THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL UPON THE HEART
What means this rapid flow of the blood? It shows that the heart is overworking. The nerves that lead to the minute capillaries and regulate the passage of the vital current through the extreme parts of the body, are paralyzed by this active narcotic. The tiny blood vessels at once expand. This “Vascular enlargement” removes the resistance to the passage of the blood, and a rapid beating of the heart results.
Dr. B. W. Richardson’s experiments tend to prove that this apparently stimulating action of alcohol upon the heart is due to the paralysis of the nerves that control the capillaries, which ordinarily check the flow of the blood. The heart, like other muscles under the influence of alcohol, really loses power, and contracts less vigorously. Dr. Palmer, of the University of Michigan, also claimed that alcohol, in fact, diminishes the strength of the heart. Prof. Martin, of Johns Hopkins University, from a series of carefully conducted
experiments upon dogs, concluded that blood containing one fourth per cent of alcohol almost invariably diminishes within a minute the work done by the heart; blood containing one half per cent always diminishes it, and may reduce the amount pumped out by the left ventricle so that it is not sufficient to supply the coronary arteries. One hundred years ago, alcohol was always spoken of as a stimulant. There are, however, able physicians who maintain that, taken in small doses, and under certain physical conditions, it has the effect of a stimulant. All agree that, when taken in any amount, it tends to create an appetite for more.
Careful experiments show that two ounces of alcohol–an amount contained in the daily potations of a very moderate ale or whiskey drinker–increase the heart beats six thousand in twenty-four hours;–a degree of work represented by that of lifting up a weight of seven tons to a height of one foot. Reducing this sum to ounces and dividing, we find that the heart is driven to do extra work equivalent to lifting seven ounces one foot
high one thousand four hundred and ninety-three times each hour! No wonder that the drinker feels a reaction, a physical languor, after the earliest effects of his indulgence have passed away.
