ALCOHOL A STIMULANT?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21384, 11 July 1931, Page 9

ALCOHOL A STIMULANT?

TO THE EDITOR. I Sib, —In- to-day’s issue you criticise a -letter by “New Zealander,” who writes 'about the stimulant properties of alcohol. ' *1 challenge Mr Terry to produce modern medical pharmacology in support of his statement that alcohol is a stimulant. The action of alcohol is now thoroughly understood. The drug acts on the higher more developed brain centres, —that is, on those centres which, we possess and the animals do not. Alcohol depresses these . centres which, under our civilised conditions, keep the lower and more animal parts of our brain in check. Hence alcohol : gives lower centres relatively more control over our bodies. As the parts of .our brain that control the beating,of our hearts and our breathing are associated with these, and are part or these animal centres, they are permitted l to work more vigorously when the restraining control of the higher centres, is removed by alcohol. Hence the use of alcohol_ in medicine, to depress the intellectual side of the brain and so permit a preponderance of those parts that are actually associated with animal life. No one can deny, if he be up to' date, that alcohol acts by depressing the higher parts of the brain and giving the lower parts free play. In olden days .it: was noticed that after a dose of alcohol a man’s heart beat faster, and because its action was not understood it'was wrongly a stimulant,, and that, teftm is'still loosely applied to it by medical men who do know better. Many students take a Stmall dose of caffeine, which is a; true -stimulant, before an examination, but who lever heard of a student getting drunk on •ah examination morning. so as to stimulate his intellectual powers?—l am, etc., ; July 10. New Zealand !No. 2. I ' TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Mr R. J. Terry tries his hand at a ■matter of some pharmocological and therapeutical interest when he classes alcohol with, tea as stimulants. May I suggest a resort to the standard, text book on the subjects which, in comparing the actions of alcohol and caffeine (the chief drug in tea), makes statements of which the following is a summary? While ascribing to caffeine a purely stimulating action, alcohol is said not to have the great stimulating action.as popularly supposed, but a depressant action from the start,' commenc- ■ ing in the higher centres,of the brain. The - small and, evanescent stimulating action ■. claimed to exist by a few workers at the subject is probably due to inhibition of the higher brain centres. Mr Terry " might remember, before launching out on fash statements, _ that some of those who peruse his writings have not yet forgotten elementary facts of physiology as learnt at the primary school. —I am, etc., MEBEtv Amused.