Saved as by Fire! CHAPTER 22.
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On arriving at Mr. Granger's, I found a small but select company. There were Dr. Gilbert, and Judge Arbuckle and his wife, whom I had been particularly invited to meet.
Mr. Stannard was there also; and a Mrs. Klare, one of the representative women who were actively engaged in the work of Christian temperance reform. I had not before seen young Henry Pickering, and was attracted by his face and bearing; and particularly so, as it was plain, from unmistakable signs, that he was more to Amy Granger, than an ordinary acquaintance. But I did not fail to observe that there was in the attitude of these young people towards each other, a certain reserve that was almost embarrassment. During the conversation that ensued, and which soon drifted into a discussion of the claims of alcohol to have any nutritive or therapeutical value, I was struck by the intentness with which Amy watched the young man's face, as if trying to read his thoughts; and there was, at times, a restlessness in her manner which was particularly noticeable, with occasional swift changes in the expression of her countenance. You saw it light up suddenly when some strong point was made by Dr. Gilbert; and this was always accompanied by a glance towards the young man who was seated by her side.
Dr. Gilbert, whom I had not met before, was a man about fifty, with a quiet, thoughtful face. You saw in his eyes, which were a dark gray, that steady, intent expression, which comes of earnest thought. His mouth was firm, its character harmonizing with what you saw in his eyes. You recognized him at once as a man with whom neither imagination nor impulse could have much influence.
Judge Arbuckle was another style of man altogether. He was taller, with a finer muscular development, and a larger head. His eyes were darker, and so was his complexion. All his features broke into a quicker play, and you perceived at once that he was a man of sentiment and feeling, as well as of intellect and perception, and that in any direction in which he might throw himself, he would display both mental vigor and force of will.
It was curious to see these two men meet in the discussion I had come prepared to hear. But I knew enough of the results of recent investigations in regard to alcohol, to be very well satisfied about the issue, if Dr. Gilbert was as well informed in facts and results, as I had reason to believe.
I will not hold the reader in any of the preliminary phases and drifts of conversation into which the company fell, but bring him in contact therewith where the points of interest were clear, and bore with distinctive force on the main subject under discussion, which was the affirmation on one side that alcohol, if used in moderation, was beneficial — and the declaration on the other that its action on the human body, except in some very unusual conditions, was always hurtful.
"I claim," said Judge Arbuckle, "that wine, and in many cases brandy, are necessary articles, both in diet and medicine. They assist nature in the work of digestion, and give tone to weakened nerves. I have seen many lives saved, under conditions of extreme prostration, by the use of spirits. In typhoid fevers, brandy, as you well know, is the physician's sheet-anchor. Without it, three out of every five of his patients would die from simple lack of heart-power, which can only be restored through active stimulation. In sudden attacks of illness, as in faintings, cholics, a suspension of heart-action, or exhaustion from fatigue or cold — there is nothing that will act so quickly, as a glass of brandy. I never think of leaving home without a supply; and would regard myself as culpable were I to do so. I can point to scores of instances in which a timely draught of brandy has saved me from a spell of sickness, if it has not saved my life. There is one fact that should never be overlooked. Society is not in a normal condition. It is overworked. There is a strain upon everything, and a consequent exhaustion of strength. Nature, always quick in her instinct of danger — has, at the same time, as quick a perception of the remedy needed; and her indication is unmistakable here. It is stimulation which is required. All men feel this; and the universal resort to stimulants of one kind or another, is but the natural and necessary response to the demands of our exhausted and failing vital forces."
The judge spoke with considerable warmth of manner, and with a tone and emphasis which expressed his firm conviction that the assertions he was making were unanswerable.
"Facts and experience are stubborn things, doctor," he closed by remarking; "and these we have in abundance. But men who have pet theories" — he smiled pleasantly as he said it, "are wonderfully skilled in the art of explaining away both."
Dr. Gilbert did not seem to be in any haste to controvert the judge's assertions. His first response came in the form of a question.
"If you were to find a man benumbed with cold, what would you do for him?"
"Pour a glass of brandy down his throat as quickly as possible."
"For what purpose?"
"To heat him up, of course. Heat is life; cold is death."
"Suppose I were to tell you that alcohol lowers instead of raising the temperature of the body."
"I would say that you were jesting."
"And yet the assertion is true."
"Did you ever take a swallow of brandy?"
"Yes."
"Did it make you feel cold or warm?"
"I felt a sense of warmth."
"Burning up even to your face?"
"Yes."
"Is heat cold, doctor?" The judge spoke as one who had closed the controversy in a single sentence.
"Does heat cause the thermometer to fall?" asked Dr. Gilbert.
"I do not see the drift of your question," replied the judge.
