The laws and life and alcohol

Preface

On the 23rd of April last, I was honoured in com- - municating to the Medical Society of London a paper noting “ The Action of Alcohol on the Human Economy, as judged by the Laws of Life.” The kind and flattering reception given to that paper, and the expressed wish of a number of the Fellows of the Society that I should do so, have induced me to publish it in extenso.

It was most galling to my mind, and must have been to the Medical Profession generally, when Sir James Paget, in the Hunterian Oration delivered this year at the College of Surgeons, portrayed our ignorance of the principle of life, and consecpiently of the laws by which it is sustained.

It was surely more humiliating when Dr. Matthews Duncan, in delivering the Hippocratic Oration to the students of the University of Edinburgh, said “ Medicine is a perfect chaos,” and when the British Medical Journal, in a leading article, endorsed that view.

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PREFACE.

We are not responsible for the sins of our fathers, neither are we to blame for the condition in which medicine has been handed down to us. But it is a most grave reflection on the Medical Profession of to-day to hear Dr. Duncan say “that he utterly despairs of ever seeing medicine raised out of that chaos.” In respectful modesty, but in conscious strength, I maintain that his fears are groundless. Medicine is and shall be a science, and shall rank in the foremost place as the most deep and stupendous of the sciences. The fact that so many centuries have failed to elaborate its hidden mysteries, proves this latter assertion.

And now it shall be elaborated, delineated, and surveyed ; its beauties unearthed and mapped, and its very chaos turned into sunshine and glory. To the present generation the work is entrusted.

The most profound problem can be unlocked if the intelligent student obtain and fit the proper key. I believe that I have obtained the key which unlocks the doors that have hitherto closed and kept secret the labyrinths and mysteries of medicine. That key reveals the actuating vital principle — animal vitality or life. I submitted the definition of life, and the laws of life to the Fellows of the Society and other medical men before reading my paper. I received encouraging and approving testimonies from many of the thinking men of our Profession, and in no

PREFACE.

V instance has any objection been taken to the general truth of the whole.

A vast amount of work remains to be done. If accepted, the Medical Profession will have specially to study the action of drugs in their different doses, so as to be able to apply that action whenever needed to the cure of disease. I am fully satisfied in my own mind as to their general correctness, inasmuch as they harmonise with physiological facts and with pathology and therapeutics. The more closely I follow them, the more rapidly I cure disease. I invite all medical men to think these laws out, to note how they harmonise with, and fully explain, so many difficulties inexplicable on any other basis.

Our drugs are many, and upon each one might be written as much, perhaps, as about alcohol. That I must leave for future days and future pens, and ask my readers to judge the actions of alcohol, not only by the laws of inorganic matter, which have been too much in the ascendency with previous observers, but also by the laws of life.

T. P. LUCAS.

Hercules Buildings,

Lambeth, July, 1877.

1. The combustion of coal, or disintegration into carbonic acid and water, liberates potential force ; so in the tissues of the body and in tlie blood-circuit, the combustion of the heat-giving foods and wastes from mechanical wear and tear, together with all chemical and physical changes going on in the body, must liberate force.

2. The force evolved by the combustion of the coal is exhibited as heat, which by the medium of water and varied machinery is made available for the purposes to which it is applied ; so the force evolved by the combustion of the materials in the blood-circuit, and by the friction of the solid contents in the circulation, is evolved as heat and electricity ; as the blood passes slowly through the brain and nerve-centres, these centres become charged with electricity.

3. As the stomach obtains from the blood the

AS EXHIBITED IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.

LIFE, AND THE LAWS OF LIFE.

VII gastric juice wherewitli to exercise its function, likewise the liver obtains the bile from the same source, so the brain and nerve-centres become charged with or obtain the nervo-electricity from the blood, and by means of the nerve-fibres this is directed to all parts of the body, and rendered available as force, the manifestation varying according to the functions of the several parts receiving it.

