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How Alcohol causes Mental and Moral
Changes
 The transforming power or alcohol is marvelous,
and often appalling. It seems to open a way of entrance
into the soul for all classes of foolish, insane or
malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in contact
with the brain, are able to hold possession. Men of the
kindest nature when sober, act often like fiends when
drunk. Crimes and outrages are committed, which shock and
shame the perpetrators when the excitement of inebriation
has passed away. Referring to this subject, Dr. Henry
Munroe says:
"It appears from the experience of Mr. Fletcher, who has paid
much attention to the cases of drunkards, from the remarks of
Mr. Dunn, in his 'Medical Psychology,' and from observations of
my own, that there is some analogy between our physical and
psychical natures; for, as the physical part of us, when its
power is at a low ebb, becomes susceptible of morbid influences
which, in full vigor, would pass over it without effect, so
when the psychical (synonymous with the moral ) part of the
brain has its healthy function disturbed and deranged by the
introduction of a morbid poison like alcohol, the individual so
circumstanced sinks in depravity, and "becomes the helpless
subject of the forces of evil, "which are powerless against a
nature free from the morbid influences of alcohol."
Different persons are affected in different ways by the same
poison. Indulgence in alcoholic drinks may act upon one or more
of the cerebral organs; and, as its necessary consequence, the
manifestations of functional disturbance will follow in such of
the mental powers as these organs subserve. If the indulgence
be continued, then, either from deranged nutrition or organic
lesion, manifestations formerly developed only during a fit of
intoxication may become permanent , and terminate in insanity
or dypso-mania. M. Flourens first pointed out the fact that
certain morbific agents, when introduced into the current of
the circulation, tend to act primarily and specially on one
nervous centre in preference to that of another, by virtue of
some special elective affinity between such morbific agents and
certain ganglia. Thus, in the tottering gait of the tipsy man,
we see the influence of alcohol upon the functions of the
cerebellum in the impairment of its power of co-ordinating the
muscles.
Certain writers on diseases of the mind make especial allusion
to that form of insanity termed 'dypsomania', in which a person
has an unquenchable thirst for alcoholic drinks a tendency as
decidedly maniacal as that of homicidal mania ; or the
uncontrollable desire to burn, termed pyromania ; or to steal,
called kleptomania.
Homicidal mania.
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The different tendencies of homicidal mania in different
individuals are often only nursed into action when the current
of the blood has been poisoned with alcohol. I had a case of a
person who, whenever his brain was so excited, told me that he
experienced a most uncontrollable desire to kill or injure some
one; so much so, that he could at times hardly restrain himself
from the action, and was obliged to refrain from all
stimulants, lest, in an unlucky moment, he might commit
himself. Townley, who murdered the young lady of his
affections, for which he was sentenced to be imprisoned in a
lunatic asylum for life, poisoned his brain with brandy and
soda-water before he committed the rash act. The brandy
stimulated into action certain portions of the brain, which
acquired such a power as to subjugate his will, and hurry him
to the performance of a frightful deed, opposed alike to his
better judgment and his ordinary desires.
As to pyromania , some years ago I knew a laboring man in a
country village, who, whenever he had had a few glasses of ale
at the public-house, would chuckle with delight at the thought
of firing certain gentlemen's stacks. Yet, when his brain was
free from the poison, a quieter, better-disposed man could not
be. Unfortunately, he became addicted to habits of
intoxication; and, one night, under alcoholic excitement, fired
some stacks belonging to his employers, for which, he was
sentenced for fifteen years to a penal settlement, where his
brain would never again be alcoholically excited.
Kleptomania.
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Next, I will give an example of kleptomania . I knew, many
years ago, a very clever, industrious and talented young man,
who told me that whenever he had been drinking, he could hardly
withstand, the temptation of stealing anything that came in his
way; but that these feelings never troubled him at other times.