"After the most carefully conducted experiments, often repeated," said the doctor, "the fact has been clearly established that alcohol, instead of imparting warmth to the body, actually lowers its temperature."
Judge Arbuckle shook his head in a decided negative. "If I take glass of wine or brandy, I come into an immediate glow. It doesn't do to tell me that I feel cold. Experiment may prove what it can; but it certainly cannot prove this — at least not to my satisfaction. There is such a thing as color blindness; and a like defect may exist in some of the other senses. Feeling with some may be blind also, and mistake heat for cold."
"A young lady blushes," said the doctor, in reply. "You will hardly say that because her cheeks have become hot, the temperature of her whole body has been raised; but rather infer that the equilibrium of heat has been disturbed, or that the capillaries have become relaxed and suffused. An impulse of feeling has disturbed the heart's action, and made its beats more violent. Suppose this temporary engorgement of the minute blood vessels of the skin were to take place, with a sense of heat all over the body, would there not be an increased radiation of heat from all the surface, and a consequent lowering of the body's temperature, especially with the interior organs?"
"But what has the blushing of a young lady to do with the effect of a glass of brandy?" asked the judge.
"The phenomenon observed in both cases is due to the same cause," said the doctor. "Alcohol relaxes the minuter vessels so that they are unable to return the blood promptly to the circulation; cutaneous engorgements follow, with an increase of surface heat, and accelerated radiation. The effect on the extremities of the nerves, is that of a warm glow, such as is felt during a reaction from cold. Instead of there being an actual increase in the general temperature of the body, as the result of alcoholic stimulant — a reduction takes place, as has been proved over and over again by the thermometer."
"You take me out of my depths here, doctor. I have never given much attention to physiology," answered the judge, a little less confident in his manner.
"But you know what common sense is; and how to deduce conclusions from well-established facts. It is the habit of your mind to weigh evidence. Now, for the sake of the truth, which is as dear to you as to any man living, will you not, for a little while, take the place of a judge in this controversy, and give to the evidence I shall bring against alcohol, as an enemy to the human race, the grave consideration it should have?"
"I accept the office to which you so gracefully assign me," replied the judge, smiling. "But as I leave my client without an advocate, I shall claim the right to say a word in his behalf, if I think you treat him unfairly."
"As many words as you please. If there is any good in him, I would like to know it; but I am free to say, that the more carefully I investigate his claim to be, in any sense, a friend to the human race — the more complete are my convictions that he is only an enemy. I cannot find a single thing in which the harm of his presence, is not greater than the good.
"But we were talking about the heat-producing quality of alcohol. Now, heat is generated through the union of oxygen with carbon, by which the latter is consumed. There are certain articles of food, such as the fat, starches and sugars, which are known as heat-producing and force-generating, and chemistry is at no loss in regard to them. Their value has been determined with the greatest accuracy. The amount of heat that each of these substances will give when taken into the body, has been carefully measured, and is known to all in our profession. But in regard to alcohol, so long held even by medical men, to be a heat-producer, chemistry has not yet been made to detect any evidence of oxidation, the blood showing none of the usual results of this process. And now, since we have been using the thermometer as a test of the internal temperature of the body, in order to ascertain the heating value of foods, or its thermal condition under various disturbing influences, we find that when alcohol is taken, there follows a marked reduction of heat. The best medical writers now agree on this subject; and some practitioners have even gone so far as to administer it in fever as a cooling agent.
"Even before science had made this discovery of the non-heat-generating power of alcohol, arctic navigators had learned from experience, that the use of spirits lessens a man's ability to withstand cold; and now the extreme northern voyager avoids its use altogether, in order to retain sufficient heat to sustain him under the intense cold to which he is subjected. In the voyage made in search of Sir John Franklin, no alcoholic stimulants were used; and the northern whaler employs them very sparingly, or not at all."
"Do you remember," said Mr. Stannard, at this point, "a man named Lemonowsky, who, some twenty years ago, gave lectures in this country on Napoleon?"
Some of us remembered him very well.
"I mentioned him because of a lecture he gave on temperance, the facts of which fully corroborate what the doctor has just been saying. Lemonowsky, who had been an officer in Napoleon's army, stated, that when about leaving home, as a boy, his father placed his hand upon his head, and after declaring that intoxicating drinks were the great curse of mankind, solemnly implored him never to touch or taste them; and that he gave his father a promise that he never would. And all his life he remained true to that promise. He took the ground, that the use of alcohol in extreme cold, extreme heat or extreme exhaustion, was dangerous, and often fatal, and, in proof of his position, made three statements of remarkable facts which had come within his own observation and experience.