4. This nervo-electricity is essentially the animal life of man. It is excited by stimuli, but is also to a large degree subject to the control of the soul — apparently by medium of the cerebral hemispheres. If this organ of thought be dormant, as it may, by artificial means or otherwise, it is deprived of active vitality, the soul is during such period powerless over the mechanism by which it asserts its sway over the material. Reason and the will are in this condition dethroned. Under such circumstances severe artificial irritation or stimulus to a nerve-centre will cause the branches of nerve proceeding from such centre to act more or less violently, performing their respective functions according to the degree of stimulation exercised, and the amount of force or vitality at disposal.

5. This nervo-electricity or animal life is generated at a definite rate. By artificial means that rate may be increased, but this necessitates an increased strain, and consequently increased wear and tear of the nerve-centres. This can only last for a time and

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LIFE, AND THE LAWS OF LIFE.

compels a reaction, in tlie shape of a period of rest or lowered activity. Thus take the average, a healthy vitality can only be generated in definite proportion in a given time, dependent upon the capacity and condition of the nerve-centres, and the whole organism generally.

6. If in obedience to the dictates of the will, or by artificial means, a larger amount than natural of nervo- electricity be continuously directed to any one point, other parts must suffer a diminution, more or less, in proportion to the severity and length of the stimulation, and to the nature of the part acted upon. Thus a man cannot run at full speed and think deeply at the same time. A patient suffering from acute disease cannot expect digestive power. A fever patient may take large doses of alcohol and they may be physiologically inert. In an exhausted sensorium, exhausted consequent on severe stimulation by alcohol or other means, all the life available is instinctively directed by nature to the medulla, so as to ensure the action of the heart and lungs. This is at the expense of the centres supplying the legs, arms, abdominal viscera, and brain hemispheres. If induced naturally, by fatigue, this condition is termed sleep. If induced by toxicant drugs it is termed drunkenness. If the stimulus be severe enough to exhaust the medulla, the result is death.

7. When a nerve to a muscle is stimulated gently, currents are regularly passed, and natural muscular

LIFE, AND THE LAWS OF LIFE. ix

contractions follow. When the stimulation is more severe the currents are passed irregularly, and unnatural spasmodic or convulsive action follows. This is caused by the abstraction of nervo-electricity, probably from the nerve-fibres themselves, and also from the centre supplying them. A period of rest is necessary in which the nerve-fibres and centres shall be recharged before stimulation can again induce manifestation of active vitality. A more severe stimulus still, or in other words shock, will so exhaust and damage the nerve and its centre as often to necessitate a lengthened period for repair and revitalisation. If the stimulus act on the viscera, or parts connected with the great sympathetic system, nervo-electricity is not only drawn from the nerve-centre first excited, but also from centre after centre, according to the degree of stimulation.

If the exhaustion or withdrawal of nervo-electricity reach to the medulla, congestion and other insuperable obstacles to life take place before the centres can recover themselves.

8. The nervo-electricity may be divided into three portions :

1st. The radiating electricity : That with which all the tissues of the body are charged. This condition enables them, especially the muscles, to answer instantaneously the impulses of the nervous centres, and to perform their several functions. This is essentially the condition of vital tissue.

X LIFE, AND THE LAWS OF LIFE.

Without radiating electricity the parts would become devitalised and gangrenous.

2nd. The complementary electricity, or that continuously passing down and keeping the nerve-fibres fully charged. This condition enables the afferent and efferent fibres instantaneously to pass currents to and from the nerve-centres. It also ensures that the currents shall be directed along the nerve, and not pass into the surrounding tissues.

3rd. The supplementary electricity, or that which is available to exercise as force for the performing: the varied functions of vitality.

9. The functions of the body are secured and a healthy equilibrium maintained by means of two series of nerves, the cerebro-spinal and vaso-motor ; the former are essentially excitor, the latter depressor. The whole are intimately connected, especially by means of the sympathetic system, and by reflex action act and react upon each other, thus restoring when disturbed the healthy balance of the functions of life.

10. Drugs which act as direct depressants or sedatives upon the body do so by inciting to action the vaso-motor nerves. Drugs which directly stimulate or excite, do so by inciting to action the cerebro-spinal nerves.

