The International Medical Congress of 1876 adopted as its reply to the Memorial of the National Temperance Society, and of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union respecting "Alcohol as a Food and as a Medicine," the paper by Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, one conclusion of which was, "Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant."
As experiments conducted since that time show that it is not a cardiac stimulant, but a direct cardiac paralyzant, what excuse is there for using it as a medicine now?
"Whenever the heart is compelled to more rapid contraction than is natural, it has less time to rest. Although it seems to be constantly at work, it really rests more than half the time, so that, although the periods of relaxation are very short, they are so numerous that the aggregate amount of rest in a day is very great. Now, if the rapidity of the contractions is increased materially and continuously, although the aggregate amount of time for rest may be the same as before, yet the waste caused by the contractions is greater, while the time for rest after each one is shorter. This lack of rest produces exhaustion of the heart-muscle, ending in partial change of the muscular tissue into fat. The heart then becomes flabby and weak and its walls become thinner, a condition known to physicians as a 'fatty heart,' often resulting in sudden death."--_Tracy's Physiology_, page 158.
Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, Conn., has made many observations with the sphygmograph to learn the effects of alcohol upon the heart. He says:--
"On general principles, and clinically, the increased activity and subsequent diminution of the heart's action brings no medicinal aid or strength to combat disease. This is simply a reckless waste of force for which there is no compensation. Without any question or doubt the increased heart's action, extending over a long period, is dangerous.
"The medicinal damage done by alcohol does not fall exclusively upon the heart, although this organ may show it more permanently than others."--_Transactions of Second Annual Meeting of A. M. T. A._
Dr. I. N. Quimby, of Jersey City, N. J., in an address before the American Medical Temperance Association, after describing two clinical cases which ended in death, made the following statement: