth of a community ; there was also a corresponding higher ratio of consumption of alcoholic compounds. Mr. Robertson concluded an interesting lecture by pourtraying in eloquent language the necessity and the beneficial results of a liberal education as the true correctlvo to

excess and abuse of tliia clasa of substances,; as-well■ ga all other excesseit. The higher intelligence mast rccogniso a law of temperance, which should in Bocial affoirs. become as absolute as the lair of decency, which was also a mental growth, or a product of civilisation. ■ The next lecture was announced to be on "Adulterations of F00d."..