ALCOHOLIC STIMULATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5690, 8 October 1896, Page 1

ALCOHOLIC STIMULATION.

(Sir Benjamin W. Richardson, M.D., F. 8.5., in the Hospital.) In the days of the noted Dr John Browne there was quite a fierce controversy upon i alcohol. The Edinburgh School, _ with no • less an authority than Cullen at its head, '. was averse to stimulation, and amongst s the stimulants employed alcohol largely lost its hold. Browne made his appearance, and finding stimulation one of his methods of treatment, fell back upon alcohol, and got himself into trouble socially as well as medicaHy. The Brunonian system was one of stimulation, and was so strong for the moment that it had its disciples and advocates. It set its author at variance with his brethren ; he, in its defence, was obliged to administer his great remedy on — what may be considered as — "the sly," and got into scrapes from which lie was, -with difficulty, extricated. He made his theory, but he did not make a sound reputation with it. He certainly declared that alcohol was an antiseptic, and to that extent did good service, but he did not prove its practical value on the list of remedies. A patienl suffered from fever, and Browne surrep' titiously gave him, or had given to him abundance of alcohol.. Under the treat ment the patient sank and died ; a postmortem was carried out, and the tissues of the body, dead as they were, seemed fresh to the eye and inodorous. Browne noticed their life-like character, and called attention: to the circumstance that his treatment preserved, the parts as.if they were alive, a statement well deserving of noticb and comment, as worthy of observation as are the evidences of a museum where the specimens are retained in spirit in a state of preservation. * * * The more the profession, ignoring prejudice and old practices, think of stimulation as a mode of cure and argue it out, the better for the world. "What is known as practice has proved nothing whatever in the matter. We have seen people deaddrunk recover consciousness, and we have seen sick people recover from their illnesses under alcohol, so that we have learned to look at the occurrence as natural, or even as more than natural, according to the law of necessity. But when we think over it we have seen persons by the score who have been well and hearty, though they have never been dead-drunk; and we have seen persons who have recovered from their sickness although they never imbibed a drop of stimulant, and the fact that they get well under such circumstances is sufficient evidence that the stimulant has not been required. Alcohol, in the end, does not stimulate, it really depresses if it does anything at all. "We must admit it does something, and he is a mere fanatic who questions its effects. There can be no doubt that for a short time it whips on the circulation. It quickens the heart-beat ; it increases the circulation of the blood; it excites the brain ; it preserves the tissues from decomposition; but is it thereby of service ? What it does seems to the profession and feels to the sick to be stimulation, and upon this all its assumed virtues rest. It appears to give new life; it raises the weak for a short time, even if it quickens death. It acts like running or drinking, or becoming mentally excited, and although no one would use these acts as remedies for disease, they might appear to have their advantages. I do not agree with those who are astounded, and express their astonishment, when they see doctors giving wine or recommending spirits, wine or beer to persons under their care. Life is a very slender thread ; the doctor's art is very limited ; the doctor is called to do ; the people follow the doing, and constantly they feel stimulation render them service temporarily. If the doctor told them the truth — namely, that wine is the most detestable of mockers, they would not believe him, -and so he is daily and hourly tempted to evoke phenomena which, from the beginning to the end, are a deceit ; which shorten instead of "prolong existence, and which may kill instead of . cure..- It Js true;- nevertheless-, that every doctor should think for himself concerning the phenomena, and should prefer to rest on the permanent physiological rather than on the empirical modes that lie at his disposal.