TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 5

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council. MOTOR DRIVING. Evidence accumulates every day as,, to the dangers to which motor cars, buses, other vehicles with their passengers, and pedestrians are exposed by cars being under the control of drivers “ under the influence of alcohol.” Arresting and fining a drunken driver here and there is no remedy. It is not even a palliative. The remedy is to require abstinence on the part of every cjriver. IS BEER INTOXICATING? By Dr Harvey W. Wiley, Food and Drug Expert, New Jersey. 1. Q. What is intoxicating liquor? A. An intoxicating liquor is one which, v len invested into the stomach and absorbed into the blood, creates a toxic effect (on any or all of the body o-gans and functions). That effect may be unnoticed by the subject or those who surround him. or it may be of such a character as to render him at once evidently unbalanced in some way to those who might happen to observe him. ’-. Q. Does the same amount of alcohol in -a beverage affect different people alike?

A. A given amount of alcohol affects all persons alike in that it produces a toxic effect. The degree of resistance (of individuals to any given toxic substance of a definite amount varies- almost as widely as individuals vary in their personal characteristics). This is true of all toxic substances, as well as of alcohol. It is a matter of common observation as well that many persons can take an apiou:it of alcohol without -ny observable effects which in other persons would produce all. the degrees of drunkenness. It is not possible to fix any given quantity of alcohol in- a beverage, and at the same time establish a sharp dividing line. Any attempt to definlt. quantity of any toxic substances and call it i* toxicating while a less quantity would be defined as non-intoxicating fails to take into consideration the remarkable variability of nersons in respect to tZieir resistance to toxic influences.

3. Q. What -are the different stages of intoxication?

A. The. are four well-marked stages of alcoholic poisoning. The first stage marks the beginning of the toxic effect. If the quantity of alcohol is small even the subject may not be conscious of any toxic effect. It may, however, be measured by the < ".cate methods now in use of determining the changes produced in the brain and the memory and in the nerve sensibility of the subject. . These determinations show that even in very small quantites alcohol produces a distinctly toxic effect. The functions of the intellect are at once harmfully affected, and the sensibility of the nerves of the eyes and the so-called knee-jerk test is, to a measurable degree, sensibly affected. In my own case I have noticed that effect in playing chess, a game of which I have been very fond from early boyhood. In former times it was quite customary for chess players to have a glass of beer or wine when there was no stake in view, such as a championship, but merely a game for pleasure. I soon noticed that when playing against an opponent of equal strength where, as a rule, the results would be a 50-50 over a series of games they became 75 to 25 in his favour if I should drink a single glass of beer. This method of measurement, of course, is not quite so accurate, but is quite as convincing as the more delicate method described above. I describe this kind of alcoholic intoxication as one in which the subject himself is not conscious of it. and where ordinary observation fails to detect it.

The second stage of alcoholic intoxication is one in which the subject, if he is at all attentive to such matters, feels that his condition is unusual. There is a certain feeling of warmth wholly illusory and due to a partial paralysis of the peripheral nerves which allow _ a greater quantity of blood in the capillaries. There is also a certain feeling of elation and an apparent freedom of speech, due to a specific influence of the co-ordinating organs of the brain. There is at the same time a very great depression of intellectual acuteness. This condition may or may not be observed by the bystanders just in proportion as the subject has greater or less control of his actions.

The third stage of alcoholic intoxication is one in which the ordinary symptoms of drunkenness are manifested. These symptoms vary with the individuality of the victim. He may become taciturn and morose, or he may be boisterous and voluble, or even hilarious. His control of locomotion and other muscular movements is more or less disturbed, and he may display’ an acute locomotor ataxia. There is a fourth stage of alcoholic intoxication in which the victim sinks into entire insensibility. His face and breathing remind one of-a person suffering from apoplexy, and in extreme cases death supervenes. 4. Q. .Is visible intoxication essential to intoxication? A. Visible intoxication is not essential to intoxication. The sun is totally eclipsed even if we do not see the shadow of the moon. When a person gets drunk the first glass he drinks is just as much responsible for his condition as the last one. Intoxication has a beginning, and that beginning is as much intoxication as the final death struggle of the man who dies from alcoholic intoxication. Every step is essential to the whole journey. The man who doesn’t take the first step doesn’t die of the last one.

5. Q r> _ What should be the test in determining whether a certain liquor or a certain alcoholic content is intoxicating? A. The test which is to be applied in determining whether an alcoholic liquor is intoxicating is the well-known fact that it intoxicates. The question of quantity is not at all essential. If the effect is produced that effect must have had a start. That start is made by the intoxicating beverage which produces the effect. It must have started withr the first drink; even if that step is difficult to perceive it must have been taken. No system of faulty logic can eliminate it. No camouflage of terms can convince a reasonable man that the first step was not taken.—National Advocate.