thereby
diminishes his capacity to labor effectually, but at the same time
renders himself more liable to disease. No more striking example of this
could be brought forward than the well established fact that persons who
use alcohol are exceedingly prone to consumption--so true is this,
indeed, that we might almost look upon the drug as being practically the
cause of this disease in most instances. Of course the bacillus of
tuberculosis must be present in order for the malady to develop, but we
find that the alcohol has prepared a soil for the growth of the germ
which would not otherwise exist. This holds with equal force as regards
other infectious diseases.

Again, it is true that maladies that result from bad digestion and
improper assimilation are frequently produced by the habitual use of
alcoholic liquors. Gout and Bright's disease are in the vast majority of
cases the indirect off-spring of habitual drinking. It should be
noted--and the distinction is of importance--that the affections of a
grave character most frequently produced by the alcoholic habit do not
ensue as a consequence of what could be rightly called intemperate taking
of the drug,--its moderate use more commonly resulting in serious disease
than when it is taken in great excess.

The explanation of this probably lies, at least in part, in the
fact that the majority of drunkards only take alcohol at greater or
less intervals, and as a consequence the system has time to
recuperate between sprees. The typical dipsomaniac goes weeks,
months, and even years without drinking at all, but when he is
seized by the desire for drink he throws everything else aside and
spends days and weeks in a prolonged debauch; during this period he
eats very little, and as a consequence largely avoids the grave
dyspeptic disturbances that would otherwise inevitably result.
Alcoholics of this class acquire catarrhal conditions of their
stomachs, and if seized with some acute disease, like pneumonia,
during or just after a spree, quickly die in a large proportion of
cases, but they do not develop gout or Bright's disease as a rule,
nor do they very commonly become consumptive, as is the case with
those who take the drug in small quantities day by day.
Furthermore, it would appear that the grave disorders that so
frequently follow the long-continued use of alcohol cannot be said
to be