indulge even in what
is called the moderate use of alcohol suffer often from
dyspepsia from this cause alone. In fact, it leads to the
symptoms which, under the varied names of biliousness,
nervousness, lassitude and indigestion, are so well and
extensively known.

"From the paralysis of the minute blood-vessels which is induced
by alcohol, there occurs, when alcohol is introduced into the
stomach, injection of the vessels and redness of the mucous
lining of the stomach. This is attended by the subjective
feeling of a warmth or glow within the body, and according to
some, with an increased secretion of the gastric fluids. It is
urged by the advocates of alcohol that this action of alcohol on
the stomach is a reason for its employment as an aid to
digestion, especially when the digestive powers are feeble. At
best this argument suggests only an artificial aid, which it
cannot be sound practice to make permanent in place of the
natural process of digestion. In truth, the artificial
stimulation, if it be resorted to even moderately, is in time
deleterious. It excites a morbid habitual craving, and in the
end leads to weakened contractile power of the vessels of the
stomach, to consequent deficiency of control of those vessels
over the current of blood, to organic impairment of function,
and to confirmed indigestion. Lastly, it is a matter of
experience with me, that in nine cases out of ten, the sense of
the necessity, on which so much is urged, is removed in the
readiest manner, by the simple plan of total abstinence, without
any other remedy or method."

In _Medicinal Drinking_, by John Kirk, M. D., this passage occurs:--

"Especially in the matter of support, it is essential to our
inquiry to examine fully into alcoholic influence on the change
by which food introduced into the stomach becomes capable of
passing into the circulation and constituent elements of the
living frame. It may be best to suppose a case for illustration.
Here, then, is a child of, say, six or seven years of age. This
child is of the slenderer sex and has been brought into a state
of extreme weakness as the consequence of fever. The fury of the
disease is expended, but it has, as nearly as may be,
extinguished life. The medical man's one hope for saving this
child is now concentrated in what h