"Lemonowsky accompanied Napoleon in his invasion of Russia. He said, that among his immediate associates in the army were about thirty who, like himself, wholly abstained from ardent spirits, and that while men who drank freely were dying from gangrene and other diseases, brought on from exposure to the intense cold, every one of these thirty abstainers were in good health, and every one came back from that disastrous campaign. In Egypt, when heat was enervating the army, and death rapidly reducing its numbers, the men who refused to drink ardent spirits still retained their health, and suffered from thirst and heat far less than their companions. This intelligent man then went on to relate how, after the battle of Waterloo, and the delivery by the allies of Marshal Ney and many of the officers to the French at Paris, he, with a few others, effected their escape, and put to sea in a boat, from which they were taken while in the British Channel by a vessel bound to the United States. Subsequently this vessel was wrecked in a storm, and Lemonowsky found himself again upon the sea in an open boat, with nine companions and only a small supply of provisions and water. These were soon used up, and for many days they had nothing to eat or drink. When finally rescued, by a vessel bound to Philadelphia, they were in such an extreme state of exhaustion that they had to be literally carried on board. 'Immediately,' said the narrator, 'on being placed in a berth, the ship's doctor brought me a glass of hot whiskey and water, and placed it to my lips. But I refused to drink it.' 'You must, or you will die,' he said. 'Then I told him I would die, for I never had and never would drink intoxicating liquor. He got angry, and swore at me, and called me a fool. But I would not touch his whiskey. Well, gentlemen and ladies, I recovered; but of the nine who were taken with me out of the boat, and who took the doctor's stimulating draught, hot even though it was, every one died. So, you see, that in extreme cold, or heat, or exhaustion — alcohol, so far from being useful, is one of the most dangerous substances a man can take into his system.'"
"A very striking experience, certainly," said Dr. Gilbert, "and one that is entirely in the line of legitimate results, as proved by the latest and most carefully-conducted experiments. There was a time when, if I had heard this story of Lemonowsky's, I would have pronounced it an exaggeration of an isolated case or two which were but exceptions to a rule, the action of which was all on the other side. But I can well believe, now, that the sturdy old man gave truthful evidence of which he knew."
"If I understand the case," remarked Judge Arbuckle; "I am on the bench, you see, and am considering the evidence — the result of some recent experiments, and the evidence of a few isolated facts are held to disprove the beneficial effects of a substance which medical men have used efficiently for generations, and which every head of a family has administered with success in scores, if not hundreds of instances of sudden sickness."
"The new and exhaustive tests to which this substance has been subjected," replied Dr. Gilbert, "have nearly all been conducted within the last ten years, and so conclusive have been the results, that in the International Medical Congress, which met last year in Philadelphia, at which over six hundred delegates from this country and Europe were assembled, a report was adopted in which alcohol was declared to have no nutritive value whatever, and to be so deleterious in its effects on the human organism, as to leave a grave doubt whether, even as a medicine in the most extreme cases, it did not do more harm than good."
"Not unanimously adopted, certainly."
"The facts are simply these. The National Temperance Society sent a memo to this important Congress, asking from it a public declaration to the effect that alcohol should be classed with other powerful drugs, and that when prescribed medicinally, it should be with conscientious caution and a sense of grave responsibility. That it should declare it to be in no sense a food for the human system, and that its improper use is productive of a large amount of physical disease, tending to deteriorate the human race; and further, to recommend to their several nationalities, as representatives of enlightened science, a total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. The consideration of this memo was referred to the 'Section on Medicine,' in which the questions proposed were discussed with marked ability and earnestness, resulting in the almost unanimous adoption of an elaborate report by Dr. Ezra M. Hunt. In this report, alcohol is declared to have no nutritive value, and to be of doubtful utility as a medicine. Indeed, its therapeutic value is limited almost exclusively to that of a cardiac stimulant in certain extreme cases, which often admit of substitutions. Of its evil and destructive action on the body and brain, a frightful exhibit is given. This report, as transmitted by the 'Section on Medicine' to the General Congress, was ordered by that body to be sent to the National Temperance Society as an answer to its memo."
I was observing the face of Judge Arbuckle while Dr. Gilbert was speaking. The grave, almost puzzled expression that came creeping over it, was curious to see. The judge had a respect for science, learning and authority. The testimony of the Lemonowsky, went for almost nothing. But here was an International Medical Congress of over six hundred eminent physicians, representing, of course, the highest intelligence of the profession, uttering its grave condemnation, and at a word sealing up the bottle from which he had been drawing his favorite medication, and declaring its use to be hurtful in nearly every case of administration.
"I don't know, doctor," he said, "whether I am really awake or not; all this is so new and improbable. I shall expect to hear, presently, that a beefsteak has its hidden dangers, and that coffee will poison as surely as arsenic."