One afternoon, after he had been indulging with his
fellow-workmen in drink, his will, unfortunately, was
overpowered, and he took from the mansion where he was working
some articles of worth, for which he was accused, and
afterwards sentenced to a term of imprisonment. When set at
liberty he had the good fortune to be placed among some
kind-hearted persons, vulgarly called teetotallers ; and, from
conscientious motives, signed the PLEDGE, now above twenty
years ago. From that time to the present moment he has never
experienced the overmastering desire which so often beset him
in his drinking days to take that which was not his own.
Moreover, no pretext on earth could now entice him to taste of
any liquor containing alcohol, feeling that, under its
influence, he might again fall its victim. He holds an
influential position in the town where he resides.
I have known some ladies of good position in society, who,
after a dinner or supper-party, and after having taken sundry
glasses of wine, could not withstand the temptation of taking
home any little article not their own, when the opportunity
offered; and who, in their sober moments, have returned them,
as if taken by mistake. We have many instances recorded in our
police reports of gentlemen of position, under the influence of
drink, committing thefts of the most paltry articles,
afterwards returned to the owners by their friends, which can
only be accounted for, psychologically, by the fact that the
will had been for the time completely overpowered by the subtle
influence of alcohol.
Loss of mental clearness.
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Alcohol, whether taken in large or small doses, immediately
disturbs the natural functions of the mind and body, is now
conceded by the most eminent physiologists. Dr. Brinton says:
'Mental acuteness, accuracy of conception, and delicacy of the
senses, are all so far opposed by the action of alcohol, as
that the maximum efforts of each are incompatible with the
ingestion of any moderate quantity of fermented liquid. Indeed,
there is scarcely any calling which demands skillful and exact
effort of mind and body, or which requires the balanced
exercise of many faculties, that does not illustrate this rule.
The mathematician, the gambler, the metaphysician, the
billiard-player, the author, the artist, the physician, would,
if they could analyze their experience aright, generally concur
in the statement, that a single glass will often suffice to
take , so to speak, the edge off both mind and body , and to
reduce their capacity to something below what is relatively
their perfection of work.
A train was driven carelessly into one of the principal London
stations, running into another train, killing, by the
collision, six or seven persons, and injuring many others. From
the evidence at the inquest, it appeared that the guard was
reckoned sober, only he had had two glasses of ale with a
friend at a previous station. Now, reasoning psychologically,
these two glasses of ale had probably been instrumental in
taking off the edge from his perceptions and prudence, and
producing a carelessness or boldness of action which would not
have occurred under the cooling, temperate influence of a
beverage free from alcohol. Many persons have admitted to me
that they were not the same after taking even one glass of ale
or wine that they were before, and could not thoroughly trust
themselves after they had taken this single glass.
Impairment of memory.
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An impairment of the memory is among the early symptoms of
alcoholic derangement.
"This," says Dr. Richardson, "extends even to forgetfulness of
the commonest things; to names of familiar persons, to dates,
to duties of daily life. Strangely, too," he adds, "this
failure, like that which indicates, in the aged, the era of
second childishness and mere oblivion, does not extend to the
things of the past, but is confined to events that are passing.
On old memories the mind retains its power; on new ones it
requires constant prompting and sustainment."
In this failure of memory nature gives a solemn warning that
imminent peril is at hand. Well for the habitual drinker if he
heed the warning. Should he not do so, symptoms of a more
serious character will, in time, develop themselves, as the
brain becomes more and more diseased, ending, it may be, in
permanent insanity.
Mental and moral diseases.
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Of the mental and moral diseases which too often follow the
regular drinking of alcohol, we have painful records in asylum
reports, in medical testimony and in our daily observation and
experience. These are so full and varied, and thrust so
constantly on our attention, that the wonder is that men are
not afraid to run the terrible risks involved even in what is
called the moderate use of alcoholic beverages.