11. A small dose of a sedative drug will tend to

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XI lower an excited vitality, or to depress the natural condition by inducing lowered pulse, depression of spirits, rigors, cold sweats, lassitude, etc. A larger dose, which would so lower animal vitality as to seriously impede or damage the functions of life, by reflex action brings into play the cerebro-spinal nerves of the part or parts endangered, and thus we get an excitor action or fever. If a larger dose still be given, sufficient to render nil the cerebro-spinal reaction,, we see the drug poisoning by its own direct, depressor, devitalising action.

12. Severe prolonged stimulation, to the cerebro-spinal system generally, produces exhaustion. This exhaustion is manifested in the lowered production of nervo-electricity. Successively the legs, arms, abdominal viscera, cerebral hemispheres and cerebellum, become inert or dormant, and all the force available is directed by nature to the medulla oblongata, which supplies the vital organs, the lungs and heart. If the stimulus be continued, death results by reason of the inaction of the heart and lungs.

13. Severe or prolonged stimulation of the cerebro-spinal nerves, by elaborating or using up the nervo-electricity available, exhausts or lowers the vitality of the said nerves, and, consequently, the vaso-motor nerves exert a greater power (the balancing power of the cerebro-spinal nerves being lowered) ; the result is sleep or narcotism, and in severe cases, syncope and death. This action of the vaso-motor nerves is

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the result of the diminished action of the cerebro-spinal, 1st, indirectly, by reflex action; and 2nd, directly, by the action of the carbonic acid, accumulated in this condition in the blood, and which is a true narcotic.

In animals hunted to death, where the cerebro-spinal nerves of the body are completely exhausted, there is little or no rigor mortis (rigidity after death), inasmuch as the cerebro-spinal nerves have parted with their nervo-electricity, and at the same time the vaso-motor nerves have sufficient complementary electricity to keep the muscles, under such circumstances, completely relaxed, until decay sets in.

14. When the vaso-motor nerves, or a portion, are artificially stimulated to a high degree, the corresponding cerebro-spinal nerves become inert: thus in poisoning by worara, the muscles are perfectly relaxed, because the nervo-electricity has been stimulated even from the cerebro-spinal muscular nerve-fibres, and directed to the vaso-motor nerves affected. If, however, the vaso-motors be stimulated to exhaustion, the corresponding cerebro-spinal fibres exert full play ; thus one of the first symptoms in prussic acid poisoning, if given in large doses, is rigidity of the jaws. If the vaso-motor system generally be exhausted or paralysed, the result is instantaneous rigid spasm of all the muscles, or true rigor mortis.

15. Death by exhaustion of the cerebro-spinal or

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of the vaso-motor nerves rarely occurs in the higher classes of- the animal kingdom, inasmuch as conditions untenable with life are brought about before the nervo-electricity is all spent. Severe exultation gives rise to inflammation of the brain and its membranes, and of the lungs : severe depression causes congestion (stagnation of blood in the small vessels) of the brain and its membranes and of the lungs, and a clotting of blood in one or other of the chambers of the heart.

It is rarely that the cerebro-spinal nerves generally are completely exhausted — the best example is an animal run to death. As a rule, the nervo-electricity, as exhibited in the rigor mortis, is many hours before it is all spent.

In insects the whole vaso-motor system may be easily paralysed by chloroform or prussic acid, the result is instantaneous rigidity of every part. In animals killed with a severe dose of a sedative or depressant poison, rigor mortis, through exhaustion of the vaso-motor nerves, rapidly follows.

16. Prolonged stimulation of the cerebro-spinal nerves produces such exhaustion as necessitates a lowered vitality. Prolonged stimulation to the vaso-motor nerves also directly induces a lowered vitality. Thus we obtain similar results in both cases, the one by indirect, the other by direct action. An irritating, tickling cough may come as the result of exhaustion after a period of exalted vitality in speaking or

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weakened nerve-centres, by the introduction of foods which can he assimilated by the digestive processes and made available for the repairing and strengthening the proper tissues.

3rd. The husbanding the sparks of life or strength. To do this we must carefully avoid exhausting or over- straining the nerve-centres by means of foods or medicines.

4th. The supplying plenty of pure air and light, and the keeping a proper and even temperature, and at the same time enforcing absolute rest of body and mind ; that the conditions for life may be most favourable, and the rate of expenditure of life the lowest possible.