"By their fruits you shall know them; and it so happens that, in regard to alcohol, there is no difficulty about the fruit," returned the doctor.
"None whatever in regard to its abuse," returned the judge. "That is admitted by everyone. But we are talking of its moderate use as a beverage, and of its value as a medicine. Take me, for example. I have used more or less wine and spirits for over twenty-five years. Few men enjoy better health. Except some torpor of the liver, which I believe is hereditary."
Dr. Gilbert looked steadily into Judge Arbuckle's face for a few moments, as if making a critical examination. Then reaching out his hand, he said: "Let me feel your pulse, judge."
There was a deep pause and silence.
"With some slight disturbance of the heart occasionally," remarked the doctor, quietly.
"Very slight. Nothing to speak of," replied the judge, with the manner of one who felt a little disturbed.
"A sinking sensation after exertion, or anxiety, or abstinence from food?"
"Yes, sometimes."
"Which all comes right after a good, strong glass of brandy?"
"Yes."
"You find this occurring oftener than it did a few years ago?"
"Well, yes. I'm getting older, you see, and any organic trouble one may have generally increases with age. But, fortunately, I know what to do, and have my remedy always at hand."
"In some form of alcoholic stimulant?"
"Exactly."
"How often do you resort to this remedy? Every day?"
I saw a change of expression in the judge's face, and a contraction of his brows, as he replied: "Almost every day."
"Especially in the morning before you have taken food?"
"Yes."
"Well, now, Judge Arbuckle," said the doctor, with a grave smile on his face, "did it never occur to you that the remedy you are taking for the relief of this trouble — is the very agent by which it has been produced?"
Judge Arbuckle shook his head in a decided manner.
"And that your torpid liver is only another evidence of organic deterioration produced by this favorite remedy — or shall I say beverage — to which you resort so frequently?"
"Organic deterioration, doctor!" There was a covert alarm in the judge's voice.
"There is no substance used by man, which produces so many and such serious organic deterioration, as alcohol," replied the doctor, speaking soberly. "There is not an organ, or delicate nerve, or membrane, or fluid, or vessel, that it does not hurt by contact, or deteriorate if the contact be continued. The heart, which is the center of life, is subjected to an excess of strain, so long as it is in the system, because, being a substance that is never digested, or converted into food or force, it hurts and disturbs until elimination takes place. But this strain, or overwork, is the least of the evils which come from the presence of alcohol. The changes and deteriorations of structure, and in the condition of the blood, which take place in consequence of the presence of alcohol, are of a most serious character.
"Let me try to make this plain. The whole surface of the body, and every particular organ, muscle, nerve, blood vessel, and even the bones, are enveloped in sheaths or coverings called the membranes. Besides the first apparent use of these membranes, many of which serve as enveloping bandages, by which all the structures are held together in perfect order, they have a still more important use in the animal economy. They are the filters of the body, and without them there could be no building of the structures they line or enclose. The food we take contains all the various things required for the life and health of the body; albumen, protein and vegetable film for tissue building; fat, sugar and starch for the production of heat and force; water as the general solvent, and salt for constructive and other purposes. These have, after digestion, to be arranged in the body, which is done by the membranes, through which nothing can pass which is not, for the time, in a state of aqueous solution. Water passes freely through them, and so do soluble salts; but the constructive albuminous matter does not pass until it is chemically decomposed. Upon their integrity, all the silent work of building up the body depends. If these membranes are rendered too porous, and let out the tissue-building fluids of the blood, the body dies gradually, as if it were being slowly bled to death; if, on the contrary, they become condensed or thickened, they fail to let the natural fluids pass through them, and the result is either an accumulation of fluids in a closed cavity, or the contraction of the substance enclosed within the membrane, or a dryness of membranous surfaces which ought to be freely lubricated and kept apart.
"Now, the most carefully-conducted experiments have educed the fact that upon all the membranous structures, alcohol exerts a direct and perverting action. It produces in them a thickening, a shrinking and an inactivity that reduces their functional power. That they may work rapidly and equally, they require to be at all times charged with water to saturation; and an agent that deprives them of any portion of this water interferes with their work, and lays the foundation of structural derangements and deteriorations that are often fatal in the end. Alcohol is an agent which possesses, in a high degree, this power of absorbing water; and as soon as it is taken into the body — it begins the work of absorption. Dr. Hunt, in his report to the Medical Congress, says: 'The power alcohol has of drying secretions, and congesting membranes, is unsurpassed by any known remedy in general use;' and Dr. Richardson, in his Cantor Lectures on Alcohol, dwells particularly on this point in his startling exhibit of the destructive effects of alcohol when taken into the human body."
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