HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2782, 10 July 1907, Page 76

HEALTH COLUMN.

Stimulants and Nerves. In the course of a lecture at Sydney on "Wear and Tear," Dr Ohisholm Ross said -that the chief and primary cause of nerves was our modern civilisation, though he did not overlook its compensating advantages. Referring to the susceptibility to* stimulants, and narcotics as one of the 6igns indicating deficiency or lack of nervous force, he said it might be maintained that people drank less because- the world was getting better, and there, was something to be said in favour of this" view, but he maintained that the fact he had mentioned was incontrovertible. Capacity to carry stimulant, he contended, was a measure of nerve. Thus, the lecturer put it, our forefathers were men of more bottle-power than their successors. Until, say, 50 years ago, man, civilised or uncivilised, was an animal of tremendous alcohol power, able to "carry" with only transient disturbance enormous and repeated quantities, not only of strong liquors, but also of other narcotics, such as opium. I>r Chisholm X%o@s "went on tw SOT that a somewhat remarkable- effect of alcohol at the present time was that it lowered the nepvous tone to such an extent that diseases like pneumonia and injuries to the head affecting the brain were more serious to life and dangerous to sanity. Fifty years ago three grains of opium was considered a medium dose in a case of delirium tremens, whereas nowadays one would hesitate to administer such a heroic dose lest fatal results should follow.