In 1872, a select committee of the House of Commons, appointed
"to consider the best plan for the control and management of
habitual drunkards," called upon some of the most eminent
medical men in Great Britain to give their testimony in answer
to a large number of questions, embracing every topic within
the range of inquiry, from the pathology of inebriation to the
practical usefulness of prohibitory laws. In this testimony
much was said about the effect of alcoholic stimulation on the
mental condition and moral character. One physician, Dr. James
Crichton Brown, who, in ten years' experience as superintendent
of lunatic asylums, has paid special attention to the relations
of habitual drunkenness to insanity, having carefully examined
five hundred cases, testified that alcohol, taken in excess,
produced different forms of mental disease, of which he
mentioned four classes: 1. Mania a potu , or alcoholic mania.
2. The monomania of suspicion. 3. Chronic alcoholism,
characterized by failure of the memory and power of judgment,
with partial paralysis generally ending fatally. 4. Dypsomania,
or an irresistible craving for alcoholic stimulants, occuring
very frequently, paroxysmally, and with constant liability to
periodical exacerbations, when the craving becomes altogether
uncontrollable. Of this latter form of disease, he says: "This
is invariably associated with a certain impairment of the
intellect, and of the affections and the moral powers ."
Dr. Alexander Peddie, a physician of over thirty-seven years'
practice in Edinburgh, gave, in his evidence, many remarkable
instances of the moral perversions that followed continued
drinking.
Relation between insanity and drunkenness.
-----------------------------------------
Dr. John Nugent said that his experience of twenty-six years
among lunatics, led him to believe that there is a very close
relation between the results of the abuse of alcohol and
insanity. The population of Ireland had decreased, he said, two
millions in twenty-five years, but there was the same amount of
insanity now that there was before. He attributed this, in a
great measure, to indulgence in drink.
Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Commissioner of Lunacy for Scotland,
testified that the excessive use of alcohol caused a large
amount of the lunacy, crime and pauperism of that country. In
some men, he said, habitual drinking leads to other diseases
than insanity, because the effect is always in the direction of
the proclivity, but it is certain that there are many in whom
there is a clear proclivity to insanity, who would escape that
dreadful consummation but for drinking; excessive drinking in
many persons determining the insanity to which they are, at any
rate, predisposed . The children of drunkards, he further said,
are in a larger proportion idiotic than other children, and in
a larger proportion become themselves drunkards; they are also
in a larger proportion liable to the ordinary forms of acquired
insanity.
Dr. Winslow Forbes believed that in the habitual drunkard the
whole nervous structure, and the brain especially, became
poisoned by alcohol. All the mental symptoms which you see
accompanying ordinary intoxication, he remarks, result from the
poisonous effects of alcohol on the brain. It is the brain
which is mainly effected. In temporary drunkenness, the brain
becomes in an abnormal state of alimentation, and if this habit
is persisted in for years, the nervous tissue itself becomes
permeated with alcohol, and organic changes take place in the
nervous tissues of the brain, producing that frightful and
dreadful chronic insanity which we see in lunatic asylums,
traceable entirely to habits of intoxication . A large
percentage of frightful mental and brain disturbances can, he
declared, be traced to the drunkenness of parents.
Dr. D.G. Dodge, late of the New York State Inebriate Asylum,
who, with. Dr. Joseph Parrish, gave testimony before the
committee of the House of Commons, said, in one of his answers:
"With the excessive use of alcohol, functional disorder will
invariably appear, and no organ will be more seriously
affected, and possibly impaired, than the brain. This is shown
in the inebriate by a weakened intellect, a general debility of
the mental faculties , a partial or total loss of self-respect,
and a departure of the power of self-command; all of which,
acting together, place the victim at the mercy of a depraved
and morbid appetite, and make him utterly powerless, by his own
unaided efforts, to secure his recovery from the disease which
is destroying him." And he adds: "I am of opinion that there is
a "great similarity between inebriety and insanity.