ILLUSTRATED LN

THE ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.

Chapter I. — Introduction

What is Life ? Physiologists shrink from answering the question. They cannot define the' principle. They renounce as absurd the beliefs of our forefathers, that combating genii, that good and evil spirits, that angry humours, delineate the pulsations of life, the weaknesses of disease, and the still certainties of death. They renounce the absurd, but as yet they have substituted nothing in its place. They resignedly leave matters as they found them — confusion and chaos. A few have been bold enough to seek to account for the manifestations of life. These teach that the dynamic force or vital energy, associated with life, is generated during the manifestation and in the parts manifesting. Thus in muscular contractions we are taught, that the power is being generated, during the contraction in the muscletuhes, by chemical and physical changes. Hermann likens the change to that exhibited by the rapid disintegration of gunpowder. Yet however rapidly I move my hand or arm, I hear no explosion. Our streets do not resound the echoes of thunder because of the multitudes in continual motion. The contraction of the muscle-tubes by shortening and widening the same, must cause a relative change in the position of the atoms. Chemical and physiological changes undoubtedly do take place to maintain the integrity and healthy functions of the parts : and chemical and physical changes must take place because of the mechanical wear and tear. And all these changes elaborate potential energy. But this release of energy is subsequent to, and only partly parallel with, the actual manifestation of force, and certainly is inadequate to produce the amount of power displayed. But muscular contractions succeed each other so rapidly. Is there a known instance in chemical science where a compound assumes a new form and returns to the original ; in other words, where the factors so rapidly, regularly, and systematically exchange and recliange places in such a brief period of time ? And can physical changes to produce such an amount of force take place in the parts manifesting it, so rapidly and so repeatedly with so little waste 1 Although taught by great men, the theory is far-fetched.

OX TIIE ANIMAL ECONOMY.

To take an analogy, compare man to a locomotive engine. Philosophers tell us that every vibration of the mechanism passes through the entire substance, and that, consequently, each separate atom is affected. But will any be bold to say that the vibrations, acting upon the atoms, produce the manifested force ; and that the heat and the steam are simply inciting agents ? Yet such is practically the teaching of physiologists, when they say that physical and chemical changes in the muscle-tubes generate the dynamic force or manifested strength of man. But allow that the combustion of coal liberates conserved force as heat, and that the heat expands water into steam, and that by mechanisms specially constructed the steam is made available for purposes designed, and how simply and truly every difficulty is explained. The heat expanding the water into steam represents the force — the machinery being simply the mechanism by which the force is husbanded and made available for the various purposes intended.

So in man, the muscles and other organs are but the mechanisms by which the force is concentrated and applied for given purposes. The force itself is not directly generated by the machinery. How, then, is it generated, and where ?

We read in inspiration that “The blood is the life ” — the animal vitality. It contains and elaborates the life and strength of man. The stomach secretes gastric juice from the blood. The liver separates bile from the blood. The kidneys excrete urine from the blood. The heart propels the blood.

The lungs aerate the blood, and the nerve-centres must be fortified by the blood. Disintegration and chemical change take place in the blood, or in the tissues by means of the blood. Assimilation of material to the tissues of the body takes place in the blood, and in the viscera by means of the blood. A large quantity of oxygen is taken in, and a quantity of carbonic acid is given off every moment by the blood. Considering, then, all the chemical and physical changes taking place in, and in connection with, the blood, what must be the amount of force liberated, in the forms of heat and electricity ! The disintegration of one pound of coals into carbon oxide liberates so much force. What, then, must be the force elaborated daily by the changes going on in the blood ! Further, the blood contains myriads of small bodies, or corpuscles, and these in the circulation, by friction with each other and against the sides of the vessels, must be further heated and charged with electricity. We have seen that all the viscera of the body perform their functions by drawing their mateterials from the blood, so it is only fail' to infer that the brain and nerve-centres draw the materials, subtle though they be, by which they perform their functions, from the blood. We have noted that the muscles and other parts of the animal economy do not themselves generate or elaborate the force, but are simply the mechanisms by which the force is utilised. We know, moreover, that muscular contraction never takes place, and that no force of any kind whatsoever is ever exhibited in the animal

ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.

economy, excepting at the bidding of the nerve-centres. We know that currents of electricity, artificially propelled along a nerve-fibre, will cause the part supplied by the said nerve to perform its proper function, provided only that the fibre itself is in a condition — i.e., is charged with electricity — to allow the currents to pass. Electricity is liberated force, and so artificially liberated force may be passed along a nerve, and according to the mechanism receiving and utilising the force, so is the manifestation of power.

