TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3877, 3 July 1928, Page 6

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

(Published by arrangement v, i;h the United Temperance •Reforrin (.otim il.) WIIAT IS THE DRINK EV IL? ? A Lecture by Arthur Evans, M.S., F.R.C.S., Surgeon and lecturer on •Surgery, Westminster Hodspital. 11. ? Another test, . used by M’Dougall and kimitli,. cbnsisted in the investigation :of the memory for related words; The average number of mistakes made bv an individual before taking alcohol was first determined, and then 15 cubic Centimetres of alcohol given (equivalent ‘to that in three -fifths of a pint of beer). The mistakes in one case rose from 7 to 20, in another from 5 to 16, in another from 9 to 20. Notice particularly the report on the intellectual chauge produced at the same time by the small amount of alcohol:— Analogous to the belief that the dotting was very good was the .-conviction (almost invariably present) that the particular list was easy, and that no difficulty would be experienced in reproducing it correctly; A comfortable conviction soon shattered when put to the test. . . . The number of errors ensuing always astonished the subject.” In their summary the investigators state: “ Within the limits of these studies we have shown that the subjective effects are by no means a safe criterion . of. the objective result.” In other words, what a man feels and thinks of his performance after the taking of alcohol is by ho means a true index of what he really has accomplished, for, from the very beginning there is some failure in performance, and from the very beginning there is increased satisfaction with the impaired ! performance. This same fact is enunI ciated in alcohol; its action on the human organism, where, heading the list of estab- ; lished marks symptomatic of alcoholic effect, appears “ Uncritical self-satisfaction of the subject with his own performance.” This' effect of alcohol upon the mind to -a great extent explains the impression, widespread among men, that they can work better, think better, speak better, act more quickly—in fact, that they are lin all ways superior individuals—after taking alcohol. But this flattering unction needs to be laid alongside the findings of M‘Dougall and Smith: the subjective effects are no criterion of the objective results. From the beginning there is failure and increasing failure in performance; from the beginning there is increased satisfaction with the spoiled performance. Alcohol is not a mental stimulant.': - ■ ■ ■ ' r I have just said “ From the beginning increasing.” Some earlier investigators, who in the laboratory endeavoured to determine the effect of alcohol on the mind and nervous system thought that they found evidence of an initial stimulating effect of alcohol; this appeared in afi cases to be of but small extent and duration. Later work throws doubt upon the., validity of this interpretation of the evidence, and supports the conclusion that the direct effect of alcohol upon the nervous system is, in all stages, and upon all parts of the system, to depress or sub* pend its functions, and that it is, in short, from first to last a narcotic drug.” Let me here again emphasise that we ate not speaking of drunkenness. We have heen noting the effects produced upon the brain by small quantities'of alcohol. The results of the experiments with the “Dotting Machine” to which I have referred were obtained after the persons experimented upon had taken the amount of alcohol contained in a pint of beer or even lesser quantities. “ When stimulation of nervous function is really needed—when the individual has to meet an emergency which calls for the exercise of his highest powers of perception and judgment—alcohol is not merely useless, it is certainly and unequivocally detrimental.” Here, then, is the summary of alcohol’s action on the brain and on the mindFrom the beginning its action is that of dulling, deadening, and then eliminating the action of the highest mental powers, leaving, for a time, the lower levels freed from the supervision, the guidance, the control, of these supreme mental powers. The. so-called “ stimulating ” produced by alcohol is never stimulation of the highest powers, but uncontrolled activity of the inferior ones. Alcohol impairs museular work. '