"I am decidedly of opinion that the former has taken its place
in the family of diseases as prominently as its twin-brother
insanity; and, in my opinion, the day is not far distant when
the pathology of the former will be as fully understood and as
successfully treated as the latter, and even more successfully,
since it is more within the reach and bounds of human control,
which, wisely exercised and scientifically administered, may
prevent curable inebriation from verging into possible
incurable insanity."
General impairment of the faculties.
-----------------------------------
Dr. Richardson, speaking of the action of alcohol on the mind,
gives the following sad picture of its ravages:
"An analysis of the condition of the mind induced and
maintained by the free daily use of alcohol as a drink, reveals
a singular order of facts. The manifestation fails altogether
to reveal the exaltation of any reasoning power in a useful or
satisfactory direction. I have never met with an instance in
which such a claim for alcohol has been made. On the contrary,
confirmed alcoholics constantly say that for this or that work,
requiring thought and attention, it is necessary to forego some
of the usual potations in order to have a cool head for hard
work.
"On the other side, the experience is overwhelmingly in favor
of the observation that the use of "alcohol sells the reasoning
powers, "make weak men and women the easy prey of the wicked
and strong, and leads men and women who should know better into
every grade of misery and vice. If, then, alcohol enfeebles the
reason, what part of the mental constitution does it exalt and
excite? It excites and exalts those animal, organic, emotional
centres of mind which, in the dual nature of man, so often
cross and oppose that pure and abstract reasoning nature which
lifts man above the lower animals, and rightly exercised,
little lower than the angels.
It excites man's worst passions.
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Exciting these animal centres, it lets loose all the passions,
and gives them more or less of unlicensed dominion over the
man. It excites anger, and when it does not lead to this
extreme, it keeps the mind fretful, irritable, dissatisfied and
captious.... And if I were to take you through all the
passions, love, hate, lust, envy, avarice and pride, I should
but show you that alcohol ministers to them all; that,
paralyzing the reason, it takes from off these passions that
fine adjustment of reason, which places man above the lower
animals. From the beginning to the end of its influence it
subdues reason and sets the passions free. The analogies,
physical and mental, are perfect. That which loosens the
tension of the vessels which feed the body with due order and
precision, and, thereby, lets loose the heart to violent excess
and unbridled motion, loosens, also, the reason and lets loose
the passion. In both instances, heart and head are, for a time,
out of harmony; their balance broken. The man descends closer
and closer to the lower animals. From the angels he glides
farther and farther away.
A sad and terrible picture.
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The destructive effects of alcohol on the human mind present,
finally, the saddest picture of its influence. The most
aesthetic artist can find no angel here. All is animal, and
animal of the worst type. Memory irretrievably lost, words and
very elements of speech forgotten or words displaced to have no
meaning in them. Rage and anger persistent and mischievous, or
remittent and impotent. Fear at every corner of life, distrust
on every side, grief merged into blank despair, hopelessness
into permanent melancholy. Surely no Pandemonium that ever poet
dreamt of could equal that which would exist if all the
drunkards of the world were driven into one mortal sphere.
As I have moved among those who are physically stricken with
alcohol, and have detected under the various disguises of name
the fatal diseases, the pains and penalties it imposes on the
body, the picture has been sufficiently cruel. But even that
picture pales, as I conjure up, without any stretch of
imagination, the devastations which the same agent inflicts on
the mind. Forty per cent., the learned Superintendent of Colney
Hatch, Dr. Sheppard, tells us, of those who were brought into
that asylum in 1876, were so brought because of the direct or
indirect effects of alcohol. If the facts of all the asylums
were collected with equal care, the same tale would, I fear, be
told. What need we further to show the destructive action on
the human mind? The Pandemonium of drunkards; the grand
transformation scene of that pantomime of drink which commences
with, moderation! Let it never more be forgotten by those who
love their fellow-men until, through their efforts, it is
closed forever."
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