Since, then, so vast an amount of force is elaborated and stored in the blood as radiating heat and vital electricity, since the manifestation of motion is entirely dependent upon the nerve-centres, and since electricity artificially applied will, under favourable conditions, be manifest as force — it is only logical to conclude that the nerve-centres store up and become charged with the electricity or force elaborated in the circulation, as the blood flows slowly through them * This nervo-electricity is essentially the force or vitality or life of the body. Direct it to any point and you get the life and activity of the part manifested. Cut it off, and the machinery is motionless. To say that it is only the inciting agent, and that all the force elaborated in the blood is to no purpose, is to speak lightly of the Creator, whose

* Further, by experiments on rabbits, monkeys, etc., Dr. Caton has demonstrated by the galvanometer and electrodes that electric currents are discharged from the brain in answer to stimulating agents.

works show such evidence of adaptation and design. It is unphilosophical to urge that the steam is not power, but simply a condition under which the engine generates the force, and it appears to be equally unscientific to say that the currents passing from the nerve-centres to all parts of the body do not represent power, but are simply the incitors of further chemical and physical changes which do produce force. The vibrations through the atoms of the engine are insufficient to produce the force displayed, and the slight and simply mechanical physical and chemical changes produced in the muscle-tubes during a contraction are far too feeble to release or exhibit as their sole production the force evolved.

The animal machinery is constructed of a certain strength, being destined as it is for a certain amount of work. There is no elaborate waste— no constructing a thirty-horse-power engine for a ten-liorse-power work. And so we find that the nervo-electricity or vital energy is only available so much per minute : the quantity necessary to be distributed to all parts of the body. The amount can be increased for a time artificially, but reaction will follow, in reciprocal proportion to the healthy tone and power of the nerve-centres — to the amount and duration of the extra strain brought to bear upon them, and to the repairing or breaking-down power of the stimulatingagent. Thus fresh air, sea-breezes, mountain ozone will gently stimulate, tone, and invigorate the whole system, and under these favourable circumstances nourishing food will be better assimilated, and the

ON THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.

nerve-centres themselves re-fortified and strengthened, so as, to the utmost of their capacity, to generate life. On the other hand, alcohol, while stimulating the system generally, will act indirectly and directly upon and, so to speak, demoralise and exhaust the nerve-centres to such a degree as to necessitate a period of rest either as a lowered vitality, or as absolute sleep.

The nerve-fibres are continuously charged with nervo-electricity, even as the Atlantic telegraph wires, and thus when the afferent nerve-fibres are irritated, the sensation is conveyed to the nerve-centres, and a current is passed with lightning speed along the efferent fibres. If the nerve-fibres are not continuously and sufficiently charged, we get pain, as cramp, neuralgia, aching, etc. There are in the animal economy two kinds of nerves, slightly differing from each other in composition — the cerebro-spinal and vaso-motor. If by means of a battery you incite the -cerebro-spinal nerves to action, you get excitor phenomena, or a raised vitality : the arteries dilate, the blood-flow becomes greater in volume, glands secrete more freely. On the other hand, if you incite to action the vaso-motor nerve going to a gland, a depressor action or a lowered vitality follows : the vessels contract, the blood-flow becomes sluggish or even ceases, the gland no longer secretes. The two series act and react upon each other, and thus keep in healthy equilibrium the functions of the body — for if you cut the vaso-motor in the neck of a rabbit, the cerebro-spinal will have increased, less curbed, sway — and the parts will increase in temperature, and an exalted vitality be produced to such a degree that that side of the neck will grow as fast again as the other. Or again, stimulate both cerebro-spinal and vaso-motor nerves going to a gland, and the effect will be neutral.

