ALCOHOL
AND THE
HUMAN BRAIN.
BY REV. JOSEPH COOK.
NEW YORK:
National Temperance Society and Publication House,
58 READE STREET.
1879.
ALCOHOL
AND THE
HUMAN BRAIN.
By Rev. Joseph Cook.
Cassio's language in Othello is to-day adopted by cool physiologicalscience: "O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to stealaway their brains! That we should, with joy, revel, pleasure andapplause, transform ourselves into beasts! To be now a sensible man, byand by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup isunbless'd, and the ingredient is the devil."—Shakespeare, Othello,Act II., Scene iii.
Central in all the discussion of the influence of intoxicating drinkupon the human brain is the fact that albuminous substances are hardenedby alcohol. I take the white of an egg, and, as you see, turn it out ina fluid condition into a goblet. The liquid is a viscous, glue-likesubstance, largely composed of albumen. It is made up of pretty nearlythe same chemical ingredients that constitute a large part of the brainand the nervous system, and of many other tissues of the body. Forty percent of the matter in the corpuscles of the blood is albumen. I am aboutto drench this white of an egg with alcohol. I have never performed this[Pg 4]experiment before, and it may not succeed, but so certain am I that itwill, that I purpose never to put the bottle to my lips and introduceinto my system a fiend to steal away my brain. Edmund Burke, when heheard William Pitt say in Parliament that England would stand till theday of judgment, rose and replied; "What I fear is the day of nojudgment." When Booth was about to assassinate Lincoln, his couragefailed him, and he rushed away from the theater for an instant into thenearest restaurant and called for brandy. Harden the brain by drenchingit in alcohol and you harden the moral nature.
If you will fasten your attention on the single fact, that alcoholhardens this albuminous substance with which I place it in contact, youwill have in that single strategic circumstance an explanation of mostof its ravages upon the blood and nerves and brain. I beg you to noticethat the white of an egg in the goblet does not become hardened byexposure to the air. I have allowed it to remain exposed for a time, inorder that you may see that there is no legerdemain in this experiment.[Laughter.] I now pour alcohol upon this albuminous fluid, and if theresult here is what it has been in other cases, I shall pretty soon beable to show you a very good example of what coagulated albumen is inthe nervous system and blood corpuscles. You will find this white of anegg gradually so hardened that you can take it out without a fork. Inotice already that a mysterious change in it has begun. A strangethickening shoots through the fluid mass. This is your[Pg 5] moderatedrunkard that I am stirring up now. There is your tippler, a piece ofhim, [holding up a portion of the coagulated mass upon the glasspestle]. The coagulation of the substance of the brain and of thenervous system goes on. I am stirring up a hard drinker now. Theinfinitely subtle laws of chemistry take their course. Here is a man[holding up a part of the coagulated mass]