Now certain drugs, as alcohol, camphor, ammonia, cayenne, the mineral compounds, bitter and aromatic herbs, etc., stimulate locally or generally and cause an excitor or increased vital action. Another class, as opium, chloroform, aconite, prussic acid, chloral hydrate, belladonna, stramonium, tobacco, etc., produce a depressor or sedative action. Now, if galvanism produce excitor symptoms by acting upon the cerebro-spinal nerves, why should not those drugs which produce the same excitor phenomena produce them by the same means ? and if galvanism depress and lower vitality by acting on the vaso-motor nerves, why should not those drugs which produce similar depressor phenomena, also do so by direct action on the vaso-motor nerves ? Thus I reason, and I maintain philosophically, stimulants act by exciting locally or generally the cerebro-spinal nerves ; sedatives act by exciting locally or generally the vaso-motor nerves. The intimate connection between the two series of nerves, specially in the great sympathetic system, their reflex action on each other, and their province so to act upon each other as to keep as far as possible the functions of the body in a healthy equilibrium, explains the apparently contradictory phenomena produced by a single drug, and which has hitherto puzzled physiologists. They call

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a drug, as opium or chloroform, a tonic, a stimulant, a sedative, and a narcotic, according to the dose exhibited. Such logic is not philosophical or in accordance with law. Examine the question by the laws I have sketched. Give a small dose of a sedative or lowering drug, and the pulse falls, cold creeps,, rigors and general lassitude and depression follow. •Give larger doses, such as would seriously depress and interfere with the healthy performance of the functions of life, and by reflex action — because of the intimate connection between the two series of nerves — the cerebro-spinal nerves are stimulated to throw off the poison, hence we get excitor, fever symptoms manifested. (The absorption of npii of tincture of aconite through the mucous membrane of the gums, caused my pulse, in a very few minutes,, to run up to 112, which condition lasted for at least an hour, until the tingling sensation of the poison had left the mouth.) .Give a larger dose still of the sedative drug, such as shall overcome the cerebro-spinal influence, and act in spite of nature’s effortsto the contrary, and we get true sedative poisoning, and death by coma.

Again, a drug which acts on the cerebro-spinal nerve of a part, tones, stimulates, and inflames, according to the dose given : or if it be a general stimulant, it tones, stimulates, and exhausts. This exhaustion is termed drunkenness and narcotism. And here I must point out that many members of the profession have committed a grave error in mistaking a physical condition for a special characteristic.

physiological action of a drug. Dr. Corfield tells us that alcohol cannot he a stimulant, because it is a narcotic. Many others say it is a stimulant in small and a narcotic in large doses. The term narcotic is derived from the Greek vaptcooy, to render torpid, to produce sleep. Now sedatives, as opium, do directly produce sleep, and so in powerful enough doses are true narcotics. But stimulating drugs, such as alcohol, are not sedatives. They stimulate until they exhaust the nervo-electricity, and reduce it to such a low ebb as naturally necessitates sleep.

Nature is only built for a certain amount of work, and a day’s work tires out and exhausts the cerebro-spinal nerve-centres to a certain point, beyond which it would be a serious matter to prolong the strain. By indirect and reflex action, as the cerebro-spinal nerves lose power, the vaso-motors would appear to induce sleep. The carbonic acid in the blood is increased— the nervo-electricity is withdrawn from the brain hemispheres. The blood-flow is lowered, and nature asleep has opportunity to resuscitate and refortify her batteries ready for the approaching day. Alcohol does the same thing as a day’s work, only in a very much shorter period of time. It exhausts, and exhausted nature, to avoid fatal consequences, sleeps. If such a provision were not made, the recklessness of man in persisting to take the drug would always end in death. Thus drunkenness or narcotism is simply a physical condition — a reaction induced by nature to save the man from the consequences of his own folly. All general stimulants

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will produce the same exhaustion which necessitates sleep. Camphor, ammonia, strychnine, sulphurous ether, all lead to drunkenness and narcotism. But as hard work is not a true direct narcotic, neither are those stimulants which lead to the same physical condition by exhausting and lowering the animal economy.